Graphic Design Final 2019

Projects

My favorite graphic design project from 2nd semester was the logos project. The task was to sketch 30 original logos in our sketchbook and make 5 of them in Adobe Illustrator. We were given about 3 weeks to do so. My only struggle in this project was trying to come up with logo ideas during the sketching process. Many of my logos were inspired by something else. A lot of them were inspired by yin and yang. One of them was inspired by the superman logo. I asked for a few people's opinions on which of my logos were the best then I recreated them in Illustrator with the pen tool and shape tool. The last step was to do different color schemes with each logo to see which colors work best with the logos. Overall, the process was very relaxed and nothing felt super tedious. My logos turned out pretty good and I'd say I improved my knowledge of logo design. There are 2 logos that received the most praise so I'll put them both below.

My second favorite project my vector portrait project. We were given a month to take a picture of ourselves and vectorize it in Adobe Illustrator. I chose to do a low poly vector portrait. This was challenging because I had no clue how to do this when I first started. I learned how to use the grid in Illustrator to create a series of triangles that resemble my head. I colored them with the eyedropper tool. It was a very slow and somewhat tedious process but it wasn't too difficult once I got the hang of it. The final vector portrait resembles me quite well and I'm proud of how it turned out.

Another project I enjoyed from second semester was my special event advertising project. I had the choice of making a hypothetical advertisements for either the Sprint Center or The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I chose the second option. The main artist being promoted was Andy Warhol. I had to make a poster, postcards, and ticket design promoting the event. My designs were inspired by pop art because Andy Warhol made pop art. I improved my skills in Photoshop and Illustrator. I remember being suggested that I don't change the color of Andy Warhol in the middle of the poster, although I was going to. I was also given the suggestion of adding shapes. The final poster turned out fine, but it isn't my best work.

Time Management

This semester, I usually had just the right amount of time to do each project. There were very few times where I had to come in during Raven 50 to work on a project. Usually, I was productive during class but there have been a few times where I worked on homework from other classes. While making a project, I try to do the best I can. Whenever I need to improve something but don't know how, I ask for others' suggestions. 

Strengths

In e-communications, I have been both a strong graphic designer and film maker. In graphic design, my strength has always been in Photoshop. I'm best with Photoshop whenever we do projects, although I have improved quite a bit in Illustrator as well. As an e-comm student in general, I'm best with technical skills.

Areas of Improvement

My biggest area of improvement is leadership. I've never been a very good leader, which is why I am never director in my video class. Luckily, graphic design is often very independent and there isn't a need for a leader.

Conclusion

Graphic design was a fun class. I loved the feeling of creating original art. It felt very rewarding to finish a project after weeks. My only complaint of the class is the required blog posts for every project. I'd rather be working on the next project, but it's really not a big deal. It was a hard decision whether I wanted to continue graphic design or video production as a junior but I decided on video production. My goal for e-comm next year is to create work that I'm proud of, and to have fun while doing so. Thank you Mrs. Beaudoin for teaching this great class, it was fun!