from Danielle Zayas on Vimeo.

the “Critical Mass” project had a prompt that called for creating a animatic for an allegory. I chose to use photosynthesis for my project. With photosynthesis I wanted to incorporate an idea that was relevant to my own life. The design decisions that I chose to go through included: my concept for my allegory which was to have a mother baking, while her daughter watches, as that happens, she eventually absorbs the information needed to bake cupcakes of her own, which then leads her into wanting to own her own bakery some day. My work embodies the concept by just how a plant absorbs light from the sun, which then supplies the plant with energy to absorb nutrients to grow big and tall, I tried to bring that through with my concept with showing the daughter absorbing information about baking, then her using the information she gathered to create her own sweets.

When I was given this project, I was nervous since I had never used AfterEffects before. Though, I feel I made both good and poor design decisions. I feel that I excelled in this project with the way I animated eyes, and mouth movements. Also I feel that I made good decisions on how I brought in my titles. With that being said, I also made poor decisions. I feel I did poorly on my concept and also audio. I liked the concept that I had chosen, but once I started to animate and work on it, I started to see that I could have thought of an idea that could have worked a little better with photosynthesis.

Our Personal geography maps project was to create three maps. One for a location, one for a meal with senses, and the last one was for a flow chart. This project was challenging but also very helpful to me with learning new thinking processes to create design work. For my first map I chose to do my route from home to campus. I chose a simple but bright color palette and I also had it’s orientation at a different angle. I thought my decisions for my maps were good. I feel that I lacked more design and fluidity in my last map. I feel that my last map could have been a better concept and I also feel that I was just stuck with a mind block that I could not fully bring my last map up to the standard that I would have liked it to be. For my “meal with senses” map I feel I made design choices that effectively helped to enhance my work and embody this project. I used organic shapes for tasting and used other abstract ways in showing other senses. My meal with senses map does embody this project and with the decisions that I made to enhance my work ended up looking the way I wanted it to.

For this project we were to create a material type and also to create a process typeface book to show the process of everything. I decided to use skeleton garland. It was a material that was inexpensive and the material ended up creating interesting letter forms. First we had to gather the material that we wanted to use, next we started to mess with the material to see if the material would be functional to use for a type. Once we chose the material that worked best, we began to think of titles for our type faces. Therefore I chose to go with ” Whipped Scream” instead of whipped cream. Once I chose my title I decided to create different ways to show my type in a fun way. I wanted to try and show a skeleton with a bowl, and have “whipped Scream” look like it was being whipped up by the skeleton. Though when I figured out that idea would not be feasible it was too late to create a well designed poster. Therefore, I ended up putting my typeface on a black board and tried to still make it interesting.

For this Type I assignment, we were asked to generate variations of three separate photos, that would then be created into one single image. The concept was to be able to generate original symbols by meshing together multiple photos accordingly. When I was in Graphic Design I, I was still fresh to illustrator in the sense that it was still very challenging for me to create vectors that were not jagged or odd looking due to my lack of skill with using illustrator and the pen tool. Therefore, with saying that I feel that this piece does not fully embody the projects requirements. Within the first weeks of hearing this assignment, I had some directions mixed up and did not clear up the issues. That is why my work is not up to the standard that I would have liked it to be. I found the design thought process for this project challenging to work with. I was not fully letting my mind be open to this thought process. Now that I look back on this assignment, If I was able to redo my vectors I would been more open to the thought process and would try to see it through.

For this project we were to create a poster using a series of photo scans that also were relevant to prompts we were given. In class we scanned in photos of objects that felt personal to us. For me, my prompt called for showing the people who are the most influential in my life. To start this project I scanned flowers, nail polish, photos of my family, and other objects that were relevant to my life and hobbies. This combination of photos that I chose showcases my family.

My whole family is influential in my life. Along side my family, the other objects that I decided to show are influential on my personality. I decided to make my poster vibrant and lively. I chose to have a colorful abstract background with the placement of objects on top. The one thing that I needed to pay more attention to was my isolation and cutting of certain photos. I should have tried to make cleaner isolations. Though, since I made it vibrant and with quite a few objects I feel that all of it together enhances my work. All the items together show a little bit about myself and showcase that my family is the center of my life. I feel that my concept and design decisions make this work fulfill the assignment.

For this project, we needed to create a series of photos, with our own monument creations for the elements of earth. I created human mannequins to represent each element. For earth elements, I have always liked variations of humans or women being the spirit of the element. Therefore, the design decisions that I made fall back on that concept. One thing about this project was that it was not suppose to take a lot of time to create. They were suppose to be created in a short time to just demonstrate the monument.

Therefore, for earth,fire,wind, and water I chose to use the same human element and then designed around that. For earth I wanted to show a monument of “mother earth, all giving” that is why I created the mannequin for earth carrying “earth” and handing it over to us to nurture. With fire, I felt it would be more impactful to actually set my mannequin on fire. I felt that this design decision gave my element more meaning. Air is my favorite monument. I wanted to show a spirit human being having control over the winds of the earth. And lastly, for water I was trying to embody a person that was one with the ocean, as if he/she broke apart from a coral reef. My concepts for my monuments fulfill this assignment but I feel that I could have done better with the placement of my mannequins for photos. Even though I lacked in properly photographing my work, I am content with my turn out.

For this project we were to create a HTML site showing a slide show of objects that we photographed that embodied a design element. We needed to have photos that included line, color, and texture, etc. For this project I decided to photograph objects that were in the perimeter of my apartment complex. I photographed objects around my complex that I thought best fit the assignment.

For this project, it was asked that we show where we stand with using the Illustrator program. This was our first project in GDES I. My work fulfills the project by tracing over the duck object while creating clean lines for the duck’s body and pupils. The design decisions that I went through with were taking my time to create a well shaped duck and making sure to make the eyes look consistent and not goofy. Where my piece lacks in design is where I needed to enhance my duck. We needed to create shading and highlights within the duck and I fell short on that part of the assignment because I was trying to create a better body all around for my duck. At this point in my design career I was wobbly using Illustrator tools, but where my design practice has taken me towards the end of the semester this year, my skill has improved tremendously.

For this project we were to go out into our every day environment and find structures or objects that form letters. I took countless photos of objects or structures that I felt might have looked like a letter form, but the majority of the objects that I shot did not make a understandable word. Therefore I started to only look for objects that would spell out a word. I chose the word “OUT” because when I was looking at objects and structures I was seeing that the letters “O” “U” and “T” kept popping up more often than I expected. For this project I decided to use OUT and use objects that were more or less in the same category. I photographed objects around my apartment so that my entire word would feel like one. Also I shot my photos at the same time so that there would not be different lighting and off set shadows.

For this project, the objective was to create a well designed poster for a Bright Lights association event. Since the title was Bright Lights and also taking place in New York City, I wanted to create a poster that would showcase the information in a well designed manner as well as being styled to be bright yet clean and minimalistic.

In this poster I chose to go with a dark background showing a night life scene. I thought it would be a good design decision to try and make a skyline of New YorK City. I then tried to put the information in a balanced manner within the skyline. I found that my design decision wasn’t as functional as I hoped it would be. There was not enough room to make things flow evenly through the buildings. Some of my information got lost. Since I was having issues with my original concept, I then created variations to see what would work. The poster that was both visually appealing and readable was the poster that is in the center. That iteration worked better with the placement of text and I feel it fulfilled this project better than my original concept.

When I was given this project, I was starting out getting the hang of things using the programs and I had poor time management. I feel that I could have created a more meaningful piece for this project, but I am still content with my turn out.