#did a regular sketch in photoshop as a draft/base

[wife]

help my anime girl is trapped in Vector World 😔😔😔

[kalinahugtype2]

Interview with a Graduate

Abbey Hoerchner

1. Are you working on any big projects at the moment?

We have been working on our NBA All-Star Campaign - with a big push for social and web graphics to get votes for Giannis, Khris and Bledsoe. We also had been pushing “Let Pat Dunk” to campaign for Pat Connaughton to get into the dunk contest for All-Star weekend - this was through both graphics and even t-shirt designs. We are also already thinking ahead to what our Playoff look will be come April - it is usually an edgier spin off our our regular season look. Lastly, the Bucks have an Esports gaming team for the NBA 2K League (video game). They draft 6 players who get paid a salary, receive benefits, have their housing paid for, and fly to NYC each week for their games. I am currently designing the look for their Season 3 Campaign - this includes their Draft graphics, Gameday graphics progression (Matchup Motion Graphic, Starting Lineup Motion Graphic, Live Now Motion Graphic, Half-Time Score Static Graphic, Player Stat Highlight Static Graphic, Final Score Static Graphic, Victory Motion Graphic), any general announcement graphics, etc. that will end up on social media. 

2. What is your intent as designer?

I focus on capturing the attention of, engaging, and holding the interest of fans/followers. An obvious secondary intent is to efficiently and effectively organize information that is easy for the viewer to decipher. 

3. How do you use design to positively impact a community? 

At the Bucks, we had a large focus on building up the Deer District, the area around the arena, and getting the Milwaukee community to see it as a revitalized place that they want to spend time at. We focused on creating graphics that promoted the plaza, and highlighted the different restaurants and establishments, to ultimately bring people together. 

4. In what way do you think students at UWM can use design to strengthen the culture in Milwaukee?

I think there may be opportunities to showcase neighborhoods, areas, events, etc that aren’t always heavily promoted whether digital or print. I think using class as a time for research and production is great, however I wonder still if there is a way to push research, ideas, designs (especially connected with Milwaukee culture/geography) further into the public than within the UWM network. 

5. Is there anything you wish you had known prior to graduating?

Connecting with #8 below - the faster pace of design in the workplace would have helped my transition more immediately. I also work in Photoshop daily for actually creating digital graphics and I was not extremely efficient in that program, based on the high focus in upper-level DVC classes on InDesign and Illustrator. 

6. Do you have any tips and/or words of encouragement for current design students?

One tip would be to get comfortable talking about your work, be confident in why you did what you did and be able to clearly explain it. In the workplace you may have a client (in my case another department) that doesn’t really understand what we do or why we do it. In these cases, it is imperative to be able to clearly articulate design reasoning. Be thorough in the design process from ideation to final product - it will help you in the long run figure out what process works best for you to get the strongest design. Along with this, I would say to push the boundaries and explore the possibilities of a design. Go out of the box and you can always reign it back in after review/critique. There could be something you tried that maybe could work as an idea for a future project. I would highly encourage students to get a design internship while still in school (ideally one that you can get paid AND get credit). I stumbled upon my internship with the Bucks during my final semester of school. As a Women’s Soccer athlete at UWM, I knew I was passionate about athletics, so was intrigued about practicing design in a sports industry. I think for others who don’t know which specific industry they would like to practice in, getting internships while still in school and with different companies (whether sports, ad agency, other companies) will help you decide what specific industry you are passionate about. If you think you may be interested in Motion Graphics/Animation - take the class while still in school. I ended up finding this was the focus of design I became most passionate about, as it mixes up the creation of static graphics. While I was interning at the Bucks, I was also taking the Motion Graphics class at UWM. At that time, there was not anyone at the Bucks who knew the program, so I started elevating some graphics by using simple animation. After interning, I continued to grow my Motion Graphics skills and from there became a Multi-Media Designer, working in Adobe After Effects daily. Along with static graphics, I also create many animations that go on social media and a lot of content that runs on the LED boards inside the bowl during games (crowd prompts, matchups, sponsored content, themed animations, etc).

7. What do you feel are important resources to consult during the design process?

Specific to my role at the Bucks - I do a lot of visual auditing of other teams to see what they are doing. I don’t stay in the realm of the NBA, but look at football, soccer, baseball, etc. When I am doing my research, I am usually looking at their social channels. I also utilize Pinterest and Behance to start ideating. 

8. What are the differences between the professional design climate and the one created at UWM? Do you feel you were prepared for the changes?

I think UWM prepared me very well for a professional design career, especially when thinking about the very thorough design process we go through for each of our classes in school. I think this helped figure out a personal design process that works best for each individual (ie. I still like sketching ideas/layouts out, even if they are very rough….but there are other designers who go digital right away). 

One big difference that I had to get acclimated to was the fast pace for a lot of projects at the Bucks. This may be due to the professional sports industry. With some special player announcement graphics, we may have to create something within the hour. Some information design graphics may have to be done in a day. On the other hand, there could also be a logo design that you have a few days to ideate, sketch and digitize before reviewing.

  9. Beyond the finished product, what is the most important part of being a designer? 

For me, I think an important part is still getting the face-to-face contact with whoever you are designing a project for, especially when it is for another department. For many projects, we could sit behind a screen, design a few iterations, send via email and continue that process until a final design is approved. I am a people person and like social interaction during my work day, therefore if I am able to chat with the individual before starting, or take an iteration over to them to discuss in-person, I will! I think this offers me a better perspective on what their ultimate vision for the project is. 

[swalkerwebdesign-blog]

Project 3: Responsive Portfolio Site

I began this project by learning about responsive web design and looking at responsive websites. After an initial understanding from our lecture, I began to research specific responsive portfolio sites created by designers. Many of the designers who had portfolios online had more visual communication projects, like logos, typography, etc. Some of these designers included, Jessica Hische, Shanti Sparrow, Poster Posse, Devon Stank and Mike Campau. These all had similar structures, however the Campau site did not have any padding between project images, which I did not prefer. So my site leaned more towards inspiration from Jessica Hische and Devon Stank.

There were also more interactive, colorful sites, like Meat Agency, which played with a:hover and three dimensions. I really liked the possibilities shown through Meat Agency’s site, however, I preferred the clean, simpler aesthetic because my projects are not as cohesive as a professional designer.

Also, through the Collaborative Innovation minor at Notre Dame, most of my projects have been semester long, design research driven projects. So when I began to search UX/design research designers, I found Gregor Kalfas.

While I liked Gregor Kalfas similar structure to Jessica Hische, Kalfas had way too much color and interactions that I did not want to include in my site. I used Adobe XD to create wireframe sketches based on Jessica Hische’s site. I created the wireframes for my Home page and Project pages for three breakpoints (phone, tablet, desktop). I then used the sketches to create a digital wireframe in html and css using the XD sketches as a guide and posted my site to GitHub.

I really like Devon Stank’s simple color scheme of shades of white, black and gray. It allowed the projects to take control rather than the site itself. However, I wanted to include some personal, color preferences like cool tones (i.e. blues, purples and grays). I had created a black and white style tile and a more feminine pink and brown style tile. These style tiles did not represent my personality or design aesthetic, so my third style tile used the cool blue and purple tones, which I felt represented me and would allow the projects to speak for themselves. My style tiles also included the fonts I was originally considering. I am drawn to Lato, Raleway, and Montserrat. However, after peer critiques, I realized I needed a better display font for my H1. So in my final design, I used the Domine font family from Google Fonts. (see the three style tiles below).

Using my wireframes and chosen style tile, I created static digital mockups in Adobe XD for both the home page and project pages. These mockups were extremely helpful in visualizing the div boxes in html and determining the positioning of my content. They mockups acted as guides to my html and css.

I copied my digital interactive wireframe folder and began to insert my portfolio content and styles. I ran into some issues with positioning and responsive web design with regard to a menu bar that switched from hamburger style to a regular menu bar on the desktop. I ultimately settled on using the hamburger menu in all three versions because I like that it allowed me to use more color in my site, which had become more white than I was expecting based on my mockups. I used color changes to indicate that my project boxes were clickable and would take the user to the respective project page. My contact/about page includes icons that takes the user to my social media and professional sites, and to a drafted email addressed to me. The social media/professional icons are also located at the bottom of the home page because I wanted the user to be able to access ways to get to know me as conveniently as possible, in case they are looking at my portfolio for a business request or other professional inquiries. My final fully functional site is posted under project 3 on my GitHub site: swalker97.github.io

My portfolio includes the following three projects, which are discussed in further detail on the project pages. Please enjoy my fully functional portfolio: swalker97.github.io :) 

Project1:

I had to consider which projects to include in my final site. I do not feel as strong of a visual communication or graphic designer. I did not want to emphasize my VCD1 projects because their purpose was more to help me learn the Adobe Creative Suite. However, I do feel passionate about one of my VCD1 projects, which used type as form, and was more provocative in opinion or message than my other work. This piece went through many iterations and used the three phrases “Racism Divides, DIvisions Cause Fractures, Fractures Destroy Societies” as the only content or forms allowed. As I was sketching, I realized I wasn’t believing what I was designing. I felt it was extremely superficial and predictable. After speaking with my professor, I paused and allowed myself to feel the affect these three statements had on me. I feel passionate about freedom of speech and fear the lack thereof. We live in a very exciting time of change and no tolerance for people who live to hate or judge. However, when opinions become so bold they can become a majority that takes over social media and becomes too loud to allow other opinions to be expressed. This is detrimental. If society no longer feels safe to express a new perspective, then we will never progress. So I focused my designs on cutting off speech or preventing voices from being heard. I then took my pencil sketches into photoshop.

Project 2:

The minor, as I mentioned, focused heavily on design research. I chose the project that was an interdisciplinary approach to a client’s request. The client was the City of South Bend who had recently been granted a sum of money to be used for technology and reemployment. The class split into focus areas and conducted ethnographic interviews, card sorts, and other protocols to gain insights. My focus was on local businesses and their specific needs when hiring. We presented our initial insights to the client halfway through the projects with relative implications.

The class re-divided into solution focus areas to create a wholistic approach that would allow the client to offer the best resources for the community. My focus area stemmed from my business research to develop a curriculum that would best prepare community members for the current workplace needs. Other teams focused on the general structure of the resource center and the branding.

This was my first client focused design project and it was very exciting to see a design consulting project through from start to finish, so I wanted to include this in my website.

Project 3:

My last project I chose because I wanted to showcase my basic html and css coding skills that I developed towards the end of the minor. This was a letterform analysis of the font family “Righteous”. As mentioned in my first Tumblr post, this was a fun project to learn about coding and to create a whimsical design based on the shape created from the letter “a”. I had explored whether I wanted to design based on whimsy or based on the inspiration of the font, which I researched and found was from the Art Moderne movement. Ultimately, I chose the whimsy because of the experience a user can have with this project using the bubbles as buttons and the waves to scroll. While I still have more to learn on coding platforms, I was proud of this project and wanted my portfolio to show my basic understanding of the tools.