#caitlyn_cotter

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Blue Squares

This project was my introduction to After Effects. The box moves in a way based on what letter is assigned to it. X, Y, and Z move along their respective axes. B blurs out, O fades away, and Rz, Rx, and Ry rotate along their assigned axes.

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Symbol Methodology Video

Femininity and Rebellion

This video shows the design process for the femininity and rebellion symbol in the symbol methodology project. It shows the original three, the hybrids, and the final symbol.

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Personal Geography

Map of St. Edward's University

click through image to the interactive flash page

I was assigned to create a map of a routine that I took often. One path that I take almost daily is the walk from my dorm (Johnson Hall) to the Fine Arts Center on campus.

I am extremely pleased with the way that the map turned out. I feel like it is a modern, fun, and accurate representation of the campus. I chose to have facts appear when you roll over symbols and buildings because I am always interested to learn about the history of the things around me. This map is educational, and yet, fun to look at.

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Weather Report

For this project I had to create a motion piece which represents a weather report in the future. The idea is that they images are floating in the air on a holographic screen and are controlled with a touch by the person who has called the report up.

The video shows various ways that you can organize the information you are viewing.

I encountered a few problems and restrictions along the way, but as a whole, I am quite pleased with the final video.  

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Instructional Design

I was assigned to create something that instructed one on how to introduce yourself. I knew that I wanted the poster I created to have a nautical theme. As I researched historical practices of sailors, I came across what was known as the "Sailor's Handshake". It was a preventative step that sailor took when they met new women at the docks. It was a method that allowed them to tell if a woman had syphilis before they slept with them.

Because this is kind of a gross and antiquated practice, I chose to take the poster in a more satirical direction. I ran with the fun and more modern take on what an old document might look like.

I hand drew the poster using a tablet in Photoshop and added the text in Illustrator.

I am happy with the illustrations and the feel of the poster as a whole, but I do think that the typography could use some tweaking in order to really make it settle and look as if it belongs.

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Kitchen of Meaning

"Pastiche" - A hodgepodge

The word pastiche has multiple meanings, but the one I chose to portray is a "hodgepodge". I wanted to show a collection of items that some eccentric might collect and label in his drawer. While they are random things, he curates them with care.

I was happy with the outcome of the project, but there is another step I could take it. While I could not access these specific items, I would like to eventually improve it by bringing together my own hodgepodge of items and photographing them in order to show depth and a cohesion that I cannot achieve from images pulled from multiple sources, as I did here.

I really struggled with the typography at the base. I eventually was able to find a hieratic scale that I was pleased with, as well as a few typefaces that further the idea of a pastiche of antique items. 

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Duck

This project is what taught me how to used the pen tool in Illustrator. I took the image of the rubber duck and simplified it down to its basic blocks of color and rendered them to create this adorable and shiny rubber duck.

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Critical Mass

For this project I had to create a motion piece explaining some scientific topic using images that I scanned myself. I created various textures using different types of fabric I had on hand. I decided to make my video educational. I chose a topic that has always fascinated me, psychology. I focused in on the Freudian concept of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. I then likened the mind to an iceberg and used that simile to explain the levels of consciousness.

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Symbol Methodology

Nouvelle Vague

For this project I had to create three symbols that portrayed a concept. I chose to focus of "Nouvelle Vague", or French New Wave films. This era in time and style of film is so fascinating to me. I based my symbols around a quote from New Wave director, Jean-Luc Godard. He said "All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun." New Wave films are deeply rooted in existential ideals such as rebellion, random violence, and a look at the human condition.

The first image is my final three symbols.

The next is the original nine symbols I created around the basic idea of Nouvelle Vague. They portray Godard with his camera, Anna Karenina, Brigitte Bardot, a blindfolded man representing existentialism, a smoking symbols of Venus (representing the tough women in French New Wave films), a magnifying glass showing the magnification of the human condition, film, a gun, and a bullet.

The next three images show my hybrids. They are various combinations of my original nine symbols.

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Material Studies Process Book

In this project I had to create a typeface out of an everyday material. I ended up quite pleased with my project as a whole. I felt like I created something unique and challenged myself.

I wanted the final image to look like a student, bored in class, started to doodle using something they had on hand. Creating a letter "z" with circular hole reinforcements was difficult, but I am happy with the way I worked through it and made something different.

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Scales Part Four

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Scales Part Three

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Scales Part Two

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Scales Part One

These scales were quick pieces where I made between two to six in one sitting. They were assigned to teach how to come up with lots of ideas and to create many pieces at one. I used various media such as paint, india ink, scanned images, and computer graphics.

I had fun doing these. I came up with some ideas that could be turned into something more later on, and I learned that sometimes, it is important to just create without too much criticism.

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Scavenger Hunt

link above

For this project I had to go out and photograph items and arrange them so that there is a visual flow between the images. The first two are connected through color. The next two connect through shape and size. The next two both have a strong diagonal (wall in the first, sign in the second). The next two connect through color, texture, and general horizontal lines of the wooden slats. Finally, the last two both have long horizontal lines across the picture plane.

It was difficult to photograph images with this continuous flow in mind. Up to this point, photography was not something I had much experience with, aside from one black and white photography class. This project made me think about the ways that I could use photographs to create a larger composition, rather than each image being seen as its own artwork.

While this project was not my finest piece of work, I feel as if I learned a lot about composition and finding inspiration in places I didn't think I would.

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Type Specimen Book

This project has been one of my favorites thus far. This was the first book I ever created and it came with an extremely steep learning curve.

I created a type specimen book exemplifying the typeface Mrs Eaves designed by Zuzana Licko. This typeface is feminine and beautiful re-imagining of an earlier typeface. It is through this delicate modernizing I found my inspiration for the style of the book. I wanted to show off the gorgeous glyphs that come with Mrs Eaves, but I chose to do so in a modern way. The color palette is inspired by 3D glasses, hence the bright cerulean, rich red, and the employment of opacity throughout.

A challenge I found was the instruction to label every style and size of text I used throughout. It became cluttered, so I found that having solid columns of these notations near the spine gave them purpose and place.