"...or maybe they spent 1/3 of a second looking at the ad... yeah, that's all you get for your work, so it'd better be good."

Good news, everyone! I'm not frozen yet!

I am pretty busy with classwork, though. My design classes this semester are Typography 1, Visual Language, and Critical Issues in Design The first two are practical classes where we make things instead of sitting around and listening to professors talk a lot; the last is a lecture... and the prof. does talk a lot. :) I'm also taking Introduction to Psychology, Arts and Ideas (it's a class about how to study art... sort of ...it's required for my degree; all fine arts majors have to take it) and Orchestra.

The York/Sheridan BDes program is basically set up to create an army of young designers who will be able to compete in the professional world right out of college... which is, theoretically, every university program's goal, I guess. That being said, the professors focus a lot on process work - we have turn in bound copies of all of our sketches and process materials with our mounted final products. The theory is that if you can defend your process and how you came to conclusions about your designs, you'll be able to make better pitches when you have a real job. Coupled with that, one of the main focuses of my Critical Issues class is to teach us how to write and think critically about design.

In my Typography class, our first project is to design two monograms and a label to use on all of our projects during our four years of study.


The first monogram design had to show both letterforms completely and contrast them without them touching (in my design, the letters are different fonts and are positioned at a 90-degree angle). For the second design, we had to use one positive (black) and one negative (white) letter integrated together with either one or both of the letterforms incomplete (look - it's an 'e' inside an 'S'! Neither one is complete, however, the viewer can still tell what they are. Thank you, Gestalt.)



In Visual language, we are illustrating visual principles (such as form, texture, and direction) by designing two contrasting blocks for each principle (or multiple principles later in the project) using only one shape (I'm using triangles) and only black and white.


direction - contrast in direction





form - contrast in shape





space - contrast in the figure's relationship to the background





scale - contrast in size of elements





weight - contrast in how much visual space a figure takes up





texture - a two-dimensional representation of a three dimensional tactile sensation



Next week, we have to do 6 sets of contrasts combining different forms (i.e. texture and weight or space and scale). So... I'm going to go work on those. I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into what I'm working on!

Look Frosh – a blog post! A blog post? HUH HUH.

Last week at uni was Frosh Week. As far as I know, there aren’t any US schools that have anything called Frosh Week, or anything like it masquerading under a different name. Frosh Week is the fun-filled week before classes start. There is orientation information (i.e. talks about the rules, what to do, meeting the faculty, etc) and also… partying. Dry partying, but partying nonetheless. Every night, I hear the parties going on in the quad from all the way at my residence hall at the very edge of campus.

At York, faculties are divided into groups called “colleges” (it’s like the Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter. If you haven’t read Harry Potter, it’s like organizing your cutlery drawer at home – spoons here, forks there). The colleges each have their own orientation for freshman students. My college is called Winters, and it hosts all the fine arts students at York.
Each college also has a residence building affiliated with it. It isn’t required that you live with your faculty, but it is recommended. I don’t live in the Winters residence hall; I live in a snazzy one called Pond Road which is the newest residence building, and the only one not associated with a college at York.

And so that brings me to my dorm room, which is a wonder upon wonders in the collegiate world. I share a suite a kitchen and bathroom with only one person, my roommate Laura. We also get our own single-person bedrooms. It’s basically an apartment, and we are freshman… which is insanely lucky and amazing.

And so it’s time to share the wonder that is my suite at The Pond Road Residence:

kitchen/bathroom:



john adams! woo!







my roommate's room:




my room:









eddie's on the window

the view from my window :





So my residence hall is amazing. The people I’ve met who live here are all nice as well. I met my don (it’s what they call RA’s in Canada, or at least at York) and a bunch of kids on my floor on move-in day. We had a barbeque, played some games, and met the other dons and Frosh Week leaders (Bosses).

During Frosh Week, my roommate and I only sampled some of the activities instead of going to every single one, like some people do. We went on a downtown tour with Winters. We went to the Eaton Centre, a huge mall downtown. While there, some of our frosh bosses started a dance party in the Apple store and got kicked out of the mall. And, while we were all running around downtown together, we sang some of the Winters College cheers. My personal favorite is the one where a leader will call, “Look, frosh – [an object]!” and everyone echoes, “[an object]? Huh huh! [an object]? Huh!” with each “huh” accompanied by a pelvic thrust. For example, when we overtook Downsview subway station, we shouted, “Look, frosh – confused and innocent bystanders!” “Confused and innocent bystanders? HUH HUH! Confused and innocent bystanders? HUH!”

Yeah Winters college is crazy and intense. Like I said, I can hear their quad parties from my res halfway across campus.




Kids and frosh bosses in a fountain during the downtown tour.



All the frosh in my res and our frosh bosses went to a “Space Pirates vs Space Ninjas” themed dance party in the Winters quad.


My costume (space ninja)


Laura’s (space pirate)


My res! (not my picture - I shamelessly stole this from someone’s facebook)



Winters Frosh Week culminated with an awesome boat cruise on The Empire Sandy, this old schooner that tours the Toronto Harbor.








the skyline from the harbor


So Frosh Week was amazing! I met so many cool people and did so many cool things! I miss it already.