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week 9

Scratch that!

Th is past week I experienced one of those insufferable creative ruts. Here, on my poster, I have two tomatoes. Other than that, nothing of thematic substance or punch. How should I fix that? Well, I went into a hole of staring at a blank piece of paper and my first poster draft. Nothing. My brain could just simply not go past the visual starting line and I knew I had to abandon ship. My solution was to start over and reconceptualize everything - and I’m so glad I did! My idea shifted from a modern, simple illustration to a grungy, texturized assemble of layers. I heard the phrase “maximalist” recently and decided I wanted to embrace it. I loved the concept that human finger prints are universal, no matter the skin tone or ethnicity. So with these ideas in mind, I pursued to make a design reflective of the theme and new my creative inspiration. After the peer critiques, I feel very encouraged it’s going in the right direction and I am excited to develop it further.

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week 8

In week 8, we began researching and exploring our "Same Difference" poster themes for our upcoming assignment. As I started brainstorming ideas, I began by establishing a few certain goals for my poster: I want it to be thought-provoking, deeper than the visuals at first glance, with lighthearted and playful illustrations, and different textures and mask overlays. With these in mind, I began researching different graphic design artists and previous work to inspire my creativity. Mr. Valdes recommended I consider John Malinoski as a resource too. Currently, I have mocked up a draft about tomatoes - representing that pronunciation does not define your existence. Now, I need to discover the right verbiage to convey, educate, or persuade views toward my message which should be an interesting challenge. With spring break happening and a little extra time, I hope to continue brainstorming and contemplating ways to make my posture visuals memorable and admirable. `

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week 7

Project two is complete!!!

Overall, the process felt extensively thorough and well-paced. I had a few technical hiccups and creative stumps along the way, however, and at the end of the day, I am extremely proud of the outcome and final zine deliverables. Along the way, I had four main goals to achieve with my zine:

visual hierarchy

unexpected text paths

whimsical movement

FUN color combinations

These four elements kept me grounded in the moments I felt like I lost a clear vision. They were also broad enough to allow me full creative freedom and exploration while designing the Dr. Seuss text. If I were to do this project again, I would encourage myself to explore different textures and masks to bring more depth into my designs. That will definitely be something I consider as we head into our next assignment: posters!

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week 6

The final stages of creation and revision for our zine projects - wahoo! This week I translated my small 11x8.5 zine design and adapted it to the larger 11x17 format. I slightly rearrange the lettering and refined my text path shapes. However, I kept the same core concept intact. My highlight of the entire process thus far was actually asynchronous peer critiques. The comments celebrated the good and suggested changes that I would have never thought about - but so thankful to know! Even though it can be hard and even vulnerable to share your designs with others, I have found it crucial in developing my craft and delivering my vision.

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Week 5

After last week's brainstorming and peer critique, I moved onto the developmental stage! I began by taking the notes and comments from my initial sketches and combined them into another zine draft. Next, I turned to Pinterest for color and texture inspiration. I always find it helpful to create mood boards for each project because they inspire me when I feel like I'm hitting a creative wall. It is a must in my creative process. After I finalized a theme, I embark on a new journey; turning my ideas into a digital medium. Personally, this is always the most difficult and challenging step in the graphic design process. It requires a lot of patience because I always have a vivid vision for the final product but I am still figuring out the software technicalities. It is the battle between out-of-the-box thinking and practical abilities! Usually, it ends with a mutual compromise. Now to continue the digitizing process and work on the larger zine. Wish me luck!

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Week 3🫧🪩📝🎨

This week, our class got the privilege to meet and brainstorm with Kate! In complete transparency, I had never heard of a “Zine” before her workshop. I kept thinking they were saying ‘zing’ or ‘zime’ - safe to say I was throughly confused. However, once we gathered into the classroom and I got to hear Kate teach about zines with her spunky passion and zeal, I was more than fascinated. My main takeaway was the importance of creative liberty and embracing totally random ideas. There are not many environments where you have full free range to explore such relatable and even silly ideas. In the end, I pursued my idea the if Monday’s where a fruit, they would be a banana. Accordingly, entitled my zine, “Why Monday is a Banana.” 

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And just like that, the semester is done! Arts 245 has been a really enjoyable and knowledge expanding experience. It is taught me to value in the little details, embracing feedback from peers, and maximizing longer steps of the creative process. Overall, my favorite project was our final badge designs. The longer process and incremental process updates helped me produce a design that I was truly proud of.  I will miss my classmates and professor Smith as we move forward. However, I leave feeling prepared and excited for Arts 246 next semester.

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Week #13 Reflection

Now that our initial design is complete, our class has moved onto the more physical product side of production. It was interesting and challenging to turn our designs into mockups. Because it was much deeper than simply putting our design file into a photoshop layer. It required us to think, "where would this design be scene?" or "what products would practically pair?" The assignment made me think beyond the artistic elements and into a marketing perspective. Something I have not done before. But something I enjoyed learning!

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Our final badge design is done! Wahoo! It’s so nice to say after the few weeks of designing, critiquing, and then designing again. It has been so interesting seeing everyone else’s badge develops and transform over the process, and how everyone’s overall improved! I am excited to learn how to make our designs functional now in mock-ups. That is something I haven’t learned yet. Just a week more weeks and our final badge designs will be submitted and the semester will be over - what a ride!