Bookie bookie

I haven't had much time to reflect on my wanna be graphic designer attempt. I think designing my own portfolio book fed my need to be OCD.


Not without regrets. Not being involved in the actual printing process made my glitches extra vulnerable, and did not give me the option to fix them after I sent it out to print.  I should have known to spare a little room at the spine edge of the pages. But alas, I learned this now for next time.


                                                
I think I want to grade myself, since nobody else
really is. I guess I'll start from 100.                                            100                

The spine edge room I didn't spare                                             -5

The one layout where I started the text a couple of
centimeters off the guide (I should've caught that).                      -5

The fact that I got frustrated and sent it to get printed
before I had a chance to give one of my co-designers
credit for one of the projects. That's a big eff up!!
(Moe forgive me).                                                                      -10

The word "mystical" has an "i" and not a "y" after the
"t." And It's called spell check!                                                      -5

One irrelevant extra space between 2 words that did
not need and extra space. ughh                                                   -3

Learning how to get rid of one big nasty glare in one
of the photos and doing it well.                                                    +5

For pushing myself to finish this book!                                        +5
                                                                                            --------
                                                                                              = 82

wow, it's hard to vertically line up numbers with this blogger template!!



Hahaha. I couldn't stomach the fact that I gave myself only a 72 so I added ten extra points for things I think I should gain extra credits for. 82 is a B-, I can live with that.

The "loo" shelf

I finally saw Objectified last night. I think this might just be the single movie
to recommend when people ask me what industrial design is. I must say it is good, and it inspired me to do some designing today.

I looked through my "ideas" vault. I found this old orthographic drawing of a
toilet paper shelf from back in 2007. I think the idea has potential. But whoa!! what was I thinking with this design? It doesn't look all that pleasing.



I decided to redesign this object. Why hide the toilet paper anyway? it has a nice neutral color and a universal shape, why not showcase it? Using the same materials from the initial ortho drawing: wood and sheet metal, I came up with this shelf/installation, oo la la!



This is just a quick sketch render, but I think it looks sexy. I still want to show it in a situational scene, position it right above the loo (I am feeling British today). I also want to make the t-papers look more real and give it that soft, 2-ply texture to the eye. Anyway, here is another look.



I have illusions of grandeur for this. I already have a teaser layout in mind that will involve me in the loo...but not really.

Frostbites and green house

I finally got to see the Chicago Botanic Garden, along the way shot some photos on film. A proactive attempt to enjoy the cold, despite the frostbites,
and to maybe remove the 'dis' to make it my winter of content. Dunno...never read the book, but Steinbeck is good from what I did read from him.

Brittle cold


Shackled...Japan style


The green house gave me this pink eye.



At one point I thought I was in planet Pandora...when I met this alien.


Thornburst come to mind when I see this.


Yellow is a good color when done right, I think yellow is proud of me.


See the rest here

♪ ♫ I feel good (da na na ta na) ♫

...as sung by James Brown. good.

portfolio website finished, just waiting on the my domain name to kick in!

So the hibernation is over. and along the way I found some files to share.
So here's the CobraLive made-up video for a made-up app.



It's kinda annoying that for seven months, six people slaved to make a product and this is all that's left to show. Thanks to Greg for finishing the video after I gave him a crash-course in photoshop.

This is him during one of our interim presentations. Cool display, all it took
was some fishing line and a not so sturdy ladder.



Here was our research wall halfway through. All focus group info extracted
and tried to make sense of. ehh.



sixty dollars worth of post-its. ♪ ♫ (da na na ta na) ♪ ♫

Wild & Organic

The fabrication of language into form. I think it almost looks outer-spacey.



I like it. It's kinda sexy, I wouldn’t mind cooking with it.

On-the-Go

It's the mobile workstation. Perfect for the on-the-go professionals. It comes
with its own pull-out desk. If you only find one open outlet at the airport, no worries, because the mobile workstation comes with extension outlets with
usb ports. It even uses kinetic energy to charge an emergency battery so you may never lose power on your electronic accesories while on the go.



Now that the infomercial is over, I really do think that there's potential in this project. With some topple proofing and a little styling to increase its awesome factor, I think it might just be a hit amongst electronic enthusiasts. With its perfect dimensions for TSA standards, who wouldn't wanna travel without it?

Scale and Polarity

My little play on scale. Dabbling with studio arts. The goal is to provoke unforeseen reactions. An object with a defined associated scale is presented
in its polar scale opposite. Meet my giant dust bunny.

In hindsight, this was so bad for my lungs.


Ok so not totally a dust bunny. It's one giant lint, from approximately thirty different laundromats around the NW Chicago. It's amazing how some of the attendants were so quick to give me garbage bags upon hearing my request
to remove all the lint off their dryers.

Thank you hair spray, the magic tool for this sculpture.

Sustainable Sandals

As part of my design thesis, Ecopala, the following are renders of footwear which re-uses materials that are derived from Hawaii's local waste stream.


Waikiki Loafers

Maui Kicks

Shaka Sandals

Waikiki Loafers II

Custom Chicago Shelves

The Chicago shaped custom shelving unit which I designed for the UIC Innovation Center is 95% done. Plenty of work has been produced since passing on my design files. Alex Jones and Andy Graham have both taken charge of the construction and finishing. Improvements have been made from the initial design as the construction dictated some changes, in many ways adding to the charm of it all. I think there's definitely an awesome factor to it, Not too shabby at all if you ask me!

Mini mock-up


View to the left


Detail


View to the right


Click here to see more pics, and here for my inspiration.

Light the Fuego

I don't think a stove/candle lighter can look any sexier than this. Just hottt!

Hero shot

Decal button close-up

Exploded View

Side View

Parts animation


Solidworks 3d model and animation. Rendered with Photoworks.

Hale'iwa Lights

Unfortunate things can be turned into product opportunities. Marine debris impact ocean ecology in negative ways. Fishing nets abandoned at sea will eventually find its way to marine inhabitants, destroying corals and animals. 

It is cheaper for fishermen to discard broken fishing nets than to repair them.

Photos found via google images

If you're just joining, Ecopala is a series of Hawaiian inspired products which
are made from waste opportunities. Ecopala proposes exchange partnerships
by giving incentives to those willing to trade used refurbish-able goods. Ideally, this might help lessen the amount of debris left out at sea. One example of a product opportunity from used fishing nets is the Hale'iwa Lights.


Photo by Katherine Villamin

Inspired by the historic town on the north shore of Oahu, The Hale'iwa Lights additionally integrates discarded coconut shells in its design. More photos of
the Hale'iwa Lights here.

Prismacolor me good.

It probably took at least thirty hours, if not more, to complete the following drawings. I presume by virtue of time spent, they have got to be on this blog.

I think I had OCD. I used to make sure that all my markers had their correct caps. And they had to be in the right placement, all the cool greys separated from the warm greys, in order of their grey percentages. But now I am over it.


Maybe I'll be John Hancock (the building not the person) for Halloween. It's probably easy enough to make, just some card board and a lil spray paint.


One-point perspective. Worm's Eye View, 2006. Bird's Eye View, 2005-2006.
Pen and ink, warm and cool grey markers on 22"x28" white poster boards.

I wanna Illustator you, everyday and everynight.

Ha. Sorta listening to Bob Marley as I write. Is this Illustrator I am feeling?
Yes indeed I believe, Ecopala brought this outta me and adobe. And Bob.

The following are sketch renders from my recent design thesis. They be hot!


If you're just joining, Ecopala is a series of Hawaiian inspired products that
are made from waste opportunities. Opala is the Hawaiian word for trash.


The materials rendered on these sketches varies from used fishing nets,
surfboards, old beach mats, noodle floats, all re-usable trash in between.


Kinda got lazy with the next one, I forgot to change the bulbs ;p


Bob Marley is cool, and so as illustrator. See more sketch renders here.

doo dun doot du

Super psyched about the fact that I will be debt free in 2 or 4 weeks *cross fingers. So many money memories come to mind. Some were good, some
bad, and some were in the threshold of dangerously bad. Like when I put a
$900 safety deposit on a 15mm fisheye lens and took it trekking up Indiana Dunes. All turned out well because I didn't lose the deposit, and the photos
turned out kick-ass.

♫ Here comes the sun (♫ doo dun doot du ♫) and I say, It's alright...♫


I used to be all "deep" about life and experimented on how otherworldly creatures might view our residence. I thought a combination of infrared film
and fisheye lens might do the trick.


The set turned out beautiful if I might say so. I feel that there's just enough eeriness looming over my prints to give it the "otherworldly" effect I wanted.


Back to finance, I really can't wait to be debt free and spend the rest of my life.


See the whole series here, and Shaka always.