Homecoming Project
The first project assigned to me academically was the Homecoming project. For this specific endeavor the seniors in the graphic design class were split up into pairs as we embarked on this artistic journey. My partner assigned was Brooke Lindsay, a graphic design student who is only able to take the class for one hour rather than the usual two. We both sat down at a table to listen to our client, Ms. Dawson, Sponsor of Senior Committee, inform of us of all the minute details and what the committees wishes were for the design aspect of the dance. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, Brooke and I would design a poster, tickets, and an infographic in hopes of impressing our peers and advisors enough to be selected as the winners.
Obviously, all projects come with some challenges. As previously mentioned, my partner Brooke was only available for one hour rather than two, casting what seemed like a slightly larger amount of work onto my shoulders. While none of this was her fault, it did make communication slightly more difficult and allowed for minor errors such as the printing of the "Bonfire in the Flex Theatre". But, with every challenge comes a lesson learned. After this mishap, I have payed more attention to my type on designs, especially before sending them off to print. In accordance with Brooke's occasional absences, I have further improved my time management skills and acquired more successful ways to communicate with my partners. The biggest challenge of this project, however, did not exist internally within the designers.
There was a huge amount of miscommunication from our client. We were receiving ideas and themes from outside party's that matched absolutely nothing our client had originally given us. One minute the theme was Cozy Night Indoors, and the next it was Spooky Halloween Mansion. This caused a large amount of stress for us as designers, as we needed a clear idea to design upon if the client ever wanted decent designs to choose from. Mrs. Burdolski guided us along this stressful ravine, reassuring us that everything would work out, and that we had to design to fit what the client presented us with, not what our friends are telling us they want. After many trials and tribulations, a definite theme was decided upon, and all Brooke and I had to do was alter some minor things to ensure it fit their theme of "Dark and Stormy Night".
In the end, Brooke and I's design was chosen for print and was seen around the school on every wall. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly kind, with people commenting on how much they loved the handwritten typography, and how beautiful the background lights were. The only negative critiques I was ever aware of was the Bonfire in the Flex Theatre issue, and the terrible poster paper it was printed on, which was outside of our control. Through all these challenges and miscommunications, I believe that Brooke and I pulled off a beautiful design to fit the clients wants, all while learning how to improve our communication skills, work more cohesively as a team, and further cultivate our design craft into a consumable product.
Rebranding Project
For our second project, we were assigned to choose a brand that needed a little "TLC". Mrs. Burdolski's criteria for the brand we selected is that it had to be contained in a bottle or container of some sort, there had to be at least three different "flavors" or "types" of this product, and we needed to pick something that didn't already have a great brand. Upon selecting this product, we would then need to design a new logo for the company, and then implement that logo into a new packaging design of some sort.
A minor detail that was required of us is that we had to use one found font, one handwritten font, and one manipulated font on one of each bottle. With all of these guidelines in mind, I chose to rebrand Boathouse Farms. Boathouse Farms was originally a baby carrot farm, but has since then blossomed into a multi-product facilitation with a delicious line of smoothies that I drink each morning. Despite their success as a company, their graphic designer isn't helping them much with their appeal.
First and foremost, I spent hours researching their company and everything they stood for. I learned a lot about who they were and how they got started. They grow many fruits and vegetables, all run off solar power in California. This information allowed me to begin sketching out new logo concepts.
You may not be aware, but I am a huge fan of all things typography. This passion for the craft of lettering has allowed me to add a field of depth in design that not many others attempt to do. With that in mind, I began sketching. I created 36 ideas originally, and from there I selected 6 to bring to the computer. When first designing logos, one must assure they are only creating them in black and white first, and adding color later. After designing those initial 6, I chose one to act as my logo as I began designing the packaging.
I designed my packaging using a template on illustrator, and just swapped out colors for the different flavors. I created a color rule book, as my product included many colors. The design of the fruit you see on the package was hand drawn and scanned onto the computer for my usage. I compiled all of my ideas into a beautiful brand, while still remaining inclusive of Burdolski's original rules.
This project took a total of 8 weeks, as we had many stages of the design process to pass through. This project didn't cause a lot of problems or conflict for me, but one thing I ran into was some serious designers block when I couldn't create on the computer what I envisioned in my head. Eventually, through trial and error, I was able to create what I wanted at last. During this project I received a lot of feedback regarding contrast. Designing with such bright colors comes with it's issues, and using white on yellow wasn't exactly working out for me. I had to retry using different yellows several times until I finally landed on that golden idea (no pun intended). I used a slightly darker yellow, as seen on many fruits, as opposed to the bright yellow I originally designed with, which wasn't representative of anything other than a highlighter.
After filling my bottles and photographing my end product, I felt nothing but pleased and proud of my outcome. This project was extremely enjoyable and rewarding for me, and with all the fun I had completing it, I was able to garner new ideas and skills along the way. I believe the most important thing I have drawn from this experience is that I love photographing products.
Outside Projects
In addition to our assignments, I have taken on quite a few mentionable graphic design projects outside of class. This past September, I set up an account on RedBubble and uploaded many of my designs to their website for people to purchase, and so far I've made over $200. I also have continued to design posters for many activities around our school. This includes the Fall Musical, Polar Plunge, Week of Giving, Blood Drive, 5th Quarter After Party, and Ugly Sweater Day Posters. I also have designed many of the club t-shirts for my school. This includes the choir, theatre, and yearbook shirts. I also designed a musical poster for Grandview Middle School. I also have been continuing to work on some small projects for my moms business. In the near future I will be designing a program for an MLK event, the Winter Formal dance poster, Mr. Raven materials, and the Spring Blood Drive Poster.
Time Management
During the class period, I usually work on assignments given to us by Mrs. Burdolski, however, I spend a lot of time working on outside projects for things around the school or things that Mrs. Burdolski has asked me to do. I can often times be found utilizing the scanner, as I don't currently own one. Staying productive post-project isn't really an issue for me as I always have something to be doing. Whether it's researching new layout ideas or inspiring myself through Pinterest, I am always working to better myself. Outside of class I spend a lot of time sketching, drawing, looking at Bechance profiles, and trying out new things on my desktop at home, because without practice, I wouldn't be able to complete the required tasks at hand.
Ares of Strength and Weakness
As a graphic designer, my areas of strength would most definitely be typography and handwritten type, hierarchy, and staying appropriate to what's wanted and what's trending. As we all know, I have a passion for typography and actively partake in handwritten typography projects for both myself, as well as fellow classmates. I use this skill as a way to enhance my projects into something completely unique and impossible to recreate. As far as keeping in touch with the styles and trends of today, I use this asset to maximize my chances of impressing clients and giving them exactly what they want. While there is always something to be fixed or altered, it's a very rare thing to have someone be displeased with my creativity and design.
My weaknesses as a graphic designer is staying focused. For example, while typing this, I randomly started marking through a dance I'm trying to learn. When I focus, I am really focused and can get my work done, but I sometimes will go off on a random tangent during class time. Occasionally it is purposeful to cheer the room up and give a little excitement to people's mornings, but other times it's just my overly-productive mind trying to do a million things at once. I will work on staying more focused as the next semester comes up, but I can't promise that I won't be dancin' a little every once in awhile.
Summary
This semester was filled with it's ups and downs, but I loved the re-branding project the most. The whole process felt so real-to-life and gave me a glance of what work outside of the classroom might really parallel. If I were given the opportunity to change something, I can honestly say that I wouldn't. I loved the way things fell into place this semester, and I see each projects failures and successes as ways to improve upon and cultivate my craft. The biggest take-away of this semester would be that there is always room to work harder than you thought you could. You can always be doing something to help better yourself. My one goal for next semester is to design something that is so self-fulfilling that I would want to hang it up in my room forever. So far I have liked almost everything I've designed, but never enough to hang it in my room. Overall, this semester has been a blast and I'm so sad that I only have one more semester with the program.
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