So I’ve mentioned that I am re-taking Environmental Design for my fall studio, and hinted that there was a good reason for this. I didn’t really know that at the time, but I hoped it, and I know it now. I did not fail environmental design the first time around, in fact my grou’s project from that class was recently published in a local magazine. But there was an issue with the class schedule resulting from a faculty member on maternity leave requiring a studio normally offered in the fall (Publication Design) to be swapped with one normally offered in the winter (Environmental design), which left me having taken all of the possibly interesting studios this fall already. So I could either do an independent study course with the faculty member who is out on maternity leave, that I was thinking would have centered around abstraction somehow, or I could take Environmental Design again. The thought was that with a new group and a new project (because each group picks their topic), it wouldn’t be half as bad as taking any other class again. But I still wasn’t that enthusiastic. However, Kristine mentioned that one team of four people would get to work on a real, built exhibit project with a nonprofit group in the area.

The last three weeks have been spent by the entire class developing concepts for that project, and we presented to the client last Wednesday. Our professor met with the client representatives the following day to choose the team, which was announced today… and in April my first exhibit will go up, on political activism in the University District!!!!!!!! OK, that was a lot of exclamation points, but I am incredibly excited. My idea was not chosen persay, was actually nixed because of budget, but apparently my ideas and skills were convincing enough to get me in despite that (though I have to say, I could build this myself and stay within budget, and I feel like this is a poor choice on the client’s part to throw something out due to budget this early on, but oh well). The rest of the team brings exciting ideas and a lot of talent to the project as well, and I am very excited to be working with them.

Without further ado, I’m just going to put up the boards that occasioned the first all-nighter of my graduate school career…


And here’s the detail that shows the basic concept: Each decade will be represented in 7’ high x 3’ wide type, with silhouetted activists clustered around each decade. Timeline content goes on one side of the letters, with some narratives pulled out and printed on the protester’s signs. Each silhouette is taken from photos from that decade, so a lot of the joy of the project would come from recognizing the styles and stances and protest methods from each time period.