Exhibition Poster Rational
Concept:
The focus of this design was to emphasize the fun and creativity of graphic design, as well as its more structured elements. Graphic design is about being given often boring and simple ideas and, changing them to be unique and communicate information. It uses a column-based grid with inspiration from geometry for the theme. The goal was to have a design that was dynamic and creative, but still easily and quickly understood, which is the essence of many graphic design projects.
Imagery:
The focal image is a faceless person with a hand holding a pen emerging from a hole in her head. This is to represent how we use our imagination and research to create designs. The image is also striking, which will catch the eye of anyone walking by, and the abstract concept speaks to the creative side of design and the common use of metaphor. The face is kept vague so anyone can project onto them, and the lack of eyes is to not draw too much attention to the face since people tend to focus on eyes.
The painterly style of the focal image represents the more creative side of design, while the simple line shapes in the back represent the structure and focus on clear communication.
Layout:
The layout is a three-column grid, with the text sitting on the left and right sides, and the hand splitting through the middle. The focal word, “creativity”, crosses over the entire page to break the grid a little and draw attention to itself. Many elements overlap to give the illusion of dimension, but each block of text is given room to breathe and is easy to differentiate “Influencing the world through creativity” and the date are the only elements in bright colours to emphasize them. Despite the less important information being less noticeable, the orange text gives enough information to the user to know that it is a creativity-based event. The orange text is to indicate the more eye-catching words, while the white text is for important information that the user reads after. One of the only other white elements, the pen, leads the eye from one set of information to the other. Each colour is spit across the page roughly 50/50 for balance, and the subtle shadow of text behind “creativity” connects the rest of the phrase.
Colours:
The simple purple/greyscale background contrasted with the bright orange of the text represents how a graphic designer’s job is to take often boring and confusing information and create something beautiful out of it. Orange is seen as and bright and optimistic colour, as well as brings attention to the important elements. The simple colours of the background work to not overwhelm an already complicated design.
Robert Designs Website Rational
The goal of the Robert Design website redesign was to take the basic structure of the already existing website and completely rework it to appear modern and easier to understand. The original website was designed by a non graphic design using a Wix template and so didn't match the companies branding or values. The new branding included a darker potential pallet which I utilized for a fresh look. Darker pallets were also very uncommon among other interior design websites so it was a good choice for standing out against the competition.
Every page's layout was designed to be both cohesive and unique. I didn't want every page to be the same and be boring to look through, but each one follows a design scheme that makes it obvious your still on the same website. Simplicity and readability were also a focus when designing everything. The original website was far too complicated with unimportant or repeated information and was overall unorganized, so each page has only what's important and is organized in a manner that is easy to read through and find what you need.​
Cats Anonymous Branding Rational
While designing the Cats Anonymous branding, I made it a priority to bring life and youth to the company. The name 'cats anonymous' is surprisingly serious for cat shelter that wants to appear friendly and personal, so the new design is made to further push these values. The logo is cute and youthful with soft lines and fun imagery. The type is custom drawn and bubbly to combat the serious nature of the name. The colours orange and blue work together for a bright appearance and high contrast.
Bringing the branding into other elements such as stationery and uniforms, I was careful to continue the fun, energetic look without making the company appear childish. I did this by keeping everything still relatively simplistic in design with plenty of white space and controlled use of the bright brand colours. I also chose a separate corporate typeface to be used outside of the logo which is a modern sans- serif. The letter forms are unique, but are also easy to read for body text and includes plenty of weights for any use.
Fresh Water Conference Rational
Concept:
The overall campaign design needed to appear clean, modern, and remind the user of freshwater, and so most aspects lead back to that idea. The main illustration is a half-skeletal fish surrounded by garbage in a water bottle. This works as both an interesting concept that will catch the user’s eye, and also works to quickly communicate the idea that freshwater is being filled with garbage and hurting the wildlife. The title cluster is a very simplistic and clean design that emphasizes the main words and provides further context for the topic with the reflection of the word water.
Typography:
The entire conference design uses the typeface Ofelia Display which is a modern sans-serif font. It has many different weight variations and so lends itself well to a complex type hierarchy. The type is easy to read even at small sizes, but still had some interesting and unique shapes, such as the lowercase f’s hook shape and the varied line weight in letters like a and e. The design uses the same font throughout for consistency and easy recognizability.
Colour:
The main colour pallet consists of blue, warm greens, and white. All colours are often associated with clean water and the blues and greens complement each other and contrast against the white. Most text is a subtle dark blue, and helps it fit in with the rest of the imagery. There is also a running theme of fading colour, which is included in each design, but originated from the title cluster’s reflection.
Illustrations:
Alongside the main water bottle illustration, there are many other matching ones throughout the campaign designs. The back side of the poster includes the same fish from the front, but this time alive and well. This was to bring some hope back into the design and show that there is something we can do to help. There is also a graphic behind the schedule which mimics the bottom of the water from the water bottle but little more simplified. The website and booklet design’s continue to use the same illustrations for consistency, except for the back of the booklet which introduces a new illustration of frogs sit- ting near the water to both add more interest to the back and
further show the wildlife that polluted water is affecting. Light blue boxes, lines displaying titles, and blue arches in the corner of a page are repeated design elements for visual interest and to separate information.
Wellness App Rational
My wellness app would help users who have trouble preforming simple tasks such as eating breakfast or washing the dishes. Lack of motivation to care for yourself is a common symptom of mental illnesses such as anxiety and seasonal effective disorder, so my goal would be to give users the push they need.
This would work by setting daily reminders that show as notifications and prompt you to check when you’ve finished them. This could be anything from starting homework to brushing your teeth, and you would not need to open the app to do this. Another feature I would want to include is the ability to connect an accountability partner who would be notified when the user is not interacting with the app for several days and can see their mood tracking charts.
For the more positive aspects, the app’s main feature would be a virtual garden which you can buy seeds and decorations for. The plants would not wilt if the app is not used, but they wont grow either, encouraging the user to continuing interacting. The garden will be visited by animals such as rabbits or bees when the garden is ‘healthy’ which will come and go with time.
The app will also include features such as mood tracking and guided CBT for when the user has the time and energy, but I would want there to be a focus on the importance of keeping a daily routine and caring for yourself.
Environmental Awareness Poster Rational
When first starting this design, my main goal was to clearly illustrate the loss of wildlife and how important it is that we help. I knew I wanted to use one well known and liked animal so that the largest audience will be likely to look at the poster and care about the message. In the end I chose a monarch butterfly because almost everyone knows what that is, most people like the animal, and it was only recently announced to my endangered and so is relevant to today.
When choosing the style for the illustration, I chose a realistic painted style, which I think helped show that this is an important and serious issue. I think that a more stylized image could have made the situation seem less dire, as well as not fit the brand since they usually use photography.
For layout, I went with a simplistic layout. I was worried that this would make the poster unfinished, as is usually the worry with simplistic designs, but I think this helps the poster seem almost somber and empty which is perfect for the message. For colour, I used a mostly black and white pallet to have the bright monarch butterfly stand out even more. It’s very eye catching against the black, and I hope that would make the audience wonder why all the others are silhouettes. The website link is also in orange so that it is easy to find quickly if someone were to be walking by it, and it would take away even a very important few seconds with encouraging them to visit the website.
Lastly, all text has been placed low on the page so that it leaves room for the butterfly to standout more since it is the focal point. I also hope this would help with visibility since it would be closer to eye level if placed high on a wall. The fact is the highest in the type hierarchy and so is bold and easy to read, with the more important words being larger. The paragraph is the smallest since it’s the last part to be read, with the link being larger and orange so its easy to find quickly.