High School Final

My high-school experience is coming to a close. And in order to be more successful in the real world our graphic design teacher encouraged us to brand ourselves. Well after hours of sketching, thinking, and frustration I came up with a temporary brand. I will continue to refine this logo and myself as I mature my skills in the adobe suite and complete my knowledge of typography, color theory, and shapes.

Logo

I wanted my logo to possess a level of creativity. The best way to put that across was with a pencil. And the colors black and white were balancing and not so harsh if they were to be paired with the bold font that I used. My color palette does include purple. Because the color purple also stands for creativity. I use the color purple in my pattern design.

Variations 

Here are some other variations of my logo. These variations take place based on which stationary is used. I have a vertically stacked logo in order to take up more space and easily decipher form he icon and the logo. Below that is the icon. The pencils forming an "E" standing for EDit Designs. Next is the pattern I made with the purple backwards E as well. This includes repetition of this design in order to make patterns on walls or boxes (as you will see below).

Stationary and other cool things

Below I have a copy of my stationary. This includes paper, envelope, business card, and notecard. Next I had a little fun and create a box design and bill board design. 

Resume and Portfolio

Now below I have my Resume in order to market myself and a bechance portfolio. I will continue to tweak these as I further my education but here is the start! Click on the pictures for better viewing to see the fine print. 

Please check out my portfolio!

Gear: The Final Frontier

Recently my graphic design class toured the Gear For Sports factory. First thing we need to talk about Gear is the recognizable logo! 

The logo was recently reduced to the "g". The logo has all lower-case letters making it easy to read and presents a laid-back feeling in your mind. With lower-case letters you don't feel the logo screaming at you as it would in all caps. However, the "for sports" is stressed a little more with the slant and the upper-case letters which shows excitement and forward motion. The manipulated "g" makes the g a letter and an icon. This sets gear apart from the other sports companies such as Nike or Underarmour because it participates in the word mark as a letter and can stand by itself as an icon. 

The identity is carefully managed. The logo is never apart from the identity of the company. The logo is constantly maintained on the catalogs, employee wear, business cards, etc so you will never forget what you are looking at. 

The brand of the company is what makes gear so successful. They wanted to make sportswear comfortable, stylish, and affordable. They rarely ever miss a shipment date and precision is very important to the company. I believe their vision statement says it all- "Guided by our GEAR values, we strive to be the leader in quality and delivery of our customer’s image through marketing innovative sportswear, accessories and services." And here are the values of the company:

• Customers by exceeding their expectations.
• Excellence by taking pride and responsibility in everything we do.
• Employees by demonstrating respect and consideration for each other.
• Teamwork by fostering trust and recognition among all stakeholders.
• Professionalism by exhibiting integrity and proficiency.
• Innovation by embracing creativity and change.
• Social Responsibility by caring for and sharing with each other and our community.
• Respect for our environment by working toward a more eco-friendly global work environment.

Now here was the most exciting part of the field trip for me. Looking at the graphic design department. Every Gear For Sports graphic design hubs relocated to a big hub in Lenexa, Kansas. WAY TO PUT KANSAS ON THE MAP! Gear has all sorts of jobs for Champion, Under Armour, and Gear itself! Then within those there are people designing women t-shirts, resort t-shirts, hats, college wear, golf wear, and so much more! I was able to look over the shoulder of a designer who has been there right out of college! She loves her job and has been there for about 30 years! Being a t-shirt designer myself I was so excited to talk to her about her experiences and her love for her job! And that is who I aspire to be!

eMagine 2015

Recently I attended and summited designs into the multimedia festival eMagine. This is a highly competitive design festival. The categories for the graphic design entails:
-Vector
-Typography
-Manipulated Photography
-Print Media
I entered in the vector category because of my success last year. I placed in the top five for vector art out of 20 participants. The evening was well thought-out and organized. The host school was very clean and provided refreshments afterwards. The photos taken captured the fun and excitement of the evening. Even though my entry did not place I enjoyed seeing others succeed and spending the evening with my friends.

 Below is my entry for imagine 2015.

Thank You Prang

Style creates a common language among designers. The stepping stones of identifying a style is understanding the characteristics and the mood of the artwork. Here (below) is an art piece from the Pitch newsletter.

Style:

Characteristics:

-Geometric shapes 

-Hand-lettering

-Pattern

-2-Dimensional

-Illustrations

-Mixed Fonts

-Creates a Hierachy

Mood:

-Hand-written

-Personal

-Circle which could symbol harmony and ring most commonly linked with weddings which calls for celebration

-Fun (the champagne bottle, the disco ball, the none serious light blue of the other illustrations)

-Excitement (the swirls of the font, the fireworks)

History:

Thank you notes started in the 1400's. These notes were personal and handwritten. Greeting cards started catching on when Louis Prang known as the "Father of the American Christmas Card" started designing. These greeting cards have similar characteristics. With a geometric shape enclosing an image. 

My Re-Creation:

I copied the geometric pattern, hand-lettering and as many of the characteristics as possible. Problems with my designed happened with the subtly of the pattern in the circle. In the original ad of the "New Year's Guide" the pattern in the circle was very small.   

Make Your Own Owl Eyes (Josh Brill Style)

Make Your Own Owl Eyes:

Step 1

Create a new document in Illustrator. 8.5in x 11in document.

Step 2

Select the ellipse tool. Click on the art board and a window should pop up with the properties of the circle. Make them as such. 

Step 3

Select the line segment tool. And create a line dividing the circle in half.

Step 4

Copy the line and rotate 90 degrees. Then select both lines and rotate the line until this is the image you see. 

Step 5

Select the circle and lines. Then select the divide tool (the icon on the far right). This will create 8 even spaces. 

Step 6

Select the bottom two "triangles" and move them away for the designated area of "eye" creating. 

Step 7

These two circles we will create the bottom right base of the eye. Select the pen tool and using the upper most endpoint click and make a vertical line 2 points long. Then using the left most endpoint click and make a horizontal line 1.5 points long. The end result should look like this.

Step 8

And then click on the new leftmost endpoint on the horizontal line and create a vertical line 1.5 points long. Then make a copy of the 1/4 circle and rotate it 90 degrees. And match up the end point to the end point of the new vertical line. Then complete the shape using the pen tool. 

Step 9

Now you see that the shape is not completely filled with the desired color. That is because the 1/4 circles are closed object so we need to open them in order to make a complete shape. So select an delete the points of the circle so it will look like this. We will want to keep the arch and shape of the lines so only delete the top points of the triangle. 

Step 10

Now select all of the object and use the short cut cmd+J to join the object together. It should look somewhat like this. 

Step 11

Now create a black circle. Any size depending on how big you will want your actually owl eye.

Step 12

Now copy that circle change the color to white and make the circle smaller holding shift while distorting the circle so it is still similar to the black circle.

Step 13

Select all of the shape. Group the shape using the short cut cmd+G and now cmd+c and cmd+f. Reflect the object vertically and move to create the shape below and you are done! You can take this shape further using more of the circle to create a beak or eye lashes. Endless possibilities!

 

   

  

Quarter 3 Project

A MADE UP WORD AND BIRDS

A quest to find why Josh Brill chose to make those two things by Emily Day
Josh Brill's style is one of the many 20th century inspired art. His '"Lumadessa" originates from the words luminous meaning ‘light’ and odyssey, meaning ‘a long eventful or adventurous journey’. It’s a theme explored and employed by Josh Brill to construct visual reinterpretations of life. Lumadessa is an abstract odyssey of the luminous land around us"'. This is carried on the back of 20th century art inspired by Saul Bass, Chris Ware, Reid Miles, and Russian Constructivist poster designs. Here is one of the examples of a Russian Constructivist poster design(below left). This one in particular is full of geometric shapes which is similar to Brill's artwork(below right). Understanding the history of the style Josh Brill has updated it using shadows, bright colors, and animals.

Comparing:

-Geometric shapes

-Partial circles

-3 colors

Contrast:

-Brill has shadows

-Brill has more images than text

-Brill has a different tone. Russian Constructivism has a more serious tone and Josh Brill has a more whimsical tone.

My re-creation:

I sued this flat style illustration to create a newsletter template for the Olathe Fire Department. Problem is, before doing so I forgot to ask my client super important questions. Lesson learned. This will now be in my design vault to use for something later.

Strength Based Leadership

Top 5 Strengths:

1. Includer- Relationship Building

"“Stretch the circle wider.” This is the philosophy around which you orient your life. You want to include people and make them feel part of the group. In direct contrast to those who are drawn only to exclusive groups, you actively avoid those groups that exclude others. You want to expand the group so that as many people as possible can benefit from its support. You hate the sight of someone on the outside looking in. You want to draw them in so that they can feel the warmth of the group. You are an instinctively accepting person. Regardless of race or sex or nationality or personality or faith, you cast few judgments. Judgments can hurt a person’s feelings. Why do that if you don’t have to? Your accepting nature does not necessarily rest on a belief that each of us is different and that one should respect these differences. Rather, it rests on your conviction that fundamentally we are all the same. We are all equally important. Thus, no one should be ignored. Each of us should be included. It is the least we all deserve." 
When I work in teams the includer comes out in my because I understand what it feels like to not have my ideas shared. So normally I push people to talk share their ideas. 

2. Achiever- Executing

"Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving"
When I work in groups I will always try to outdo the others in my group. I like to "go for the gold". And I push others to do the same.

3. Learner- Strategic Thinking

"You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”"
Learning is one of my passions. I like to know facts and figures just in order to show my knowledge to other people.

4. Harmony- Relationship Building

"You look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can’t quite believe how much time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn’t we all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you will willingly, in the service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just to show that you can." 
When I work with a diverse group of people I will always strive to find middle ground. Being the middle child of my two siblings I am typically known for trying to keep the peace between the family and with groups.

5. Discipline- Executing

"Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long- term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines, and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions."
Of course while working in a group I like to make a timeline or encourage organization. Deadlines are important to the success of a project and to maintain a client. 

Friday Activity:

One of the major points I learned on Friday was the ability to grow in my strengths rather than improve upon my weaknesses. My "aha" moment with Mrs. Knight was when I read the descriptions of my strengths. Which sounds like an easy step but I did not have the time to understand what the "includer" or "harmony" strength and how it really described me. 

Impact:

The impact this activity had on me was that I now understand how to approach group projects better. And also how to view others differently and better with the understanding the strengths of others when working with them and come into a project more open minded now that I understand that not everyone is disciplined like I am or an achiever like me.

Description of strengths provided by:
Gallup Strength Center