Activity Booklet

We had to make a fair trade chocolate activity booklet for kids in grades 3-6. Our task was to design a booklet that children enjoy and find engaging. It was interesting having to design for children. I found myself second guessing or trying to see the booklet as a child would see it. This made the designing process tedious and difficult at times. But, this always made the pay off even greater and felt like it was a good stepping stone to becoming a better designer.

photography

Towards the end of my sophomore year in college, I became particularly interested in photography. That summer during summer school, I took photo 1 and fell in love with it. The top black and white photos are some of my favorites from that class. The color images are pictures I took on my trip to California my Junior year. Photography has helped my design thought process because it has made my eyes more aware of visual elements and their placement. It has also helped me become more aware of the world around me and the environment in which I live. I hope to continue utilizing photography within and outside of my design and growing more from it.

Kitchen of Meaning poster

We had to create a poster illustrating a word given to us. My word was denotation. I was actually really excited to design with this word because it is a word that you can't do a lot too so you have to see how you can make an interesting poster by utilizing the word to its fullest. I wanted every thing about the poster to be simple, to the point, and just... denotative! The poster is supposed to encompass the word in every way. I chose to have everything be black and white because that's how I visualize the word; not leaving you guessing, everything is just black and white. The poster simply says what it is- a piece of paper with letters on it.

Buttons!

For this project, we had to make buttons! What was so interesting about this project was working in such a small format. This was our first time really design for something that was about an inch in size and added some foreign variables that we had never had to think about, such as visibility of detail at such a small size. We had to pick a design movement and pretend that the Austin Museum of Art was having an exhibition on it. We were designing souvenir buttons for that exhibition. I chose the Swiss International Style. I researched the movement and designed the buttons based off of the pentameters of the style. I chose to have 4 different buttons that would be given throughout the week at the museum.

Instructional Design

We had to choose an activity and design instructions for it. I chose how to wash the dishes. I designed it in a booklet format and the packaging the instruction booklet would come in was a kit that came with everything you would need to wash dishes ( dishes, soap, sponge, etc. ). I wanted the booklet to be simple and easy to follow while trying to break away from the generic instruction design. I was pretty pleased with the end result.

Document

I made a book about these little shoes I collect and the book descried my collection interest through the connotation and denotation of the objects. These are a couple spreads from my booklet. The top one describes the free and effervescent feeling a dancer can have in her ballet shoes. The second spread relates to how a pair of heels can make a girl feel fun, energetic, and have a good time. This book related to the feeling a perfect pair of shoes can give someone.

transformations

We had to use Photoshop and image making skills in order to create unique images. We had a couple different objects that we scanned in different ways to make different images. Then we combined them in order to have repeating variables in every picture. We had to combine them together using the first object with the second, the first with the third, the second and the third, and then all four.

Critical Mass

For this project, we had to gather images in order to create images for a specific topic. We chose a chapter from a book and focus on an interesting angle on the story. From here, we had to create images pertaining to the original text. The final compositions have to use at least one of the major characters, principle figure, main setting, or places. For mine, I chose Where the Wild Things Are. I took the main character to create my image. I then took a news article about the movie being made and inserted my picture in the article. I was really surprised how the end result turned out and was very happy with it.

Scavenger Hunt

Our task was to find images that relate and tie into the image before it using color, perspective, light, shape, form, etc. We had to go out and take pictures and then narrow them down to images that had similar variables. Once we used a variable though, we couldn't reuse it. Starting at the top left, the first two are connected by shape and the second and third are connected by texture. The second row starting from the left is connected by perspective and then the last two by color.

typography- type specimen

These are a couple spreads from my type specimen book. I picked the font Baskerville and used experiments with leading, tracking, kerning, font sizes, and the different font settings such as bold, bold italic, etc. We were given a set of text that we then had to create and design a book out of. I thoroughly enjoy designing books and loved just experimenting with one variable - typography.

Design Culture Now

Design Culture Now was a poster we had to design for an event at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. The given variables were the designers name and a short bio on them and the dimensions of the poster. We researched the designers and tried to visualize a poster that would encompass each of their very unique styles. This was the hardest variable to overcome because they were each so different. But, after a lot of failed attempts, I was pleased with the outcome.

Prototype

This was such a cool project, I loved it! Using a 9x9 square grid we had to develop a concept for a new font. BUT you could not use any curves or true diagonals. While designing fonts, you realize how hard it is not to do those thing! But I loved trying to figure out how to design a font against those variables. This is the typeface that I created. I named it Mad Tetris because it reminded me of tetris and mad is for madeline.

cognitive map

This is the final map of the series, the cognitive map. The cognitive map is the most abstract of the maps. It is the product of what the brain is experiencing. This map is broken down into what I am thinking each minute it takes me to get to school. As you can see, school is constantly on my mind... and food!

perceptual map

This is the second map out of the personal geography map series, the perceptual map. The perceptual map is a negotiation between the artifact and the human being. It is a form limited and redefined by the human senses. This map expresses how my five senses are reacting to the world around me on my short trip to school.

Personal Geography Map

The artifact map is the physical, indisputable, and network of streets and urban places, and the buildings that surround and define them.This is my artifact map of my steps taken to get to school in the morning. This project consisted of two other maps; cognitive map and perceptual map. Goals of the project we to become more comfortable with abstraction and use design to re conceptualize the world.

Symbol Methodology

This project was a big eye opener. The amount of thought and preparation that went into this was something we had never done before. We started off with a set of images pertaining to a certain topic, than combined them with others images and repeated this step to get to a final illustration that we wouldn't have ever been able to create otherwise. The steps taken in the project were meant to teach us how we should be working to create things. I think it was a very helpful skill to be given early on and am thankful for that.

Eagle

Along with my duck, we had to outline this eagle. The same goes for the eagle as the duck. I am glad I know how to use the pen tool NOW! Haha thanks, tuan.

Graphic Design l - duck

I get really happy when I look at this duck. This was my very first "graphic design" project and was so lost and didn't understand quite of anything that was being taught. But I wanted to understand. After these past couple years growing and working harder to improve, I look back at this quite horribly illustrated duck and am amazed to see how much I know now. It is inspiration to know I can do better and to know never to turn something that god awful in again.