Semester One Review

Description:
  This semester was full of projects and individual work time, which is basically the definition of graphic design. In class we learned along the way to collaborate and connect with one another to push concepts and projects important to us. To start out the year with a basic lesson on typography, we had a project that revolved around matching fonts with objects, sports, or things we identified with. The point of this project was to learn how to match fonts with a desired feeling or concept. This first project was also good in introducing me specifically to sketching and how important it is to the design process. see my name plates project here!
    Next we had a project to design posters and tickets for our school, Olathe Northwest's, homecoming that revolved around the theme "Trick of the Lights". For this the senior committee leaders, who organizes homecoming, gave us a general look and feel they were going for and each of us pushed a design for them to ultimately vote on. This was the first project we truly had critiques on which was definitely a new experience for me. The importance of having others input on your work became clear in this project specifically and after this, critiques began to be something I still look forward to. While this first project for a real client was exciting, it was also definitely a learning curve on deadlines and truly the lack of skill and practice I had in the programs.see my Homecoming project here!
   Our next project our class of designers split into teams to tackle different projects such as a junior committee t-shirt design, junior powder puff t-shirt design, and senior powder puff t-shirt design. I was picked to submit a design for the junior powder puff shirts. This project really introduced us to working in teams and collaborating with others not only for their feedback, but to work together on just a few designs. I ran into quite a few technical problems with this design and what I through together in the end for times sake certainly wasn't my favorite, but it added to my experience. see my Junior Powderpuff T-shirt here!
    Our next project was expressive typography. In this project we had to use ONLY one color (my biggest hurdle) and only the quote "Every great design begins with an even better story" to make up our ENTIRE design. This one for me had a lot of potential, but again at this stage in my skill and knowledge I didn't understand the concept of taking the time to push things farther until I'm genuinely happy with where they stand. This whole first half of projects I was unhappy with because I hadn't discovered being passionate enough about a design to keep going with it. See my Expressive Typography project here!

   The project that we did next is probably the largest turning point in my graphic design career. In this assignment we were given four aspects, a number, a mineral, an animal, and two letters that we had to incorporate in the branding of our own imaginary business. The company that I created was Acacia, a high-end indoor and outdoor plant business. This process of branding did purpose a wide range of bumps along the way but this was truly the first project I pushed far enough to become something I was proud of. Creating an aesthetic I was truly pleased with, it was hard NOT to put in the extra hours ALL of my projects needed. This project had two phases with a few objectives in each such as creating an iPhone button, creating build boards, designing a storefront, creating a product line, and many other aspects that go into branding a real business. see my Acacia project here!
  Our last project is still a work in progress and will be for a little while...personal branding!!! I, like most others, feared this the most because what a big task this is! Currently we have only worked on cultivating our personal logos and type.
Reaction:
   The major key event was truly what I explained above in my description of Acacia and how my passion for graphic design really became real after that project. While this is late in the year to realize a passion, I'm excited for what it holds for the rest of the year. After this project I find myself wanting to design at lunch, after school, all the time! It is the same thing as writing a paper for english class, if you write about something you're passionate about, it's easy. In the same way, if I push till my design is something I am proud of, it becomes easy. As for things that hold me back, pushing over that first hill of concepts is what really gets me. Sketching certainly does NOT come easy to me and having to put my ideas on paper is not something I'm good at, it takes a lot of time. Another issue I run into is pushing past a first concept that I like to discover something even better. Once I feel like I have it, I don't push any further and eventually get stuck on one idea that ends up hurting me.
  As for the key event of Acacia, that is something I'm really excited about! Having a whole next semester to invest more in this second wind is something I am looking forward to in also growing my skills. I've heard the saying "there is no better motivation than seeing results" and that is exactly how I'm feeling right now. Ive seen such a growth in my skills in the program that I'm motivated to use them! As for the issues I feel they are common ones most designers face. I don't see these hurdles really posing a real problem, they are just things I'm going to have to learn to get by.
Evaluation and Analysis:
  I have mostly already talked about what has held me back but I can list a few more. The only really other true problems I have had have been with technology and maybe some type facing. My technical skills always have room to grow and the resolution for that is really just through practice. Once again, I have already seen such an improvement in that as well. As for other things that don't work is the concept of rushing through anything whether it's sketching, creating, or even worse MOUNTING! The main thing I have found unsuccessful every time is the mindset of just getting things done. That attitude has gotten me nowhere but messy, un-straight lines. That mindset was really my main problem first semester and finding a passion to be proud of my work is the resolution.
Learning and Action Plan
   We definitely covered many different concepts this semester and looking back I'm feeling like it may have been intentional... Each project really did teach a new concept. In our first project typography was taught and well. It was a good first example and lesson on how important typography and how choosing it can be difficult. In our next project, the homecoming posters, we learned concepts of meeting hard deadlines for a real client. The Trick of the Lights and name plates project also taught the important concept of sketching. In our expressive typography project, although you would think it would have taught us typography, it really taught us how to carry one design over multiple art boards. In the t-shirt design project we learned concepts about how to work effectively in teams and collaborate. Finally in our last two projects, the imaginary business and self branding we are learning how to BRAND!! Probably the most important one yet.
  I have somewhat already addressed my technical skills but overall I struggled largely with them in the beginning of the year but I have seen a substantial growth in them recently. Spending more time in the programs has really began to pay of and it only excites me to use them more. As for soft skills I have become much more open to asking for help and suggestions when I need it. I have become such good friends with the designers around me and their knowledge is always encouraging and never intimidating as it may have been in the start of the program. As for communication I also try to step up and give my feedback whenever I have it. I have found that my own opinion is important too and I'm not afraid anymore to stick by my design or share my ideas with others. As for leadership at this time I'm still learning and growing as a designer myself and a leadership role is not really what I see fit for me right now. As a junior, I have a good amount of seniors above me that I enjoy to feed off of so much and I want to keep nurturing myself through them as long as I can until it is my turn to step up.
Action Plan
  Next semester my plan is just to devote more time to my work. Not that I have all the time in the world, but I hope that I can allot some more of my effort and attention to create things I'm passionate about. I also hope that showing more effort and availability will allow me to take on other projects other than the ones I'm assigned to beef up my portfolio a little bit more especially going into my senior year. The one thing I hope to learn is inDesign and Photoshop. I feel like both of those programs hold so much fun stuff for me to learn and I want my skill set to span more than just illustrator.

ONW Homecoming 2015 Advertising

The scope of this project was to create a poster, a flyer, and front and back ticket that captured the theme of this years homecoming. The theme is "Trick of the Lights" and based off of the book Night Circus. Our task was to create a magical, whimsical, and elegant feel.

To begin this process we started sketching and did a total of 20 sketches. One thing I need to improve on in this step is to make my sketches more of thumbnails instead of whole page designs. These sketches shown are my two favorites and the two that I drew most from for my final design. I pulled the curtain like feel from my first sketch as well as the elephant. The second one is a design that i would have liked to have pushed and looking back at it now, the second one could have fit the theme better--lessons learned.

As for actually starting the process, I pulled in this image which was my true inspiration for the curtain feel. I started to create a wheel-based shape with lines shooting out to re-create the curtain. Initially I had created the elephant on my own by tracing an image with the paint brush tool, but as I wanted to add some more details like the tribal blanket, it got too difficult. So I moved on to try and find an cultured looking elephant that I could image trace. I finally settled on this one that fulfilled the look I wanted EXCEPT how pixelated it turned out to be, specifically after I sent it off to print--bummer. 

Overall I gained a good amount of skills during this project. It was a good refresher that I CAN image trace and not re-create EVERYTHING with the pen tool. I also called on some other designers who taught me skills such as how to scan in my sketches and how to create the glowing effect that I incorporated in my poster and later my tickets. This being our first real project for a client, I experienced a bit of a learning curve with hard deadlines and the importance of making my final project look professional and ready to present. In the end this project taught me a lot of technical and professional skills.

Next time there are a few changes I would make so the overall feel matches the theme a bit better, Again I would probably go with my second sketch and use more of a red and black. I found myself straying from those colors because they don't fit my PERSONAL palate and I think that interfered with my ability to deliver what the client wanted. Next time I would also spend more time playing with the typography and make it play more into my design so it was the main focus and not the elephant. Again I would pay more attention to my vectored elephant and make that look more clean and fit the theme of the poster better. In addition my font on the bottom wasn't able to stay the same as the title because the font didn't include a money sign which I needed for the bottom section. This was a last minute problem and something I didn't have time to really fix. As for things I would do the same, I would want to keep the curtain and still try to hold on to the cream color with some glow.        My experiences with the overall process is something that will definitely carry on through my next projects. I never really understood the importance of the pre-production stage of sketching so much but now having this project under my belt I do. Overall I enjoyed this project and the theme but definitely a project I will learn and improve from.

 Index

This first screen capture is of my updated index page. On the final day I added that photo of my self and all of the contact information which I then had to create CSS for to change the font and color. I went on to describe all of the projects that we have done briefly. Also not pictured is that I put links to blogs and e-communication sites.

Favorite project

This is probably on of my favorite projects that we did this year. On this site I have a slide for all of my family members and they have pretty cool transitions and alignment when you switch between them. I do wish I had spent more time on the CSS especially of the box at the top with the links to each slide. Next time I need to also pay more attention to font and colors against certain backgrounds

Summer

I am like most students very excited for this summer! I do have my very first job that I will be starting on June 11th at Justice which is a little girls clothing store. I am super excited to earn some money but mostly because I love to shop myself and can't wait to be apart of that atmosphere. I am also going to the lake with my friends the first weekend of summer which I am very excited about! I also am going on vacation with my family in late june to the east coast! In addition I am going to an NYC convention which is basically a week long mission trip which I'm looking forward too. I am also going to have cheer quite a bit this summer along with summer weights which is just conditioning, not so much looking forward to that.

Focus

Next year I will be going into graphic design which I am VERY excited about. I love working in illustrator and both of the graphic design teachers here are fantastic. I am excited to grow my skills and work on more independent projects.

 This was our final color palate and logo for Stella dolls. We used all these colors on the box and tried to find a good balance. We also used the star off of this logo to create a print to go on the front and back to tie it all together. The font was chosen because we wanted something girly and cute to go along with the name stella. Also our theme was a fashion show so we wanted it to match the theme.

We got this template off of templatemaker.com which was very handy. It allowed us to type in the dimensions and pull what they gave us into illustrator to design.

 This is the very front of our box. The white blocked out section was planned to be cut out and put in a viewing screen with plastic so you could see through to the barbie.

This is another side of the box where there is a description of Stella dolls and what our project aims to do.

 This is another side that we just threw a print on. I wanted to put pearls on this too but I just ran out of time. Another problem that we didn't see till it printed out was the lighter pink boxes around the objects. This is something that we will have to fix next time.












The same problem was found on the back of the box with the boxes around the object. Our second functionality is that the front folds out into a runway for Stella. We built in one inch on each side of the front (represented by the stars) that will fold down so that the runway stands up. Another problem we faced was that we ran out of time to design the inside. That also became hard with the print shop.

This was my label for my bottle. Essentially I just decorated a strip that represented the brand and gave the nutritional label. Then I created a bottle using the 3d revolve tool and laid the label on the bottle.

My next picture is showing my carton layout. Eventually this will fold into a box.  I included my logo, nutrition label, and other additional information. I had to also have a die line, bleed line, and glue flaps. The swatches to the side are just for the printer to make sure the colors are coming out correctly.

 My final two pictures are more simple marks of branding the company. First I did a donut tutorial on just the "low" part. This took me a while and I still didn't get the stroke on W that I wanted. In the end I decided done was better than not done and moved on. I paired it with a pretty font to further my brand

E-magine 2015

This picture is from our e-communication awards this April. E-magine is a competition hosted by our own 21st century program here at Olathe Northwest. Essentially there are many different categories ranging from vector design to coverage videos. Students from any school in the area can submit their work to be evaluated by a panel of judges to be placed. The first place winner is awarded what is called the "pixel" which is essentially a cool looking glass cube. These awards were fun to attend with my friends and see all the hard work students had put in. Congratulations e-commers!

Responsive Design

What is Responsive Web Design?

Google defines responsive web design as an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience-easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling. In a more concise way, responsive design is modifying your website so it can be viewed on any device in a user-friendly way. Responsive design has become so relevant because of the rise of mobile devices and tablets. So many people are always on the go and don't have time to be tied down to a website. An important part of responsive design is media queries. Media Queries is a CSS3 module allowing content rendering to adapt to conditions such as screen resolution (e.g. smartphone screen vs. computer screen). It  is a cornerstone technology of Responsive web design. Another first step to creating responsive design is establishing breakpoints. Breakpoints are the point a which your sites content will respond to provide the user with the best possible layout to consume the information. When you first begin Responsive Design you will define your breakpoints at the exact device widths that you are looking to target.

Example

One of the responsive websites I was able to find was Rally Interactive and you can see its link below
http://rallyinteractive.com/

 This screen capture to the left is the widest full version of the website. You can see it has three columns with a full footer and header. The triangle gadgets are however the smallest out of the three versions of the site. The font is an appropriate size but we will also see that change as we go.

 This next screen capture is the medium size option. This can be achieved just by dragging the browser window to a skinnier size or if you were perhaps viewing this site on a tablet in the portrait view. The major difference is that this went down to just two columns but in return the triangle gadgets where able to increase in size a bit. Notice you did not lose any of the gadgets rather they just became more stacked. We notice also a small difference in the increase size in the fonts. Overall layout of the footer and header remained the same.

This final image is the smallest responsive design I can  view on the desktop. Alternate views for an app may also be available. The contrast is most visible on this one as it went down to just one column. You also notice again the increase size in font but also that we lost some of the design graphic of the header and some of the gadgets in the footer. This website overall has an excellent format for all screen sizes and is very user friendly in that regard.