End of Marking Period 2: 1/16/23

Intention Definition & Exploration of Ideas:

        This year, I have decided to go for the theme Visual Delight and the Arts of Daily Life. I decided to choose this theme because I think it fits nicely with Graphic Design; which is what I want to focus on this year. This theme is all about the art we see in our daily life that we might overlook. For example, an image on a t-shirt, a brand logo you might see on a bag of chips, or the design on a wedding invitation. These were all carefully designed by digital artists., who paid attention to different elements like typography, branding, and theming. The reason I picked this theme is because I would like to major in Graphic design in college, so I figured it would be a good idea to form a portfolio focusing on it.

Planning:

        Before I started any projects, I explored a little into the process of creating graphics and text. The first thing I did was look at a book called "100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design" that covered many important concepts that are still used in graphic design today. A few pages from this book are shown bellow. Another thing I did before diving into projects was look at some videos about important principles that are used when creating a design. For example one video I found showed how you could used the golden ratio in your designs. Another video talks about how negative space, proximity, repetition, contrast, alignment, and focal points are all important design elements that need to be addressed before a design is finished. Once I actually started a project, I would sketch out ideas before I converted them into digital designs. These are also shown below.

Producing:

        So far I have created four designs/logos. I made one for Science Olympiad, Book Club, my crochet small business, and CV Mini-THON. Science Olympiad was looking for a new logo to go on clothing, so I worked with their student secretary to create the design. I made the Book Club logo since my friend saw the designs I was making and requested that I made one for our club. The 3rd design I made purely for fun because I thought I would be nice to have a logo for my crochet Instagram account. Finally I made the Mini-THON design because they were accepting new designs for Mini-THON's winter store from any committee member that was interested.

Evaluating: 

        I am pretty happy with what I have gotten done so far in the year, and I think I have seen growth since my first design to most recent one. I still have a lot to learn about techniques, style, and sizing but I think I am at a good place right now in my work.

        One thing that I can improve on specifically is picking the right font types for each design. A few of the designs I made had thin fonts that would not show up if I sized down the image. The same can be said for the lines on the eagle I made for Science Olympiad, or the yarn details on the Design I made for my small business. If I sized these down, those detail lines might blend together and disappear which is something I would fix if I redid the design.

        One thing that I believe I did well in most of my designs is picking colors that go together cohesively, or had reasoning for the color chosen. For example, in the Science Olympiad design,  I picked the colors white, black, and red because they are the school's colors. In the book club design I initially had the idea of doing blue and orange colors because they are complementary colors, and then I looked up corresponding color pallets to make sure I had the right shades that would go nice together. I did the same with the penguin and for the Mini-THON design I went with different blues because that is what their organization typically uses.

        One more thing I believe I can improve on is coming up with more sketch ideas before I pick the final design. In most of my projects I only came up with two options, and the Book Club logo was the only one that I made 4 sketches for.

        Something that I initially struggled with was simplifying my designs and making them look more like a logo. For example, with the Science Olympiad design, the eagle originally had many more shapes and I had to simplify it so that it would be okay to print out. I also struggled with this for the book club design when I initially made a different sketch digitally and it was becoming to complicated for a logo. I did eventually figure out how to keep my designs on the simpler side, as can be seen with the Mini-THON design.

        Like I said before, I am happy with my progress so far even though there are many things I can improve on.

Integrating: 

        Going forward, I plan to use what I learned from the designs I already made and apply the experience to my next projects. I want to make sure I am coming up with more sketch ideas before I commit to making one digitally. I also want to make sure my designs are simple enough and are able to be sized down and up without any visibility issues. I also want to try making graphics other than just logos because there are many other areas where graphic design can be applied. For example, graphic design includes designing websites, creating book or magazine covers, packaging, advertisement in general, etc. and I would like to explore other applications in the future.