issue 01 • november 2010

GET INVOLVED 22 tutorial24 application

FEATURES14 typesession18 the open road

PROGRAMS02 industrial04 graphic06 interior08 landscape10 architecture12 studio arts

FEATUR

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ABOUT US

WHO WE ARE

Catalyst is an organization within Iowa State University’s College of Design with a mission to help student artists succeed. Our focus is on educating student artists and showcasing student work in a student-run online publication. Opportunities within the organization include workshops, guest speakers and themed exhibitions. Our publication promotes students and their work and features artists in every program within the College of Design. Our goal is to help students find their niche in design and excel beyond the classroom.

Thanks for checking out the first issue of Catalyst. We can’t tell you how excited we are to be releasing our first publication. A lot of planning, hard work, and late nights went into this issue, and we’ve got some great things in store for our readers. In each release, we’ll be featuring different projects from each design program (page AA-BB), spotlighting a designer who’s gone above and beyond (page CC), and giving you opportunities to get involved in exhibitions (or Catalyst itself—check out our application on page DD!). So read on, and let us know what you think!

WHAT WE DO

HEY!

Parker Peterson, FounderChelsea Evers, Cofounder/Photography DirectorSeth Lunsford, Cofounder/Creative Director

Writers:Hannah GilmanToni Mortensen

Designers:Brandon Alvarado Michael DavisRyan Hubbard

Exhibition Director: Josh Burhite

Web Developer:Eric ‘Oz’ Andren

INSPIRE CREATIVITY.

ABOUT US

CATALYST

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNThis is a new major right? What have you guys been up to?

Yeah, new just this year. Our first projects have been focused on basic drawing, rendering and vi-sualization techniques. This was supposed to lead up to our cur-rent project, which is model mak-ing. The last one we just finished was a two part project. We de-signed a thermos to get us ready for the second project where we could choose from a hair dryer or heat gun. I chose a hair dryer.

Fun! Why a hair dryer? How did you design it?

I had less experience with hair dryers, and they seemed more

minimal design wise. I did 40 sketches the first round and then our teacher made us do 40 more. I had some pretty crazy designs, but decided to stick with a simple compact one. I choose green be-cause it’s my favorite color, and I thought it looked nice with the sliver base.

Green is my fav too. Were you happy with the outcome?

I liked what I came up with. I wasn’t too crazy about my final poster so I’ll probably end up redoing that. I think I might use colored pencil instead of marker when I make the do-over.

Iowa State University | Industrial Design Program

DsnS 201 | Fall 2010 Project 1 | 1

DsnS 201 Industrial Design Studio I Fall 2010 M,W,F 1:10PM-4:30PM; Armory rm 64 Instructor: David Ringholz Associate Professor and Program Director Office Location: College of Design rm 146 Office Hours: T, W 10:00AM – 12:00PM Office Phone: 515.294.0454 Email: ringholz@iastate.edu

Project 1- Household Object Composition Project Objective:

The intent of this project is to learn and practice basic working and descriptive drawing techniques.

Project Description:

Select a small scale household object and project six orthographic views. They should be projected properly and dimensionally accurate. Using a combination of orthographic and perspective drawing, indicate the physical and functional characteristics of the object. The use of words is not permitted.

Project Outcomes:

The following project outcomes indicate competencies and measurable skills that students develop as a result of completing this project:

• Introduction to drawing for industrial design

techniques • Familiarity with various drawing techniques,

applications and composition • Thorough understanding of orthographic projection

and perspective construction

DEREK HUENECKE - JUNIOR

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Iowa State University | Industrial Design Program

DsnS 201 | Fall 2010 Project 2 | 1

DsnS 201 Industrial Design Studio I Fall 2010 M,W,F 1:10PM-4:30PM; Armory rm 64 Instructor: David Ringholz Associate Professor and Program Director Office Location: College of Design rm 146 Office Hours: T, W 10:00AM – 12:00PM Office Phone: 515.294.0454 Email: ringholz@iastate.edu

Project 2- Maker Techniques Project Objective:

The intent of this project is to learn and practice rapid visualization and marker sketching techniques.

Project Description:

Choose one of the following objects; heat gun /hair dryer and conduct a thorough form study exploration through sketches. Present your final design concept in a composition that shows it’s form and key attributes.

Project Outcomes:

The following project outcomes indicate competencies and measurable skills that students develop as a result of completing this project:

• Further practice with industrial design sketching

techniques • Exploration of marker sketch and rendering

techniques • Thorough understanding of composition and

presentation Project Deliverables:

14x17” beautifully composed drawing of your object. Media; marker, ink, pastel and pencil on paper ; flush mounted on white illustration or mat board

Break it down for me. What was the gist of this project?

Basically the project was to design four different items using four different methods. We had to create something based on type only and then we had a few other options to choose from, like type and photo or flat color or illustration, etc.

Got it. You designed four different items of your choice, each approached in a different way. How’d you decide on your four items?

I knew ultimately I would like to design books and I wanted to design something related to that, so from there it was deciding on what books to do. I worked at the library in my hometown and I always had adults come in and request books. I knew what they were interested in because I knew what they checked out, and I knew they would be interested in things in the teen section but they were put off because the

covers weren’t mature enough for their age group. I decided it would be good to choose a series of children’s books to recover to appeal to a broader audience. I chose to do a great series of fantasy novels titled “The Dark is Rising” by Susan Cooper. The language and imagery created in the book is beautiful and rich and has a darker feeling and I wanted that same feeling in the covers as well.

Very cool. How’d you feel about the finished product?

I was really happy with them, actually. I think they turned out really well, even though they were created with four different methods. They held together as a series and had the same feeling between all four of them.

NATHANKIRKMAN

JUNIOR - GRAPHIC DESIGN

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Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;Wood from the burning, stone out of song;

Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw.

“Any great gift or talent is a burden,

and this more than any, and you will often

long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be

done. If you were born with the gift, then you

must serve it, and nothing in this world or out

of it may stand in the way of that service, because

that is why you were born and that is the Law…”

Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

bo oktwo

Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England in May 1935, Susan Cooper attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the science fiction novel Mandrake.

In 1963 she left Britain for the United States. She then began writing full-time, focusing on The Dark Is Rising Sequence and the 1970 Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage. Cooper currently lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

s u s a n c o o p e r

book two : the dark is rising sequence

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O n the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental, he must find and guard the six great signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous, and deeply rewarding. Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined.

“The walker is abroad, the rider is riding; they have woken, the Dark is rising. And the last of the circle is come to claim his own, and the circles must now all be joined…”

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SIMON & SCHUSTERCover Illustration copyright

© 2010 by Nathan Kirkman

PRINTED IN USAwww.simonsays.com

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Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold;played to wake the sleepers, oldest of the old…

All at once Will knew with dreadful certainty

that the Grey King was aware of him, precisely

aware, gathering his power for attack—and that

it was at that first moment of awareness that

the fire on the mountain had begun.

On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,must the youngest open the oldest hill…

bo okfour

Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England in May 1935, Susan Cooper attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the science fiction novel Mandrake.

In 1963 she left Britain for the United States. She then began writing full-time, focusing on The Dark Is Rising Sequence and the 1970 Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage. Cooper currently lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

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book four : the dark is rising sequence

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SIMON & SCHUSTERCover Illustration copyright

© 2010 by Nathan Kirkman

PRINTED IN USAwww.simonsays.com

T here is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes—a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, a strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will’s task to wake—with the golden harp — the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.

“Cader Idris. That’s where he lives you see, up on Cader. The Brenin Llwyd. The Grey King…”

G r e e n w i t c h

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book three : the dark is rising sequence

S imon, Jane, and Barney, enlisted by their mysterious great-uncle, arrive in a small coastal town to help recover a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil, the Dark. They are not at first aware of the strange powers of another boy brought to help, Will Stanton, nor of the sinister significance of the Greenwitch, an image of leaves and branches that for centuries has been cast into the sea for good luck in fishing and harvest.

Their search for the grail sets into motion a series of disturbing and dangerous events that, at their climax, bring forth a gift that, for a time at least, will keep the Dark from rising.

“Looking at the Greenwitch, she felt a terrible awe, and a kind of pity as well…”

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SIMON & SCHUSTERCover Illustration copyright

© 2010 by Nathan Kirkman

PRINTED IN USAwww.simonsays.com

Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England in May 1935, Susan Cooper attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the science fiction novel Mandrake.

In 1963 she left Britain for the United States. She then began writing full-time, focusing on The Dark Is Rising Sequence and the 1970 Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage. Cooper currently lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

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Power from the green witch,lost beneath the sea…

Thunder and storms were there,

and all the force of earth and sea.

It was outside time, boundless,

ageless, beyond any line drawn

between good and evil.

All shall find the light at last,silver on the tree.

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When light from from the lost land shall return,Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn…

The appearances of things ran wild; black

seemed white,green seemed red; all flickering

and throbbing as if the sun had swallowed the earth.

A great scarlet tree loomed over him against a sky of

livid white; the others of the Six, flashing in and out

of sight, were like negative images, blurred forms

with black teeth and empty white eyes…

And where the midsummer tree grows tallBy Pendragon’s sword the Dark shall fall.

bo okfive

Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England in May 1935, Susan Cooper attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the science fiction novel Mandrake.

In 1963 she left Britain for the United States. She then began writing full-time, focusing on The Dark Is Rising Sequence and the 1970 Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage. Cooper currently lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

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book five : the dark is rising sequence

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SIMON & SCHUSTERCover Illustration copyright

© 2010 by Nathan Kirkman

PRINTED IN USAwww.simonsays.com

T he Dark is rising in its last bid to control the world. And Will Stanton —last-born of the imomortal Old Ones, dedicated to keeping the world free—must join forces with his ageless master Merriman and Bran, the Welsh boy whose destiny ties him to the Light. Drawn in with them are the three Drew children, who are mortal, but have their own vital part in the story. These six fight fear and death in the darkly brooding Welsh hills, in a quest through time, and space that touches the most ancient myths of the British Isles, and that brings Susan Cooper’s masterful sequence of novels to a satisfying close.

“And so is the Dark, following the path it has been planning all along, to make the final moment of its last and greatest rising the moment when the Silver is on the Tree…”

MELISSACOOPER with

CHRISTINA SCHWAB &AMANDA RIHA

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What was this project about? What were you assigned to do?

Christina Schwab, Amanda Riha and I had a client in California, an assisted living facil-ity, and for a number of reasons it was really outdated and uncomfortable. The client had talked to some professionals but never came up with anything that would solve their prob-lem within their budget, so we got into con-versation with them and broke up into groups of three and came up with what would be our solution to the problem.

So you had to design an updated as-sisted living facility in California. What did that entail?

We first went into making all the spaces more comfortable and livable and upgrad-ing the lifestyle, so every residential room had their own kitchenette, increased stor-age, an entirely accessible bathroom, plenty of wheelchair turnaround space, things like that. We defined the public space more; be-fore they just had really large, uncomfort-able rooms and we tried to improve the look of the entrance so that it was more impres-sive. We also created a library space, a café space and improved on the salon space.

How did you decide on the overall “feel” of the assisted living facility?

We were inspired by location and by the new generation of clients that would be liv-ing there, so we were thinking about future baby boomers and they have a really high standard for lifestyle they have acquired for themselves and they don’t want to sacri-fice it. It’s supposed to feel like a California beach resort more than an assisted living facility; that’s where our colors and open plan came from. We presented the clients with our concept, documents, and render-ings and they took to it really well.

IT’S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE A CALIFORNIA BEACH RESORT MORE THAN AN ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY

withCHRISTINA SCHWAB &

AMANDA RIHA

LAUREN CLARK & TYLER ARNDTSENIORS|LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Doing a project abroad in Rome must be different, what was the base for it?

It was a lot of fun! We were all given the same villa, which is the building and also its surroundings, to create and design it how we wanted. Our only requirement was to include Roman aspects.

OK, seems easy enough. What did you guys end up doing? What was your concept?

Tyler Arndt and I worked as a team. We noticed that the locals walked past what most tourists stopped and stared at. We wanted to give them something fresh that contrasted with the old nature

of Rome. We took a traditional Italian villa and redeveloped it with a modern edge. Using historic principles to design a traditional amphitheater, the space was constructed by utilizing landforms instead of built materials. To give the locals something new we transformed the home villa into a contemporary art museum. The transition from formal to more organic structures allows visitors to gradually adapt to the modern contrast of the park.

Sweet. How do you think it went?

Our ideas worked very well, but at times it was hard to stick to our original idea. We actually ended up reworking our big master plan when we got back to the states.

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Tell me about your assignment. What was the big idea?

The project was to choose a building in downtown Chicago around the loop, design a façade and one 4096 cubic ft. apartment behind the façade. The façade had to be facing the street and in proximity to the L.

Thanks for the abbreviated project statement! What was your source of inspiration?

Walking around the streets, I noticed the chaos. There was a sense of speed and pace that the people of Chicago had, how they moved and went around. Everything seemed much faster than Ames, everyone is a hurry; everyone is on someone else’s time

How did you apply the concept of “chaos” to your design?

I developed an idea of how everything is chaotic and jumbled at the bottom [of my design] and as you ascend, the chaos diminishes and gets quieter as you get higher. The bottom [of the building] is retail commercial and as you ascend there are offices and at the top there are residential condos. So it turns from public to semi-public and then private. In the unit I went with the same concept; as you move upward the spaces become more private. When I originally started I was all over the place, but I was really happy with how it turned out.

ARCHITECTUREASA HOUSTON

“there was a sense of speed and pace”

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INTEGRATED STUDIO ARTS

So tell me what you had to do. What was the assignment?

We had to take an 18x18 canvas and a smaller 18x24 canvas and choose one of three pre-staged still life set up by our professor to paint. The larger canvas was an extension of the still life and had to include six of seven elements. The canvases needed to go together but also be able to stand alone.

Great! What still life and elements did you choose?

I chose a still life of a rabbit with two different colored coffee cups. A black and white transfer created my text in the background, and a color transfer added different colored

smoke to the canvas. Purple tissue paper created texture. I also had two heart decals, and drawn in elements of a teapot and lines that outlined the hearts. I chose blues and purples so that the cooler color would complement the orange on a cup on my teapot.

Sounds cool. Why the rabbit and teapot? What’s the story?

They connected my life at the time, which was stressful and seemed to be falling apart, to the story of Alice in Wonderland. It reflected my own story of falling down a rabbit hole and landing in a place where nothing quite seemed to make sense. I want people to look at it and find their own story.

AUBREY ORISEK - JUNIOR

Let me pour you a steaming hot glass of

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AUBREY ORISEK - JUNIOR“Let Me Pour You A Steaming Hot Cup of Broken Heart” September 2009 Acrylic on canvas

and landing in a place where nothing quite seemed to make sense.”

“It reflected my own story

of falling down a rabbit hole

The problem presented in this assignment was to create a diptych, one canvas, 18x18 and the other, 18x24. The smaller canvas we are to paint one of the prestaged still lives with three objects. The larger canvas is an extension of the still life and can be designed as we choose with the exception that we include 6 of 7 elements. These elements included: Black and white transfer, a color transfer, texture, a decal, a collage element, text, and a drawn in element.

As a solution I choose a still life including a rabbit statue and two different colored coffee cups. The elements I included in

my larger canvas were a black and white transfer that was also my text in the background, a colored transfer of different colored smoke, purple tissue paper as the texture, two heart decals, and a drawn in element of a teapot and lines outlining the hearts. The colors blue and purple were chosen as background and emphasis because they were on the cooler side of the color wheel and would compliment the orange in the one of the cups and in my drawn in pot.

The rabbit and the cups gave me a connection with the story of Alice in Wonderland during the mad tea party and how my life and emotions at the time seemed to fit right in with the mess and confusion that Alice also experienced in the story. This painting is my own story of falling down a rabbit hole and landing into a place where nothing quite seemed to make sense. I want the viewers to be able to find a different story with in an already written one when looking at this piece, whether it is mine or based off of their own experience.

TYPESESSIONHannah Gilman

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According to his peers, Brandon Alvarado is the biggest graphic design geek in the junior class. Graphic design majors don’t sleep. They barely eat, and when they do, it’s whatever they can afford from the vending machines based on the handful of change they found at the bottom of their backpacks. They’re waist-deep in too many things because they want their résumés and portfolios to blow all those other résumés and portfolios out of the water. Yeah, they’re beyond swamped. But somehow, Alvarado managed to design his own typeface in the midst of all the chaos. Alvarado says he developed his love for type in a studio taught by associate professor Paula Curran during his first semester

in the graphic design program. “Typography is her thing,” says Alvarado. “Because she was the first graphic design professor I had, she encouraged me to learn typography. I got really into it the first time we had type quizzes and had to know different parts of the [letters]. I started getting interested in its design since I first saw ‘Helvetica.’ Then I started looking at Helvetica and how I could tell it was Helvetica; the flat horizontals, the way the curves worked. Then I started doing that with other typefaces.” “He has a lot of passion,” says Curran of Alvarado. “It’s great to work with him because he gets an idea and he researches it and researches it and comes in with lots of ideas and huge circles under his eyes. He’s caught the fire.”

A self-dubbed “history nerd,” Alvarado says he was interested in knowing more about who made the typefaces he had been learning about. “From there, it was an obsession and I decided I wanted to make my own. The problem was I didn’t know how or where to start. When I was assigned the book project, I got the chance to recreate someone’s and when I found out [the typeface] was pretty much lost, I thought it was a good chance to make a revival of it.”

The book project Alvarado refers to is one of three projects completed during the second semester of the graphic design program in which a student chooses an influential designer and then writes copy and designs a book that meshes the chosen designer’s style with the student’s style.

Alvarado chose Alexey Brodovitch, best known for his stint as Harper’s Bazazar’s art director from 1938 to 1958. “The original design was Alexey Brodovitch’s,” says Alvarado of his recreation. “I looked into the history of it and found it died out from the original foundry that had made it in 1951. The foundry went bankrupt and [the typeface] was never recreated until a couple designers, Peter Saville and Paul Barnes, collaborated to make it Kate Moss’ logo. The typeface itself was private though, it

couldn’t be used.” After finding himself in a stitch, Alvarado did what most students wouldn’t do: made the typeface he couldn’t get his hands on. “I was going to recreate the capital letters as vector shapes for the project, as visual elements,” says Alvarado. “But afterward, since I had the capital letters done, I decided to recreate the [entire] typeface. It helped me get started with type design rather than me starting from nowhere. Troy Abel was my professor and oversaw the whole project.”

“He’s extremely dedicated to his craft and learning all he can about the discipline; he has a design sensitivity that is very mature for his age as a designer,” says Abel, former graduate teaching assistant at Iowa State University. “As he was working on his book he came across the typeface and said he wanted to recreate it

Alvarado did what most students wouldn’t do: made the typeface he couldn’t get his hands on.

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and I supported him as much as I could. He was on top of it and once he sets his mind to something, he’s dedicated and sees it through.”

Abel says while they talked in studio about how there’s always the opportunity to take a typeface and modify it to make it your own, Alvarado’s process was self-driven and autodidactic. “Brandon has a skill that while can be learned, comes naturally to some people. A student has to understand that each typeface has a voice and you have to be able to look at letterforms and uncover what they’re speaking and what they’re saying. Once you’ve realized what those different typefaces have to say about language, you can then, in turn, set words with those typefaces.”

Recreating a typeface begs a lot of research. “Type is this really big historical thing and I feel like you can’t make a typeface without knowing what has been made because there is so much out there,” says Alvarado. “The way I see type, research is a big part of it. I’d imagine it’s very difficult to make a typeface out of the blue.”

“This last typeface was a revival, so a lot of the creative start was done for me. I didn’t have to sketch it out right away. At the same time, I was also trying to make it my own typeface so I experimented with ‘what if I change this or make alternate characters’ and that’s what I’m getting into on these new projects. When I see typefaces I like, I do a small sketch of it and a note about what I like about it, you know, ‘I like this angled serif’ or something. Then I draw them out pretty decent sized so I can see them and then I’ll move those onto the computer and vector shape them.”

“For this [typeface] I originally copied everything in Illustrator. I’m using FontLab Studio, and you move the shapes

into that program and from there you can generate them into an actual font file.” Alvarado worked on the typeface throughout the book project and during the rest of the semester and then for the entire summer. “I’d spend at least a couple of hours on it most of the days,” says Alvarado. “Now I try and spend an hour on it when I have free time. It’s a workable typeface, but it’s an ongoing process. There are more characters I can add, multiple glyphs. I have this [style] and oblique, so I can add more styles. But yeah, it’s kind of really awesome when you have it finally done and type on it in another program.”

Besides the typeface Alvarado just finished, he is working on two others: one is a serif he has been drawing out and another is a sans serif that is still just a concept.

Alvarado says he sees being a type designer in his future. “I really would like to be a type designer. I’m aiming for internships at type foundries like Hoefler & Frere-Jones, House and Émigré. I don’t know if I want to just be a type designer though, I still obviously want to do the normal work of graphic designing, work at a firm or something, but I would like to design my own types and use my own created types in designs rather than always referring to another typeface.”Alvarado’s mother Nancy Higby says she is extremely proud of her son. “Quite honestly, he inspires me. He is such a driven person and in his mind he always has to be learning and stretching and growing,” says Higby. “He’s carving out his own niche apart from what other graphic designers are doing. There are no boundaries for Brandon, he wants to be put on the map and be remembered when he’s gone and he’s going to find the way.”Abel agrees. “I think Brandon can do anything he wants. He would be successful in any area of design he pursues, and that has to go back to his dedication and craft.”

“he wants to be put on the map and be

remembered when he’s gone and he’s going to

find the way.”

A

Mountains and rivers and urban cities are not only the subjects of study for 36 first-year landscape architecture students, but also the classroom. Two three-week sessions throughout the first semester of the students’ sophomore year is devoted to traveling the northwestern and southeastern regions of the United States. Each year, 36 students are accepted into the landscape architecture program, and a suite of five courses creates the Savanna Studio, which is taken during their first semester. “You get to see places where people plan vacations, and we’re having school at them. We’re traveling and getting to know people really well in the studio and on the road. I was excited about the whole experience and getting to be introduced to my major in a really unique way,” says Mark Lukasiewicz, sophomore in landscape architecture.

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This year, the 36 students and two professors headed north during the first session, starting in Minneapolis and eventually ending up in Denver. “This is the 11th edition of this. Back in 2000 we revamped our program and decided that it was important that students very early on learn about landscape architecture by being in the actual places,” says Michael Martin, associate professor in landscape architecture. Traveling across the upper northwest,

students studied various types of landscapes from edgy and urban to organic and natural. After hitting Minneapolis, the next stop was the Badlands. “It was really interesting because the first night we were there, as soon as dark hit, the wind picked up and I thought we were in a hurricane without the water and a couple of our tents actually broke,” says Paige Hubbard, sophomore in landscape architecture.

THE OPEN

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SAVANN

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The Badlands is home to Wounded Knee, an Indian burial ground that serves as an example of a natural landscape and how culture affects it. “In the 1800s the Indians were surrendering to the army during winter, and there was a guy who was deaf who didn’t know he was supposed to be surrendering. Someone grabbed his weapon and the gun went off,” says Hubbard. “The army killed about 150 people, and they ended up in a 5-mile radius because the women and children were running away and they shot them.”

Students are constantly sketching and analyzing the landscapes put in front of them on the excursions. At each stop, there is a design project to be accomplished in minimal time. “The projects have to do with how a designer responds to a place,” says Martin. “For example in Cody, Wyo. there was a project about designing a gateway on a road to a cultural district in Cody. The whole idea here was that they actually respond to the place that they are in as opposed to a generic design that could go anywhere.”

The Grand Tetons, a stretch of mountains and meandering streams and rivers was Hubbard’s and Lukasiewicz’s favorite stop on the trip. “It was just amazing, the views. We were more alone, there weren’t that many people at the campsite,” says Lukasiewicz. “One day we went on a hike and we didn’t see anyone for the whole day. It was really neat to get to see the mountains. They aren’t like the Rockies where you can kind of see them; they were just right there, just shooting out with jagged rocks.”

The trips immerse the students into the world of landscape architecture in a way that is very intense and stressful, but Martin sees an underlying advantage to this type of program. “They’re learning a lot about how to handle the stress and the adversities of travel. You know, camping for that long can be uncomfortable and you’re spending a lot of time with people you just met,” says Martin. “Every year I see what it does. It creates a sense of community among the group.”  

Currently the group is following the Mississippi River down to New Orleans and ending on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. Savanna Studio is designed so the students go as far north and as far south as possible. The opportunity to see different cultures, climates and lifestyles is important to offering a wide sweep of diverse locations.

“I think that Savanna becomes a sort of awakening experience for them sometimes. It opens up their awareness to what landscape architecture really can be,” says Martin. “I think it’s really good at doing that because it’s an immersing experience, a full immersion in landscapes for those two three-week trips. That immersion is what causes it to become a really great experience for them.”

It sounds dumb when you think about it, but the concept of layers is often misunderstood. Our first workshop for Catalyst is one involving one of the most basic functions of Adobe Photoshop, layering.Below is a dock of different options that you have at the bottom of the layers palatte in Photoshop. The bar may vary depending upon what version of Photoshop you are using, but the functionality always remains the same.

BACK TO BASICSCATALYST TUTORIAL 01

WITH PHOTOSHOP LAYERING

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LAYERS

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BACK TO BASICSWITH PHOTOSHOP LAYERING

GOOD WORKTAKES TIME AND LAYERING

Aside from the background, unless you fill an entire layer, the layers (which are transparent) stack on each other to form your composition.

When you click “Create a new layer” it creates a new layer in the layer panel right above the currently selected layer. In the example above, the background layer is selected, therefore the layer you create will appear right above it.

Right below the tab that is labeled “Layers” there is drop down list for effects that you can apply to each selected layer.

These effects range anywhere from soft light to multiply. The possibilities are endless. Overlays are often overlooked and can be crucial to bringing depth into your composition.

Opacity and fill layers? What are those for?The opacity bar is a very handy tool. By sliding it down you reduce the visibility of all objects in that particular layer. The fill bar is just like the opacity bar, but the functionality varies. It takes away the filled area of shapes instead of the entire object itself. For example, if you have created a red box with a black stroke on a layer and decided you wanted to reduce the red in the box so it was semi-transparent, you could slide the fill bar down so that the red now has a transparent feel while the stroke around your object remains intact.

NAME //

EMAIL //

MAJOR //

POSITION // WRITER D ESIGNER PHOTOGRAPHER

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PORTFOLIO //

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