STA Blog

Week XLIX

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Week XLVIII

UTFC – Green Screen: 5.4B Getting Around Town List

Most of this week was spent on the poster, but I did rework some older slides to have a number graphic and a superscript suffix after them. I tried to find stock photos with the numbers in them, and match the style.

Fall 2022 STA Poster

I started this week with a template (the top and bottom bars) and a late-submission photo, bringing the total from 13 to 14 figures to fit into this more limited vertical space somehow. My first thought was: shrink everything and do a simpler 2-legged zig-zag.

Because of the large amount of empty space, De’sha suggested I try something closer to the older zig-zag with 3 legs.

.Scrunching it up vertically actually made it somewhat more difficult to discern. I decided to try maybe…

A gradient shadow between the “wedges”? But there’s so little space between the STAs that it’s still barely visible. Then I started getting really crazy. Circular layout?

De’sha suggested making larger film strips and putting the photos inside, but my first attempt was too small and inconsistent. This was a bit of a process, with creating a useable vectorized film strip and cutting the photos out individually.

The next one was a little better, at least I think so, because I’m still waiting on feedback for it as of writing.

The layout itself has been the most time-consuming thing, so I’ve avoided touching the color scheme too much for most of these drafts, but this one gave me some time to actually test some stuff. I’m trying to keep it limited to the basic colors still, but give it as much flair as I can.

Week 4

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WEEK 4

Training for Web Dev: Advanced Training Create Pixel Art

Started on: September 30, 2022
Completed on: September 30, 2022

Description: In this training, I learn to use Illustrator to create pixelated art. It was a really fun training because I got to learn more about different Illustrator tools to help me with painting over the image. For the image, I chose Vincent Van Gough.

Meeting with Clients and Web Dev Team

Happened on: September 26, 2022

  1. Learn a ton about internal components of the website
  2. Learn a ton about what to fix for the website
  3. Learn a ton about how professionals work in the field – identify the problem and manage efficient workflow

 

Training for Web Dev: HTML/CSS

Started on: September 27, 2022
Completed on: September 27, 2022

Description: Learn about the fundamentals of HTML and CSS to create a beautiful layout and design for the website. For this training, I recreate one of the website on COLA about Development Studio.

After editing more and playing around with the CSS, here is my final product.

Training for Web Dev: Web Accessibility

Started on: September 28, 2022
Completed on: September 28, 2022

Description: I learn about UI/UX Design Training with web accessibility for everyone. I learnt that in order to make a good design, it needs to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

UI/UX design Training:

Accessibilities Principles:

  1. Perceivable:Designs should have options for people to perceive in whatever way they are able
  2. Operable:UI designs should be keyboard accessible and designs should not cause seizures
  3. Understandable:Designs should be readable and structured in a way that makes sense
  4. Robust:Designs should be compatible with all devices + assistive technologies

Types of Disabilities:

  1. Permanent: A person has one arm.
  2. Temporary: A person’s arm is injured.
  3. Situational: A person is working from home and has to hold their infant in one arm.

 

Task: Scan the website through WAVE which identifies some of the issues of the design, the layout or some other HTML components. Then, import it into Figma and fix the design.

I chose Cockrell and COLA homepage. Through WAVE, it notified that in some of the sections, the contrast is low. Therefore, I went ahead and added overlays to the images.

 

 

 

Training for Web Dev: History Of Design

Started on: September 29, 2022
Completed on: September 29, 2022

Description: I learn about the history of design with different design movements. At the end of the training, I was asked to follow a Youtube tutorial to apply my understanding in creating design following a movement of my choice. For the tutorial, I choose Make A Seamless Pattern Training. I learnt Photoshop: move objects, resize objects, copy/paste objects and make seamless patterns.

Week 9/21 – 9/27

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Hello! For this week, I mainly focused on one project but here’s my avatar for the STA Banner that I had forgotten to previously showcase! mini me!!

 

 

Apart from that, I have been continuously working on the STA team poster that I started last week.

I had a huge list of questions for this general layout and felt a bit lost surprisingly! Most of the questions entailed:
  • Is the yellow for the rectangles too yellow?
  • I wanted to add a small text in-between the green and yellow rectangles as shown above mentioning something about Mezes hall but I’m unsure how to rephrase it. Or should I completely omit the sentence?
  • Should I make the leaf crests green or leave them as is to not draw too much attention?
  • Is the texture opacity OK?
  • Should I go with the original size shield (top row) or a wider shield (bottom row)?
  • Should I cut everyone out of the original backdrop (top row) or keep the original backdrop (bottom row)?
  • Do the names look better on the outside or within a border? Any better ideas on displaying the names?
  • Should the drop shadow for the shields be darker?
  • Is the color scheme for the shields ok?

 

Thankfully I had a handful of help from De’sha and Maddy as in specifics for the poster. After a little bit of correspondence between them and Mike Heidenreich’s new feedback, I was able to get to this point.

As the week went on, Suloni, Maddy, and De’sha really inspired and pushed me to go further in terms of creating a more dynamic poster design. By focusing on what a “team” really entails and using previous STA poster designs as inspo I finally made it to this point. It’s a rough draft but luckily Maddy helped me out a lot!

Brochure and STA Crest

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Value Institute Brochure

These past two weeks, the focus has mainly been on my assigned service center project, a brochure for the Value Institute at Dell Medical School. So far, I’ve imported all the copy and most of the photos, and I’m working on getting the layout straightened out. This project is a good refresher on publication design, my favorite area of design, so I’ve been enjoying setting type styles and utilizing grids and columns. Here are some spreads:

STA Crest

I’m responsible for designing the poster for the project team STAs. I’ve enjoyed learning more about what they do, and I’ve discovered that they are the ones keeping LAITS classes running for students, quite the important task. Here are a few drafts for the crest.