Introduction
For this documentary project, we were asked the question, “How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?” For my book I created for Design and my article I wrote for English, I decided to do it on Hardy Jones. An unsung artist who contributed to the Los Altos community, making it a little more inviting. Hardy created found art sculptures that are located all over Los Altos. Welded from scrap metal, old tools, and found objects, each sculpture is as unique as its parts. Doing this project on him means a lot to me because he was my neighbor and my family is close with his family. I interviewed Hardy’s wife, Jane Bryan-Jones about his life and his creations to get more insight on how and why he created his sculptures. After I interviewed Jane, I wrote an article in English, which I then used to transform into a full book with images and graphic design elements.
Intro Video
At the end of this project, in Digital Media, we learned about After Effects. In this program, I created an intro video for my book.
Behind the Scenes
My Interviewees
Jane was my main interviewee, she was Hardy Jones’s wife. She told me many stories about Hardy. I learned many things about Hardy from her that I didn’t know before. She told me about Hardy’s life and how/why he created his sculptures. I loved interviewing her because she was so open.
Sam Harding was Hardy Jones’s best friend. Both of the families were also very close. Along with the many stories Jane told me, Sam and Janet told me many more about Hardy. How he was always down for an adventure or how his sculptures would just show up in their yard. I loved talking to them, they were also very helpful in the creating of my book.
Reflection
This project was really cool to see the process of creating a book. Although it got really stressful at the end I really enjoyed the entire thing. I have never been able to create anything like this in the past. I really liked seeing my book come to life, from an essay I wrote in English to a full book I can hold in my hands in Design. At first I had no idea how i was going to design this book but as I learned new things about InDesign the more ideas I got.