“Define ten dogmas regarding graphic design and execute one or more of them.” – Michel Van Beirendonck.

Start: Mon, May 9 2011
Deadline: Fri, Jun 3 2011

I’ve applied the ten dogmas on a work that portrays my thesis. I have made a porfolio that illustrates the design dogmas using the different projects I’ve done during my thesis. The portfolio analyses the design restrictions, hihglighting the process in stead of the results.

The dogmas reflect my vision on graphic design. They are not randomly chosen restrictions. If I was in charge of a design company, what design rules would I impose my employees?

Click to see the online version. http://issuu.com/dorienw/docs/thinkinginsituations

Timetracking
Worked hours: 99h 03min in 20 days
Average per day: 4h 57min

“Here are your perimeters:
Topic: Egypt
Typographic limitation: Type only
Color: PMS 422 (This is your primary color.)
Typeface: Times (This is your primary typeface.)
Format: 3 Posters (Size up to you.)
Tone: Ironic
Random perimeter: Bring yourself into it.
Deadline: 3 weeks” – Paul Sahre

Start: Fri, Mar 24 2011 at 7.51pm
Deadline: Thu, Apr 14 2011 at 7.51pm

Poster 1

Poster 2

Poster 3

Timetracking
Worked hours: 83h 40min in 15 days
Average per day: 5h 35min

Reprise

“Hello dorien, (…)  Not sure if you have resolved these yet or not but I always like to trow in a ‘monkey wrench perimeter, near the end of this assignment. Your monkey wrench if you choose to accept it is: Add a unicorn.”

Despite the absurdity of it, I added the unicorn.

   

Worked hours: 5h 07min in 1 day

For five days I have eaten one-colored food every day. I documented this experience as a sketch for the final visual essay. The next 5 days I concentrated on the visual essay, consisting solely of photos and colored paper. I’ve created 5 placemats that reflect what I ate and what the one-colored food did to me.

Mon, Feb 28 2011: Red

Things I’ve eaten today – An apple, raspberries, cherry tomatoes, strawberry juice, radishes, smoked salmon, paprika, tomato, red pepper, beefsteak, red onion, raspberry bavarois.
Overall feeling – Power, chaos due to a lack of organization.

Tue, Mar 1 2011: Green

Things I’ve eaten today – A pear, green grapes, arugula salad, fresh spinach, avocado, green olives, 1l green tea, leek soup, spinach pasta with green asparagus, basil and persil.
Overall feeling – Healthy and fit, lightness, structure due to organization.

Wed, Mar 2 2011: White

Things I’ve eaten today – Yoghurt with a fresh banana, 2 white rolls, goat cheese, Philadelphia cheese, roast pig, milk, chicory soup, cod fish with white rice and fennel.
Overall feeling – Gravity.

Thu, Mar 3 2011: Brown

Things I’ve eaten today – Brown toasts with chocopaste, black tea, chocolate cake (I didn’t touch the fruit), black earl grey tea, whole grain pasta with mushrooms, Orval beer, La Chouffe beer.
Overall feeling – Boredom, noisome.

Fri, Mar 4 2011: Yellow

Things I’ve eaten today – Pudding, Rice pudding, egg roll, yellow grapefruit, fresh orange juice, crisps, crackers, apple cupcakes, lemon cupcakes, cava.
Overall feeling – Birthdayparty of a friend!

Timetracking
Worked hours: 62h 36min in 10 days
Average per day: 6h 16min

Reprise

“Ha Dorien! (…) Mooi eindresultaat, een waar verzorgde serie! Gelaagdheid in papier werkt goed, subtiel, maar interessant. (…) Je omschrijft je beweegredenen voor de ordening van je voorwerpen. Ik als toeschouwer moet die verschillen een beetje zoeken. Het had duidelijker / gewaagder gekund. (…) Het was interessant geweest als je ook echt met de voedingsmiddelen handelingen had gedaan waardoor die vertalingen naar beeld sterker waren geweest. (…) Bij de banaan die nadenkt zie ik interessante dingen gebeuren, je personificeert een voedingsmiddel. (…) In de foto’s zie ik hele interessante composities en aanzichten. Spelen met verhoudingen had ook gekund, zie je fotoseries! (Vind die erg mooi!) (…) Je hebt er een mooi project van gemaakt, ook erg knap met zo weinig tijd! Maar ik denk als je soms wat rigoreuzer / wilder / stouter bent  je op nog spannendere dingen zult komen! (…)”

I’ve made two more placemats in one day, taking into account the feedback. I’ve tried to emphasize the heavy feeling I had of the white food and the chaotic, powerful sense of the red day.

Worked hours: 11h 33min

“In 5 days make 5 life-size portraits of yourself without the use of self-photography. The link between yourself and the portraits must be visible/clear.” – BCXSY

Start: Mon, Feb 21 2011
Deadline: Fri, Feb 25 2011

Here is where I am after 5 days. I made 5 lifesize portraits of my graphic identity. The portraits describe how I work, they are works in progress. If I would have had more time, I would redo Perfectionism and integrate the titles into the portraits.

Timetracking
Worked hours: 42h 13min in 5 days
Average per day: 8h 27h

Reprise

As I think a good designer should take the feedback from his customers to heart (without losing his individuality offcourse), here’s what I did. I spent just one day on another self-portrait. To keep things fresh and spontaneous but also because in the professional world of design there is often very little time to carry out adjustments.

” Hello Dorien, (…) Generally speaking, we like what you did. (…) Your choices for topics are clear, as well as the ways you expressed them. Things look very aesthetic and the repeating portrait element creates a clear link between the 5 results. (…) Looking at your 5 choices to describe yourself, we find it quite an idealistic and/or obvious selection of terms. (…) Personally we would have rather seen some more personal sides of you, maybe not directly connected to your profession. We actually had some more 3D results in mind when we gave you the assignment. And in general we would have liked to see some more different approaches. (…) We would have rather seen some more experiments instead of ‘safe’ choices. (…)”

In the next portrait I’ve tried to illustrate a feeling of awakeness, a characteristic that portrays me well. It is supposed to repeat continuously and to be beamed in a dark room, to set the focus on the (a)live silhouette.

Worked hours: 14h 03min in 1 day

“Create a style for a law office. But use only Comic Sans, Playbill and Marker Felt. It HAS to look classy.” - Koen Van Deun & Johan Roelandt

Start: Mon, Jan 31 2011
Deadline: Fri, Feb 11 2011

Trying to create a logo with the obligated fonts. Obviously they are quite useless for this goal.

Creating a new font based upon the transition between the three fonts. I made a mix of Comic Sans and Marker Felt. The slightly organic shape radiates handwriting and confidence. Still the font is less frivolous than Comic Sans or Marker Felt.

A new logo and stationery, based on the new font.

I adjusted the new font by tightening up the inner shapes of the characters. This font will be used to add ‘Roeland en Deun Advocaten’ to the logo.

Creating some new logos, since the previous brand identity is not completely what I had wanted it to be.

The final logo is based on the white space between the Playbill D and R. I tried to eliminate as much elements as possible without losing the legibility.

The new brand identity with personalised stationery.

Timetracking
Worked hours: Approximately 58h in 10 days

Reprise
Tue, Apr 26 2011

Adding some color changes.

Worked hours: 5h 48min in 1 day

Ik vroeg me af waarom ik moeite heb met de grote vrijheid van de masterproef. Hier is het antwoord in een heel boeiende lezing van Barry Schwartz. Een verklarende motivatie voor mijn huidig thema.