For all of you that couldn’t make it out, I thought I would post some images of how the show turned out. There is more to see than what I can address in a blog, so if you can make it, I would highly recommend stopping by the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC before the show is taken down April 28th.

I thought this show had a much more organic/natural feeling to it in comparison to Show One’s high contrast and vibrant colors. Upon entering the gallery, an organic feeling is inspired beginning with my sculpture positioned in the front left floor space having live ivy and soft light reflecting off of frosted Plexiglas.

"Conflicted" - Jessi Taylor

Directly behind me low on the floor, Jean Pitts’ bisqued ceramic installation reminded me of a dry riverbed with rounded stones smoothed out by decades of rushing water.

"Familiar" - Jean Pitts

The positioning of the ceramic vessels lead beautifully to the “10″ panels and bookshelves leaning against the opposite wall. The panels where created using a system of rules inspired by the Ten Commandments of the Bible.

"10" - Michael Mahaffey & Stephanie Tate

The warm color palette and lightness of the panels is reflected nicely in the next two pieces. The first is an ethereal series of drawings by McKinley Bryson on vellum which have an extraordinary play on light and shadow. The second is a series of oil paintings by Tom Shaw, positioned across the room from the “10″ panels.

"673780s." - McKinley Bryson

Individually Titled - Thomas Shaw

A few people have mentioned that they would have liked to have seen my presentation of Conflicted. So here are a few of my more explanatory slides and my complete artist’s statement for you to view at your convenience.

Conflicted

Everyday we make inconsequential choices: milk or orange juice? black shoes or brown shoes? Usually these split second decisions can be made with little hesitation.

However, some choices can be conflicting. These choices require something from us. They necessitate a commitment of our time, our finances or our intelligence. Commitments come in many forms by way of family, friends, faith, health, business, school or recreation. How do you determine your commitments? When should you say yes? When should you say no? The answer will vary as often as you ask the question.

However, each commitment a person chooses to make or chooses not to make will take them in one of two directions. The first direction is one of simplification, and the second is one of complication. The outcome of either direction can be positive or negative. This is entirely dependent on the person making the decision.

For myself, these types of decisions can lead to a lengthy mental struggle. A struggle between my social side that needs to be dependable and productive and my melancholy side which craves solitude and stillness. I could not exclude one side anymore than I could survive in complete isolation or thrive under a constant onslaught of pressure to perform.

This sculpture is a physical representation of an internal conflict. The ring of ivy represents a need for simplicity, a pared down existence outside of obligation. Ivy is a simple plant to maintain. It is a quiet natural element that needs only basic nutrition to grow and a temperate environment to thrive. In contrast, the composition of acrylic rectangles represents the complexity that results from multiple commitments. This juxtaposition of natural and synthetic elements speaks to a need for balance and perhaps, at least in my circumstance, the need for conflict to create balance.

Here is a hint of the mixed media sculpture that I’m showing tomorrow night at the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC and a sample from my Artist Statement:

This sculpture is a physical representation of an internal conflict. The ring of ivy represents a need for simplicity, a pared down existence outside of obligation. Ivy is a simple plant to maintain. It is a quiet natural element that needs only basic nutrition to grow and a temperate environment to thrive. In contrast, the composition of acrylic rectangles represents the complexity that results from multiple commitments. This juxtaposition of natural and synthetic elements speaks to a need for balance and perhaps, at least in my circumstance, the need for conflict to create balance.

If you would like to hear more about my artist statement come to the presentation on April 14th at 4:00 PM and to the see rest of the sculpture come to the reception on the same day at 5:30 PM.

The first installation of the Senior Exhibition on March 31st was a huge success with standing-room only at the 4:00 PM presentations and a lobby full of people at the 5:30 PM reception.

Here are a couple of photos from the first show:

Recently the writers of the InterAct Cirriculum have been talking about it. For more details visit Christopher Schmitt’s blog. He gives a great rundown of the material offered in the WaSP InterAct Curriculum. Or you can listen to Aarron Walter’s interview on Boagworld, which is a great podcast by Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington on all things relating to building and running websites.

I love being a designer. I like the challenge of putting together a visual puzzle and creating a cohesive whole out of a tangle of assorted elements. In varying degrees, all design projects present these opportunities. But some projects offer more than just the fun of assembling an aesthetically pleasing design. The WaSP InterAct project gave me a great opportunity to design, but it also gave me a mission that I could really experience and support.

I have to admit, when I started this project with my rock star of a mentor, Leslie Jensen-Inman, I didn’t really get it. I knew that the project was important; what I didn’t understand was that this project was huge!

I began working with The Web Standards Project Education Task Force (WaSP Edu TF) in October of 2008. [The WaSP Edu TF is a branch of The Web Standards Project devoted to advancing the adoption of W3C Web Standards in the realm of education.]

My job was to create a friendly and welcoming brand for a collegiate level web curriculum being written by the super talented crew of the WaSP Edu TF. From the beginning, the name that we were working with was: The Web Standards Project Education Task Force Curriculum Framework or WaSP Edu TF Curriculum Framework for short. This was a bit daunting; I think it took me a week just to remember the order of the title.

For a while I tried to focus on the more accessible ‘task force’ portion of the name, singling this out as a call to action.

This option didn’t work out at all because it wasn’t in the least bit friendly or welcoming. Too much “standards or else!” not enough “how may I help you?”

At this point, Jesen-Inman, acting as creative director, wisely suggested we try renaming the curriculum. First we condensed down the mission of the WaSP Edu TF into a four word tagline: Connecting Education and Industry.  We agonized over the name a while longer. It needed to be a call to action but not too forceful, inviting but not formal, and something that related well with the tagline but wasn’t redundant. ‘Interact’ fit the bill perfectly, hitting all the right notes with our mission and even referencing the target audiences in interactive web education and industry.

After some more agonizing over visual representation, I had a moment of clarity in the form of learning a new command key shortcut. Command key shortcuts are tools that just make life easier and I thought that sentiment felt appropriate for the new WaSP InterAct Curriculum. So I used that shape to form a new mark that would loop around and in on itself, creating an interconnected pathway. It all came together to look like this:

Once the look of the brand was decided things began to come together quickly in the form of collateral. First came the website that the curriculum is hosted on.

Then we had to really speed it up for the promotional materials for South by Southwest Interactive 2009, which was the platform we used to launch the curriculum. Of course there where business cards to be made, and because of the fun atmosphere of the SXSW conference I wanted to do something really bright and eye-catching for our invites and our buttons, it all came together like this:

So it’s really just the beginning for WaSP InterAct and we’ll see where it takes us. Hopefully it will include a connected community of web professionals and educators with a better prepared group of web students and graduates.

About a year ago now I took a professional practice course and was tasked with creating my own brand. The result was something like this:

Looking back, I still like the ideas behind the visuals, but it doesn’t fit as well as it used to. First of all, I wanted to get away from the more traditional feel of the “jt” initials and try to explore a more expressive mark. Also, I don’t like being called ‘Jessica.’ When someone calls me by my given name I either think they are talking to one of the other three Jessica’s in the room or, upon realizing they are actually talking to me,  I conjure up images of an angry version of my mother with the finger pointing and shaking and looming disciplinary action. It’s a nice name and it sounds very professional (that’s what my mom originally liked about the name, ironic that she’s the one who nicknamed me and subsequently conditioned me to not like being called by my full first name) but outside of overly formal situations, I’ve always been Jessi, so. . . just call me Jessi.

Here is my new branding:

With this new look I wanted to highlight an element that is central to my design aesthetic: color! I love vibrant colors and I used a range of warm jewel tones to keep the brand happy and open. The structure of the mark also empathizes the coming together of two contrasting sides, this is a reference to that place that graphic designers often find themselves struggling between creativity and practicality. I think both sides often make valid arguments. Creativity is the spark that provides interest and excitement to any design, but practicality is the glue that holds it all together and gives creativity purpose and direction. As is implied in the positioning of the mark, the key to the struggle is to keep both opposing forces working together and in balance with each other.

Look for the launch of my new web site on April 9th at jessitaylordesign.com.

As often happens in artistic endeavors, life intervened and gave me something to think about and center my thoughts on for a while.

My grandfather passed away last August, right at the beginning of the Fall semester, almost ten years after my grandmother. This event put several thoughts immediately in my mind, mainly nostalgic thoughts from my childhood. I remembered simpler times in my life, when I wasn’t trying to juggle family, friends, work and school, wondering which ball I was going to drop next. And I wished for those worry-free, idyllic days of irresponsibility.

This line of thought, in the beginning, lead me to focus completely on nature and of the peace/balance that can be found there, in contrast with the hectic, overcrowded schedule I, and so many others, face everyday. Thinking about this as a visual concept, I choose to implement symbolic imagery in the form of a circle. Specifically a ring of wire circles overgrown with live ivy plants.

As my thought process developed, I began to focus more on this struggle for balance and the race against time that we all have to face at one time or another. For some of us it feels like its more of a daily battle.

How did we find ourselves so over-extended? Why are we so busy?

When I’m being honest with myself, I know the answer: I’m busy because I want to be. I don’t like it when I don’t have anything to do. I don’t like it when I’ve only got a couple of things to do. I want to have a full calender.

It’s nice to take a break every now and then, of course, but stretch that out for more than a week and I just start to feel useless. So now the question becomes: how do we balance our busy/overextended lives?

This is where the visual symbol of the circle comes back into play. It is loaded with idealized thoughts of natural harmony, perfection and balance. It is also, as far as I can tell, rather impossible to attain living in today’s world. The best we can do is to order our lives in ways that are meaningful to ourselves.

In ordering our lives we arrange certain pieces to fit in such a way as to achieve our own personal balance. For example, we prioritize our deadlines and try to establish systems of order for relationships, work, faith, recreation, etc. We attempt to construct our own harmonious circles using the pieces that we already choose to include in our lives.

Visually this line of thought is set in contrast to the circles of ivy, by circles constructed of rectangular pieces of acrylic/plexiglass. These acrylic pieces are linear and man-made, thus inherently opposite of the natural, harmonious circle of ivy plants. Yet the pieces are arranged and ordered in such a way as to fill the void left by the circles of ivy with an imperfect sphere of acrylic.Though the acrylic pieces are linear and will never form a perfect circle, each piece is
carefully placed, resulting in a complex, disjointed sphere which is interesting and beautiful in its own right. Some pieces are frosted, some are shiny and completely clear. No piece is exactly the same, but each piece is intentionally placed to create a balanced three-dimensional sphere.

The ideal of perfect harmony is beautiful and admirable, but also to a large degree, unattainable. My only conclusion is to offer the theory that although life is full of complications, your own version of ‘peace’ or even ‘satisfaction’ depends on how you place all your pieces together.

A 24 Hour Festival

MAINx24 was a lot of things, but mostly it was a huge party! The event itself was a great success for the southside of Chattanooga and the process and organization of the event was a huge success for everyone involved.

The party was planned by community volunteers and produced with help from CreateHere, which is where I came in. My part in the process was to update last year’s brand and create all the collateral necessary to promote and direct the event. Before all was said and done the whole CreateHere Design team was involved and we had fourty-eight separate events on the schedule, which is double the events from last year. We produced posters, newspaper ads and schedules in English and Spanish, as well as a billboard, banner and teaser handbill of the schedule.