Semester 2 Reflection Graphic Design

What I did this semester

In my graphic design class, we had 6 different projects. These projects included a museum poster, 4 quotes, logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope.

Museum Poster

In January, we researched different graphic design movements and mine was Futurism. With the research that we did, we had to create an exhibit poster like it there was one coming at the Nelson Atkins Museum. This project took about 2 weeks. Some of my challenges included finding useful futurism pieces to influence this poster. Also, when I was presenting to my class, I realized that I spelled "exhibit" wrong. What I learned by doing this project was that there is a lot of history when it comes to graphic design and that futurism focused on futuristic looks instead of plain boxes and shapes. This definitely was my best work but I was fun to learn about Futurism and it's famous pieces.

5x5 quotes

Sometime in February to March, my class made 4 5x5 pieces that featured our favorite quotes. The quotes that I picked are some of my favorites because they are very true and it is how you can guide yourself to live a happier life.



The quote, "Rivers 'til I reach you" is a quote from the song Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart. This lyric always speaks out to me because it means that you can keep moving forward and go with the stream until you find that someone who you've been waiting for. That someone can either be a best friend who you haven't seen or they could be your true love. This lyric reminds me to keep moving forward.





I chose the quote "Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations" because through my life experiences, I have found this to be true. It reminds be to have faith and believe that everything will be okay even if it doesn't happen overnight.

I chose the quote "Don't look back, you're not going that way" because it reminds me to not dwell in the past. It is always important to look towards the future because what you are doing in that moment, will reflect in the future. Also, stuff that happened in the past already happened and you can't change that so what's the point of dwelling in it?

I picked the quote "In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take" because it's always better to not think about a "what if". I'm in high school, so my goal, as of right now, is to have no regret because these 4 years can be so great if I make it great.








This project took 2 weeks. The most challenging thing was the colors because some of the words had to stand out but the color palette that I first chose didn't work for that. But, I eventually got it to work and look pretty good. Overall, this was definitely my favorite project because I got to do quotes that I love and make them into something that I could print out and put in my room.

Combination Mark Logo

Starting in April, I had to rebrand a local company. I had to make 6 combination marks, color them 6 different times, then choose one logo and one color palette. My company was MidCoastModern and I did not like their original logo because it was just 2 parallelograms and the words "mid coast modern" and so I decided to make it more fun. I featured the "mid coast" part of the company and chose to do a map of the midwest and a star at Kansas City to represent where the company first started. My feedback for this logo included eking the words "MidCoastModern" all lowercase so that it would match the "mcm" above it. With this logo, I created a business card, letterhead, and envelope for the company.

Business Card

As you can see, I colored my combination mark and change the words to all lower case.

For my business card, I wanted there to be a simple border and a fun back. I took a light color from my palette and lowered the opacity so that when the bars overlapped, they would create those boxes. I then put my company information (all fake) on the right, added a simple line, and added my combination mark to the left. For the back, I made a map of the midwest and put a star over Kansas City because that s where MidCoastModern originated from. Then, I put the words, "mid coast modern" in the corner.

 For the front of my envelope (top), I made another map of the midwest and changes the color to more of a tan and put a star at KC. Then, I put a box where the mailing address would go and put the words, "mid coast modern" below it so that the receiver would know right away which company this mail came from. For the back (bottom), I made the border of the states black and lowered the opacity down and then put my combination mark on the lower left hand corner.

For the front of my letterhead (left), I wanted a simple border on the top and bottom. So, I took the blue from my color palette, lowered the opacity, and put the bar on the top and bottom of the paper. Then, I put my combination mark and company information on the top bar and left white space ofr the letter. For the back (right), I added my map again and made the background the same blue as the bars on the front and lowered the opacity.



I really enjoyed this project because I had very few instructions so I could let my imagination go wild. I also like the end product because they're all fun and enjoyable to look at and that was my goal.

Class Time

I have spent around 120 hours this entire year in my graphic design class. While I work, I usually listen to music to help me focus or to get some inspiration. I sometimes got done early and when I did, I either looked at Behance or create some of my own designs and playing around on Adobe Illustrator. These past couple of weeks though, I have been working on my own lyric posters for my best friend's birthday. 

Summary

My strengths are letting my creativity come to life and making something that I can be proud of. but, I need to work on my pen tool skills because something don't go to plan because to the pen tool and I like it when thins go according to plan. But, when I worked on my best friend's gift, I worked on a lot of things that I needed the pen tool so that I could work on it more. I loved the 4 quotes this most because I love working with quotes and arranging and sizing them how I want to. If I would change anything, it would be my focus because something I got on my phone because I was bored or I was jamming out to a song a little too much. This semester has been beneficial to me because I learned so much about Illustrator. I even got to do some client work for KU's senate election which was really fun. My goal for next year is to incorporate what I learned about graphic design to my video class because I am focusing on Entertainment Video for the next 2 years. I am really glad that I chose to do graphic design this semester because I know that I can use it in future video projects.