WHAT: My first foray into woodworking

WHY: Obstinance - because I refused to pay $1500+ to buy one

TIME: ~6 months 

OUTCOME: See for yourself!

The Brown Water Club was a logo design I did pro-bono for a coworker. He was starting a whiskey-appreciation club, and asked if I could help him make some visuals to get things going. Before creating the logo, we met two times so he could give me a background on the history of whiskey, and his personal interests in its creation. The second time we whiteboarded, sketched, and created a mood board of visual inspirations. I then took the results of our brainstorming away, created several different logo iterations, and then had the club members vote on which logo they liked the most. Finally, we contracted with a local tradesman who did acid-etching, and he made us an initial run of 12 whiskey glasses that were branded with the logo. The club meets once a month, and is growing fast!

In college, I become obsessed with the laser cutter at our local makerspace. For a prototyping class, I was inspired to create my own Settlers of Catan board after I decided $50 was too much to pay for some paper and wood (the real board game). The board itself came out so well, I went on to design and build the entire of Settlers of Catan game from the ground up. I made 3 complete sets, which were given away as gifts to those I value most.

I created the designs in Illustrator and Rhino, and did the cuts on 1/4" treated maple.

Each set takes about 30-40 hours to make, with extensive hand sanding and gluing.

I was inspired to make these after finding some really cool silhouette wire art. I used Illustrator to trace the animal outlines, converted them to Rhino files, and cut them out on 1/4" treated maple.

When I was applying to one of my undergrad degrees, Informatics, they, like so many others, had essay prompts for potential applicants to fill out. However, we were also given the creative option to substitute one of our essays with a video instead. This was just too tempting for me, and so I created the following video as a response to the prompt: what do you hope to accomplish with a degree in Informatics?

I loved making this video because it challenged me to identify what is was that drove towards Informatics in the first place, and how my journey had played out up until this point. I applaud the Informatics program for thinking outside the box, and allowing students to find unique and creative ways to express who we are through mediums other than the generic "write an essay" path.

Enjoy.

Let's be honest, moms kinda kick ass. When my I found Mother's Day 2013 fast approaching, and my mom currently teaching in Unalakleet, AK, about 1,800 miles away, I knew a conventional gift or card wasn't going to cut it. So when my good friend Marissa Ho approached me with the idea to make this joint video as a tribute to our mothers, who we would both not be able to share the day with in person, I couldn't resist. We spent a few hours planning things, recruited the one and only Brennen Smith to serve as the cameraman and editor, and recorded and finished it all in the same day. 

Thanks for everything mom, couldn't have made it this far without you. ♥