Week 4 progress

Check out below some of the mood boards and highlights from this past week.

For Hurley, Catherine defined her persona as follows, (Y) girl who goes to Bali to study marine biology and while there decides to paint surfboards to make ends meet. Her inspiration spurs from the beautiful tones in the coral reefs, the local marine species and the culture itself. Check out some of her finds.


That pen and ink illustration is wonderful.






For Electric, Kari showed us some attitude, she defined her persona and gave us Tabitha. A street solid gal with a feminine edge. Kari showed us patterns and colors that will make her new woman's line.



For WeSC, Graeme edited his mood boards and gave us a great direction making sure all of it tied back to his concept of the intellectual rebel.








The illustrations on the lower left are by Charles Wilkins.


For Obey, Julianna decided this was her week to experiment and she did. She tell her aesthetic is starting to take shape and develop into something wonderful. Take a look.


Great silhouette on this image.








For Le Petit Petit, Alicia worked on her moodboards and and gave some great color and atmosphere. Girlie, love, integrity, little dreams are not so little—are some of the qualities of this line.

Winter 2011 - Retail Branding

And we are off. 2011 is here and the winter quarter has begun.

The new retail class has started and I am very excited to see what great work will be produced this quarter. After our 1 week delay from snowpocalyse, we are back on track.

So far students have chosen which brands they want to focus on and soon it will be time to see initial designs. As for the brands selected below is the current list.

Graeme - WeSC
Alicia - Le Petit Petit
Kari - Electric
Catherine - Hurley
Stephanie - Freshjive
Julianna - Obey
Melissa - Fox

Check back for initial designs and 80's glam t-shirts.

Random learning's from class last week...

• Heard about a movie called - Lords of Dogtown an Banksy-exit through the giftshop
• Graffiti has it's origin in the Italian language and means to scratch. (Graffiti and graffito are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"))
• Peter Max - Artist.

Mig Reyes on Teaching

"I'm not here to tell the students what I know. And they're not there to ask for my permission to do things. I'm there to help facilitate their own exploration, and to help them find working habits that jive best for them through each new assigned project. It's hard to 'teach' someone how to have passion and tenacity, so I'm there to give them problems to solve and encourage them to do it in the best way possible."

- Mig Reyes on being a teacher via Papermag
Read the rest of his interview here.

I think he put in words how a lot of professors/teachers think in the design field.

Integration Test

Trying to link blogger and tumblr!

...and we are BACK!

I can't believe my last post is more than a year old, i guess it is time for a much deserved update and photos. So here we go.

Here is a little recap of last year, yes I have been teaching but it hasn't been exclusively packaging. My class has taken a new turn, which involves packaging but it's not limited to it. It has presented a new challenge that has been filled with exciting twists. The new class is called retail branding and had it's origin with an A & F (Abercormbie and Fitch) brief that Hank got his hands on. He called me, we squared out the details and off on my new adventure I went.

I started off by teaching two quarters of the Abercrombie and Fitch class, a class about staying within parameters and still being innovative. Students were tasked with designing a line of t-shirts, a brand book, a package and a presentation, for one of the Abercrombie brands (A & F, Gilly Hicks, a&e (kids) and Hollister). The whole class culminated with a presentation to A&F's recruiters, very different for a PC class, this made things real in a hurry. ( As a side note: I just have to mention, things a PC have a way of getting done when deadlines arise that is almost magical. I think this could be a post in itself.)

The results—2 students got hired the first go around and 1 the second. Congrats to all of them they showed smarts and determination, and it paid off.

Currently we are taking a break from an A & F focused class and exploring with different brands under the PACSUN umbrella.

Here are some photos from the past year.


Experimental shirts portraying students individual concept:























A & F Class 2, students showcasing experimental shirts.





Actual finished designs will be posted as I can get a hold of them.