cover of Zine

PRESENTING FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER BITCH OF TIME TRYING TO KEEP INDESIGN TO WORK AND STAY UP (BECAUSE GOD FORBID IT NOT CLOSE DOWN) - I GIVE YOU THE FRONT COVER OF THE WOLIFCA CATOLOG FOR THE WEDDING ANIMALIA WEDDING DRESSES.
to explain the front cover pulls in the enviromental and natural look that i wanted to take the topic in, while it show's no wedding gowns on the cover, the fabric that has the title printed on it show's the marriage of the two elements together. In our true nature we find our inner self and thus inner animal, so skip through the daisies and discover your inner animal hidden in the foilage.

More Research

This artwork was found on the blog "Power Animal Guides and Shapeshifting" on the Destee discussion forums.
This Picture goes back to what i was presenting last week with the history behind animal spirits. Here we see the connection between a bison and a man, looking at each other as if they were of the same soul though not the same body.

this art is by ImmortalSilver posted on the blog "About Cats and Cat breeds"
This image is a great example of Animalia because it is giving the famous its animal personality. The artist of this parody obviously saw something in the girl that felt very feline, maybe the mysterious mood of the painting or actual features in the girls face.



Now as for research:
I was reading an article about the use of Anthropomorphic characters for entertainment and explaination of indivuals personalities. This article talks more about the personality traits that go into picking an animal to represent someone - but not so much the spiritual side of it. Though she does go into the history a bit only to explain that it has been human nature to try and connect one self with nature for a better self awarness because of common traits found in nature. She refers to Disney's Robin Hood where the two main characters are a fox and a bear- sly and loyal. i also enjoyed this qoute from the article "Nineteenth-century Americans were used to thinking and speaking in metaphors from the natural world as well as the Bible." showing how common this practice has been in recent years as well.
this article was posted on Walking the Berkshires a personal blog, though the author was never given.

Next up i wanted to present not so much an article but an online animal spirit guide that informs you on a few of the traits and personalities that are associated with the specific animal. they don't give every animal only the most common ones- though there are a few to be added soon.
The great thing about this website is it allows people to learn the meaning and history behind certain anmials through out time. While some of the animal's traits or meanings have changed depending on the culture, there are still specific attributes that people can read into to find something that describes them.
this helps me as well because i have a place to guide me in my design as far as the fabrics (how strong or soft should they go) , the design (bold or delicate) and the color (flashy or humble) in order to fit the best possible dress to the person's personality.
This online guide is brought to us by the Manataka American Indian Council and is put to gether/ by TAKATOKA ,
the website also provides some history and belief for where these idea's came from.

the collage. *brain exploded*

I took the collage idea as a way to make something of an advertisement for what would be my dress shop. while this isn't exactly magazine quality (i had problems with illustrator >.<), it begins to show the natural and animal modeled dresses that i would be showing in my shop. I have a dress designed after a rabbit and a snake as well as one that forms more to the organic shape of a flower- for those who don't wish to take on an animal on their wedding day. I feel this collage show's the clothing well and stylized in a cool way (though it could be better if i could function in the program) as well as shows the logo with the brand name as well as a catch phrase. And its green. green's a nice color.

research continued

here is a sketch that came about because of the animalia idea. I'm not completely happy with the way it transfers traits from the animal to the dress. but its a start. What i want to do is represent the strength and the key attributes of animals' power and grace into different dresses so someone who is a lion can find the dress fit for a lion, and a bear to a bear and a rabbit to a rabbit- in hopes that it will make the experience of shopping for the dress more enjoyable, more enchanting and more fitting.

THE RESEARCH

I finally have come to the final and refined idea of Animalia Couture for the wedding dress ideas. In this sense its a dress that represents your inner animal or your spirit/soul's animal- almost like the symbol for your personality or style. I got this idea after thinking about what the title Wolfica, what i named my brand or store, could mean and came to this conclusion. from that i research and found the following information:

http://www.utopics.ca/program
an online website for the a program for your "inner life" was founded and is directed by Scott Martin .
I will admit at first sight this website, while i know it isn't an article, it appears to be a very odd, maybe even crazy idea but they back up this idea of the animalia. what i gained from this is that there is a belief that every person has this inner life that hold their personal animal and when you become connected and in tuned with this animal you can have an enlightened sense of wholeness. It will also connect you with your passion and desire.
Personally i think that means that if you find your animal then you thus find your self and can better understand your taste (thus finding the perfect wedding dress)

On a more historical side we have the Totem Animals which were representative of animal spirits : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8793/totems/totems.html
part of the information was taken from: "Indian Power Animals and Totems" by Marguerite Elsbeth, To Ride a Silver Broomstick and To Stir a Magick Cauldron by Silver RavenWolf
In this i took for my project that animals were used as a representation of how the human should act, taken from tribal ideals and beliefs. Familiars are used to assist and be attuned with their human to help them connect to the animal kingdom for its power- this is most often seen with witches :ex. the black cat. On the other hand the Totems are representative of the chosen animal that is affiliated with the individual in order to gain power and a higher sense of self. As well they can be used for advice or assistance as well because you are connected to the whole of the animal kingdom with these animals. As well your animalia may change over time or you could have more than once considering most personalities are complex and we are continuously growing and changing.
With this is mind it helps to understand how important the animal is to our spirit and really grasping what really is our personality. By doing so you can better understand your self and thus better understand what you would want in life, like say, when your picking a wedding dress.

No more illustrator.. i had to burn it

After a few annoying hours, it think i may have figure out what i was doing on illustrator, or at least i figure out some of the trick to making that damn pen tool work (well by figure out i mean i asked Kendall...) Any who, that is not important what is is the product and the product is the above show dress:
From the above pictures you can see the progression that taken place from the original uploading of the drawing to the final colored and line product. Here i have a dress that i designed, nothing terribly special, but i like it. It mixes a little bit of contemporary with a few classic cuts here and there. But the real feat was getting the color into this damn thing. I have never been a computer person so to mess around on illustrator no matter what's been told is a bad idea but after some help and a bit of fiddling around i managed to get a color gradient and lay out that i liked. I feel the gray blue to white gives the dress the soft feel a wedding gown should have, at least int he conventional sort of way, and yet the shine of color gives the wedding dress that modern look, where it is becoming more customary to wear a colored wedding gown.
All in all i like the end result despite the hell and hair loss that was caused because of it.

LOGOS LOGOS LOGOS

To explain real quick how this blog will work, i have the two parts of the logo present (symbol and text) then i have the finished work integrating them both together... that is, if i ordered them right when i uploaded them...
Anywho: Logo ONE- May not be the most flowery or decorative design seen for wedding shops but i think it still fits the topic to a T. It's a playful symbol of what buying your wedding dress is like- a mad hunt to find the perfect one. So i mixed in a what looks like a radar or target, put a very modern sketch of dress in its line of sight.

Down here!
so when i saved it i guess i didn't notice how much excess it gave it...whoops...
anyway LOGO 2: I like the sleek and simple look that some logos have so i tried this here. I left the color pallet simple with yellow, black and white- giving the logo a sleek sophisticated look my business. The lettering on the side add to the high class look of the logo by its stream line font and lay out- the downward written lettering and then the adjacent sub title gives the uniqueness that make this a simple but memorable logo.

Well here is a perfect example of me not looking at the order i'm uploading... oh well.
LOGO 3: i like this one the best it has a vibe to it with the bold lines in the dress sketch and the colors that pop out in the skirt. For this one i wanted to take a more modern young look to it, something that i could see printed on t-shirts or bags or stickers ( we do love stickers). this , like all of the logos, came out of experimenting with colors and shapes until something fit- which is how i ended up with the soft orange yellow background- it gave it edge yet refined the logo so certain parts popped. I personally like the cut out lines for the boarder, i think its a nice little detail for symbolizing the job.





Lastly and still backwards from how it should be presented...
LOGO 4:
this was the first one i created on this assignment, and i like it as a humble design. It doesn't scream modern or sleek or funny, instead it is this calm beautiful rendering for a logo. I chose the colors because they were relaxing and they seems serious yet sweet, which is what i would want to exude on business card. It has an artistic touch, which shows the companies creativity while also keeping to a professional look. I enjoyed this one a lot.

I am officially calling my topic wedding dresses. not weddings... so there...

(this is an photo by Chris Roberts of heavy rain in a forest. found in the blog, "like the air i breathe")


To start, i had a wonderful break through in which i finally understood how i would go about this wedding dress business. it is an interest of mine, but for the longest time the only thing i could think of was lace and flowers and how long can anyone go on about that? not to mention i was sick of pink and blue. BUT then i though what does the wedding dress mean ? and i came to this image and thus branched into my ideas




these two drawings above are from my own sketch book. doodling a few dress ideas, now to be used for a lovely image...
And finally here is the brilliance. While many may look at this and see a haunting work of integrated wedding garb, i beg to differ. What does, as i asked before, the wedding dress truly mean but purity? At least originally this is what the dress represented. The WHITE dress, which represented virginity, was worn by the bride to be presented as a pure and beautiful women for her new life. Thus we come to the question of how we view purity or rather what is purity? Well What better representation than the natural and cleansing rain? it purifies are world as it pours down, while it gives life (which, in the old days, marriage was "must do" to start a new life and/or creating new life) and a fresh start when the sun comes out. So, in a sense rain and all that attributes to it is a jump off point for inspiration with wedding dresses: it is strong and beautiful, powerful and delicate, fierce and gentle.

this is a picture of a tulip

Improving and ridiculous-izing

this be the original
Before you saw this lovely and bright church top above you would have seen a dreary darker church that lacks in its actual color. to bring out the church i selected it and changed the color balance (bringing out its green and blue) as well as increased the brightness and contrast. This allowed it to pop forward from the back ground. But leaving it so bright from the grayed background made it looks fake and odd so i went tot he back ground and lightened it up a bit, as well as saturating the color.




for this one, to give it a more stylized and hectic look, (that does in fact parallel with most weddings), i took the fore ground a back ground and separately changed their hue to a pallet of colors that called out to a modern wedding (despite the fact that I'm not much of a pink person). Afterward i used the gradient tool to create a spiral light effect in the sky. As well i used the marquee and wand tool to select sections to move around and lighten/darken certain sections- including the top and bottom boarder. This was also the effect that broke up the sky. lastly i used the brush tool to paint in some stars, to represent the sparkle and wonder of the special day.

Backdrops, perspective and another talk about topics

after fiddling with the back ground a bit I've come up with something i actually like! While the image doesn't follow the usual color scheme of a wedding (or wedding dress) i think it still fits the ticket. A lot of weddings tend to go into the night, become an all out dance party/ club and this picture is representative of that. while it still has the sleekness of night and the darker and colder hues, there is a layer of warm pink that pulls you into the happiness and fun of the wedding occasion (and gives it that party feel of the reception ).




Irony, i will admit, that this picture (the back ground) is of an installment called the gates of hell, but lets face it, im sure many would agree a marriage can be like that. But, i chose this picture probably the same reason why so many people do their wedding pictures in front of it - its a beautiful layout- so what if its the gates to hells, i suppose any good marriage should start by being willing to take a little risk. Anyway, i think ive covered it up nicely with a lovely shade of red and the spiraling roses, representing the growth of love within the couple. (I'm sure there are more metaphors or analogies or such i could put to this, but you get the point.)

A topic of Lace

As we all know by now, i have adopted the lovely and somewhat broad topic of Wedding (in hopes of venturing into dresses) . so in light of this i give you a few photos to wrap your mind around and feel the wedding spirit. Enjoy



This is probably the most obvious of all the pictures, for how it pertains to weddings. not only does the colors follow the common and classic scheme, it also shows a great lot of detail in the bead work of the (would be) dress. That is in fact one of my favorite parts of this dress, despite the lovely fabric. This picture represents the simple and complex aspects of a wedding.



This, i would imagine is a little less obvious. While normally we think of weddings with lace and flowers, there is a pattern and a delicacy to this spider web that can be seen or inspire a lot in a wedding, from the arrangement of flowers or even the table lay out or to the patterns on a dress.


Back to obvious, we have very sweet and innocent looking flowers. the color mixed with the shape and movement of the plant aids to ideas of shape in dresses and decoration ideas, such as layers or placement of fabrics on the walls or how the tables should be set up.



This last one is actually more for the mental side of weddings, or the dream side. While weddings and the planning around them are far from relaxing the love and dream of the day and what is to come in the future has a relaxing and pleasing feel. this is why i chose an old picture from the beach, it gives the feel of the happiness and peacefulness surrounding the reason for weddings, and has also be used as a theme more than once for someones wedding day.

The topic is Topic

Sigh, call me a sentimental fool, or a stereotypical women , or cliche, or boring or anything else, i can't hear you- I'm else where. But really, what I'm here to give you is a topic. not just any topic but a topic for photographs, not just any photographs but photos that i will share that will inspire me to pretend to be inspired! Kidding. As a would be fashion designer that can't sew i've chosen a topic very detailed in both of those fields: Wedding dresses. Though i suppose i can broaden this to just weddings to give my self breathing space, but i love the dresses. the grooms can wait in the back room just let me see the dress. So "my topic that i will be photographing is weddings" in which i will capture what is, would  and does inspire, creates and maybe even something really from: WEDDINGS. i figure flowers, ribbons, pathways that could be used as aisles, some fabric, and dresses if i can find some. I shall even find a way to corner a few groom- y looking men i pass into this (if im lucky). but more importantly this will all serve, or will die trying, as a jump off point to wedding dress designing. 

May the following post be enjoyable- because i can't do a damn thing for you if its not. 

Day in the live of the future Mrs. Mayer

Ahem. I give you  *pause for dramatic emphasis* My life:

My Morning: on this particular day i was up around 10:30 am, sadly. A day just shouldn't begin before two in the afternoon.

Shortly after waking, i thought " I think my friends would rather me dressed than not" so i stumbled to my dresser- roughly 10:34 am

Ah, such enthusiasm. Met up with the crew at around 11:00 am

THEN SUDDENLY: 11:10 am there was a recorded RAA attack on one of the crew, courtesy of  yours truly.

11:15 am we finally managed to go INTO the Mary Mcfadden show, this weird hinged barrier was in the way. 

AN ADVENTURE BEGINS !  (looks like a trip too). 11:35 am

AN ADVENTURE STOPS! (and so did my heart). 12:15 am

I can't close my dresser or closet, so of course i need to put more in it. Shopping just brings the ridiculous out in you- ill have you know i bought some pants that make me look short and plump, but they were ten bucks, therefore it must be ok. (1:00 pm)

Mc D's, Shopping and 4 hours of drawing the nudes. what a day. (class- 2:00 pm)

And finally we find an end to the day with a dinner of pigments.  Delightfully devoured d.....*sigh* food. 6:00

I hope you have enjoyed this lovely rendition of my life, but please no praise i live my life like any other- i put my pants on one leg at a time (then i got back to sleep and wear them for several days). Thank you for tuning in. till next time:

May you live in a world were chickens don't need to cross the road.

Good day.

-Me  

Moore Moore Moore

I honestly have nothing to say. I could write about every living thing that i have experienced and then everyone who read this can see the generic type out of everyone college student currently posting on this website (and believe me, i have a feeling there will be tons). Yet i don't feel like doing this- i'm even bored at the thought of writing my every detail or "experiences" because none of them have been anything anyone else would want to read. This isn't to say i haven't had a few laughs or made new friends, but those things are hard to type out and get the same effect across. Two days ago, and today at dinner i nearly pissed my pants laughing about various things, but i'm not gonna write about that. You weren't there (sorry) therefore it would be impossible to get the same effect, therefore there is not point. Now please don't think of me as a complainer or a bitch-er. im not trying to judge the assignment, i just can't think at the moment- it just so happens that at the same times that i can't find a thought i also want to type and work ( i would blame high school, seeing as most of the work had to be taken without a thought considering... well we just won't get into it). Lets see if i can spit out some experiences- my chance to try and be more ... accommodating ? i don't know. anyway my experiences, met some great people, drew some things, had a air conditioner cuss me out ( in the best way it knows how), not to mention try and spit dirt at me, and..... oh i have found out i am in the red line zone when it comes to my heart rate at the gym- well that is, only on the bike machine- on the treadmill i'm am apparently as fit as a fiddle. (by the by, could someone please explain to me how that phrase came into existence? maybe im not saying it right...) Anyway, i think i've said enough for one blog, maybe i'll have better conversations next time i get on, until then i think ill go clean up the attack dirt from the A/C. i dont know why it doesnt like me, i havn't done anything to it, that i can see, to deserve such anger.