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hi, im ashley einspahr

ashley einspahr

and my journey to kcai began just last year, transferring in as a junior from a small community college [CLICK]in norfolk, nebraska. before transferring, i thought i already had a pretty good grasp of what i needed to know to be a professional designer. but i soon found out that i still had a LOT to learn.

and my journey to kcai began just last year, transferring in as a junior from a small community college [CLICK]in norfolk, nebraska. before transferring, i thought i already had a pretty good grasp of what i needed to know to be a professional designer. but i soon found out that i still had a LOT to learn.

as seen in this hypothetical mint packaging project, the projects during my previous education were fun and interesting, but they lacked a key design ingredient that id soon learn at kcai and that would change how i designed forever. that ingredient is concept.

because this transition of schools and all that i had yet to learn threw me for such a loop, i wasnt very fond of many my beginning projects when rst starting here. but one thing i did get to explore for the rst time and found myself really loving was motion, and even moreso narratives. i love being able to carefully design how an audience receives information and is impacted by it. an example of one of my rst narrative & motion pieces is this kinetic typography assignment done to illustrate rhythmic and erratic poems by gertude stein.

because this transition of schools and all that i had yet to learn threw me for such a loop, i wasnt very fond of many my beginning projects when rst starting here. but one thing i did get to explore for the rst time and found myself really loving was motion, and even moreso narratives. i love being able to carefully design how an audience receives information and is impacted by it. an example of one of my rst narrative & motion pieces is this kinetic typography assignment done to illustrate rhythmic and erratic poems by gertude stein.

this is another motion piece i did rst semester - a logo build for a hypothetic recording company designed by a senior. [click] the stars moving inwards and forming the logo represent musicians coming together to make music.

this is another motion piece i did rst semester - a logo build for a hypothetic recording company designed by a senior. [click] the stars moving inwards and forming the logo represent musicians coming together to make music.

something ive recently discovered while looking back through previous design projects is that i really enjoy designing for youth,

as in this typeface design triggered at the modern day indie culture

using tribal-like letter forms for abstract typography attracting a younger audience.

in information architecture my second semester, i had my rst opportunity to design an iphone app that was tailored for roller derby girls looking for style inspiration for the track.

i ended up having a blast with this project and

soon found that i had a love for interface design

with this project, i was provided another opportunity to work with a narrative and some motion to promote this app. i did so by introducing roller derby in an engaging way through imagery and appropriate music, and taking one of the roller derby girls cheap trixie through the iphone app. this is where i really began to notice my love for setting up narratives.

over the summer, i was lucky enough to have another opportunity to design an iphone app, except this time for an actual app.

after seeing my roller derby app on my portfolio, i was contacted by team that wanted me to remotely redesign their offline dating app - yumixo

i was thrilled to work on this project and learn more about designing for actual applications

and study other interfaces to achieve even the smallest, generally unnoticed details.

i obviously learned a tonnnnn from this project and found more desire to continue this area of design.

after discovering my interests in interface, motion and narratives i was really excited to take multi-media experience this year where my partner, jessie ren, and i were able to work with all three of these areas of design. we built a social network and gaming based learning community that focuses on connecting 5th grade students to their relevant social world

after discovering my interests in interface, motion and narratives i was really excited to take multi-media experience this year where my partner, jessie ren, and i were able to work with all three of these areas of design. we built a social network and gaming based learning community that focuses on connecting 5th grade students to their relevant social world

through new types technology such as this teacher wrist remote that controls the wall-displayed kinect game that you just saw as well as

an online hub for the students to complete homework assignments and contribute to a class blog. this provided an opportunity to design my rst tablet-sized app.

this semester, i also was able to touch back on my love for designing for youth in inspiring ways and design in relation to another passion of mine - music <3

for my branding project in design systems, i proposed a music therapy center brand that was triggered towards troubled youth

and helping them to express themselves through music

and collaborating musically with others and apply my developed brand styles across different applications

i focused on creating an inspirational motion piece for this brand that demonstrates the passion that youth can express through music, and utilizes patterns and illustration to show music coming from within each person and outwards into music. this relates back to the idea of "pulse" being connected both to the pulse within as well as the musical pulse.

i focused on creating an inspirational motion piece for this brand that demonstrates the passion that youth can express through music, and utilizes patterns and illustration to show music coming from within each person and outwards into music. this relates back to the idea of "pulse" being connected both to the pulse within as well as the musical pulse.

SCREEN-BASED DESIGN

so when rst coming to kcai, i never had an specic focus area of design. i just loved it all. but not until recently have i discovered my love for screen based design.

SCREEN-BASED DESIGN

keeping in mind this, as well as my other mentioned interests such as...

INTERFACE

interface

MOTION

motion

NARRATIVES

narratives

INSPIRATION

inspiration

YOUTH

youth

MUSIC

music

ANALOG

and this recent drive ive been on to explore bringing more analog into my design, such learning to incorporate my own photography, lm, music, and whatnot

degree project proposal

im hoping to nd an answer that includes at least some of these aspects and allows me to explore them more, as i explore ideas for a possible degree project for next semester

ive decided that id really like to make a tool of some sort to help a certain community the community ive decided to focus on are musicians, specically independent, unsigned musicians

being somewhat of a musician myself, i thought back to the problem i had growing up in an extremely small town where it was difficult to nd others that enjoyed playing music, especially the same type of music as myself. so i was never provided with the opportunity to collaborate musically for this reason.

and collaborating is a huge part of making music, in order to learn from one another and make more elaborate music.

these thoughts led me to think about the band, the postal service, who is famously known for the band members who snail mailed each other cd-rs back and forth across the country to make their rst album.

so ive started exploring the idea of how useful it would be if there was a tool to make this process easier, whether the distance be across the country, or even a few hours away. ive dug into more modern day ways this is being done today, but have failed to nd anything really impressive or that looks really facilitates the experience for musicians. so for my degree project next semester, i propose this question

how can interactive design be used to inspire unsigned, independent musicians to collaborate and connect musically from different areas?

how can

how can interactive design be used to inspire unsigned, independent musicians to collaborate and connect musically from different areas?

interactive design be used to

how can interactive design be used to inspire unsigned, independent musicians to collaborate and connect musically from different areas?

inspire unsigned, independent musicians to collaborate musically

how can interactive design be used to inspire unsigned, independent musicians to collaborate and connect musically from different areas?

from different areas?

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