iwilliamsarts102-02

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

Final Course Reflection

What have I learned this semester? Graphic design definitely isn't for me. I am happy to have had the opportunity to learn about how to work with different programs and concepts. I think this course made me stronger in making visually appealing work. It also gave me an understanding of just how hard it is to make something look clean and well put together. I cried many times using adobe and I don't plan on paying for it ever again. I put my two favorite spreads from my final below. This final also made me cry. Not because it was hard, but because I hate adobe. I think my favorite assignment throughout this course was the poster. I had a lot of fun making it and I think it's the most visually appealing piece I've made so far. I'd put it up in my room. To wrap this reflection up, I feel as if I have learned a lot of useful life skills and gained an appreciation for this type of art. I'm going to stick to illustration, but I look forward to seeing everyone's work in the future regarding this field.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

reading 6

I really enjoyed this reading. It revolved around computer concepts and programming/digital aspects on a computer. I'm double majoring in computer science, and from the classes I've taken so far, it's complicated but really intriguing. So, it was nice to read and understand what they were talking about. One thing I totally agreed with in the reading was the question of should we consider mathematics its own art form, and my answer is yes. It's an art form to code and use a computer. I think math ties in well with design. I also found the section of the reading that focused on different majors and paths to be helpful. It made me feel more confident in the path I picked.

For last week's project we analyzed a category of objects and compared and contrasted. I went with laptops as my objects because I feel like I know a good deal about them. I enjoyed the project and thought it was relatively simple. I had trouble printing this project, but I haven't not had trouble printing so it's whatever.

For project 6 we're creating portfolios in book form. I'm excited for this project and really hope I can come up with something creative. As much as I like curvilinear designs, I like geometric too. I think I want this project to be more geometric. I feel like it would feel more professional.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

blog/reading 5

This week we started project 5. We are analyzing a group of corresponding objects in terms of design. It's a quick and simple project and its different from our usual work. I chose laptops as my object group, and I'm analyzing different but similar types, with the exception of one. My project isn't completely done yet, but in the picture, you can see that my layout is similar to the references we got. I wanted to keep it simple and just really focus on the objects.

In the reading, I found it very interesting to learn about the differences in design and how they translate from paper to web. One example that really caught my eye was the idea of vogue being released online as well as in their paper copy. I think it's an interesting idea and am excited to see how they keep the essence of the magazine when published online. As iconic as their layout and magazine is, there will be differences in appeal when viewing through a screen. Other than that, the reading dove into technology and its relationship with design. I think it was refreshing to read and i enjoyed hearing different designers' opinions and methods on the technological aspect of design.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

ref/reading 4

For this project I was sort of stumped. I have never been good at summarizing or simplifying so logos are definitely out of my comfort zone. I chose the movie Beetlejuice. The characters I chose were Lydia Deetz and Delia and Charles. I think a good amount of other people are doing Beetlejuice as well, so I was stressed. I didn't want my logos to look similar to anyone elses. My first idea for Lydia included her iconic bangs and camera, but I felt as if it would have been too similar to others. I settled for a cute little ghost logo.

For the reading, I enjoyed hearing about the innovations of graphic designers as the industry grew and changed. Something that stressed me out in the reading was hearing about the new generation of graphic designers on page 202. It talked about the new generation being innovative and incredibly disciplined. By the time they hit the market they are already more informed than their potential employers and less isolated culturally. I just thought, damn. If I go into this field I gotta get my shit together. Its motivating tho. I also enjoy how creative and innovative your allowed to be in this field.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

Reflection 3

The reading was interesting this week. I enjoyed reading about different books and their process by the authors. I think that it was very informative on the process of designing books and I would love to give it a shot one day. I particularly enjoyed reading Jim Heimann's interview, as his design was the one that intrigued me the most.

As for the past two weeks project wise, I have enjoyed working on a poster. I originally wanted to create something that was collage inspired. Like you just took a handful of old magazines and cut them up. As I continued to work on the project, it took a very different route. I used a lot of pink which is weird because I don't usually enjoy working with it. But once I started to use InDesign, I simplified the original design and went for a cleaner composition. It's still not complete, but I am excited to finish it. I also like the current typeface but plan to experiment more.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

Reflection 2

It seems to be a pretty common consensus in the reading that the actual ability to create a pristine clean design is the bare minimum. I thought it was nice that when people were looking for new hires, they obviously looked at their work, but a lot of them were very concerned with personality and diversity in their work (and themselves). Reading this week's pages also gave me an insight into the startup and ins and outs of entering the graphic design career. I never thought about it as my own career, but after reading through different experiences I am excited to look into it more.

Project two was not what I excepted. I did not have faith that I would be able to make something cool with just typeface. And I spent a majority of the time mad at illustrator. Every time I got one thing to work another piece of the puzzle broke. I ended up using the font Harrington. I blew the size up because I felt like personally, I would work better with the individual curves and shapes rather than making them small and trying to work that way. This project pushed me outside of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed the final product. I think that I just need more experience before I can really enjoy the process. Two of my pieces are below.

[iwilliamsarts102-02]

Reflection and reading week 1-2

This week’s projects frustrated me a little bit. I felt like everyone had such good memoirs and I couldn’t think of anything (at all). I’ve never been good at digital art or creating on a computer. My major is studio art, and I’ve been focusing on fine art for a while. So, I felt like I had a learning curve, but I eventually decided to do something sort of inspirational. That decision was influenced by the philosophy class I’m currently taking. Last week we had to sort through 70 values and pick/rank our top ten. My number one core value was growth, so I leaned into that for the project. My first six-word memoir was “you can’t grow with no rain”. I really do believe that you’re never going to get better at something if you’re not struggling with it. I’m not going to get better at photoshop if I don’t try harder, even if it’s frustrating. My second memoir was “stories tell scars, scars prevent stories”. I just thought it sounded cool. It also works well with the other memoir. What you go through prepares you for the future. I typed my memoirs into the ai generator and kept refreshing until I found ones I liked. And then I used photoshop to edit them. When editing them, a majority of the changes I made were through the brush tool. I color matched and edited as if I was drawing. In future projects I want to learn more about the other tools in photoshop. When we critiqued, I did not expect everyone to be so nice. I took foundation classes at Lander University in my senior year of high school, and the critiques were so different. We couldn’t use I statements or say anything we liked about the piece, we strictly had to analyze the craftsmanship/composition/elements/etc… It was refreshing to hear everyone outwardly enjoy the work.

I also was pleasantly surprised by this weeks reading. I expected a more traditional textbook, but I enjoyed reading the interview style chapters. I think I understand why they started the textbook like that, it was inspiring to read about all these businesses and successful people. And it made me want to know more about the graphic design industry.