Sophomore Portfolio Review

My name is Michael Cavallaro, and I am a returning student to St. Edwards University. I had not taken any art classes for several years, and had never used any of the Adobe design programs until I started back in the spring of 2014. The last three semesters have taught me so much; the hours of experience with the computer programs, and the knowledge of the concepts and principles of design have drastically changed the style, technique, and caliber of my work.

The Typographic Poster was the first big project I had as a graphic design major. I feel that this gives a good representation of the starting point of where I was skill wise when I started the program.

 

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The project required that we use one typeface to design a poster for a study abroad program in Italy. I based the color palette and grid structure off of the Italian flag, which aimed to communicate the main idea to an audience from a distance and draw people in. I use a varying point size of text as well as different alignments, positions, and opacity to create a sense of hierarchy within the posters design.

Now jumping forward a year to Advanced Typography, and the Weather Report project. This project made me push all of my limits, and I feel that it really showcases my growth as a designer and progress from the previous year.

This project focuses on the LATCH system, which stands for Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. The Weather Report requires the designs and key frames to be made in Adobe Illustrator and imported into After Effects in its process. My Weather Report uses multiple typefaces, and weather symbols that I designed based off of Facet Ultra, the typeface used for the cities in the first and second latches. I also utilized principles learned in the Color and Design class to develop a visually appealing color palette. The most difficult aspect of this project was choreographing the movement of forty points of data into three different latch structures. This aspect, is not only the most difficult part of the project, but is also the best showcase of my growth as a designer.

 

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