Design Week

The First Annual Design Week at the Myers School of Art was held from October 29, 2010 through November 5, 2010.  Throughout the week, multiple different art events were held and students could attend the different workshops.  Multiple different forms of design in artwork were featured in full-length films, design-specific workshops, lectures and discussions.

The most interesting event that I attended over the week was the paper structure workshop held by Shawn Kathleen Simmons.  It was referred to as "Spell-Bound, the workshop where design and book arts collide."  The workshop went through fifteen different "folds" of paper, demonstrating different common folds used in print and design.  The first folding series demonstrated the accordian derivatives.  Accordion folds are the most basic, common and easiest of folds, requiring that you simply fold your paper back and forth.  The second fold series demonstrated the zine format.  The third folding series focused on the Concertina.  Concertinas are little versions of accordions that can allow for a lot of flexibility; you can attach/insert paper or objects on the front side of each mountain fold, on the back side, in between each fold, or you can attach to the fold itself with thread.  The concertina form can have covers built into the original form or they can be added to the spine after folding.  The fourth folding series demonstrated the victorian puzzle purse.  The fifth focused on flexagons and the sixth on slides.  The materials used to create these folds were papers of different weights and a bonefolder.  A bonefolder helps to strengthen the folds that are made in the paper and are used for scoring, making folds, and burnishing down areas of paper that need pressure, such as glued portions.  Bonefolders are made of actual bone and can be sanded down to be thinner, sharper, or fit an individual hand better.  I found the workshop to be useful for print design.  I thought that the speaker was energetic and was thorough with her demonstrations. 

Overall, I thought design week offered a variety of different events but I felt that some of the more specific events and workshops had more open spaces for students to attend.  The registration was too limited on some of the more interesting events that would have been nice to attend.