And now for something a little lighter

If there are any regular bfrancesi blog readers out there, you may incorrectly assume the only thing I'm doing in grad school is Design Research. That's partly true, but I'm also doing an incredible amount of other work too, like product packaging for my 3D Formal Investigations class. Essentially it's a standard packaging project, but it's been a fun alternative to some of the other coursework I'm doing at the moment. My goal was to design a package for pastries that was easy to carry, easy for employees to pack, stylish, and didn't require customers to transfer the pastries to a separate platter for presentation purposes (i.e. no ugly boxes). And just to up the cuteness factor? The tote is designed carry mini pastries.

Enjoy. And go have a mini pastry. Thanks to my studio mate Jackie for modeling.

One week of grad school is…

48 line, value & interval studies1 paper describing an object without using descriptive language Lots of reading 63 form studies 1 book review event 1 workshop + 2 posters 1 research presentation providing a solution for the retail pharmacy experience 3 blog posts 10 hours of  B'stro work 1 happy, slightly delirious, exhausted, crazy-eyed 1st year student

Reflecting Forward

I'm not typically the type of girl to create a long (or even short) list of New Year's Resolutions. In general, I feel like creating of a giant list (or small) of things I'm not allowed to do that year is simply setting myself up for failure. A few years ago, I read an article that found people who write down what they want to accomplish are more successful in accomplishing their goals than those who don't. So for the past two years, I've posted a short list of items I'd like to achieve in the upcoming year. Sometimes I hit those goals and sometimes I don't, and I'm okay with that. Last year I wanted to:

1. Find my style 2. Learn letterpress 3. Apply to grad school 4. Learn something new about myself

I accomplished 2 out of the 4 items on my list. I wasn't able to learn letterpress because I started a job 4 days after I moved to San Francisco, and I didn't apply to grad school because of timing (and that one is going to be re-recycled for this year). So here's the list for 2012:

1. Draw and design for myself Two years ago (was it really 2 years?!) I embarked on a 365 challenge to create 1 design per business day for 52 weeks of the year. I only made it through August, but didn't consider it a failure because I learned quite a lot about myself as a designer and artist during that time. Designing without any direction forced me to evaluate design choices, cultivate creativity and learn more intimately about what I was passionate about.

2. Blog more This one relates directly to the goal in position 1. The more I create for myself, the more I will blog. Regardless, I've been feeling a lack of personal creativity in my life lately. Here's to banishing that in every way possible. (Image from Stefan Sagmeister)

3. Wear more dresses No matter how many sequins I wear, I'm a tomboy at heart. I grew up around mostly boys and loved every minute of it. Not because they were cute, but because I loved sports and a good competition. I remember begging my cousins not to "go easy on me" because I wanted to be treated as an equal. However, with my semi-new pixie cut, I have a new-found desire to come across as slightly more feminine. Thanks to a vintage/thrift-store shopping trip with a great friend, I have a few new girly-girl dresses that are just slightly out of my comfort zone. A great start to this goal? I think so. (Image from On The Racks)

4. Apply for grad school I know. You've seen this one enough, but this year I'm serious. A Master's degree has always been un-questionable for me and I'm not getting any younger. Now that I know we plan to be in the Bay Area for a while (and not New York or London), it's time to start getting serious. Really serious.

I'd love to know. What are your goals for 2012?

Goals for 2011

Lately, Erin over at Design for Mankind has been encouraging her followers to create a Life List. While I don't know that I'm ready to share mine yet, I do have a few items to tackle for 2011. 1. Find my style While I've always been proud to have grown up in Kansas, and have lived in small midwest towns for all of my 27 years, I admit, it doesn't do much for your selection of clothing. I tend to flip flop back and forth between Forever 21, LOFT, and Banana Republic. With an abundance of styles and fashion choices just a month away, I've decided this is the year. I'm gonna find it. Photo from Rachel Larraine Headpieces

2.  Learn letterpress I once read that if you write your goals down you are more likely to accomplish them, and I've always wanted to learn letterpress. So there. Done. Plus, I secretly hope to find a job in San Francisco at a design / letterpress shop. Photo from HotBedPress.org

3. Apply to grad school (recycled) This one is recycled from last year's to do list and I've already got a good start. I had all of my schools picked out and was in the process of applying when we learned that we would be moving, so it was pushed to the back burner. Well back burner no more! Grad school, here I come. Photo from RISD.edu

Three seems like a good number of goals (I have a thing for odd numbers) but I have a fourth goal which is really more of a challenge.

4. Learn something new about myself I'm not typically the type of person who thinks about who I am or what I want to be. In fact, I'm the type of personal who tends to do things on a whim (which can be really, really good, or really, really bad). So this year, while it may seem like an odd goal to some of you, I challenge myself to take some time to learn just one new thing about who I am. Can I do it? We'll see in 2012. Photo from Tina Tyrell