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Blog 6 - Week 6

This past week we dove deeper into our illustration spreads and I must say this has gotten me extra excited about this project. I came up with the idea to build my magazine into the shape of a VHS tape and make the actual content into an accordion fold. I am really excited about where this is going so far but I really need to focus on breaking the barrier of gutter land. I feel like my layout right now is too focus on left side or right side.

In this weeks reading, we talked about how to create a form with techniques like sprinting, alterative grids, kit of parts, and brand languages. I think out of all of these topics, Sprinting hit closest to home for me because I can sometimes feel stuck with all of the amount of possibilities I have to create something. Sometimes it is good for your mind to, one, take a break and, two, try not to think about it too much and just do it. I like the idea of limiting yourself with certain factors of design like a certain typeface or aspect ratio because that then forces you to come up with new ideas even with the basics.

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Blog 5 - Week 5

This week we started designing our magazines. It wasn't until I started when I realized how many directions I can go with this. We had to show our illustration spreads and I completely switched mine up the day it was due because there are just so many possibilities for this project. It is really exciting that I have this much to say about this topic, but I also have an insane amount of interest in this topic so I could honestly go on and on and on forever and ever about this because spooky things are my favorite. These first spreads I made ab out the Conjuring really shows how much information I have about these movies and it is quite honestly overwhelming but I am having fun doing it.

This weeks reading, we read about Rhetorical figures, icons, index, symbols, Co design, Sandboxing, visual diary and lost in translation. This reading really helped clarify how a designer may come up with their ideas. The book really gets into all of the different things that we as designers can use to create something fun and unique, while still keeping our work identify-able to the viewer.

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Blog 4 - Week 4

This week we talked more about our approach to our magazine. Our goal was to define our problem, our audience, and our functional parameters for our magazine. While I was doing my research, I found that most horror movie fans are under the age of 25, they are either Millennials or still live with their parents, they are on a budget, they make up to $50k in salary annually, they own a cheap affordable car, and they like to watch horror movies in the movie theater to get the full experience of the thrill. I am really excited to start designing my magazine and getting to know the lay of the land for which movies I am going to include. It will be really cool once I can see everything put together.

In this weeks reading we read about How to Get Ideas. This reading was and interesting read. I can definitely see myself tying in some of these processes into the creation of my magazine and maybe for other projects too. This chapter was all about getting to know the problem further and finding different ways to move forward with a plan, or multiple if it applies. I really enjoyed the Everything from Everywhere subsection in this week's reading because it really explains that you can gather information and inspiration from all over the place to help your work on your project. I know that a lot of techniques and work has already been putt out into the world, but it doesn't hurt to take inspiration from these things and make things your own and add your own little twist on it.

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Blog 3 - Week 3

This week was a lot of fun. We may not have done much but we visited Professional Printers here in Columbia and wow. I walked in and saw a normal everyday office and then the president of the company took us to the back and it was like walking into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I did not expect that at all. There was an overwhelming amount of high tech printers. I mean there was just so much to look at. The president, Jess, took us around and showed us how each machine works and what it does and it truly is amazing how far technology has come for it to be able to read a file on the computer and it does everything else. It was very impressive to see the print world up close and personal.

For this weeks reading, we read about how to define problems with brand matrix, brand books, site research, and refining the creative brief. I really enjoyed this reading because it adds onto what we read last week about identifying a problem and finding different ways to solve them. The reading fro this week was more specific towards the point of finding details and doing your research on a brand to solve the problem you are having. I think the text is a good place to refer to if you are having trouble or are stuck in your process of your work.

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Blog 2 - Week 2

This week we talked about the different styles of design and saw examples of good design, bad design, interesting cropping, type as texture, type as image, readability, and legibility. These are all things that we need to consider when we are creating our first project, our magazine. This first project sounds interesting. our goal is to create a magazine, topic of our choosing, find out who our audience is, create a concept, and putt it together. I am pretty excited about my idea, which is basically taking J-14, Teen, or Seventeen magazine and combining it with the history of horror movies. I thought it would be cool to make the magazine interactive by adding games and quizzes for each movie I mention in the magazine.

For this week's reading, we read about How to Define Problems: Brainstorming, Mind Mapping, Interviewing, Focus Groups, and Visual Research. Defining the problem...What are you creating? What is the project? It is really important to understand what you are trying to accomplish so you can let yourself go through the design process a whole lot easier. I really liked how the textbook defined brainstorming. "Attacking a problem from many directions at once, bombarding it with rapid fire." This is never really an organized process for me. I usually grab a piece of paper or my computer and start writing or drawing little sketches and ideas so I don't lose them. That's when my mind brain storms the best is when Im not focusing on the problem. Brainstorming really helps you identify and clarify the problem. Mind mapping...how exciting. This is the step that helps you organize, and knowing me, organizing is my favorite thing to do. I loved that the textbook walks you through the the steps of mind mapping. 1. Focus 2. Branch Out 3. Organize 4. Subdivide. Interviewing is important. This allows you to really get to know the person who you want working on your team. The textbook mentions meeting face-to-face rather than online and this makes complete sense because then you have an opportunity to read body language, their personal appearance, and how they speak one on one about a "serious" matter. The next thing the textbook talks about are focus groups. Focus groups help you reconvene your ideas and maybe bounce them off of other people to get an outside perspective, or even build off of each other's ideas to create an even stronger approach to the problem. The last thing we read was about visual research. Visual research is he point in your process where you are collecting visual assets to use for your project. This means gathering inspiration to put onto a mood board, finding patterns in the research you are conducting to better your searches.

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Blog 1 - Week 1

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Day 8 - Letter

Today to we finished our Remaking Language project and we were introduced to the next project, Rebranding. I really liked how my project turned out, I feel like it looks very professional and clean. Everyone else's looked great too! I am really excited about this next project because I feel like this is giving us great experience for when we have actual graphic design jobs. I love that this project will show us the process of what it takes to create a logo, product mockups, environmental applications, etc. I got the Tide to-go stick as my product/brand, and I have already started on my logo.

In today's reading, we read about Logotypes. This reading came in handy to help introduce us into the next project and give us the background of what a logo can consist of and how important it is to grab the viewers attention. Logos are the first thing a person looks at when looking into a brand and that is why it is important to have an updated and interesting logo. I placed my first draft of my logo up top and I chose to do it this way because the blue wave represents the ocean and it can also represent the blue laundry detergent that Tide sells. I chose the colors green, blue, and white because in Tide's mission statement they promised that their brand is eco-friendly as that is one of their top priorities.

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Day 7 - Letter

Yesterday we showed our black and white prints as our first drafts for the remaking language project. It was really cool to see what everyone came up with! I really like how I had my layout set up. It was simple and clean and got straight to the point. For homework we were told to turn our black and white version into color so I chose a blue and red color palette. I chose red for my first letter because it seemed fancier in my eyes and I chose blue for my second letter because I really wanted a clean, modern look for my second letter.

For today's reading, we read further into the Letter chapter. We read about families and big families. I thought this read was interesting because there is so much more than a basic typeface you see on InDesign or Illustrator, etc. A majority of the typefaces that designers use have families meaning there are different font weights available for each typeface. Having access to the typeface families allows designers to create different feels on their works and I think that is really cool.

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Day 6 - Text

Yesterday, we started a new project, Remaking Language. I am particularly excited for this project because we are finally moving into the digital realm of craft and I have a lot of inspiration for which two "new letters" I want to create. Our task yesterday was to come up with 16 sketches/concepts for the letters we came up with. We had to have 8 sketches for each letter we came up with, on had to have a serif typeface and sans serif typeface. The typefaces that I chose were Cormorant Garamond and Montserrat. With these sketches we will show them in class and decide which way to go and have them finalized by the end of the day. I am really excited to see what everyone came up with.

In today's reading, we read further into the Text chapter, specifically about alignment and vertical alignment. I found this chapter to be a good refresher because it is always good to remember, while designing, that the grid structure and how you format whatever you are designing will look 10x better when everything you display is aligned. Especially with text, it is important to have a neat display of body text so it is easier on the eyes. Another thing that the author went over is left, right, and middle alignment. Middle alignment is the easy way out. I think it is more interesting to make your body copy left or right aligned.

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Day 5 - Letter

Over the weekend, we finished up our Gray Readings project. This was a quick project that focused solely on the craft of the different types of grids. We were given the challenge to come up with three concepts, either modular, column, or experimental grids. I ended up doing one of each. I found this project to be very simple because we were just focused on the gray scale of the text we found in each printed source that we had, depending on the text forms and sizes is how we categorized each clipping as light, medium, or dark grays.

In today's reading, we read the chapter about Letter, more specifically about the anatomy, size, and classification of letters. I thought this chapter was an interesting read because the more and more that I get into typography, the more I find how the balance of letters work and what works together and what doesn't. I will definitely be referring back to this chapter for our next project, Remaking Language because the text goes over the anatomy of letters and what makes them their own specific character. I also enjoyed that the textbook goes into the history of some of the most familiar typefaces designers will use and what classifies them as that typeface.

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Day 4 - Text

We are officially finishing up our 9 Square Projects and I am not going to lie, I really enjoyed this project. I thought it was a really fun introduction project for summer semester and it helped us get hands on with knowing the structure of a basic grid. The only thing I will have to do before class on Thursday os glue all of my squares to my black paper and turn it in. We looked at everyone's squares today as a progress check and they all look amazing already! I cannot wait to see the finished products!

In today's reading, we read about text. Text has a lot of different factors that go into it such as kerning, tracking, and line spacing, etc. All of the factors that I just listed have to do with the appearance the text has on the page. I thought it was really clear how the author described the differences between these three terms and techniques. What really stood out to me was when she said the designer's concerns are not only within the positive spaces within the text, but the negative too, which makes sense. When you are looking at a page, you do not want to see too much gray or too much white within your body copy text. There needs to be a feel of the perfect balance between light and dark in the text your are creating because then it comes down to, how well can you read it? Some body texts may be too hard to read if there is too much space in between each word or letter and some may be too hard to read if the text is too close together. This is why it is important to have that perfect balance between them all.

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Day 3 - Grids pt.2

Yesterday in class, Professor Nace went over grids and went over each type and how they can be applied in design examples. I thought it was interesting to see how grids tie into the project that we are currently doing, the 9 Square Project. Professor Nace showed us how our project can be considered a modular grid and multi-column grid. I made a lot of progress last night with my project. I completed 2 more squares that dealt with cutting. I have my first row completely done and now I have the high contrast, low contrast, and xerox experimentation squares done. I am not going to lie, I underestimated how complex this project was going to be. I thought it was going to be a breeze because I love hands-on craft so much but so far it has been nothing but rubber cement stuck everywhere and a couple slip ups with my xacto blade (I missed my finger every time luckily).

In today's reading, we continued to read about grids. Today's reading was about modular grids and the golden section. Before reading this chapter, I already knew what modular grids were because it is one of my favorite types to use for design and page layout. I did not know exactly what the golden section meant. To me it sounded like the perfect place to place something in order to draw the viewers/readers attention to, but I was mistaken. I was interested to read that the golden section is not necessarily a certain page but a ration from a smaller section and larger section that relate to each other to add balance to the appearance of the layout and legibility. I definitely want to play around with the golden section I the future to gain practice in forming page formats.

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Day 2 - Grid

On day two we discussed grids. We talked about all the different types of grids and what is used to make the grid effective. Our first project that we are doing is called the 9 Square Project. We have to pick out a recognizable figure from a printed source and create 9 different concepts in each of the 9 squares. For my person I chose Taylor Swift and things seem to be moving quite smoothly so far. I have completed 4 of my squares so far. I figured it would be best to go ahead and get the tougher squares out of the way first because I knew they would require more time and focus. Here is a progress picture of what I have so far.

For today's reading, we read about grids, specifically single-column grids and multi-column grids. Having already read about grids last semester in ARTS 246, I have grown to love multi-column grids and modular grids. I thought it was interesting to see the difference in these two specific grids and seeing that the multi-column grid is way more entertaining visually and legibly. Single-column grids can seem plain and the length of the body text can be hard to read and uneasy on the eyes at times.

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Final Course Reflection

Although I have only spent two semesters here at UofSC, I have felt welcomed in ARTS 246. From sharing my sketches for a new project all the way to critique days, I get so much accomplished, and that is thanks to my peers and also Professor Nace. The system that the gd+i staff has constructed for each of their classes works so well, and it feels so much like a professional environment. This feeling of comfort also stems from the fact that I am learning from a professor who loves their job and what they do. In addition, it is inspiring to see Professor Nace help me and the other students grow as she accomplishes her goals. I can create something great in these classes that I take because I trust the input that I am getting from my professors, especially Professor Nace.

My favorite project in this class was the Dr. Suess Zine. It was entertaining experimenting with different styles of typography. This project was a challenge because we were not allowed to use illustrative properties, only type, which I have never done before. However, playing around with a Dr. Suess book I grew up reading was fun, and making it “my own” was exciting. It was amazing to see what everyone came up with and how everyone did something different. The amazing thing about design is that everyone can be given the same task, and somehow we will all come out with totally different outcomes. 

My favorite part about this class is that each project was challenging. Each project inspired me to develop something even better than the last. I was initially going to create this process book in the order of best projects to the worst, but I put it in order starting with ARTS 102 and then going into ARTS 246. This is because I wanted to show the progress of my work and all that I have learned along the way. Also, I enjoyed taking this class with Professor Nace. I learned so much from her and saw myself grow as a person and an artist in many ways.

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Week 9

Now that I have fully decided which route I want to go in for the Same/Difference poster, I can really focus on the concept down and figuring out what I need to add to make it look more finished. Right now I feel a little stuck with it just because I am getting too caught up with the simplicity of it currently. I feel like there is a step that I can take that will just make the project even better than it is now, my only concern is that I do not know what or how to take that step to get there. Below are the images I sent to Professor Nace and we both agreed that the read of the poster was a little awkward so I rearranged the letters and got stuck again because I didn't know I felt about the placement of the people, so now I need to rearrange again until it makes sense and still has the affect to draw you in within those 8 short seconds.

In this weeks reading, the author wrote about typography on the screen. I think it is really important to know that with creating with new technologies comes more potential questions and problems. Typography can be done beautifully on a screen but there are levels to it where it can look completely different on paper than it does on screen. This allows for problem solving and figuring out what the best way to create on screen is. Doing this, designers have to keep in mind the main factors when creating typography which include hierarchy, font, and legibility.

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Week 8

This week we really dug in further with our Same/Difference posters and tried to pick a concept that really stuck out to us in our sketches. I was able to narrow it down to 2 ideas by Tuesday. After the first critique, I knew I wanted to make this poster interactive and I chose the 2 best concepts that would best represent that. My first concept consists of the first two images. The message was supposed to be "Together" and throughout the word together would be cutouts/windows to look and see what together really means. In those windows, the viewers would see pictures/drawings of people (to represent diversity), plants (to represent earth), and maybe a quote that I felt best represented what together truly means. In the third image, this idea is interactive because I will cut out an image or phrase and light will shine through it and create a shadow behind it. Professor Nace and I both agreed that the second concept was going to stand out more because the judges won't be expecting something like that. By Thursday, I had a version of that concept more to scale. I still do not have a message that I want to say with it but I will take spring break to think about it.

In this week's reading, we read about the evolution of typographic technology. It was really interesting to read about the different types of tools used over time to create more and more efficient ways to produce typography. We, as humans, have come a long way with the production of artwork, but more specifically typography. I think that it is so important for a designer to get to know the technology that they are working with so they can fully understand its capabilities.