Examples From School
The following is a sample of the designs I created for assignments from an Adobe-based design class I took in college called Electronic Publishing & Design.
Creative Splendor Designs
Creative Splendor Designs is a fictional graphic design agency for which I was to design a brand identity that could be used across a letterhead and business card. I created a logo that is reminiscent of the pen tool symbols in different design programs, to meet the client’s need for the imagery to be recognizable as graphics/art related. To make sure the image was understood to be a pen on the business card, I included a curved line that looked like it was being ‘drawn’ by the pen. I reused this curvy line element in the letterhead across the top left corner so the designs would be consistent. I stuck with a monochromatic palette to keep the design clean and simple. I used different fonts in the main logo and the contact information to provide some contrast.
Gathered in Charleston Event Planning Logo
I created a logo for the fictional company Gathered in Charleston, which is meant to be for event planning. I initially had a different version of this, in which I drew a light pink chandelier and placed it behind black text, in an attempt to go for an elegant look (bottom image). Unfortunately, when it was small or seen from a distance, the chandelier didn’t read well, and made it harder to read the name of the company despite the difference in color/contrast. I likely could have changed the colors or font to make the previous version work, but after feedback I decided to try to go for something simpler. In this version (top image), I’ve decided to use a balloon instead of a chandelier to signify that the company involves event/party planning. The balloon is a vector graphic of my own design. I chose yellow because it can be tied to feelings of fun and happiness. To tie the imagery into the text and make the design cohesive, I decided to draw the balloon so that it could also be used as the ‘g’ in the word ‘gathered’.
Quote Graphic
For this assignment, I was meant to pick out a quote and arrange the words in an aesthetically pleasing way. The main goal of this was to practice some basic typography: picking different fonts that pair well, adjusting size to properly add emphasis, etc. The quote is from a Mary Oliver poem titled 'I Worried'.
Postcard Invitation to Murder Mystery Party
This design is the result of an assignment for which I was asked to create a postcard invitation. I thought that the Murder Mystery theme would be an interesting concept that could allow for some dramatic design elements. I layered different images and blended them into each other. I chose to make the images black and white to evoke the idea of old noir detective films. This also allowed me to use bright reds and yellows in the fonts and other design elements.
Film Festival Poster
For this design, I was meant to create a poster for some kind of live event, and I chose to make one for a film festival. 'Eastern Crux Film Festival' is fictional. I stitched together cinematic imagery for the bottom half, overlaying and blending different stock images. The solid blocks of color are meant to provide some contrast to the busyness of these images, and make the informational text easier to read.
Movie Poster
In this design, I created a poster for a fictional film which I titled Midnight in Osaka. I decided early on that I wanted it to have a cyberpunk or neonoir feel, with high contrast in lights and shadows and lots of neon colors. I found the photo of the car which had a lot of blues and pinks, so I decided to run with that color palette.