• I am a good and faithful friend
• I am a good and faithful friend
• I am a good and faithful friend
• I am a good and faithful friend
• I am a good and faithful friend

There tends to be a pretty good reason for isolation: illness, rejection, global pandemic. Life inevitably grants us time and opportunity for rest, recovery, and remembrance. However, when isolation becomes a lifestyle, it causes more pain than it prevents. My experience of abandonment as a child locked me away behind thick walls of apathy and anger. No one ever wanted to be my friend because I was a toxic person. My life was an emotional minefield, a swamp of sorrows with the stench of sulfur settled heavily in the air. At the time, I had no idea what was wrong with me. It turns out, I had my head so far up my own bottom, I was choking on it. Subsequently, I never learned how to be a good and faithful friend. I was too busy licking my wounds and feeling sorry for myself to be truly present for anyone else. Presence, it seems, is the most precious gift we can offer another person. Bearing witness to one another and allowing ourselves to be seen requires courage and relying on a power greater than ourselves. I know I sure don’t have the strength to be seen – not my nasty, oozing, messy wasteland of a self. And yet, grace is sufficient even for me. There’s nothing more I need to learn. I am a good and faithful friend today because I am willing to show up as my true, imperfect, stinking self in spite of my past injuries and current shame.

• I am alive and breathing
• I am alive and breathing
• I am alive and breathing
• I am alive and breathing
• I am alive and breathing

Today is one of those days when I wake up ready to bite someone’s head off. All I want to do is chase down a chicken and stab it to death with a fork. I would never actually do that; we don’t have any chickens in the nearby vicinity, and a duck just wouldn’t be the same. What I would do is jump all over my husband’s case for dripping water on the dining room floor, for leaving the cupboard door open, for looking at me wrong or at all. But – as long as I’m still alive and breathing, I also have the ability to choose how to respond, how to greet my day with goodness and life in spite of my seething anger. I am breathing. I can take several deep breaths to send oxygen to a brain that is clearly in need. I am alive. I can choose to feel my anger and investigate what my anger is trying to tell me. My anger is often a signpost to unhealed grief. I can acknowledge the grief buried deep within my chest, which I can feel trying to escape through a tight throat and clenched jaw. I can sit with my grief for a moment. I can thank my grief for protecting future me from experiencing the same pain as younger me. I can choose how I need to respond today, in this moment, to feel my grief, and then, allow it to pass.

• I deserve to have my needs fully and adequately met
• I deserve to have my needs fully and adequately met
• I deserve to have my needs fully and adequately met
• I deserve to have my needs fully and adequately met
• I deserve to have my needs fully and adequately met

Knowing I was a wanted child offers me no consolation. My parents decided to have a third baby. I was born into an Eden of family, church, and friends. However, as all good things must come to an end, our garden was torn apart when my parents separated. I suffered from what I refer to as “third child syndrome.” My elder siblings excluded me unless they had occasion for mockery or if they had desires that I could fill, such as running to the corner store to fetch a quart of ice cream. My amiable, eager to please personality was unable to recognize there was an option to say “no.” In my mind, I existed only to be of service to others. I had no voice, and I received no care in return. My broken, wounded family was a war zone where everyone was desperate to get their own needs met, and no one succeeded. After decades of believing I don’t deserve to have my needs met, I’ve come to the realization that I was merely trying to get my needs met from the wrong source.

• I am making something good happen for myself
• I am making something good happen for myself
• I am making something good happen for myself
• I am making something good happen for myself
• I am making something good happen for myself

In my experience, every time I try to do something good, meaningful, or helpful, it ends up as a total disaster. I’m uncoordinated. I’m weak and fragile. I also have ADHD, which, for me, manifests as an inability to pay attention unless I’m hyper-focused on minor details. My body is also as spastic as my mind. I knock things over like a cat in a china cupboard. I bonk into stationary items as if they jumped out to bite me. And my hands have a mind of their own. They spontaneously release their grip at the most inopportune times; they venture into space without the assistance of my eyeballs, and they refuse to do as they’re told like a spoiled toddler. They are rebellious twins, which is just great for a writer. My intimate knowledge of all the ways in which I struggle and fall horrifically short of qualified or capable of doing anything right or making anything good happen for myself also makes me that much more aware of how utterly dependent I am upon grace.

• I am a successful writer
• I am a successful writer
• I am a successful writer
• I am a successful writer
• I am a successful writer

I am not a loser just because I don’t know how to set up my own website. I am not an idiot just because I have yet to figure out how to edit this old blog I set up while in school five years ago. I am not horrible at living in reality simply because I’ve been unemployed and “working” as a student for, well, nearly my entire life. Yes, I’m an adult with no income and zero proof of my ability to earn money as a writer, but I can decide to believe that I can be a successful writer if I continue to apply myself. I am writing on my blog today; therefore, I am a successful writer today whether anyone else ever happens to agree.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am worthy of love and belonging because it’s so much easier to believe that I don’t deserve it. It’s easier to think that no one likes me and that I’ll never be able to fit in. It’s easier to wallow in self-pity and to stay stuck in my fear than it is to embrace my own worth and value as a radiant human being because if I shine, then my shadow will also be visible. I can say “I am worthy of love and belonging,” but am I willing to be brave enough to believe it?

The typography plated floorboards are an inventive way of including multi-lingual aspects into the design of the building in the section housing multiple language texts.

The DVD selection at this library is immense and diverse. It’s also the section I personally spend the most time in as checking one movie out from the library every few weeks is the only source of entertainment I avail myself to anymore.

I asked about the Northwest Art Collection while getting let into one of the piano practice rooms, and this box of articles and newspaper clippings is what was produced for me. It didn’t seem like what the instructor had in mind for us to discover, though.

So, I took a photo of the Northwest Screen also. This beautiful piece of artwork was hidden away one the first floor under the escalators in an otherwise empty, basically wasted space. Personally, I thought this area ought to simply be closed off and used for storage.

Not exactly what I would expect to find at a library, but incorporating a place to make music is a nice touch.

Even just looking at this picture makes me dizzy. I’m surprised the overlook area isn’t more tightly secure. Seems like a tempting place for someone wanting to learn how to fly.

There was no book “The Wikkeling” in the card catalog. The only books by Steven Arntson were “The Wrap-up List” and “The Trap.”

Cartography has never been my favorite. It’s good to know the map room exists, though, in case I ever need to resource it for some obscure reason, like a classroom assignment or something.

The Directories are bold, well-lit, easy to read, and easy to follow. However, if you’re smart and physically able, you’ll take the escalators and stairs instead of the elevator, much faster that way.

The immersion of red made me feel like I was trapped in an ’80’s horror movie. I don’t know what demographic this design choice was meant to appeal to; I presume it’s the psycho- and sociopaths of our area.

I feel like I slightly cheated on this one. Since I had to Google the poem to find out what book it was in, I just took a picture of the text of the poem as it appeared online. I was just up on the 8th floor at the piano rooms, and the volume of literature books was a bit overwhelming.

By the time I got to the end, I was exhausted. Running all over ten stories of the massive Central Library was not my idea of a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Good thing I wasn’t able to make it on Monday night because I really wouldn’t have had the energy for this project after a long, busy day at work. I wasn’t sure what was meant by “the most attractive environmental type” but figured I’d call this lovely installation good. The indoor garden gives the main floor a natural feel and helps naturally generate oxygen as well.

My favorite aspects of the library are the bright colors of the escalators and directories and the open, airy feel provided by all of the glass, exterior and interior. It seems like the library was mostly visited by tourists and transients, which probably accounts for why the bathrooms have such tiny doors. At least the directories had actual words and not mere pictorial icons no one could understand. There was also plenty of space between bookshelves. It didn’t feel crowded or claustrophobic, in spite of the amount of resource materials available.

What I didn’t like was how cold and hard everything was. I guess you can’t make the seats too comfortable, or they could very easily turn into sleeping quarters. The whole place had a technical feel to it, like it was all work and no play, in spite of the bright colors, with the exception of the children’s area hidden down on the first floor. I also appreciated how the main entrances were revolving doors, which helps tremendously with indoor HVAC systems controls.

 

There were a couple of constructive comments regarding our cover. One suggestion was to add a picture of The Statue of Liberty or the Empire Sate Building along with the Space Needle. I dismissed that idea because the actual prior covers containing the St. Louis Arch or the Eiffel Tower both contained a single iconic landmark. I also thought it would make the cover cluttered and/or confusing.

The other comment was about how the pennies at the bottom were a bit overpowering. I agreed with this assessment and made a correction accordingly. The gray at the top seemed too drab in contrast with the brightly shining pennies. Therefore, I made the top and bottom sections clouded and simplified. This suggestion was much more useful.

There was also a comment about the resolution of the picture we had in this illustration. It was my favorite representation I found on Google Images,though. Instead of replacing it, I decided to clean it up a bit. I removed the background from the image, shrunk it down to prevent aliasing, and spread out the illustration to make it more linear so it would merely accent the top of the front page.

The final comments were regarding the illustration Topher created. Everyone mentioned that the illustration ought to show more of Lincoln’s face, that his head ought to be centered within the outline of the United States. We both agreed, and he re-positioned the clipping mask. We also discussed the placement of the illustration within the layout and concluded that, because Lincoln is facing to the right, we would position the illustration in the bottom-left corner of the second page in our spread.

Overall, I’m exceptionally pleased with the alterations we were able to make on our magazine cover assignment due to the feedback we received from fellow students. They’re all things we might have thought to change on our own, but we also might not have noticed the same observations made by others. A little objective critique can go a long way.

 

Just as 95% of oral communication is non-verbal, so too is a majority of written communication non-denotative. How a word is written is just as important, if not more so, than what is written. A word can be said with emphasis, with irony, with various mood, tone, and sensuality depending on the typography used.

The message in the above photo would not communicate love and beauty very effectively if the font was plain and pragmatic. The scripting and coloring project an appreciation of aesthetic femininity.

The phrase “think outside the box” is tossed around in all aspects of the business community, expressed in myriad ways. The best way to venture beyond conventional borders is to begin with the ordinary. Play, experiment, and continues to push in different directions until you accidentally discover something inspired. Great ideas don’t appear, they develop through the process of eliminating bad ideas.

Models of architectural designs are created early in the process. Once the idea of the building is visible, the architect can see what works and what doesn’t. Every aspect must be meticulously inspected before permits are finalized and construction begins. Prototypes gives the designer a working substance to edit and refine before their product is mass-produced. Personally, I’ve received final copies of my work without having an opportunity to proof it first, and the results are mortifying. Once your product is finished, you’re fully committed, stuck with what you’ve got, no turning back. Like the old saying goes: “Measure twice, cut once,” proofing your prototype provides the chance to make last-minute adjustments and make sure you’ll be happy with what you get.

Postmodernism is Modernism on crack, learning all of the rules so all of the rules can be broken. Creativity is not a matter of coming up with a new idea out of thin air. It has been said: there are no new ideas, only old ideas with a fresh coat of paint. Creativity examines old ideas expressed by others and transforms them through constructing new associations or by viewing the idea from an alternative angle.

Form determines function. Improvisation gives multiple uses and multiple interpretations to the same reality. Form also needs to be functional, if functionality is necessary. Aesthetics are secondary to convenience and usability.

Establishing a focal point, using the rule of thirds, incorporating white space, repeating design elements, forming a sense of structure and hierarchy, and creating scale, harmony, and contrast are all build on the foundation of a solid, functioning grid. Beginning with a set of pre-established parameters frees the artist to explore a myriad of opportunities within the desired framework.

Visual irony: saying the opposite of what is initially perceived. Culturally acknowledged graphics, trending stylistic elements, and technologically advanced symbols can serve as non-verbal communication and lend themselves to playing with traditionally understood ideals.