Journal 3

I started looking at blogs posted by students in the same “face-value” group and the first one I looked at was Miriah’s blog. Her introduction was a summery of what we had discussed in class; however, I did forget that she was interested in a Visual Communication minor. I think Miriah had unintentionally photographed patterns in public buildings and it was interesting to see the similarities between these patterns. The patterns found in the Union, her dorm, and the RPAC all had a geometric motif. I believe this has to do with the familiarity of the human eye with geometric shapes and the ease and comfort this familiarity provides to the visitors of public spaces. Though this may be coincidental, I think that the designers of these public spaces did have a similar reason for choosing such patterns. I also found the traffic lines interesting because as Miriah says in her blog, we don’t often think of the patterns that are around us and how easily they affect and direct our lives. Traffic control signs and symbols tend to use a lot of patterns that subconsciously direct the way we do things every day. Link to Miriah's Blog

The second blog I looked at was Kris D’s. I have to say he easily had one of the most interesting introduction blogs; his writing style which I assume stems from his background in English is very witty and intriguing. However, I also found his choice in patterns interesting. It seems that his collection of Soviet Russia Textile Patterns could fit in with his habit of collecting things very easily. I particularly liked this collection of patterns because their compilation tells a story of the zeitgeist of communist Russia. These patterns convey a history, culture, and an era of change. The collection of textile patterns shows the change from an agricultural society to an industrial one, the evolution of a communal lifestyle, and the creation of a military state. It is interesting to see that a utilitarian object such as fabric can be designed to record and represent such details of a changing society. Overall, Kris’ blog was not extensive but was very interesting. Link to Kris' Blog

The third blog that interested me was Rain’s blog (I was browsing through the blogs and didn’t keep track of the blog owner’s name, sorry!) I liked Rain’s blog because it was very genuine. I found the introduction post about how she/he became interested in art/design and the journey to Design 200 very interesting. The patterns that Rain chose were unique in some way because of their fluidity. The majority of the patterns chosen by she/he used curvilinear lines and forms which are harder to detect as patterns and present themselves as less repetitious in my opinion. She/he also used some organic patterns which I liked very much. I think Rain was able to identify patterns that are not very apparent at first glance. Link to Rain's Blog