P R O G R E S S

progress blog of Brooke Baylis

[brookebaylishitegd]

Honestly at this point I’m not quite sure if I have posted a course reflection yet so i figure it’s best to really cover my bases again. I really like how this course made me change how i thought about going about the process to work for this platform, and I really like how this made me really think about how i was designing for a screen and how i was designing for a user. It’s something that really needs to be thought about in this day and age, as accessibility is something that needs to be focused on as well as functionality. Pretty doesn’t mean anything if there’s a lack of ability to be used. That was probably the biggest thing I drew from this, and I think something we end up forgetting about when working with print because theres only a few set ways of interacting with print objects. They can’t really be broken the way design for screens can.

[brookebaylishitegd]

A portfolio site has always been something that I’ve dreaded having to put together. Figuring out how to represent myself, and figuring out what work is actually worth presenting has been a struggle for me throughout my professional career, albeit how short it is. In some ways, it’s extremely satisfying to have something dictating the minimum of what needs to be visible, and what kind of content is mandatory. It makes picking things out easier. It also leaves out any uncertainty of what is arbitrarily worth showing. I did it for this class, it had to be presentable to begin with. 

There is one thing a bit extra that I added to this website, and that was the inclusion of a store front for my prints and stickers. This year has been the year of me actually beginning to embrace what I like doing, and letting go of this strange sense of shame that comes from showing my other work. I’ve still got a ways to go before putting my other illustration up on its own, but showing my prints and even illustrating for the blue laws project was a needed first step into actually becoming comfortable in presenting what I do.

Part of this was just having this class and realizing that I do actually enjoy web design in the way that I’d probably be doing professionally. And then another part of it was just realizing that while I do enjoy it, people actually think that I’m good at it, which is a bit of a shock to my feeble lizard brain.

[brookebaylishitegd]

This project was something I really loved. It was fun to work on, and that ended up being to my detriment, as my sense of impostor syndrome took over and the entire time I felt like that I hadn’t done enough. It took until the very end to realize how much I actually had done, and it’s a relief at this point to realize yes, I actually did things. The project is something that I’m really proud of, and something that I’ll actually be happy to put in my portfolio. The process of making this came easy to me, now that we’re actually working with the idea of placing content within the context of web, with certain requirements and limitations, rather than having to go buck wild and not have any requirements. 

I don’t really know what else to say about the project itself.

Presenting however, is something I doubt I’ll ever be completely comfortable with. It’s paralyzing, and every time I stand up there I could have a heart attack and be glad I don’t have to present anymore. It’s a problem I struggle with, and don’t know what to do about, but It’s so validating to have people actually like what I put out there. 

[brookebaylishitegd]

This week was a bit of a blank for me, as I didn’t really have much to do or so I thought as it began.  The latter half of this project was more about making it work on a visual level, which is something that came a lot easier to me than I thought it would given my inability to work on the last project. Sure, this was as far as this class was concerned my second website design, but being able to come back to the idea of using content as a base rather than coming up with an idea from nothing was something I was thankful for. This really came back to my roots of trying to design a tumblr theme, or even toyhou.se profile codes. 

With my familiarity of CSS and even a css stylesheet system like bootstrap, I felt I was really able to come into my own as far as how things could actually be displayed. My grasp on what was possible, as well as my attempt to be aware of what I want to see as a user are what really drew the “design-y” parts of this website. 

I really guess the combination of having to work with management as well as a design are what drew me into being able to work with this project.

[brookebaylishitegd]

This project was something I felt was much easier than the prior assignment given. It gave a purpose, and more of a stepping stone than the idea of just creating a website about 3 of our favorite things. Sure, that one needed to have content, but there’s a concrete idea of what needs to be present when creating a website for an organization. In this case, I was working with the humane society’s website, and it had a specific set of needs.

The first and foremost of these needs, was a navigation system that made sense. The current site is a mess because it has no real hierarchy as far as pages, and there’s no real way to find what a person might be looking or without diving in head first. It isn’t intuitive the way you navigate from page to page, and that was one thing that this project needed to desperately remedy. 

The second of these needs was that it needed to be easier to access from a visual standpoint . The website as it stands now holds a lot of content, but in a way that makes it hard to access because of how much bulk there is. The home page for example is packed with a little bit of everything, making it a journey in itself to get to the footer, and find the quick links and locations. 

Another need is that if possible, the site needs to be slimmed down. As said before, there’s a lot of content, and it’s hard to sort through. As a potential donor, you want a site to gain your trust, and not seem cluttered or undeserving of your funds. If there’s too many pages and it’s too hard to find the information you need, there’s going to be a distrust present that prevents you from donating.

[brookebaylishitegd]

This project was a bit of a doozy.  After realizing what web design really entailed, I realized I don’t really like it. I like the logistics of it, I like the project management for it, and I really like just the thought that goes into how everything works, but I don’t like doing it myself. I even really like the more tedious work of coding because it’s somewhat of a repetitive task that I can just lose myself in. But the work of designing for web is something that I’m not comfortable with. 

But, that’s a different thought than the actual project. This project was to create a 4 page website with a splash page as well as 3 other side pages on 3 of our favorite things. We had to use web safe fonts, web safe colors, and were designing within the 1366x768 resolution. These limitations made the project somewhat easier for me, as it narrowed down the options available. With those in mind, I started working on the design of my website about my three favorite places I lived. There were about 17 places I actually remembered living, so I went with the places that had some of the most vivid memories for me. Unfortunately, Louisville didn’t make the cut, but that was more due to its location and the environment it rests in. The experiences I’ve had here aren’t bad, but they don’t really stick out besides actually beginning my college education here. 

I began this project with the idea of a map, unfortunately the site ended up being something that would most likely be more suited for javascript than static pages, but it’s something.  The first thing I did, other than beginning to work with the map idea, was deciding on color scheme. Considering that we had to deal with web safe assets, I decided on 3 colors and to keep it simple. I didn’t have a lot to say with the overall layout, that was the responsibility of the content. 

At this point I’ve exhausted my ability to speak, so I’m probably going to end it here. 

[brookebaylishitegd]

reflection

the course as a whole is something I can say I'd be willing to repeat again. in its entirety it was a learning experience, and I feel I've grown as a designer because of it. I've had to create work, and I've had to be self critical, and that's something I haven't had to really do before. because of that, I cant help but feel that this is something I would do again in a heartbeat

[brookebaylishitegd]

As a culmination of all the projects put together, this was the most satisfying of them all. It was put together as intended, and serves the purpose intended. Ultimately it's the one I'm most proud of, and most happy to present, because it is what I have been building towards all semester. It was the biggest challenge out of everything, but it had the biggest pay out, which is why it is probably my favorite project.

[brookebaylishitegd]

The last project of the semester is something of an accomplishment. I made it to this point, and I can continue to show what I can do with the tools I’ve been handed. At this point, I’m more focused on creating a theme for myself. I had an original idea for the layout, which while it has been effectively scrapped as I’m working on another copy of the document, there are things that I’ve come to enjoy about that possibility. The biggest stepping stone however, was deciding on how to do a cover, and how to make it into something my own. How did I want to present myself to the world with this journal? The answer to that was ti go around my inability to use other fonts, ad to create a simple cover using css as a base. From that point, I slapped the string of code into InDesign, and did the pain staking thing of individually coloring every word or character with a character style. I’m not sure if I regret that yet.

[brookebaylishitegd]

The feeling this project gives me is that of a challenge. I know at this point, there may be something that at first glance I may be pleased with, but below the surface there’s always going to be something to tweak. This kind of challenge is one I hope to overcome, but there are going to be small bursts of inspiration that end up backfiring, like the first set of photos above. If this were a children’s book, I’d be in the clear with it, but. As it stands it’s far too immature for the project, even if it does draw the eye and establish the title. But, with this ‘failure’ lessons can be taken, and the first lesson to be taken from it is that the type needed to change. At this point i’m still keeping the difference in case, but moving to a serif font was an immediate step in the right direction. For my own reference, I feel the need to say that at present time, Didot is my weapon of choice.

[brookebaylishitegd]

This project was a bit of a challenge for me. And by that, I mean I hated it. The conceptual work behind creating a logo is where I begin to fall flat, and the thought of doing more than one even was intimidating. There’s a million directions to go when creating something like this, and you have to knock out 999,999 of them to find your footing. The marks in the second row are what I ended up coming to after a lot of trial and error, mainly concerning the goose one ( for Veruca Salt ). I wanted to be able to have something recognizable, but wasn’t outwardly competing with what others had done before ( the cracked egg ). The one for Mike Teavee came easier, but only because I wanted to create something that’d work with the typeface I had in mind.

This project only cemented my preference for working with given content. If there’s a clear set goal, and there has to be something included, it becomes easier on my end because there’s something already there to work with, and I can move around that. The work and thinking involved in this left me dead in the water for longer than I’d like to admit.

[brookebaylishitegd]

These two weeks were rather exciting ones, given the projects we were given. Personally, the "Great Ideas" poster project is possibly going to be my favorite one of the semester, because type and given content are what i prefer to work with over creating something completely from scratch itself. The ability to take something given and create something meant to expand the concept was something that I was extremely happy to do, especially with the concept itself of simplicity. Simplicity is something I strive to have within all my designs, and my personal artwork even. To be able to expand upon that and create something simple was a bit of a challenge, and there was the worry that I was doing something entirely too simple, but in the end it was the right decision.

Following the poster project, we have the character mark project that we're working on currently. This, is something that I'm not very comfortable with. I've never been comfortable creating marks, and I still have issue creating a mark for myself and personal work. To create one for another character is creating somewhat of an issue, but at the moment it's necessary. I've ended up using the character mark I created for Veruca Salt, and hopefully refinement will create something I'm comfortable with.

[brookebaylishitegd]

This project is one that i find myself extremely excited for. The thought of creating something that has a way to directly show my visual “style” and see how it stands against others’ is something that, while it gives me a great amount of anxiety, is something I cant help but want to experience. My sketches are something that I put together out of my 18 thumbnails, some of the better ones I’d like to say. My focus with these examples is more so on the shape and contrast of them all, because that’s what this quote means to me. It means beauty can be found in a lack of frills, in the simplicity of existing.

[brookebaylishitegd]

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          As this week comes to a close, the experiences of the last two as far as my work begin to catch up to me. The feeling that classes are surreal and don’t exist has started to leave, and my process for creation has taken a foothold as i begin to actually create content for courses. Design methods has taken the lead, with the way the projects are something I’m actually interested in, and something I want to do.

          The paper ‘ aircraft ‘ was not something I was too terribly thrilled about, but researching and being able to finish the project would lead to something I was more excited to do, like the Syntax and Semantics project. A working prototype for that project can be seen here, but as of yet i’m not committed to the text formatting. Adjusting the letter spacing for the “headings” is something I’m going to keep, but the indentation and text color of the body text are ideas that i’d like to work on, after investigating the abilities indesign has for text formatting.

[brookebaylishitegd]

TO DO: 

create theme COMPLETED !

progress pictures for assignment one