Group Marketing Package

When I was an intern at CBI one of the most impressive things I noticed was their firm marketing materials. Everything was compiled into templates, formulas, and prefabricated proposal parts. When a new project or proposal binder was to be created, all that needed to be done was to pull together the parts needed and fill in the blanks of the pre configured templates. All the work that was done only needed to be done once in advance. It was a brilliant system really, and a fine tuned way of doing business.

This assignment really made me appreciate all that groundwork that had been laid out. It is impressive that when something is well designed and composed, it goes largely un noticed. This seems to be the testament of good design in general. Either it is bad and we see that it is bad, or it is good and we only notice the content. Getting a firm marketing package together that fit this simple, yet impressively difficult bill is quite the lengthy task.

This assignment was a unique one for sure. I found it particularly difficult to balance the workload of studio, as well as the group work involved in this one. To a degree it felt as if I had two studios.

Personal Marketing Package

The personal marketing package is something I have struggled with consistently since the first time we had to put together a portfolio a few years ago. I find myself going from one design to the next without being able to commit to one without finding another I like better and changing. It seems something akin to designing a house for oneself. God forbid you ever move into it, you would never stop the critique! The only resume I have shown to an employer was one that I put together for my internship interview at CBI, and it was very unimpressive across the board. It was very plain and very simple in design. To be honest they barely even looked at it.

From doing this exercise I resolved some of my ideas about what a portfolio should be. I tend to think that the graphic design should be very good and catchy, yet the mechanical and physical personification of it should be as simple as possible. I don't know what most employers feel about portfolio design... from what I have learned thus far, the job search is something akin to dating... there are no hard and fast rules to go on. However, my limited experience has shown me that very little of a portfolio is actually viewed since the conversation in relation to the portfolio ought to take center stage.

For the same purposes as the first assignment, I think this is also an assignment that should have successive iterative submissions. This way all the kinks can be ironed out, all the edges filed down so to speak.

Proposal Response

It is interesting how the most elemental parts of a personal job hunt are the most difficult at times. Just being able to describe yourself in a succinct and deliberate way is something we do very seldom it seems. Without a job title to use to describe ourselves, it almost becomes what feels like a long reach to characterize who we are on paper.

While I did not enjoy the assignment, I did find it enriching because cover letters and resumes are not necessarily something I have worked on to any degree in the past. I also feel that this is an assignment that should have been repeated multiple times throughout the semester with successive revisions and critique. I tend to gravitate to a militaristic view of conditioning when it comes to skill development. Do it once, then do it a hundred times, and then you will be able to consistently perform under normal circumstances at half of what is your best.

In retrospect I think this assignment was great, though it certainly would take on a whole new life if it were repeated several times over.

Building Design Charette

These are sketchup snapshots of a preliminary building design used for our site and building design charettes. The Layout was a combination of a few different groups' projects.

Programming Document

My group handled the sustainability portion of the programming document. This we tackled in various different aspects such as parking, water use, lighting, etc... This is an example of how we approached each subject from a general standpoint highlighting the problem, solution, and considerations.

Individual Detail Project: Checkout Desk

The circulation and checkout desk became my individual building detail by way of an involved and long process. It took many different forms, but ultimately became the relatively simple solution shown. It featured self checkouts as primary processing with light staffing for technical and service support. It is constructed of a steel frame which supports OSB and Dupont Corian surfaces. High pressure laminate is used for shelving and cabinetry as well.

I did not come up with a flowery metaphor to use as a concept which would generally be expected, particularly in this program. Rather I chose to integrate it as seamlessly as possible with the design language of the stacks and atrium groups' designs. This became a much more streamlined solution and lent itself well to unification of the two spaces.

Salt Lake City Public Library

This is part of my precedent research completed on the Salt Lake City Public Library. It is an incredibly complex and interesting building. I shudder to think what the programming document must have looked like for this project. I learned a great deal particularly when looking at the structural organization of the building. It took a bit of investigation and close examination to determine where columns and structural members were located in the plan, but once they were located the order of what looked like chaos became very obvious.