Project Proposal

For my innovator project I will be creating a blueprint/design outline for a music festival stage. This particular project is a huge passion of mine because I aspire to enter the live music industry in my future. By beginning to brainstorm ideas this early in the game, it is truly allowing me to gain valuable experience and wisdom. The final media will be a blueprint created via Illustrator portraying multiple different angles of the stage (front, side, back, bird’s eye view), as well as an actual mini size stage. I am not positive on the actual design I envision yet, for that is still a work in progress.

This project is highly challenging for me because I am starting the project with no background knowledge on art installation or drawing blue prints. I will be teaching everything to myself and creating each design myself.

Project Productions

Read my research paper

Project Reflection

Freshmen year of high school I attended my first music and art festival in San Francisco and absolutely fell in love. For me, these festivals represent an unparalleled utopia in which humanity unites and connects, individuals rediscover hope, faith, and trust in humanity and its purpose. But what really captured my interest through four years of attending and volunteering at countless festivals was delving into the the business and design aspects of music festivals including graphic design, technology, and management. My existing dream for many years has been to run my own music festival. I don’t solely want to run a festival on the business side, I want to create one with both the arts and business aspects combined. This means I aspire to design the festival, including the stages, layout, etc. When assigned this project I knew I wanted to create something music festival related, however what precise aspect of the music festival I wanted to explore is where I was troubled. I have always been interested in the technology put into the live performances, such as the artists visuals. My initial idea was to create graphic visuals, just like the visuals artists present during their live shows. However, after trial and error, I learned that this crazy idea of mine was far too out of my time restriction and ability. With that, I then knew I wanted to design a music festival stage. Initially I thought I would create an entire blueprint of the stage, however, again, I learned this was far out of my reach. Finally, I decided I would create a 3D illustration of my stage through Adobe Illustrator.

Similarly to developing a specific innovator topic, I was also troubled with my research process at first. Beginning my research I started researching sound audio, how to create the best stage with the best audio projection, graphic design techniques, etc, however I soon realized I was not satisfied with these topics. I then changed my entire topic onto the psychological aspect of music festivals and the war on drugs associated with music festivals. Although these topics had no direct relationship to the actual project I was creating, designing a stage, I valued gaining deep insight into a whole entire other part of the music festival industry. Drugs remain the most prominent issue with music festivals today, therefore I feel as if my research was still absolutely helpful and insightful. I extensively learned all about the unregulated drug market and its relationship with music festivals, overdoses, precautions, the psychological benefits of festivals, and what exactly is going on inside while an individual is present at a festival. I believe all of these are not only essential but necessary in order to run a smooth and successful festival. Thus, I do not feel like my research was pointless although it had no direct correlation to my project.

Designing a music festival stage required an excessive amount of collaboration. If I did not reach out to collaborate with others, I definitely would not have been able to complete my project. My main collaboration was with Google, just kidding, it was mainly with a good friend of mine Weston. This collaboration was highly successful because we both have a similar vision and taste in design and music. Being able to come together with him and share my initial ideas and watch them grow was truly awesome. Not only to see my ideas transform into better ideas was interesting, but to see them come to life in 3D on the computer screen blew my mind. Weston helped guide me on the advanced techniques that I was unfamiliar with in Illustrator rather than the actual designs, which is exactly what I needed. Often times when I would get stuck and Google would not solve my problem, I would reach out for help from fellow freestylers. In fact, Peter was a huge help on some aspects. Of course, Ms. P helped tons. Her endless knowledge is what allowed me to truly pursue this project, kept me going even when technology would not work, and provided me with the persistence to never give up. Truthfully, none of my collaborations were pointless or unsuccessful, each individual gave me guidance and motivation.

If I were given the opportunity to do this project again, I would not change my project idea at all because I am so interested in it and have so much passion for it, but perhaps I would change the illustration perspectives. I only illustrated a perspective of looking straight at the stage as if you were the attendee looking directly at the performer. Given more time, I could incorporate different perspectives such as a bird eye views and views from behind or on the sides. I also wish I had more time to explore designing more festival elements than just the stage. Elements such as entrances, art installations throughout the festival, infrastructure, etc.

Through this project I was given the opportunity to fully enhance my 21st century skills and I will be forever thankful for that. I believe having these skills implemented into this project as a requirement is an awesome idea because it forces individuals to step out of their skill level and practice for the real world. In particular, some skills I definitely improved on were creativity, visual literacy, technological literacy, and risk taking. Staring at a blank white piece of paper for a very long time in the pre production process truly forced me to be creative. I spent a month creating and throwing away designs I was unpleased with, however in the long run, each design came together to create one final piece. I needed to bring unique designs into existence that were genuinely new and creative onto these blank pages. At first, this was highly challenging, but through trial and error I was able to become satisfied with my creativity. To enhance my creativity I discovered where my creativity works best, alone in a low lit room with music on. This was my daily agenda each night for three weeks and I loved it. The least I improved on was social and civic responsibility. Although I did not significantly improve my social and civic responsibility, I still managed to include the practice of that skill into my project. I enhanced public good through the building of an awesome stage for the public audience. Although I did not construct a real life stage, ideally if I were to create this in real life, I would try my best to follow environmental standards. I highly improved my ability to interpret, use, appreciate, and create images and video using both conventional and 21st century media in ways that advance my thinking, decision making, communication, and learning.

The main learning experience I believed I learned through this project that I will definitely apply to my future life was risk taking and never giving up. I had to try so many ideas/designs and simply throw them away until I was pleased. Often times I would feel as if this project was getting nowhere, however I kept drawing, drawing, using Google, and asking for ideas and help. At times I felt like giving up because I felt too uneducated on the subject and too much was pressure was on my plate, but I learned to accomplish one aspect of my project at a time.

I believe I innovated my own education this semester through many different ways. Firstly, I introduced myself to many new methods and techniques that I had no idea even existed in Illustrator. Although I had previous experience in Illustrator, I did not have the experience with scale model 3D illustrations. I spent many hours watching youtube tutorial videos, reading countless articles on how to master specific techniques, and asking Ms. P and peers for help. I learned a whole new side to Illustrator, my favorite Adobe program, thus I am very pleased with my new knowledge.

I value this project highly because it allowed me to truly pursue what I wanted. Although Freestyle gives their students so much freedom in what they do, this project exceeded freedom. It allowed me to pursue exactly what I wanted with no restrictions, only my imagination. I feel this is highly important for all students to experience because it transforms education into something you are insanely passionate about. Each day I was beyond stoked to come to Freestyle to further advance my stage and I wish I could say this about Los Altos, but my excitement is not nearly the same.