i'm back

Its been a while, and it doesn't even matter because I am changing gears. I am currently a senior in a brand new design program called Design Studies at the University of Washington. I am in the beginning of the process of proposing and executing a year-long capstone project.

I fell back in love with design over the summer. I remembered why this is what I want to do, and now I am not sure I will ever get there, which is scary. I have to do this capstone, and I think it could be great. But right now, all I can think about is book design, and I am not sure if there is anything all that controversial or groundbreaking I can say or ask about book design.

I am going to try to blog every day or at least about 3 times a week, because something I realized over the summer is that reflection is a part of the design process that I am missing.

Here are some things I want to talk about, someday:
What is design, to me
Craft vs. design
reflection as a part of the design process

OK, back to searching for some kernel of innovation...

Finally, an overview of my trip thus far

It has been a while since my first post, and I feel like its almost impossible to catch up on all the things that I have done since then. I have been in 5 different countries, and over 10 different cities. I will share a few pictures from my travels and probably go into more depth about Rome, where I have been staying/studying for the last 3 weeks.

Leisha and I traveled from London, to Amsterdam, Berlin, Basel, Geneva, Siena, Sorrento and finally landed in Rome on August 21. I cannot believe that I have been gone so long! Here are a few pictures from the backpacking portion of our trip...

L O N D O N


People waiting for the bus in London


The London Eye, the Thames, and a souvenir vendor seen from one of the many bridges.

A M S T E R D A M


Architecture in Amsterdam.


Bikes are huge in Amsterdam. I love this type, also.



B E R L I N

At the Gauklerfest


At the Berlin Wall

B A S E L

Flea market in Basel

V I T R A

While in Basel, we went to the Vitra museum, which is actually just across the border in Germany. There was a special Eames exhibit in the Zaha Hadid fire house.

G E N E V A

On Lac Leman.



At the United Nations Building.


S I E N A

This is in the baptistry in Siena.


At the Palio! This is just a small section of the crowd...



S O R R E N T O

This is actually not in Sorrento, but at the beach in Amalfi.


Sorrento lemons, from the garden outside our hostel.

And from there, we went to Rome... which will be a different post.

Hello from London

I am in europe! Wow. I can't believe it. I got here about 10 hours ago, and I am about to go to sleep, but I just wanted to say that I am here and having fun. I took so many pictures today, but I don't have time to upload them. Maybe tomorrow. We went out walking and ended up crossing the Thames and going to Westminster Abbey and the palace. We didn't pay to get in, so mostly I have pictures of the outside of these things. Fun walk though. Its crazy how many tourists are out and about, and how touristy everything is. I have pictures of that too.

One of my favorite things so far-- piccadilly circus. Not that its my favorite place, but the fact that its called a circus. you see, its actually a little bit like a mini times square-- lots of ads, neon lights and people. And LOTS of american influence. Anyhow, I jus think its great that its called a circus, even if that means somethign different to the UK.

Well, I am almost out of time and about to fall asleep while typing, so I am going to go now. I will try to update about my travels regularly, so keep checking back.

well, goodnight!

Wow I have been busy. I moved, and have been babysitting like crazy, and I am leaving for Europe in 2.5 days!

But, I got a new camera, so here are some pictures!




This is a detail shot of some vintage patchwork that my mom found at a yard sale a while ago. All hand stitched.





So many colors!

And here is a pair of pants that I just altered. They were my favorite summer pants-- so light weight and comfy. But, they recently got a whole in the bottom, so I decided to make shorts.



I cut them off below the knee and then made some sweet bias tape to finish them with.

I don't really know much abotu sewing yet, so the details are not that great... but I love my new camera so I had to test it out.

Well.

louise+design(for the daily) = a trip to NYC last week! I went to the College Media Advisors conference in New York City with two other Daily employees and our advisors. The conference was so-so-, but the city was amazing. We stayed at the Roosevelt for the first few days (when we didn't have to pay for our rooms) and we stayed at La Quinta for one day. I went to the Saint Patrick's day parade, the Museum of Modern art and we walked all over Greenwich village and Soho. I went to an adorable yarn shop in Soho (that was my main destination that day-- I was trying not to spend a lot of money, but I just had to get somethign to work on during the plane ride home) called Purl. It was very neighboorhoody there-- people seemed to know eachother and it was really small and cute. I love yarn stores... anywhere with such color and texture. Its such a feast for the senses.

Back to reality, I started classes yesterday. I am taking three: Info architecture/web design, cultural studies: US and the atomic bomb (this is actually an english class, so we will be approaching this subject through literature) and Projects in Interaction Deisgn, in which we will be working in groups on design projects for the Microsoft research expo which is focusing on Health & Wellness.

I am pretty excited about my classes, but I am already procrastinating. So, without much further ado, I will begin my homework. But first, a few more photos...

4am

The server at The Daily crashed last night a bit after midnight. It corrupted the file that I had been working on all night and we had to start from scratch at 12:30am. Its now 4am. We just finished.

Hello my name is louise...

and it suits me perfectly. My name that is.

Wecome to my new blog. I started crocheting about 6 months ago--inspired by an upcoming baby shower. Though I never finished the baby blanket.. er, I haven't finished it yet, I have finished a couple successful projects. HEre is one:



I am a design student, and I design for the student newspaper at my university, so I spend my days obsessing about details on computer screens... Its so refreshing to go home and make something with my hands. Hence the title of this blog: louise (me) plus design equals crochet, or an obsessive need to make something real.