Air Post
29" x 19" (x2)
Digital Image Collage
December 2023
Digital Image Collage
December 2023
This project was created with MIAD to understand industrial design. Weaving its way into my theme of American capitalism and its relationship with people, this project is a proposal of how shipping costs can become more cost efficient for families, critiquing how hard it is for people, especially lower income people, to connect with far loved ones because of money. The final image of this piece was made in the Photopea software, and it was inspired by the work of Arthur Radebaugh.
Inspiration
Arthur Radebaugh
Arthur Radebaugh was an artist born in 1906, and was an influential sci-fi artist during his time. When I saw his paintings, they felt nostalgic to me. They seemed like something out of a cartoon, the way they were able to balance color and shape to really give lines on a page true weight was enchanting. I really adore his illustrations, and find it really interesting how they still are mesmerizing over 80 years after their conception. In his works, he utilizes many art principles and elements, one being movement. In Air Post, the viewers eye would first be drawn to the bright red car in the middle, or even the bottom of the tower. From there, the use of contrast of the red up top the deep blue background, leads the eye up the curves of the railings of the building and along the route that structure creates. His paintings weren't just a visual feast, but also achieved a deeper, mechanical meaning in his work. Radebaugh as an artist was almost an industrial designer himself, or at least had elements of the craft in his work, stating that his work was, "halfway between science fiction and designs for modern living." Some of his art is almost outlandish looking, these two main inspirations being more tame in that regard, but the flying bus is still a very unconventional idea, but still, it is not crazy to image these products being real some day. This is an element I wanted to achieve in my work. Something where we may not have the technology advanced enough to carry these products across the sea or shift into any size you needed, but its still imaginable, and plausible to some degree. On a more visual aspect, I really liked the idea of something being carried somehow like in Heli Bus, and it inspired that aspect in my final product. I also wanted to incorporate soft edges like in Air Post, which would later on serve a deeper purpose to my product, but when I was first inspired by the image, gave me the idea of a more "futuristic" look.
Process |
This process began with our guided courses with the professional industrial designer Lawrence "Murf" Murphy, a local artist. During our classes, he explained to us what industrial design was, and how people utilize it now. We were tasked to create a product that could fix a problem in our society, and after looking at my inspiration, and personal experiences with high shipping costs, I decided this would be the perfect problem to hone in on. Between my sketchbook and a whole class white board brainstorming and presentation, I created a carrier pigeon inspired design. The top of the boxed design is carried by a pair of metallic wings, encased by weather protected "feathers". In these designs I showcased that this would be a true one time payment, the box able to shift itself into different designs the shipper would need.
After the initial creation and critique, Murf created a little sketch based on my design, adding elements that created a more drone like design, suggesting that this may give it more stability while flying, and an app element. Originally I had just thought that typing information on the screen of the box would be the best route, however this suggestion really helped shape how I viewed Air Post.
After this, I worked on my final design. I didn't have much to change, just a couple of elements to add. I worked on regular white paper and created a couple of sketches depicting multiple aspects of the design. One sketch shows a pigeon next to the Air Post package, showing my intended evolution of Pigeon Post. Another shows an inside look to the wings, and the metal behind the feathers. There is also an additional design that shows a bottom view of the box, showing how the motor and propeller would work, the bottom of the package having an opening where the items would be able to unfold and come out when needed. Additionally, there is also a design breaking the package down into its components, breaking all walls of the box off of each other and showing the propeller areas and the wings separate from the rest of the contraption. There is also a quick sketch of the app, showing one person inputting the address, name, zip code, and any notes for where theyre sending their mail, and across implied cell signals, the other person receiving the information. The final drawing from this session was a complete drawn image of Air Post, colored with colored pencils.
After that, I worked on my posters. I used the Photopea software again, once again starting with making my images PNG's by erasing the background. I used the regular eraser tool for this part as the full background tool often times would delete too much of the original image. While this took up much more time than doing it with the other eraser tool, it was worth it to get a cleaner, better looking end product.
After giving description to what my product is, what its setting out to fix, what current solutions exist, this project became a matter of arrangement. I needed to arrange my images in a way that was visually appealing and that showcased them well without becoming cluttered on the board. This involved not as many tools as my prior digital collage, but was much more time consuming through all the movement of items. Through this trial and error method of working, I slowly built my final into something I am proud of.
Experimentation
While working, I became worried that my visuals weren't going to shine through. I liked my drawing, but on the software they really didn't seem to have that color reflected properly in the Photopea software. To work around this worry, I experimented in two different ways, through two different versions of digital media.
My original thought for this problem was wondering if I would edit the photos to give them the pop I had thought they were missing. Through the color fill function of the software, I messed around with the tint of the colors on my drawings. I chose one drawing to really experiment with, and used the lasso tool to cut areas out of the image. I then messed around with the different color features and opacity of the hues against the image, seeing how deep of colors I wanted represented on the screen and how that could change the overall look of the poster. However as I worked and more colors got piled up on another one, it slowly became much less professional looking and more tacky. In the slow software I wasn't able to get the angles correct and the loading speed was not worth the hassle, so I ended up scrapping this aspect and trying again.
Another way I tried to work around this fear was digital art. I don't work with it much, and have certainly never used it for a class before, but I wanted to touch on more mediums of art in this course and thought it was a perfect small sample of this. I took one of the images, the Pigeon/Air Post drawing, and inputted the final art work into the painting software IBIS Paint on my phone. I didn't see any reason to redraw the image, surmising that there was no reason to do extra work, and outlined the image with a brown color, color picked from the original drawing.
A good majority of this drawing consisted of color picking. I would color pick from the OG image and set the hues down in big, splotchy overlays across the guide background. After the initial color laying, I would take away the imported photo, see the work, and redo the process, until the outline was adequately filled with paint. Then, I would connect the colors by coloring between the flecked lines with a smaller sized brush, giving it a more scratchy effect.
After this, I would fill in any remaining dots shining through the white background and touch up the final image, repeating the process with the Air Post. Originally, my plan was to do an entire poster full of digital art and paint over 5 other images. While this wasn't as time consuming as other things, it was time consuming nonetheless, and it wouldn't be possible to complete on such short notice. This fear was part of the reason why I chose these photos, knowing they would be the additional images on the second board, and so completing them didn't give me such an incentive to complete the others. On the final image, I do feel like it helps it a lot. It's a small drawing, but a cute one, and one that makes it stand out a bit more and have more personality overall. I am happy with how this drawing ended up coming out, even if the colors were altered in the digital version to be more gray toned than blue.
Critique
Compare
Between the inspiration pieces and my final product, there are many similarities between the two. For one, the archetype of big machines with smooth edges is the very structure of Air Post. Furthermore, there are more themes that were similar between our two art works of machinery designed to be visually appealing and also to help society with a greater issue. Finally, I used Radebaugh's technique of movement, inspired by his use of it in his paintings. For my final drawing, I had a large area in striking contrast against the background that the viewer would immediately be drawn too. Then I used the machinery of the piece to lead the viewers eye up the feathers like how Radebaugh does with the red tower.
Contrast
Although there are many similarities thematic wise, I feel like our pieces differ very heavily visually. For one, the very distinct style of Radebaugh's coloring is missing, my piece having more similar, constant hues throughout instead of striking, contrasting colors. Also, Radebaugh's pieces really shine in being able to work as one piece objects without any dangled items or extra bits hanging out, and even with pieces like Heli Bus where a propeller is shown, its still depicted in motion so its given visual movement, unlike my piece where the most movement I depict is a couple of lines around the wings itself.
Reflection
In the end, I really enjoyed this project. I like designing these types of things, and working with the program and seeing how I can take it a step further, even if everything didn't work out in the end, was really fun and engaging. I liked the traditional and digital art aespects on it, and it was interesting feeling all the different surfaces working on this collage put me through, from tabletops, to phone screens, to computers. I also really liked getting to use the Photopea software again, even if it wasn't the most cooperative at times. I wouldn't say this project was "hard". I suppose if I really had to label something during this process as the "hardest thing" it would have been attempting to color in the Photopea software, but that was most due to its own unresponsiveness as a slow app running on an old computer. I hope others will see the connection to my theme as I didn't make it super obvious on the board. I never wrote out the word "capitalism", but I hope through a little bit of thinking, my idea's will lead them to my theme seamlessly.
ACT
ACT Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
My art work utilized many of the same art principles that Radebaugh also used, like movement. Alongside that, many visual aspects was inspired by his work, like the use of wings and soft corners.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think as someone who didn't just create to draw but also wanted to design products for the future, Radebaugh would be pleased to see that industrial design courses are being taught and one of the students were inspired during that course because of him.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Questioning the future is something that has happened 100 years before and will continue long after this. Radebaugh did it then, I'm doing it now, and later down the line, someone else will do the same.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Things can always continue to change and evolve as different individuals look at the issues from different perspectives.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Radebaugh was influenced by his time period and a lot of his products reflect proposed answers to relevant issues to his time.
My art work utilized many of the same art principles that Radebaugh also used, like movement. Alongside that, many visual aspects was inspired by his work, like the use of wings and soft corners.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think as someone who didn't just create to draw but also wanted to design products for the future, Radebaugh would be pleased to see that industrial design courses are being taught and one of the students were inspired during that course because of him.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Questioning the future is something that has happened 100 years before and will continue long after this. Radebaugh did it then, I'm doing it now, and later down the line, someone else will do the same.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Things can always continue to change and evolve as different individuals look at the issues from different perspectives.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Radebaugh was influenced by his time period and a lot of his products reflect proposed answers to relevant issues to his time.
Bibliography
King, Jenny. "A brush with automobile's past" Chicago Tribute, Oct. 03, 2004. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-10-03-0410030018-story.html
Novak, Matt. "Before the Jetsons, Arthur Radebaugh Illustrated the Future" Smithsonian Magazine, April, 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/before-the-jetsons-arthur-radebaugh-illustrated-the-future-122729342/
Novak, Matt. "Before the Jetsons, Arthur Radebaugh Illustrated the Future" Smithsonian Magazine, April, 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/before-the-jetsons-arthur-radebaugh-illustrated-the-future-122729342/