Hanging Curvature

The goal of this project was to remodel a house in Tempe, Arizona using sustainable materials and creating an accessible living environment. My inspiration was some paint drips that were hanging down from a piece of metal. The Gregory family for which the house was designed, also liked the Phoenix Botanical Garden. From these two ideas I was able to create a concept that involved curves and nature. From this project I learned how much time and effort goes into designing a remodel of a house. It took a lot of effort designing elements geared towards someone in a wheel chair, also. I never really thought about certain things like counter top height for instance or the amount of turn around space a room must have. That was something new and challenging to design. Overall, I thought my design was successful and believed that my concept of curves was shown throughout the house and ADU. Something I could work on would be dimensioning out the house correctly the first time. I was completely finished with my plan when I started doing the demolition plan. When I laid the original house plan over my new and improved plan, they didn't match up. My plan was three feet shorter than it was supposed to be. Fortunately, that was an easy fix and actually gave me a better plan than I had originally created because there was more room for walk ways.

Texture of Nature

This objective of this project was to create an accessible bathroom and laundry room. The concept came from a nature object. Mine happened to be a twig with some black berries on it. This also became the color scheme i used in the bathroom/laundry room. My concept model is my abstraction of wrinkles that were found on the berries. I then applied the splitting effect seen in my concept model to the layout of the bathroom/laundry room. This created the division of space between the two rooms and also the angle of the wall and the shower bath. I applied the concept of wrinkles to the walls of the shower bath as well. I used crash glass, which is like mosaic tile, but in nonuniform pieces and without creating an image. I made the toilet and one of the bathroom sinks handicap accessible. There is 60 inches between the two walls that enclose the toilet with grab bars behind and to the side. Also, one of the sinks doesn't have under counter storage allowing a wheelchair to easily roll up to it. On top of this i also, lowered the counter tops in order to be more accessible. I think I was successful at finding materials that fit the color scheme in the room perfectly. I also think i was able to use those materials to fit within my concept as well. I think i could improve on bringing my concept to my presentation board as well. I attempted to do this through the elevations in a "Y" shape, which is seen in my concept model, but I don't think it fits with the rest of the items on the board.

Mine, Yours, & Ours

The objective of this project was to create a child's room for twins that were at the present time 5 years of age and will have the same room until they were around 12 years old. The challenge was to be able to design a room that would grow with the children. My concept came from the texture i found in the book and also with movement. I also focused mostly on one specific aspect asked by the client that I thought to be most important, which was the ability for the twins to have their own space when needed. To do this i used a curtain to divide the room down the middle so each would have their own bed closet and desk while separated. The curtain also obtained to the concept of movement through the space. I think i was successful at creating my concept and applying it to every aspect of the project, including the presentation. My board is set up like a game board and includes playing pieces. Each twin gets to move their piece to each square. Here I will explain what each square represents for the client. This presentation continues to fit with the idea of movement and will also hold the attention of the twins. I think i could work on scaling down my perspective drawing. That way it would fit better with the rest of the items on the board. The perspective took over the attention of the board by filling the most space.

Kitchen Design

This project was used to explore the remodeling process and stretch the creative process. A client gave me a piece of her favorite art work in her house. I was expected to design a kitchen based on that art work. The concept I came up with consisted of angles and layers which I related to some flags blowing in the breeze in the art work. The client was also very specific about some of the qualities she desired in the kitchen as well. The kitchen needed to be open to the family room and dining room. The materials she wanted were wood floors, cherry wood cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and the color red. Overall, I believe my design was successful in its layout which gave a feeling of openness, as well as incorporating the materials she desired. Included in this project were a plan of the kitchen, a plan of the first floor, two perspective views, two elevations, a section cut, a picture of art work, process work, light study models, and a model of the kitchen.

Kitchen Case Study

This project was designed to explore the necessity of a functional kitchen. The task was for a group of us to make a meal of spaghetti and take note of what worked well in the kitchen and what didn't. The project also involved measuring the kitchen dimensions, producing an elevation, a perspective view, and a plan of the kitchen.

Weekly Sketches

These are several sketches i have done over the course of this year. The medium varies from graphite, ink, and colored pencil. The first sketch is meant to show detail of an object. Also, for this sketch i tried to give a shading affect by allowing a small amount of the black paper to show through the colored pencil. In the following two sketches, multiple objects were place together in order to create a still life. Still life's are one of my favorite ways to sketch and i also find it to be the easiest. Some of the techniques i used was crosshatching. With the used of different levels of graphite and ink it give the sketch a shaded effect making it more realistic.

Resume

Business Card and Logo

This is the front of a business card i created in InDesign. My business card is a collection of elements that express my personal design preference while still giving a professional appearance. I enjoy modern designs that have clean lines and a simple look. I have also recently been more interested in the use of green design. For the logo i used my initials M (McKenzie), R (Reine), and J (Johnson). My logo simulates a modern style through the use of a san serif font while the color green relates to my interest in green design. I think i was successful in making my card easy to read and straight to the point. If i could change something i would make my logo letters bolder so they stand out more to a viewer.

Quilt Pattern

This is a quilt pattern created from six different images. The quilt pattern was created in Photoshop where each image received some kind of distortion. The distorted images were placed on a preexisting quilt pattern and overlayed to give the pattern a quilted effect. When i was first choosing the images i knew i wanted to have a dark background and bright foreground. I believed the colors of the green and golden yellow would compliment one another because they are adjacent on the color wheel. I also felt that these colors on a grayed background would make them stand out. I believe if i were to do this design again i would try and line the images up better. This way all the corners would connect and create straight lines. This was one of the first designs i created in Photoshop and believe it helped me get to know the program a little better. I have currently been using Photoshop more frequently and hope my next creations show my skill development.

Planes and Angles

Planes and Angles was a created to show the process work for a project where a room had to be created to fit the phrase "a room to think." The first images selected where sketches of a nature object (star fruit) that I could relate to Coco Chanel. The bottom left is a 2-D concept model that incorporated elements from the star fruit and also Chanel's personal design style. The final model is located on the bottom right. This model incorporates elements from the star fruit and the 2-D concept model. I believe this is a room to think because the vertical triangular points section off areas to give a private space for people to think. The room is designed this way because when I want to think I like being alone. I think one of my strengths on this creation is the layout. I think it pulls you through the process in a sequential order. I also think that its easy to read. Something I believe i could fix would be to cut the nature object sketches out using Photoshop. This way it would strictly be just the image itself and not the white boarder taking up more of the background image.

Textile Pattern

This is an image of a textile pattern I created. The textile has a personal correlation with my heritage and relates to the Sioux Indian Tribe. After doing research I concluded that eagle feathers, buffalo and the prairie grass the Sioux lived on in South Dakota were the most important. These images then became my inspiration of the design. The process involved the use of Photoshop to crop out the images and to distort the background of the grass to make the textile more interesting. InDesign was also used to create a multiple block pattern giving the effect of repetition of the images. Over all i like the textile i created. I believe one of the strengths in this textile is that the background blends together. One thing I could improve on would be to enhance the foreground images to make the piece more interesting.