STA Blog

October Week 2

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I submitted the finalized version of the STA classroom support poster and have been assigned new projects. One that I was just assigned to do this week is making classroom graphics for an engineering class. They’ve requested a custom logo and I have been tasked to design it.

The client stated that they want the logo to represent “computer hieroglyphics”. First, I simplified the task. Some of the words I gathered from their request are “communication”, “engineering”, and “tools”. So, using those words, I researched symbols that represent those words. From there, I used those references to help me design similar ones with a more hieroglyphic look. To be honest it was quite difficult especially since I don’t design logos too often, however I made sure to make as many concepts as I could before getting into details.

Reference provided by the professor

First wave of concepts

Second wave of concepts

Third wave of concepts

Final wave of concepts

I’m now working on a prototype within illustrator to see how it would look inside the program. That’s all that I have to share for this week.

Computer Support Roster Poster

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Computer Support Roster Poster

Client: LAITS

Task: Create a poster showcasing all the Computer Support STAs with a Chutes and Ladders theme

Status: Complete

Inspiration

We wanted the poster to be as reminiscent of the game’s box cover as possible, so that was my main point of inspiration.

Sketches

Here are my initial sketches and planning.

Iterations (and more iterations)

…and more iterations! For these, I worked out both making it look similar to the source art and adapting the look to best accommodate the photos of the STAs.

The Final Poster

Once I got the actual photos, I could start working on the final version! It was tricky to try and get everyone in places that were logical, showed their faces, and had good contrast, but I think it turned out okay (most questionable ladder-climbing though…kids do not try this at home). I also added a balloon to match the original packaging.

STA Posters and More

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This week’s and last week’s focus has been STA posters as we finished up the cut outs. I began finalizing my portion of the poster, and today I finally submitted the final files. I will show my process below of months worth of progress.

I was tasked with designing the poster for the classroom support STAs inspired by the “Guess Who?” board game. I decided to go straight into Illustrator and start designing.

Inspiration and references

First prototype. Students shown are placed as placeholders, they are not current classroom support STAs

My art director and I were happy with what I produced, however this was not the initial idea for the design. They wanted the game board to be displayed with the students as the game pieces. So, I recycled what I could (such as the title and background) and scrapped what I didn’t need to start a new version.

In hindsight, it was not a good idea for me to immediately start in Illustrator without sketching up a few different concepts and confirming with my director. In future projects, I will always produce several concept sketches before moving on to more details.

Second version

I liked the playfulness this version gave with the angled board and varying game pieces, I feel like it gave it a more natural feel. Unfortunately, this would not work for this group of STAs since there were between 15-20 students. So again, I recycled what I could and made another version.

Third version

I angled the board to face more forward and added several more game pieces. We were getting closer to where we wanted this poster to be. I tried to keep the playfulness and natural feel to the board, however I could not figure out how to line up the game pieces properly while using Illustrators 3D and bevel tool. So, for one last time, it was back to editing.

Final reference photo

Final design

We finally decided on changing the board to face head on. It would make organization and unifying much easier rather than worrying about getting an accurate perspective. Since I had to redo many things in this project, I’ve learned to keep designs simple until there has been confirmation to move on. It was a lot of repetative work, but I’m satisfied with the end result.

Collab Lab Display

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Collab Lab TV Display

Task: Design a series of slides for the Collab Lab TV for STA announcements and protocols. Each slide should have a distinct style, but as a whole deck, remain cohesive and consistent.

Status: In Progress

Visual Guidance

In order to begin this project, I started a Figjam board with Kate to establish existing brand systems and styles before designing the slide deck.

Moodboard, Sketches, First Drafts

I began creating a moodboard with ideas for different layouts, colors, and motifs we could use. Then, I sketched out a few ideas and created them on Illustrator. However, there was a bit of confusion in what the assignment was, so these were not used in future designs. Instead of creating a slide deck template, I needed to design a series of engaging announcement style graphics in slide format to be displayed on the Collab Lab TV.

New Direction

With this is mind, I created a few new sketches for the slides and created them on Illustrator. Although this was heading in the right directions, they were still too simplistic.

Evolution and Iterations

I evolved my designs after getting feedback from Kate and De’sha making them more illustrative and dynamic. With this new direction, I was able to inform the designs of the other slides.

Improved Designs and Client Requests

The designs below were changed based on feedback from De’sha. Specifically on consistency, correcting verbiage, and alignment.

These are changes I made based on the clients requests

Continuing Slide Drafts

Using the style of the first five designs, I began sketching and designing ideas for the rest of the display slides.

Final Designs

Coming Soon!

Reflection

Comig Soon!

Roster Poster Continuation

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Project Team and Lifecycle Team

Task: Complete the roster posters designs

Original Designers: Asha R. for Project Team and Sasha K. for Lifecycle

Status: Complete

Final Posters

Reference

The goal was to create a poster that visually resembled the board game box. When I received the posters, the main references I used were these two images.

Pre-existing Designs

Below are the designs that Asha and Sasha originally created. I worked with their files and eventually made changes based on feedback from Lila and De’sha.

Asha R.
Sasha K.

Project Team Iterations

We changed layout directions a few times due to the small number of people on the Project Team. For example, we decided not to have multiples of the STA’s. To accomodate for the new layout, we rearranged the elements on the page and I created new graphics to fit in the poster. We leaned into the original board game’s token pieces and the Project Team’s most used items.

Added “tokens” and other STA’s
Created more graphics to ground the poster

Lifecycle Team Iterations

This poster had a similar issue in that there were only three STA’s, but the poster was a bit busy. After messing with the original layout a few times, De’sha created a new file that was much simpler. I made adjustments to make it resemble the reference image more closely.

New layout shared with me by De’sha
Adjusted pathway and STA’s
Fixing STA positioning and changing shirt color

Final Designs

For the Project Team, we decided to simplify the design and add more tokens onto the board. This made the board more consistent and focused on the STA’s. Additionally, we added a few details such as GOV 312L, PSY 301, and the Canvas logo to connect the poster back to UT.

For the Life Cycle poster, we adjusted the placement of “The Life Cycle Team” and added an offset path to increase legibility. Insead of having the text across the board, this version balanced the weight of the car and the title.

Reflection

Coming onto this project midway through the process was a new experience for me, but will likely be how design jobs will be in the future. I think this was good practice for me to work with another person’s design, keep core elements, and continue improving it. At first it was a bit challenging to know what to change and what to keep, but with guidance from Lila and De’sha, I think these turned out well in the end. Overall, jumping into these posters was a fun and challenging experience and taught me how to push designs forward that weren’t mine to begin with.