Visual Point of View

There is a wide variation of emotions that can be associated with the lawn.  These emotions are based on locations, uses of, or the people that use them.  Emotions are something that defines every interaction that humans make, so it’s interesting to see that one simple word such as lawn.  Lawns can have positive and negative emotions in relation to family activities and occasions.  It can be associated as good memories and thus positive reactions towards the word of lawn such as happiness, cheer, and love.  Or if there is a bad family memory then one may relate it as sadness, depression and/or unhappy.  Basically events that one has in relation to their family can drastically change the feeling of how one word defines a location.

Words: interaction, emotion, variations, negative, positive, reaction, sadness, love, cheer, family

There is a subculture in the American view of the lawn; that subculture is alternative.  This category views the lawn as more of an interactive means than a static and physical location.  Within this category is the view of the lawn as a way to educate the youth through classroom activities or the creation of a garden to teach sustainability and cooking.  The lawn can also be seen as a way to give back to the community or give birth to a hands on technology.  DIY is one of the major popular subcategories that stand out in alternative culture because with it has brought a more personal touch, and hands on feel to the way that Americans view.

Words: sustain, interactive, alternative, static, creation, physical, community, popular, subculture, technology

Print Press Pre-Production + Finals

With a partner we were to choose a quote and design a postcard set to be given out on a First Friday.  My partner was Jesse Selz.  Our chosen quote was by Jack London, "You can't wait for inspiration.  You have to go after it with a club."  

This was my first test at working the printing press.  I did the brown text on the printing press.  The black text was done on the computer - I set up a document and spaced it so that the black text would be printed around the brown text.  I wanted to try to mess with what press printed text and digital text looked like together.  I chose to go with lyrics from "The Hollow" by A Perfect Circle.

I wanted to see what the different type looked like that I could work with.

Century School Book

Alternative Gothic

These were the main options of type to use with the project.  My first thought after finalizing on the quote was to choose which type would work and create the design based off of that.

Type: All type used was Alternative Gothic.  The larger text was 36pt, the smaller was 14 pt.  This was final Postcard one option.

Type: All type used was Alternative Gothic.  The larger text was 36pt, the smaller was 14 pt.  This was final postcard option two.

Type: The type used was Alternative Gothic and Century School Book.  The larger text was Alternative Gothic 36pt, the smaller was Century School Book 14 pt.  This was final postcard option three and what we chose.

Type: The type used was Alternative Gothic and Century School Book.  The larger text was Alternative Gothic 36pt, the smaller was Century School Book 14 pt.  The was final postcard option four and what we chose.

One photograph of our various options for the first run at the printing press on various types and of paper.

One photograph of our various options for the first run at the printing press on various types and colors of paper.

The top two are was the print press versions of final postcard option three and four.  The bottom two were our "creative" approaches.

Mapping a System: Concept Map Final

For the creation of our poster, we incorporated images and text for the title to add interest to the piece. In addition, we added typographical elements which highlighted key terms that labeled subdivisions of our research. We used a green, analogous color palette that related closely to the object itself. One of our highlights was the interactive element contained in the historical lineage of the lawn. Specifically, this element is a small, interactive book, composed of multiple sheets of information.

Lawns influence culture by being a social conduit where people gather, mourn, play, eat, socialize, and live. Most people take this everyday object for granted because it has become embedded into American culture. During our research, we found that lawns are a part of the American Dream, which allows one to define individuals based on social class and weigh in on our overall judgment of people.

Some of the most interesting research regarded the DIY movement. This movement originated from the Popular Mechanics and hobbyist culture which evolved into the modern hip and popular subculture. Additionally, the Flymo Lawn Mower captured our interest due to its commercial success and very foreign nature of the object. Researching this object appealed to us due to the wide range of emotions which it would display. The backyard, as a type of lawn, can be considered a fun and playful spot, whereas a cemetery can be considered a sorrowful and mournful spot. The use of lawn for public in contrast with for family produces another range of perceptions. The lawn can be seen as cozy and tight knit, whereas a public spa can ce be uninviting or dangerous.

The final images of our Concept Map: "Lawn."

This is our final Concept Map "Lawn." We kept the greens that went well from my iterations, adding a new green to the initial categories that lawn splits off into. We went with brackets to group to gather the third layer of information together. We also chose a logo and text for our map to bring in the actual object. For the larger categories such as "Lawn Origin," "Lawn Mower," and "Lawn Care" we chose to create a small timeline booklet that was stapled together and adhered to the poster.

Close up detail of the center - name and logo as well as the four main categories that the chart splits off with.

I learned a few different lessons from this project. One of which was how in depth the history of lawns. I did not know before how in the beginning of time how lawns that had tall grass and weeds were once considered beautiful. It was not until some aristocrats decided that they wanted to play lawn sports that grass started to be cut. I learned about how really it was due to the creation of water hoses, fertilizer and chemical weed killer that the current status of lawn maintenance was created. Had there have been no invention of the different tools to keep up maintenance on your lawn, there would be no high standard today of lawn care. I also learned how the same amount of research done for a research paper goes into creating a map. Also I learned that a concept map is a good way to strategically place out information. 


I realized how hard it was to create a spacing standard to be used throughout the poster. When we started the final map, we had to decide how large all pieces of it was going to be so that it all fit, before we were able to start writing the data on the map. Visually I learned that the colors can help or hinder a design. Originally I was using a set of colors in my iterations that was not all shades of green. Even though I was using a different color for each layer of information, it really came together when I used an analogous green color scheme.