Sophomore Portfolio Review

These past two years in the graphic design program have made a big impact on my life and the way I perceive the world. I have learned a lot things that I did not know when I first arrived here. As these two years have passed I have been slowly developing my skills. I have learned what a serif, san serif, and slab serif are. Also when I walk around the campus or even in downtown I try to recognize what style of typefaces they are using. I have also learned that when designing posters or maps you want the least few amount of words. The job of a designer is to use images that will have significance in the subject matter in order to cut down the time being spent looking at the poster or map while still getting all of the important information. Understanding simple techniques and ideas as these have a major impact on the outcome of the my designs.

https://sites.stedwards.edu/visuportfolios-lmacias3/2015/04/01/graphic-design-i-artifact-map/

When it comes down to using images with very little words type to show important information is my artifact map. The reason I chose this project was because I walk from my apartment to the soccer field at night to run. This project was assigned to us so we could design a path that we frequently use but we had to put information of either traffic or something that we thought was important when taking this route. For me when thinking about it I thought about sexual assault because one of my friends had recently been sexually assaulted. I wanted to know how many police boxes I would pass on my way to the track. So I used stars to show where a police box was throughout campus. Also I showed how many I passed when I walked on from my apartment to the track. Through my walk I only passed one which was by JBWS and then the second one was at the track. Also this map shows that color is important to because it allows you to know what each building is used for. Over all I think this project shows that few words are not always a bad thing when you have images that allow you to tell you what is going on. When it comes to improving I believe the type face I chose was not properly decided on. I still need to improve in choosing type.

https://sites.stedwards.edu/visuportfolios-lmacias3/2015/03/31/graphic-design-ii-rules/

The second design that I chose to use that shows my improvement is my buttons project. This project shows that using typefaces and images need to correlate in order to have a positive impact. For this project we had to visit two locations that we have not been too before. After we visit we had to write a set of instruction to and design a set of buttons. The set of buttons I design were for MT. Bonnell and Hope Out Door gallery. When choosing the type for Hope Out Door gallery I asked myself a couple of questions. One of the important question was what is it that makes Hope Out Door gallery important? How do I want my buttons to look like? Should I use a type that has almost the same personality as my buttons? After I asked myself these questions I designed my buttons in order to have a better understanding of how I wanted my type to look. The buttons that really show this is my Hope Out Door gallery. The style the buttons where design and the background of the card relate to the type that I used. They style I was going for was for a graffiti throughout the whole design. I also tried to do the same with MT. Bonnell but I was running out of time since I put most of the time into the Hope Out Door gallery, but I believe it shows how I’ve learned that when choosing type a lot come into play such as how is your design going to look? Who are you designing this for? The one thing I need to improve in here understanding to have a balance between designs because it does not matter how good one looks if the other looks bad. So organization of time is a big factor that I need to work on.

https://sites.stedwards.edu/visuportfolios-lmacias3/2015/03/12/louis-latch/

The final design I chose was my latch project. When designing this video I had to incorporate the different acronyms I learned for designing a video. These acronyms are Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. When taken the first letter of each of these it spells Latch. As I design this project I chose three out of the five to use. The three that I chose were Location, Time, and Category. The first technique that I used was location. It shows the cities that I used and where they are located on the map. After location I used time. In time I put all of the fridays together, then saturdays and finally all the sundays. Now the final technique I used was category. I categorized everything by the type of weather they were. I believe I did well in organizing the video which shows all three of the techniques. When I look at this piece of work I think the strengths are using the techniques which were location, time and category. Where I need improvement is making the video evenly. By that I mean that i feel the video does not spend equal amount of time on each section of the video. Over all in this assignment I learned that organization is important when planning out and not just going step by step to see how it turns out; also everything you learn is always being used. Such as the one important pieces of design which is to use symbols when designing.

When I first started graphic design I had a basic understanding of how to use the adobe programs and very little interest in typography. As these two years have passed I have learn to have an appreciation for typography and interest in wanting to design my own font. Also I have learned that designers are the molders of society we influence society on how we perceive what beautiful and ugly is. When I first chose graphic design as my major I was not thinking about how I can make a difference in the world because it had not once passed through my head. I just wanted a major that I could keep d0ing art; but as I learned from my professors I became more interested in how I could use this major to make a positive impact on society. It’s only been two years since I started and I have barely just scratch the surface of something great which I hope to learn more about as i move into my third year of graphic design. I’ve learned how to choose fonts that will work together. I have also learned that symbols are worth a thousand words in design. I have also learned that organization is a big factor when it comes to design. I also learned that when working on files to always safe on multiple devices and save frequently. Another important piece of information that I learned was that when working on a project always have layers for each new part of the project. Whenever adding new shapes, text, symbols, etc always place each one on a different layer which will make it easier to go back and edit because I can lock every layer except for the one I want to change, versus if I have everything in one layer it makes it difficult because I’ll have to go back and take everything apart to make the one change I want. The final thing I want to say that has stuck with me that one of my professor said was how do you know when a design is finish. I want to say you never know it’s only as good as the time it is given and the experience you have. There is always room for improvement in each design because we are constantly learning new techniques and receiving feedback. So my final answer to that is it’s never finish until you stop trying to improve it.