Heidi+Matt@Moon Arts

Design League
Sep 5, 2018 · 6 min read

Heidi and Matt both worked as research assistants for the Moon Arts Project! Read about both of their individual experiences working on the same team.

Heidi@Moon Arts

Hello!
Hi, my name’s Heidi and I’m a rising Products senior. This summer I had the opportunity to work for the Design School as a Research Assistant for the Moon Arts Project. This project is headed by CMU Design professors Mark Baskinger, Dylan Vitone, and Matt Zywica. Design Junior Matt McGehee was also on the team, and although he and I worked on pretty different things, we saw each other at bi-weekly meetings and talked about the project with each other.

First, a little about the Moon Arts Project: I was surprised to learn that this project has been running for over 10 years! Simply put, its goal is to send a mini museum to the moon — dubbed the MoonArk. The MoonArk is a poetic representation of the the current state of the earth, and hopefully encourages people to wonder about space and what mark they’re leaving on the earth. Check it out at www.moonarts.org !

What did I do?
The MoonArk and its contents are resolved, so my contributions were not to the physical spacebound article itself; my role was to design visual aids that help newcomers grasp the concept of the MoonArk, to help open up an appropriate mindspace about this project.

For this, I was doing a lot of visual research — from Pinning inspirational 60’s style space-themed posters, to sketching out rough ideas, and discussing what I’d come up with at the next meeting. I was constantly drawing and pushing myself to find the appropriate level of depth to add to my drawings, as well as finding the appropriate style to voice the MoonArk. It took many iterations to find the “right style” and imagery.

Sketching!

I also got very comfortable with Procreate! I’m proud to say I command it pretty well now. Matt McGehee and I also rearranged the MoonArk room and its contents to better tell the story of the many images and models from the lengthy and deep process it took to create the MoonArk.

Test Printing and Colour Iterations!

Afterthoughts…
As for what I gathered from this experience: I strengthened my sensitivity to depth & composition, color palettes, and got to know my professors better. :-) I think I also learned how to pace myself to keep my progress on track. I also confirmed for myself my love of illustration. Looking back, it felt like I was working on a commission of sorts, but with much freedom for me to use my illustrative design strengths. I consider myself lucky to have gotten this opportunity for personal growth.

If you see the posters hanging on the first floor in Maggie Mo, those are the ones I designed! I was sure startled (and a bit embarrassed) to see them so big, because I’d been seeing them on a 10.5" iPad screen all summer. But it was really gratifying to see them finished, and hear other’s thoughts on them.

Final series of posters!

Matt@Moon Arts

Hey everyone!
I’m Matt, a junior in the products track. This summer I was working on
the Moonark project under the direction of several of our design professors: Dylan Vitone, Mark Baskinger, and Matt Zywica. For those unfamiliar with the Moonark project, it is described on its website (moonarts.org) as “a highly collaborative and massively integrated project headed to the Moon intended to spark wonderment for future humans through poetically entangled visual narratives of the arts, humanities, sciences, and technologies.” The artifact is a series of intricate sculptural capsules whose narratives pay homage to life on earth; it will travel to the moon in 2020. As the actual Moonark itself is already complete, I contributed to the project in other ways.

Experience
A large part of my summer was spent working on an upcoming project meant to be a supplement to the Moonark. As the project has not yet been announced, I will speak generally about my experiences while still trying to highlight how meaningful it was to me. I started off doing copious research into both modern and historically significant projects that were in the same vein as ours, looking for ways this project could build upon what had been done before and stand out among what was being done now. My focus was on exploring a breadth of different ways people have cataloged information,
documented ways of life, and recorded sentiments. I looked at physical artifacts and digital archives, researched statistics and wrote about storytelling strategies. I then dug into the complex stories the Moonark tells, interpreting the sentiments present in the visuals and writing at length about what notions struck me most. This led me to ponder many existential questions as an exercise in deciding how this new project would offer a voice to people who want to express what matters to them. I wrote about human nature, developing a sense of identity, living life meaningfully. I wrote about notions of home, of creativity, of connecting with others and making an impact on them. I explored mankind’s motivations to do more than simply exist. All of this concept development created a framework for the project and facilitated conversation among the Moonark team about what artifacts the project would produce. This work was very meaningful to me, as it made me think a lot about my goals in life and motivations as a designer.

Later in the summer, I worked on more technical tasks. I helped with studio photography of the Moonark that would be used for press, and helped rearrange our workspace into an exhibit about all the artistic and scientific feats that helped make the Moonark what it is. I then did work assembling, rendering, and animating CAD models of the Moonark and the lander that will take it to the moon. While I was familiar with Solidworks from my
products classes, I had never used Keyshot for rendering and animating before. So, I learned the it on the job, which was a difficult but rewarding way to be introduced to the program. The animation sees the lander on earth, showing off its features and focusing in on the Moonark attached to its payload deck. It then shows the lander hurtling through space, until it eventually reaches the moon. You watch it land, and see the Moonark in its final resting place. It was awesome to see the video come together at the end of the summer, and it felt great to contribute such an informative and exciting piece of imagery to the project. While the video has not yet made its public debut, I know that it will serve as a great tool in telling the story of the Moonark.

Afterthoughts
Overall, working on this project was a fantastic experience. It challenged both my technical and conceptual capabilities, and helped me grow in everything from research ability to software skills. It was a treat to see how everyone on the team worked; I learned a lot from studying what they have done, and from striving to bring a fresh perspective to the project. I am confident that the concepts I explored will affect my priorities as a designer in the world, as well as my motivations as a creative person. I look forward to seeing how the Moonark project continues to develop and remaining involved in its mission to inspire others.

Design League

Written by

The official CMU Design community.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade