Our final map was probably my favorite project thus far in Graphic Design I: making a decision map. An avid fan of these, logic is what makes them work. The website Buzzfeed has many of these maps that I enjoy working through in my spare time.

The reason why I chose to do which city you should move to was because I am in this predicament. By the time I was eight, I had lived in three different continents, and by the time I graduated high school, I had lived in eleven different houses. Thus, after I graduate from St. Edward’s, I need to figure out what is next in my path.

Again, I used Excel to do my researching, looking up education systems in each city, living costs, job availability, etc. I enjoyed this project immensely because I got to play around with the characteristics of each city, trying to find icons and fonts that would best describe them. I had the woody, dark greens of Portland, but also the jazzy purples of New Orleans. My skills on Illustrator were improved dramatically with this, as I had to use tools such as Pathfinder to create all the icons. It was a fun, light-hearted design that matches with the mood I was aiming for.

 

The second map directed our focus not onto a literal, artifactual map, but rather a map which contained information. Choosing to do mine on the Study Abroad program here at St. Edward’s, I contacted the Office of International Education to get some information and data from them. As this was supposed to fit onto a tabloid and be foldable, I made sure to have a distinct line for folding.

One of the key components of this project was to use Excel to create data and design it from there. Knowing this, I used both a line-graph as well as a pie chart. The way I further enhanced its design features was by 1) adding a plane icon onto the line graph, showing a “take off” of students studying abroad, and 2) splitting the pie chart into greater detail, making a pie of a pie chart. The accent of red and the percentage of people studying abroad in certain countries changed its opacity. Combined with a neutral grey background, the red seems to stand out in the design.

 

 

The first of three maps, the purpose was to display the literal use of a map and showcase a certain artifact; in this case, restaurants. Layers had to be incorporated in this piece to show complexity of the map; if one layer were taken off, would the map be as effective? I chose to use South Congress’ food options for my map, due to its proximity and variety. But since there are so many options to choose form, I used data analytics to determine which restaurants ranked higher than others. Using resources like Yelp, I rated the restaurants based off: 1) variety/uniqueness, 2) Yelp reviews, 3) price, 4) vegetarian choices, and 5) options available. With those, I was able to determine which restaurants ranked.

Design-wise, I kept the map very minimal, using only a black line to display South Congress, with a few side streets, including South First St. By keeping it minimal, this allows the viewers to focus more on the options of restaurants available to them. This would be a great option for students here at St. Edward’s, who are looking to try off-campus dining options with near proximity but know the area fairly well.

Going into this first project in GDES1, I wasn’t completely sure about my skills on Illustrator, but I was willing to give it a shot. My main topic for this project came from my love of yoga and meditation. With a world that tries to make everything quicker and more timely, meditating is one of my favorite things to do. “Zen” had to be my topic choice.

However, brainstorming six words revolved around the world zen seemed difficult. I used words such as: “energy”, “buddha”, “lotus”, “balance”, “peace”, and “sun” to portray something that is such an abstract idea. However, as I got to sketching and creating stylized images, I quickly began to realize that despite my abstract idea, I loved my icons to look and mean something, much like how yoga and medication mean something to me. I figured that since the topic was abstract, the actual logo itself did not have to be completely so. My final images included the buddha and lotus, especially.

On the grading scale, I feel like I learnt a lot from this project, especially getting used to the program. I believe I did my A-effort work in this project, despite my lack of abstract symbols. Pathfinder was one of the most important tools needed massage the logo together and make it work cohesively. Its harmony seemed to work well, and the symbols as a whole seemed to go well together and as a collection. Because it was black and white, the silhouettes were very important in showing dimensions. However, this proved difficult in its scaleability. When downsized, the edges seemed to blur and become “blob-like”. If I were to do it again, I would make it even more basic and keep the lines very simple so that if it were downsized, the image’s vision wouldn’t be affected. I also feel like I would have added more negative space to improve its form downsized.

Gradewise, I believe my symbols were quite successful. Though I enjoyed looking at others work, I am very proud of my own and feel like they were stronger than most; especially, I loved how they looked on vinyl. I think my buddha symbol with the lotus hat may have potential of being a “real logo” because of its prominent message.