Design Crush + HP + Project Runway

One of my favorite parts of this community are the relationships that are built not only between bloggers and readers, but with brands.  I had a chance to meet up and chat with some of the swell people behind HP just this past January when they showed me their latest line of products at Alt. One of those things was their rad TouchScreen technology that’s featured on the show Project Runway. A few weeks ago HP contacted me to see if I’d be interested in giving their TouchScreen 610 a test-run for a few months by sharing weekly posts created on it, keeping in line with the Project Runway theme for that week. Being not only a design nerd, but a tech geek I was all over it.

Having been a Mac girl for all but my freshman year of college, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the new TouchScreen when it showed up. At all. Was it going to be massive and bulky? Have lots of cords and extra stuff that I had no idea what to do with? No and no. In fact, the set up as far as components go really reminds me of my iMac at the office. Monitor and processor happily co-exist as one piece, then there’s a wireless mouse and keyboard. Really easy setup. And get this… the monitor flat-out pivots. It makes working in the drawing program loads easier, and more like drawing on a sketchbook. And I’d be remiss not to mention the incredible 23″ monitor.

First lesson learned, I am no fashion designer. I know what I like when I see it, but I don’t have that sort of design vision. Second lesson, using the TouchSmart is very different from my beloved Adobe Creative Suite programs. You can let your fingers do the work on the screen, but I opted for a stylus (from my ancient Palm Pilot!). It took me awhile to get the hang of things, including what command stands in for Control Z on a PC. After about an hour of messing around, this is what I came up with.

For the first week I thought I’d take things very literally and go right along with the challenge. The contestants were woken up in the middle of the night for this one. I sleep in a white Hanes tee most nights and my queen-sized sheets area always white – I totally lucked out. They have access to fabric dyes, so I “dyed” my sheet poppy red and created a floor length gown out of it with a plunging neckline, pockets, and a bit of bustle in the back. My shirt got dyed a goldenrod yellow and was fashioned into a fitted, bunched belt around the waist. Not the most daring of fashion ideas, but I’m pleased with it for a first go ’round.

What would you have created?

Starting today and carrying on through the next several Mondays, this is what you’ll be seeing here. I’m going to do my best not to stick to one “formatted” technique of my take on the weekly challenge, I really want to mix it up a little and keep things interesting. I’m also really looking forward to flexing my art and design muscles in an entirely different way than I’m used to!

(Watch the full episode if you’d like – Team Bert!)

Full Disclosure: HP provided me with a TouchSmart 610 for use. All content and opinions are mine. I have not been financially compensated by HP or Project Runway.