above: Like A Flame brochure promoting Lawrence, KS
PSU Adjunct Faculty Chris North is teaching 471 this quarter. Read more below about Chris in her own words!
think | question | explore | create
I love the process of design. The thinking that goes into creating a beautiful brand is the same thinking that can be applied to product development, architecture, teaching and strategic planning. It is awesomely powerful. It has given me the freedom to pursue a variety of careers—creative director, designer, business owner, teacher, architecture marketer, sculptor, business coach.
above: Latitude Masthead for in-house publication
inspiration | motivation | passions
• street scenes–store fronts, way-finding, people inter-acting
• outsider art
• magazines/newspapers–photography, page layout, editorial content (favorites: Metropolis, Juxtapose, Mix, National Geographic) I like to gain insight from what is fresh–hot off the press.
• travel–any place that is not familiar. It can be as easy as driving through a neighborhood you have never visited before.
• sustainability–everything is inter-connected. As designers we need to always strive for solutions that practice good stewardship of resources (human and natural).
• people–students, colleagues, friends, strangers
• literature–I have two favorites right now, The Photographer, a graphic novel about doctors without borders in Afghanistan and the Anne Dillard reader, she has an incredible ability to visualize content for a reader.
above: SERA Architects Vision Brochure, interior spread
current | projects
I am working on two projects right now in addition to teaching and making sculpture.
• re-inventing a business
My client’s current business has been to develop and produce dimensional products that are brand reminders for select pharmaceutical companies. She discovered that her real passion was for developing products that are lifestyle or educational aides for patients living with chronic diseases. It was not for brand reminders that have a short lifespan. Together we are working on a new business plan and marketing strategy that will drive her “new” company. It will include renaming the business and creating a new identity that will fit the market she is selling to. This also means teaming with a writer and photographers.
• brand for Linda Brown
My friend Linda is a textile designer. She felts beautifully complex color palettes into products that range from handbags to table runners. We are working on an identity and marketing tools to promote her product lines.
• sculpture
I devote my Fridays to making art–specifically ceramic sculpture. I’m new at this so I find that it can be painfully frustrating but at the same time I get totally lost in the building and carving and firing.
Spare Change, ceramic prototype for series
Flickr groups
ART 471 Winter 10
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1288194@N24
ART 471 Fall 09
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1233996@N21
ART 471 Spr 09
http://www.flickr.com/groups/art471spr09
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