FINAL PORTFOLIO {visual communications II}

WOW! I really can't believe that the semester is already over. Here is a compilation of my best 8 pieces of work from this semester put into a portfolio. ENJOY!

AUDIO BOOK: The goal was to create a package and design for an audio book. I chose 1984 by George Orwell. I also included three discs in my package. One strength I have is the ability to shoot my own photography. Al the graphics on this package are still lifes that I set up and shot. The templates for the package and cd holders were created by me from scratch. I spent 20 hours on this project total.

MAGAZINE AD: The goal was to create a magazine ad for Rapala Fishing Lures. This is one of my favorite spreads that I have designed. It was also the first project that really helped me step out of my usual comfort zone. I really enjoyed being able to create a fun header/title page for the ad. I think it definitely draws in the readers attention. I spent 6.5 hours on this spread.

DIRECT MAILER: The goal was to create a direct mail piece for the 53rd Society of Illustrators Call for Entry. This was a huge challenge because there were so many panels and a poster to put information on. A lot of my time was spent trying to figure out the best organization of the information. I think this piece came out really successful. I also tried to incorporate a lot of imagery. I spent 8 hours on this design.

MAGAZINE SPREAD: The goal of this magazine spread was to create a design for Missouri Conservationist Magazine. With this layout I really tried to take some risks and try new things. I played around with different grids than what I am used to working with. I also shot all the photography that is shown. The main image in the layout is actually leaves floating on water accompanied by a branch shadow. I love this photo because it gives the impression of a tree. I spent 5.5 hours on this spread.

PROFESSIONAL PHOTO SET: The goal of these designs was to start with a professional photo and then build a poster and magazine spread around the image. I had to find articles that could possibly relate to my photo. It was a really challenging way to create a design, working backwards. I really like the magazine ad because of the image spanning the whole top. I think it breaks up the space nicely and then is complimented by the picture of the product. I wanted to make the poster a little more unique so I ran the information up the side of the poster instead of a block of text at the bottom of the poster. I spent 4 hours on the poster design and 6.5 hours on the magazine ad.

JOE SIX PACK: The goal was to design some kind of beverage that could fit into a 6-pack carrier. I chose to design a fun and modern cherry wheat beer that was geared toward a younger audience. Mine is entitled, The Classy Bitch: I'm buying a chandelier at Walmart, who's classy now, Bitches. I learned a lot on this project about packaging and especially proper printing procedures when sending a design off to a printer. I spent seventeen hours on this design.

MAGAZINE SPREAD: The goal of this magazine spread was to create a design for the article, The Secret of Feeling Full. Finally, I am really happy and actually like this spread. I revised the spread once again from what was in my midterm portfolio by changing the color a little and adding pills to the top of the scale. I feel like that one little detail took this layout to a whole new level. Before it just felt a little empty and I couldn't figure out why. With the several revision of this design I spent 9 hours.

RED BARN PACKAGE: The goal was to create multiple informational pieces for the Red Barn Arts & Crafts Festival that all tied in together. I feel like these pieces are very successful as a whole. I wanted to create a modern look for this event to try to start drawing in some newcomers to the festival. I still tried to keep the design kind of rustic and included lots of pictures. I shot most of the photography included myself. On the whole Red Barn package I spent approximately 20 hours. The most time was spent on perfecting the brochure. The brochure is my favorite piece. When folded together the images on the outside edges of the top image come together as one.

{1984}

Here is the final audio book for 1984. I really liked this project just because it had so many different components. I also feel good about this book because I actually designed to box template and the CD holder template myself. I never could find an existing template that worked for me.

I spent around 20 hours on this audio book. I really tried to make it look super real by using all details found on an actual box. This includes things like the HarperCollins Publishing logo, compact disc logo, copyright info, barcode, and author info. I really like package design just because there are so many different aspect to design. It is a fun challenge to figure out how to tie them all together.

Instead of putting a number on the package of each disc. I just used a pixel/dot grain pattern to symbolize whether it was book 1, 2, or 3. I also used to my advantage that my printer will print directly on a cd!!!! That was really exciting. It made it more official. This was probably the project I enjoyed the most out of the semester.

the CLASSY BITCH

HERE IT IS! This is my final version of my six pack. I was slightly disappointed with the package mock-up. To me it isn't as perfect as I am used to. I had trouble with the paper. I doubled up two sheets of bristol board and it was a little TOO THICK! Even though I scored my edges, when I folded them the paper cracked. I also didn't like how the handle was so bulky. Once it was put together folded it was six sheets thick. This just made it hard to make the handle look clean. I spent two to three hours just cutting out and assembling the carrier!

If I could redo the project I would maybe try to make a variety pack of different kind. I would also have really liked to modify the carrier package more to make it stand out and be unique.

Overall I enjoyed this project and learned a lot. {Check your CMYK colors before printing.....Black isn't always "black"}

RED BARN - final

PAMPHLET

WEB BANNER

NEWSPAPER AD

POSTER

FINALLY..... the Red Barn project has been completed. This was definitely a pretty intense project overall with many many MANY MANY hours spent on the multiple parts. I feel like we have worked on the project forever. I just had a few minor tweaks from the last versions. I'm really happy with the results of this project. I think all the pieces relate to one another well but aren't complete replicas of each other just in different sizes.

Out of the four, my favorite pieces are the pamphlet and newspaper ad. I liked the challenge of the pamphlet because there was so much text and you really had to keep rearranging it to find the most logical organization.

Society of Illustrators....FINAL

So after about four versions of this thing it is completed. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out but of course if I could do it completely over I might take a different approach. For my first six-panel/poster mailer I think it was pretty successful. Now I just have the difficult task of printing it....well more putting the trust in someone else to print it for me! I'm kind of scared! HAHA....seriously. I still kind of wish I could have figured out a better way to organize the text than what I came up with.

October Spread Final

Here is my final magazine spread for Time in the Woods. I really tried to break out of the box even more with every comp that I did. I'm really trying to push myself to experiment with different layout ideas and break away from my comfortable use of bars. I'm still incorporating some bar usage but in a less dependent way. My bars are no longer framing my entire design!

I also like my unique imagery. The image on the left is actually water. The image is composed of leaves and moss floating in a lake. At this time of day, the moss had branch shadows cast over the top. It kind of creates an abstract tree image.

Final Professional Photo Layouts

The poster is really different than what I'm used to doing. The poster has a lot of text on it but in no way is the text dominant at all. I really like that the image takes up the whole space of the poster pretty much. I like the idea of having a poster and then basically attaching this little side bar to it. I wasn't sure at first how that would work. I was worried it would be unbalanced, but it definitely adds instead of takes away from the layout. The effects on the image kind of play off the different summer events. The image is kind of photography, painting, and drawing all rolled into one! I like that concept.

The magazine spread I feel also comes across as pretty successful. It is a really clean and simple layout, easy to read. Instead of doing a traditional side bar of information, moved the side bar to the bottom of the page. In this case, I feel it works well because I wanted the pictures to not be super tiny but have a little more importance. Out of all the three layouts I spent the most time and did the most versions on this magazine spread. I ended up doing about six versions before the final.

This is the final version of the spread advertising Van Gorkom hiking boots. I really like how this layout progressed. I feel like it really does look like an advertisement, especially with the large boots! I also broke away from normal magazine layouts and did the image across the whole top half of the page.

My only issue still is the boots have a slight edge of color on them. I still am not doing the clipping path correctly. I need some one-on-one teaching to learn the correct process.

#2 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

This is the magazine spread I had to develop from a single picture. From the picture I chose the concept of an article describing different arches and opportunities that Arches National Park offers. I ended up doing six different versions of this spread before I finally settled on one. I went back and forth trying to figure out what to do for this layout. I ended up making one more draft that combined elements from my different layout attempts. I tried positioning the bottom pictures on the side of the second page, putting all the images on one page and text on the other, and decided I visually like this layout the best. I feel it is easy to read and catches attention of the reader. I spent 5 and a half hours on this spread.

#1 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

This is a 13x19 poster I had to create just by using a picture I found. I had to create the concept and information on the design. I ended up using Arches National Park because that is where the picture is actually from. I made the poster from the angle of a summer events poster advertising speakers coming in to talk about their art or the environment. It was fun to research and figure out what people I would have come speak at the park! I did many versions and different effects on the image before I came across the combination. I really like how the image now has an illustrative quality put also looks like a painting. I wanted the poster to be image dominant so I moved all the informational text to a side bar. I then wanted the side bar to almost be a separate piece of the poster so i segregated it with a different color and format compared to the main part of the poster. I spent four hours on this poster.

#3 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

I love this magazine ad. At first when I received the assignment I thought I would hate it due to the fact that the purpose was to sell fishing lures. The ad left a lot of creative room. I really liked incorporating the product into the header. For the final design I ended up moving the lures so they hung off the letter "t" instead of the letter "p". It definitely helps center the focus and fills more space. Also bringing the small copy block on the first page toward center a little filled some empty space and helped relate more to the design. I also enjoy my vintage fishing photograph. It's classic! One issue with this ad was to make the fishing lures not look pixelated. I ended up being lucky and found pretty large images of the lures, but I did have to but a slight film grain on them to disguise the pixels a tiny bit. I like the simplicity of this layout....AND NO BARS! This is the first layout I have ever done where I didn't use a bar of color. I didn't even realize it until it was pointed out to me. I spent six hours on the magazine ad.

#4 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

Food: How Safe is one of my favorite spreads I have done. I felt it was a challenge but then had a little more free range due to the very small body copy. For some reason, my favorite part is my byline design, from field to kitchen. I like how the difference in font and style really separates it from the rest of the layout. I had a lot of difficulty with creating a clipping path in photoshop and then placing it into InDesign. not matter what i did to my bunch of tomatoes they still had a white path around them. I still don't know what I'm doing wrong. To solve my problem for this final layout, I created the whole header with the word "food" and the tomato image in Illustrator and then placed it as a link into InDesign. Then I re-addressed a few issues in the body copy. Another part of this design that I believe works well is the side bar with Fresh Concerns. I spent five and a half hours on the spread.

#5 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

This was the one of the second magazine spread assignments. This piece expresses my first attempt ever to create a cartoon graphic. For the first time I think it was pretty successful. This spread is also a good example of working with a lot of body copy. For the final spread I decided to ditch the idea of the word "full" sitting on the scale because, as much as I like it, it was hard to read. It didn't quite go with the flow of the header. I made the scale and header both bigger and rearranged the space. Also, the side bar got moved from the top to the bottom of the second page. The overall layout definitely is a huge improvement from the previous design. I spent a lot of time on this layout. I struggled a lot with the cartoon, formatting the huge body copy, and doing multiple versions. This was definitely the hardest layout to design for me. I spent eight hours on this magazine spread.

#6 MIDTERM PORTFOLIO

This was one of the posters that came out of our second set of poster re-designs. Out of all the first black and white posters I did, I felt like this was my strongest or most interesting. I really like the high contrast and grunge look. It really plays off the "Get Dirty". It also has kind of a cheap photo copy feel. For the portfolio, I went back and re-formated the positioning of the three information blocks. I leveled them out at the bottom and left justified the text. Before I had the boxes wrap around the round shape of the pot. I also like this poster because the images is a studio shot of a ceramic pot that I actually made. Due to the quick turn around I spent and hour and a half on this poster. It went faster because I already had the photo on stock.

Rapala Ad Final

I really liked this project. I just really liked how this design turned out. I feel like this ad was maybe a little easier for me because we had more guidance or guidelines. We were given the body copy and also given options for picture usage. He said we should include pictures of maybe the product itself, a picture of person holding fish, or illustration of someone fishing.

I liked the idea of really incorporating the headline and images together to create a design.

The only problem I still have with the design is I'm torn between the first and second rendering of the header logo. I still kind of like the fish on top and bottom?

I feel like this was a big improvement from the first magazine spread that I designed. YAY!

Project #7 FINALS

Here are the final magazine layouts for How Safe and Secret of Feeling Full. After looking at both of these for song I personally don't really like either one. I feel like the How Safe was a little more successful. I personally like the layout and concept. I think it is more visually pleasing than the Secret to Feeling Full layout.

I'm not really sure what to thing of the Secret to Feeling Full layout. I went out of the box and attempted a cartoon. I think for my first cartoon ever, it was pretty successful. It is just so different than my usual style that I don't know if the layout was successful or not. I spent a total of about eleven hours working on both of these layout throughout the whole design process.

Give me some feedback please?

No doubt, these layouts are definitely better than my first magazine layout!!!

STRESSED OUT...Mature Living Magazine

This is the final two-page magazine spread for Mature Living. I'm really happy with how this layout design ended up. I re-drew the illustration. I wanted it to be just a loose charcoal sketch. I think it adds a more "personal" quality to the article. I moved around the body copy a little from the last version by adjusting the pull-out quotes and also the placement of the article subtitle. I really learned a lot with this project due to the fact that I haven't had too much experience using InDesign. I learned how to create drop caps, wrap text, package the file, and how to link files (correctly that is). These are all basic things but by learning them will make my life incredibly less complicated. Now that I have a better understanding of magazine layouts I'm ready to tackle the next two magazine spreads.

I spent a total of about five hours creating this layout.

Project #4 -HERE IT IS! FINALLY!

I'm extremely happy with the final product of the Native American Heritage Month poster. For the final version I combined a few elements from the different comps. that I did. I like my new graphic a lot better than the others. I think the figures relate a lot better together by overlapping. I decided to go with the graphics of people because it simulates a family. This graphic made the most sense since the title of my event is Ancestral Connections. I finally feel at peace with this project.

I also decided to print this on a rag matte paper. I like the effect it produces and how the charcoal graphics look. This design just wouldn't look right on a glossy paper.

Project #3: Poster Re-Design Take Three

.....and then there was more poster re-design! For this set of posters we had to re-design one that involved a Latin Dance Party and the other involving TSU Rock Climbing Club. This assignment had a few more problems because it was 11x17. This meant that if you don't have your own printer you had to print it in the computer lab.

For the TSU Rock Climbing poster I figured a lot of other people would draw or depict actual people rock climbing so I tried to do something a little different. The photograph I used is a picture I took during a Photo I class I took last semester. The image is a negative I scanned in.

The Latin Dance Party flyer was more challenging for me. I couldn't really figure out a unique way to put an image on the poster with out doing the typical. I just went for simple but eye-catching text.

I've noticed after creating both of these posters that I need to try and break away from my norm of centering everything! Overall I felt that my designs were pretty successful.

Project #2: Poster Re-Design Take Two

For our second project we were once again given the daunting task of re-designing some pretty awful looking posters. One poster was to be advertising "Beginner Ceramic Classes" at the Kirksville Arts Association and the second was to advertise a "German Culture Evening."

I found this second set of posters more difficult because of the topics present. The poster advertising a German Evening was the most difficult! I ended up hand drawing the cartoon accordion and then scanning it in. It was hard to think out of the box and not just go with typical stereotypes of German culture.

For the ceramics poster I used a studio shot of a ceramic pot I made last year. Having photos on hand makes the quick design turn-around a lot easier.

This time I started with sketches which helped develop my ideas further, but due to time restraints I still had a difficult time producing a masterpiece of a poster. Developing a concept, doing sketches, producing a design, and mounting your final product in about 30 hours has definitely been a huge challenge! (Not to mention doing not just one poster but two.)

I felt like my two re-designs from this project were definitely a step up from project #1. Hopefully my brain will continue to get faster and faster at coming up and initiating concept and ideas!

First Vis. Comm. II Ecounter...

It was a little rough to get back in the swing of Graphic Design. I wasn't at all super happy with my designs for the first project. I felt I was at a small disadvantage not knowing how everything is ran since I am a transfer student. After the first critique I have a better perspective of what the other students are doing and the level of work that is being done! I'm excited for this next project so I can try to prove myself and throw out a supreme poster!