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. 

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. 

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.

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.