Today was the 125th commencement of the Rhode Island School of Design. I didn't have a camera with me, but as luck would have it, President Maeda was taking pictures of it from the stage and posting them on the RISD flickr account. How cool is that? The image above is of President Mandle giving the opening remarks.

RISD is unusual in that it encourages its graduates to creatively alter and/or destroy their cap and gowns for the ceremony, which results in a parade-like atmosphere as everyone files in for the first time. After the initial "viewing," things are pretty standard from then on. Its a small enough school that everyone walks across the same stage, and the actual masters hoods are actually conferred on stage as well.

Today I stayed for most of graduation, but then raced out towards the end to help set up for a reception that the graduating class was having for their friends and family. There was food from Costantino's Venda Ravioli, cupcakes and amazing baked goods from Scioli Brothers (holy crap their tiramisu was awesome!), wine from Eno, and 60-70 of our closest friends!

It was a great afternoon of toasts, hugs, and relaxed socializing, and now I am totally beat. Time for bed.

Continuing in my family's birthday season, next up is my awesome brother Jeff, who is hopefully off enjoying an Old 97s concert instead of actually seeing this blog entry.

This photo is of us this past summer, when my family came to visit Providence and explore the surrounding area. Jeff has also spent the last few years in grad school, and although his field is architecture as opposed to graphic design, it was his vision and determination to pursue a creative career that inspired me to send in my own applications not so long ago. And while I am only slightly miffed that he beat me by a year in becoming the first person in my family to get a masters degree, I am mostly just proud of him for the blood, sweat and tears he put into making his goal a reality, and for the amazing work I have seen so far. Happy Birthday, Jeff! :)

Our soon-to-be president has been busy these last few weeks, touring the campus and producing a series of ad-hoc podcasts of various final crits across campus. Its a neat way to experience the unique atmosphere of this place, and perhaps explore what motivates so many people here to become relentless creators:

My First Podcast
Crit Week, Part 1
Crit Week, Part II

So its my dad's birthday. Notice I don't say "today," or "yesterday," or "tomorrow" even, because he's in Singapore and the whole time thing gets a little tricky. By the time it was his birthday here, it was already over there, and this has been a source of great confusion for all of us. So I'll just say Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you!

I am including one of my favorite recently-located childhood pictures, taken at a State Fair photo booth (1979? 1980?). My parents were doing everything in their power to get me to smile, but apparently I was having none of it then. 29 years later, though, it is definitely working. :)

Since I finished my Intro to B&W Photography class this past Wintersession, I have been slowly but surely scanning in all of the negatives that I didn't have a chance to print for the class (the ones I did print for class are here). I can see a real difference in the quality of both my exposures and my film developing as I get into some of the later stuff, but its still very helpful to have Photoshop on my side to fix small issues.

Despite a wealth of things to do and see in this region of the country, I haven't really tired of taking pictures of Providence itself, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites. Its such an interesting place, with elements of the old colony butted up against today's modern city. The state itself has a long history of lawlessness — this hasn't changed much mdash; and so there are all sorts of alternative narratives running beneath the surface of the pristinely preserved historic buildings and squares.

Walking along S Main St:

Walking along Canal St:

(coincidentally, that building in the upper left is where I'm staying this week while I take care of Eve.)

This morning I started a week-long stint dogsitting this little hellion. Sources tell me she is a very sweet Beagle mix named Eve, but I have yet to be convinced. But we've had our first walk, and she's now asleep on the floor with her head on my feet, so maybe we're getting somewhere.

Eve belongs to my friend Angela, who flew to California this morning to begin her pursuit of global domination as an intern for Apple. Eve is the daughter of her childhood dog Marcie, who had several puppies last summer. Eve came to live here, and her sister Peanut went to live with her sister in Florida. I think Eve got all of the beagle characteristics, while Peanut (who is the size of a teacup Chihuahua) got everything else.

One of my last projects of the semester involved creating typographic narratives that lived somewhere out in the real world. As often happens to me with projects like this, I was way more interested in the system of producing my pieces than I was in my ultimate message. I spent weeks developing a method to make rubber molds so that I could make castings of the negative space around letterforms, and finally came up with a process that I really liked:

1. Cut forms out..
   I used sheets of pink insulation foam (around $12 for a six foot sheet at Home Depot) because it was inexpensive, easy to cut, and water resistant. I made a template in Illustrator, traced it out on the foam with marker, and then used a small jewelers saw to cut it out. I was going for a rough-hewn look, so the imperfections of this process were exactly what I wanted. Note that this is a positive of the ultimate shape I want to cast.

   

   
   

2. Mount forms to a base.
   I built a shadowbox-style frame around the form, using "planks" cut from the same sheet of foam, and held together with masking tape.
   
3. Pour the mold!
   I used a mold-making rubber called OOMOO 30. I picked it because the supply store here on campus stocks it, and because of this video. If Martha can do it, I sure as hell can!
   

   

4. Make a cast!
   Now that you have a mold, you can pretty much pour whatever you want in there. Plaster, concrete, wax, soap, water (make ice molds in the freezer!), jell-o, cupcake batter — you name it. Be super careful pulling out the hardened cast from the mold, especially if your original has as many curves and undercuts as mine did.
5. Play.
   Take your new mold outside and play with it!
   

   

Comments
Julie -
Very cool!
jenny b harris -
Cool! This technique could be useful in a zillion different ways. Thanks for the tutorial!
Add your comment

Last night I went to the opening of the 2008 MFA Thesis Exhibition, and it was completely overwhelming. I am going to have to go back two or three other times when there aren't so many people around, because I want to sit (or stand) and really absorb everything. The GD peeps did a really amazing job planning out the space and showcasing a wide variety of media within it. I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes or so sitting in the video room watching all manner of short movies, and another stretch of time at the book walk drooling on er, looking at three years worth of book projects.

I didn't get much of a chance to wander around the other departments, but there were two pieces that I really enjoyed.

This ID thesis project by Gretchen Hooker addresses the challenge of providing urban gardening space where local soil is either paved over or contaminated. The bags get filled with soil and have openings at different heights designed to accomodate plants with different root lengths. The weight of the bags keeps them from blowing away, and they even have pockets so that you can anchor a special system of canopy poles to provide shade. I want some!

This ceramics project by Nathan Craven was absolutely stunning, and I was not alone in this opinion because there was a crowd of people around it all night. There were thousands of 6" tall extruded shapes, standing on end, to make an intricate pattern. They went from standing on the floor to being stacked against the wall, and (if you weren't wearing heels) you could stand on top of them and walk around on it. The colors ranged from delicate blues to deep reds, and they were SO gorgeous I wished I could take a piece home with me.

I have really enjoyed the flurry of postings from those participating in A Post A Day in May, and now that I am tying up the loose ends of my school year, I want to play too!

And so I give you A Post A Day For the Rest of May. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

The first thing I have to do is talk up how amazingly awesome the thesis presentations were this year. They were going on all day Friday and Saturday, and I sat on the edge of my seat for every single one. This is what a typical thesis defense looks like here:

Each day's presenters set up sections of the graduate gallery with their work. There was an area of seating with a screen and a podium, and after a 10-15 minute presentation, we would all troop into the gallery to hear what the critics had to say. This year the critics were Alicia Cheng, David Reinfurt, and Alice Twemlow, and they each had insightful and constructive things to say.

Up next is setting up for the big show encompassing all of the MFA graduates. It opens tomorrow night at the Rhode Island Convention Center, and I can say from experience that it is mind-blowing to see the work of 400+ artists and designers in one place.

Today was my final review for Digital Type Design, where we all brought 17 copies of a specimen of our type face and then collated them into a book that each of us could take home. Then we went through each person's typeface and got feedback from an outside critic on what went right (and wrong). Here's the type face that I developed in the class. Its called Shoestring:

All in all it was a pretty mellow end of the semester, and it means that I only have three more to go! Oh, except for that silly little thing called proposing your thesis. Right. Tonight my class hung a show in the Graphic Design Gallery of posters presenting each of our thesis proposals. On Wednesday night we'll have an opening reception thats open to just the 14 of us and all of the graphic design faculty, where we'll answer questions, get feedback, and shop for advisors for the coming year. Here's a sneak peek at my poster: