Finals for Semester 1

1) I think i've accomplished a lot this semester. We have completed 3 different large projects in the class including the homecoming poster with infographic, a rebranding project, and are currently working on a menu design. Each of these projects took awhile but I think the most challenging was and fun was the rebranding one (took over 3 weeks). One thing I really enjoyed was watching my classmates take different roads when designing. Not one project looked the same. The creativity that was shown kind of blew me away because I haven't seen it so intensely till now. One of the most challenging parts of this assignment was to make the logo.  I started off this year wanting to make my typography skills escalate. I think I did accomplish this with the final chosen logo. 

I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone with this logo. It was a lot more type based which I tend to stay away from but it actually turned out really nicely. I originally wanted to go with a more image based one but thanks to Burdolski I think I made a better choice to show off my abilities and how they've grown from last year. Overall I loved how this project turned out. It was exactly, if not better, what I hoped for.

 

2) I think this year I've definitely learned how to manage my time better. The work load has been a lot heavier and the projects more challenging but because of it I've been able to learn the importance of meeting deadlines. With my first project of the year I definitely didn't have my stuff together.  I missed several deadlines and suffered. But from those sufferings I managed to learn how to get better at focusing and producing better work. I try my best to nitpick every tiny detail of my project until its perfect. Then I judge and push it a bit more. This has led to a lot of way better designed products! Also this Semester I've taken on a lot more outside work. I am trying to get endorsed by the end of the year and this has motivated me to work even harder and push myself farther. I've made brochures for friends parents. Business cards and seasonal holiday cards.  All of these things challenging me and getting me to the next level. 

 

I'd have to say my strength is still Illustration. It makes my work far more original and noticeable. I maximize these strengths by adding it into my projects as much as possible. I want to be able to show my portfolio to professionals and let them see my potential. I still need to work on my typography but by incorporating it more I think I've definitely stepped up my game this year. 

What I've loved most would be the openness of the projects. Especially the rebranding one. If I could go back I'd really like to redesign my poster for homecoming to make it more original. Overall I've learned that persistance is key and I'll figure out a solution if I just keep trying. I would like to keep working on typography.  

Homecoming 2016 reflection

For this project we had to make a visually attractive poster an infographic that portrays the theme “Dark and Stormy night at Raven Manor”. This was probably one of my more difficult projects due to the miscommunications and small amount of time we had on this project.

I started out sketching about 20 designs for the poster that had the theme dark and stormy. I Settled on 2 ideas of one with a banner that looked kind of like a pumpkin and a more witchy theme with a girl sitting on the moon above some spooky trees. I worked on the graphics and typography for the two for about a week and using mostly illustrator I vectored all my images to maintain a high quietly print. Then I got together with my classmates to review my work. We narrowed it down to my banner poster. I found the typography to be a very difficult challenge (since it's one of my more weak spots). We regrouped one last time and decided to get rid of my typography and pull in Jacklyn's. I used a lot of gold foil and vector art to try and portray the theme.

There are a lot of things I wish I could have changed but the major one would be to change my concept to my idea of drawing an old house on a hill with the moon large in the background. I feel like this idea would have fit the theme “Raven Manor” a lot better and I would have avoided the very similar idea Jacklyn and I shared. Another thing would to have used better typography by either talking to Brett or trying to draw it myself. It would have been a lot more difficult but the final product would have been much better than the online fonts. I did like my color choice (even if the committee did not, no idea why because it's what they asked for...) I think the purple to blue gradient looked wonderful with the dark outline of the people. The gold boarder turned out way better than I could have expected!

For my next project I am definitely going to focus on typography THEN graphics. I want to use more of my own artwork as well. Overall I think I learned how to better deal with an extremely difficult client, this will for sure be helpful in the future when I deal with this again. It was a fun project since I got to work with Annika and get her feedback. I wish I could do it again and try to make it better.