What's On Tami's Mind?

Don't like to say bye  Instead I just say "See Ya!" We will meet again This is what I can remember from my "goodbye" haiku in class. But I thought I would share it here. I don't know when I will be back to this blog. I definitely plan on the future because I really enjoy sharing parts of myself so it is not a good bye. Definitely not. Just a see you later. It might be tomorrow, a week, a month. But blog- we will meet again Best, Tami.

When I first heard about blogging, I was  so  excited — mostly because my younger self, the one who grew up watching  iCarly , thought having a blog was the absolute coolest thing ever. Like, the idea that you could just have a little corner of the internet to talk about your creativity. Dream come true. It was really nice having a space to just ramble about all my ideas and projects without feeling like I was oversharing. But, honestly... being consistent was harder than I thought- especially during this SUPER busy semester. I figured out pretty quickly that setting a specific amount of posts and a deadline was the only way I could actually stay on track. Otherwise, I’d just kind of... forget about it (oops)- which I kind of did. I do hope to return to blogging one day — there's still so much I want to say about all the random creative ideas  in my head. But lately I find myself leaning more towards video-based platforms. Blogger isn’t really built for high-quality ...

Sooo this is scary. It was supposed to be a cute little smiley face with hair and eyes but making eyes out of chili oil may not have been my brightest idea. Well, you live and you learn.      I  had to take this sad concoction out of its misery  RIP KING: GONE AND FORGOTTEN (and digested)  

 My graphic design teacher has turned me to a PAPER NERD and I thought I should spread some of it. Here is some of her paper collection I took pictures of. And I am truly doing a disservice because the coolest thing about a lot of these papers is the texture. Anyways here we go. I have an upcoming project where I make a book. My book is about letters so I am really sourcing out interesting textures, folds etc.   This is a linen pearl paper and doesn't it just look gorgeous. It has that textured soft feel of linen and pearl effect is just stunning Again this is just one of those that you are going to have to touch but it had a rougher texture Something I learnt last year in my intro to graphic design class was that what medium you chose to use is just as important as your design, in this case it is the type of paper you choose to print on.It is a little harder to tell with this photo but when I saw that middle photo my mouth watered. The glossiness made the photo look delicious...

 I wanted to talk about one of my creative dream passion projects. It is essentially a fiber arts tour of Africa. Africa has a lot to offer in terms of textile such as intricate clothes dying techniques, beading and even being the source of most "Italian leather" but most of this is unknown. I would like to do a show -on YouTube or some other platform- highlighting these unique techniques. It would be guy fire style where he actually gets in the kitchen and makes something. Every episode I would touch on a new textile technique make something with an artisan and also learn and teach it to my audience. I don't know how or when I would even go about it, but It is a project I would really like to do. AND Y'ALL ARE THE FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT IT!

 I tried out the ai doll trend and here's how it went. This was my prompt  create an image of an action figure based on the person in this photo.Show the full figure inside an original blister pack packaging. Have her wearing a funky - coogi style- sweater that is different shades of red and orange , low rise wide leg jeans and some black doc Marten 8053 platform shoes.The action figure has long black coily hair, brown skin and brown eyes. A mid size nose and average size lips. She is 22, make her look like a 22 year old and not a child. She is accessorized with a dangly star earring and silver rings and an Apple Watch with a silver band. make the box a light pink. On the top of the box is the toy name "Tami". Next to the action figure show these accessories: a pink iPad and Apple Pencil, some red yarn and a crochet hook, adobe illustrator logo, a black digital camera,  a red journal, a disposable camera. I changed out he wording a few times and these were the results I s...

Adobe Creative Cloud As a graphic design student, Adobe Creative Cloud is pretty much the holy grail. I honestly can’t imagine my workflow without it. My go-to apps are  Illustrator  (for vector work and logos),  Photoshop  (for image editing and all things visual), and  InDesign  (especially useful for layout design and anything print-related). I also love playing around with  Adobe Fonts —it’s such a great way to discover new typography styles and elevate whatever I'm working on. Canva Don’t sleep on Canva— especially Canva Pro . It’s super intuitive and perfect for quick projects, social media graphics, or presentations when I don’t feel like opening up a more complex program. I love that they have templates that are easy to tweak and make my own. Plus, the font and element libraries are pretty stacked. HP Sprocket or Canon Ivy These mini portable printers are SO fun. I use them to print quick photos from my phone and stick them into my journals or ...

I am not someone who is easily influenced, just because I really like making things for myself, value quality and have a pretty good sense of self but when I see the creative worksome people produce, I want to be better. Here are some of those people  Beyonce When it comes to a concept, there a very few people better at executing and Beyonce. Now it does help that she has a team and a support sytem around her but she is also extremely committed to talent and artistry and I really admire that. You can see that in any of her tour doccumentaries Doechi  Doechi is someone I indentify with as an "alternative"(i dont describe myself this way, this s just feedback I've gotten) black girl. Especially recently. And you can tell as she's always striving for creative enlightenment. She's shared her journey  . The link below is a performance she completely choreographed herself  Doechii- Stephen Colbert . Everything from the connected braids to the choreography to the outfits...

  Funny Story 9/10: Emily Henry, I could give you a big wet kiss. A plot that would be otherwise nonsensical, somehow had me obsesses. I listened to the audiobook In 3 days, I could't put it down. I really liked the plot and it wasn't to cheesy for a romance novel. Already added two of her other books to my waitlist  Just for the summer 8.5/10: This book was really good. Again, i am a romance fan who usually finds romance really corny but this was  not corny at all. I love the plot. I liked the actual production of the audiobook This Could be Us 7.5/10: Really interesting premise, a woman's husband gets arressted for fraud by the fbi and she has to deal with the man who put her husband in jail. A tad unrealistic as I can't imagine anyworld where I would be fine with my mother dating the man that put my father in jail(even if he was guilty) yet all her 3 children were. Additionally the male main character's voice in the audiobook was very lifeless and monotone which ...

 I love to collect a pin or a patch every time I travel. This is a slow growing collection but I think its cute and love to share it. I recently lost my most important pin- my bucees pin - but I love this tradition. And fun fact- it has a lot to do with my creativity project 3

Louise carmen notebook  - I have been seeing people create these Louise Carmen notebook sleeves. Considering they cost 200 dollars and a trip to France, I understand why as they are so cute and customizable. I wanted to make one for my friend and myself but after shopping around leather costs, I might wait to got to Nigeria as there is more affordable, high-quality leather. beaded jewelry  -following the bankruptcy and liquidation of Joanns fabric, I acquired some beads but this adds to my ever growing list of jewelry to be made. I just haven't gotten around to it but I know they will be cute. I feel likes summer is the perfect time to take up beading.After all, WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE WEARING LESS, ACCESORIZE MORE! I want to add to my accessory collection with beaded jewelry. Skull caps - with the same theme of jewelry, I want to add color and texture to my wardrobe and these crochet skull caps are IT! I don't have a pattern yet but I have the creators YouTube video saved and will...

 I have designed a few articles but never used grid systems. For my typography class we used them and it just made the entire publication design process so much more seamless. It reminds me that sometimes constraints can be guidelines that get you where you need to go faster. Anyways, here's the results I really like these especially the second and almost wish they were for a real article .

 

becoming vegetarian  hike table mountain knit a 100 sweaters  own  a home with a conversation pit have an herb garden become a polyglot That's all for now

 Earlier I mentioned i cleaned my room, it is alsways har for me to have a clean room and keep it thst way because I have so much clutter. The last time I went to Nigeria my dad brought me an old speaker that didnt work anymore and asked me if I had a use for it, while it didnt make the cut (mainly because I had limited baggage) it represens a common theme in my life that others see in me- I like to take simply meaningless things or things with potential and hold on to them. Sometimes it is because I know there is a perfect project that they can be used in for the future other times it may just be because they are hard to let go of. And sometimes its just that I am to lazy to think of what to do with them. Most people will say that I am sentimental but I dont think emotion is what drives these possessions. That's why i really love junk journaling because Its a great way to let go of my clutter. Anyways, heres some of my favorite clutter. I am going to be honest, I am struggling to ...

 in honor of me cleaning my room i want to show my favorite corner of my room. I love sewing and unfortunately haven't had time to do it as much as I would have liked this semester. I have had creative outlets in other ways that arent this. But i hope to one day return to a time when I can as I have invested so much time and love into my sewing corner and still working on it. One of my prixed possesions is my hand painted pegboard. I painted  some monstera flowers on it to add a touch of nature that matches the  rest of my room. We also have a yarn work in project (it is for my creative project so stayed tuned in) In this corner we have my favorite incinerables, a knickknack my cousin gave me from South Africa, and an ashtray (i dont smoke but my friends got it for me on a trip i was too sick to go to). I use it to hold pins and other stuff while sewing In this corner, i am planning on adding another pegboard with shelves for my camera and camera accessories collection bu...

This was an interesting but difficult project for me because it required a lot of research.  The task was to make a foldable and poster of a type designer. I had the type artist's website pulled up on my page for weeks, watched several interviews and studied her work and also study the fonts. I struggled with getting all the type information on one page and balancing celebrating an artists but not copy pasting her style. And i had to think about because it was also a foldable so I had to think about in several dimensions. I wish I saved the photo of the foldable. I liked the aesthetic turnout but missed some of the typograph information i should have inserted. I really like how the project encouraged research and 3 dimensional thinking.  

 Here are some photos from my trip to Lagos, Nigeria that I haven't gotten to post or put anywhere. \ Most are from a Yoruba Museum I went to an the others are pretty sunset pictures and lunch I had where I tasted grilled calamari for the first time

 This is one of my favorite creations I made on the laser cutter, I made it for a gift exchange so I dont have it anymore but here's a photo I took of it.

I am on the ART team for SMU Look and I had to design a magazine layout for a story on customization, particularly embroidery. Right off the bat-as a fiber arts nerd- I knew I wanted some sort of embroidered effect in the text or imagery. I thought it would be hard to make and got to searching on YouTube. I had checked a few weeks ago as I wake to use the effect on something else and there was a super longwinded way of doing it. Between the four to five weeks difference between those two searches, Adobe had released a parametric embroidery filter on photoshop beta. Which cut down my design time so much. So here are some iterations I made playing with the filter.

 Here is an endorsement I made on canvas for some students running for offices. I made this really quickly as I needed a short turnaround time.