Semester Reflection

Graphic Design

4 Quotes Project

The Project

During this semester of e-Communication, my personal favorite project had been the 4 Quotes Project. The project centered around choosing four quotes and then using them to create visually pleasing typography. After finding one quote we would choose which words are the more important ones and make them have a serif font or cursive font, then put the rest of the words in a sans serif font. The point of the project was us to show off what we've learned from our other typography project, where we tool a font and remodeled it to look different for a card. 

The project itself took a long while to complete. Choosing quotes out of hundreds and thousands takes a long while. Although, it did not take as long as it did for choosing and editing a font for it. This process would have to be repeated four times and took me about 2 weeks to accomplish. 

Challenges

When I first started this project I had actually expected it to be very easy. We would pick four quotes and just design them. It seems like such a simple concept, but there really is more to it. I was already aware this would take a quite some time to actually complete and I did end up having some problems along the way. For starters, I had forgotten the hierarchy rule, that is the more important words would be seen as large and the less important would be small. In a way, I got excited when first starting the project and ended up using way too many fonts. For a long quote, at most what would be used is 3 fonts. For my long quote, I had used five. When it came time for us to review with seniors, I realized my very obvious flaw in the design. Choosing fonts becomes hard when there's a large variety of them.

What I Learned 

For this project, I learned how important using the hierarchy was when it came to designing. It's critical to not go overboard with the font or with size. I also learned that when it comes to designing typography it's a good idea to use your own designs rather than fonts. 

Feedback and Change

As priorly mentioned in 'Challenges', I had been struggling with making my quotes fit the hierarchy and using many fonts. With that in mind when it came to revising and editing with seniors I was mostly told to start again from scratch as the designs I had created were nowhere near as good as they should be.  So, starting with the long quote I began with shortening the amount of font I used. I kept two of the fonts I had originally used because I liked them and I thought they would suit in each other in the final product. I then choose another one, a much simpler sans-serif font, and added it into the mix. It ended up looking well as the new fonts didn't make it look as crazy as it had beforehand. 

Conclusion

I admit although the finished product does look nice, there a still many different mall details I want to fix. I believe that one of the quotes I chose is more suited for just simple sans serif font and not being turned into typography. The design process had taken a while and did get a little setback, but that's my own fault. My overall opinion how I had done was the designs had come out mostly just like how I wanted them to.

The Design History Project 

The Project

For our design history, we were randomly given a design topic or person to look up and study on. I randomly selected 'Futurism', a kind of design that was invented in the early 1900's by Filippo Marinetti in Italy. His new design was far different from any traditional design. It was insanely designed, made with words going everywhere on typography pieces, including upsizing or suddenly changing color and font midway through a sentence. The paintings are just as insane, focused on geometric shapes and color. 

The Challenges

I didn't have very many challenges concerning this project. it was easy to do a lot of research on the creator. It took a while to get everything down though. The biggest challenge I had concerning the project was keeping everything on time. We had a due date and I was mostly scrambling to keep up with everything that I do have accomplished by then. Marinetti had a lot to say about futurism and what it was, where he wanted it to go, how it was going to be revolutionary, and how he wanted it to evolve and become the main type of art used in Italy. 

What I learned 

Throughout this project, the first thing I learned was how important it was to be able to take noted and keep them well organized when researching an artist who made a new type of work. I also learned how important it is to set little goals. Rather than thinking, 'I want this whole thing done in 3 weeks', think ' I want to have the first three slides completely don't by the end of the first week'. This way it becomes easier to keep up with dates. 

Feedback and change

After creating the initial poster on paper with multiple different ideas I presented them to the seniors who come to help and encourage us with our projects. With my multiple designs, it was quickly decided which one was the favorite and I made that sketch the basis for my project poster. I didn't;t have a lot changes to make at all. Futurism is meant to be random and loud. So even mistakes would be considered part of the design in total. 

Conclusion 

The project was fun to make and research on. It took me a lot of time to get all the information in my head, but overall I think the project came out very well. The poster was made with the design basis I intended for it and the slides we also ha to create had a futurism look to them, just as how I wanted them to be. 

The Re-Branding Project

The Project

We were to choose any company of our choice and make re-make their trademark. The more unknown the place was, the better it was for us to design. While some people did go for famous brands, I ended up going for 'The Sunflower Cafe'. The cafe is mostly unknown to the public and I decided it would be a fun idea to try and rebrand ti. I started with sketching a lot of designs of fit. After I was done I choose my favorites and designed them in black and white on Adobe Illustrator.

Challenges

After making six designs in black and white, I had a hard time choosing one out of the six. I liked them a lot and ended up only narrowing down to four before becoming stuck on where I should go from there. Thankfully, during where the seniors came to check up on us I got a few new ideas and thoughts on what I wanted the final product to be. Eventually, I narrowed it down to two. From there I started to create the mockups using those two. After deciding which one looked better I kept that one to be the official logo for my project.

What I learned

When I was creating my black and white designs one of them was a cursive font on a coffee cup. The problem with this is that the lines connecting the letters came off after curving them. I had to change the font for it. I didn't really learn a lot about this project as I was just using what I'd already learned from previous projects. Examples would be, how to edit a poster onto a billboard in photoshop.

Feedback and change 

Other than the off disconnected cursive, the most feedback I got was to continue experimenting with different fonts. Of course, I did do this, and it hiked me decide which one would be my final product.

Conclusion 

This was a fun project to work on. I did the most I could do and I had.a lot of fun designing the black and white logos and adding color to the final one. There are few things that I Ould change to this given the chance to ever do so. I personally like how this project came out, much better than I do the other two projects mentioned in this paper. 

Time

Staying focused on what I'm doing at first is very easy but eventually, I get tired of looking at the computer and I have to take a break. it doesn't help that before Graphic Design I've had my brain mostly fried from doing the math. Overall, I use my time in class to work on my projects. If I eve had finished early I would look through what I'd done and ask if there was anything that could be better. Outside of class I actually would sometimes look up typography on Pinterest to see what more professional graphic designers did.

Strength 

My biggest strength is my usage of Adobe Illustrator. For the past two years I have worked a lot with this program and is has become one of my favorites to use. I know all the commands for it and where to find more options to use on my designs. It is such a good tool to use for all types of design being done. 

Improvement

I did imporve a lot this semester. I faced a lot of challenges and I worked hard in order to complete everything I could. I struggled with font hierarchy, keeping time management and choosing designs from many options. I used Adobe Photoshop more, something of which I hadn't used in a while. And with practice comes improvement. I improved in using both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I now know how to keep time of things and more of an idea of what's good for desings and whats bad.

Conclusion 

The e-Com program offers a lot to me and I have used the most of it this past semester. I've leanred more abour Adobe Phtoshop and Illustrator. I've re-Branded a company and researched about Futurism. I've learned better methods of reaserching and I've done a lot of designing concerning typography and more. It's been a fun go this semster at e-Com. I have to say my favorite project was the 4 Quotes project and I wish I could have improved on ome of the desings for it. Of course I also did enjoy re-branding and reading more about futurism. I think that overall this semester has been a great learning experience and that I did well.