Showcase

Introduction

Hi, I’m August! Welcome to my showcase. I’m a design student at Freestyle Academy with a focus on fashion and graphic design. I plan to continue these passions as I join the Department of Design and Media Arts at UCLA. For this presentation, I’ll be featuring three projects: a digital portrait, a t-shirt design, and a prom dress.

I chose these projects not only for their success but for the challenges they gave me and the growth I exhibited. Personal growth is very important to me in all aspects of life, which is why having my projects reviewed makes me so excited. Design, for me, is both an expression and a lesson.

Thank you so much for reviewing my work. I look forward to this opportunity to receive feedback and learn from professionals with a variety of experiences.

Digital Portrait

For the “Pastel Painting” assignment in class, I decided to paint a portrait of my boyfriend. The concept of the assignment was to create an entire digital painting using only the pastel brush. This was my first time digitally painting ever, and I was extremely inexperienced with Adobe Photoshop. I’m proud to say that I mastered this steep learning curve. However, this assignment was also my first brush with the specific type of perfectionism that digital art breeds. My primary Adobe product, Illustrator, is extremely flexible, but I found that raster images are much more flimsy to work with. The permanence of strokes that layer on one another combined with the ability to undo and redo any detail was an immense amount of power and pressure for one artist. I experimented with a variety of techniques and textures in this portrait, using variants of the pastel brush. The overall effect is fun, but I’m interested in hearing how I could have communicated my subject better.

Specific details such as the spots in his sheer top, the lettering in his bucket hat, and the texture of his clothes are all points of pride. I regret having blended his skin, but admit that I also would have regretted not at least trying it out. In a sense parallel to perfectionism, I also struggled with deciding which techniques were true to the spirit of the assignment and when to sacrifice beauty for honesty. The expanse of decisions that could lead to a final product was overwhelming and ultimately distracted me from reaching my final goal on time. While I could, of course, always use feedback on my painting technique and enjoy advancing technically, advice on time management in a professional setting would also be very much appreciated.

T-shirt Design

This project was completed outside of Freestyle for my Winter Percussion group. It’s an annual tradition to have a different shirt each year to represent the show. I was tasked with creating a design for “The River.”

My design was inspired by Takato Yamamoto. In designing merchandise for a show called “The River,” Yamamoto immediately came to mind because his work portrays movement and fluidity through organic shapes and lines. In analyzing his work, I noticed that it was typically composed of a subject (often a person or animal) and what I came to think of as a “garnish” (the clouds and shapes surrounding it and giving it movement). I therefore used the garnish in my own work to enhance the movement of the subject.

In researching for this project, I also found it important to understand the eel itself. In my portrayal of the eel, I looked to its natural state first, then took liberties with artistic design and simplification.

The printing process proved to be the most time consuming and taxing aspect. Because of costs to print a variety of colors and shapes, I was forced to sacrifice the eel’s spots. It was extremely difficult to come to this decision because I wanted shadows throughout the piece, but the eel’s spots are significant to its character. However, I decided that the spots are the least noticeable out of the details, and opted to remove them from the design for printing.

Overall, my classmates were extremely excited by this illustration and wore their merchandise with pride!

Prom Dress

This Zenith Project wasn’t really about recreating a dress, but rather a feeling. I was chasing the satisfaction of wearing something that reflected my personality and creativity. In the many hours I’d spent window shopping for prom dresses online, I felt unsatisfied with the bleak choices. Most dresses within a reasonable price range seemed mass produced and unflattering, while the dresses I admired weren’t within my budget. I knew that if I made my own dress, it would be relatively easy to stand out from the crowd. All I’d need was some thought put into it.

Making the dress also required a lot of risk taking because I wasn’t sure how the materials would affect the dress. I had never worked with organza before, so I didn’t realize how much it would fray at first. I also thought I’d need wire to support the form, but it turned out to be very stiff on its own. I bought plenty of materials halfway through because I hadn’t realized I would need them; fray check, a glue made specifically for fraying hems; a longer zipper because I could barely fit into the skirt with a seven-inch one; and some new thread, as I was starting to run out. 

The final product, though, was so worth it. I had produced a two piece dress with a corset style, floral patterns and lace details. The open back was gorgeous and I was so happy with how flattering and beautiful it was. The junior presentation, and also because I was so happy to get artistic feedback and plenty of compliments.This Freestyle project ultimately achieved what it was meant to do. It helped me to gain confidence in my ability to sew garments and finish projects on tight schedules. Fittingly, it was definitely the pinnacle of my Freestyle experience.

Reflection

My overall experience at Freestyle has been one of falling and rising again. As Aidy likes to put it, the way I complete my work is bulimic, binging on the consumption of art, and purging by emitting my own. It’s not the most healthy or scheduled method, but it allows me to prioritize what’s important to me. Though the quality of my work may spike on specific projects, it seems that Freestyle, especially Digital Media, is designed to churn out projects by completion. This worries me, especially when I consider my future in the context of capital. The professional world seems to be built for Instagram artists who post every single day, not street artists who produce murals and disappear. One relies on a steady income, the other on flimsy fame. I wonder how my growth mindset will fare under specialist culture.

Having panelists such as yourself review my work is especially critical because I need models to understand how designers can maintain healthy careers. It’s an honor to be presenting to you, and I look forward to meeting for the in-person presentation.