What I Did This Semester -
11x17 Design Movement Poster
The first project I did returning back from winter break was an 11x17 poster over my chosen design movement. I took the movement and interpreted it to a poster that was to advertise an upcoming exhibit at the Nelson Atkins Museum. This project did not take e very long, I think from start to finish, inducing sketching and putting together, it took maybe two weeks - maximum. When creating this, the biggest problem I ran into was color choir. I started with black and white, and thought I would love that but I was wrong. It was not eye catching like it should have been. I began adding colors, mostly reds, yellow, and oranges, but was not a fan so I took a completely different approach and just went with a color scheme that was kinda related to Swiss Design, but was very eye catching. Along the way I learned that just by adding the patterns, it makes it an element of "Swiss Design". The color were not really the big part of this, whit it was important, the meaning behind it was the movement. Some feedback I was given concluded of spacing issues, which is now fixed. They were very appreciative of this piece because it was very clean, balanced, but all the information was present, organized nicely, as well as clear and easy to access. Once the feedback was given, I changed the spacing of "The Nelson Atkins Museum" and the date below. Originally there was a gap that kinda threw off the balance, butane corrected, it made it look more clean and professional. Overall, I very much liked this project because requirements were minimal, and we had full creative freedom.Typography 5x5 Art-board
The four quotes you see to your left was the next project we worked on which involved interpreting typography skills, as well as color theory. We took the time to find quotes that really spoke to us, or stood out, and we gave it a makeover. This project had a lot of steps to it. We started with the quotes, and then only making it in black and white, but having it arranged in a way that was really visually appealing. From there we added color instead of having it in black and white. Our class was then shown our finished product. My peers gave some really helpful feedback as to what they liked and what could have been changed. My quote designs were very favored due to how clean and simplistic they were. Nothing was too busy or overwhelming, but all of them stood for something. The one that stood out most was the third one down the list. "The virtue lies in the struggle, not the prize", this was by far a very simple one. There was not much to it, and personally I believe it is my weakest one. There was a lot of white space which helped draw your eye to the quite, but it was a bit boring, that was the only issue, which I knew before I presented. I do not believe I changed anything on my quotes even though feedback was given. My overall opinion on this project is that, it was one of our more slow projects. Of course I had fun doing it, but it wasn't as exciting to do as a infographic or a logo redesign because this was a very simple project. I was able to learn a lot about typography and fonts from this, which is a plus.
Combination Logo Marks
Next we got the opportunity to branch out and pick a company in the local KCMO area, and preform a rebrand on their company. I choose The Sundry Market & Grill for my rebrand. They are a small, natural grocer, located in the crossroads who strive to provide the most fresh fruits, vegetable, and meat. Like our other project this one was a process. Sketching, Revising, Making digital, revising, adding color, revising, and then finally our final 6 combination marks. What you see here to the right are my black and white logos because this is where I was provided the most feedback. From my peers, I was told how my spacing made a large difference in how things were presented. Originally the logos you see, did not look like that. Everything was very much spread out, and the spacing between words and combination marks was not executed correctly. My more favored logos were the first two on the top row. They looked the most clean, and had a very friendly element to them which made them much more visually appealing. The biggest thing I learned from this was, just because you have a vision for the logos that you think will work, don't rely on it a tone because there is a chance it will not look as good as you originally wanted it to. I reworked color over and over again when it came to this assignment, and that was probably the most challenging because it took the most time. However, while there were things I really did not enjoy about this project, like the sketching, and the adding color 36 times, this was one of my more successful projects because it was something I could have easily shown the company. There were a lot of elements that played into this, but I think it was a good learning experiencing have to go back and forth between original and new designs. Business Card
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Not too long ago we actually started our marketing aspect of the company rebrand assignment series. I took the favorite of all my logos and placed that onto the business card. I wanted things to be very clean, and well kept. I made sure it was still visually appealing, but my main goal was the have the information stick in you heard just by the logo. The business card itself took me no more than two days. In the first day, I struggled a lot with this because I was unable to get the spacing right, and everything just looked incorrect with the horizontal orientation. As soon as I changed the card to vertical, everything came together. I learned a lot when making this, one of those being that the white space is okay, but too much makes it extremely hard to remember. I choose the salmon color for that reason because it allows you to remember the symbol based on just the color. The card color stands out all on its own which really benefits the company. Some of the feedback I was given was that it was very clean, and the vertical orientation of the card was very impactful because they could easily see this as a small menu for the restaurant. There was a double meaning to my card and it made it very favorable. After feedback was given, I did not go back and revise anything because they did not think anything needed to be changed. They thought that my work for this was very strong and it was shown on the card. For this project, I did really enjoy getting to experiment having my "own" business card because if graphic design was the area of study I was headed, it gave me the opportunity to try different things out. While I didn't to anything really amazing with this card like it could have been, I feel the information I needed to get out was clear, and easily readable, as well as super easy to just take a glance and go on with your day. Letterhead
My letterhead came next, and I wanted to make sure everything of mine stuck to the same theme. As you will see, my business card, letterhead, and envelope are almost all alike, minus a change or two in the final product. The letterhead I think took many 30 minutes. Before making this I already had an idea of what I wanted this to look like which made it a lot easier. I honestly did not have any complications with this, but I knew I wanted it to be a little different than my business card. The back of my business card has the days/times of the restaurant, this one because it is a letter, I simply placed the company name under the logo just so it would be something new to look at and not be identical to the business card. The front is my favorite of all of this because it is really simplistic, and the white space makes it clean and I love that. A letters main focus should be the words, not the design, which is why it is so empty. The logo is pushed up into the left corner allowing more room for writing, and the waves I have on all my work is added to the bottom to connect it to the back. Some of the feedback I was given consisted of what I just said. The simple change to the back of the letterhead made it more enjoyable to look at because it was not the same thing over and over again. The front, was very clean, and the white space, while there is a lot of it, it fit well with everything else I have been doing for this rebrand assignment. When I had the opportunity to change things, I did not because no one thought anything needed to be changed. It once again, all fit together and nothing seemed out of place. Overall, this was an easy project for me because the vision I had, worked in my favor and turned out as good as I pictured, and everyone really liked what I did for this.Envelope
Finally, out last project/part of the rebrand series was to design an envelope that would be notice, and something you would want to open as soon as you got it in the mail. While you can not see the underside of the bottom envelope, the flap is the only thing colored while the rest of it is white, like the top. This was something else that did not take me long. I am pretty sure this was done the same day as my letterhead and took me almost no time because I wanted everything to be similar. When it came to the envelope, there were no challenges aside from making sure no matter how big someone wrote, it would still be easily read with the salmon color on the outside of the page. Along the way I learned there are probably a lot more ways I could have been creative with the back of my envelope but I kept it very simple and clean like everything else. When presenting this, my only feedback was that if this was to come in the mail, that pop of salmon would excite someone who got it and make them really eager to see what it is because it isn't all white. The white is balanced out by the color just enough to make it visually appealing and not boring. I did not change anything on this either, however, if I was going to, I would change the back to something more exciting because mine is very plain. In conclusion for the last three assignments, the rebrand series, I think it was very beneficial for us to do. Presenting these infant of the class allowed us to get really good feedback as to how someone would feeling having out choice of company advertised to them. As no one knew who The Sundry was, it was easy to get completely honest feedback over all the work.How Time Was Spent In Class -
Much of my time in class was spent working on all my projects, watching my classmates present, providing feedback, collaborating with people in the class on how to change things and make our work look better. A lot of time was spent in illustrator, as well as designtut.plus for things to help create elements on my rebrand combination marks. Blogger and Behance also got a lot of my time when it came to talking about my work. When it came to finishing work early, if there was not an extra credit assignment to work on, my time would be devoted to other homework until a new assignment was present. Outside of class, my work was enhanced probably not in a productive way, but I watched a lot of this show called Abstract where I learned all about Graphic Designers, and all these art fields. I also took the time to create my own logos outside of school. When needed I took projects hoe which allowed time to increase my final result.
Areas of Strength vs. Areas of Weakness -
Many of my strengths for this class came from the communication aspect. Some of my best contributions were presenting my work to my class and helping out some of the people in my class with feedback when they wanted to add changes to their work. My collaboration skills were minimal in this class, but when it came time to actually that skill into effect, I gave my full 100%. My leadership skills were not used this much this semester, but I knew when it was time to crack down and set them example in class when it came to being productive and getting work.
Something that I think lacked just a little this semester was my time management skills, although everything was generally in on time, I felt a lot of my work was rushed at different times because I would procrastinate on the bigger parts, like getting everything done together, and I would spend a lot of time on little itty bitty details that I would be the one to notice. I think in some aspects parts of each skills lacked, but at the same time I made sure when it really came time I was giving my best efforts in class.
Summary
This semester was a lot of fun for me. Towards the end where I had to miss a lot was no fun for me, but I genuinely had a lot of fun in this class with everyone. I loved being able to present my work and hearing how much my class loved it, as well as my teacher. That is such a satisfying feeling knowing that there are other people that really like your work. If I could change anything, I think I might have picked a different company for my company rebrand assignment. I would probably choose a company that is really fun and peppy, just because I feel like it would eliminate those little times where I got stuck, or bored of what I was going. One thing I will take away from this semester is that you should always value the constructive criticism. There were some things in my own graphic design work that I never noticed but my peers were able to, and it made the value of my work so much better, and I could not be more appreciative for all the feedback my peers and teacher provided through the entire semester. One goal I would like to set for next school year is to bring my own graphic design style to my video class. In video, we create shot films, and I would love to be one of the people on the graphics team because creating the digital art is very relaxing to me and it is something I enjoy. As this blog comes to a close, I would just like to put out there to anyone who takes the time to read this, go after things even when they aren't your forte. I can honestly say Graphic Design was my least favorite class freshman year because I never felt my work was supported, so it made me really uneasy about this year, but I was wrong. I loved graphic design so much this year, and I had so much fun even with all the independence that I had everyday. I do not know if it was because of the new teacher, or the class I had, or because we had really interesting assignments that required actual creativity, but it was such a great experience and even though today is my last graphic design class, I will always be extremely thankful for all the things I learned.
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