Graphic Design
The first semester of graphic design was a fun one. using what I learned this year and what I had learned the year before, multiple projects were created. Some were harder than others, all completed as to the best of my abilities.
Fall Raccoon
The first project that I started this semester was the Fall Raccoon project. The project took all of us at the least two weeks since the project was our first one and bound to take a long time to create. I managed my project by dividing it into two sections. The first section being, to create a raccoon and other fall items, the second section was to create a fall scenery to suit the raccoon using the other fall items created in the first section.
Challenges
A big challenge for me in this project has actually been the scenery because I was unsure of how to incorporate the other fall items I created into it at first. Gradually, I got an idea for what I was going for.
What I learned and Overall
In the first part I learned how to create berries, leaves, nuts, and a raccoon in Illustrator. I mostly learned how to use some tools that I didn't know how to use at first. When communicating with my peers, I came to the conclusion I needed to add a better grass outlook. That's how the stokes of paint, mimicking shreds of grass came into place. I do believe there is more room for improvement, when it comes to shading and how the sky looks like. Overall, I like how it turned out in the end.
The next project we began to work on soon after this one took us a much longer time lasting at least 2 weeks for each of us. Now, using the raccoon we had originally created in our Fall raccoon project we were to create a card of any holiday or occasion where we would incorporate out raccoon into the card along with creating typography to suit the final product of the card. I started the project with an idea in my mind about what I wanted it to be like. Like I did with the Fall Raccoon I split the project into two parts. This time the first part would be designing the outlook of the card. I chose a Thank You card and blacked out my raccoon with a beige color out my raccoon and added in onto a lighter shade of the color. The second part was composed of making the typography for the card, then adding it into the first part.
Challenges
My biggest challenge was surely creating the Typography for the project. I knew where to start but had no idea where to go from there. I used a font to start of the basis of the typography but I didn't use it well and at first it looked horrid. I then changed fonts, which made a huge different as this font looked much better and suited the card better than the last font.
What I learned and Overall
While making this project I was sure to collaborate with some of the people around me to see if they saw anything off that I didn't. One of them saw I had a made a mistake regarding where the text on the back of the card was supposed to be placed and I corrected it. On the project I'm actually very satisfied with how it turned out it the finale. Despite my previous trouble with the typography, the type suited the card I liked the final look of the project.
The infographic was my favorite project to make. We were to pick a topic and then gather information on it to create our final product. At first I wanted to create an infographic on infographics for irony but I wasn't able to find good statistics to suit it. then decided to change it the a real problem our world today. Basically speaking about child poverty in Africa as that is a big problem in todays world. For project management I split this project into three sections. The first part was to complete my outline of the project on paper. Second, to gather information on the topic I chose, third, I would start building the infographic.
Challenges
When creating the infographic I originally had a hard time deciding how to present my statistics using graphics and how I should center my information around those graphics. In the first infographic I created I started off with a munch large space but ended up cutting that space in half to better suit the graphics.
What I learned and Overall
During this project I learned the importance of color as I at first had a different color scheme than what I would eventually have after, The color are meant to suit the subject and also grab the attention of anyone passing by. I did also ask my peers for feedback in which they commented to me about the graphing tool that was available in Illustrator that I hadn't known about, which is how I came to create the graph in the upper right corner. In the end, I liked how the project came out. It looked nice, suited the topic I chose and had good statistics on it.
The final project we worked on took almost a month to complete as it was much more difficult than all the other projects. We were to take a photo of ourselves and vectorize it by adding vectors, then coloring them all in. This project was simple despite its difficulty. I ended up having to stay after in order to complete the final project.
Challenges
Work management, unlike all my other projects, was trouble with this one. Because I had to come after school I was having trouble organizing what would be more important to work on. My face? Or my hair? If it's my face then which feature would be easier to finish? It took a while to work everything out.
What I learned and Overall
My technical skills surely improved during this project as. I spend a lot of time with the pen tool creating multiple parts before adding even more onto that part. When asking for what I could improve on with the other students It was suggested I don't copy the exact color of whatever part of the vectored part. The light on my face made some of the colors look weird I changed some of them to better suit ht final image. In the end, I didn't like this project as much as the others, but certain parts on the project turned out extremely well.
My Strengths and Time Management
When talking about my strengths, I have to say project management as I never really get off topic on what I'm doing or when talking to my peers. I also usually split the project down into parts then set a deadline for each part in order to ensure I have everything done. I get something done before a deadline, I look for something improve or just get started on the next project early. I also have to pride myself on creativity for what I did on the Thank You card with creating a silhouette of the raccoon and for the topic I chose in the infographic and how I chose to present it. Last, I tend to pick up on things quickly so uI never had any problems on being behind or not understanding how to use a new tool. I often try out new tools and look in different sections to see if there's anything new for me to try out.
Improvement
What I need to improve on for sure is shooing statistics in graphics as I had struggled with that in my Infographic project. I also need to improve more on using some of the tools such as the pen tool. During the final project I had issues when creating my hair. Something else I nee to work on to to continuously ask for feedback from my peers. Although I did too so during my projects I get the idea thatI need to do it more often.
Behance
Whenever finished with a project we were to create a new file where we would put a step by step process on how we created each project. For the fall raccoon I was very specific with my Behance, clearly showing the step by step project. I did the same with the Thank You card, also adding a mock up with this one. The Vector and Infographic were much more simpler, Showing what I did along with a mockup to go along bedside it. Each of the Behance's creating are linked with each project.t
Summary
I've had a fun time this graphics semester. I'm satisfied with the work I've done and how well it turned out. What I enjoyed most about this semester is the Thank You card project as I found it very fun to create typography. If I had to actually change anything I'd just change how I worked on my final project. Now I know a lot more about Vectors and how to incorporate one thing into another. For next semester I'll have to see if I can improve on Time management and collaboration.
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