the elements of style.

                                                                                         its all about helping...

Hi, my name is ms.tilly. I would like to share with you a story that made an impact on my design career.  This is a simple story one about a friend, a gal I eventually interned with. Well, she is my inspiration to a lot of the things that have motivated me to design. Problem one 1. What are you studying? and 2. Why are you studying what your studying? 3. Where is your direction? My problem was I didn't know the answer to any of these questions. 

so as you can tell from my face, I was a little frustrated. What was I going to do, I wanted to design. But what would I design, and how would I get to the point that I could design for a living. 

So now I am going to make this story a little comical. My friend and soon to be bridesmaid Roxy Marj ( who is infact my girl crush and talented designer) decided she would help me on this little journey to help me figure out who I was as a designer, artist, and a contributed. She told me to meet her in the woods, so as I did I saved her a seat. 

so meet Roxy marj, the pretty gal in blonde. She suggested that she help me with my photo-shoot for a school project I was working on at the time. She sat me down and,

said follow me, so I literally picked up my chair and followed her. hehe not so literal, but this is what I learned by following her; 

The first time I called her I told her I needed help with portfolio I brought her my color boards to look at and this is her advice,

1. NEVER SPRAY PAINT YOUR COLOR BOARDS.

2. Whenever you are gluing on a board, make sure you use glue that will actually stick, ( NOT A HOT GLUE GUN)

3. People understand ideas if they are presented SIMPLY.

4. I am not a really good speller as maybe you have seen from my blog, but The Element of Style is a book that address just that bad grammar.

5. Take the time to make it good, even if its a sketch make it even better if it's for a client.

6. Music is a must when working, inspiration flows when music is on.

7. You can learn a lot about your clients by what they wear, her advice helped me design a room based upon what someone was wearing.

8. Time and Focus, make sure you use your time wisely, don't let distractions get in the away of getting any work done.

9. Prepartion.

10. MY FAVORITE, always find SOMETHING TO EAT while working.

11. I think my favorite lesson Roxy taught me was, ALWAYS BE NICE TO THOSE AROUND YOU

I feel like maybe sometimes the field of design gets super competitive, which it does. Living in Chicago and studying design, I saw first had what be competitive can do to others. I believe that being competitive is what makes most of us do well, but I think it is silly when we don't help others because we want to win, or because we want to be on top. For some that is how they operate, and that is fine. For me this field has taught me to be competitive with myself.  If I push myself and compete with me I usually end up doing well. I believe helping people is everything to do with success. Helping people with their dreams helps your dreams come alive as well. 

"my life is the result of creation

creation is the result of my life''

ms. tilly.

flakey flakes

         

So I don't know if you remember, but I hosted a Christmas Party Dec 16. It was a success! Above are the snowflakes I made, and hung on the ceiling. I posted below how to  make these flakes. The snow is awful this year! There seriously been nothing for skiing or anything.  I guess its all about making snow inside this year!

Boy and Girl

Boy and Girl

This is a depiction of a girl asking a guy on a date. Except, I am the girl asking the boy ( justin) out on a date. This I drew for him when we first started dating. This type of drawing and design is very Korean inspired. Korean inspired in the sense of the character type of drawing and the lack of detail shown in the faces. I love character drawing some of my favorite. 

flakes

Funny story. My soon to be husband has been so busy this week. Today instead of counting the hours until he comes and sees me I thought I would get ready for my Christmas Party I will be hosting on Friday and then on Saturday Roxy and I are have our Holiday PopShop Bazaar. It will be a busy week for sure. I thought hanging snow flakes from the ceiling would be quite the treat. I don't mind warm snow, inside snow. Snowflakes are pretty. 

owl be your friend.

Owl be your friend. 

Quick sketch before class. 

2 turtle doves, 3 french hens... la la la la.

I could never sing the 12 days of Christmas, but I can draw the twelve days of Christmas!. ( this design was inspired by some seagulls that were eating around me while I was at lunch at crown burger one day)

think.

Re-Thinking.

Where do you think?

 If you have read my earlier posts, I have created  a painting which depicts how I see as the world thinking. I hope when you are observing these designs I have created that you really think about the meaning and why I have chosen the use of color I used. 

play.

I am beginning to write a children's book, on the small details

we miss out on as a adults through a child's perspective!

think.

THINK.

This painting I did, I was actually excited about. As you can tell everything in the painting is black and white, that is suppose to represent our daily routine living in monotony. Doing what others expect us to do and to say that sometimes we forgot about us, forget about our own energy, our own life and our own desires. The brain is rotated on the side where it should not be. This representing to think out of the box, do things that you think about but would never do. "Think" is done in color, to represent our thoughts as we see them but sometimes never do. Think in color not black and white, think about the things you can do and will do because you want to. 

boundtrach

This is a picture I took after class. 

getting what you want takes hard work, half of it is just throwing yourself out there.

Lindon.

      

I wish vacation was everyday. kkkk. I loved this trip!

Empty Nester.

So my drawings for my empty nester concept are done! I just have to mount and color. Then off to do four more concepts for portfolio. Wish me luck!

Life ( sketches) by me.

Sketch drawn before I left on my flight to Korea for 18 months.

The Barcelona Chair! Absolute Favorite! Sketch drawn from memory  

color swatch practice done by me. 

Color, texture practice swatches done by me. 

funny, lettering, to bad we have computers now. Its still important.

j.

Winter Animals

So, Roxy told me to come up with some animals that we could maybe use for our Christmas fundraiser! Let me tell you.... if you ask, I will tell you. 

After Thanksgiving, then you can decorate for Christmas, let me decorate for you!

So the trees shown below were what I have done the past three years for the Clines. This year they did a complete remodel of there front entry and living room. Thus changing the color and theme of the room. I suggested to them that we use a black Christmas Tree instead of the green tree we have always. done. This I have to agree is my favorite tree I have done. Its a lot narrower than the past. The black is not distracting at all, it looks like a dark evergreen. 

The Christmas Tree and the railway above belong to the home of Doug and Vivan Cline, they have me decorate their tree every year for Christmas. Its very fun, they give me a budget, a time line, sometimes their credit card and I go at it. I don't like the photo taken of the tree which is placed above, the flash is still on so you can see the detail of the tree. 

The pictures above are the tree I decorated for my mom who was really busy last year. I took the pictures above , but please do not think me a photographer, the lady I am interning for Roxy, says its more like I am a documenting my life. So there you have it. 

Last year, I had a Client who had Ms, and decided it would be nice If I decorated her tree as a gift for free. She told me the colors she wanted, and I went off. So if you need help with your decorations this year let me know!

sometimes

its your choice, fix it.