illuminated letter FINALS

the world.

It is crucial to have a world view.

The Design of Life

My Current World View

Jamie Housh

December 7, 2010

I’m a designer- a graphic designer. Not only do I design solutions for projects, I also design my life. Design is about improving life- both others’ and mine. I essentially design my life to accommodate all aspects, whether it is my schoolwork, job, family, friends, or free time. I believe in learning how to learn to solve my own problems. I do not ask for help unless it is completely necessary- I feel the majority of people going through college with a 4.0 ask for help too much, are afraid of failure, and are not allowing for enough creativity in their lives.

I love organizing and creativity.

I feel organization is crucial to a designer’s life.

Without the ability to organize, a designer cannot function.

I use organization to manage my time, create schedules/lists, and get

work done.

I don’t believe in standardized tests-

or tests in general.

I believe in subjective grading, but not subjective to other students, subjective to creativity and growth as a student.

I believe in situational learning-

mistakes are the greatest form of learning.

I do not believe in a higher power.

I do not understand, nor try to understand, the people that do.

I believe all will be forgiven.

I am a firm believer that every design can be improved-

therefore, I start over on every project I do.

I see it in my mind, and work on it until it looks right.

I do not believe in fast food.

I believe that without me, the world would be boring.

I believe that the world would be a better place if everyone walked at my speed.

Excuse me, people, but I have places to be and projects to design.

I’m Jamie Housh, and I believe in design.

giving.

"If you give, you begin to live."

- Dave Matthews

I love this time of year,

but I hate final projects/papers/tests.

19 hour schedule -

I am going to make you my bitch!

On a lighter note, I joined Twitter a few days ago...

I read somewhere that it is beneficial to have one to follow designers and keep up with the design world, and it's true.

and I also get to 'follow' my favorite, Mike Posner!

& here's where I'll be spending the majority of my time for the next 3 weeks of the semester,

if you need me...

at least I have my boyfriend as company...

my 27 inch baby, the love of my life.

cheers.

- J.

illuminated letter lovin' pt. 2

Mary Engelbreit is a graphic artist and illustrator that can be compared to Martha Stewart- she has a little bit of everything out. She started in greeting cards and then moved to illustrating books, calendars, and other assorted things. Her books, calendars, and picture frames are spread throughout my mom and my grandma's houses. Her style is very distinguishable, with borders around most of her work and use of geometric shapes and her flowers.

bright, merry, childish yet sophisticated, colorful, charming, whimsical, flat, imaginative, adventurous, personal, comforting, sentimental

Georgia O'Keefe - flowers, paint, color, inappropriate, bright and dull, precise, solid, organic, repeated, shape, extensive, clarity, abstract

Piet Mondrian - flat, geometric, abstract, primary colors, black, line, contour, precise, perfect, blocks, straightforward, easy, rigid, defined, minimalist

illuminated letter lovin'

An illuminated letter is an embellishment that enhances a page. Illuminate means to fill with light, or a glowing effect. History: illuminated letters used to be included in primarily manuscripts, which made it easy to find the beginning of a section. Illuminated books were representative of wealth and power; the letters started out drawn by monks, but grew to illuminators and scribes. There are four types of illuminated letters in history- celtic, romanesque, gothic, and renaissance.

My 6 artists:

Ron Mueck is an Australian sculptor a year older than my mother. Mueck is known for his super-realistic sculptures, which include humans at the key stages of their lives. These sculptures happen to be HUGE - several times life size. Several of his works can be seen here: http://www.boredpanda.com/13-hyper-realistic-sculptures-by-ron-mueck/ Ugh! Crazy. I chose him because his work is unbelievably creepy, and gives me the chills even seeing the images via my computer.

Mary Cassatt is a well-known woman impressionist painter. She generally portrayed images relating to the social and private lives of women, especially women and children and their relationship. Cassatt has a very distinct color palette, as well as very visible brush strokes. I chose Cassatt for my Drawing II final, where we had to recreate several works from a particular artist, thus I chose her again, she did not let me down before.

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist painter. He once said "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own." His style is very recognizable, with splattered paint filling his canvases. We just learned about Jackson Pollock in Modern Art History, as well as some of the other artists on my list.

Max Mikulecky is a friend. He is a brilliant student photographer. He earned his recognition for his work on old, rusty cars, but has since grown to shoot several things, my favorite being his fashion photo shoots. Max went to my high school and now goes to KU and is a freshman. I chose Max because I love his work.

Georgia O'Keefe is associated with the American Art movement in the 1920s. She painted several flowers and landscapes, which she transformed into abstract forms. She also painted some cow bones, which to her represented the landscape of New Mexico. Georgia O'Keefe was one of the few artists that I had heard about before taking Modern Art History. I knew some of her work, and thus chose her for this project.

Piet Mondrian was a dutch painter, associated with the De Stijl art movement. He created a non-representational form, which he named neo-plasticism. This included white ground, with a grid of horizontal and vertical black lines, as well as the three primary colors. Mondrian's style could be easily translated into an illuminated letter.

you can thank me now...

While researching book/DVD/CD cover designs, I came across the inside booklet of Drake's "Thank Me Later" CD. In most CD inserts, the artist will include a section for people they'd like to thank... this is part of Drake's:

I love it.

This whole spiel could easily be said about someone important in my life.

"But do I ever come up in discussion over double-pump lattes and low-fat muffins...? Do I?"

I love Drake.

Anyways...with Thanksgiving coming up, I want to remind myself of what I'm especially thankful for (I know, I know... cliche)

the two funniest, most important people in my life

How could you not love them?!

Family over everything.

and if you're reading this, I'm probably thankful for you too.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

-J.

bird is flying high.

My inspiration...?

Bird man.

On November 5th, 1990, Kevin Sweeney was born.

On August 13th, 2007, the day before our Junior year started,

Kevin Sweeney took his own life.

Happy belated birthday, Bird.

You probably would have been celebrating with your beer gogg's at some bar in Massachusetts... we all know you would have been ivy league bound.

I hope you stay busy playing beer pong with Abe Lincoln and flip cup with Biggie Smalls and Tupac!

You were the smartest, most genuine guy I will ever know. Not to mention the biggest flirt!

We all love and miss you more each day.

- J.