Graphic Design Semester 2 Reflection

As my year in graphic design comes to a close, I get the chance to look back at all my work. I have made a lot of changes to my work after just a short 10 months in this class. I loved graphic design, it gave me the creative outlet I needed in the middle of my school day. As you continue to read, you will see all my work done from January to May.

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 

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. 

Rebranding The Sundry (Business Edition)

For the past month in graphic design we have been working on rebranding company of our choice, and I choose The Sundry, a small company located down in the crossroads of Kansas City. After spending a lot of time creating new logos, we took a more business approach to the logo design which is what you see above.

Process - 

From the start of this, I took my favorite logo and collected the color schemes. We were to create visually appealing business cards, letterheads, and an envelope front and back. I chose the lightish salmon color as my primary color because it allowed me to keep things white and simple, but also provided that extra color so it didn't appear boring to anyone else who looked at it.
I based my rebrand off how I wanted the audience to view it. I made sure all my combination marks were the same on all of my work, but I would change one little thing on each of the assignments. The business card had the times of the restaurant on the back, while the back of the letterhead had the name of the actual company. The letter head just had a small combination mark at the top of it because I did not want the flap of the envelope to be busy.

What I learned - 

Spacing is so very important when it comes to rebranding. When the spacing was off on any of the things that you see above, it was very noticeable that something was not right. I also learned that you do not have to have a ton of color to make something look visually appealing, it can have the small waves and you can still create a very good looking product. 

What I liked vs. What I did not like -  

I loved how easy this felt for me to complete. I felt like this was something that was easy to make up really quick, but it was still a lot of fun to create. I liked how clean, and well put together everything was, and how when you see all three of them together you know exactly what this belongs to. I did not like how much work I had to do with spacing. My logo alone is kind of awkward because it has the circle in the top left while the rest of it is very uniform by the rectangles formed by the words. Aside from the spacing issues and figuring out how everything went together, I did not have a problem and very much enjoyed this project. 

My favorite thing - 

My favorite thing about this who project was getting to present it to my class and hear what they thought about it. All comment were positive. They mentioned how clean everything was, and how the spacing was good, as well as how it looked very professional even with all of the white space. I loved hearing the feedback of how changing the orientation of my business card made it look like a mini menu, and how it was very visually appealing. 

General Thoughts/Conclusion - 

I very much enjoyed this project, while it had points that were frustrating, I was able to learn a lot about color theory, spacing, what is visually appealing for letterheads, business cards, and envelopes. This project help me understand that there are many ways to rebrand a company, and branching out from their original logo allows you to see the many different thing you can do with a little color and a new combination. 

Typographic Use

These past couple weeks in graphic design we have done a lot of work with typography, color schemes, and how we can make these things fit with one another. To the side you will see my final four quotes, as in what I presented to my class. 

1. "If you want to life yourself up, life someone else up." - Booker T. Washington

I chose this quote because it was one that I feel really relates to high school students. We all have bad days at some point, and instead of bringing other down with you the best thing to do is to make your day better by helping out someone else, or making their day better. 

2. "Life is Short, the World is Wide" - Simon Raven 

I chose this quotes because personally I am not a "Go with the flow" kinda gal, but sometimes I have to tell myself that no mater what happens, I can only control the things that are in my poor to control and I should not spend all my time worrying about things I can not control. 

3. "The virtue lies in the struggle, not the prize." - Richard Monckton Milnes

I chose this quote because I felt as if it went well with everything going on in our graphic design class at the moment. Everyone just wants to get to the finish, but we have to really work at the things we want in life, which means doing things we do not like, numerous times. 

4. "Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try" - Jack Canfield

I chose this quote because I felt that is also really spoke to me and little things going on in my life as we are wrapping up sophomore year in these last nine weeks. 

The process of these quotes started with 4 5x5 art boards where we placed these four quotes in black and white only and figured out the placement of words and what typography worked best with which quote and or words. From there we learned in depth about color schemes and how they play off of one another. We copied out black and white, and put different types of color themes on them. We used color.adobe.com to find all the color schemes which is what you will see at the top of the next document. The labels underneath explain which scheme was used.

Disclaimer: The next image has a duplicate of the first four because it was used on my behind account. 

After we finished creating all the art boards, we presented to our class and they gave us feedback. I was told numerous things about my work.

1. They were very liked, everything went well together. 

2. I had good use of spacing throughout my quotes. My negative space worked really well with all my quotes. 

3. My typography worked really well with my quotes, I was able to emphasize all the correct words, and create flow throughout the quotes. 

4. The sizing of different words, as well as the shapes/backgrounds placed in the quotes made them very visually appealing and fun to look at. 

Person feedback to myself consisted of one thing, my "Virtue...Struggle...Quote" could have been so much better, and I am well aware of that. For future reference, I know that I have a lot of creative ability, and if I can't think of anything to do with the quote, choosing a new one is always an option. 

In conclusion, this project was very interesting. We worked a lot with typography in freshman year, and personally I thought of it as frustrating then because there were so many options and no structure. This time, we were told things like how we were to not use more than two fonts, maybe three max, but a play on words was always an option to make it more visually appealing. I was able to learn a lot and how different typefaces and colors can work with one another. 

Swiss Design Poster

Swiss Design 

Why I chose it: 

Last semester when we originally heard about doing a design history project, I was constantly googling images of each designer as they were named and Swiss design was the only one that caught my eye. Swiss design was made up of a generic font (Helvetica) that could be minipulated many different ways. It had bright colors, as well as repetitive geometric shapes and lines that kept almost all the designs looking clean. I also liked how not only was it full of cool, bus some designs were done in black and white which is why the creation of my poster was originally very difficult. 

Research: 

My research began with a general "Armin Hofmann" in Google. From there I read his small biography and gathered information on one of the people that helped found Swiss Design. From there I began reading articles and blog post of people who broke down and analyzed what Swiss Design really was. I learned about the color theory behind it, as well as the geometric shapes and patterns it followed, and why it was an influential movement in the first place. 

Sketches: 

My pre-planning for my poster began with 20 sketches of ideas I felt would look good on a poster. I took 10 screenshots off of online which were famous Swiss Design pieces and went from there. With each sketch, I changed a couple things each time so they were all a bit different but each row stuck to the original sketch I made. The one my poster was based off of, was one of the very first ones I came up with because I wanted to keep everything aligned, straight, as well a very clean. From there, I created my favorite of the 20 sketches in Illustrator. I took my favorite one and worked with the different colors in the poster. 

Below you can see my process - 

I started with the grey color for a more dull take to the earlier creations of Armin Hofmann. From there I replicated the picture, and then added color. To the right of the colored photo, you can see that I have a lot of color themes laid out which I spent time changing all the colors of each element before I came up with my final product. All I did was created a bunch of rectangles, as I think Swiss Design looks post noticeable with bold, background shapes. I worked with the text a bunch figuring out where I wanted everything to go, and finally I was able to come up with my poster. 

Conclusion: 

I thought this was a good project to do to kind of wrap up the "Design History" assignment we have been working on for a while. Our only requirements were to make it look Swiss Design, and make it a piece that would go in an art gallery. I was able to get creative, but also keep it clean, which is how I really like my pieces to look, and with that, I was able to create a poster that it very visually spelling and fits with Swiss. 

The Function of a Poster

The Character and Function of the Poster 

The poster is meant to bring a message to our notice, publicize products, invite us to entertainment or proclaim campaigns. It is used to demonstrate the needs of the audience/costumer. Posters can be used to give information on almost anything, but is commonly known for political situations, government representatives, topical problems. It gives the audience concerns about social conditions. The poster is to vividly illustrate these things with as little words as possible. It is used to glorify what message it is portraying. It should inform, stimulate,  activate, mobilize, expound, query, provoke, motivate, and convince the audience. The viewer should feel as if it had an effect on his/her emotions. The poster should be something that reappears in their conscious time to time after only having to see it one time. 

The Laws of Poster Design 

Posters in the street should attract attention, interest, or curiosity. In order to do that, a lot has to take place. The poster most penetrate the emotional atmosphere. For a moment, it should be able to catch the viewers eye as they were to walk by and should influence the brain to not forget about it. To make this happen color, composition, contrast, proportions, quality, rhythm, dynamics, extensions, etc. need to be present in the design of the poster. The poster must be legible and understanding in the message but have maximum effect with minimum graphic means. Shops should be present in a large and bold way so it is noticed from afar. Color should be vivid, easy to read quickly, as well as placed in a way to maximize impact. The lettering on the poster should help impact information quickly and this is best done if they style is clean. The correct size will also help to see from a far and make an impact on the message. The designer should be able to examine the design and see all these elements. An effective poster always contains something in ponderous which cannot be measured and which constitutes the essential substance of the product of the creation. 

Conclusion

What I learned 

Posters should stand out in all locations. The audience should be able to take a quick glance at the piece and easily remember the information without a problem. In a busy work day, people don't have time to just stand around a read a poster on the side of a building, they are on the move to get from point A to point B and because of that it needs to be quick, vivid, and easily memorable. Posters should also stick to certain colors in order to draw their own attention because the contrast is what makes people curious. Finally, posters have the fit their atmosphere. If you plan to put your poster up in a supermarket, many people will see it, so you should make the poster accessible for everyone, children and adults that will be found in that location. 

My favorite part about the article was reading about all the secretes the creating a good poster because it gave really valuable information about what looks best on posters/what makes them more visually appealing. Those notes will be very helpful in the upcoming weeks as we start making posters because it will be something I want my class to notice. 

Final Thoughts 

Anyone who plans on creating posters in the near future should really look up what makes a poster visually appealing because the article gave really clear information on what all is needed in order to make you poster better and more noticeable. 

Semester Reflection

          This semester has consisted of multiple projects which were divided up into two different categories; Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The projects you will see down below are the challenge problems from all the skills we learned.

Adobe Photoshop Challenge 

          The first project featured was from first quarter, the photoshop challenge. We spent about two weeks in class working on photoshop tutorials and for our assignment we had to compose a pictures using all the skills we were taught from the compilation of the tutorials. This project took maybe 3 hours, maximum. I spent a lot of time rearranging how I wanted my model to look which is what took to such time. Multiple times I ran across problem with this project that were very frustrating. Sometimes I would not notice that I missed sections of the picture until I thought I was finished with a full section like the coat. Another one I noticed kept happening was that the magnetic lasso tool would move without my mouse moving which became really frustrating because I could never figure out why (the batteries in the mouse were running low). I learned that Adobe Photoshop, at least for this particular project requires you to pay a lot of attention to the littlest details, and that you can not rush what you are trying to accomplish because most of the time it will result in messing up on your project. I was not given much feed back on this particular assignment aside from that I was one of the "helpers" in class because I seemed to have a pretty good grasp on what I was doing with photoshop. Nothing was changed on this assignment before I blogged about it, but going back and looking at it now I know there are multiple things that could be corrected and done better. Overall, I this was one of my three favorite assignments we have has this year and it is a project I will remember how to do because it is really relaxing and you get extremely unique results.

Adobe Illustrator Raccoon Postcard

          The second set of tutorials we did were with Adobe Illustrator. The assignment featured below is the finished product of the tutorials. It started out with a simple creation of a raccoon, which turned into adding a background and making it our own. From there, we turned it into a post card and added hand written typography. This project as a whole, including the tutorials, the individual creations, the handwritten typography, and creating a holiday themed postcard took about 2 weeks I believe. Illustrator is actually my favorite software when it comes to graphic design, so I was very familiar with how it worked and did not experience hardly any complications. The biggest problem I ran into with this project was that my postcard would not save correctly which resulted in my postcard not printing right. It was a bit disappointing to get it back and seeing it in two parts instead of together but seeing my work "published" was a very satisfying feeling. I learned how quickly different shades and tints of color can change the outcome of your project. When you begin to wonder off and add your own touched on project, color creations are much more difficult than when the combination for a shade is just in the tutorial. Feedback I was given was that for future reference, a grey bunny may be a better choice because when it is printed, the bunny happens to look like a floating head instead of an actual bunny. I received this feedback after it was printed so nothing was changed. However, my hand written typography was changed multiple times because the font type did not really seem to fit with the feel of the card. Some fonts came off too harsh for the sensitive easter card I has made, while others did not fit with what I was making. The design process of this I thought was unique because we had freedom, within a structured outline. We changed things, added things, and published out final work, and I very much enjoyed the process of this.

Adobe Illustrator Infographic 

          The third project was also done in Adobe Illustrator. We were to design an infographic we were passionate about and I chose organ donation. We were to put an 11x17 infographic together that was not too busy and easy to read. It was to be visually appealing and look very clean. This project actually took me about two days. I ended up getting sick the day this was assigned so I went home and worked on this project for about 6 hours to get it how I wanted in. When I came back to school I switched a couple things around and changed up the coloring on different aspects to make it more visual for each section of the infographic. The biggest challenge faced with this project was the creation of the "statistic" triangle, as well as using the pen took to trace a bunch of the little organs inside of the graphic. Another thing I finch challenging was that I wanted to put so much information on there because I would love for people to know a lot about Organ Donation, but I had to only put what was considered the most important. Most of the feedback I was given was very positive. My peers very much liked the layout of my infographic and how I was able to put a lot of information on my infographic and still make it look really clean. My infographic actually had a lot more information than it should have but I used typography styles, and Swiss design elements to compact the information so it could be read in really short segments. From the original infographic to the one featured, I moved the location of the "statistic" triangle down closer to the information so there was more whit space and it looked cleaner. This project was another I very much enjoyed because it was complete creative freedom on my behalf and it was over something I was 100% passionate about which I loved. I learned from myself that infographics may be what I enjoy making most in Adobe Illustrator because they do not require a tutorial, you just play around with ideas until you come up with something that is very visually pleasing. I am very exciting to see the printed version of this project, and I think my outcome looks really good. I was able to deliver a big message into a small poster and make it look really interesting. Everything just comes together which is what makes me most proud about this project.

Graphic Design "Time"

          Time is graphic design is very valuable because you get about 40 minutes a day to make a lot of progress on whatever project you happen to be working on. Much of my time in class is used in a very productive way, hardly any is wasted. I am guilty to waisting maybe a day or two of class time a quarter on more personal work, but I generally go home and make up for class time I missed that day. When finishing early, much of my time was spent on going back and fixing the tiniest of details that pretty much just bothered me. If I was not doing that, I normally ended up googling videos on different things I could make in Illustrator, or I was working on redesigning my logo, or even personal work which I had every once in a while. Outside of class, I typically worked on tutorials assigned in class just so I  have it done the next day in class and I can make changes as needed. After being in graphic design for the past couple months, I notice a lot more graphic design elements around me which I think helps influence my own graphic style. I pay attention to how things look, and how well they are organized and what different elements are incorporated into the making of the ad, commercial, brochure, etc. 

Strengths 

          Many of my strengths come from the small amount of OCD I have when it comes to organizations and how clean things should look. I tend to put a lot of time into all the work I do, accept for the most recent slide show I made. I am very good with following directions so recreating things are most definitely a strength of mine. Adobe Illustrator is my real strength in graphic design.  My communication and leadership skills are also a strengths of mine. Presenting is one of of my favorite things. I love talking about what all went into creating my project. My technical skills, and collaboration are also strong but not as strong as my communication and my leadership. 

Improvements 

          My biggest area of improvement I need to work on, is project management. Most of my problem comes from spending so much time one little things that I rush to actually get the rest of the project done on time. Thus saying, I have never had a late assignment but I have most definitely come close because I spend so much time working on little things that could be fixed later when I have more time. Somewhere else I need to improve would be my photoshop skills because the tutorials at the beginning of the year requiring those where what I look back on and wish I could fix now. Photoshop is just not my strongest software, but I know if I keep working at it, over time I will get better. 

          This semester was wonderful. I really enjoyed the new skills I learned this semester, as well as all the new people I met coming into this class. I loved, almost, all the projects we did this year, and getting too see all the work my classmates did as well. Next semester I know I will change the quality of my work. While it is not bad, I know I can do better, and especially when creating slides, I know i can do better. Some take aways I learned from this semester is that not everyone is going to like the way your work looks, and that is just something you have to be okay with. Something could look really good to you and another person may not understand your design and there is nothing wrong with that. Another takeaway would be that pacing yourself is really important, and deadlines, are final. Work should be done on time because it is preparing us for the real world and it is a valuable skills that learning when you're younger is better. My goals for next semester is get a little out of my comfort zone because right now I tend to stick with the safer side of things; "I know that _______ and _______ go good together, so that is what I can do". I never really gave myself the opportunity to explore what other things I could make on certain assignments. Now that this semester is coming to an end, I am really thankful for all that I learned and I am looking forward to what next semester has to bring. 

Infographic Reflection

     Following video production, my newest assignment was an infographic over something I am passionate about. For this, I chose organ donation because I feel it is something people should know more about, and I love helping people so having a creative way to spread the word helped.     My research did not consist of much, as I already knew so much about my topic. I used the Gift Of Life website as well as the Donate Life website. These two websites provided me with the most important information that I was able to incorporate into my infographic.
     The original rough draft was easiest for me to come up with because I already had a vivid idea of exactly how I wanted this project to look. I started with a rectangle all the way across the page which consisted of my title. Following that, I had two rectangles directly below that which held two additional components on information. The middle was split into two, the left side being larger than the other where I placed a graphic, and the left side touching the bottom of the infographic. Finally I added a small box under my graphic for the last bit of information.

     My process for the creation was mostly done in one day. I happened to leave school, sick, and went home and worked on it for the rest of the day. I started with the graphic which took the most time, and then moved outward from there. Statistics were added next, then the states of Kansas and Missouri. After that, the basic information was put into place and the final touches were added (the little people, the title, the little vectored images of the organs, ect.)

     The only feedback I was given, was that my "Statistic" triangle needed to be moved close to the "125,000". In the image above, it has already been adjusted. Aside from the small fix, everyone in my class really liked it. I was complimented on how even though I had more words than normal, it looked very minimal and was super easy to read in under a minute. Everything looked clean, organized, my colors went well together, and overall it was just a very good infographic.

     In conclusion, this is probably one of my favorite projects so far because I got to make it based on something I really love, and am very passionate about. It was not a difficult project which eliminated frustration, and it was something that was just extremely enjoyable to make.

Raccoon Postcard Reflection

Assignment -

Our assignment for graphic design was to create a raccoon featuring leaves and or berries. once this portion of the project we were to demonstrate knowledge of Illustrator tools and create an animal of our choice. Finally upon completion of the project we were to turn in a 4x6 postcard to send off to have professionally printed. 

Creation -

As you can see in the screenshot to the left, We followed step by step instruction to complete the original raccoon. This seemed to be the hardest part of the assignment because this was our first Adobe Illustrator assignment of the year. Once the raccoon was created, we were able to create an animal of our choice. I chose a baby bunny which you will have the opportunity to see later in the blog post. After the bunny was done, I decided to make an easter postcard. I added many of the elements - eggs, easter basket, the raccoon, the bunny, and flowers for an additional touch of color. From there we created our own typography. We found a font and or took our own handwriting and created a design for the post card. Mine says 'Happy Easter' on the very top of the card. I made sure the color I did the typography in was a color that went well with the entire postcard.
Once everything was created, we uploaded them to Behance and made a blog post which you are currently reading! 

Final Thoughts -

This project I had a lot of fun with. It was a lot of work, and I will admit I had to take some of it home with me but overall it was my favorite project so far. I love being able to show my creative side in my own assignments, and this defiantly gave me that freedom. To the right you will be able to see the original raccoon and berries, and underneath that is my postcard. Finally you see my hand written typography, and that concludes the raccoon project. 

Photoshop Reflection

Overview of Project: 

Starting a new year of graphic design meant starting a new year of tutorials. Our job was to accomplish the many tutorials given to us in order to learn a variety of new skills we will be presenting in photoshop. 

What I learned: 

Over the course of the tutorials I learned many new skills. I learned how to remove branding, move labels, get ride of images, take away items from photos, as well as clean up portraits so they are free of blemishes. I learned to use tools like the spot healing brush, content aware fill, clone stamp, and patch tool. All of these skills helped me to create great images every time. 

Spot Healing Tool 

Strengths:

My strengths when it came to this project were using my knowledge on the different skills. Following the different videos made it relatively easy for me to understand how to use each of the tools and how they would change the picture.  

Weaknesses:

My weakness came at times when my computer would not work, or when the files would already be messed with. Many times I found that the images provided had already been messed with in way that additional  layers had been added and locked, or  I was unable to get the tool to work properly inside of the file opened. The skills itself I did not seem to struggle with, it was merely the computer delays that stopped me the most. 

What could be different/the same in the future:

Patch Tool 

When working in Photoshop next time, the only things I would consider changing is how the videos were made. Aspects of the video were not always the same on tier Photoshop, verses my own Photoshop. As I am not someone who remembers all the shortcuts keys, I found it very frustrating at times to find all the tools needed when it comes to using different tools for things like the challenge problem at the end of this post.
Some things I would suggest stay the same, are all the skills taught through tutorials. Those tools seemed to be the most common, as well as the only ones we will need to use for our projects this year. As this is not a very advanced class, the skills that we used seem to bump us up a bit further than previous years of Photoshop.

Final thoughts/conclusion:

Final Tutorial 

Overall, my favorite part of the project by far was the last photo shown on this post. I was given a set number of photos, and I had no parameters other than to turn it in. It game me my own creative freedom in which I could change the photo however I wanted. I mainly stuck to keeping the photo as natural as possible but by adding in all the landscape, I created a basic piece of abstract. The design of how it is done, draws the views eyes in, which I love about that. I plan on making more things like that in Photoshop as it was the most enjoyable thing I have done in graphic design the past two years. After doing Photoshop tutorials for the last month though, I am officially ready to move on to illustrator!  

                                 

Challenge Photo

Final Blog Post! (Freshman Year)

     Looking back on this year, I see how much I have done in just a short 9 months. It seems like just yesterday I was a little freshman, unaware of what I was getting myself into joining the eComm program. Through out this year I have made a whole group of new friends and memories that I could not have been more thankful to have.

     As my final project for freshman year, we did a group collaboration to invent a product we thought would be useful to society as a whole.

Our team Cognito Co. created the app 'Tutor Tool'. 'Tutor Tool' was designed for students K-12, as a homework aid. With this app you are given an advantage that you do not get with any other homework app: You get to connect with an actual online tutor on-top of all the other benefits.

     The strongest thing out group did together was collaborate as well as take charge of our own individual parts. We all worked to help one another improve, make our portion more presentable, as well as professional. Once we all found what we did best, we had an easier time bringing our project together which is what helped us most in our presentation. 

     Our group seemed to struggle a lot with how we all wanted our graphics, video, and website to look. We all felt that this project represented us which made it harder when things did not look the way we wanted it to, or certain graphics did not match what they needed to. 

      Next time a group project comes up, the planning will need to be done first. In the long run, we found it is more beneficial because then time was not wasted with each piece having to re-plan what we are going to do. If I could change anything with my group, I do not think I would. I very much loved our product, as well as my team. We had endless laughs even though we would argue over what took place with some aspects. Through this project, our friendships grew stronger with one another, and we all learned helpful skills from one another. 

    Through this project I noticed my graphic design skills greatly improved - this was something I personally thought I struggled with most. The colors, the design, as well as the "comfort" look of our graphics were what I felt as if I improved on most.

When creating the App face, I wanted to keep it interesting, but simple and smart. As you can see the app face reflects all these characteristics as well as a very clean, and 'modern' appeal. Not only did I create the app face, but I also did the website which happened to be my favorite part.
     In conclusion, this project was very unique and I very much enjoyed it. I can not wait to see what e-Comm has to offer me next.

Experimentation with Photoshop

Project 1
Skill - Occupancy Tool and Fade Adjustment  

Project 2
Skill - Cloning tool and Magic Wand Tool 

 For Photoshop we learned many new tool, and editing skills for the photos. As you can see underneath all my work, I added the skill we learned in each. If i had to choose a favorite, I would say the Butterfly with the clone tool because the flying 3-D effect on a 2-D image looks really interesting against a white piece of paper.




In comparison, Illustrator and Photoshop are very different. In illustrator, the biggest difference is that you are un-able to make all the edits on photos you would like to add things too. Also you can go bad and undo as many things as you would like, as in photoshop you really have to utilize your history panel. In photoshop manipulating colors and taking away different things is much harder than in illustrator, so I defiantly prefer photoshop over illustrator.

Project 3
Skill - Text Mask and Gradient Tool 

Project 4
Skill - Magic Lasso Tool and Fading Adjustment

PathFinder Tutorial

For my PathFinder Tutorial, I created a movie ticket. First I began with a rectangle, then added two circles to the end. I then "Minus Front"-ed the shapes to add the "Ticket Look" to the rectangle. After I took the line tool, and created four dotted lines, two horizontal, and two vertical. After I selected the "Type" option, in "Ariel Black" and added "ADMIT ONE".  Finally, after putting all of that together, I was able to create a movie ticket.

Personality determined by Typrography

          My original goal for this project was the learn as much as I could about my font; Archer Hairline. Based on my personality, I am considered Emotional, Understandable, Progressive, and Disciplined. After taking this test - "What Type Are You?" I ended up learning that the typography of things, really does show character; Lots of personality, and so much emotion.
When working on this project, my process began with the "What Type Are You?" test. From there I took the time to download the font, and began to play around with the different letters. Our assignment was to diagram all the things we found hidden within our fonts. As you can see, I circled and labeled all the things that were shown within the font itself. As I continued this process, I added the different types of lines that are not visible when typing in programs such as Microsoft Word, or any other software allowing you to type. I used Adobe Illustrator for this project, and within it I used a lot of teamwork. I constantly found myself helping my team, and they were right there for me when I needed help as well.
If/When I ever decide to try this project again, I would try to get my work done faster. This took me 50 minutes to create because I am still getting used to the software, and by the end of our Graphic Design unit, I want to be able to have these basic skills when typing and drawing lines, mastered.
There is nothing in this project that I would probably do the same. I would want to change this whole thing up, new fonts, new sizing, new color. I would want to document how this changes the way my name would appear to another person, on an emotional/psychological level. From this project, I was able to experience new and unique tools, such as the ones found in PathFinder. In conclusion - I really did find this project interesting. I never know based on how words described me, that I would have a font unique to myself. I completely agree with the words I was given. I really would love to do another project like thins again sometimes soon.

Starting off with Illustrator

As reflection to my project regarding our "Creative Color Wheel" project, I believe it was a success. I was looking to create something simple, but something that showed quality work. As this was my first assignment on  Adobe Illustrator, my work was of good quality. As I continue to progress in this class, I hope to become much better when working with this program because I am well aware amazing things can be created using this software. For my process, I decided to just do half of the rotation tutorial because I loved the simplicity of the design. After learned about all the colors, I followed the tutorial, and then added my own colors to make it original, unique to me. I constantly found myself going back and changing things from the tutorial. For example, If you take a look at my color wheel you can see how the middle looks misshaped. It is not, I added two twelve point stars because the way the middle of my color wheel looked just did not fit the image I was going for. The stars added some "Funk" to it, It added a different shape to the bottom of each shape, which is unique. Next time I decide to work with color wheels and Adobe, I will make sure that I take a lot more time because making a really complex color wheel I think would be a lot of fun. I am really impatient when it comes to working with the software, so I will have to take breaks when working on the color wheel so I do not become too frustrated with what I`m working on. I definitely will use my rotation tool to my advantage next time, and the shape tool, because I know it can make some really cool designs. From this experience, I learned a lot. About myself, and this program. I learned that I have a really hard time focusing when I have the idea in my head of what I want and that I cant work that fast on the computer when I am still learning. As just a general idea, when being taught, I would like to work along with a video that actually shows someone doing the project step by step. As it shows in the tutorial, Some things were hard to understand, but overall I really enjoyed this project. 

Graphic Design

What Graphic Design Means To Me 

       When I begin to think of Graphic Design, I think about how often I use it. The creation of just small pictures or even little "logo" drawings of my name. When looking at books, food, or albums, they were all created using graphic design. Weather it be photography, which I love, or just something as simple as a Wordle, we use our imaginations to create something inspiring, for everyone to remember.

One of my favorite connections to the graphic design world was creating Spirit Wear for Frontier Trail Middle School Choir. Every year I was there Hailey (A close friend), and I would sit for hours just discussing and coming up with ideas on how to make very authentic, fun, but simple designs for all our work. Weather it was just a t-shirt with a couple words, or a sweatshirt representing our whole choir, we wanted our school to stand out. As well as making spirit wear, another project I contributed to involving graphic design was F.O.R Club. (For anyone who does not know, it is a club based on volunteering to start a chain reaction and make the world a better place.) Creating poster and small signs - our goal was to always deliver messages in the most fun, unique, noticeable and informative way. Graphic Design plays a big part in that. You want your message to mean something, you want your work to be remembered and without graphic design that wouldn't be possible. How often do you remember a great book, or a great brand just by the words? A lot of times, you remember their graphic logo, or the colorful box showing a picture of children having fun with the product. Graphic Design can be as simple of an idea as a "Get To Know You Wordle" homework assignments. The way the words lay in a customized pattern of colors and different fonts, it catches you eye. It is something you remember and that's why the world of graphic design is so important. 

 To me, Graphic Design is a world of hidden messages only to be understood by the imagination. Some are simple, others are more complex. Some people see different images, or even different messages within the art of Graphic Design, photography, typography, etc. It is a colorful theory, and a process of discovery. It uses the concept of imagination to provide an image that represents the language for living, not just another picture of a waffle on an Eggo box. 

- Skyler Gray 

8/21/15 

https://youtu.be/rUeiZ6c6EBw