Aerial Views of Los Angeles Basin

Glendale/Pasadena area... Look closely at in the bottom right quadrant and you can make out the Rose Bowl.

I’m in Los Angeles again on a business trip. I’m so appreciative that Matt was able to take two days off work to make the 12-hour drive from Colorado and spend the weekend with me in the city. He flew back to Grand Junction yesterday and took these amazing aerial shots from the plane.

Our old neighborhood stomping grounds ... Hollywood, the Cahuenga Pass, and Studio City.

Antelope Valley... I like this one because you can really make out the parallel roads and development all along the valley floors. There’s sprawl as far as the eye can see!

Check out Matt’s flickr page here.

Poster Concepts

I’m working on a new poster design for FIDM... These are a few of my best sketches so far. I’m not sure which one the client will like best. Do you have a favorite?

Yet More Utah Wildflowers

Delphinium, I think.

What an amazing year for wildflowers in the desert. All the unseasonal rains have given the wildflowers something to sing about! I can’t wait to get up to the San Juan Mountains here in Colorado to see the blooms up there.

We actually found the delphinium and these irises blooming in the La Sal Mountains, so I guess it isn’t technically the desert... but we literally must’ve seen 10,000 of these pretty lavender guys.

I think this is a kind of penstemon.

The cactuses were blooming by the hundreds in two shocking colors of hot pink and a sort-of mango color. I’ve never seen such prolific cactuses in all my life!

Late Spring / Southern Utah

Last weekend Matt and I went back to Southeast Utah for one last desert adventure before it gets too hot. We camped on Cedar Mesa and looked around the Anasazi ruins at Moonhouse. The next day we drove up Butler Wash and hiked to the top of Comb Ridge.

View of the San Juan River canyons south to Monument Valley from our campsite at Muley Point (in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area).

View to the west from Comb Ridge, looking over Comb Wash. The desert is really green this year because of the unusual rains and cool weather we’ve had this spring. Notice the dirt road running along the valley floor.

Check out this crazy overhang where the Anasazi built their homes over 800 years ago! This area is called “Moonhouse”.

A bunch of yokels from Blanding, Utah were arrested last week for pillaging through similar sacred Native American sites and stealing artifacts off public lands and then illegally trafficking them for a profit of about $350,000. One of the thieves, the local Morman physician, had been caught for this kind of activity before... and yet he continued to disregard the law. After he was released on bail, he committed suicide. Now many locals are blaming the government for his death.

I find it ironic and completely hypocritical of these Mormans whose ansestors came to Utah to escape religious persecution, to then turn around and desecrate and disrespect the religious artifacts of another marginalized group. I’m so disappointed that there are still people in this country who feel and act as if Native Americans don’t belong on the land their people have occupied for millennia. . . Especially in a place as beautiful and spiritually inspiring as Utah.

Interview with Yours Truly on CranbrookDesign.com

College view book cover I designed for The Boston Conservatory

I was honored when my friend Arjen Noordeman of Elasticbrand recently asked for an interview with me for the Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni site he runs. I talk about my professional design work, my work as a design educator, my painting practice, my yoga practice, and my love of the outdoors (whew! that’s a lot!)... An excerpt is posted below... Check out the entire interview at CranbrookDesign.com. Thanks, Arjen!

: : : :

Arjen Noordeman: 1. Over the past ten years you have been involved with teaching at the college level, is this something you purposely chose to do, in addition to working as a designer, right out of Cranbrook?

Danielle Foushee: It sort-of happened by accident. About a year out of Cranbrook, I got a call from Denise Gonzales-Crisp, who was teaching at Art Center at the time, to sub for her class one day. I had a great experience with the students and was asked to teach a full class the following term. I think I was younger than half the students in the class, which gave me the opportunity to cultivate a certain kind of collaborative, cooperative environment that I have tried to maintain as I’ve gotten older.

AN: 2. Has being an educator and a mentor to young designers influenced your outlook on the profession in particular ways over the years?

DF: My thesis at Cranbrook was all about the emotional connection between our thoughts and our actions, and that is still my main motivation eleven (!) years later. If graphic design is primarily about persuasion, then we have to know how to get the audience to act on our messages. We have to understand the audience’s emotional motivations. I think emotion trumps reason every time, so my work always comes from that point of view.
The interesting thing about this is that I’ve found it to be true with my professional design practice and also when I design projects for students. If students can’t find some reason to buy in on a personal level, they won’t have the most rewarding learning experience in the classroom. Almost all the projects I assign give students flexibility to tailor the assignments to their own personal story. In my professional work, I also try to open up a space where my audience can situate themselves personally into the story I’m telling/selling.

Click HERE to read the entire interview.

My Design Process in Action

I’ve been trying to design a good cover for the new FIDM college catalog that’s scheduled to deliver in July... You can see the stages of my process in this sequence, with the most recent at the top and the earliest designs at the bottom.

The entire cover is pictured = Back+Spine+Front. The vertical line on the right side of the front cover represents an elastic band that will come around from the back like a moleskin sketchbook.

Which one do you like best?

Recent Sketchbook Entries

I work in a lot of different media, experimenting to see what different effects I can get when combining different kinds of pens or pencils or inks, or whatever. These are some recent drawings from my sketchbook.

I usually carry my sketchbook everywhere... Some drawings are more “finished” than others. Some are just pencil outlines, others are completely shaded with color or graphite. I guess it depends on my level of patience from one day to the next.

I started this one at a campground in Canyonlands. I like it, but didn’t feel like working on it anymore so I moved onto something else. Maybe I’ll complete it in a different media or turn it into a painting or collage at some point.

Cardboard Art by Mark Langan

Ohio artist Mark Langon creates these beautiful compositions from nothing but corrugated cardboard, which he cuts using a generic x-acto knife. I love the use of reclaimed materials! I sometimes use cardboard cutouts in my own paintings, and I have to say I don’t think I’d have the patience to cut this volume of cardboard for my work. I have enough difficulty just cutting out 4 or 5 plain circles, much less the kind of detail you see in this work—one reason I’m eager to get my hands on a laser cutter!

Salutation

Mid-states packaging 101

Mid-States Packaging 112