ARCHITECTURE/FIELD TRIPS

For this project I decided to visit the Guggenheim Museum and the How Should We Live exhibition at the MOMA. the Guggenheim is my direct connection with architecture, a building that  I have always liked and admired; organic architecture and how the form supports the function was my research question.

the  How Should We Live exhibition is linked to my interest in product design, the exhibition included lesser known examples of mid century design, it recreated displays and living spaces of the pioneers of modernist design it also included work by female designers.

MEMORY

Both of my inspirations are from the early to half of the 20th century and remind me of why I became interested in design. I remember going to my grandparents house when I was around 12 and realized what an anomaly it is. located downtown in my hometown Saltillo Mexico, it stands out from the victorian and turn of the century mansions, the flat ceilings, rectangular terraces and floor to ceiling windows. it was built in the 40’s and the first modernist residential building in Saltillo. I always loved how simple and functional everything was and the fact that it was and old house but seemed more modern than other contemporary houses. the quality of being timeless is one of the reasons I feel attracted to mid-century design.

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TEXT

I decided to not include text my final product but I created two posters with text. one of them is an advertisement for my chair and the second one is a quote from The Fountainhead a book where the main character is based on Frank Lloyd Wright the architect of the guggenheim, that book affected how I think about design and architecture.

2 Mandalas as abstract 2D self- portraits based on my personality and memories.

INSPIRATION.

what inspired me from the Rubin museum was the craftsmanship and detail behind the mandalas and the geometry involved. those were the elements that I decided to include in my mandalas in different ways.

this images inspired me when I did some research on the aesthetic approach I wanted to use. I decided to go for abstraction button still consider the intricate details of a traditional mandala.

PROCESS.

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FINAL PRODUCT.

In my digital mandala my focus was on memories and how they fade with time but we try to frame them, that is the explanation of why I used geometric shapes to complement the images. the other reason why the geometric shapes are there is because I think that people look back to their past to make sense of their present, they try to find the missing pieces.the images are of people in my life friends and family the colors are vivid and also enhanced on photoshop to make more emphasis on the happiness this memories provoke, also water and fog overlap symbolizing the passage of time and how sometimes we remember something being better than it actually was. the fog also represents my hometown because of the altitude it gets foggy and it is something that I remember as beautiful and unique.

my handmade mandala was more about my personality. I considered the quiz which I’ve done before and I always get the same result, the debater (ENTP),The ENTP personality type is the ultimate devil’s advocate, thriving on the process of shredding arguments and beliefs and letting the ribbons drift in the wind for all to see. No one loves the process of mental sparring more than ENTPs, as it gives them a chance to exercise their effortlessly quick wit, broad accumulated knowledge base, and capacity for connecting disparate ideas to prove their points. I tried to play with the percentages in my proportion with the circle in the middle and the shapes emanating from it, my personality typical be dominant and tends to have great ideas but the execution is the problem thats why I left unfinished parts in my mandala. the pattern has integrity in the middle but it becomes erratic and random toward the edge represent the different ideas I can have and my love for playing devil’s advocate. the fragmentation in the paper pieces represents my name because it is long and has to be fragmented to be processed it also shows the strategic and calculating side of my personality. I decided to not use color to let the list and shadow demonstrate the duality within a personality.

2 books, a profile book that represents my partner and a interview book about the both of us

Profile Book

my partner for this project was jessica in the profile book I tried to include my first impression of her and then my second impression after the interview, this reflects in the sleek and black cover that was my first impression she is stylish but quiet a closed book; as I got to know her the pages developed, I used the pictures we took in class and did some light editing in photoshop also I include a tracing drawing from one of the pictures I took made of pastels and pen, I included this to give the book a more personal and colorful touch.

 it also completes the picture I used for the inner cover of the book

the text in the book comes from my profile interview in seminar class, I included the questions and answers that I think show the character of my partner, I decide to keep the journalistic writing style because fashion is a big part of her life so I wanted my spreads to look like a fashion magazine. other photos in the book also complement each other. the 3D format was my way of including my personality and was inspired by bookniture an stool inside a pop up book.

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Intraview Book

For my interview book my main focus was cultural and how remote was the possibility of me knowing my partner who is from the other side of the world I decided to include this concept in my structure a reflection.

the cultural aspect comes from the graphics, I tried to find similarities and contrast within our cultures one similarity is how we are perceived by the rest of the world with negative stereotypes and a general overview but both our cultures are incredibly rich, thats why I kept my images simple like outlines. I also include symbolism from both our cultures. in this image I added paper marigolds and poppies marigolds are important in mexican culture they represent eternal life, and from research I discovered that poppy seeds are used in traditional chinese medicine. other symbolism is the paper lanterns and “paper picad0” both icons from our countries.

in the chinese section I included come buildings from Jessica’s hometown Nanjing.

 the cover of the book has traditional chinese pottery and mexican talavera tiles, I realized that there was connection in colors and motifs, the title was inspired by the name of a restaurant that serves both mexican and chinese food and it made me think of the story of “china poblana” a traditional mexican way of dressing for women the name always sounded funny to me “china” is chinese female in spanish “poblana” means woman from Puebla ( a region in central Mexico), I did more research on this and this costume was introduced in the 17th century by chinese slaves brought to mexico during the spanish reign. this fun fact made me think of the ways cultures are related even if they are remote.

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in my digital mandala my focus was on memories and how they fade with time but we try to frame them, that is the explanation of why I used geometric shapes to complement the images. the other reason why the geometric shapes are there is because I think that people look back to their past to make sense of their present, they try to find the missing pieces.the images are of people in my life friends and family the colors are vivid and also enhanced on photoshop to make more emphasis on the happiness this memories provoke, also water and fog overlap symbolizing the passage of time and how sometimes we remember something being better than it actually was. the fog also represents my hometown because of the altitude it gets foggy and it is something that I remember as beautiful and unique.

my handmade mandala was more about my personality. I  considered the quiz which I’ve done before and I always get the same result, the debater (ENTP),The ENTP personality type is the ultimate devil’s advocate, thriving on the process of shredding arguments and beliefs and letting the ribbons drift in the wind for all to see. No one loves the process of mental sparring more than ENTPs, as it gives them a chance to exercise their effortlessly quick wit, broad accumulated knowledge base, and capacity for connecting disparate ideas to prove their points. I tried to play with the percentages in my proportion with the circle in the middle and the shapes emanating from it, my personality typical be dominant and tends to have great ideas but the execution is the problem thats why I left unfinished parts in my mandala. the pattern has integrity in the middle but it becomes erratic and random toward the edge represent the different ideas I can have and my love for playing devil’s advocate. the fragmentation in the paper pieces represents my name because it is long and has to be fragmented to be processed it also shows the strategic and calculating side of my personality. I decided to not use color to let the list and shadow demonstrate the duality within a personality.

AP portfolio

Parsons Challenge