wframearts245-03

[wframearts245-03]

Course Reflection

I just want to say one thing straight off the bat. This was honestly one of the most fun classes I have ever taken as a student. Over the course of the semester I have learned so much about myself as a designer and what direction I would like to focus my career towards. This class taught me so much about what it takes to become a designer in the field and how to have fun while doing it. My favorite project was by far the sports logo design/rebranding project because my goal is to work as a designer for a branding firm or agency one day. Learning the skills that were taught in the sports design project are so valuable to real world applications, and I am looking forward to using those skills in future projects of mine. Professor Khalili, I just want to thank you for an amazing semester. I truly appreciate all your help, comments, and feedback on all projects and for pushing me to be the very best that I can be as a designer. While I might not be in your 246-class next semester I’m sure I’ll come stop by your office to say hey or ask a few questions (maybe you can give me some feedback on my portfolio for my capstone class haha). Once again, thank you so much for a great semester. I am really looking forward to what the future holds for me as I get one step closer to graduating.

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 15: Designing Apps & Ch. 17: User Experience

As technology progresses, the field of graphic design is becoming larger and larger and more important than ever. User interface and user experience is so important to today’s society because society runs on technology. I have been lucky enough to begin take a class purely on html & CSS coding as well as user interface and user experience design work. The class has taught me so much about what is needed to make web and other web-based experiences both user friendly and an efficient tool for communication as well as visually pleasing and interesting for the viewers of the site. While this field of design is not necessarily something I want to pursue further, the skills and knowledge I’ve gained from the class are invaluable and can be used in a variety of different applications beyond web and mobile development. I really loved reading about Frederique Krupa and her work with mobile game development. What I found interesting is how she defined what the role of a game designer is and how there are many misconceptions about what they do in the field. She explains that there is so much more to the development of the game beyond just the visuals, game designers do more of the storytelling than anything else. This was a very interesting this week, and I love how it applied to what I am learning currently!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 11 Understanding Change + Ch. 2 Starting a Studio

I am going to be completely honest, as I get closer to graduating and thinking about the direction I would like to go in with my career, I get very nervous about all of the possibilities that I could move towards. On one hand, working for a studio has always been something I have wanted to do since I discovered this field. On the other hand, having your own studio and being able to run it the way you would like to is a very interesting concept to me. While freelancing or creating my own studio sounds great, I feel like I do not have the business experience to be able to so right out of college. I would love to learn more ways how to freelance even if it is at a much smaller scale, things like pricing, how to pitch ideas, present my portfolio, and how to work with clients. These are very important skills that I would love to learn more about for my future.

Reading Chapter 11 made me realize how important and critical design is to our ever-changing society and world. The quote from the reading “there are very few domains in which the input of graphic designers doesn’t enhance the end result and elevate the conversation” is very inspiring to me as someone who wants to work in this field. I hope to one day elevate and create work and designs that inspires change for the future and help better society as a whole. It would also be so rewarding to be a part of a team that creates a new form of content that has never been created before.

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 9: Branding & Packaging

As we move forward with the sports logo design project, I am getting very excited about my progress and the work that I have created so far. I am absolutely loving the different marks, wordmarks, and logos I have created for the “Washington Hogs” rebrand, and I cannot wait to start creating mockups for different items the team might create for gameday atmosphere, fans, merchandise, concessions, and uniforms for the athletes playing the game. Some Ideas I have played around with for mockup designs are cold weather merchandise such as scarves, beanies, and coffee cups due to the cold temperatures in Washington during football season, football uniforms for the players, and signage and banners around the stadium for easy navigation of the concourses and better overall gameday atmosphere. This was another chapter that will stick with me moving forward with the hope that I will one day work for a branding agency. I loved the line that Brian Collins used to describe what branding is: “Branding is storytelling. Its that simple. And storytelling is always interesting because it’s driven by one question: What happens next?”.  This quote has helped me rethink the definition of branding and how I can apply creative techniques and methods to tell an organizations story and help make them successful. I am really looking forward to the finished product for the Washington Hogs project and seeing how I can develop brands in the future.  

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 10: Illustration Design

Illustration is ultimately what led me to want to pursue a career in design. As a kid I was constantly doodling and drawing on whatever scrap piece of paper I could find. I remember when I was in middle school I used to draw and doodle my own characters and small designs to help keep me from falling asleep in class. Illustration is always something I have loved, and I hope to one day see my illustrations in cool places where many people can enjoy them. Unfortunately, for a very long time mainly in high school, I started to compare myself and my artwork to other students and people I saw making fantastic illustrations and other pieces. Luckily, I have gotten over this and have realized that it is ok to have different styles and that I am creative in my own ways. I really connected with the artist Neil Gower in the chapter because of his artistic style that is seen in many of his illustrations. I love the graphical look his illustrations have because it really reminds me of the way I tend to style my illustrations and other works. It is also interesting how Gower doesn’t think he is really a “graphic designer” because his work is too illustrative to be graphic design yet it is too graphic to be pure illustration. I find that his style is one I would love to learn and try my hand at some day in the future.

[wframearts245-03]

R + D  &  Mood Board

The Washington Football Team, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, is an American Football team in the National Football League. The franchise has played over one thousand games and in those games, the club has won five professional American football championships including two NFL Championships and three Super Bowls. For almost 90 years the team’s name stayed the Washington Redskins until 2020 pressure from several NFL and team sponsors led to the name being retired as part of a wave of name changes in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Since then, the team has temporarily changed its name to the Washington Football Team until a new name is decided. After researching the city of Washington and its extensive history, culture and overall sports history and other professional teams, I believe that the best possible choice for a team name is the Washington Hogs. In the 1980s the Washington Redskins were one of the best teams in the NFL appearing in 4 Super Bowl championships winning 3 of them outright. This is primarily credited due the team’s amazing offensive line that coach John Bugel nicknamed “the Hogs”. Since then, the tradition of the Hogs still lives on today for the fans of the Washington Football Team. Fans still dress up with pig noses to games and wear unofficial hog merchandise that they have created. I believe that since so many fans who have been following the team for extensive periods of time (some their entire life) have a strong passion and connection to this part of the team’s history it is a great choice for the name. It also allows for the fans to have some connection to the past team and its history in a much more appropriate way than keeping a name and logo that is offensive and racist.  I believe that this name change and rebrand could positively impact the team, the fans, and the city of Washington by keeping and honoring an appropriate tradition and rich history like the ‘Hogs” of the 1980s that does not reflect the racist and inappropriate history the team once used to identify themselves.

https://www.washingtonfootball.com/video/rc-the-origin-of-the-hogs-18322631

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 5: Making Logos and Marks

I am going to be completely honest about something. When I say I audibly gasped over the creative brief for the sports logo design project, I truly mean what I say. I have wanted to do a rebrand/logo design for a sports franchise for as long as I can remember. There is something about sports branding that is just so fascinating and so cool to look at, especially being someone who loves sports and graphic design. I especially love the heavy weighted strokes and outlines around sports icons or wordmarks, and how it makes the icon pop and bring out the competitive nature and spirit of the team. This reading, even though it was the shortest reading was probably my favorite one we have read this entire semester. I connected with reading so easily because my dream is to one day work in an agency or some sort of creative studio that focuses on rebranding for businesses, organizations, franchises etc. Hearing Mark Fox’s story and seeing his work inspired me to put my best work forward for this rebranding and logo design project for the Washington Football team. The image above is a logo created by “Torch Creative” a brand studio that focuses on sports logos and branding for the teams ( *link to their athletics portfolio* Torch Creative ). My goal for this project is to follow the style of the work from this agency and to make this a piece that could be a showstopper in my portfolio. I could not be more excited to begin working on the sketches for the new Washington Football Team rebrand!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 3: Partners on Partnering

As someone who has always loved to work on different design projects by myself, I found this chapter reading to be very valuable. Recently I have found that I honestly don’t like to work on my own as much as I used to, and I much prefer a collaborative work environment. As I have been working for Garnet Media Group as a student designer for the last few months, I have realized how many more creative and awesome ideas you can have when you work together with other designers and creatives on projects! There are times when I get stumped about what I should do next for a project, or sometimes I get a complete artist block. Having other individuals to collaborate and work with has helped me in these situations, and I have been able to help my team in the same when they are in the same position. From the reading I really connected with the section on the Rogers Eckersley Design (RED) studio. The type of partnership that both Stuart Rogers and Sam Eckersley have is exactly what I would like have one day in my design career. I especially like how their studio focuses on brand identity and that work with some amazing clients like the NFL, Chase, ESPN, and Abrams. I hope to one day work in a collaboration just like this and experience what it is like to build brands for large businesses. One collaboration I am excited to begin work on is for an event called CreateAthon. Over 80 student designers, creatives, and marketers will give back to local nonprofits by creating new branding and promotional materials for them over a 24-hour period. I am so excited to work with these individuals and help give back to our community with the designs that we create!  

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 7: Editorial Design

Like the last chapter we read about designing books and book jackets, magazine and newspaper design is another category I am very interested in exploring further. I found this chapter to be very interesting because of how it pertains to my current design job.  Over the next few months, I will begin working on a magazine style project for Garnet Media Group on campus called “Best of Carolina”, where the creative services team will make a publication that highlights the best clubs, organizations, food, experiences etc. that USC has to offer. I am very excited about this project because not only will it be a great piece to add to my design portfolio, but I will learn so much about what It takes to design a real printed publication! In the reading I really connected to Len P. Small, the art director of the magazine Nautilus. The thing I love the most about his magazine’s work is the use of illustrations as the lead visuals in the projects. As someone who has always loved illustration and grew up doing so much of it, I love this approach to this magazine, especially when magazines are usually heavy with photography. I also love how he pushes his illustrators to draw and create pieces with styles they normally wouldn’t do. This was a very interesting read, and I look forward to creating magazine or newspaper style work soon!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 6: Books & Book Jackets

Chapter 8: Books and Book Jackets talks about a topic I am really interested in exploring more! I have learned a few things about what it takes to create the design and typography used in books, mainly what I learned while making my process book for ARTS-102 in the Fall of 2020, however I still have so much to learn about this area of design. One thing I found very interesting in this chapter is how involved freelance designers are in book design projects. I had always assumed that publishers only used in house designers to create the layout and typography for the books and book jackets they create each year. However, this chapter taught me that studios tend to hire freelancers in scenarios where art director and staff can’t handle the workload necessary for the project. I really connected with the work of Paul Buckley from the publisher Penguin Books. For all I know, some of the books he designed and led up to production may have been ones I read as a kid growing up, which absolutely fascinates me! I love his style that is seen throughout his work shown in the textbook and would love to investigate his work further. Although book design is so different from the design that I know very well, I think the challenge is what gets me the most excited about learning it in the future!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 8: Social Innovation

Chapter 8 was a very interesting read for me. Even though graphic design has become a passion of mine over the last few years like none other, I never thought about the major impacts that design can have on different types of organizations. I’ve always had this view of graphic design as a way for businesses and other groups to communicate their product or ideas to be seen, but I guess I never looked at it from the perspective of bringing positive change to the world. I really connected with Mark Randall’s vision in his creative studio “Worldstudio”. I personally would love to be a part of a team where you can promote positive change for important social issues all through the use of design.

The reading today went along very well with our most recent climate design project. The goal of the project was to make climate change one of the most important issues the University of South Carolina emphasizes to its students and remove the “doom and gloom” that we usually think about when climate change is brought up. Our group came up with a campaign idea centered around sporting events, specifically for football. We knew going in how passionate our university is about athletic events, especially when it comes to football in the Fall. As a group we decided to call our campaign the “Gamecock Climate Initiative” as a way to improve hot and humid gameday experiences by minimizing your carbon footprint. Overall, I am very pleased with the work that our group sent in to Marc. And it was also exciting to see that he talked about our project in the meetup as well! I really loved being able to collaborate and work with our team to help promote a change in something that is bigger than us. This is an experience I am very glad I got to participate in!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 1: Inspirations & Motivations

Ever since I was kid I have always had a passion for all things art related. When I was an elementary and middle school student, I remember taking art classes in school and at my local recreation center over the summer. It was honestly one of my favorite things I did as a kid, and I always loved to see the joy and excitement on people’s faces when they saw the work I created. Fast forward to high school, and I still had this insane passion for art and I knew for sure that I wanted it to somehow or someway become my career path. That’s when I started to find a passion for graphic design and began looking further into it. Now I am a first semester senior of college getting ready to head off into the “real world” and the same feeling about art and design fills me. This reading today reminded me of what it means to dream big and do things you are passionate about. I loved reading the upbringing stories of many famous graphic designers. It’s crazy to think about, but the stories that all those people had are exactly what I felt as a kid! Who knows, maybe I will make a significant impact on the field of design like one of the individuals I read about in this chapter, but time will tell. With time, studying, and a lot of practice I have become a better designer than I ever imagined and I can’t wait to move forward with this chapter in my life!

[wframearts245-03]

Ch. 4: Letters +Type (9/3)

As I have come to fall in love with this field of graphic design, so has my love for typography grown. For years before I began to take design seriously and study it, I thought that graphic design was only about illustrations, logos, colors etc. Now more than ever I have learned how typography is used to make a design both visually interesting, create mood and feeling, and above all else help to communicate effectively and creatively.

After reading Chapter 4 of Becoming a Digital and Graphic Designer, the most interesting thing I noticed is how designers create relationships with different typefaces as they continue in their design careers. We as designers like typefaces that speak to us and we enjoy looking at, so we like to use those as part of our style and family of fonts. One of my favorite logo designers ever, Paul Rand, is known for using the font “Futura” whenever he had any doubts about what typeface worked for the design (and I really love Futura!). My biggest takeaway from this chapter is to avoid using typefaces just because they evoke a certain mood, feeling, or fit the time or style the design is trying to convey. That’s not to say don’t use these techniques and never follow these rules, but sometimes it is better to use something you wouldn’t normally see used in a specific style and to do something completely crazy or different to create interest. From this reading I have learned to have fun with type, build relationships with different fonts and families, and that it is okay to not love every single font. I really enjoyed this read!