Sophomore Portfolio Review

I have seen a staggering amount of improvement in my work since starting the graphic design program at St. Edwards. Truthfully, I am fairly certain that a majority of said improvement has been derived, not from instruction, but rather, from the truly disturbing number of hours I have spent on graphic design assignments. While freshman year was indeed a difficult adjustment, the assignments were not particularly time consuming or difficult. This year, however, the amount and difficulty of our assignments has truly been nightmarish. It has truly been a test of my dedication to design as well as this program, but it has also given me the opportunity to improve greatly as a designer. In my opinion, this is manifested most clearly through my LATCH illustration, my button packaging design, and a non-school related project: StedsRaw stickers.

Of all the graphic design work I have ever done, I am probably most proud of the illustration I created for the LATCH project in Typography II. It took well over thirty hours to complete and the effort put forth was remarkably painstaking; I did each skyline, and all of the weather elements individually by hand. I feel that, in conjunction with the texture and the numbers, this spread came out very well, and I am extremely pleased with it. Unfortunately, due to the fact that this illustration took a disproportionate amount of time to complete, I was unable to create or animate the final scene of the LATCH video. Additionally, I was unable to animate the scenes that I did make the way I would have had I not spent so much time illustrating the first scene.

Link: https://sites.stedwards.edu/visuportfolios-bmyers3/2015/02/01/latch-weather-report/

While not quite as impressive as my LATCH illustration, my button packaging designs came out very nicely. From the start of the project, I knew the exact look that I was going for. I wanted my packaging to look very modern, sleek, and trendy, which I feel that I accomplished. I was particularly pleased with the way the type on both packages came out. Ultimately, I was slightly more pleased with the way that the Mount Bonnell package came out, but both looked good. Unfortunately, I do not feel nearly as strongly about the buttons inside the packaging. I found it very hard to focus and take my time on the button designs because I was so excited about using the button maker and turning my designs into actual buttons. As a result of this, I, more or less, rushed through designing my buttons, rendering them a lower quality than I am capable of creating.

Link: https://sites.stedwards.edu/visuportfolios-bmyers3/2015/04/01/rules/

The third piece I have decided to highlight was not done to fulfill an assignment, but was rather a freelance piece I did on my own time. I have chosen to highlight this particular piece because, while I feel that it is strong, I completed it in less than five minutes. This may seem like an insignificant or unimpressive feat, but it is a testament to my ability as a designer to create quality work in short amounts of time, a quality that is the product of hundreds or thousands of hours of designing. In this project, I am most proud of the color scheme. Combined with the seemingly relaxed curves of Susa Bold, these stickers, especially as a set, are very cute and playful looking. I never ended up printing the stickers but I hope to do so in the near future.

All of the aforementioned projects are very strong, but there is always room for improvement. As new concepts, such as setting pages and pages of text, begin to arise, I will continue to challenge myself and, hopefully, over time, develop a unique style that strays away from trendy type and cute color schemes.