I Chose this photo for my shelter presentation. I started to research seed pods and decided I wanted to do a seed or pod like structure. In my research I found pod-like hotel structures in Japan and Asia. The premise of these structures is to fit as many people possible into a small area. I wanted my shelter to be small and tightly fit people into it. I settled for an idea of having canvas stretched over a bone or skeleton structure. 
For this poster, I wanted to play with the idea of space, in reference to the name of the conference “Spaces of Learning: Inside Outside Graphic Design Education”. My concept for the poster comes from this idea that you should consistently be pushing yourself with your design education, sometimes reaches uncomfortable places with what you do. I decided that in order to show this I would manipulate the kerning of the conference title in a way that make it uncomfortable to read at times. Additionally, this was one of the first projects where I was starting to feel comfortable messing with the kerning of letters. If I were to do this project again, I think I would have gone more dramatic with the kerning. And I think I would have come up with a better typographic solution for the information above and below the title.
Feet in Smoke: A Story About Electrified Near-Death- John Sullivan
At first, I thought this essay would be really sad. I mean, the guys brother nearly died. But I actually felt the essay was quite comical in a dark way. The way John Sullivan included his own notes from the days his brother was in the hospital were really funny. I thought one of the last remarks he made was really interesting, “…he seemed to find life no less interesting for having done so.” It’s kind of funny that we were assigned to read this, because earlier in the day I was thinking that I could drop dead at any moment from something crazy like a brain aneurysm or get hit by a bus. I’m supposed to write about how I feel and I guess I feel like you never now when something crazy like getting electrocuted by a microphone is going to happen. The author had a good spirit about it all though. I know if one my siblings was in the hospital and we didn’t know if they were going to make it or if they were going to spend the rest of their lives in a vegetative state I would have been scared out my mind and hardly able to keep my cool.
Nipple Jesus- Nick Hornby
Firstly, I think this essay was really funny. It’s funny hearing about people’s ideas of art who aren’t in the profession of creating things. A large majority of the people in my life have these crazy ideas of what it means to be an artist or what constituents art in the first place. It’s funny how people who normally wouldn’t give a shit about art would get so offended by it. I don’t really know why that part of this story makes me laugh so much, but I guess it’s funny to hear about people getting all riled up about a 2-D image.
In a lot of ways this story verbalized what I’ve been trying to understand about art this first year of school. I guess that art is the physical manifestation of an idea or concept. Or perhaps the idea or concept is the art and the physical manifestation is the tool to communicate that. But it’s like, why wouldn’t you just write down what you wanted to say? Why do artists have to have these physical things to communicate their ideas? Maybe it’s because creating the thing is half of the conceptualizing. I don’t know I’m just kind of writing down of the thoughts this story has provoked, but it’s interesting how people view art. We all think there has to be some major idea or concept hidden inside art. That we have to think abstractly to understand it, but maybe we don’t always have to do that.