Since the show...

The last post was after the show in March...so yes, it's been awhile.

Lately I have been working hard at my freelance work. Between part-time jobs I am working on a website for a womens cycling magazine, designing logos for start-up companies and lacrosse teams, and have started to design admin UI for a software company...fun stuff!

I also completely revamped my website, making it more web 2.0...and basically teaching myself a lot more with html and css.

Links of interest:

shePedals: The Journal of Women in Cycling


Redd-Design

Will be posting more as I get client work out the door.

- Ashley

Show and Moving On

So the show's been over for a few weeks. Looking back I think it was a success, there were a few things that I could've done better but overall it was a learning experience. Crazily enough I'd almost like to be in another exhibition, besides just at school. I really enjoy the business-like, print design aspect where I'm working for clients, but in the future I'd almost like to do more work for myself based on my ideas.

Regardless, here are some pictures from the show:

Overall


Large Accordion






Medium Accordion






Small Piece






Fire Book


Mobile Pics


Here's the text from the label on my work:

Ashley Hill
On the Road

My project is based on the various road trips I have taken, as well as the photographs, experiences, memories and stories gained from each adventure.

Being the first show we had a number of people show up, and overall I'm very happy with how it turned out.

The big question now is "now what?" I'm being pushed into working more on my book series, refining it and also working on more book ideas using the same format. However, something I've started working on is a book based on the mobile pics I've taken. I've since added quite a few since I take photos of everything, and I want to use the random comments and captions that friends and such have posted. I have the format figured out, I just need to sit and organize and do the tedious work. I need to gather comments and put them in with the photos.

More photos from the show are located here:
Facebook Album

If anyone would like the high-res version of any of the pics please send an email (from a non-Montserrat address) to me.

Off and running...

The show is up.

Let me say that again...the show is up.

People I was a bit worried about pulled through in the clutch, and everyone's...repeat, everyone's, work looks great.

As a group everyone's parts are independent, yet cohesive.

This weekend was a grueling test of emotions...YES my work is done, NO now I need to hang it, YES everything's up, NO there's still work to do.

I'm also happy how the front came out...cohesive yet independent.

Tomorrow night (6 PM) is the opening, if you're somehow reading this and is not in the show, I encourage you to go.

I crossed off everything in my past post that was listed, except for sleep. Absolutely going to crash now, so I'll leave off with some links to websites depicting the show:

http://studio.montserrat.edu/gd/

http://www.montserrat.edu/galleries/301/?PHPSESSID=9be774860e33987b48e246f8c1ed967d

Almost there...

Crossed off a few things from last post.

Did a LOT of work today, finished the large and medium size accordions, as well as did the major fold of the book, and cut out most of the mobile pics.

Still have a few mobile pics to cut out, as well as finishing the smaller accordion, all of which I'll do tonight, and tomorrow morning will finish the book, as well as start putting stuff up.

Here's some pics...

One side:

Other side:

Medium accordion, book and mobile pics:

SHOW OMG!

Show goes up this Fri/Sat/Sun.

This is my little public to-do list before the show:

- email Andy about the front window type

- figure out shadowboxes? for front window

- large accordion:

• cut each panel apart
  
• spray mount panels to foamboard
  

- med accordion:

• buy lighter board to mount to
  
• spray mount to board
  
• bonefold/score back to make it fold
  
• mount to wall
  

- small accordions:

• mount to board/foamcore?
  
• mount to wall
  

- accordion book:

• fold in half and adhesive together
  
• fold into sections
  
• make front/rear covers
  
• put everything together
  

- mobile pics:

• spray mount to foamcore
  
• cut out each one
  

- show:

• install shelf
  
• mount everything!
  
• put up type and hang boxes
  
• freak out
  
• sleep for two days
  

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I went up to NH and picked up my large format prints.  Much thanks to Infinite Imaging in Portsmouth and Exeter, prints look great!

Prints Oh My!

Today was the last class before the show. Scary stuff.

Met with a printer today, who's going to get me a quote on 100 invites as well as a few prints of the folding maps for tomorrow.

Also, met with another printer who can print large-format, and I'm sure their price is reasonable, which just makes me even more discouraged since I can't afford to get them printed.

Not a clue what I'm going to do...

Tiled

Cutting and Pasting

I have a meeting with a local printer tomorrow, so I printed out all my work, thus far, and am now in the midst of trimming and taping all the tiled pieces, escpecially for my large accordion piece.

We went to the gallery yesterday to take measurements and such, and using the work I have so far, made a quick sketch of how I think it'll look like.  John mentioned putting a medium accordion piece over the thermostat, and I think I will.  Not sure if I want to do that one on foamboard though, I think I'll stick to a thicker paper.

Here's the large accordion piece printed and trimmed (will be taped later today):

I'm also going to finally get my books from last semester printed, and created a couple new things based on my road trips.

t-12 days.

As of right now there are 12 days until the show has to go up. That's not to say that stuff won't be up earlier, but it doesn't give us much more time.

Granted it's a process show, but I like finishing things before showing them off to the public.

I have a list of things to do before I can put up my work, one of which is find a place that will print my bigger stuff (one being very long and double-sided and registered correctly).

Here is the large accordion thing I made:

And here is the image that will go on it:

Each divided area is of course on its own panel, coming together to form an image from two angles.  The thing I really like is I'm playing off the scale of the piece and how it should be looked at, and using only 6dpi on the image.  This makes the image very pixelated with pixels 1/4" big.

I organized the rest of my mobile pics, but I'm not sure how I want to display them.  They definetly have to do with the rest of my work, it's about travel, and seeing, or not seeing, and documenting, and remembering, etcetc.  At least that's what I get out of it.  An idea I had is to mount them on foam or whatever and have them stretched across a single line at a certain height.  Another is to group them grid-like, like I have with the contact sheets.  Right now they're about 3" wide and 2" tall or so.  I'd appriciate some input on that.

I did a design for a personal invitation and now just need to print them, cut them, and come up with the list of people I want to send them to.  I know I have a good deal of addresses that I need!  The finished size (folded into a book) is 4.25" x 2.75" so I also need to find some sort of envelope that would fit those well.  And then mail them out.  This I should probably work on soon so people have time before the show.  I believe Scott M is working on an idea for the group card or such.  Something about ninja poses...or something...

Oh yes, and we have a title for the show: First come, first served.

*Just had an idea for using data from all my trips...maps: pins, string, labels.  I don't know, I think strange things when I'm tired.

Update again tomorrow after class.

- Ashley

some pictures and such

stuff on the wall

one angle

other angle

haven't done much of anything with these pictures other than to organize them.


What I'm working on now is a much larger scale version of the accordion book-thing on the wall.  Finished will be 3ft tall with each panel a foot wide.  It's a combination of size that I like a lot.  Per John's suggestions I made a smaller mockup (6inx2in each panel x8 panels) that I'll use to check out different images as well as ease of final production.  I was going to print out each panel and spray adhesive to the panels, he says to print two panels per sheet of paper and have the joints where that fold outwards.  I'll try both.

plans and ideas

I made some new plans and got some new ideas from people this week.  John informed us we only have ten (now nine) classes before the show is to go up.

One idea is using the random bits of info, locations, notes, etc, from the road trips I take.  I tend to document them pretty well in photography so I have a lot to work with.  I'm currently working on some accordion type pieces that see a picture (and eventual text) from one angle, and another picture from another angle.  These would be mounted on the wall somehow, just how will be worked out this weekend/next week.

Another project are books made from a single sheet of paper.  These are very versitile since they can be used as pieces for the show, but because they're rather easy and quick to make, I want to use them for personal invites to the show, as well as creating a series for people to take at the show (with trips or such).  I want to create a backing for them, with maybe my info, a bit about the project or whatever, at the very least a solid color so it's not just white paper.

Yet something else is working with mobile pictures I take.  I didn't work on this at all today, but will start figuring something out over the weekend.

Oh, and yet another idea, is I tend to move a lot, the most recent last week, so I got some info from my mother about all the addresses I've lived at.  All in all a total of 12 different places I've lived.  Hmm.

Starting to think about the show more, I kinda want to bring in a ton of car parts, since I don't have a lack of those.  Ideasideasideas.  Oh and I need an idea for the name of the show, I'm at a loss for words (for once).

- Ashley

amazing feat of photography

My mom sent this to me earlier...amazing work with a camera.

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

seminar

I took seminar last semester, and while I started with the idea of investigating automotive aesthetics, I ended up working with much more personal ideas related to travel.  I designed a series of accordion fold books dealing with a trip my family took in 2004 to CA and back.

In my second semester of seminar I was planning on continuing with the same idea of working with my road trips/travel.  I find that I'm always on the road driving somewhere and want to incorporate that into making 'something.'

I've been playing with something I made in bookbinding a year ago...a book made from a single piece of paper.  I'm thinking dual sides, or 'dual' sides on one side...it can be seen as a book or as a flat sheet of paper.

I'm also working on compiling a list of all the places I've gone, mostly on the rally cruises but also as I drive everywhere.

Something I want to work with is the commute I used to do.  It was a 30-45min commute one way to school/work six to seven days a week.  Almost everyday I took a picture of something, whether it was of my car or of the sunrise or of some random thing I saw while driving.  I have all of these pictures uploaded to Facebook, so it has the date I uploaded them, as well as misc comments from people.  I can use this information somehow...

check, check...

This blogthing has been created for my design/art/non-personal/non-car stuff.  Used primarily for seminar and maybe some other art-related stuff...

- Ashley