Courtney Dransfield

To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.

Joseph Chilton Pearce

Contents

Infographics Residential Astoria

Investigation An Education in Colour

Branding Strategy Madame Roland Narrative Courtney Dransfield

4

12

17

22

4

Astoria the Beautiful

Infographics

Of the ten areas given to us for this project I chose

Astoria, Queens. Usually vising the neighborhood for

the thrift stores, it was a pleasant surprise to discover

how beautiful its residential area is. Being of

Macedonian decent also helped me to connect to

the area and it’s strong Eastern European culture.

5

I Think In PicturesAs part of the project I took documentational photos.

I was drawn to the colour pallets of the houses,

reminding me of Australia and the beaches. I began

to see Astoria as a residential area, recognizing shapes

and style of homes I would expect in more rural areas.

I noted down the materials used, the colours and

their location with in the area as points of significance.

Think left and think right and think low and think high.

6

Do You Talk To Yourself ?

I Do.The project allowed me to look at Astoria from many

different perspectives. What materials were used

in the exteriors of the homes, housing prices, the size

of the population, the population’s origin and the types

of housing in those countries. These skethces were

inspired by the buildings themselves, by traditional infographs and the shapes of the countries of origin.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.

Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

7

Let’s Go For a Walk

Part 1In this map I wanted to show the varying

architectural styles of the houses. For

consistency, I used colours directly taken from

the houses themselves through out the

project. I also think that they’re really beautiful. 1 2

3

5 4

1

2

36

5 4

36th

st

35th

st

37th

st

38th

st

Stei

nway

41st

st

Broadway

34th ave

Residential AstoriaSeen Through the Lense of Housing Extoriors and Locational Prevalance

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.

8

Your Place or Mine?

Part 2This infograph was created in order to show a

number of pieces of information in a coherent

and beautiful way. I wanted to show the architectural

themes of the exteriors of the houses, how the

home prices varied from street to street and how they

compared with the housing prices in Eastern Europe.

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

36th st 37th st 38th st Alabania Bosnia Bulgaria

Slates

Bricks

Bricks & Slates

Many Colours

One Colour

House Exteriors

Residential Astoria

HousingPrice

(’000s)

Astoria, Queens Orignins of Inhabitants in Astoria, Queens

Seen Through the Lense of Housing Prices and Housing Exteriors

Not here not there..

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

9

House Proud

Part 3In this infograph I focused on the exteriors of the

homes. Inspired by infographs from Good Design,

I used a mathematical approach to show the

popularity of certain architectural trends in the area.

Residential AstoriaSeen Through the Lense of Housing Exteriors and Their Prevalency

Slates

Bricks

Bricks & Slates

Many Colours

One Colour

Exterior Saturation in the Area

100%

80%

60%

50%

Why fit in...

...not anywhere.

10

Bulgarian Feta

Part 4Again comparing and contrasting Astoria,

a small location, to Bulgaria, Bosnia and Albania,

where space is abound, really intrigued me. At

first difficult to visualise, adding a constraint

was a helpful tool. Seeing the audience for this

project as being youth in the area meant

making the aesthetics as approachable as possible . Bulgaria110, 910 sq km

Bosnia51, 129 sq km

Albania28, 748 sq km

Astoria283 sq km

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

CountrySize

(’000s)

Residential AstoriaSeen Through the Lense of Inhabitants Native Country Sizes and Its Own

This book is to read...

...when you were born to stand out?

11

Part 5

Organic Modernism

This was one of my favorite pieces from the project

inspired by th style of organic modernism.

Following the theme of compare and contrast,

I used one colour for Astoria and many for the

origin countries. Simple outlines were used to

give the viewer an idea of what the houses would

look like with out over saturating the eye.

Bosnia

AlbaniaBulgaria

Astoria

Residential AstoriaSeen Through the Lense of Inhabitants’ Native Country Homes and Those in Astoria

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

...in bed.

12

An Education in C

olourA

n InvestigationInspired by an article by Ellen Lupton, my

fascination with colour was based upon how I saw

the interactions between humans mimic that of

colours. From there I was lead on a journey where

I discovered much about the power in colour

and something about myself as well. I discovered

that colour is an element of design that anyone can

master and use to their advantage. In short, I

found that there could be a correlation between one’s

understanding of their own colour choices and

their life choices. Opening me up to a world

of opportunity and of investigation, I could have

continued on for much longer than one semester.

13

Visual MemoryAt the outset, this project was made part of our

everyday lives and I looked for inspiration in many

mediums. On the left we have an image of Chris Ofili’s Afrodizzia that I learnt about in high

school and on the right we have an image by

Todd Selby from his website The Selby

where he has taken a photo of a local produce

market in Mexico. Both manifested from my

past and present visual compendium.

You’ll miss the best things...

14

Video. Easier.

Writing. Hard.

During this process I found certain tools helpful

in filtering, understanding and rehashing the

information that I was discovering. This included

a video journal where I felt as though I made

most of my head way in figuring out the end product.

I posted my research and thought processes onto

a blog that also turned out to be a wonderfully

helpful management tool. The blog is

aneducationincolour.com, if you care to have a look.

Sometimes the questions are complicated...

...if you keep your eyes shut.

15

This is a Living ProjectDuring this project that I realised how fortunate I

am to have had an education that allowed me to

understand what certain colour means to me and how

they affect me. What I wanted people to simply start a

conversation about colour, alone or with a friend.

The provocation was a subliminal campaign

to advertise the colours in peoples lives. Here are

examples of the two different campaigns. One to

make people think about how they name a colour

and the other was to make them contemplate

their own individuality through colour.

I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,

...and the answers are simple.

16

Help the Children LearnInspired by CHAD in Philadelphia, a design school

is changing children’s lives through art, I wanted to

educate people in understanding one’s own colour pallet.

I designed a short manual, initially geared toward

children between the ages of 4 and 13, that gave a

simple description as how to create one’s own colour

pallet. Later, realising that it could be used by anyone.

A person’s a person, no matter how small.

but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.

17

Madam

e RolandA

Branding Strategy

Madame Roland is a female historical figure

from the French Revolution that was lost in time.

Project Continua is an organisation that strives

to bring Madame Roland and women with her similar

historical influence into the education system for K-12

students. In order to make this a smoother transition

I created a branding strategy, transforming the

traditional way female historical figures are depicted

in textbooks to a contemporary web based presence.

18

Seeing PotentialFemale historical figures that are seen as both

influtential and inspiring are few and far between. The

challenge was to bring these images into a current

format and aesthetic. Too often historical figures

are left in the style of their context and are unable to

truly connect with their immediate audience. Hence, my

mission was set. Streamlined, fresh and fun.

Think and wonder,

19

Found in TranslationThis logo is a fusion of contemporary aesthetics and

historical symbology. specifically cameos and coats of

arms. The target audience is teenage girls between the

ages of 12 and 18. The mission was to be feminine,

strong and representative of Madame Roland.

The logo alludes to an insitution similar to that

of a university or club. The manifestations the logo,

like a patch, can allow for a community experience.

M RM

R

wonder and think.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living,

20

NavigationA friend told me that one of the hardest parts of

learning history in high school was not being able

to connect historical figures with time periods,

concepts and events. These symbols are representations

of those dots. By seeing these symbols parallel

to each other the sudent is given a holistic point

of view of the information they’re recieving.

From left to right: Writing, Bio, French Revolution, Scholars, Love Story, Democracy, New Knowledge, Republicanism, Intellectual Circle, Workers Rights and Manhattan.

FEL

it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.

There’s no limit to how much you’ll know,

21

Digital AgeThe concept of Project Conitnua is an online

compendium of hundreds of female historical

figures. I decided to design a possible reimagination

of the site. Considering the target audience,

social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr

and Instagram were inspirations. The aesthetic

clean and approachable with muted tones

and a retro font. Here we see the home page,

the Bio page and the Intellectual Circle pages.

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.

depending on far beyond zebra you go.

22

Courtney Dransfield

Along the route to the present day I spent a month in

Bali learning about clothing production in 2010

and spent a semester interning at Opening Ceremony in their showroom in 2011. Now,

after working for a year on my own projects with

LANDED, I am looking to gain experience

from those who are established in their own industries and make a valuable contribution to that company.

In 2008 I was accepted into Parsons but had to take my

first semester off so I decided to go to Barcelona

to learn Spanish and experience a new city by myself.

By 2009 I was back in New York, in the Design and Management Program at Parsons and

working as a costume designer for student films.

From the second day in town I began assisting the

owner of a restaurant and spent most of 2007 and 2008

working with him. Those years were times of learning

not only about restaurants, chefs and interior decorating but about how to run a business.

Sydney was originally my home but there have

been many since then. I grew up on the beach, first

in Cronulla and then in Bondi. I attended a school

called Ascham where I was introduced to discipline,

drive

and visual arts. 3 months after finishing

high school, I left for New York City.

A Narrative

courtdransfield@gmail.com

646 713 4541

376 Broadway, 11FNYC, NY

10013

24

Don’t cry because it’s over.

Smile because it happened.

A small thanks to Dr Seuss who provided the narrative quotes and the finale piece above.