Design Stories Catalogue

Here's where I'm at with my catalogue so far. I made the cover and the page for the effect pedals last night, and it's making me want to go back and change the rest of the book to be more loosely designed to match their style. The other pages feel too structured and boring in comparison.

Installing The Show

Today was the first day of setup for the design show. I did most of the work I needed to get done including mounting my prints onto presentation board & trimming them out, painting the pedestal white, hanging the prints and setting up the iMac. I still have to figure out what to do with the Wiimote charging dock, but it's a relief to have most of the work finished.

Ready to print, instructions

It's time to install the show this weekend so I'm frantically wrapping things up. I set all of the pages I want to print out onto a single document to make it easier to print using the big printer in the design lab. I also spent time finishing the instructions poster so people will know what to do with the Wiimote. The program is also ready to go (at least good enough for the show - I could probably work on it for another semester and make it do some really cool things, but it does what I need it to do for the show).

Esente week 13, Weds.

On Monday at Esente, I had a particularly short day. After class at Montserrat, I had my internship seminar meeting with a small group of students and our internship advisor. We passed in reflection papers, activity journals and other paperwork, as well as talking briefly about our experiences. The talk went from 11:30-12:30, so I arrived at Esente about an hour later than usual.

When I arrived, I had more bad news to deliver to Laura. I would have to leave early, around 3:00, so I could attend my friend's wake. Sean Collier was the MIT officer who was murdered Friday night by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. He was shot multiple times while he sat in his cruiser, and the reasoning behind the shooting is still unknown. Sean was an old friend of mine, though I hadn't seen him in a couple of years. He went to school with me in Wilmington and was a year behind me. I had a few friends in that graduating class and Sean was one of them. We had many great times together and I'll always remember him fondly.

Esente week 12, Weds.

On Monday, I spent the first hour and a half of the day collecting leads for OnPoint Media, researching companies in Peabody on Manta. After working on leads, I went back to touching up all of the artwork I've made so far. On Wednesday of last week, we had a group critique where we showed everything that we've completed so far. I've been working on adjusting the pieces I already have according to feedback from the crit, and have also started working on a few more blog ad designs.

While we were working (at around 2:45-3:00), we realized that there had been a terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon. I watched a live stream of the news for a while, completely distracted by the chaos that was unfolding at the finish line in Copley Square. Two pressure cooker bombs filled with ball bearings and nails were detonated in quick succession alongside the finish line of the race. Three people were confirmed dead with over 170 reported injured. Many of the injured suffered from shrapnel damage and hearing loss, and some even lost extremities or had to have amputations done at the ER. It was a truly tragic day for Boston and the United States as a whole.

We walked over to Ron's apartment as a group and watched the news on TV for a few minutes. When we came back, it was nearly impossible to get any work done. When something that intense and horrific happens, how can anyone focus on anything else? Ron decided to close the office early and invited us to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I declined the invitation because I'm swamped with schoolwork and wanted to take the opportunity to go home and get a head start on it.

Ian Corrigan
Graphic Design Intern
Montserrat College of Art

Catalogue beginnings

Here's a few pictures of my catalogue design, showing the instruments and musical equipment I have with brief descriptions/back stories. I'm not happy with the layout so far, so you can expect it to change in the near future.

Routing the second Wiimote

I spent some time working on the Max patcher for the loop machine. I got the Wiimote to select the machines using the D-pad like I wanted to, but when I started using the volume and speed features, multiple machines were being affected. After looking around at the schematic, I realized that I had messed up a bit of the wiring. Once I sorted it out it worked perfectly. I made a second control set for the second Wiimote and began to map it to machines 5-8. It will consist of different controls since 5-8 are going to be samples instead of loops. I also spent some time organizing little parts of the patch, moving a few things and deleting unnecessary objects. I also made it so the master volume will automatically set itself as soon as the patch is opened.

Esente week 12, Monday

On Wednesday of last week, I spent the first hour and a half of the day conducting internet research for OnPoint Media, collecting leads for businesses in Groveland, MA on Manta. During the afternoon, the graphic design interns were asked to pull up all of their finished work on screen for a group critique with Ron. I had a lot of things to show and was first in line. Ron wasn't shy about giving realistic constructive criticism which led to more of the interns putting in their two cents, which was good to see. I think my work was well received by pretty much everybody with only minor details needing adjustment. Seeing everyone else's work was also a great experience. People had a lot of great work, but a recurring theme with a few people was poor typography. I think schools tend not to focus too much on type, which is a shame because it really has the power to make or break a piece.

After the critique, I spent some time promoting Becca Levy's "Fix You" video on Facebook groups and anti-bullying blogs. When I looked at the video on YouTube that morning, the views had jumped from ~3,000 to about 20,000 since last time I looked, so all this promoting must be doing the trick. After the promoting, I spent the rest of the day making adjustments to my graphics based on the critiques I received earlier in the day.

- Ian Corrigan
Graphic Design Intern
Montserrat College of Art