Week 6

Project: STA Design Team Poster

Start: September 13th 2022

Complete: Oct 13th 2022

Staff Guidance: De’sha and Leilani

This time I changed the photos of Thang so that his portrait could make symmetry with Lorena and therefore create harmony in the poster. I also remove the paper texture since it may be low-quality after printing it. Regards to the consideration of printed poster, I learned what is dpi (dots per inch) and ppi (pixels per inch). The default dpi for web view is 72 but it’s better to have 300 dpi if we’re going to print it out. Once ensuring the poster is 300dpi and CMYK, I go to File > Save As > Photoshop PDF > “High Quality Print” & Save.

Here is the final version:

Project: History of Design

Start: Oct 12th 2022

Complete: Oct 12th 2022

I chose to work on the Pop Art movement and made a celebrity portrait for it. I was attracted by the bright colors and the dots effect applied to it. Meanwhile, the contrasting color forges the irony and satire so the boundaries between art and culture are blurred. All of these elements attract people’s attention so it became an enthusiastic endorsement of the capitalist market!
I stayed with the classical style with it since I’d like to learn how to make the dot effect in photoshop (my most experience is in Illustrator so I’d like to change myself!). I think it’s a quite useful photo-processing tool in the future, especially for vintage style. The only way I know to make the dot effect is the color halftone under the pixelate section inside Filter. Now I explore Filter > Filter Gallery > Sketch > Halftone Pattern, which allows me the chose the dot color inherently instead of masking it later. It also leaves the white place white rather than filling in with small dots.
I also learn several shortcuts in photoshop:
Comd + Shift + U > Desaturate
Comd + Shift + L > Auto Tone (dark darker and white whiter)
Comd + J > Copy

Project: Create Pixel Art in Illustrator

Start: Oct 13th 2022

Complete: Oct 17th 2022

• Customized Color Group. I knew I can save individual colors into the swatches but now I found out it’s pretty effective if I create a new swatch for them so I can switch between by only clicking left and right arrows on the keyboard when I apply “live Paint Bucket”
• If you change the color in the swatch, all colors on the artboard would change automatically
• Recolor Artwork. The function allows me to change the tone, saturation, and other colors to adjust as a whole group. Useful in future design!!

Project: 2022 GRG Flyer Promo

Start: Oct 17th 2022

To be Completed: Oct 21th 2022

Staff Guidance: Valerie

This week I started on a new project, which is to promote a class called GRG325 Geography of Texas for Department of Geography & the Environment. I created three versions of flyers in the first round but I’m still struggle with how to display six pictures aesthetically besides the promotion content.

Hello! My past week has been slow yet productive, here are some of the things I worked on!

Pixel Art Training Module

I was able to complete a training module on how to turn an image into pixelated art through Adobe Illustrator. Here is a before and after shot of a silly meme from the internet (it’s a bull terrier btw).

before:                                                                                after:

UTFC Green Screen

Aside from the training, I took a good amount of time attempting to find pictures of city elements in Marrakech, Morocco. The assignment was called “5.2B The City List” for the ongoing UTFC project.

STA Poster Timeline

Lastly, I wanted to give a brief timeline of the steps I took to complete the STA poster for Fall 2022 that was showcased in my last blog post.

given inspiration:

found inspiration:

draft #1:

draft #1 expanded:

draft #3:

draft #3 expanded:

draft #4:

draft #4 expanded + inspiration:

final poster:

final poster in the flesh😎:

Value Institute Brochure

Thursday Update

I was able to get valuable feedback from Maddy on Wednesday, which has given me a lot to think about and edit. Here’s the first round of edits from the meeting, mainly consisting of layout experimentation. I’ve also been considering photo choice and seeing how to best optimize the images I’ve been given to work with.

Monday & Tuesday Update

I received another two rounds of feedback this week, and we’re nearing a finalized draft to send to the client. Main changes include how to incorporate which colors where, edits to the bespoke dot pattern, and final layout tweaks on some of the spreads.

I was cleaning out the desktop yesterday, and it really is wild how far the brochure has gone from the beginning. The changes seem so small and unnoticeable, but put them all together and you can really see the progress.

Fall 2022 STA Poster

The video STA poster has gone through a few tweaks, but nothing huge. Mostly, the color has changed.

Meanwhile, I’ve started the project STA poster. This one was more unconventional, because one STA doesn’t have a photo available. My very first idea was… some sort of comic book pop-out effect?

I was told to tie in the team’s work/materials more, which I don’t know much about myself, but based on the logo it has something to do with paperwork and logistics, so I replaced the background with a stock photo. I also had forgotten the color shift, so… draft 2!

One big thing is that I need to redo the placeholder illustration. I was suggested to try vector graphics, which I’m not very good at, but I may be able to steal Lorena’s template.

Not a whole lot for one week, but the second poster has taken a bit of planning and communications. I also worked on more French slides, which I won’t note here yet, because most of it still needs to be redone.

Week 5

Project: STA Design Team Poster

Start: September 13th 2022

To be Completed: September 29th 2022

Staff Guidance: De’sha and Leilani

This week I tries my best to simplify the design of the crest. I decided to get rid of the global is the crest is able to be more clean and less crowded.

Leilani gave me more suggestions more the crest design and finally we have this crest with all same line weight. From De’sha: “we are highlighting how it is the creation of the websites that we view daily. This is shown with the web window and the cursor. The design element is highlighted with the pen tool and the curve tool. Which is an element graphic designs have to use often. With the cursor and the pen tool combined, it helps simplify the design and it also showcases how our department is a combination of both teams working together.”For the poster design, I tried to expand everyone’s bust and let them overlap with every other to enhance the connection.

Leilani suggestion me to put everyone is one splash so I did this quick mockup. We’ll find out a way to incorporate everyone well.

Project: CTX Retold

Start: Sep 27th 2022

To be Completed: Mid Oct 2022

Staff Guidance: Maddy

I developed the my wireframe in Figma according to eji.org. Here is the site in light mode and dark mode. I also update the fixed banner into a slider so there are more images can show on one single page. Figma presentation: https://www.figma.com/proto/cCH6gBareq60356Cxbvk6H/CTX-Retold?node-id=2%3A2&scaling=contain&page-id=0%3A1.