A lesson on why to listen to your elders

"Drawing skills", my coach in university once said, "are the most useful tools a designer could ever have". And he added that during his education, he would have drawing practise for at least one-and-a-half day per week, for several years.

Well, than it stands to reason that my drawing skills are not on par with those of traditionally educated designers. My education was more of the "define you own curriculum" kind and I've always considered function to be highly superior over form. Therefore, spending an eternity on practising how to make 'pretty' drawings was not very high on my list of priorities.

Until now.

It started when, after graduating, I started to use more sketches and doodles during brainstorms. After a while, I noticed that the ones with the better-looking sketches were far more pleasurable to go through again and again, and that browsing through those sketches would give me lots of enthusiasm and motivation to continue working on the concept.

Now, I highly prefer working on paper compared to making digital drawings (or worse: only descriptions with no pictures at all). Even though digital drawings or renderings can be much more precise and beautiful (and not to mention, there is an 'undo' function that paper sadly lacks), when it comes to brainstorming and concept development, drawing on a sheet of paper gives so much more freedom. On paper it is so much easier (at least for me) to put down your train of thoughts, ponder, compare, take it with you, make some minor adaptations etcetera.

There is just something about a drawing that cannot be captured in words. Even though words are often needed to emphasize or explain aspects of the design, a drawing communicates so more about the idea or concept. That is, as long as the drawing is accurate.

And there's the challenge: making drawings that are both accurate, aesthetically pleasing and not to mention drawn quickly. That calls for quite some skill... Maybe the extensive drawing practise was not such a bad idea after all!

During my "Sleek & Futuristic" challenge, originally meant to discover the form language of sleek/futuristic looking items, I rediscovered and tried out new drawing techniques. I learned a lot, although I cannot say I already have a good grasp on how to make something look futuristic or sleek, but my understanding definitely improved and that's what I was aiming for. The rest will come over time, I'm sure.

The first days, I was really lost on how to start, but after studying reference pictures it became easier. I used 3D software (1 and 4), pencil sketch on paper (2) and digital drawing software (3).

Two more 3D modeling software renderings (5 and 7), and pencil sketches (6 and 8).

After that, the challenge turned more into a drawing training assignment. I even started to use markers (day 10 to 14), which I hated during my education. And I liked it! I also discovered the awesome effect of drawing on colored pape, using a sharpie (Dutch: fineliner), grey markers and a white chalk pencil (day 10 and 11). Whoa!

As you can see, I still have a LOT to learn and train when it comes to perspective, shading or even just setting straight lines. That's fine. I'll just need to keep on practising and experimenting, and then maybe, maybe after a looong time, I'll even reach the level of a classically educated industrial designer!

For those of you who are interested in using markers for drawing, here is a nice tutorial on how to use them. The website idcreatures.com (I'm a fan) has many more of those, very convenient if you want to learn more about making product drawings.

My next challenge will be drawing people in interaction with objects - talk about challenges!

Third batch of items: check check double check!

And I'm almost done with my collection for this year! It is going really fast now.
This batch of designed products consisted of pendants and one business card holder, making the total count of finished items (assuming they will all come out the way I planned) at 11 jewelry designs and 2 product designs. That means I've already hit my target collection for this year, which was 10 to 12 jewelry designs. Ánd I still have time to design maybe one or two extra items in my fourth and final batch this year. Whoohoo!

Aaaaaand... my business cards arrived! I designed them myself and am quite happy with the result, especially because I'm not that big on graphic design. Meaning I usually hate designing graphic things, and that I'm just no good at it. But the cards came out nicely so I'm really glad. Like the pics of my second batch of designs, I'll post a picture of them soon, I promise ;).

These days I've been grossly neglecting my challenges, because I was just too busy with my product designs. They were already late and I had to order them before the weekend, or my whole year schedule would fall apart. I want to order a fourth batch right after I've received the third batch, but the fourth batch has to arrive at least a month before the holiday season, so, considering that it takes 3 to 4 weeks before an ordered batch arrives, my schedule is quite tight.

But I made up a bit of the neglect by going to a falconry show at Falconcrest and shooting some niiiiice pics. Not that it was difficult with that kind of models. Those birds are so beautiful!

I also loved the interaction between the birds and the falconers.

It's too bad the birds were moving too fast for me to capture them mid-flight. I'm not that good a photographer yet, trying to take pics of their flight resulted in these kind of pictures.

See the white blur? Yes, that's a bird :p. Speedsters, I tell you.

This weekend, there has been a small-scale Tuna festival, Noche de Tuna (not "tuna" as in fish, but "Tuna" as in Spanish student troubadour music group) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Several groups were here from Spain and Mexico, together with the Eindhoven groups (one male and one female group). Since I'm in the female group, La Tuniña, of course I participated as well, and right now I'm still recovering from fatigue. It was a lot of fun, and there will be another 'Noche de Tuna' next year. But now, back to work!

Challenging challenges

Still no dice on the product photos of batch no. 2 (I'm still utterly without inspiration), but my various 'challenges' are wielding some results. Disclaimer: with results, I mean actual results and not high-quality ones. No need to get your hopes up, it's all about learning here ;).

Challenge no. 1, '14 days 1 shape a day', is finished. It's been really good for my 3D modelling skills: when working on my product designs I usually don't feel like experimenting with the software, because things are progressing slow enough as it is. However, when just tinkering around for the challenge I can experiment to my heart's content, with improved skills as a result. The shapes that came out of this challenge are:

Not that bad, eh? I might actually use some of the shapes and techniques for future product or jewelry designs.

After this challenge I started a new one to learn creating designs with a sleek, futuristic look. '14 days 1 futuristic, sleek design a day'. I naturally lean more towards organic styles and have trouble making an item come across as sleek and high-tech. I'm trying to use several mediums for this: 3D modelling, but also sketching and marker drawings or even Photoshop and/or Illustrator (well, the free & open source alternatives GIMP and Inkscape for me).

It started out giving me quite a headache but after studying many reference pictures it's going better. But anyway, stepping out of my comfort zone is what these challenges are all about, so it is all good, I guess.

As you can see in the lower right picture, I managed to find the virtual 'camera' in the program back, with help from J. . Now I just have to learn how to make decent renderings...

Another challenge, photography with backgrounds & props, is still running. I find it rather difficult but it's a good exercise trying to come up with new props and compositions. The newest photographs:

I scrapped some pictures from a supermarket magazine with the theme 'la bella Italia' and taped them into my sketchbook. It is always nice to have some reference/inspiration pictures by hand. I love the colours of the pictures. Oh, and the pasta canister is a new purchase I came across and just hád to take home. I love canisters in various styles, they feel so homely ;). It is the perfect size and style for storing my embroidery materials, which until now were residing in a plastic zip bag.

These are the study sketches to understand how exactly 'futuristic' looks like. I find that studying those pictures by observing is one thing, but sketching them makes you understand the form language a lot better.

Well, that's it for now! In a few weeks, I'll have the bulk of my product design work for this year done, so I'll hopefully have a bit more time for creations in the kitchen and sewing field. Around that time I'll be busy with promoting and marketing so I will be needing the creative diversion...

I love this!

Hi there, long time no see! I'd like to ask how you're doing, but since I doubt I'd get a response I'll just start talking on my own again ;). Once again about my design work, since that is basically all I'm doing at the moment. A little boring to the naked eye, but all the more interesting for me ;). I love creating! Love it!

It is a relief to be able to say that, after working on my designs for, well, forever it seems. It's just several months though in real time though. Since about March I started to work on them 'for real', dedicating several days a week to learning the 3D software, brainstorming, more brainstorming, sketching, and trying my hands at creating models for 3D printing. My whole business plan is based on that, you see. Creating actual, physical, usable products to be 3D printed, instead of just the ones in my head. Sellable products instead of imaginary ones. To earn a bit of extra income in the future that would allow me to spend more time on designing. And so on, until I would be able to work on my own products full time, making the transition to mass produced items.

All this time, a thought, hastily pushed away, kept creeping up. What if this turned out to not be what I loved? What if creating physical products on my own was not what kept my heart beating and my blood flowing? Then what?

For years, I've known that I wanted to work independently as a product designer, and later on in my own design studio. It would take a lot of work and would be a mighty difficult road, I've always known, but I felt that it was just as well the only scenario that I really really wanted.

And now, with my first batch of personally designed products in the shop, my second batch of products arrived just today, and my third batch almost finished (hopefully next week), I think it is safe. Safe to say: I love this! Such a relief ;). Because loving what you do is so incredibly important, especially when planning to walk the difficult road. So yeah, I frickin' love this! Whew!

I'm even considering starting a two-year Master course Industrial Design at Delft University (two hour away from my home to boot), because I'm starting to doubt my current (Bachelor) level of knowledge and skill will be enough to deal with mass-production and more complex commercial designs. Yeah, me, who used to say: "never again" after finishing my Bachelor's. That's how much I love this, and how confident I've become about this suiting me. It would require a rather insane schedule since I would want to continue what I'm doing now as well, and I would still need to brush up my skills and knowledge on several fields since it is another University, where the Bachelor education has a different focus than the one I did. But I would start it only after a year anyway, so I'll have some time for that.

Okay, I'll stop ranting now...


Basically everything else I did apart from work lately were exercises and challenges to improve my skills on several fields. Yes, I'm obsessed, I know ;).

I'm nearing the end of my "14 days, 1 shape a day" challenge. It was to train my 3D software modelling skills. Just using taking 15 to 60 minutes a day to create an aesthetically pleasing shape. Creating a good render (virtually created image) of it was originally part of the challenge because it seemed a good opportunity to learn that as well, but I've mysteriously managed to make my virtual camera disappear and have yet to find it back.

For non-3D-software-experts: the camera is an object in the 3D model from which point the virtual item would be 'photographed', but no camera means no point to photograph from and thus no digital image. There you see kids, always remember where you leave your stuff! (Yes, that was a lame joke, sorry for that).

These are the results of day 1 to 4, in screenshots, still awaiting the missing camera.

I also figured learning to create interesting product pictures would be convenient. And fun. So I'm trying to create more interesting settings when photographing by adding props etc. Haven't gotten very far though. The score so far (including the picture on top of this post):

I've gotten a bit farther with my embroidery.

A quick drawing I made while half asleep, it turned out better than expected. I should try that more often, drawing without thinking about everything. Less thinking about doing, more doing. It's just like life, really.

And another drawing. Sigh, drawing fabric is hard...

I'll post the pictures of my second batch of products soon!

Second batch of 3D printed products to be: check

And.... I'm done with the crazy for batch no. 2. Whew. The list of items to design went quickly from twelve to six by eliminating all new rings and improved versions of batch no. 1 for now. They give me too much work since rings need to be designed in different sizes, and wanting to print them in stainless steel makes them a bit on the chunky size due to material design requirements.

And after that the number went down from six to five, to four, to three, to two completed items and two proof of concepts. Ah, deadlines and priority shifts. Luckily I am my own boss in this, so I can just decide I need to spend more time on an item before I want it ordered. No need to waste money. And I'm cheating on my own schedule anyway... I already started working on daily use products instead of just jewelry, while those take up more time because they need to fit into their context of use (apart from just looking pretty, like jewelry).

Next batch will probably be a big one, since I now I already have several items near completion. Now all I need to do is stay on track and DO NOT DIVERGE. One of my more serious challenges, ugh.

Talking about challenges: for creating aesthetically pleasing shapes, I started using a more iterative process. For me, coming up with 'function' is never a problem, but 'form' usually is. I somehow managed to get through my Industrial Design education without gaining much experience in the field of aesthetics, which is a big handicap now as I just don't feel like I'm really having a grasp on the process. J. suggested I use a more iterative process by just making dozens of versions of the same item, all with minor changes, in one file; then pick one or more, and again make several versions. Instead of trying to adapt and perfect one version, which I was doing before. I did, and see:

Man, so much work. But it does progress faster than when I'm just looking at the screen, sighing because I don't know what else to make of it.

Other projects this week: I baked a 'vlaai', a type of local pie from Limburg (in the south of the Netherlands). Because I needed to do some, uh, 'design research'. Yeah, that's what is was. And I liked the taste of that research, sure do.

A leftover egg white was quickly turned into 'kokosmakronen', a sort of coconut macaroons. Jummy.

And whenever I remembered my evening computer curfew, I worked on embroidering this book travel bag. I love me some not having to think in the evenings while keeping my hands busy.

Oh, and I almost forgot to add a photo of my first batch of products! Voila!

With many thanks to J., the resident photographer with his eternal patience with me and his awesome skills with camera's and flashlights ;).

If you want to see the items in more detail, you can take a look at my website!

Numbers

Twelve. 
The list of different items I would like to design for the next batch.

Seven.
The number of days I have to complete said batch. During which I, of course, also have to complete my normal (job) working hours. And sleep, eat, and do everything else mortals do.

Zero.
The amount of designs I have worked out already.

...Houston, we have a problem.

Now, before you accuse me of being a slacker, a procrastinator, a bad planner and a crazy person in general: it's not my fault. Even though usually those accusations wouldn't be that far off, but that's another topic.

No, it is because my first Shapeways order has been delivered, later than planned, and I've been busy non stop before and after that point with setting up the website, facebook page and other social media, photography, filming and many more of those things. Even during my holiday. Yes. That's how devoted I am (*insert pat on the back*).

Luckily, the website has officially been launched today and pretty much everything is done. So now I can stop harassing J. to help me with the website, photo's and filming (which he did with honours, I have to say ;) ), and go back to harassing him about what to do with the 3D modelling software. Poor J. ... I owe him many apple pies.

Back to modelling: I'll be busy with deadlines once again. Don't mind me. I will recover one day (*insert dramatic rolling eyes and "I'm going to faint" hand to forehead*).

In between, some shots of things I did lately, other than above work:

I baked spelt bread for the first time. It tasted good.

Finished a basket for my friend's birthday. It was supposed to be finished one year ago, for... right, her birthday.

With the sewing machine set up already, I sewed a curtain for the 'we have way too many projects going on' storage bookcases in our living room. One down, two to go.

Made a film stamp to brighten up my brother's birthday present (movie tickets).

And I tried my hand at painting a few postcard-sized panels to add some colour to my desk area. Started out with the upper one, enlarged some elements of the first panel in the second panel, and did the same again with the third. I originally planned to use turquoise and blue hues, but since my white and black paint had hardened, I had to add more colours. Ah well, nothing wrong with more colour right?

First shapeways order!

I made it! My first order at Shapeways (the custom 3D printing company) has been done. I sent 3 ring designs and one design for a small ceramic dish. That last one was just because I wanted a reference piece for future ceramic designs, so it was whipped up in about an hour and a half. In sharp contrast to some of the ring designs... Even more, the ring design I showed earlier (okay, a small part of it) has yet to be completed, it still needed so much work that I decided to focus on the easier designs for now. But, I'll have it finished with the next batch.

Or the one after that. Or after that...

This week is going to be extremely busy at my part-time job, and after that I'm free for two whole weeks (yay!). If everything goes well, I'll receive my products the week after that (I'm very curious), and from then on I'll have loads of work to do: making good product photos, doing some promotion, setting up my own website, working on the next designs and such.

But, my two holiday weeks are for the well-needed fun and relaxation. I've promised myself that I'm only allowed to do some simple tasks to prepare for the arrival of 'the goods', if, and only if, I really feel like doing so. Sounds safe, huh?

To help the holiday feeling kick in at my first day off, I've assembled a little holiday kickstarter pack for myself. A collection of goodies and little presents to bring out that summer feeling. It think assembling it must have been at least as much fun as unpacking it will be...

The good life

This week, I went to see the musical 'Wicked' with the in-laws (thanks guys!), and had a short walk on the beach before it started. Of course, I hád to take off my shoes and jump in the water!

The musical was awesome, I loved the story, the songs, decors, costumes and especially the lead actress: Willemijn Verkaik (she played Elpheba, the wicked witch of the west). Here is my favorite song of the muscial (without Willemijn unfortunately, since it is in English):

Apart from enjoying the good life, all I seem to be doing is work, work and work. This week I have two whole days for working on my designs, and next week I'll have an extra day off from my part-time job, so three more days available for my three rings designs. So... if they're still not done by then, I think I'll just quit as a product designer altogether... Just kidding though. I finished the six different versions of ring no.2, which had been lying around for weeks now, and now it's just working on ring no.1 and no.3, so I've made progress. A little sneak peek of ring no.3:

No, I don't have to alter ALL these points manually, just the ones around the edges and corners. Still waaay too much work for comfort though. Luckily, no.1 is much simpler.

I whipped up a little pizza bread for lunch, because working hard should be accompanied by eating well. Just a little homemade pesto (basil leaves, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, salt, Dutch: basilicum, pijnboompitten, olijfolie, knoflook, zout) with tomato paste, spread on some bread. I mixed a bit of scallion through and sprinkled Gouda on top, in the oven for 5 minutes and you have yourself a fairly decent lunch.

I've also found a new recipe for cookies. After taking a mouthwatering stroll through our local 'organic/healthy stuff' store, I came home with a bag of wholemeal spelt flour. I wanted to try out baking cookies with some more health-friendly ingredients. Well, it worked! They're not overly sweet, but if you enjoy cookies from organic sugar-free brands, you'll definitely enjoy these as well!

Recipe: sugar-free spelt cookies
For about 12 cookies:

100 grams spelt flour
40 grams rice syrup
10 grams honey
50 grams butter
a bit of salt

Extra: a few dates (Dutch: dadels), chopped in small pieces and mixed through, and/or coconut shavings on top.

Mix everything, bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, let it cool: enjoy!

A bit of work and a bit of fun

There is not much to tell about the rings I'm working on unfortunately. I'm still busy with manually adapting the details, but can't work on it for prolonged periods of time in order to prevent wrist injury playing up. I really want to escape to other activities, be it personal projects or professional ones (making my own website, etc), but so far I've managed to control those urges. Once three designs are up and ready and sent to the printer, I can devote all my time and energy to those causes (the professional ones, I mean). But until then, it's knuckling down to boring work. I mean, it'll have to be done óne day. No, not before the deadline of last week, no. I know. And my next design is going to be be a whole lot simpler, I'll tell you that.

On the other hand, my perception of time is once again too far ahead. Do you know that feeling, when you feel like you're already halfway through the week, while in fact it's just Monday evening? I often have that when a lot of projects are 'flowing': when things are háppening, impasses are resolved, decisions are made and results become visible; it seems like everything just starts doing that at the same time. It feels great, dynamic and rewarding, but it also means having to watch out not to overdo things and overwork myself, a threat always lurking around the corner. Darn you, necessary balance!

I did manage to squeeze in a few creative and fun activities though:

A new little drawing:

Random inanimate object photography:

Plans for a new website for our Tuna (music group, not fish), together with C.; I really want to start with that, finally a stress free (i.e. no paying client) web design project again!

And: my camera basket is done! Yes, the one that was supposed to be made once I had shortened my sewing to do list... I needed to lubricate my sewing machine and after that, I had to take a little test run. I didn't want to use one of my more 'serious' projects for that, so the basket was perfect practise material, easy to make and no need to be precise (I can feel you thinking: haha, good excuse ;) ). Now it stands on my desk to contain my camera and accessories, I like how it turned out!

A small tutorial will follow later, I always wanted to make tutorials but since I mostly sew in the evenings, pictures tend to turn out rather bad and that held me back. That, and most of the time trying out things for the first time (i.e. messing up time after time) and not wanting to make a second version for the tutorial. But then I thought about the book of Mme Zsazsa who often explains things with simple but clear and attractive drawings, and I figured I should give that a try. So... give me some time and the tutorial will follow.

Okay, now back to the sewing waiting list. There are some long overdue birthday gifts that really need to be made... In order to keep myself going I already cut out the parts for some projects and assembled some halfway done pieces. I also need to make the curtains for our living room closet since I finally found a somewhat decent fabric, you can see it in the background of most pictures. However, since the fabric is a bit too bright white, I'll have to figure out how to get a pattern or something on it, to make it less intrusive. Anyone any ideas?

Keeping yourself busy

Boredom? What's that? Just pick up a few pencils for a quick coloured sketch:

Or grab some lino cutters and an eraser for some custom stamps:

Or browse a fun book try to decide what to make first (after the sewing waiting list has been shortened, yes, I know...):

And not to forget, grab a camera and try to make pretty pictures. Or just try to remember the controls, perhaps that's enough of a challenge already.

Or, when reeeeeally bored, just pick up some design work with 3D software. No, not the 'design' part, that is the fun part and usually done before you know it. No, I meant the 'work' part, as in manually rearranging thousands of digital points to avoid getting gritty edges on you product when printed. Yes, thousands of them. One. By. One.

Nooooooooooo... On the plus side, the webdesign job is finally 'sorta' finished, with honours from the client. Yeah, more time for 3D modelling! ... Wait a minute...