Final Thesis Project + Paper

The end is finally in sight. Above is a photo of the newsprint posters I designed for This brings me joy: The Joy Project, which serves as the final project in my Pratt MFA Thesis. I’m trilled with how the posters turned out, despite last minute file issues when sending to the printer. I have over 1,000 of these posters, so if you’d like one, please let me know! The poster (above) opens further and larger discussing the project and giving opportunities for people to interact with the twitter account. I’ve started leaving these posters around the city, and will soon distribute all 1,000 of them.

After the newsprint poster was sent to the printer, I shifted ALL my focus to reworking my thesis paper – remember that? – the joyous 60+ page monster of a paper. After two weeks of work, I sent my totally reworked paper to my advisers, and now I’m patiently waiting for it to be accepted. As of now, I’m scheduled to defend on December 1st! So if all goes well, I should have all my final hurdles in completing this thesis done by the end of this week. So pray for me! I can’t even begin to tell you what a huge relief crossing these projects off my list has given me. I have so many ideas for all the projects I WANT to do, instead of HAVE TO finish, so in coming weeks I should have a bunch of new things in the works.

Before I wrap up this post – I wanted to share a GREAT source of inspiration I stumbled across in reworking my paper. I find the ideas of Bruce Mau to be very inspiring for what I’m trying to accomplish in my thesis, but they can apply to anyone really, designers and non-designers. Like Debbie Millman, I’m more interested in his ideas/approach to design than what he actually designs. As I say in my paper, “In my thesis, I’m investigating the power of joy and delight to grow as a designer and creator. Joy is an opportunity and has the power to transform and empower. This sense of empowerment can take countless applications, especially in design.” The ideas of Mau are a great example of a designer focused on the subject of growth, and an important precedent in my paper … so I wanted to share his ideas with you!

“An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth”

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project.

1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.
3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
7. Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
10. Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge.

And here it is – the 1st page of the final paper, documenting my inquiry into joy … a year and a half in the making!

 

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In striving for a remarkable life …

” In order to strive for a remarkable life, you have to decide that you want one.
Because if you expect less, less is all you’re going to get.”
-Debbie Millman, Creative Mornings, February 2011. 

It should come as no surprise that I’m blogging about one of my design heroes Debbie Millman once again. Just this past week I was lucky enough to attend the launch party for her latest book, Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits here in NYC. But that is not what inspired this post. For months I’ve had this idea marinating in my head about an aspirational post in response to graduating (or almost) with my Masters degree from Pratt, starting my design career in NYC and life in general. While the past few months haven’t panned out the way I envisioned in May, I’m beginning to see the pieces of my life falling into place. This summer I spent an amazing 7 weeks in Copenhagen learning about textile design in a place I’d never been, doing something I’d never done. Studying abroad seemed like something I’d never be able to do growing up, but it happened. I returned home and started a job as a designer for Starwood Hotels. In the coming weeks I’ll finish this all-consuming thesis that’s been on my mind for the last year. In many ways I’m exactly where I should be and I wanted to share some wisdom I learned along the way, especially for those in the process of getting to where you envision yourself to be. (I’ve also been watching a lot of Oprah lately, and her gospel is really speaking to me ..)

At the end of the spring I had this great idea of creating a list of tips for surviving your MFA thesis. Little did I know I myself would be in need of some of these same tips. As a current thesis student today, I don’t feel it’s the right time to create that list. BUT, I wanted to share some words of encouragement about life and working hard, because I feel that is something I so desperately lacked in my thesis journey. Weeks ago I started watching the show 1 Girl 5 Gays as I’d go to bed each night. Pretty mindless entertainment – mostly funny conversations about love and sex. One of the questions really struck me: What was your lowest point in the last year? Most of the people on the show talked about a break up, the loss of a friendship or family member, etc. All I could think about was school. I’ve spoken in great length about my struggles the last year at school and I’m still living with those struggles today as I’ve yet to finish. I think it’s important in life to acknowledge failure or set backs. It’s something people don’t really ever talk about, but I think it’s so important. Because it’s what we do in response to failure and set backs that define us. For the last year I’ve been spending my days and nights in an MFA program where I felt I never fit in. I always felt like I was battling for the legitimately of my ideas and my approach to design. That semester I received the lowest grades of my entire college career. A semester later, the day after graduation, I learned that I wouldn’t be in fact graduating as my thesis committee decided there was more work to be done. I was crushed. It was hands down my lowest point. I thought I could power through all the negative energy I was getting in school and win in the end. I didn’t.

The attainment of my MFA from Pratt is one of the hardest things I’ve done to this point. Never has a process created more fear, stress, and self-doubt within me. And that’s really a shame. In a design program we should be inspiring the next generation of designers through challenge and encouragement, not through fear. “You have ideas? Well we’re going to show you how to make them stronger.” I thought that’s what grad school was about. Not the case, or at least that wasn’t my experience. Recently a close friend reached out after a rough thesis critique. He said he was almost driven to tears as his ideas were ripped apart and dismissed. I’d been in that position several times, and it feels horrible. We (sometimes) put so much thought, effort, and heart into our work as designers, and to have it ripped apart can be devastating. It inspires fear and self-doubt. The night before I’d been listening to a Design Matters podcast where the speaker said, “Fear is the mortal enemy of innovation and happiness.” I felt so much fear my last year at Pratt, and I know many others did, that I second guessed everything I was doing. It was so unproductive. And it’s a horrible way to inspire students to go about creating work.

I want to balance this story with one of my highest points in the last year. While abroad in Copenhagen, each program awards a student with an academic/design award. I was lucky enough to win the award for textile design as student that best embraced the process and overall did a great job. That feeling of being recognized for the first time after a year full of self-doubt was an amazing feeling. After everything I’d been though, someone finally said good job. It made all the struggles of the past year worth it in some way, and powered me to move forward. So things brings me back to Debbie Millman and her countless words of wisdom. While you’re young and just starting out, “Don’t compromise” she says. “Now is the time to try and fail. Work as hard as you can, and harder than anyone else … and if you expect less, less is all you’re going to get.”

Many of these great pearls of wisdom came from a talk Debbie did for Creative Mornings back in February 2011. You can watch the entire presentation here. In this talk, Debbie shares her list of “The Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Graduated College.” I saw this talk online and wanted to write down all 10 in a list to share. So here they are! What I love about Debbie is that she’s so open to share her life experiences with others. She is honest and thoughtful, and happens to be a designer. But I ultimately find myself more interested in what Debbie has to say about life and being a designer, than what she actually designs. That’s never been important to me, though I do love her work. So my hope is that you’ll read Debbie’s list of 10 things she wished she knew so that you’ll know them today, and they’ll inspire you for the road ahead. Whatever that road may be …

1. Design talent = operational excellence. Operational excellence is what it takes to operate a business or a service well. Therefore design talent is a basic point of entry.

2. Design is not about design. Design is about a whole lot of things that ultimately result in design. You need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything. Everything else (but design) is what fuels design.

3. Money is not about money. Sex is not about sex. If people really want something, they’ll figure out a way to pay for it. Period. If somebody tells you they don’t want something you’re selling because they can’t afford it, it’s a nice way of saying like don’t want to hire you or like you enough to spend the money. Or you have no convinced them that the value that you will provide will be valuable enough for them to pay for it.

4. Ideas are easy. Strategy is much harder. Strategy, or coming up with a unique point of difference for a product or idea is incredibly difficult. “Strategy is choosing to perform activities differently, or to perform distinctly different activities than rivals.” – Michael Porter, Harvard Business School . You need to know why you do what you do a nd be able to communicate that easily and effectively.  You need to know your mission, believe it, and communicate it.

5. Know what you’re talking about.  Tell the truth. Admit when you don’t know something. When you do, it allows someone to share something with you.

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Joy Postcard Process – a sneak peak!

In this post I’m going to give you a small peak into how I go about creating the visual responses that make up This brings me joy. The Joy Project.  The first time I read each letter I like to make sure I’m somewhere alone so I can truly reflect and connect with the person that wrote it. I generally read each letter a few times to decide which response is the most touching, original or would make the best visual response. The challenge with this round of postcards is that I don’t know the sender. Each letter was given to a friend of a friend so I’m designing for someone I don’t know. This is good and bad as I’m removed of prior knowledge of that person that ultimately informs the visual response I create them (it’s almost like cheating in a way). It’s also bad at the same time because I have no idea what they’ll like – and I’m hoping I’ll design something that strikes a cord. In the first round, I knew who wrote each letter and knew who I was designing for … and could use that to create something I knew they’d like.

In the example above “Dinah Washington” was listed as something that brings this person joy. I’m only vaguely familiar with the Swingin’ Miss D from her song “Relax, Max” that was used in a Double Tree commercial a few years ago. I liked the song so much from the commercial I downloaded it and Miss D now lives in my “Jazz/Oldies” playlist on iTunes. When thinking how to visualize the song and Dinah Washington, the tagline Relax, Max is so simple and bold, I knew a typographic solution could communicate the song, something bold yet playful. I played around with a couples versions in Illustrator below …

The music of the song makes me think of vintage neon sings, or multicolored letters on vintage record singles from the period.

I wanted to make the type look old so I was playing with adding a more yellow background to give it that vintage feel. But at this point it was just retro, and not retro-modern.

Above: After many tweaks, here is the final version! See it and 70 more here.

Here’s another example. The response I loved from this particular letter was, “the first kiss.” That’s something everyone can relate to and it certainly brings me joy, the excitement of that first kiss with a potential  mate. And here comes the challenge. I don’t know the person … who do they like to kiss? Boys? Girls? Is this a straight, gay, pan or a-sexual person?? Who could know?!? Therefore typography or images that aren’t too specific should be used. That way the receiver of this postcard, and anyone viewing this response within the project, can be free to interpret the statement “the first kiss” anyway they want. That is ultimately my goal with most of these responses, that any view can place themselves within the picture. Here is how the process worked for “the First Kiss.”

I started playing with the letters of the words “kissed”  and noticed the two “ss” would be fun to play with. I could reflect one ‘S’ so the letters themselves could kiss, thus freeing me from finding a photo of a kissing couple. Whew.

Then I arrived here (above), I love the type but it was looking a bit too Valentine’s day …

I decided to go through my iTunes and look for songs that dealt with the subject matter. The words “and then we kissed” kept coming to mind which are lyrics to a Britney Spears song (withhold judgement). I experimented with adding lyrics of the song and layering them to create a web of emotion visualizing a moment … that moment when your mind races just before a kiss.

Above: The final version, “The first kiss”

Here’s a look at a few of the newly designed projects below.  I now have a collection of 70+ visual responses on the project website, thisbringsmejoy.com

“The Modern Love column in the NY Times”

“Durham, NC”

“Too Wong Foo! Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar”

“Immersion, the merging of the past, present and future”

“Complexity”

“Dancing solo”

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The Joy Project + thesis updates

So I’m coming out of the closet about something … I’m still *technically* in grad school. I’m still an MFA canidate and not an MFA graduate. Details .. details! As much I’ve tired to pack away the last two years and transition into the “real world,” I still have one last push to finish before I can earn that magical piece of paper from Pratt. I’ve spoken in length about my thesis process over the last year  (click on the “thesis” or “Pratt MFA” tabs on the right) and there will be new developments in the coming weeks. I’ve recently begun to panic at the realization that it’s already the middle of September and I still haven’t completed my final project .. so this weekend will be a turning point. Time to take this thesis bun out out of the oven once and for all.

I spent the morning reading 10 new letters I received as part of the Joy Project. My goal this weekend it design my visual responses for this new set of letters. This set is special in that each letter I designed was given to a friend of a friend that already participated in the project. Before I left for Copenhagen, I sent new 18 letters to 9 people. From that group of letters I received 10 back, so that means a 55% response rate. Some of the letters I really love and remind me why I started this project in the first place. For those unfamiliar with the project, I send letters asking participants to list as much moments, experiences and things that personally bring them a sense of joy, delight or happiness. It can be anything, no wrong answers! Each person lists these responses on paper and mail them back to me. I then take these letters and create a visual resposnse. The first 60 of these responses can be found on the project website, thisbringsmejoy.com – Some of my favorite new responses include the following:

I love reading these statements because they make me feel so happy and full of (you guessed it) joy. This serves as the motivation for the creation of my final project. I’ve been intrigued by the medium of newsprint recently and think a newsprint poster or booklet would be a great medium for the message (look – MFA speak!) My idea is to print a fold-out poster as we did for the Pratt MFA show, or a booklet like RISD designed for their 2011 MFA Show. The similarities between our two 2011 MFA shows is pretty interesting to note: we both printed on newsprint, both in Linco, B&W with one spot color (blue Pratt, red RISD), and we both used boxes or an outline as a graphic element. I guess both schools were onto something.

Above & below: The identity promo we created for Pratt’s first Design MFA show this past April.

Above: RIDS’s stacks of newsprint books

Look familiar? I’m not alleging copying – but since our show was first in April, I’m going to say we did it first!

The design of their book is really beautiful, especially this fold-out poster.

These pictures give a nice glimpse into the form I’d like to use to create my final project. The decision between book or poster will ultimately come down to cost .. as it would cost over $1,500 to print the same size and number of pages as RISD and I can’t spend that much one last project. I’d like to create a typographic piece on newsprint with one color and leave 1,000 of these posters/booklets all over NYC. My hope is that when found, people will go to the website and contribute new joy responses digitally (on the tumblr site or twitter). These responses will then be added to my collection of over 800 ways to experience joy. So that’s where I am today and stay tuned for new developments!

I’ll leave you with one last letter. Enjoy.

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What is your favorite brand?

How to Communicate with Aliens, Fall 2010, Pratt MFA

Now that I’ve returned from Denmark and the colorful world of textile design, it’s time to return to graphic design and branding. And that’s exciting (to me). I’m so thankful I got to do something new and challenging the last two months. I feel inspired and rejuvenated to finish my thesis and start the next chapter of my life … working in NYC.  Before I left Denmark I spent hours applying to countless design jobs for anything I felt I was remotely qualified for. And to my delight, on Monday I received the good news I’d been waiting for … someone wanted to hire me! I’ll reveal full details when it becomes 100% official. I went on a few other interviews because it’s great practice talking about one’s work and I wanted to explore all my options. One interview I was very excited (and nervous) for was a designer position at a huge branding firm, one I’d admired since I moved to NYC. Very intimidating, but also an exciting opportunity.

During the interview, I talked about my work experience, favorite projects, my interests in design, etc and then was asked, What is your favorite brand? I was stumped. It’s a simple enough question right? I ended up talking about how interesting the entire Gap logo fiasco is compared to the success Starbucks redesign. Which I do truly think is interesting. Both Starbucks and Gap are iconic global brands. But one did it so wrong while the other flourished. People said during the Gap logo scandal that some logos are so well established and iconic, they should be left alone. I argue Starbucks built just as much brand identity as Gap, perhaps more, and they were embraced. Why is this? And more importantly why do we care?

This brings me back to a project from one of my Pratt MFA studios. For the project we had to communicate humanity or “humanness” to aliens. I proposed sending aliens an alphabet comprised of logos establishing a shared language and making a commentary on American values. A modern day Rosetta Stone, sponsored by Adobe, Budweiser, Coke, etc .. While this idea isn’t new, lots of these logo alphabets exist, it’s so interesting to think about these logos as living things, as brands, that communicate. In this project the alphabet symbolizes way more than letterforms and logos, they are cultural symbols of our society at a specific period in history. While listening to Design Matters one night, I heard this quote by Phillip Meggs:

It’s so interesting how in the last 10 years brands have really become alive. They’re living things. While brand loyalty has existed since the creation of brands themselves, brands they were not always living things. I believe the shift happened with the creation of social media. We all have these digital lives, alter egos, and so do these brands. They have personalities that must communicate as effectively on the iPad as they do in the store. I think that’s so fascinating because as a designer working in brand strategy, you’re creating emotional relationships that must be nurtured. So things brings me back to the original question, what is my favorite brand?? While researching brands, I came across report from Interbrand about America’s most valuable brands:

Read and download the full report here.

In thinking of which brands are my favorite, or that I find the most interesting, I decided to come up with a list. Initially when I think about brands, I only think about retail brands. This is due to the lifestyle fashion and retail try to sell consumers. I didn’t even consider food brands in the grocery store, which are just as powerful as these retail giants, and probably even more so since we interact with them so frequently. According to Stores.org, “Americans have an ongoing love affair with brands. Threaten to take away their Dawn dishwashing detergent or their Kleenex and you’d better be ready for a knock-down, drag-out fight: Those items, along with Bounty paper towels and Crest toothpaste, are among the products shoppers choose most often when they roll their carts up and down the supermarket aisles.” I’m completely guilty of this. For example, I only drink coke products, I’m totally addicted to Aquafresh toothpaste, and I generally don’t trust store brands. Some of these brands are my favorite because I use their products religiously, like Coke or Apple. Other brands I admire the lifestyle they symbolize (Kate Spade, J.Crew). With these brands I want to live in the beautiful glossy world they create. I’m totally under their spell.

Here are some of my favorite brands, in no particular order …

UNI QLO // Fashion Retail // Japan // link

Coca-Cola // Food & Beverage // Global // link

Obama  // Political // US // link

Apple // Computers & Tech // Global // link

Kate Spade // Retail // US // link

J. Crew // Retail // US // link

J. Crew Behind The Line – follow their blog here.

So what’s your favorite brand and why ?!?!

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Thesis website finally up!

The website for my Pratt MFA Thesis project is finally up and stable! I say stable because I’ve been talking to NameSecure since last week trying to work an IP forwarding issue, but *knock on wood* the site is up and working! I also launched the Twitter account (@thisbringsmejoy) where I’m going to post the individual joy statements and some of the postcards too. I’m hoping this will be a way to engage the public and excite participation with people I don’t know.

Yesterday I mailed back around 40 postcards to their “owners,” as I’m calling them. Each postcard in my exhibition, and on the website, correspond to a specific letter, or a joy statement that repeated again and again (such as champagne, sex, sailing, the sun, etc .. ). I have several extras and I want to mail them to a few people so they can send them to others and help the project grow. Maybe they can each send postcards to 2-3 people they think should participate. Then I’ll design more responses, and make more postcards, which will be mailed … and the project will continue to grow!

I’ve bought so many stamps this semester ..

It makes me sad I won’t have a complete set of front and back postcards anymore, but that’s part of letting go I think. I can either have a project that’s pretty to look and enjoy it myself, or I can release it into the world, and let it live. This also created motivation for me to figure out how to reproduce these cards at a reasonable price. In other exciting news, my friend Nick is participating in this years Barnes & Noble Back to Campus program, which I worked on last year, and he sent me a first look at my sketchbook, which will be in all B&N stores this July/August.

The cover is both embossed and debossed so you can feel the texture of the painted cover. I still haven’t seen the physical thing, but from the picture I’m excited. He said it was displayed on their table with the projects they’re most excited about, SOOO I’m hoping that means it’ll become an “evergreen” item, which means they’ll order higher quantities and it might stay in stores more seasons (which means more money for me!) I may be abroad when these hit stores, so i hope someone can grab me a sketchbook or pencil pouch.

Also this week I visited to the new section of the HighLine park in NYC. The new part opened last week, and it may be more amazing than the first, if that’s even possible. The new section has all these nooks and benches to sit on off the path, that are pretty neat. I’d suggest visiting during a workday, especially in the morning, because the place gets pretty crowded. A week from Friday I’m heading to Copenhagen for 6 weeks to study textile design, I’m sooooo excited. I found a subleaser for my apt, so that takes huge financial pressure off me upon my return in August. I’ll be studying textile design just like Stephanie did last summer, check out her blog here. I’m hoping to spend next week reading her blog and researching textiles and Copenhagen so I can be prepared for my trip abroad. Lots of exciting things coming up.

There were lot so these yellow flowers, cool looking right?

cool dark purple leaves

The trees in the new section are taller, almost like walking through urban woods

I liked this seating area, reminds me of Downtown Durham, NC and the tobacco warehouses

Really awesome futuristic building right on HighLine overlooking the new lawn

One of the seating nooks, when the trees fill in, these will be nice shady areas

In this section, they expose the support beams that hold the structure two stories above the street.

In this picture you can see the new HighLine (foreground), and the remaining original part (background), an physical before and after.
I sort of hope they leave a bit of the original HighLine untouched and natural. It’s cool to see.

 

 

 

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Joy is coming back, again.

 

It’s been a rough few weeks trying to finish the semester and a lot of ‘ish has gone down. My thesis show has come and gone, wrapping up in the beginning of May. From there I had to finish one last studio project, wrap up my internship, and prepare for Pratt Show and graduation. As many know, I spent the Spring interning at Jonathan Adler. All signs pointed to the internship leading to a long term position. Sadly, that fell apart in the end. My boss worked really hard to make the case for them to keep and pay me, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I felt really let down when I got the news as I worked so hard there. I invested a lot of time and effort into doing my best work for them, and it’s sad when they don’t invest in you in return. I was given to opportunity to keep working through the summer (for free), which I quickly turned down. I would be undervaluing myself as a designer if I agreed to stay. So many graphic designers talk about refusing to do speck work, design competitions, or free work in general. But some of these same companies hire unpaid interns. It’s just sad, we talk about elevating the profession, but many designers are doing that on that backs of unpaid, or low paid interns. I think JA expected me to stay there and work, for the opportunity, but they need to one day realize, if you want good design, you’re going to have to pay for it.

 

Right before graduation a little thing called Pratt Show popped up. Every year Pratt rents a huge exhibition space in Manhattan where graduates from across the Institute are given space to display their work. While it ended up being a bigger time commitment than expected, I was so happy I did it. I just found this blog post about it, “Work by more than 300 of the Pratt Institute’s most talented students is on display at The Manhattan Center. Pratt Show 2011 features communication design undergraduates; digital arts, jewelry design and interior design students; graphic designers from the associate’s degree program; and graduate industrial design students.” My business cards are featured on this site! Yay for that. Just like the blog says, it was a great opportunity to get our work seen by those in the industry. I ended up with about 6 interviews alone just from Pratt show. I was the only MFA ComD student to participate and it was a missed opportunity for anyone that didn’t do it. I really wish more people in my program did it as I know everyone’s work would have really shined. In all fairness though, we had to apply during one of the busiest times during the semester, so I think it was just bad timing.

My cards featured on Art Observer

My setup at Pratt Show

Me talking to someone during the Friends and Family Opening

I did a bunch of interviews and in the end, I found a place that will hire me part time before I go to Copenhagen. Everyone else wanted to hire someone immediately and I can’t truly work full-time until August. I had a second interview for this one place I’d LOVE to work as I really think it would be a perfect fit, but they want me to check back in August. I just pray something is open then. It’s nice to know people are interested, but I get so resentful when school causes me to miss job opportunities, but I NEED TO FINISH MY DEGREE!

A few days after this, we had graduation. My Dad and friend Meghan flew from NC to attend the ceremony and spend a few days with me. The ceremony in typical Pratt fashion was a bit of a mess, the venue was a huge warehouse on a pier. It was raining, people had to line up and wait outside, and we were herded like cattle through the space. Grad school at Pratt has felt very atypical compared to my four years at Appalachian so I figured participating in this would give me some sort of closure and feeling of accomplishment. I’m happy I did it, but I had no idea the email I was to receive the next morning …

The venue! Pier 94 in Manhattan’s west side.

Where we lined up, who knew backstage would be so glamorous right?

Singing one of many songs during graduation, really funny actually.

Three of my fellow MFA ladies at graduation! Aren’t they pretty??

So why is joy coming back? The day after graduation, I received an email from my thesis committee saying there were “substantial problems” with the materials I submitted for my thesis (ie my exhibition project and my paper). I was scheduled to defend and have my paper signed the next day. One day I’m walking across the stage and “graduating” and 24 hours later I’m held back with no explanation. The next day I met with my committee and for an hour and a half we talked about all the things that were missing. Some mention of ANY of this before that date would have been helpful. As one can see by looking at my blog, I’ve had a thesis exhibition plan designed for MONTHS, and never was I told I needed another project. In the stress and confusion of the semester I feel like I was let go only to be held back at the end. My advisers put all this energy into building a case against me, I just wish they’d used some of that energy to say something sooner. There were ample opportunities. But as they say, what’s done in the dark will someday come to light. I know why (or should I say whom) this whole issue truly steams from, but as my good friend Jason says, don’t be bitter, be better.

So in the interest of not playing the victim card, I have a bit more work to do this summer/possibly this fall, and I should hopefully FINALLY be finished. I just spent an A-MAZING week in North Carolina with a bunch of friends laughing, singing, dancing, hanging on the beach, and celebrating love, friendship and family. It really helped put a lot of this shit in perspective. This too shall pass. I’m not totally sure what project I’ll do in the coming weeks, but I’d like to continue the Joy Projects I was working on. I’m just going to dig deep for a few more weeks and get past this whole mess and close this chapter as soon as possible.

 

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Joy is coming to this space

(BEFORE)

(AFTER!!)

My MFA thesis exhibition officially opened Friday April 22nd at Pratt Manhattan on W14th. If you’re in NYC, it’s open to the public until May 3rd! Check it out!!

After all the blood, sweat, and tears the show came together. I guess it always does right? I will get better pictures in the coming days but these are all I have for now. The opening went great! I saw lots of people I knew and meet lots of new ones too. In terms of how the show was received, I think my exhibition accomplished all my goals. My hope was that people would read the letters, see the work, take a moment to pause and smile, thinking about what brings joy/happiness in their life. I also wanted to make a project that was easy to understand and digest. I think I did just that. I can’t describe the joy I felt seeing people read the letters with a huge smile on their faces. It made me feel like all the stress was worth it. A lot of people said the work was beautiful and let’s be real, that’s one of the greatest compliments one could get. So everything worked out, mission accomplished.

I still have a feeling the powers at be aren’t convinced about my inquiry into joy and the body of work I created for the exhibition. I judge this b/c the only thing my adviser said to me during the opening was, “Are you getting good constructive criticism?” .. how about “good job,” or “it came together nicely,” or anything nice to say, EVER? I told her a lot of people were touched and were excited to talk to me about the project and how beautiful everything was. She just said, ohhh okay, in that sort of judgmental way, as if people saying beautiful design work is a bad thing. I’m sorry, its not easy to make beautiful work and work that people actually connect with. She’s such a hater. BUT — my plan this week is to use my paper to make my argument perfectly clear. I say this now, but I’m actually excited to finish it.

I had people in the space write down  joy statements and I got a TON of responses, I think I’m going to post them on the wall during the show. I think it will make my wallpaper a little more interesting. One flaw I noticed was that many people weren’t connecting the dots between the projects, they didn’t realize the letters came first, which inspired another project, then another. I think I could have labeled things differently, or been more clear. So there’s room for improvement there! I also wish I could have left an address sign up sheet during the opening to collect addresses of people that would like to participate in the future. Would have been great to have another 20+ people to send new letters to … for the next wave. Ideas for next time! Here’s a few more pictures.

My framed visual responses on the floor of my studio, all 60 of them!

This was my space during set up on Thursday. A mess!

My finished space Friday morning. Added a third row of cards last minute.

Close-up of postcards, and the postcard packaging (right, hanging on wall)

The website thisbringsmejoy.com – will be the digital home for this project in May!

Thanks to everyone that came to the opening and a special thanks to Nick, Theresa, and Nefeli, who were each so helpful to me during the entire process.

I couldn’t have done it without you!
xoxo

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Thesis setup, day one

Because by TD Jakes, this brings my joy.

Today was my 1st official day of set-up in my exhibition space. My primary goal was to wallpaper the removable wall and cover my large wall with 6 yards of fabric I bought at Mood yesterday. When I got to my space to hang the wallpaper, I noticed the printed pieces were still too small. The prints I spent over $50 on were a waste. Luckily, Staples didn’t have a line, so I printed in B&W, and it actually looks pretty damn good. Should have done it from the beginning, I have no idea what I was thinking.

Later in the day my friend Theresa came by to help me hang all the fabric. It’s insane how much time and money both of us spent just COVERING our walls. This has nothing to do with our projects, but we’ve invested so much time prepping our walls. In the time we did that, another classmate hung his entire show. Oh well, good things from to thosethat face adversity, I like to think. Note to self, always pick exhibition spaces with finished walls. Here’s some pictures from the day.

Oh, and tomorrow I get to see Debbie Millman speak at Pratt! Can’t wait for that!!

My wallpaper and the monitor, which will display my animated project logo. The text is every joy response I got from my letters, all 760 of them, in alphabetical order!

Another shot for context.

Before …

After! – My friend Nefeli.
I’ll be doing this on Thursday. Yes, we have to sand, prime, and paint our own tables ..

La Vie en Rose by Louis Armstrong, this brings me joy.

1 of 60 that will be on display at my show!

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A New Show

The first MFA show has already open and closed, and now it’s my turn. I’m frantically trying to print/produce everything for Friday’s opening. I feel like I’m in a decent place, but I’m at the point where every time I print something, I keep making more work for myself. For example, my postcards are printed, all 60 of them! They look beautiful. Now I have to trim 90 postcards by hand. I’m also trying to print one more book, design my own wallpaper, and I need to find a way to hang all my letters. It’s going to be a mad dash until the very end. PRAY 4 ME! I’m going to keep this post light on text and heavy on images. My thoughts on everything will come later. I hope you can come out Friday night, find more info about our show on the website, anewshow.com

The 1st show, sans people! The space came together amazing, despite all the drama.

Close up of my friend Theresa’s space, I LOVE this project (and everything she makes). So beautiful!

Rebecca’s space, such a talented lady. This will also be my space come Friday

So on to my projects, in progress …

All my postcards, or visual joy responses, printed on the floor for the 1st time.

My friend Nick stepping on my thesis!!!

Proof of my postcards in colour from Village Copier. My packaging design is the top page.

IN-LOVE with my packaging, now I just have to cut out and put them together … might be tonight’s project.

Fried okra, this brings me joy.

First look at the actual cards. Everyday I’m going to show two prints until my show opens. This is the first.

Rainbow sprinkles, this brings me joy. 

Two more images coming tomorrow! xoxoxo

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