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| D-ZN Interview: Helena | |||
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 27 2011, 07:36 AM (592 Views) | |||
| Eccentric Feline | Apr 27 2011, 07:36 AM Post #1 | ||
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梦想 ツ
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Eye On![]() Interview with Helena, April 27th
So, what's your design background? How and why did you get started? I have always designed. My grandmother was a seamstress, and I grew up designing my own clothes. I did a lot of poster and print design through school. Eventually I began to create art in a fabric medium, and that is my main design area. I produce large tapestry banners for various organizations. I call my work "fabric sculpture" because it is very much a three-dimensional medium. I continue to design garments, but now mostly for theatrical and dance use. I've also done some commercial logo work and some web design. I started out in online graphic design by filling image requests and eventually started designing themes for my own boards before making them for others. What is your most cherished piece of design work, and why? My favorite piece is probably one of my most famous works: a banner that I created that is a representation of a king's robe. It's called Exalted One. Scale: about 4 feet by 9 feet high. The banner has clasps at the top outer edges and can actually be worn as well as being carried on a pole in pageantry. It was a 5 month long labor of love, as all the trim work was created from scratch, and it has thousands of individually applied rhinestones and other gems worked into the design. It is a design I love because it is unique and intricate and expresses kingly glory in a way that I've not seen done before. What design-related tool can you just not live without? For online graphics, probably the Transform tool. For my fabric medium designs....Allene's Tacky Glue! Its stronger and faster than sewing. If you could only design one type of graphic, what would it be (button, H2, submenu, signature, etc…)? If I could only pick one, I think I would choose smilies. (Not emoticons, because that's a bit too limiting. In their pure form emoticons only portray emotions, and can never have appendages.) You can be endlessly creative with them, and even build them into little movies if you are patient enough. I'm totally charmed by some of the amazing things that can be accomplished on such a small canvas. What are your thoughts on constructive verses destructive critique, and what defines a good critique to you? Destructive critique offers a negative opinion that is devoid of any help to the artist. It includes unsupported generalizations and judgments about the piece or its creator. Constructive critique points out areas that cause particular problems or design conflicts and then offers a solution. A good critique points out both things done well and things that could be improved in specific enough terms that the information can be utilized to improve the piece. Although it's not always necessary to include suggestions or solutions, the addition of them does make for a better critique, as ideas tend to inspire other ideas and directions that might not have been considered otherwise. What do you do to generate ideas, or concepts for your designs? My designs are almost always need-generated. I don't sit around and try to dream up things to do. I prefer to have a project goal presented and then create a design to meet that goal. So really, the project is the motivator that generates the ideas and concepts for me. I then interpret those in as complete a package as I can manage. I look at the creation of a theme as creating a little "theme world" with it's own symbolic language, topography, and stylistic elements. Very occasionally, I will take on a project just because I'm interested in some aspect of it. The production of the imageless theme Tidy Blue was a project like that. I was interested in how much I could do with CSS gradients, border and text properties. What is the best advice you can think of for someone who wants to learn how to design and code ZB themes? To learn to design themes, I would say, just start. Find themes that you think are really good and try to figure out why they are really good. Pay attention not just to the flashy H2s, but also the color flow, the use of font and text size, and the accompanying graphics. Then begin to develop your own ideas into a print. Making a print first gives you the opportunity to work out ideas, shapes and color combinations until you find what best pleases your eye. Utilize a program like the FireFox extension FireBug or Web Developer to learn the parts of the CSS how to edit them. Those real-time editors allow you the freedom to try out adjustments and other edits before actually changing the theme coding. Alright! Quick-fire question time! If you could pick any skill in the world, what would it be? I would love to play the cello well. Pink or blue? Pink (of course!) ![]() Ice cream or Sherbet? Ice cream FTW - cappuccino chip is my current fave Sweet or Savory? Both! Honey Wheat pretzels dipped in Nutella is to die for. Chocolate covered bacon is not bad either. Vacation to Hawaii or Switzerland? Definitely Hawaii. I have often lamented that I was born to be rich and live on a beach in the tropics, but something went terribly wrong. Life without internet or life without television? Easy one. Without television. I probably watch only an hour or two of television a week. And I wouldn't miss it if I couldn't do that. Alright ... A obnoxiously drunk pink plaid panda, or a sneaky purple ninja mouse? Panda. Pink rules. Obnoxiously drunk or not. |
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| vcd | Apr 27 2011, 10:36 AM Post #2 | ||
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Nice interview, I now know even more about Helena
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| Jenny | Apr 29 2011, 07:04 PM Post #3 | ||
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Retro
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Aww. Nice interview, chica! I have never been able to sew, nor do I have the patience for it, haha. Smilies and pandas ftw, also! <3
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| Cory | Apr 29 2011, 10:23 PM Post #4 | ||
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Nice interview. Helena is one of my most favorite people, I have known her for plenty of years and we have done various projects together, including themes and boards. Her design skills are amazing and she's always improving in areas of design. She knows how to piece together style very well. | ||
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