back to it

after a long hiatus from this blogging thing, it's about time that i got back in the swing of it. school wraps up FOREVER next thursday, so here's to having time to write and post things regularly. also, i should be working on my portfolio at this very minute, but would so much rather procrastinate in a seemingly productive way such as this.

my website has also gotten a little attention as of late. it's now officially caitlinlomen.com rather than the old cargo collective URL, i put up my new personal logo, and added a project which so happens to be the brand identity i developed for myself this last term. this little gem:

expect to see me posting more often, hopefully with fun freelance/ personal projects!

xo

Erik Marinovich lettering workshop

Erik Marinovich of Title Case and Friends of Type came to PSU to school us on the ways of lettering. I took the day off from work to draw tens of ampersands and learn from a pro, and my buddy Ethan made this fun video of our workshop!

working on: Similarly Different update

Similarly Different is plugging right along, we've posted two and are working on the final prompt. This is a fun project because it's so open-ended. For prompt #2 I really wanted to incorporate watercolors, and I've been wanting to do a series of fashion drawings, so I got my feet wet with this post.

The girl in the front in black reminds me a Vera Wang. I'm so grateful for my scanner when I work with lines and colors on different layers like this, to think that I used to do all my scanning at school. I hope you like the finished product!

just for fun: desktop wallpaper

While actively avoiding working on my Type II project this morning, I decided to make something of the James Victoire quote I'd had sitting in my inbox for a week. The result was a desktop background, so I'm reminded to keep at it and make good work.

It's Monday, start strong!

working on: Similarly Different

In an effort to completely overwhelm myself with work this term, I've been trying to take as many of the opportunities that come my way as possible. Last week one such opportunity showed up in my inbox in the form of a collaborative project between PSU graphic design students and graphic design students from University of the Creative Arts, Farnham in the UK. Headed up in part by PSUGD's own Briar Levit, each of us here in Portland is paired up with a student from UCA and given a fortnightly prompt. We 'research' our prompt (ephemera, sketches, thoughts, visuals) and email it to our partner, who takes the 'research' and creates a visual piece of art based on it. All final art will be posted to the Similarly Different blog, and each school will host a culminating gallery show.

The project is unlike anything I've ever worked on before, and I'm really excited and interested to see what kind of work it produces, particularly because we're working with total strangers! Sometimes I feel like being a designer in Portland is like designing in a vacuum, so I'm curious to see what this geographical collaboration will turn out. Feel free to follow along with the blog, and I'll try to post things here as they are created as well.

look what i made: a GIF

For part II of our first project in my type class, I decided to conquer something I'd never tried before: make a GIF. My friend Cass kindly sent me the super simple instructions she'd found on the web, and after a little bit of cutting and a little bit of photo-taking, I was done! The most intricate one of the series is still in the works, but I'm pretty proud of these!

moodboard: ART354 project 1

The first week of fall term is over and my enthusiasm for school is at about a nine on a scale of ten (one point off for having to walk six blocks from the art building to the closest microwave). Fall is by far my favorite season, and a lot of that is owing to my return to campus. The one studio class I'm taking is Typography II and I'm really excited to see what comes of it. For our first project we're working with experimental type and Lis encouraged us to try a medium or technique or environment that we haven't worked with and I immediately thought of Yulia Brodskaya and her beautiful paper work. I may give myself carpal tunnel over the weekend, but I have high hopes that the finished product will be worth it. Above is the moodboard that I compiled for class Wednesday. Lots of delicate and detailed curlicues and cuts.