Semester Final

Semester Final

What I did this Semester

This semester I completed a variety of projects in my graphic design class. The projects I completed this semester would be 11x17 poster, typography  5x5 artboards, combination marks, business card, letterhead, and envelopes. 

11x17 Poster

The first project of the semester is my 11x17 Bauhaus Poster. The project took around two to three weeks. Some challenges I faced while creating this project was I lost all my skills with the software Adobe Illustrator. This project was assigned to the class after retiring from spring break, which caused to to forget a lot of the software. Along the way I learned more about the Bauhaus Movement (a historical movement in the graphic design world that revolutionized the arts today). Some positive feedback I remember getting for this project was nice use of colors, I really like how clean your design is, and how it represents the movement perfectly. Some constructive feedback I got was some of the information on the poster is too small. What I changed on my finished product was the information I made it bigger and organized it a different way to give important information some hierarchy. My overall opinion about the project is it was okay it wasn't really my best work I have created but this project does show one thing. It shoes how much my skills have improved, which is what I would want to see, considering this project was in the beginning of the semester. 

Typography 5x5 Artboards

This is the second project of the semester and it was 5x5 typography artboards. This project took around three to four weeks to complete because we had to start with sketches, then create it on Adobe Illustrator, then make a black and white version, followed by color scheme versions, then lastly we got to create our finished products. To the right I have my finished products which would be my best version of each inspirational quotes I created for the whole process. Some challenges I faced when creating these projects was finding the correct fonts needed for the quote. At first I couldn't really find fonts that worked together, or I just couldn't find fonts that looked good and fit the quote itself, which took me a long time to find fonts that satisfied me. Along the way I learned about color schemes and what colors work best together. This was the first time the class was required to use color schemes, which really helped me in the future as most of my recent projects dealt with color schemes. Some constructive feedback I was given for this project was some of the fonts are hard to read due to the picot backgrounds, the font needs to be aligned better, and lastly one photo was a little stretched. Some postive feedback I received was the quotes really fit you and describe what personality you have, great back story to why you selected the quotes and the photos, and nice color schemes.  After receiving my feedback I only changed one thing, which was how my text was aligned on one of the artbaords. My overall opinion  on this project was I really enjoyed doing this project because it was one I could make a personal connection on. Furthermore the project was just fun to do and I consider it one of the best projects I've done this year. 

Company Rebrand 

The company rebrand as a whole would include combination mark, business card, letterhead, envelope, and rebrand display. This whole project I would say took around a month to a month and a half because of how many parts were included in each part.

Combination Mark

The first step to the whole company rebrand was creating combination marks. It all started with sketches of 30 symbols, 15 word marks, and 6 final combination marks. the combination marks alone took around 2 weeks to complete as we first had to do research about the company and design a logo that really fit the company. Some challenges I faced while completing this mini step in a huge project is ideas. After a while I couldn't come up with any ideas about creating more symbols, word marks. after a while they all just started to look the same and had little variety. Along the way I learned nothing really about graphic design other than how hard it is to create an original logo no one has used. For this project there was really no feedback given as the work was not shown to classmates. There was nothing to really change with this project since we got no feed back and it was just sketches. I have no opinion on this project as it was not really important. 

Business Card

This project was the second part to our company rebrand. The scope of the project was to create a business card with our company logo. This project took around 25 minutes to create which equivocates to around half a class period. I really didn't face any challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple to complete and didn't require much work or creativity. When doing this project the only thing I learned was how big a business card was. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was don't use a different combination mark for the front and back as it might confuse the viewer. I received no positive feedback for my business card. I did not change anything on this project as I felt nothing needed to be changed. Overall I really enjoyed this project as it was simple and didn't require much thought or work to be done. 

Letterhead

This project was the third/ fourth step in creating or company rebrand. This is the letterhead I created for my company rebrand. This project took me around 25 minutes which again is around  half a class period. Again, I faced no challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple and all I had to do was follow directions. Along the way I learned what a letterhead looks like and how big a letterhead should be. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was remove the second combination mark, and lastly make the information about the company bigger. Some positive feedback I received was I like both the combination marks being there as it adds variety, and I like how you used the second combination mark on the front and how it is faded. I changed nothing on this project as I was satisfied with my work and I don't care what others think. So I did what I thought looked best and what makes me happy.  My overall opinion of the project is this was easy to complete. 

Envelope

The envelope is located flesh right in the bottom corner. This project was to create a envelope both front and back for my company rebrand. This project took me around 5-10 minutes to complete. Some challenges I faced when completing this project was I did not know what a enveloped look like which cause me to have to redo my whole project. Along the way I learned what an envelope should look like and the correct dimensions of one. Some positive feedback I received is nice accent color used on the flap. Some constructive feedback I received was make the information about the company bigger. When I received this feedback I did end up changing the information size so it would become legible. Overall, I really like the whole company rebrand project as it was fun, and allowed creativity as we had little guide lines.

How I Used My Class Time

I have used my class time really efficiently. When I was in class I got to work and didn't mess around at all as I wanted to finish my projects as fast as possible. In the times that I finished early/ thought I was done I stayed on task by collaborating with students about their projects and helping them along the way and building strong relationships by doing so. When Mrs. Smith my (Boss) assigned me an eight hour project and when it only took me seven to enhance my projects by asking students for feedback and if they had good feedback that I agreed with I would change the issue, which in return made my projects better. What I did outside of class to enhance my graphic design skills was one doodle on my netbooks when I was suppose to be focusing on other subjects or working on homework. Furthermore, I enhanced my graphic design skills by creating personal logos and doing other work that increased my tech logical skills in graphic design. In terms of what I did outside of class to enhance my work is I did absolutely nothing. I could have came in to improve stuff but i didn't because I had more important stuff to do outside of class. 

Strengths as a Graphic Designer

I do not have any strengths as a graphic designer as I'm pretty weak in this area of eComm. But one strength I do have is I turn in my work in on time. This is a good skill not only for eComm but for the rest of life as an employer does not want a lazy worker. 

Areas of Improvement

EVERYTHING. I suck at graphic design, which is why I'm quitting it. 

Summary

What I loved most about this semester is the classmates I had. I came into this class thinking I was going to hate every second of this class for the whole year, but it quickly became my favorite because of the loving environment Mrs.Smith created. What I would change about this semester is adding more detail to my projects as most of them were pretty plain. What I am going to learn from this semester and school year is I am not gifted in graphic design and in my future career of eComm I need to focus on SID. One goal I want to set for next school has nothing to really do with this class but is to get a unweighted GPA of 4.0 and a weighted GPA of 4.4. Final thoughts is I really loved this class because of everyone in the class they really made my school year better.

 

Company Rebrand

Company Rebrand

Summary of Rebrand Project

The scope of the rebrand project was to choose a local Kansas City company and create a brand new combination mark for the company to rebrand themselves with. First the process started with sketching 30 symbols, then sketching 15 word marks, followed by combining the two to create 10 combination marks. From the 10 combination marks the class was asked to select 6 of the ten and create them using Adobe Illustrator. After the black and white version was created the next task was to create the colored version using color schemes. After creating 6 basic color schemes the next step was to create 5 more color schemes for each combination mark. after completing this step the final steps was to select our favorite combination mark of the 6 and create a business card (Front and Back), Letterhead (Front and Back), and an envelope (Front and Back). The company rebrand display above is the finished product.

What I designed

First step to the finished project was sketching my combination mark. When I was originally creating my combination mark for the company rebrand I wanted a Italian feel so naturally my first instinct was to select colors that were on the Italy flag, which explains my color scheme choices. After creating combination marks that I was satisfied with to create a company rebrand was to create a business card. When I was creating my business card I eat for a clean look as I wanted al the information to be readable and wanted the logo to be the center of attention. To add some detail I added some colored bars on top to hold the information in which really added some character. Next was creating a letterhead.
For the letterhead I added both my combination marks to give some variety and added my second combination mark on the bottom of the front and made the opacity lower, which i rally think added a lot of detail and brought the whole letterhead together. Lastly, I crated an envelope and just wanted a clean look.

Nelson Atkins Bauhaus Poster

Bauhaus Poster

Why I Chose The Bauhaus

I chose the Bauhaus Movement because I really liked how clean and simple the artwork was for the movement. Another reason I chose this topic was it is easy to create. The Bauhaus is easy to create because it uses simple shapes with vibrant colors and utilizes a neutral Earth tone background to make the shapes pop out and catch the eye. The last reason why I chose The Bauhaus Movement is the artwork is more my style. Other artist and movements were complex and all had a underlying message beneath the artwork. But the Bauhaus is simple clean and has no deep underlying message that the artwork is trying to get across it was mainly just done for fun and thats what art and graphic design should be for. 

The Sketches 

Before creating the finished product of the Bauhaus Movement poster the class was asked to sketch out what we would like our poster to look like and to take inspirations from our sketches and make the best one on Adobe Illustrator. As one can see I have some sketches that are black and white and some that are colorized. The colorized ones are what I was going to make as I wanted those to be my finished product. In my personal opinion I think the colorized ones are the best sketches that I created and the most creative. The inspiration behind my sketches came from hours of research during class I spent quality time looking at all different kinds of Bauhaus posters and the ones I liked the most I imitated to my best ability. What made a poster worth recreating to me was legible font, Simple and clean, explains the movement without having to type out an explanation, and lastly bright colors an a neutral background. 

The Process 

The process of creating two of my four finished sketches was quite simple. Each poster only took one class period to create as the poster are simple but get the message across. The program I used to create these posters was Adobe Illustrator. To create both posters I used only triangles, circles, squares, lines, vibrant reds blues and yellows, and neutral backgrounds. To make the text less boring and add some character to the poster I slanted the title or I added lines to each letter and made kit extend off the page to catch the readers eye. When creating these posters one thing that I was really going for was explaining the movement through the artwork. My fellow peers did not do this well as they had their artwork on the poster but unless one knew the artist or movement the poster made no sense. Which in my opinion makes their handwork useless since it dosen't get the point across. 

Feedback

Some positive feedback I received from my classmates would be Nice use of colors, Love the artwork, Love the simplicity and how clean the artwork is, and lastly the title being slanted adds a lot of character and makes the poster more interesting. Some constructive criticism I received was the poster is plain, and lastly The information about the exhibit needs to be organized in a different way. The last constructive criticism was the best feedback I received for this project as I used it to my advantage. Instead of just listing out the the needed information I put most important information bigger and in the middle of the screen and the least important smaller and out of the way. 

Conclusion 

Overall, I am proud with how my first poster turned out. To me this is the poster that really expresses the movement and is the most appealing to the eye. This is going to the the artwork I am submitting to be printed and receive a hard copy of. 

Elements of a Poster

Posters

Summary of "The Character and function of the Poster"

Posters have been around for quite sometime and influence the brains of many. The posters job is to stand out the catch eye of a viewer who only has a few seconds to look at something when passing by. This is why posters have to stand out by having bright colors and a clean design or an eye popping image to grab the attention of many. Another thing a poster must provide is text that us not to long nor typography that is hard to read since the view only has a few seconds to stop and read in today's time. The function of posters in today's world would be to express political views, inform others of cultural events, to provide audience entertainment, and to provide a message to those who stop and look. Other key functions of a poster is to stimulate, activate, mobilize provoke, motivate, and lastly convince and audience.

Summary of "The Laws of Poster Designing"

General Demands of Poster-Designing:
Some general demands of good poster designing would be the message on the poster has to be legible and an understanding message. This means no crazy colors or typography. Another quality a great poster has to be is innovative. The last general demand of poster designing that will create a great looking poster is it should be memorable and establish a new contact between the viewer and topic.
Lettering in Poster-Designing:
When it comes to lettering in poster designing a good poster should have lettering integrated in the poster and remain memorable in the viewers mind. If the lettering is placed outside the picture the lettering must be proportional to the pictures on the poster and should have the same composition and color of the rest of the poster. Another important factor of lettering is the words on the poster should be able to present important information in a quick manner and be legible from a distance. The last important factor of lettering is information should be quick and concise and have a dynamic effect on the audience.
Shapes in Poster-Designing:
The objective of shapes in poster designing should be to clearly express the ideas of the poster. When using shapes on a poster it is important for the shapes to be arranged accordingly, large and effective from a distance, clear shapes, should draw the reader's attention quickly. If the graphic design on a poster is done well it will cause the audience to be more engaged in the poster and make a emotional appeal to the reader which will cause the poster to be more memorable.
Color in Poster-Designing:
Coloring plays a huge factor when creating posters. Color can be used to express the issue ranging from social, economics, political, and cultural campaigns. One use that color provides posters is it serves as communication to the audience. When choosing a color pallet for posters it is good for the colors to provide contrast but at the same time blend together.

Three Key Points

One key point I learned while reading this article is when creating a poster Color is one of the most important factors because it can provide emotion and draw the audience attention. This is important because in the future when I am creating a poster I will look at color theory and select colors that send a message that I am trying to get across without having to say many words. Another Key factor I learned is a good poster should be memorable in the readers mind. This is important because If an artist works hard on a poster for a company but it isn't very effective because it does not stick in the minds of the audience then the work was useless. The 3rd and last factor I found useful in this article is about lettering. I learned that if the lettering is not inside a photo but next to a photo the lettering has to be proportional so the poster does not look out of place. 

 Favorite thing and value

The favorite thing I learned is the the color theory and choosing a good color pallet. This will be very valuable in the future because choosing certain colors can send a message to the audience without having to use words. Choosing a good color pallet is valuable information because choosing colors that don't blend and contrast to much will cause the poster to look less aesthetically pleasing.

Conclusion 

Overall this was a really good article and provided great information that I will be using in the future when I am creating my poster for a graphic design class. 

Semester Reflection (Final) - Graphic Design

Projects

Raccoon Postcard

This project is a raccoon postcard that was assigned to us in our very early stages of graphic design. This project took around two weeks to complete. Some of the challenges I faced when completing this project was creating the raccoon, brainstorming an original theme for the postcard, and creating handmade typography. Along the way I learned plenty of new skills. The skills I learned was how to use pathfinder tools, how to make an object look like its waving, and how to create animals/ humans from shapes. Some feedback I was given when the project was presented to my classmates consisted of many negative comments such as "Plain Background", "The raccoon is not PC because he is wearing a Donald Trump shirt", and "The black lines on the tail are off and don't look right".Some positive feedback I received from my teacher and a few classmates consisted of "The raccoon looks nice","I like the theme","The flags work unique and very well created". After getting the feedback I just changed the black lines on the tail because I felt as if that was the only item on the whole postcard that needed to be changed. Other than the black lines that I corrected, I was extremely pleased with how my work turned out. My overall opinion of  the design process is it was extremely fun to create a post card using the raccoon and the project wasn't challenging. As I stated previously, I am extremely pleased with this project and consider it to be one of the best works I have produced as a graphic designer. 

Photoshop Challenge 

This project was our challenge project for our photoshop portion of graphic design. The class was told to let our imagination run and create what ever we wanted to on this man. This project took two class periods each class period being around 30 minutes. Some challenges I encountered when working on this project was not really knowing how to do anything. I had to teach myself on how to fill photos with certain designs. Along the way I learned one huge skill that helped me in plenty of other projects down the corse of first semester. The skill is called layer mask. Layer mask is what I used to pt the photos of the nature on his body. On this project I received only positive feedback. Some comments my classmates said were "I like the designs", "The photo you put on his neck was really creative and make it look like a tattoo", and "The whole project just looks very clean and neat". On this project I changed nothing as I for the first time received no negative feedback. My overall opinion of the design process is I really loved doing this project as it gave me the ability to show my creativity, something we don't get to do a lot in this class because of all the tutorials we are required to follow. I am extremely please with this project as it is my most clean and well thought out project. 

Time

I have used my class time very effectively this semester. When I get into class I get right to work and don't waste a second of time as every second is needed when completing these projects. When I was done or thought I was done I stayed productive in plenty of ways. One way i stayed productive was by asking my fellow classmates who were also done to critique my work to see if anything need to be fixed, changed or deleted. Another way I stayed productive was by not bothering my other classmates who were hard at work completing their own assignments. The last thing I did to stay productive was I worked on other projects or I created my own projects to work on. Outside of class I would come in to finish projects or to make them look nicer and more clean. I also spent a lot of timeout of class updating my blog so I could keep my readers interested in my works. Another thing I did out of class was watch tutorials on youtube to enhance my understanding of what our current project was about, or how I could enhance my own projects by following the tutorials. 

Strengths 

As an employee I have three huge strengths that I pride myself on. My first strength and my biggest strength is I am a very hard worker. My second strength as an employee is I never give up on assignment or anything in life. I always find a way to push through and finish what I started. My last strength as an employee is I am a perfectionist. This could also be viewed as a weakness also as I will not continue with an assignment unless everything looks perfect at that very moments. However, this is a strength for me as people will know I product quality work and I produce the best work. As a graphic designer I have one strength and that is I learn skills and other thing very easily and quick. I maximize all my strengths by working hard and staying on task. If I can stay on task which I always am there is not a thing I can't accomplish. 

Improvements 

An area of improvement that really brought me down this year is my collaboration skills. In the beginning of the year I talked to much to my fellow classmates and really hurt their progress. However as the year went on however I fixed this problem and no longer is it an issue for me or my peers. To fix this problem I just brought headphones to class and only listened to music instead of distracting them with my voice. Other than this small issue in the begging of the year I have no where to improve. 

Summary

I loved plenty of things this semester. One thing I loved was the classmates I sit by. My classmates really made me enjoy this class and made me look forward to coming to this class everyday. Another thing i enjoyed about this class was the projects were we the creators had free range to do whatever we wanted to do. The project where we had to follow tutorials were not fun nor did they challenge the creator. In this class i would change two things. One thing I would change would be letting the creator have more control of their product. We the creators had very few assignments where we actually got to influence the project by putting our own view of things. The last thing I would do differently s not talk as much as I use to. That issue really brought my grade down first later and I had to work hard to bring it up. What I am going to take away from this semester of graphic design is in order to succeed in life one needs to work hard. Next semester I have one goal. The goal I am setting for myself does not just apply in graphic design but applies to life and that goal is to be the best at everything I do in life. I have no final thoughts. 

Raccoon Project

Fall Raccoon

Our first part of the assignment for Adobe Illustrator was to create a raccon with a fall vibe. So to achieve a fall vibe I added a light pink background because it is a soft color and fall reminds me of soft colors. Another object I added to achieve a fall vibe was berries and trees. My image for creating the tress was to sort of copy the Mulan trees. I really enjoy using Adobe Illustrator because its fun and gives the creator a more ability to create their artistic design then staying in photoshop. Another reason i enjoyed Adobe Illustrator and why my experience with the program was so enjoyable was Adobe Illustrator is very simple to use and once you master the program it can really bring your work to life.

Raccoon Postcard

The other part of our first Adobe Illustrator project was to create a postcard using the raccoon we created above. My Vision for the postcard was to create a 4th of July themed postcard. I wanted to make the postcard as American as I could because that what 4th of July is all about expressing your freedom and happiness for living in the best country in the world. To make the most american postcard possible I made the raccoon in a Donald Trump shirt, holding two flags, with stars and stripes bowtie, and a starts and stripes top hat. Overall I really liked how my postcard turned out and think that I did a really great job creating the postcard to a 4th of July theme. If I were to change one thing about the project however I would add fireworks in the background and possibly add an eagle to the bottom of the raccoon to make it look like the raccoon was riding the eagle. 

Behance

The last part to our project was to upload our project to Behance. Bechance is a website where other graphic design artist upload their works for other graphic artist to view. The uploading process is fairly simple.  

Photoshop Tutorials

Final Product

In photoshop I learned the basics on how each tool is used and when to correctly use each tool efficiently. Some key tools that are very useful in photoshop are the clone tool, spot healing brush, and the quick select tool. The clone tool is very important because it can cover up blemishes that are on an image with surrounding background. The spot healing brush is important because it can cover up a messy background and blemishes by blending the surrounding objects. The quick select tool  is useful because it is very helpful in adding a double expose effect as seen in the picture above. The favorite skill i learned throughout these projects was the quick select tool and the clone tool. Both these tools will be very helpful in the future because it allow me to customize photos with my creativity and cover up blemishes easier. My strengths throughout all of this was knowing how to use the tools. My weakness for these assignments was I am a perfectionist and i didn't want to move onto another assignment until every project looked perfect. If I were to change something it would be his dress shirt he has on. I would make the Supreme x Bape logo a little darker to make it pop more. What i would keep the same would be the suit jacket he has on. I would keep the suit jacket the same because I like the black and white effect and the text. Overall I really like doing the challenge portion of the photo shop tutorials (picture above) because it allowed me to use my skills without having to follow another person step-by-step. It also allowed me to show my creativity.

Other Projects Done in Photoshop 

PhotoShop 101

Photoshop Projects

In my e-Comm class we did a series of photoshop

projects following tutorials from our graphic design 

teacher. Our inspiration for these projects were our

school also known as ONW. The projects were not 

that hard but just took a decent amount of time.

Website

This is a website I created for my graphic design class. I created this website using the program Dreamweaver. Making this website was quite challenging. I made this website while following tutorials from my old teacher Mr.Olsen who made excellent video tutorials that were clear cut and to the point. The color scheme I chose for the website was generated by a website that I used. The 3rd and 4th photos are the css styles and the html pages used to decorate the actual page to make it pretty and professional. The html code page I created is used for the actual creating of the website. The html is used to do all the background stuff that usually isn't seen on the actual website even when you pull it up. The     html is however the hardest as there are a lot of   complicated deails to follow in order not to          mess everything up.