Semester One Reflection

PROJECTS -

HOMECOMING PACKAGE

     This year the Graphic Design Seniors got the opportunity to work in groups of two to create a poster, tickets, and an infographic for ONW's Homecoming 2016. I worked alongside Kacie Beebe; I created the poster and tickets with her help and she created the infographic. The seniors as a whole ran into a lot of problems during this project. The theme of the dance was given incorrectly, and we were hearing from outside parties what they had changed the theme to instead. We had a lot of miscommunication during this project which led to a lot of missed deadlines and struggles to get certain work done. While last year the Homecoming project only took about two weeks, we ran to almost a month on this year's. While this project was difficult, I learned a lot of stuff from the challenges we faced. It was not our fault that the theme of the dance had been misinterpreted, therefor we should have gone with the information we had rather than stressing or worrying about what others were telling us to do. This project was one that taught me more about the process of working with clients and meeting deadlines more than anything, but I am very happy with how our work turned out in the end. The theme we went with was Dark and Stormy Night, where the committee wanted a spooky, yet pretty looking poster. The tone of the dance was to be dark colors, purple, and gold. 

ONW WRITING CENTER TSHIRTS

     During the time of the Homecoming project I worked with an english teacher at ONW and head of the ONW Writing Center, to create a new logo and t-shirt for her club. The writing center is a place for students to come to get help, feedback, and tutoring over their writing. This project took a lot longer than I had hoped do to a lack of communication between my client and I, but after about two weeks of in and out work between projects, I created something that I really enjoyed, and the teacher had loved as well! I had trouble getting feedback from this teacher, leaving me to interpret the design and theme myself, but ended up being in the area of what she was looking for. While creating t-shirts is usually not the area of design I tend to succeed in, I was very proud of how my t-shirts turned out. I believe that the logo I created really expresses the growth of my typographic skills from last year to now. 

ONW HALL OF FAME

     This project is something I picked up after finishing the Homecoming package. Our school's Athletic Director approached our class about creating an invitation to send to those who had been inducted into ONW's new Hall of Fame to the Homecoming football game and a dinner. This project took about two days to finish and touch up on. I had never made a product like this--professional and expressing lots of information. I seemed to get the typography down on the first day and was super happy with it, but I struggled to place the copy into the invitation in a way that was pleasing to the eye and also was easy to read. The picture on the left is my first product; after a small critique from my classmates and my teacher turned into the picture to the left. This is one of my favorite projects I have ever done because I feel that I really succeeded. I believe that more than anything this shows my growth in graphic design, and my ability to create something outside of my wheelhouse. 

 

SENIOR CLASS TSHIRTS

     This is another project that I am very, very proud of. I was approached by members of ONW Project Grad to create a t-shirt for the senior class of 2017. This project require a lot of research to get some inspiration. I looked for lots of slogans and the way that class t-shirts were made in the past. I sketched a few designs and then pushed two solid concepts to the computer. The whole process took about a week to get to the final product, but the voting by the senior class and Project Grad choosing between my shirt and another classmate's took another week or two. I originally created a t-shirt with the slogan from popular tv show How I Met Your Mother, "Legend-wait for it-Dary" with the 17 for 2017 creating a visual D. While I liked this concept it was not my favorite. I pushed another to the computer that had heavy typography and graphics along with it. I first made the shirt only with a front side, and the top and bottom shapes around the text were just solid. After doing more research, involving asking people around the room what kind of t-shirt they enjoyed more, I decided to make the shirt with a pocket design in the front and a large design in the back. I vectored a silhouette of the front entrance of Olathe Northwest and incorporated it into the design. In the end, I am still very proud of it and nothing makes me happier or prouder than seeing lots of seniors wearing my shirts around the halls. 

CRAM & COCOA 2016

     Last year I created two different posters for my school's event Cram & Cocoa. I was really successful with that project and went on to win a pixel for it at eMagine. This year our vice principal asked us to create another poster for Cram & Cocoa 2016. Mrs. Burdolski gave the idea of updating last years poster in order to use it again. This took about one day of work in Graphic Design for me to update the posters and re-save them out. I kept the overall concept and brand, but there was a lot of new information to add causing me to have to change my design a little bit. This is the evolution from last year's poster to this year's. I am still very happy with the end result of this project, and believe this is one of the projects that taught me the most about time management, client work, and typography.

REBRANDING: TOP 'N TOWN

     The next project we were assigned in class was Rebranding. For this project we had to find a company with poor branding and create a new look for it. This project spanned over the course of eight weeks with a few side projects done in between. After choosing a company we were to research about the company and find the many defining qualities it has. Using these qualities/describing words we were to look up logos or brands that had relation to those words and sketch twenty five different ideas for our rebranded logos. After this we would push six of these ideas to the computer to make six solid concepts. The company I chose was an indian ice cream company called Top 'n Town. 

These are the six concepts that I chose:

   These are the final concepts after multiple in class critiques. I then chose to use the bottom right concept as my logo. After narrowing the logos down to one we were to find a good color scheme to add to our brand. After choosing the colors for Top 'N Town I went to start creating my label. The one thing about the original brand that I didn't like was the fact that the branding didn't go along with their logo in the slightest. My biggest hope for my branding was to create a label that looked as delicious and sweet as I believed my logo turned out to be. While creating the labels I had to come up with three different flavors, and to express these flavors I had to use three different types of typography: a chosen font, a manipulated font, and a handwritten font. The flavors I chose were Fruit Cocktail (Chosen), Chocolate Fudge (Manipulated), and American Blue (Handwritten). I had a few different ideas for the labels and had trouble landing on one I really liked. Finally after researching label design for another day I found an idea that I was really excited about and made it into my own. Creating the labels was definitely the longest part of the designing process due to the many different elements there is. I had to create a size, nutrition label, and decide on what other information I wanted to include. I changed my label multiple times after lots of feedback from my classmates. I definitely struggled to keep my label full of information, but also make sure it was not too busy. Overall I believe that this was a very strong project to put on my portfolio due to the many hours of handwork I put into it. For those who know me it is known that it is rare for me to really like my project or doing it until the very end, but I enjoyed making this project all the way through. Branding is one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Graphic Design world and I'm always excited to bring something as small as a title of a company to life. These are the final products.

Take a look at my Behance to see my full process!

MENU REBRAND: RISE No1

     The current project we are working on in class is another Rebranding project. We were to choose some kind of restaurant and rework their menu into something new. I chose the restaurant rise no1 to create a new and improved menu for. I wanted to create something very modern and simple, which is some of the many aspects of this restaurant. I hope that after in class critiques over my two different concepts I will end up as happy with this project as I have with my other projects throughout the beginning of this year!

TIME MANAGEMENT

     This year I have managed to do lots of side projects while continuing to stay on task for the projects I was assigned. While there are times I tend to get distracted I feel that this year I have been much more on task and proactive than ever before. I tend to lack in the inspiration department towards the beginning of many projects, sometimes leaving me behind a little bit. Although, once I find something to get me rolling I catch right back up. This is definitely something I need to work on, especially when moving forward because there may not be all that much time to catch up in the future. This would mean I might need to spend a bit more time researching and sketching in order to find something to get me going.

     This year I have used a lot of my free time in between assigned projects to work on side projects from outside clients. I have gotten a lot of endorsement hours finished this year on other projects that are helping me complete my portfolio. I also have been working on making my behance look this best it can in my free time as well. While not all my projects are updated with the theme I am trying to create, I know the look that I am going for. I'm very proud of the growth my portfolio has gone through in this small portion of the year.

STRENGTHS

     I think that some of my strengths as a graphic designer are typography, branding, and time management. Typography is something that I began to think more about during our prom project last year when I couldn't think of a layout for the type on my poster. I was then told to always think about type before anything else and I will have better luck with the layouts. This advise has worked tremendously for me and I think there is a marked difference in many of my projects. Branding is my favorite aspect of Graphic Design. Branding allows us to create something completely new and our own. While creating the logo can be a long process of researching and finagling with different ideas, the end result is always awesome. Time management is another thing I think I have improved on this year. I feel that I now have a sense of when to work on one thing versus the other and still stay on task with them both. 

THINGS TO WORK ON

     For me, I think I definitely need to work on the researching process. I always seem to find myself stuck when it comes to pushing concepts the computer, and that may be because I didn't research well enough. I will try to research more with key words and sketch enough to give me good ideas. This will make my work on the computer much easier. I also feel that I need to work on project management/organization. Many times when I go back to projects in order to put them on my behance I find that many are missing links or I don't know which one was the final concept. I will definitely try to keep all my stuff on the server moving forward so I don't have to guess which file is the correct one from my desktop or server folder. I will try to find a good way to organize that will be easy and accessible to me. 

SUMMARY

     This semester my favorite project was the re-branding and our current menu project. I feel that these two projects were super professional and real, and were a great addition to my portfolio. I really like how many opportunities I have been given to do outside work, and how many of these opportunities I have succeeded in as well. I hope that next year I can keep my progress going forward. I've learned lots of new stuff this semester, especially how to push myself to create something a little out of my comfort zone. Next semester I would really like to get my behance completely up to date with all my projects and make them all look like a family. I really, really enjoyed this semester and absolutely love this class (more than anything!!!!) and don't even want to think about next semester being my last.