Made by Mac @mbeck-graphicdesign - Tumblr Blog

Going Live (ARTG 476)

Over the last several weeks, I have worked at enhancing my portfolio in small, but significant ways. Since my landing page opens with "Hi, I'm Mackenzie", it felt appropriate to actually introduce myself by popping my face in quickly in a background video. This gives a bit more context as to "who" Mackenzie is. I further dive into the "who" on my About page. The photo I chose to showcase on this page is a perfect blend of 2 of my passions: Being outside and graphic design. Below that section is a series of other landscape and nature photography, which provides visitors an even deeper understanding of the inspiration behind my design approach.

One feature that I am quite proud of is the dynamic patterns on the Påleg page (first video). I remember when I first illustrated these designs for balsamic glaze bottles and thinking that their continuous nature would lend itself nicely to a moving pattern. It was rewarding to bring that to life and use it to elevate my portfolio. It also felt good to dust off my After Effects skills after not using them for quite some time.

I am grateful that I determined my branding (logos and colour palette) a little bit earlier on in the semester. Seeing my own personal brand in use, and on a website and business cards, makes me feel a lot more like a "real designer". I know down the line that this branding will likely change, (as will I) but right now, it feels like a strong reflection of who I am in this moment in time. I'm proud of all the cool things I have accomplished over the past 4+ years, and I am excited to share them with the world :)

Case Study Refined (ARTG 476)

This week I worked on refining my case study from bullet points to paragraphs. I did struggle a bit to find a balance between "designer language" and "grade 9 language" when writing these paragraphs. I want to include enough information so that reader's understand the efforts that went into this project, but not SO much information that it starts to sound jargony. I tried to lean more simple with these paragraphs and keep them short and concise. Once I transfer them into my portfolio, I'll see if there's more creative ways to break up the text through photos or emphasizing key parts of the paragraphs.

Rationales Refined (ARTG 476)

Below are my refined project rationales:

I felt formatting these rationales into paragraphs a lot easier than bullet-points. However, having them in point-form first did make writing the paragraphs a lot easier, so I was grateful for doing that first. Having these rationales already written will make transferring them into my portfolio SO much more effortless (hooray!) I'm also quite pleased with the variety of projects I was able to create rationales for. I hope that this will showcase my broad skillset to potential employers and clients.

Case Study Rough (ARTG 476)

Above is the first draft (and point-form version) of my case study rough. I decided to start broad with the project description and referenced the content of my project briefs for both my research class (ARTG 482) and my capstone project class (ARTG 480). I believe that when I take these point-form notes, and translate them into a structured paragraph layout, they will flow a lot better. I kept the bullet lists very basic and avoided including too much detail. The final case study will be more comprehensive. I feel that once my capstone project is more refined, I will also feel more confident writing a stronger case study about it.

Rationales Rough (ARTG 476)

Using the format below, I created rough rationales for three projects I am hoping to include on my portfolio site.

Rationale Set-up: Title Challenge Approach What I Did

I found writing these rationales more difficult than I thought I would. I believe part of my struggle was due to the fact that a few of these projects are from a couple years ago. This challenged me to get back into past-me's head space and consider why I made certain design decisions. It was also a nice sort of walk down memory lane of how far I've come, and how much I have learned since returning to university (yay for learning!) I found it hard not to overthink the headings and would often stump myself. I also found the heading "what I did" so broad, that I would freeze, and just think to myself "I did the project?" Eventually, I found a way to summarize my approaches and design decisions in fairly clear and concise ways.

Below are my three rough rationales:

Having these roughs in point form will help me scan them quickly when finalizing the written rationales for my portfolio site. I think as I am further refining them, more and more details will return to me that I can add in to "beef" them up a bit more. I do however, want to make sure I don't go overboard and lose potential employers in a multi-page rationale. Balance is key.

Weekly Production Schedule (ARTG 476)

Phase 1: (Week 9 & 10)

Rationales: Ensure all project rationales are fully edited and refined by the end of Week 10.

Case Study: Take the draft case study draft from Week 9 and refine it. Gather imagery and make any necessary edits before uploading them to portfolio

Phase 2: (Week 10 & 11)

Site Construction: Continue building pages. Ensure layout is consistent, navigation is functional, and site is responsive and works at various sizes.

Asset Integration: Integrate finished rationales and case study content into site structure. Upload all photos and process imagery.

Phase 3: (Week 11 & 12 (deadline week!))

Visual Proof 1: Before the March 25th deadline, perform a "proof check" of the entire site. Double check all images are high quality, all text is proof-read with no spelling errors, and the case study / project rationales are clear and concise.

Identity & Mood Board (ARTG 476)

Mood Board

Above is the mood board for my portfolio site. Since I want to focus on branding and "bringing them to life", it felt most appropriate to use real-world mockups to showcase the brands in action. All of the photos in this mood board are assets that I am using on my website. On the left are my brand colours with one of my primary logos in the top left corner.

Visual Identity

Below is a screenshot of the landing page of my portfolio site and one of the project pages. The site uses my brand colours, lots of rounded corners, and a fairly minimal design, aligning with the tone words from my mood board. There is also a subtle bubble pattern in the background that really captures the bubbly feel I was going for. You can check out my portfolio so far by visiting bymac.ca (it is still a work in progress! so not all of the links work quite yet). My hope is to beef up my branding projects with some more mockups to better establish how the brands would present in reality.

Ideal Workspace (ARTG 476)

My ideal workspace is a small studio setting with a team of 10 or less. I am really drawn towards working in a studio because I really appreciate the collaborative process of design and I feel that my creativity would be boosted in a space shared with other creatives. I also find it very helpful to get someone else's eyes on my work after I have been staring at it for too long (fresh eyes = fresh ideas). I think that once a group becomes bigger than 10 or so, you can run into the problem of "too many cooks in the kitchen" and getting input from everybody can start to muddle the design direction. Knowing myself, and my people-pleasing tendencies, I would have a hard time not taking everyone's ideas into account.

Who are they?

A group I recently discovered called Clever Jane felt like it really aligned with my ideal workspace. Although I haven't seen their "studio" (I'm not even sure if they have one) the branding of their website and the clients that they work with immediately caught my attention. They are a small team of 4 people and they work with primarily Vancouver Island businesses, many of which I recognize and love. Their website states: "Clever Jane is a streamlined team of designers, strategists, writers, truth-tellers and beauty-seekers, here to champion your brand into a brave new world. Using a unique process of inquiry, and a powerful mix of storytelling and visuals, we build brand identities founded in truth, that will transform your businesses from the inside out."

How are they a good fit for you?

Clever Jane aligns with my personal goals because the team is compromised of confident women with a passion for design, and I am a big believer that surrounding yourself with inspiring people like that will always lead to positive personal growth. I want to learn all that I can from them and understand how they navigated the industry to get where they are now. Professionally, I want to improve my branding skills and help set small businesses up for success through strong, meaningful branding. I think working with this team would challenge me to think differently and learn to dig deeper with clients to better understand what they need and what they want to represent. I also think their guidance would help me streamline my workflow and hone my skills, specifically when it comes to branding and logo design. I would also love their feedback and advice on my designs and design methods. I am always looking for new ways to approach design.

How are you a good fit for them?

My upbeat personality and positive attitude would fit right in with Clever Jane's fun and happy work environment. I am also very personable, which is an asset when it comes to working with clients. I have a passion for getting to know people and really listening to them. I have a strong understanding of what makes a good logo and how important creating a strong brand ecosystem is. I consider my style bubbly and uncomplicated, which aligns nicely with Clever Jane's style. I am also very organized which is essential as a designer, especially when working with a team.

What are you offering to them specifically?

I take pride in being dependable. When working with a team, I want them to feel they can count on me to do the work and do it well. I pay close attention to details and make sure to ocassionally step away from projects, so that I can come back with fresh eyes and re-assess them thoroughly. I have a strong desire to help others, whether that is individuals or businesses. I am also highly collaborative and motivating; I love being a "cheerleader" for whoever I am working with.

Self Audit (ARTG 476)

What is your Domain Name?

What platform are you using? What is your reason for your choice?

List the menu links you’ll use in your portfolio

List 4–6 projects you'll showcase for your portfolio

Where do you need to fill holes in your showcase?

Provide a low fidelity wireframe

bymac.ca was the domain I was able to purchase, but I am still operating under the name Made By Mac. A cheeky work around to this was making my email [email protected]

I am using Carrd.co to host my portfolio. It's very affordable and seems to have a decent amount of customization options. I currently have an Adobe Portfolio webpage, but I have been working on migrating my work over. I liked the simplicity of Adobe Portfolio, but struggled to make it feel "like me".

I will use the same menu links as what I had on Adobe Portfolio: Home, Contact, Resume, and About Me

I'm planning to categorize my work with an emphasis on Brand Design, since that's what I'm most hoping to do post-graduation. In the branding section I will include the rebrand I did for Free Spirit Spheres, and some logos/brands that I have put together in my freelance work (I plan to beef them up with some more mockups). I'll also have a Science Communication section since that is another big area of interest for me. I'll include an infographic I made and some Fish Health videos that I have been putting together over the last few years. Finally, I'll have an editorial section where I will include my Zine project and my Pricing spectrum project. Depending on how my capstone project turns out I would also like to include that!

I think I have a few solid projects to showcase, but all of them could use a bit more context. A lot of my branding work is just a logo and 1 or 2 mockups, but my goal is to create entire suites for all of them with colour palettes and variants (might be a tad ambitious during school..). I also worry that I may still have too much content in my portfolio. I want to show that I am multi-facetted without overwhelming potential employers. I also like to include picture of my ideation process, and there are a few projects that I still need to scan those documents for so I can upload them to my site.

See below:

How to Get a Job at X (ARTG 476)

The three examples I explored in these articles were: Unsplash, Electronic Arts, and Refinery 29.

These are all very different companies, so it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between what they look for in applicants. One thing they all had in common was that they start the application process with a phone call. After that step is when they bring you in for an in-person interview. I have never personally had an interview over the phone, so I found this quite surprising. I have had a few zoom interviews now, but most of my experiences have been in-person.

I felt that after reading How to Get a Job at Unsplash, that they aligned the most with my values and career goals. They are made up of a small team of only 18 people (compared to EA and Refinery 29, who are larger companies), and my ideal work environment is small studio space. I also really appreciated their view on work-life balance and always learning new things. There was one quote that really stood out to me: "Our bodies were not meant to work hours on end. We’re not machines meant to do one thing only forever. We need new inputs to improve". Continuously building my skill set and trying new approaches are aspects that I really appreciate in a job.

Another point that stood out to me was how much companies want to know who YOU are. In this new era of Artificial Intelligence, I think many people (and companies) are constantly looking for "human-touch". Teams want to hire individuals with personalities, and want to see that personality reflected in your work. All three of these companies mentioned wanting to see the design process included in portfolios, not just the final product. They want to see how and why you made the decisions you did.

Here are a few quotes that stood out to me in the articles:

Unsplash:

"Write like a human. Share your work. Share your thinking behind your work."

"Our aim is to create an environment for making great things and feeling fulfilled creatively. "

Electronic Arts:

"Let your work do the talking."

Refinery 29:

"Keep it short and sincere"

"I wish more portfolio websites included little descriptions of what the designer’s role was in a specific project, or even pointed out some specific problems or personal thoughts about aspects of their designs."

"I want to see the ugliest thing (in the designer’s mind) that they shipped with their name on it, and hear why that project ended up the way it did."

" What we ultimately look at most is your ability to learn. We like to see how you handle situations and problems that you may not have seen or encountered before"

I will keep all of these things in mind as I continue to refine my portfolio, resume, and other professional profiles.

Creative Brief (ARTG 476)

This week, we compiled the results from our surveys and compared them with our original values and characteristics we wrote down for ourselves. I was pleased to find out that the way I perceive myself seems to align with how others see me. There were a few traits that I considered to be positive, but others saw them as one of my weaknesses. One of these traits was that I consider myself to be helpful and dependable, but many responses claimed I was a people-pleaser (guilty as charged!) and often take on too many things at once.

After filling out the remaining worksheets, I determined that my goal is to help people (and brands) uncover their full potential through authentic, impactful design. I aim to take the loose ideas in people’s minds and articulate them into fully realized compositions. I feel most fulfilled in my work when I can help somebody else in the process. I think this is one of the reasons I am so drawn towards branding and logo design.

Inspiration (ARTG 476)

I stumbled across Emmi's (Emerald Wu) portfolio during my research and it immediately resonated with me. Right away, the user is greeted with a punchy animation sequence introducing them to the website (and to Emmi):

Overall, the reason I am so drawn to this portfolio site is all of the cute little details. The cutsom cursor that matches the tittle of the "i" in her logo, the adorable digital garden in the footer, and the wonderful use of colour throughout the site. The website also has "easter eggs" hidden throughout, such as the the flowers in the footer growing when you water them!! I also felt her about page was a great balance of professional and personal.

Another element that Emmi included in her website was a quote that accompanied the adorable footer-garden. The quote read: "To plant a garden, is to believe in the future". Embarrassingly, this quote made me tear up a little bit, as I watered the digital flowers on my screen. If I can get an emotional reaction like that out of those that view my portfolio, I will feel like I have done a good job.

My takeaways are:

Pay attention to the details (people notice them)

Be consistent with colour pallete

Hover effects are very effective (pun intended)

Let your personality shine through, but keep it professional

Including something meaningful, like a quote, is a great way to introduce viewers to some of your values

You can check out Emmi's rad site below:

Emmi is an interdisciplinary designer with a love for prototyping, storytelling, and visual craft. She's currently studying design and consu

Interests/Talents/Passions (ARTG 476)

This week was a nice challenge. If I'm being perfectly honest, 2025 kicked my butt! I didn't have a lot of extra energy to spend on self reflection. I was surprised how difficult I found it to list my strengths, and I think a lot of it had to do with how weak the past year had made me feel. It was refreshing to spend some time thinking about the hobbies and activities that bring me joy. It was also a really lovely ego-boost to have my strengths re-affirmed by one of my classmates. Below is my "pixie dust":

After doodling my interests and passions, I felt more grounded in myself. With my busy schedule last year, I definitely spent less time partaking in quite a few of these. In a way, sitting with that truth also made me feel validated in my lack of energy in 2025. I wasn't doing the things that energize me and bring me joy! I hope to rediscover my love for these hobbies in 2026 (at least once school is done).

I also had a lot of fun putting together the survey for my personal brand and, overall, have been very flattered by the results! It's been very interesting to learn how others perceive me and what traits stand out the most to them. I was pleased to discover that the responses weren't far off from what I also consider to be my prominent traits.

ARTG 310 - P2 Proof 3

Graphic Designer: Grei Orser Brand & Produce: Hazelnut Hills (Hazelnuts) Publication: Reader’s Digest Best Health

This week, Grei and I reviewed the progress she had made since our last briefing session. I had asked her to refine a few elements of the designs, but keep the taglines the same. We've also been working on the nailing the colour palette down. Last week the designs felt a little bit too red, rather than a warm brown.

First, let's take a look at the banner ad:

This one probably needed the least work out of the three, as it is a fairly clean and simple design. We narrowed down the tagline, and I asked Grei to zoom in on the bag of hazelnuts more. For next week, I wanted her to place even more emphasis on the product, potentially by enlarging the image even more, or darkening the background. I wanted her to see what it would look like if just the top of the bag was in frame, and then the "Crack Me Open" was centred above it (as seen in one of the rough sketches later on in this blog post). I think this design is effortless and elegant, and is just in the fine-tuning stage now.

For the half-page ad, I had asked Grei to find a different image for the background. The one she included last week (left) felt a bit distracting, and didn't match the orchard style look I was hoping for. This week she presented me with a much stronger orchard picture with a deeper brown overlay. She also blended the corners of the paper textures so that there wasn't distracting edges anymore. The deeper brown colour creates a lot better contrast for the type to stand out. I asked Grei to move the bottom ripped paper texture up slightly so it didn't feel so tight to the edge.

Finally, the full-page ad! During our last meeting, I asked Grei to change the background image to a wooden surface or desk to help ground the paper. This also places more focus on the typography and hazelnuts in the foreground. I also suggested that she move the logo onto the paper and render it to look like it was stamped right on the page. She did move it, but I think we will change the colour of it so it doesn't blend into the paper as much. I think another way we could bring some dynamism into the piece, is to have some of the hazelnuts off the page as well. This will lean further into the "spilt" look that is working well in this design. It will also help lead the viewers eyes up towards the tagline.

As you can see from the image above, I didn't have a ton of notes for Grei this week. Most of my feedback was discussed verbally, and noted down by Grei. Now that we are going into the final refinement stage of this project, I am excited to see how my graphic designer will bring it all together! I would still love to see some of her illustration skills used in some form for this project, but given the time constraints, that might be an element that we sacrifice. Since we haven't been fully sold on the typefaces, I also might challenge Grei to handwrite the taglines herself. The current ones just feel too static and not swoopy and loose enough. Since neither of us will be in class tomorrow (fieldtrip day!), I am hoping to either meet up with Grei at some point during the day, or just do another phone call session. It definitely feels like the homestretch, almost there!!

#artg310

ARTG 310 - P2 Proof 2

Graphic Designer: Grei Orser Brand & Produce: Hazelnut Hills (Hazelnuts) Publication: Reader’s Digest Best Health

I was very excited to meet with Grei in person this week! After our brief phone call catch-up on Wednesday (because this week it was my turn to be sick), she had a bit more direction from me. I told her which layouts and taglines felt the strongest to me, and which images I'd like to see used. I also asked her to keep hunting for photos and expand her search to other "free" photo websites. She then tied all of this feedback together to produce this week's proof:

I was so impressed how much work Grei put in this week. To go from essentially just ideation, to fairly refined proofs is a big jump, especially when recovering from illness. The way that she refined the original Hazelnut Hills logo really gives it a more elegant feel, and almost a seal or stamp-like appearance. I did suggest that she add the full "Hazelnut Hills" to the logo on the full spread piece since there is more space. She also picked a lovely cursive typeface that aligns with the rough-but-classy tone I was going for. However, I did feel it might be a tad too rough, so I requested she source a few other options for next week.

As far as the taglines go, Grei nailed it. During our meeting on Wednesday, I told her the ones that I thought were the strongest, and she refined them for our Friday meeting. We both agreed the "crack me open" design might be too inappropriate for print, so we will dial that one back. One of our classmates also mentioned that the nut in "nut your average hazelnut orchard" should have quotes around it, so it doesn't look like a typo.

Grei brought in some ripped paper elements to a few of the designs (she knows I love a paper texture). I felt this worked well to create the hand-written letter look that I want to explore some more. I suggested she change the background of the full page design to look more like a desk, to help ground the "letter", as right now, it's just floating. This will also help ground the hazelnut image she used for that design and create the illusion of nuts spilled on top of a letter. I'm also hoping to utilize some of Grei's illustration skills to bring some more depth to the designs. On the full page, we discussed adding small hazelnut leaf doodles. We can then use this doodles to create some interesting texture to the banner and half-page designs by enlarging the illustrations and lowering the opacity. I think this will create visual interest and the use of a repeating element will help develop cohesion between the designs.

I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that my graphic designer made, and am excited to bounce more ideas off one another. I definitely found collaborating in person leads to much more ideation. I would sketch a concept and then Grei would counter it with another idea, and the ball would start rolling. I hope I was clear enough with my feedback and articulating what elements I want changed. I suppose we will find out on Friday!

#artg310

ARTG 310 - P2 Proof 1

Graphic Designer: Grei Orser Brand & Produce: Hazelnut Hills (Hazelnuts) Publication: Reader’s Digest Best Health

Unfortunately, Grei was sick for this week's briefing session, so she sent me her documents digitally instead. My checklist for Proof 1 was:

Layout Thumbnails

A collection of photos (and sources)

Tagline Concepts

She provided all of these on-time and had a good variety! Grei did mention that finding photos was difficult, which was an issue I figured might arise. However, I was still impressed with the images she presented me.

These were some of the layout options she shared with me. I am leaning towards the designs that feature a close-up of a hazelnut, as this feels more "elegant" to me. When I think of advertisements for high-end products, they tend to focus on the textures or details of the product, so I want to imitate that. However, I was also drawn to the one with the orchard scene with the house/farm in the distance. This concept would work well for the full page spread and create a more personable feeling and create context as to who the "we" is in the taglines.

This was the collection of photos Grei compiled for this week. As I mentioned before, she struggled to find imagery for this project. She did, however, nail the warm colour scheme I was hoping for with the photos she chose, and some nice close-up shots! Some of the photos she selected contain a mix of nuts, which I think could still work with some editing to make sure the hazelnuts are the focus.

Last week, I tasked my graphic designer with creating some potential taglines to use for our advertisements. I requested a few to be a little bit cheeky and inappropriate. She definitely delivered! I was giggling reading through these, and I think they will be even funnier when they are in a beautiful cursive typeface.

Once Grei brings all of these elements together into a design, I believe we will be off to a great start for Proof 2. Her and I agreed to meet after our class on Tuesday to go over the progress she's made before next week's in-class briefing session. I am looking forward to seeing what else she has come up with!

#artg310

ARTG 310 - P2 Heading to Proof 1

Graphic Designer: Grei Orser Brand & Produce: Hazelnut Hills (Hazelnuts) Publication: Reader's Digest Best Health

I was very excited to get Grei as my graphic designer! She was very onboard with the creative brief I provided her, and we immediately began bouncing ideas off one another. I expressed my vision of wanting an elegant and warm design, with fancy typography, but not-so-fancy content. Grei also seemed excited about this concept. I'm excited to see what she comes up with! I'm hoping that she doesn't have too much difficulty finding images for this project, but in that case, I might ask her to lean more into her illustration skills and place more focus on the typography. Before our next meeting, I asked her to start coming up with taglines, compiling possible imagery, and sketch a few thumbnail layouts to choose from. I think whatever she brings to our Proof 1 briefing session will spark many more concepts, and we can build off each other's ideas once again!

#artg310

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