The Sketchbook Project

I recently completed The 2012 Sketchbook Project, which is a traveling show of thousands sketchbooks. You purchase a book through the Art House Co-op fill it based on a theme you chose from a preset list (My theme was "Sandwich). Then you mail the book back and it travels with other sketchbooks from city to city and is shown in local galleries. You can see more info on the project and where the shows will be on the Art House Co-op website http://www.arthousecoop.com/

Below are images from my sketchbook and below that I'll write a little on the experience and the thought process behind what I've sketched. Enjoy.

This project was a lot of fun and really exercised my creativity. I began by free form sketching whatever came to my mind when thinking of the theme sandwich. When doodling I've always been a fan of repetition so for the next spread I repeated pickles as a sandwich topping and decided from there that I'd do a topping every other spread. This was great because it allowed me to have a break in between repeating an element over and over. In between the toppings are fun little scenes having to do in one way or another with sandwiches. Each element has a little bit of humor in it, which was a lot of fun because I am very much the type who will laugh at their own jokes.

I would definetly recommend this project to anyone. Whether you're the next Leonardo or you just draw stick figures on post-it notes, sketching can be a very powerful thing that helps you explore your own mind. My only regret was that I didn't learn about the project sooner. All the sketches you see were done in a month. I learned about the project only a few days before the deadline to sign up. Next time I'll be sure to sign up extra early to give myself time to enjoy it even more.

Doodles

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy working on a logo and to be honest logos have never been one of my strong suits. Sure I can crank out a mediocre logo under pressure that ranks a hair above average. But to make a symbol that embodies the full breath of a company where every last detail is caressed over. Well let’s just say it was a long and challenging process (over two months). I invested hours upon hours over the course of several days with minimum sleep. In the end I really feel as though I made a break through. Now I have a real love and passion for working on and working with identities. My secret was to just tackle how I work and develop my process.

It was simple, really. One little piece of advice instructors have tried to engrave in my mind since I was a teenager: Carry a sketchbook. Seems simple enough, you say. But after spending years and years dragging a sketchbook around everywhere (so I would have the minimum number of entries by the end of the quarter to receive a passing grade) the last thing I wanted to do after graduating college was to keep a sketchbook on me. I wanted to finally be rid of art school once and for all! Those endless pages would no longer haunt me. No more long nights of sketching. No more would I have its icy glare back at me as I go to take a pen or book out of my knapsack.

It went well for a few years, or so I thought, till one day a visitor to my desk noticed a tiny sketch in the corner of a piece of paper on my desk. It was nothing really, I hadn't even remembered drawing it. I must have just let it flow through my hand without thinking, while I was waiting for my ancient underpowered computer to fail exporting a PDF from inDesign for the fourth time and listening on the phone to a 20 minute apology from one of the team members I’m helping to complete the proposal (it happens). I began looking at all the other papers I had lying around my desk, my notebooks, envelopes, post-its, everything that had a surface to draw on I must have made at least one small doodle. How long had this gone on? All along I had been keeping a sketchbook but since I had disregarded my teachers’ advice, my ideas were scattered all over.

So again, I am carrying a sketchbook to catch ideas as they randomly appear; it’s helped me tremendously, especially with my most recent projects. But you might be wondering what became of the scatter of doodles that had crept onto various work materials on my desk. Well, a colleague of mine made a great suggestion to begin scanning them in and even developing my free flowing doodles to the next step. What you see incorporated into this blog post are some of the main sketches from my doodles on papers around my desk and the illustrations I’ve begun to develop since scanning them in. You’ll also see some of the sketches from the logo I’ve been busy designing.