In an effort to break away from the digital sphere of graphic design, I was inspired to take a useless pile of leftover bricks from my backyard and create art with them. I started by creating a stencil the correct size of the face of the bricks. Then I layed my bricks out on the table and sprayed them with random colors of spray paint. 

A screenshot of the stencils designed in illustrator. The font is called "Block"

Since bricks lend themselves well to stacking I naturally found myself finding creative ways to arrange them in a vertical form. I had to be careful however if I dropped them they were liable to chip and crack in half.

Among my pile of bricks were some that were very uneven or jagged which were unsuitable for stacking. For these I still painted the edges and used them in a more abstract way. These "reject" bricks again forced me to be more creative as I could not use them for my intended purpose.

The process of painting the bricks was very carefree and although I did have to be careful to apply paint only where I wanted it, the work went smoothly without great error.

My mom gave me the idea that the bricks would work very well as bookends. Luckily, we have a wonderful bookshelf at home. I used this to juxtapose the rough bricks with the precise typography and form of many wonderful art books.

Different color palettes suited different areas of the bookshelf.

But in the end every brick found a place to nestle against the colorful books.

From grass to asphalt it was hard to find a texture that did not compliment the colorful ceramic boxes 

Overall, I learned with this project how satisfying working with your hands can be. Analog methods always help me to be more creative and break out of my comfort zone