The Objects of Design

Sally Trude in Crozet, Virginia spent 2011 posting daily images of pictures or objects she'd made in The Objects of Design....


Why did I decide to do the project? I decided to do this daily project after seeing Brock Davis' Make Something Cool Everyday 2009. Of course, I knew I would cripple myself immediately if I had the requirement of "making something cool." I also didn't want to just make objects and I thought this would be a good way to  get better at Adobe Illustrator. Another goal was to use the daily project to once and for all conquer my habit of procrastination. (Insert laughter here.) So focusing on the daily aspect, I hedged all my bets and settled on "The Objects of Design," meaning I could make an object or a design, just do it daily. Since then I have obviously learned about your skull project, your books, the 365 website and I even participated in one of your workshops. I now see the value in providing more constraints and am considering adding some for the new year. Another reason for that is that over the past year my design work tended toward fabric patterns and small quilts (after joining a weekly journal quilt challenge). So for the coming year I'm wondering whether I can redirect my efforts with carefully designed constraints and how. Oh good. It's still 2011. I still have time to decide...or not.

 




How has this project affected my life? Although this project has felt relentless at times, the payoff has been astounding. Because procrastination remains my daily companion, I often find myself at the end of the day needing to just come up with something. Then I'm happily surprised when some of my favorite efforts just show up at the last minute. But by far the best payoff is the sheer quantity of designs produced. And even if I only consider about ten percent "totally awesome", after this year I have more "totally awesome" designs than I would have had if I set an annual goal of creating 36 totally awesome designs.

And although I obviously knew I liked animals and fabric before I started the project, I have felt a strong sense of discovery as the project progressed and I just followed my interests. Reviewing the progression also helps ease the daily drumbeat and, of course, provides a ready spark for new ideas. On the flip side, I certainly didn't master Adobe Illustrator although I developed quite a few quick cheats. But no question the payoff has been magnitudes greater than I could possibly have anticipated so I can only look forward to next year with the same sense of wonder and discovery.




See all of Sally's creations HERE.

3 comments:

Johannah said...

Beautiful work!

SAB said...

Your sense of design and color is wonderful. very inspiring.

Cynthia Stockdon said...

Colorful and fun!