Monday, October 29

Fall in Missouri





Sunday morning I spent some time wondering around the woods with my incredibly creative friend Dani Kelley. She's got the best mind for original ideas for stories for the campus newspaper, photoshoot, and design- plus she doesn't let ambitious goals stop her from trying. She's the kind of girl that would seriously rock a collaborative project.

So you get it- she's awesome. Well it turns out she's also gorgeous to photograph! We talked about her centaur spirit. I'm really glad we took some time out of our busy schedules to play in the woods.



love, rudi

Wednesday, October 24

How to Find Your Calling

So here we are, in the design studio and it's 12:41 in the morning. Neither Crystal or I really have to be here right now- there's nothing due first thing in the morning, we're not panicking over a project like usual; we're just working happily.

So it seems that I've had a small revelation to share with you- especially if you're still in high school searching for colleges, or just a person searching for anything at all.




I've realized that the definition of 'passion' or 'doing what you love' really just boils down to doing something that's intuitive to you. For instance, I was just watching Project Runway and a designer mentioned how he needed to 'add luxe' to his pieces. I can't even imagine how he would do that, but I realized that I would absolutely know what to do to 'add luxe' to a poster or magazine layout. Maybe this post is just a nugget of advice for freshmen and any high schoolers reading. Whatever you do, just know that you don't need to be great at it (and you never need to become the best), you don't need to have ever done it before, but you do need to have a little intuition.

Just a tiny, tiny bit. 

love, rudi

PS. Huge thanks to Quinn for playing photographer tonight!

Saturday, October 13

Exploring the North Village Arts District

It's been a busy weekend so far, ya'll! My friends Kelly and Allia asked me to help out at their fashion show on Friday night. They design crazy clothes for The House of Vansickle, and the show was a part of Columbia's Artrageous Friday. I'm in the 'burlesque cowgirl' outfit.



Then today I helped out my friend Michelle (in the hat below) make masks for a Where the Wild Things Are themed mini-fest at the Orr Street artist studios downtown. I can't believe it's taken me three years before getting involved with this part of the community!


This is a peacock mask that I helped work on for a long time. It turned out so well!







Lesson learned? In the future I want to realize where I live and where it keeps it's treasures.

love, rudi

Wednesday, October 10

Presents!

On this impossible hard day, in this impossibly hard week, I was thrilled to see a little sticker-covered box in the mail. Does it get any better than this? Note the Ultra Pepper Spray System that sounds alarms, flashes light, sprays, and makes you an ice cream cone after you get attacked.





Just kidding about that ice cream. 

I love my family.  

love, rudi



Thursday, October 4

On Open Source and Being Territorial


This post might be a tad esoteric, so my apologies if my design jargon gets in the way. I'm going to try my best to make sure I can be translated, though, because this story and the content is important to me.

I have this new habit where instead of listening to music I watch TED talks while I work. This is something I highly recommend, by the way. My work becomes more inspired and braver when I listen to other people tell stories. It makes me braver to tell my own. 

Anyway, I've been exploring the idea of open source a lot lately- it seems that a lot of people are, not just me. Basically the idea of open source is the opposite of everything about companies today- it's all about sharing ideas and technology and instructions- basically anything considered a trade secret- for free online. It's all about "don't reinvent the wheel" and the goal is to give opportunity and inspiration to others, and provide them with basic tools and knowledge to make new things. It's better to share ideas and intellectual property for everyone's benefit rather than hiding your know how and selling them for personal profit.

I love the idea of sharing basic knowledge, like how to make a simple micro chip for example, so some young kid in Germany can invent something useful and new without needing to get an engineering degree first. I think open source is the way of the future, and can change the world.

But I found myself confronted with a problem. Recently in a design class I got really up in arms because I thought another designer's work was a liiitttttlllleee to similar to my concept. I was upset, I was territorial, but then I had to ask myself- "So, do I believe in open source or not?" It's one thing to love a theory, another to be directly affected by it. 

But the answer turned out to be yes. Because the other design used concepts I did, but turned out way better. And my own design evolved so much because I wanted so badly to be original. It took about 8 hours more of working in the studio, but it paid off.

I've realized it takes a lot of bravery to share your work. You have to be confident enough to be proud of it and hold it up to critique. Then you have to be confident enough to know that your good work wasn't a fluke, and that you can 'give it away' to the internet or the world and know that more you will make more good work in the future. 

So that was a lot. Here are some pictures of my design evolution to make your eyes feel better. 
They are magazine spreads, and I'm only showing you five designs out of twenty.

Okay. Deep breath.

Here I go.

About to share everything on the internet, where it could get lost and be stolen.

And that's okay.
This is the final design. It was my very, very last attempt and hands down my favorite!
The second page to the spread.

love, rudi