Graphic Design

Evaluation & Selection

Jennifer |

Design Brief

3 Design Briefs:

DesignBrief

SWOT Analysis:

Strength  Weakness  Opportunity  Threat
Design 1 The design problem and intended audience is very clearly stated which could give positive effect when designing the graphic The constraints and goals should be more specific in oder to create a successful outcome If the outcome is really successful and the client is satisfied with it, we can consider physically using it in the menu cover It could be easy for the amount of time given because I could just repeat the steps I did for the logo design
Design 2 The eco-friendly product could gather many customers that are curious about those topics The intended audience should be explained more specifically  If the outcome is really successful and the client is satisfied with it, we can consider physically using it The design would have to come out in a similar timing with the product but it would be hard to match the deadlines of the design and product at the same time
Design 3 Clear audience and constraints Need a design problem  If the outcome is really successful and the client is satisfied with it, we can consider physically using it during the Spring Fair I would not be able to finish until the Spring Fair

Elimination:

I have decided to eliminate my third design about creating a logo for the Spring Fair because we have not received a definite approval from the client and the deadline does not match with the real Spring Fair.

Feedback:

  • Is the feedback aligned with what you thought of each of your projects?

The feedback I received for my first design did not really align with what I thought because they did not give specific feedback about how my design would look like but they rather asked questions about client, audience, etc… However, the feedback I received for my second design did align with my thoughts because I thought that the eco-friendly idea would be really interesting and have an impact in grabbing audience’s attention and that thought matched with the feedbacks I received.

  • Were you expecting this sort of feedback?

I did not expect these feedback because I thought that my first design would be more realistic and interesting but according to the feedbacks, it seemed like my second design received more attention and interest.

  • What surprised you about the feedback?

I was surprised by the feedback that asked if I had a realistic client because I received this feedback for both of my designs and it made me think about what the problem was that made it unrealistic and how I could fix that.

Selection:

  • Which design project have you selected to work on and why?

I decided to choose my first design because I thought that it would more realistic and the client would need it more.

Graphic Design

Logo Design

Jennifer |

Logo Design — Food Truck

The topic that I chose to create a logo was a food truck because this topic stood out for me the most out of all the topics and I also couldn’t think of any other of my ideas. I also thought that if I make my result visually appealing and I am satisfied with the result, I could also consider

Research and Inspirations: 

Made with Padlet

This was the padlet that I created in the first stage to spread out all the designs and see the general idea of what a logo design for food truck look like. There are also some cartoon graphics in the padlet and they are the pictures that I considered when creating my logos. I had a hard time deciding on what type of a style I want since all of the logos were all really nice and interesting.

Generating Ideas:

This was the start of me exploring about logo designs and learning from the really bottom stage. Through the videos that we watched, I have learned a lot of different techniques but I didn’t understand much of the information since I didn’t have any experiences but when I reflect back on it now, I think those suggestions were really useful in creating my logo.

Then, I created a mind map depending on the key ideas I wanted to have and the ideas that my user wanted to have. I tried to stick with the idea that it is a food truck and that the main topic is food.

 

This was the ideation matrix that I created after the mind map to hold the general concept of my logo and what I wanted my logo to include. However, when I started designing my logo, I slowly changed some concepts to set the tone the same because some combinations did not work really well.

Thumbnail Sketch:

This were the first examples that I had for my logo and I magnified and substituted some designs to make a range of them and compare them later as my final design. However, when I was creating these thumbnails, I didn’t have an exact concept that I wanted and I tried really hard to match my client’s expectations but it was hard to combine the idea of healthy and asian food. So, I had no choice but to create separated designs and choose one concept as my final.

These were the 4 different logos I chose as the final. I chose these four because I had the most satisfaction with these design and I thought they were the ones that included most of the client’s demand.

 

 

Practice Pen Tool (Tutorial): 

The challenges that I faced while watching the tutorials was a technique during the wave tutorial where it could make a rounded edge effect to the waves but since my illustrator isn’t in the latest version, the technique did not work for me so I had to try another method or give up doing that effect. Sometimes, mu illustrator didn’t work as smoothly as the tutorial and sometimes it took longer for me to find out about the technique so the process itself was challenging but it was fun at the same time. One technique that I would use in the future is the shape builder tool. By using the shape builder tool, I was able to locate and control the designs so easily and it was way efficient than how I tried before.

Comparison of Procreate and Illustrator:

ProCreate:

The strength of using ProCreate is that we are able to draw anything we want easily because it is having an access of using a pencil so the controls are very flexible. The weakness of using ProCreate is that all the drawings are pixelated which means that when we enlarge the drawing, it will become blurry and unclean.

Illustrator:

The strength of using illustrator is that all the diagrams are vector based and they have a clear and clean end so however we zoom into the design, the quality wouldn’t be lost. The weakness of illustrator is that is has a limited amount of shape that it can draw so if we want to draw a complex drawing, the procedures are really complicated.

 

Making Vectors:

This was the developed version of the letter K because I thought that the letter K logo I did was really creative and I wanted this to be one of my final designs.

This was the first final design that I created in illustrator and the one that received peer feedback on. Before any changes were made, the shape of the design was a physical truck with the wheels being a orange slice but once I shared it with the group mates, one feedback that I received was that the logo might look awkward if there is a truck logo on a truck so I substituted the wheels and just made the surface flat. I also received a feedback saying that I should try placing the words on the side instead of the top so I also developed so that the words were on the sides. 
These were the designs that I was satisfied the most because these designs were simple and limited but it showed the most value. As we can see straight away, a bowl of noodle with chopsticks stuck on shows the most impact of an asian food.This was a developed version of the noodle bowl on the top with some facial cartoons and cuteness but I thought that this did not really match the client’s taste so I decided not to use this.

FINAL CARRIER MOCKUP:

This was how my final carrier mockup looked like and I am very satisfied with the results. Since I have combined two of my designs together, the final product looks more visually appealing and good-looking. I could try to replace the logos into different places for more examples but for now, I am really proud of what I have done.

 

 

Reflection: 

I am really pleased with my final result of the mockup and the vector making process because due to this process, I have improved a lot in my illustrator skills and my technology skills. If I have the chance and time, I would really like to try this again because I think I have gained more interests in graphic design.

I am still not on the mastering stage with the technologies so I think some part of the designs could look a bit messy so I think I still need some more work on developing and finalizing the designs.

One thing that I would do differently is to draw out some more thumbnails and trying to do more vector files to just get more feelings about the design and increase some confidence. While I was creating the designs, I didn’t have enough creative ideas so I didn’t have much designs but I think the more samples you have, a wider range of choices you would have.

Graphic Design

Vector Graphic Reflection

Jennifer |

Technique Comparison

Illustrator:

The strength of using illustrator is that all the diagrams are vector based and they have a clear and clean end so however we zoom into the design, the quality wouldn’t be lost. The weakness of illustrator is that is has a limited amount of shape that it can draw so if we want to draw a complex drawing, the procedures are really complicated.

ProCreate:

The strength of using ProCreate is that we are able to draw anything we want easily because it is having an access of using a pencil so the controls are very flexible. The weakness of using ProCreate is that all the drawings are pixelated which means that when we enlarge the drawing, it will become blurry and unclean.

 

Letter Design_ProCreate

Letter Logo_Illustrator 

Design Studio

Eyeglass Design

Jennifer |

Audience & Precedents

This Padlet focuses on my audience and the stylistic features that she want her sunglasses to have. The keywords here are edited in color and the ideas that follow with them are connected. I would try my best to make the glasses according to the user’s taste and the style that she wants.

This Padlet focuses on some examples of the different examples of glasses and some that I could get some inspiration on. I have tried to collaborate numerous types and sunglasses and different shapes of sunglasses. I have listed out the specific designs that I like the most.

This padlet mostly focuses on the outside connection/any other information. I have added some information about the purpose of this design and the outer connection to pollution and recycled plastics.

 

Generation of Ideas, Selection & Development

2-D Sketches:

                                                          

These were the 2-D versions of the ideas that I first had and they were all the rough sketches of the brief idea that I wanted to have. The designs that I like the most are the ones on the left top side because they were the designs that I redrew after all the brainstorm and they are the summarized version of all the designs.

3-D Sketches:

                      

These were the 3-D ideas that I generated and some were practices and some were the final look I wanted the glass to have.

 

Prototyping, Testing & Refinement

When we first started off using Illustrator, we practiced the pen tool using a curvy logo to test out the functions and to explore the techniques.

 

Then, we started off actually drawing the base of our glasses and printing them with the cardboards to see the overall idea and concept of the glass.

This was the final idea that I had come up with for my final design and the part that I like about my design is the leg since it has a really unique design and how it has a bent part in the end.

By doing this step, even though it took longer time, it saved a lot of the resources and we didn’t have to waste any off the materials since we didn’t use them until we were definite about our designs

At last, when we were choosing our final recycled plastic for our glass, I chose this purple and white one because I loved how the colors collaborated together and how smooth the surface was.

 

 

 

This was the procedure of the laser cut and it was really interesting how the small intensive light could cut through a hard and solid plastic board.

 

This was the final product of my glass when it was printed out in the recycled plastic. I am really satisfied with the choice of the materials and the design I have.

 

Share and Reflect

  • How is your final design concept an effective response to your user? What makes this design successful?

The final design that I had was different from what my user first offered and most of the elements of the design is opposite from the user’s taste but their reaction was really positive and they were also satisfied with the product. The point that made my design successful is the uniqueness and the fact that I used some special materials.

  • What went well with your process and product? What would you improve if you had more time? What will you do differently next time and why?

I thought that the planning progress to the final cutting was all successful and satisfactory because the product was just the way I wanted it to be and it included all the elements I wanted it to have. I think I wouldn’t have anything to improve on if I had more time but one thing that I would do differently is to physically add a lens and see and compare it with the ones that are being sold.

Graphic Design

Reflection for Tutorial

Jennifer |

Flower Pot and Wave Practice

The challenges that I faced while watching the tutorials was a technique during the wave tutorial where it could make a rounded edge effect to the waves but since my illustrator isn’t in the latest version, the technique did not work for me so I had to try another method or give up doing that effect. Sometimes, mu illustrator didn’t work as smoothly as the tutorial and sometimes it took longer for me to find out about the technique so the process itself was challenging but it was fun at the same time.

One tip that I would give myself/others is duplicating the previous design and try to investigate if it could turn into another design. Sometimes, when I duplicated the design and tried to play around with the shape, there were some new ideas that popped up or some new effects I thought that I could add into and that was really helpful in building buy creativity.

One technique that I would use in the future is the shape builder tool. By using the shape builder tool, I was able to locate and control the designs so easily and it was way efficient than how I tried before.

Graphic Design

Bookmark Design

Jennifer |

Design Element&Principle Bookmark Design

The role of design elements&principle in graphic design is to use those techniques in the art so that it can give an attractive effect. For example, from a black and white drawing, just adding a small bit of color could already give emphasis on a certain section and make the audience hooked. I think this design task is all about knowing the deeper effects of different elements and principles and for us to understand and be able to explain what their use and effects are.

For both of my bookmarks, I didn’t want to make anything complicated and wanted the idea that as soon as you see the design, you can notice what the elements are. For my design principle bookmark, it might seem too simple but as soon as you look at the design, the attention goes straight to the red dot in the center and gives it such hierarchy. That was why I chose the color red and the others as black and white (since these two colors are just a casual combination). For the design element, I didn’t give any effect or design in the graphic and just made the principle as the background but it already gives such impact and we can know directly what the meaning is.

The strength of my element design is that it is both really simple but it is also really meaningful and communicates the element directly. The weakness could be that there could be some graphics in the center to make it more attractive. The strength of my design principle is that the color choices are really recent. The weakness of the bookmark is that it could be hard for some people to notice straight away what the design principle is.

Bookmark_Emphasis

Bookmark_Tone

English

Book for Essay

Jennifer |

Final Book

The book that I chose to write for my final essay is the current book I am reading called ‘The Sun is Also a Star’. I chose this book because out of the three books I read, I found the most interest in this book and it seems to me as if I can find the most comfort while reading this book. I haven’t read until the end so I am not sure about the moral lesson it is trying to give but I infer that it is going to be something connected with the title.

English

Independent Reading Self Reflection

Jennifer |

The Sun is Also a Star

The current book that I am reading is called ‘The Sun is Also a Star’. This book has a very unique characteristic and that is that the story flows on in different person’s perspective. Sometimes, it explains the tragedy a Jamaican girl is going through then it suddenly transfers into another boy and starts explaining that person’s situation. Due to this effect, I sometimes get confused and messed up about the story but I also think that this technique is also very fresh and unique. The part that strikes me the most is that those two characters meet in a record store and fall in love. The story sometimes falls off into a weird situation like this and it is very sudden which makes it more interesting and hooks the readers. Since the title of the book also talks about the Sun and stars, the author tries to connect every plot with the universe. The universe itself could also be considered as one of the main characters. The author uses rather simple but deep words to send out her message. The language she uses is also straight-forward enough that we could understand the meaning behind it.

Design Studio

Precious Plastic Soft-goods

Jennifer |

Trash into Treasure

The purpose of our design was to use recycled plastic and make it into a product such as a bag or a wallet. The intended audience of our design was people who are interested in making products using different materials. Through this product, we can inform the peoples that plastic is not always trash but we can turn them into a precious product where we can recycle them forever. The things I could improve now are to consider an actual template of a wallet and make my bag according to that template. I should also try next time to make the bottom flat so that it can sit up. The most challenging part was closing the edge of the bag.

Padlet:

Made with Padlet

Design #1:

This is the first step of my design where I collapsed a piece of plastic in-between bubble raps to display the texture.

 

 

Then, I collapsed some fruit illustration plastics in a transparent object for the use of decoration and design.

 

 

 

This is the step where I stuck the fruit plastic on top of the base and fold the base in half to make the bag symmetrical

 

 

 

 

This is how it looks like on the inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also attached a simple black string on the ends but I think I can add some more colors to it later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design #2:

This is the template that I used to make the basis of my design.

Through some knowledge that I learned from my first design, I decided to have another trial of making a bag but this time, I wanted to change some of the elements. For example, I wanted the bottom of the bag to be flat than edged because it would make the bag sit up. I also thought adding a button in the middle of the bag would be a good way to fasten the openings. When I combined all my ideas, I thought that the shape of a gift bag would fit perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the planning stage of my design where I drew the different angles of my bag and briefly set out the layout of my design. I showed the different views but not much in detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what I planned for my final presentation of my product but I am not sure if I would like to have it like this. I think the backgrounds and text arrangements don’t really match up with the mood of my product so I think I would have to rearrange some mistakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Poster:

Presentation Poster

The successes of my design was that it acheived all of the parts I wanted it to have. For example, having flat bottom, having a handle, etc… When I was making my design, I also thought that the decorations and the color choices all matched really well together. If I had more time, I would’ve tried to look for some more features that I could add to the bag and try applying it.

Graphic Design

Persona Poster

Jennifer |

What is Design?

Personally, I think the word ‘design’ itself means a way of expressing our ideas through visual representations and not texts. It is a form of plan or drawing to show how an object looks and functions. My interest in design is digital design because I am not a very talented or skillful artist so I enjoy it the most when I can draw digitally since some of the features are already on there and there are numerous functions I can use. My goal this time is to be able to finish a complete portrait of myself because I know it is going to be challenging and taking time but I want to make one so that I can know how I have improved from the past. I don’t have any skills in designs yet since I haven’t had any experience so this time is my first time working on digital designs and it is going to be interesting for me.

Collecting Examples

This portrait was created by a digital artist named ‘Melina Ghadimi’ and the title of the portrait is ‘Persephone’. I think she also used a digital app to create the portrait since the shadows of the lines are all very detailed. The style of her portraits all have a similarity and that is the way she uses such techniques. Her artwork all have outstanding colors and rough lines. The lines are very smooth and rough as it almost seems as if it is drawn for practice but as simple as it is, it gives more of an impact. She also uses very dark and bold colors to give the texture and values. I like the style that she is roughly sketching the outlines and filling them in with appropriate colors.

 


The creator of the portrait is a person that has a nickname called the ‘Milky Way’ and this person has a range of k-pop stars portrait drawn. I think this person has drawn the portrait through Illustrator or a special app since the lines and textures are all very unique. The style of the portrait is really bland and natural and doesn’t seem like it added too many bold colors or lines. I can see that the line and colors are all very bland and the value drawn is also not really deep. I like how it gave minor details in the drawing such as the earrings, or the laces in the dress, etc…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This portrait was drawn by an artist named ‘ Jm Cha’ through ProCreate. The style of the portrait is very realistic and sensible as if we can see every detail of the person. We can tell from the portrait that the person is very talented and have many experiences in digital portrait. I can see that the lines in this portrait are not very obvious and it is blended very smoothly into the drawing. The colors are very natural and not very vivid. The values added in several places give the exact textures and form. I like this portrait because it is very natural and doesn’t seem forced. The technique that I want to learn is the values and the color choice.

 

 

 

 

 

This portrait was drawn by an artist name ‘Vincent Chu’ in Procreate. This portrait style is also very natural and realistic. However, this portrait still has some obvious lines and values in the artwork. The portrait not only has dark shadows as values but also bright highlights in the eyes, hair, cheek, etc.. to make it more realistic. I really like the way how the artist mixed some colors to present the shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This portrait was drawn by a Korean artist named ‘Yun Seul’. I think that this portrait was also drawn by a digital portrait app on an iPad. This style of portrait is comic-ish but also very fancy because it has all the luxurious colors and values. I can see that the lines and colors used here are all very light and smooth. The heavy makeup here also is a technique the artist used to give value and shape. I really like the combination of real and comic here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making My Portrait

I have decided to use the ProCreate app on the iPad to make my final digital portrait because there were some struggles with downloading Photoshop and Illustrator on my mac. Especially, if I use the iPad, I think it would be easier to add the small details and the textures. I have made the first section of my portrait following steps from a video on YouTube and for the half and last section of the portrait, I tried to fill it up myself. Here are the steps:

This was the first step where I just inserted my self-portrait picture into ProCreate and getting ready to apply the outlines and texture onto the portrait.
Then, I made the background into pink color and slowly traced the outline of the picture with a thin pencil tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, according to the picture on the left top corner, I started to fill in the colors of each section and find the appropriate color in the part. At first, it was awkward and challenging for me to use the tools but as the practice time got longer, I got used to the tools and started exploring other techniques like the fur texture where I used it on the hair and eyebrow.

Then, I noticed that instead of having to copy the colors from the picture, what if I just had the picture on the background and directly copy and draw the picture on top of that? That would make it simple and not have to worry about copying the wrong color.
This was the last part of my portrait where I just finished some last touches and final blending. The technique I used was really helpful with matching the colors and the positions of the portrait. I could have the most accurate colors for each section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self Reflection

Persona Poster Final

This persona poster reflects who I am through the color choices, format, and font in the poster, I have tried my best to represent myself and every small detail is thought thoroughly several times of how to be added. The biggest decision that I have made is making the poster on Procreate instead of Illustrator because I wasn’t sure if the result would end up differently on the two different apps. There were some challenges in-between the process but I have successfully figured them out. The successes of my poster were the curved title I have and the captions and the improvements for next time is adding more values and textures to my portrait because the face really looks flat.