Project Terracycle

CAPitalizing on Re-use

Above is our proposal for the bottle cap recycling project for submission
to Terracycle: a portable or travel-ready checkers game.

Closeup shot of the bottlecaps in play...

The "pouch" formed when the drawstring is pulled...

Ready to go!

My partner Melia had one of the same thumbnails I did during our brainstorming session... a checkers game. It was easy to agree that this idea would be fun to bring to fruition. Upon this decision we had to figure out what the board would be made of, as we knew the pieces would be the bottle caps. We toyed with a few ideas, such as a board on thin chipboard that would roll up and contain the caps, or a small folding board that would fit into a traditional box. All of these materials are perfectly recyclable, or could be made of recycled materials, but there was something missing.

The idea of a fabric playing board seemed interesting, and Melia suggested that all of those old T-shirts everyone ends up with would be great if they could be recycled instead of just thrown away, and voila! Our board came into existence.

Using an old T-shirt, we cut out a square large enough to hold the 12"x12" checkerboard, and used marker to simulate screen printing. Holes are punched around the perimeter of the board, allowing for a drawstring to run through. The holes are close enough so that when the string is pulled, the caps will not fall out.

We have chosen to keep the design as simple as possible, to promote fast and economical production. The caps do not need to be modified at all for this use, and using one layer of T-shirt material with screen printing on one side reduces the amount of labor and cost involved. The string could be made of natural hemp or other biodegradable/recyclable material.

We feel our checkerboard is quite versatile (you can still play even if it gets wet!) and could be marketed for camping, fishing, travel or home use. Everyone could use a little more fun!

History & Theory of Design I: Analysis of the Baths of Diocletian

Nature as Tools [presentation]

After working for many weeks on drawings and models, we were finally ready to present our efforts in the form of a group presentation board.

ingenue consisted of:
Liz Brown
Jessica Crews
Tiffany Garber
Sarah Ladd

and here is a photo of our board:



I loved the colors we chose for the board (chocolate mat board, with pale blue and ivory accents) and feel they were quite successful, as well as the format we chose to display our 60 6"x6" drawings. Contrary to most of the presentations I've been involved in, I didn't say anything ridiculous. Hooray! That is truly success.

long forgotten thumbnails...

Here are the preliminary thumbnails from the Moore building assignment that I'm finally getting around to posting!

presentation time rolls around [again!]

Our first design board we've ever created was presented today. The class was divided into groups and each group was assigned a building on campus to study and then create drawings and diagrams of. The selected building for my group was the Moore Humanities and Research Administration building on Spring Garden. We were required to include three perspective drawings from each group member [=15 total], five drawings of architectural details, three diagrams, and one statement about the building. We selected a muted color scheme of pale turquoise, light and dark grey, and a muted orange. Our drawings were black and white, and we chose to mat a few of them in black.

Our group entered the presentation room feeling confident; we seemed to have an overall feeling of contentment with our process and final result. That remained so until I spoke last during our turn, and coined a new phrase, "linear line". You never know what you'll get during presentation day, except the guarantee that I will say something completely silly out of nervousness!


l-r: Lauren, Liz, Hannah, Brittany, Meg

architectural statement, anyone?

From a kiwi... to drawing patterns... to many horrendous iterations of objects... to this:

25 [+] scale figures

["diaper duty"]

Our assignment was to draw 25 scale figures of our own creation, having been inspired by our research. I liked trying to imagine people in various states of walking, sitting, and standing.
Lying down was the most difficult position for me to figure out, since my little people are minimal in body parts. I like the style I ended up with, and think it will continue to get better.

drinking and drawing assignment

[beardy]

[bearded guy in chair]

[guy at the counter]

[girl in chair]

Technically I wasn't drinking anything... perhaps I should have been!
This was the first time I had ever been in a public (non-UNCG) place to draw my surroundings. It felt a little weird at first, and Barnes & Noble was very crowded at the time so I had no place to sit for a while. I dreaded going out and doing this assignment all week, and was scolding myself once I got started because I actually enjoyed it. It would be great fun to do this often if I were especially skilled in drawing. Practice must be the way to get there!

a few books go a long way

Here are a couple of treasured books from my childhood whose images have had a great influence on me; I don't know that they inspired me to draw, but they certainly stirred my imagination.
When I outgrew the books, my parents saved them for me and amazingly they survived a fire at their house a few years ago. My poor 'Morris' book looks about a hundred years old! I certainly enjoyed it for a long time, and now I read it to my children.


above: Morris's Disappearing Bag, by Rosemary Wells; 1975, The Dial Press, NY.


above: Jack Kent's Hop Skip and Jump Book, A First Book of Action Words; 1974, Random House, NY.


Here is a book that I gave to my kids titled "Olivia and the Missing Toy", by Ian Falconer. The Olivia series is beautifully illustrated in greyscale with random splashes of color. Perhaps the frugal use of color is what really makes the images pop.
Falconer's use of shadow and contrast is exquisite. I think this is the book that my kids will remember from their own childhood.



above: Olivia and the Missing Toy, by Ian Falconer; 2003, Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Moore Building final drawings

These are the final three drawings based on other illustrator's works: