other places

My new favorite blog to look at is Design Crush. All of her posts are short and sweet, with tons of fun products and art to drool over, and the most amazing recipes for foods I never knew I always wanted to make! Check it out, you might get a crush too.

making friends

I'm tired of not knowing anyone in my apartment building, so I made a little poster to put by the mail boxes. Hopefully I will make some new friends. I'm no graphic designer, but I think this is pretty groovy.

three great covers

Recently, I've been obsessing over covers. Over the last few months, I've come across a few that stand up as equals with the originals, and the originals are really wonderful. So check them out!

First up, Going Up The Country. The original by Canned Heat is a twangy acoustic blues-rock piece. Imagine yourself sitting out on the porch with a cold beer while you listen to this one. The cover by Kitty, Daisy and Lewis is fantastic departure, in a '50s Hawaiian-rockabilly style. Tap your toes and start dancin!
Canned Heat - Going up the Country
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Going up the Country


Next is My Girls, or in the case of the cover, My Boys. The original by Animal Collective is a stunningly beautiful experimental indie rock ballad. Its serene, peaceful, and inspiring to listen to. The cover is performed by Swedish indie artist Taken By Trees, in a bouncy folk style. Sweet, lively, and just plain happy.
Animal Collective - My Girls
Taken By Trees - My Boys

Finally, one of my favorite songs of all time, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Tears for Fears' original version is a piece of 80's synth rock perfection. It's the epitome of the genre. The cover by Clare and the Reasons is a cheeky orchestral indie-folk delight. This live performance for Daytrotter is honest and lovely.
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Clare and the Reasons - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

I hope you envoy all 6 of these songs as much as I do. Happy listening!

PS - If you love them, go buy them! Support the artists, y'all.

new home

The months before graduation were so hectic and stressful, there were a few times that I almost threw in the towel out of shear exhaustion. With a some much appreciated support from a few close friends, I made it through to the other side, dazed, confused, but with degree in hand! Needless to say, I needed a little time off to let my brain heal.

I decided to move back into my parents house so I could save some money and plan for the next stage in my life. Unfortunately, putting my adult life on hold wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Most of the pit falls were easy enough to patch up, but some of them are much harder to come to terms with. Maybe these things were all meant to be. Then again, maybe the answers are waiting just ahead. Only time will tell.

As planned, with the new year came a new living arrangement. Despite my yearning to live somewhere like Seattle or San Francisco, I actually really love my job here in Tacoma, so I decided to stick around for a while longer. My sister and I are now sharing a super cute vintage apartment in the heart of downtown Tacoma. It's the first apartment that either of us have payed for completely on our own. Needless to say, we are very excited for this huge milestone!

Being self sufficient for the first time in an immensely wonderful feeling. Not that I didn't enjoy hanging around my parents house, because that certainly had it's perks; but it's incredibly uplifting to come home to a beautiful place that's truly my own.

So cheers to having a job, a roommate, and a home that I love!

Here are a few photos to help everyone get acquainted with my new place. Forgive the darkness, but daylight is hard to come by this time of year. Maybe I'll capture some this weekend.

here's our 1920's original kitchen, complete with ice box

the pink and turquoise bathroom, matching paisley shower curtain is a must!

the very intimate sitting area with its vintage love seats and Chinese tea tables

and my little boudoir. I haven't been able to hang my art yet since no store in town seems to carry hooks for picture molding. I had to order some from a catalog!

work stuff

My company decorated for a northwest camping themed party last week. Here are a few photos I took just before the lights were dimmed for the event.

Check out more of our work at PJHummel.com

walking to work

I walked to work from downtown Tacoma the other day. It was a beautiful morning and I wanted to share it :)

The old 11th st bridge. The road deck is in bad shape, so it's closed to cars, but it's still open to pedestrians.

Here's the view from the bridge.

A cool old warehouse close to my work.

Another cool old ware house. Wonder how level the second floor is...

This last one was taken at Riley's mama's house in Olympia. It rained almost all weekend, but there was a break on Sunday morning and we got to see this awesome rainbow that ended in the bay wigght outside the window. So pretty!

playboy = cosmopolitan

I came across this old Playboy article today. Amazing! Apparently you can tell everything about a woman just by the way she crosses her legs.

Strikingly similar to this article about men from Cosmo.






source: the selvedge yard

stemware

After finalizing the design for my aluminum stemware, I created some 3D computer models in Rhinoceros CAD and got them SLAed (3d printed). The result is what you see below.

These models are currently at a foundry, being cast in aluminum. They have a hollow, honeycomb internal structure and are very delicate so that the aluminum can easily fill the cavity. The red portions are foundry wax, which I used to beef up the areas that might have been too thin to cast well.

It's a shame that they're about to be incinerated by molten metal. The wax and translucent plastic were really beautiful.

stemware

My senior project this year is stemware design. The center piece will be a set of 3 glasses - red wine, white wine, and champagne - made of polished aluminum and glass. There will also be a low-end "picnic" set of glasses, made of colorful plastic. Each set of glasses will have a matching tray and package design.

My class's full collection of stemware will be on display at our senior show: June 2nd at Mithun, Seattle.

Here is some of my preliminary work.


the sketch that inspired my collection


technical drawing for plastic


technical drawing for aluminum & glass


studio photo of prototype models


class critique

This project is still in progress. More photos to come!

art

I went to see some performance art by John Grade. This project, called Bloom: The Elephant Bed, is eco-art aimed to draw attention to the grandeur of the environment. 10 corn based sculptures are marched through downtown and into the bay, where they dissolve and disappear. Unfortunately, some people in city hall were concerned that people might *think* the project was environmentally harmful, so the march was forbidden from entering the bay. Read an article about that mess here. So instead of majestically dissolving into the bay, the sculptures were brought to Maritime Park and hosed down by the fire department. Apparently environmentalists don't care about grass...









I also meet some robots.

trip to boeing part 2

I got some really great feedback on my portfolio from the designers at Boeing. Here's one of my projects that went over really well.

This is Pouch. I reusable tote bag made from used grocery bags.

a trip to boeing

I went to a portfolio review at the Boeing 787 Gallery this weekend. The designers from Boeing looked at seniors industrial design portfolios from UW, Emily Carr and WWU, then gave us tips for improving them. Before the review, we got a tour of the new 878 showroom. We got to try out all sorts designs for 787 interiors!


first class

cockpit

crew quarters

lighting schemes

economy class, sans chairs

the aftermath

here are some shots of the ID studio at the end of the year. can you tell that we never go home?

neat lights

i like the one that looks like puke