Excited for Junior Year!

Welcome Back!
It is back to school time again and I am beginning my Junior year!  I can't believe I am already a Junior in college; time has flown by.  I have already been back at school for 2 weeks and I am glad to be back!  I came back early this year for Goon Squad and Peer Advising.  I also live in a house off campus this year, so I can move in early for that too! Goon Squad is a group of volunteers that help the new freshman move in.  I enjoy meeting all the new students, and it is a nice workout carrying all their things up stairs!  And you meet lots of fellow students too who are also volunteering, so it's a great way to make some new friends!  And then Peer Advising is another great experience.  As a Peer Advisor you are an upperclassman (Sophomore, Junior, Senior) and you get assigned a group of about 6-9 incoming freshmen students.  The students are all Art and Design in the VPA College.  This year I had a group of 9 students with 4 interior design majors, 3 industrial design majors, and 2 art undeclared majors.  On opening weekend, all freshmen Art and Design students meet with their Peer Advisors.  So I met with my 9 students on the Saturday before classes just to talk and get to know each other and just be there as someone they can ask questions about classes and anything about college life.  It is a great experience and I enjoy meeting the new students and giving them insight on little things I wish I had known when I was a freshman!  I had an awesome group this year, they were all talkative and we all got to know each other and have some fun :)
And now it is Friday; I have finished my first week of classes (NO Friday classes, again!) and I am tired.  The heat is killer here, I love the summer but not when my classes or house have no air conditioning! Haha. But I am enjoying it while it lasts because the cold will be here before we know it!
My classes this year are:
ISD 351: Architectural Systems for Designers
ISD 353: Interior Design Office Planning
EDI 348: Intro to Lighting Design
EDI 305: Computer Applications (Revit)
MAR 445: Brand Management
FIN 301: Essentials of Finance
I am really excited for my design studios, we are going to be building models, designing commercial spaces, working on our resumes and portfolios, and having some pretty cool projects.  I am also excited to learn Revit which is a computer design program for 3-D drafting.  And my Brand Management class seems like it will be interesting, and Finance will be, well Finance.. haha
I also mentioned I live in a house off campus this year.  It is only 2 blocks from campus, so it is not far at all.  And I am enjoying having my own room and space. And cooking my own meals is a whole new experience!
I am looking forward to a fun junior year filled with new experiences, new projects, and lots of work doing what I love best: DESIGN :)

Halfway Done with College?!

I am officially finished with my Sophomore Year!  I am so relieved to have finished all my projects and exams.  It is a weight off my shoulders, for sure.  But I am sad that the year has come to an end.  I met so many new people and had so many fun new experiences that I have so many memories from!  Starting out this year, I only knew about 5 girls in my major, now I know all 30 and I love them all!  You truly grow so close to your classmates as you share in the good times and the bad times :)  I am proud of the work I accomplished and I really learned a lot in my studios and in my academic classes as well.  Sophomore Year was a tough but such an incredible ride!  Here is some of my work from the final projects in my 2 studios:  The first is a rendering of my counter space for my Roji Tea Lounge project for my Representation studio.  The space was created in SketchUp and rendered in Photoshop.  The next 4 images are renderings of my 2 Bedroom Apartment for my Residential studio.  The space was created in SketchUp and hand-rendered.

Have a great summer everyone!! :)

The beginning of the end..

Sophomore year is almost done!  Our last day of classes are next Tuesday!  I can see the end, but I still have a few projects to finish up!  This weekend will be my last weekend here, because I am leaving next Friday to go home for the summer.  And this Friday, today, is our Mayfest and Block Party.  Mayfest is a celebration of the springtime and the ending of classes.  There is a big party in Walnut Park on campus  with live music and food and just fun with your friends.  And then Block Party is at night with a live concert in the dome.  We always get really great artists that come and perform in the Carrier Dome each year.  This year the rap artist Drake is coming to perform with special guest N.E.R.D.  I am pretty excited, it is not my favorite bands but I still enjoy them so me and a bunch of my friends are all going together.
So I am not planning on getting any of my work done today.  It is a nice day to take a break and hang out with friends before the semester is over. :)
I am starting to put together my residential project and graphics project.  I am really improving in my renderings and am happy with my progress.  I presented my EEE projects yesterday, I had to present twice!  But I am glad it is over with!  I will be sure to post pictures of my finished projects once I am done.  I have been super busy for the last few weeks and am working hard to finish everything up!  It has been such a great semester and I have learned so much.
I hope the weather stays nice so I can enjoy the weekend!

Crunch Time...

Only 3 weeks left of classes!  I cannot believe that school is almost done for the year.  In a short amount of time, I will be half way through my college experience here at Syracuse!  That is so crazy.  And looking ahead to how much time I have left, I have so much left to get done!  I have various final projects and exams coming up.  I know I will get it all done, but I always freak out about it then just do it.

I have two final projects in my Interior Design studios.  I am working on a sustainable two bedroom apartment design in my residential class.  I have my floor plan just about set and now I am working on the decor of the space and drawing up perspectives.  I also am working on a tea house for my representation class which will be located across the street from the Warehouse downtown.  A client requirement is to be Japanese inspired, so I am taking my design influence from the history of geishas.  I love their hair pieces that they traditionally wear and am pulling that design and putting it into the design of the tea house/cafe.  So it has been a back and forth working on both of those spaces.  I also have projects in my Materials class on a new sustainable material.  In my Art History class I have a final exam and a final book project on design influenced by the different periods we have studied in class.  And also in my Entrepreneurship class, I have 2 group projects and a final exam.  I also have to interview an entrepreneur which I am excited about.  The women I plan on interviewing owns a very prominent online modeling agency that she started and is also starting her own interior design company as well.  See, I have so much to do! haha.  But I will get it done :)

I haven't written in a while, but last week I performed in my dance show!  It was so fun and all my friends came to see me dance, which I loved!  I can't wait to do it again next year.  I will miss weekly ballet classes, it was a great workout and so much fun and I loved all the girls I befriended in my class!  Extracurriculars are such a great choice to get involved in here, it is a nice balance to take a break from classes and work.

I am excited for the summer, but I don't want the semester to end!  I have loved Sophomore Year and it really flew by!  :)

Spring is in the Air!

Hey guys!
    So it has been another busy week!  Over the weekend I had to work on finishing my ISD (Interior Design) Representation project and make a video presentation.  I finished all my drawings and then the video was so time consuming!  It was due Tuesday morning, so on Monday night three of my friends in my class and I all hung out in our lounge and worked late to get it done!  It was definitely easier to stay up and get it done when I had my friends there to bounce ideas off of and ask for help.  On Tuesday morning we presented all our videos and my professors really loved mine!  So, my hard work and staying up late paid off!  In my Residential class, we were given floor plans to start out projects.  So now I have to figure out the design of my 2 bedroom apartment! In my Representation class, our new project is to design a Roji Tea House lounge in the Red House building.  The building is right across the street from the Warehouse.  It is under construction and will have the cafe/lounge on the first floor along with a recording studio, yoga studio, visiting artists' living, a gallery, and some offices.  I am excited to design the space and get working on it!

The weather has been getting warmer this week! Yesterday it was 72 degrees and today is supposed to get up to 80!  I love the warm weather, it makes me happy!  And it is so nice to walk around outside and enjoy it and see everyone outside enjoying the weather too!

In other news, my dance performance is in less than a week!! Ahh I am so excited but nervous at the same time.  I can't wait to perform our dance we have been working on all year!  If any of you are around next week, come see the show, its a lot of fun!  Orange Pulse Dance Troupe Annual Showcase on Thursday, April 8th at 8:00 in Goldstein Auditorium in Schine. :)

Back In Action

It is the first week back and I am already busy with work again!  This week has been filled with all kinds of work and activities.  On Monday, I had my second Materials quiz and got a 39/40 on it!  Our Art History professor announced on Monday that she was pushing back our test to next week so I now have an extra week to study! On Tuesday, I had Graphics class and we continued to work on our reception/waiting room project.  Our professors finally gave us a due date, next Tuesday!  They always wait until the last minute to tell us these things!  Then for my Residential class, we had a field trip.  The class split up into cars to all drive up to Ithaca.  We were heading to EcoVillage @ Ithaca.  EcoVillage is a sustainable community living environment right near downtown Ithaca.  The village mimics a type of suburb with the exception of more open land and smaller square footage in the houses than the average American home.  We were given a tour of the villages and got to go into two of the houses.  The community is made up of 3 villages named Frog, Song, and Tree (which is in the process of being built).  Each village has its own look to it.  And they all have sustainable devices for greener living such as solar panels, passive solar heating, growing their own food on site, etc.  It was a nice adventure and a great learning experience.  The only downfall was having to walk around in the gross rain and muddy walkways.  On Wednesday, I had Materials and Art History again.  And the weather was so gorgeous!  It was sunny and warm and it put me in a good mood :)  On Thursday, I worked on my reception/waiting room project during our studio class and out professors taught us about video presentation.  Next Tuesday, we have to present our process and final project in a video presentation with us talking over it and narrating.  I have a lot of work to get done for next week!  In my Residential class, we were given our next project.  Each person had to pick out of two bags, one containing a number and one containing a letter.  I received 5 and C.  Then our professors told us what the number and letter corresponded to.  The number represented the family type we had to design for and the letter represented the type of living arrangement we given.  I had a family of 5, with 3 children ages 7.9. and 12; and a 2-bedroom apartment!  This is definitely going to be a challenge.  But I am excited to tackle it and come up with creative solutions to achieve my design.  So for the weekend I have to research all about sustainable housing (which is the basis for the project) and about my family and housing type.  I have lots of things to do for the weekend, I will be very busy!
In other news, on Wednesday night, I went to a show in the student center called "An Evening With Andy Samberg".  Andy Samberg, from Saturday Night Live, came to speak at Syracuse!  If you have no idea who I am talking about, look him up, he is hilarious!!  The show was an interview type set-up with a student moderator asking Andy questions and we watched some clips of Andy's sketches as well.  At the end, it was opened up for the audience to ask questions.  The whole show had me laughing the whole time.  It was a last minute thing, my friend had an extra ticket and I decided to tag along.  The show was sold out so I was excited I got to go!  This is another reason I love Syracuse, they have so many different shows, speakers, and performers come to campus and its great to get a chance to see them.
It has been a long week, and its now the weekend which will be filled with homework, extra dance practices, and hopefully some sleep and relaxing time as well. :)
Have a great weekend everyone!!

I AM DONE!

The longest week of my life is finally over.  And all my hard work has paid off!  My group and I have been working on bringing our concept cube idea into reality since last Friday.  Once we got the news that the project was no longer full scale, we were relieved but still had a lot of work to do. 

Starting Friday, we went out to buy the basics of materials we needed for the project.  We built the floor and walls and the raised platform out of foam core.  We began to build the floor and walls and measured and cut everything out.  For the rest of the room, we needed to figure out exactly what materials and colors we wanted.  With seven girls in the group, it was a bit of a struggle to work around everyone's schedule and compromise each of our ideas into the space.  We worked everyday during the weekend to build the room, create the booklet of our process, and draw out all the views of our design.  It was hard work to translate our ideas into the room and make it all work.  Little things here and there had to be altered once we tried to construct it in the space. 
After lots of long days and late nights and many runs to the art store and fabric store for materials, we got our design together.  It was a complete group effort with everyone pitching in and lending their insights into the design.  The final project was a long time coming and came out even better than we could have imagined!  We used foam core for the horizontal beams coming out with plastic rods for support in between them.  We used fabric to cover the bed in the room as well as the platform.  We printed out paper in the plotting room to cover the foam core in the color we wanted for the walls and beams.  Paper was used instead of paint because paint causes the foam core to warp and bend.  Our section of the space we were designing included the door to the gallery, so we also had to construct a glass door out of plexi-glass.  Our bed in the room is lowered into the platform and had mechanics on the bottom that allow it to rock back and forth.  We used wood and foam core to build the rocking platform and covered carved out foam with fabric to create an ergonomic bed surface.  We used translucent paper to wrap around the beams of the back walls and strung lights around the back to light up the walls through holes in the walls.  When the lights shine through, it makes the room glow and really gives it a great feeling.  It all worked out and we learned what materials worked the best and what did not work.
On Thursday, we had a big critique to display all four spaces that our studio class created.  Our professors critiqued our work and expressed what they liked and what the thought should change.  It was fun to see everyone's space and how their hard work paid off and how they translated their ideas into the spaces.  We brought all four spaces down into the gallery, which was a struggle for four people to carry it and fit it into the elevator!  It has been a hard week of work but I am so proud of everything my group and I accomplished and really made our space look like what we had envisioned.  And seeing everyone's spaces in the class was great to see how far we all came.  This was our first project where we had to take a design off of the paper and make it real.  It was a stressful but fun experience and I am happy with the way it turned out.

Here's some pictures of the final product!!: