Senester Reflection

This first semester of graphic design I had three in class projects which were, the homecoming poster and infographic, rebranding a company and lastly the menu layout. In comparison to last year, I have been a lot better about my projects as a whole and time management. I would like to think I have shown improvement as a designer due to learning new things as well as the increase in effort I put forth.

Homecoming Infographic

The project was to make one poster for the homecoming dance and one infographic poster that gave a run down of what was going on that week with your assigned partner. These poster had to also match the theme of the dance, A night at Raven Manor, which took a while for the committee to get to. My partner, Brett Rawlings, and I split the work, but still worked together to make our posters look similar. Together we had a really neat idea to stage a photo a wreath, ceramic raven and strands of lights. I went to the store and bought the supplies, then he staged this really magical look setting. We took pictures of the setting with a wreath and additional pictures of the lights. Looking at the pictures that were taken of the wreath did not match with 'Raven Manor' and we really liked a unfocused picture with the just the background and the lights so we ran with that putting the colors of the decor, gold and purple colors, over the lights. The biggest challenge overall was not time, was not what it was going to look like; it was the clients changing the theme of the dance because their communication as a committee wasn't to par meanwhile we were designing on the original idea we were given and told to do. Starting the new year with this project, truly helped me out a bit with just doing the project as well as confidence. I really like infographics and finding ways to package them as a unit. I am very comfortable with them because of my background of being on the yearbook staff. Something I learned along the way is that your initial idea is not always your best. I got very helpful feedback about the sizing of type and symbol ratio. In the future, I will double proof read before printing. I miss typed something and it was a bit upsetting because I really liked my project.

Rebranding: Mane N Tail

Original branding

New Branding

This project was to find a product with a not well done logo and package design. With this not so good logo, rebrand it meaning creating a new and improved logo along with nicely designed labels and packaging. The brand I chose to brand was Mane N Tail which is horse shampoo that's working on changing to both human and horse shampoo. This project took quite some time starting with sketches, finding fonts, figuring out logo type, designing a labels and figuring how it is going to fit around bottles, then sending it to print, putting my labels on the bottles I stripped and lastly photographing it. Some challenges I faced was just time management, I had to do a lot of outside of class work to make up for the one hour I miss everyday for splitting my

 e-communication hours. I took a while to print the labels, put them on the bottles chosen and to photograph my products. This project made me learn to like logo design. Last year's logo design was terrible, I definitely was not a fan of logos but this project I learned to love. I now like the process of sketching and designing numerous different logos and pushing two of them. This project as a whole I really do like the turn out. I liked the color palette I made and the bottles I chose.

Menu Design: Bristol

This project was to find a menu you could improve through design element and layout. This project is in the middle of being complete. First you always start with sketches and them move to the computer. With this project we work with the Adobe's InDesign. My favorite project last year was the magazine layout because you get to use InDesign and layout you design. Layout and InDesign are my favorite aspects of graphic design and I think that is because being on yearbook since my sophomore year. With being familiar with the InDesign program I have chosen to challenge myself on the layout aspect I did one version with circle pictures and text wrap. Challenges again was time. I think I will really like the final version of this project. 

Outside Work

 

I have designed a few different things outside of class including all four t-shirts above. Three of the four were actually printed. I discovered I really do like designing t-shirt and seeing my shirts around the community. Other outside of work is our school's yearbook. Being one of the editors of the yearbook, the yearbook takes up a lot of outside time. We have been working on creating the look and theme of the book then making corrections on staff's designs.   

Class Time

I am one of the few that split their E-Communications hours; I am only in class one of the two hours. I try to stay productive with the one hour I have but it is usually instructions. I honestly never finish early on any project this year. I spent a lot of the outside time making up for the one hour I miss daily. In addition to making up for the hour I miss in class, it try to put in extra time to add something more to my projects. I think I did that the most on the Rebranding, I researched what the company was about as well as what colors I should be using to have the neutral, western, nude feel for the shampoo line.

Strengths 

My strength in graphic design is always wanting the learn. I have some background knowledge through yearbook and last years class. I try to do something different than everyone else on each project and do something different from my own work. I put in extra time when it is need. Another strength is that I am always improving. I have grown a lot in the graphic design perspective. My junior year in this class was a mess, I did the bare minimum, I would get behind and give up, but this year I haven't let myself get behind. 

Improvements

There is always room for improvement for everyone, especially me. This year was improvements all around. I think time management can improve still, one hour isn't enough to have my project look the way they should and what I want them to look like. I put a lot of my extra time into the yearbook, so when I am not working on that I need to push my designs.

Summary

This semester I have really liked the diversity of projections this year. We have had print design, logo design and now design layout. Something I would have done differently is put just a little but more time in my work and have my Behance update and pretty looking. After this semester I know things I can do, if I just put the time and effort to it. My goal for next semester is to only only have a high A but be satisfied with every one of my pieces and have my Behance perfectly up to date. Next semester I really want to push myself in both yearbook and graphic design.