Hannah's e-Comm Blog: Graphic Design Semester Reflection

What did I do this semester?

In my graphic design class this semester, we took our previous knowledge of a specific graphic designer or movement of our choice and created a poster promoting a gallery at The Nelson. We also created 4 typography graphics out of quotes or lyrics or our choice. Lastly, we worked on rebranding a company of our choice which meant, creating a new logo/combination mark, a business card, a letterhead, and finally, and envelope.

Saul Bass Poster

Towards the end of first semester, we were asked to choose from a list of graphic designers and movements to research and create a power point about. From the list, I chose the designer, Saul Bass. His art was unique and different from what you would normally see and that really caught my eye. The way that he made his art his own was inspiring. His graphics are easy to recognize and are always interesting to look at. We were asked to create poster in the style of our artist or movement, promoting their work at the Nelson Art Museum. One of his works that really caught my eye, was his posters and covers for the film The Man with the Golden Arm. In his arts for the film, there is this arm that is almost like a signature for the film and Saul Bass. Every time I hear Saul Bass, I think of that arm so I decided to put that in my poster.

Research

To make sure that my poster looked the best that it possibly could, I had to research what the importance of a poster is and what makes a good poster. The main idea of a poster is to get inform others about a certain event in the simplest form possible. You want all of the necessary information on the poster without making the poster look too busy. I researched some of Saul's posters and also tired to make it look like something that he would create. I looked at multiple fonts and found the perfect font to represent Saul's style (Viktors Littl Creepy Horror). I found Saul Bass's works usually used dark colors to portray a cynical feel. I tried to create the same kind of feel by using the colors that he used (dark, warm colors).

20 Layout Sketches

In addition to the research, we had to create 20 different sketches of ideas for our poster. I knew that I want "Saul Bass" to be the first thing people saw when they glanced at my poster. I made different sketches of how I could portray Saul Bass through this poster. I had to think about where every piece of information would go and how large I wanted the details to be. I then started to add certain graphics and fonts that I thought would represent Saul. I settled on one of the first sketches that I drew. Going into this project, I already had an mage in my mind of what I wanted my poster to look like, it was just a matter of where to put everything and how to make certain information to pop.

Conclusion

I felt that I did a good job on this poster. It was a fun project overall and I enjoyed creating it. In the beginning, I already had a outline in my mind of how I wanted the poster to look so it only took me a few days to create. The feedback I received was all positive. The only thing I needed to change was the more important information should be outlined.

Typography

The typography unit was definitely my favorite of all that we have done in graphic design. We had to find quote or lyrics that somehow connected to us and meant something to us. I chose all of my lyrics from my favorite band, Twenty One Pilots. Their lyrics are very inspiring and meaningful to me and I felt that they would all fit for my "vision" for the art boards.

Kitchen Sink

These lyrics are from the song Kitchen Sink. The song is about helping you to defeat your "demons" thats are in your head. The lyric I chose is "empathy might be on the brink of extinction." I chose this lyric because it is, sadly, becoming true in this day and age. I wanted "EMPATHY" and "EXTINCTION" to look as if they were deteriorating. I added smoke to the background because I thought that it fit well.

Forest

This design was inspired by the song Forest. It is about living off of emotions and how they effect your life, how we are afraid too what comes next. I chose the lyric "I don't want to be heard, I want to be listened to" because there is a big difference between being heard and being listened to. I thought that every single person can relate to this in some way. I made "HEARD" into sound waves because I felt like it fit well with the word. I didn't want a bright background color so I chose a light brown.

Screen

This lyric is from the song Screen. It is about hiding who you truly are behind this metaphorical "screen." I chose the lyrics "excuse us while we sing to the sky" because the line right before it is "while you're doing fine, there's some people and I, who have a really tough time getting through this life so, excuse us while we sing to the sky." It means that even though you could be enjoying life, there are people out there going through hard times and to just take that into consideration. I made the art board look like a sky as if the reader was looking up to the sky.

Lovely

The final typography creation was from the song Lovely. The lyric I chose from it was "I will make you believe you are lovely." I just love the message of the whole song and how powerful one line of lyrics can be. I chose a both a cursive and flowery fonts because I felt that they fit well with the lyrics. I chose a pastel pink as a background color for a soft feel.

Rebranding

The company that I chose to rebrand was Fuego. Fuego is a store that sells a mix of accessories, apparel, jewelry, and novelty items. The store was established in 2003 and started in the Pacific Northwest but is spreading. Fuego's main purpose is to bring the huge passion for art and style into a small store.

The last project in my graphic design class was to rebrand a company of your choice. We first had to create multiple symbols and logos. We had to pic our favorite symbols and create combination marks. A combination mark is a graphic with both a symbol and text to convey a brand image. After we picked our favorite combination mark, we then had to create a business card, a letterhead, and an envelope.

Combination Mark

While creating the combination mark, I wanted to incorporate some sort of fire because fuego is Spanish for fire. We were asked to add color to our graphics, but with my graphics, most of mine looked better in just black and white. When I added the color to this specific mark, I liked the way that I created the different shades. I understand that in a real flame, the colors would be lighter towards the bottom, but I felt that the graphic looked better with the opposite of that. I used a complementary and monochromatic color scheme.

Business Card

For the business card, I put the combination mark to the left of the information and created a boarder around the front. Since I felt that the front was a bit busy, I made sure that the back was simple and sweet by just having the background color that grey-blue and sticking the flame in the center.

Letterhead

On the front of the letterhead, I put the mark in the top, left corner and the information in the top, right corner. To separate the mark and information from the actual letter itself, I put a faint line under mark and information. To balance out the top and bottom, I put the same boarder that I had on the business card, on the bottom of the letterhead. On the back of the letterhead, I put that same boarder on the top and bottom. I also to kept it simple by putting the combination mark in the center.

Envelope

For the envelope, I wanted to change it up just a little bit. Instead of having that same boarder, I just took the colors and created stripes and put them in the bottom corners. I put the information on the top left corner with the symbol next to it. I put the combination mark in the top right corner.

Final Display

Here is the final display of the rebrand:

Time in Class

With the time that I had in class, I felt that I used it well. I got my work done on time except for when I would be absent. If I finished the main project, I would at least start on some of the extra projects. If I was given feedback that I found helpful, I would go back and correct or change things based on the feedback I was given. I do not have Illustrator or Photoshop at my house so there isn't much that I can do outside of class.

Strengths

My strengths in graphic design are making sure to make each project my own and being creative. I try my best to make each design look the best that they can and I work hard.

Need Improvements

I need to improve on my photoshop skills and how to use Photoshop because I would like to get a better understanding of how to edit photos. More in depth than what we had in first semester. I also should improve on knowing how to use specific tools in Illustrator and becoming better at using it. Learn some new tips and tricks to try to become an expert in Illustrator.

Overall Conclusion

The project that I loved the most this semester was definitely the typography unit. I enjoy finding lyrics or quotes and turning those words into something more. I like the impact that type can have. I felt that out of all the projects, the type gave the most freedom and room to use my creativity to its fullest potential.

During this semester, I learned more about how graphics really impact everything. Whether it be the colors you chose, the placement, the alignment, or the graphic itself. My goal for next year is to improve on my Illustrator skills and to become a better graphic designer in general.