Tenleymayfield’s Weblog

After we completed researching our printers, I hoped that we would have a chance to keep all the information for future use and reference. Once we started making a book using our printer information, an element of fun came into play. We were able to take a normal boring print shop and turn their name and information into a colorful style of design. Overall, I feel that this Print Guide is something that will benefit us in the future and for years to come.

When this project first started, the only things I could think about were how we may need more time then what we had left in the semester. Once we met Grant and Lisa for the first time, it seemed as though everyone was on the same page. The project details were laid out nicely and they were also very descriptive. The clients wanted a look and a feel before anything else. After many roughs, class discussions and Basecamp post, we seemed to have come up with a name that stuck with the client. Once this process was over we saw that we would not have enough time for deliverables, so we came up with just doing posters and buttons. This added a more fun little twist to the project. This way, everyone in the class could turn in something that was their own. Overall, I wish that we would have had more time to finish out the ideas that we started with, but I am glad that we at least were able to meet and work with Grant and Lisa for a few weeks.

After living in Chattanooga for twenty-two years, I never knew that capabilities of National Print Group/RMG until just recently taking a field trip to their facilities. I always knew that they printed a lot of things around the United States, but I was just able to find out so many more things that I never would have thought come from Chattanooga. Examples of the companies that they work for are Starbuck’s and Home Depot. After visiting a place like this, it makes you proud to say that you have been born and raised here. One aspect of their digital printing facility that I was excited about learning is that they can print on objects like doors, carpet, tile and most importantly ceiling tiles. When we left, I was able to come home and figure out everything in the house that could potentially be printed on! It was a wonderful experiment that made me think about print in a whole new way.

Photoshop, Photoshop, and more Photoshop! This program has so many capabilities, which made me automatically love this project even before I was finished. I enjoy taking photographs, so this project was a way for me to challenge my photographs and myself. When looking through the eye of the camera, you see what is actually there. When editing a photo in Photoshop you have the chance as an artist to make the viewer see what you want them to see. I wanted this project to have more steps, but even though it does not I plan on carrying on further in the experimental phases. Another fact that I really enjoyed about this project is that the viewer has a better chance to explore the content, especially when halftones and duotones are used to manipulate and change the photograph. Overall, I would recommend this project to anyone who has never had experience with Photoshop because it is a great way to explore some of the many capabilities that this program has to offer.

I have lived in Chattanooga for twenty-two years. Throughout all the schooling I have had in this time, I was never able to take a field trip to the Chattanooga Times Free Press until now. A college student does not expect to take field trips like these very often, but this particular trip was so insightful that I would take the tour again. Frank, our tour guide, had a lot of experience regarding presses during his forty-something odd years at work. He was able to provide a thorough teaching of the press to our class. He seemed to know everything from the color of the walls in the building to the description of what everything in the building could accomplish. This was one of the better trips I have taken with a class, mostly because of the knowledge and passion that Frank showed during the tour. 

Last week, three artists Mark Andreas, Ryan Wolfe and [dNASAb] visited UTC and each of them placed very unique pieces in the Cress Gallery. I was able to visit the opening reception of this particular exhibit. Each of the artist spoke at the reception about their works and what they mean. Out of these artists, Mark Andreas was my favorite mostly due to the fact that he studied his carpentry skills working on sailboats with an eighty-six year old carpenter.  I grew up learning the “old school” way of doing things so it is very nice to see an artist, like Mark, base his work off what he learned in early studies and finding a way to mesh his work with today’s technology.

To many people, transit is the carrying of people, goods, or materials from one place to another. In this particular project I have been given the chance to decide the meaning of transit for myself. The meaning that represents transit to me is the idea of something moving in many different directions. These directions are in lines and circles, some go on forever and others seem to stop abruptly.  After studying the word transit for the past two weeks it seems that the word does not have to be present in the design to convey its meaning, even on the side of a truck.