Week 8.3

MyInkBlog is a site I found a while back, when I was looking through a list of design resources. It's a blog that brags about being a resource for "all things design," and I think it's earned the right to say that. Maybe it isn't the most well-known site, but it's far from useless.

A good portion of the posts are tutorials. That's always a good thing, because it can teach designers, young and old, something new. That section isn't necessarily updated at a regular interval, but it has plenty of things to look through and learn.

Besides tutorials, the website has a monthly feature post. They call it "MyInkTrail - Best of the Design community." There are different sections within the post - articles, tutorials, freebies, and featured designs - that are recommended by Andrew Houle, the founder of MyInkBlog. This shows good networking on his part, an interest in staying up-to-date with the design community, and a desire to share that with his readers. That by itself is a very good resource.

And then there's the other articles, ones giving tips on many different design-related subjects. They've got things from CSS tips, to "Lessons from the Lunch Pail," to advertising tips. A good many of these are done by guest writers, and they each have a little gem of advice to offer, some of which we may have heard and some we may not have.

All in all, I think it's a great resource to sift through. There are little posts all over the site that can be very helpful, even if it's just offering advice on one thing or another. It provides the resources to learn something new, and offers inspiration at least once a month. It's a good blog, and I recommend it for anyone in design world.

Week 8.2

This is the logo sheet for AII, or Amalgamated Industries Inc., a fictional company that sells widgets. AII decided, after its hundreth year, to renew its brand identity. They wanted a newer, updated look, but still wanted to reach back into the company's history. The first new design they asked for was a new logo, and they chose the bottom left logo in the sheet.

The colors were chosen as a reminder of their history: Widgco, the company's former name, had a red ball for the dot over the I in their logo. The shape of the A in the new logo is meant to remind them of the same red dot, due to its mostly circular shape. The eye and small leg were added to distinguish the letter as an A, while still trying to retain the feel of the old logo.

The biggest issue I had with this was the placement of "Amalgamated Industries, Inc." I had trouble finding the most natural placement for it, which led to the variations on the logo sheet. It was necessary, however, to ensure that it was recognized as Amalgamated Industries, Inc.; otherwise, there might be confusion if the logo isn't labeled in some places. But once I had those done, the company made the choice of which to use for me. I agree with that decision, too; any other placement of the text looks a little awkward, so I believe they chose the best design offered.

Week 8.1

This was another abstract typography composition done for the same project as this one. It was one of my first attempts at a typographic piece, abstract or not.

One of the general rules of design is to use, at most, three typefaces. But since I'd interpreted this project as needing to be abstract, I didn't think that applied. So I just went ahead and scrolled through an unbelievable amount of typefaces - I hadn't realized I had so many until this project - until I found one I thought might work. I worked primarily out of Illustrator's Glyphs window, because I wasn't looking for letters. I was looking for shapes, and there were many more interesting shapes in the typefaces than just the letters and numbers, and I wanted to make sure I kept the option open.

In keeping with the overall theme I used for the six pieces of this project, I wanted just a splash of color amongst the stark black and white; this time, it was a golden yellow. I didn't choose that color for this particular composition for any real reason other than the fact that I hadn't used it yet. Looking at it now, I think the choice worked, because it's just a little bit of color that doesn't overload anything. The two grays I used were implemented in the same way as before - to give a little bit of flow between the color and the black.

I think it turned out pretty well; in my opinion, it's one of my better compositions for this project. I didn't run into many problems with it either, other than the occasional struggle of where to place an element. I think it's a nice piece, and I hope any others that see it feel the same.

Week 7.3

While digging through some more blogs, I found one called Design Muse that focuses on package design. I know that the work in this blog doesn't belong to its maintainer, Casey, but she has a link to her portfolio availabe if someone wants to see it, along with information on how to contact her for freelance work. She seems to be more interested in showing off good package design than showing off her own work.

She always makes some comments about the package designs she posts, which effectively explains what the design is for, who created it, and what she likes about it. If you can't figure it out from just the images themselves or the subject line, her comments are all you need to look for.

Casey, I think, is trying to stay true to her blog's name. She's hoping to inspire others through the package designs she posts and talks about, hence the name "Muse," and I think she does a good job with it. I know I saw some of the designs on that blgo and were impressed, and thereby inspired to use what styles I like in the future. It's a pretty good place to look, for anyone looking to get into package design. Design Muse features a lot of nice designs of all sorts, so I know it'll be the first place I go for pack design inspiration, if and when I need it.

Week 7.2

A variant on the last poster, this was another advertisement for a fake art exhibition for South University students. The parameters were the same in terms of color, meaning I could only use red and black, but the elements had to have a deconstructive style to them.

The result turned out like this, with the elements thrown on the page in a legible but not entirely organized manner. I tried to keep a loose sense of hierarchy, however, mostly in the size of each design element, despite them being tossed around at all sorts of angles while still being upright enough to read properly. I was trying to give it the feeling that everything was falling, as if every element would eventually meet with the black pile at the bottom.

Because it was supposed to seem like it was falling, there needed to be an airy atmosphere to it. Thus, all of the white space throughout the poster. That's also why I chose a simple sans serif typeface: so it would be easy to read even though the text was rotated. The four black circles, despite being the dreaded even number that designers are told to veer away from, vary in size and were meant as a simple design element to add some interest. The size variation, however, helps to convery the sense of falling, especially next to the diagonal, also size-variant text. It helps the reader's eye flow down, through the exhibition information, and eventually to the pile at the bottom.

The biggest problems I had with this poster were the circles and the pile of text. For the circles, the issue was where to place them, and what size to make each. That was solved by simple experimentation and the wish to help the eye flow better. As for the pile of text, well... that was just plain tedious. That alone probably took longer than the rest of the poster.

I think the extra time was worth it, though. It may be pretty simple, but I do think that this is one of my nicer pieces, possibly because it's simple. It has a nice flow, and I think it does give a good appearance of falling, so I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Week 7.1

This poster was designed for a fictional art exhibition for South University students. The parameters were for all elements to be diagonal, and the only colors used to be red and black.

I wanted to go for a elegant, almost airy look when I was making it. So I chose a very light sans serif for most of the text, and spaced each of the letters out in order to let them breath a little better. The first letters of the headlines were given a scripty typeface to add an extra bit of interest and keep in with the elegant atmosphere I was trying to achieve.

The red section at the bottom was meant to draw the eye down from the headline to the important information for the exhibition. The diagonal arrangement helps with this. The main trouble that I've had with this design is in arranging the elements inside that area, and I still plan to do some more edits on it, around the phone number. But other than that issue, I'm happy with the poster overall. The color scheme I was given worked well for the goal I wanted to acheive, so I haven't felt the need to change it, and the text works nicely, as well. So I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

Week 6.3

A few days ago, while I was looking around an art website, I found a link to Lucas Cobb's design blog. One of the things I noticed immediately while browsing his posts is that he doesn't really show off his work on that site. He has a link to a portfolio, but that isn't an integral part of the blog itself.

What Cobb seems to focus on is giving tips for design, like where to look for help, what trends are popular lately, and just some general guidelines about design-related problems and how to do things. He's got a tag named tutorials, too, but they're less step-by-step instructions than they are a general base to work off of. The front page of the blog also has a news section that gets updated frequently with new articles. Looking through those, they seem pretty helpful too, and show how Cobb has set up a network by linking to other useful design blogs that visitors can explore.

More than anything, Lucas Cobb appears to really want to help other designers out, if he can. He offers his opinions on design problems, as well as some possible solutions, and isn't afraid to direct people elsewhere so they can find what they need. I think his blog is a good resource, for designers of any level, and I know I'll be going back in the future to give it a more thorough look.

Week 6.2

When I was working on this project, the first thing I decided on was the color. I wanted to use green, since I don't often in my work. Once I found the green that I wanted, I chose an analagous color scheme that I wanted to evolve as the sequence progressed, gracefully gaining more colors and thereby enhancing the flow that the project was aiming for.

As for the actual composition of the pieces, I wanted one dominant feature in each frame - the green letterform - with each of the other, smaller elements having a different color. Only four elements didn't change: the large green letterform, the yellow-green ball, the small yellow ball, and the orange "Cheerio" that gave the set its name (I can thank my Typography class for that one). I was aiming for a sense of continuity when I chose to do that, and I think it came across well.

The big problem I had with this project was the last five of the ten frames (not pictured here). I guess I fell into a sort of creative slump at that point, because four of those compositions - the ones I designed last - came off as crowded after the first five, which had a generous use of negative space. That wasn't the case with frames 6-9, and because I'm so unhappy with how those turned out, I'm planning on editing them to fit better into the series. And since I already know what the problem is and have an idea on how to fix it, I don't feel the need to showcase them until I'm satisfied with the results.

Week 6.1

In Digital Layout, we were supposed to be practicing how to use grids. This particular project was a website design to be done with the help of a hierarchal grid.

In all honesty, I didn't actually use a grid, but I did keep the parameters of the assignment in mind. Because it was a website, the navigation and logo were important elements, so I placed them at the top so they would be found easily. I also put a navigation bar at the bottom, in case the website involved scrolling below the fold. That way, a visitor wouldn't have to go back to the top to go to another page.

The page name is another important factor, so I made it one of the bigger elements with a noticable color: red. The subtitles were a little smaller, and in gray, so they would stand out but wouldn't overwhelm the rest of the information.

The biggest problem I had was with the images. Since the website was for an art gallery, I assumed they'd have a preview of work from their current exhibition, but I didn't want it to break up the text or take away from it at all. My solution was to have a small marquee where only part of the artists' work was displayed instead of the whole image. And since I didn't want to show off too much on the website, I stopped at three works per artist and put some details of the exhibition to the side of it.

Overall, I tried to give the design a Modernist style, since the gallery was for modern art. That, and the fact that I wanted the website clean and easy to navigate, was the reason behind the color scheme, and the sans serif fonts I chose. I think I managed it, so I'm glad how it came out.

Week 5.3

Recently, I came across the blog of a graphic designer named Rebecca Agra. It's in Portuguese, so I had to use a translator, but as I looked over it, I found, more often than not, designs that where linked from elsewhere and are probably not hers. A couple of the posts I found did belong to her, but most of her designs were left in the portfolio section.

In looking over them, I think her skills show best in the logos she's created. She has very nice color choices, and while some of the logos are very simple, others are a little more involved. They all work well on a logo sheet, but I have to wonder how some of the more complicated ones would fare when scaled down. The simple designs Agra shows off don't have that problem, however - particularly the Eureka Comunicacao logo.

It also looks like she isn't bad with print design, either. The good sense of color found in the logos continues in this area, ranging from package design to fliers to book covers. Her style comes across clearly here: simplistic, but easily functional, and extremely colorful.

One thing I do think Agra needs to work on is her illustration skills. That is the first section on the portfolio page of her blog, and it isn't all that impressive to me. Her color choice is still aesthetically pleasing overall. The illustrations themselves, however, look a bit plain in comparison to her logo and print designs, as well as some of her photomanipulations. It looks like she's still getting used to illustration, but I think if she does more in that area, she'll get better in time.

Overall, I like her blog. One thing I would like to see more of is her own work in the blog section, rather than a slew of other designers' work. But as it is, it shows that she's keeping an eye on the graphic design community at large, and that's always a good thing to do. And because Agra does that, I learned something new: April 27 is World Graphic Design Day. I hadn't known there was such an observance, and I thought that was an interesting tidbit to find.

Week 5.2

Oasis Chispeante is an imaginary eco-resort in Costa Rica, inspired by a class. This is the corporate stationary it uses.

Since the place is a resort, I wanted the logo to be something that could represent the country without being too exotic. So I used a Guaria Morada, the national flower of Costa Rica, made purple to match its natural color. The resort name was made green to further the plant idea.

For the stationary, however, the logo by itself looked too plain. So while I was doing the business cards, I decided to try a watermark effect. I thought it came out looking nice, and while I wasn't sure about taking that element into other parts of the stationary, it was better than nothing. So I tried it, and I think it turned out well enough.

The only thing I'm not really sure about at this point is the second business card with silver. I liked the look of the silver with the purple of the flower, but since the logo is actually green, it seems like it might be a little out of place. But for now, my justification for it is that executives, or just the CEO, get special business cards in a different color.

Week 5.1

This is probably the most useless set of cards you will ever play with.

It's a model I made in Maya for an assignment, which was to make something using simple shapes. A lot of the artists I follow on another website have ongoing projects of designing playing cards, so I decided to follow their lead and do some of my own. I only did the aces, however, because they are the most obvious cards in a deck.

The transparency was inspired by models I've seen around art websites that have dielectric materials. I really liked the look of it, so I wanted to try something with transparency myself. At the time, though, I had no idea what dielectric materials were, so I couldn't make the cards exactly as I wanted; I just messed with the transparency and hoped for the best. I'll probably go back at some point and change it, just to see how it looks.

I don't think that not knowing about that material hinders the model, though. As it is now, it has a an interesting texture and even some nice little reflections in it that I'm not sure I could manage as easily with a dielectric material. So I am satisfied with how it turned out, but I'm still open to experimenting with and improving it.

Week 4.2

A friend of mine has enjoyed jewelry making for as long as I've known her. Recently, she's gotten into fashion design, too, and has been talking about possibly opening an online shop to sell her creations. And since she knows I'm a designer, she asked me to make a logo for her last summer.

"Nachtstern" is the name she chose. Purple was the color I chose, though that decision was based heavily on my friend's color preferences. I didn't want to pull a color out of the air and end up with one she hated, and since I knew purple was one of her favorite colors, I used it. It helped that cool colors emphasized the name a little, since it means "night star." The fact that her specialty lies in making jewelry is what prompted the necklace idea. The star pendant was also taken from the name Nachtstern.

I had a few more ideas than just this that I showed her, of course, but this one was the best, in my opinion. And judging by the positive reaction she had to it, it was a success.

Week 4.1

One of my earlier projects, this poster was done in my third year of graphic design, while I was still in high school. The idea was to make a poster in Adobe Illustrator for the annual polo event held in Camden.

The first thing that came to mind when I was given the project was class and sophistication, something I associate with polo. That's what led me to use black, red, and gray as a color scheme, as well as the typefaces. But I didn't want to leave it at just words; that would have been boring and gotten no attention, even in passing. Even so, I didn't want to use any photographs. So I ended up going with a flat illustration of polo players instead, with one of them a bleed. I hoped that would give the impression that he was running onto the page that way, and add a little dynamicism to it, too.

Looking at it now, some of the typefaces could stand to be changed. But for one of my only remaining projects from my first three years in graphic design, I like to to think it isn't too bad.