Graphic Design: End of Year Reflection

What'd I say? Here it is. If you don't know what this is, here's the animation reflection. As I'm abiding by a different set of class guidelines, this one's gonna look a little different; the other one was more of a personal evaluation of my behavior and skills, while this one's going to be a play-by-play of Matt Tucker's greatest hits. So without further ado, here's what I've been doing since January.

1. SWISS DESIGN POSTER

Continuing from my reflection at the end of semester one, my class did a bit more work on different graphic design styles. Because I was assigned Swiss Design, I made this poster, which you can read about a bit more in-depth here. I used a whole lot of hexagons, which made the eComm iMacs chug, but I'd expect that from 2013 iMacs on iris graphics. This poster took a week or two from start to finish, believe it or not, counting the various iterations. At first, the header was at the bottom, but after some peer feedback I moved it to the bottom. The plus was originally less intricate, and the information was harder to read. Overall, the project was pretty good!

2. 5x5 GRAPHIC DESIGN OF MY CHOICE

For the graphic design 5x5s of my choice, I made album art for a friend's duo called Anti-Art. I went for a few different styles here; you might not be able to tell, but [I] is made out of a whole bunch of tiny blocks of text that say "anti art". This made both my computer at home and the macs that we were using chug like a reluctant teenager trying to impress his friends. Other than that, I really liked what I did with [III] and I'm OK with [II], I guess. Definitely my least favorite out of the three, but it looks fine and it's distinguishable from the other two. I didn't change much, but [III] was a bit different and weird at the start. The project as a whole was a week or two of my time.







3.  5" x 5" QUOTES


We had to do quotes that "define us" or something like that. A bit too introspective for my taste, but whatever. I did a quote from Pat "The Bunny" Schneeweis, a notable folk punk artist, a quote from a guy from the cold war that Dr. Seuss paraphrased well, and two BM quotes that just kinda looked good combined with their visuals. Overall, these took about a month of planning and execution. I don't mind this project, but I had some difficulties with getting the first quote to work. Otherwise, I'm rather satisfied with this project.



4. MISCELLANEOUS GOOFS
These weren't assigned, but class time is class time. The topmost image is an art style called 'vaporwave', based around washed out 1980s/1990s aesthetics. The other one's a joke that I found funny. Don't worry, there's no inside reference you're missing on it! Combined, these took maybe an hour or two to complete. The topmost was done the day before spring break, while the bottom one was done because I was bored. Tom Johnson is nobody.


5. REBRAND PROJECT

The current iteration of the business card.

Potential designs for the logo.

This project took two months of class time; in it, I redid a lot of branding for my mother's business. This includes a business card, a letterhead, an envelope, and a series of logos. This took around a month of class time from start to finish, including many sketches and redesigns. I'm proud of what I did, but I'm not sure it constitutes a professional project quite yet. Overall though, I like what I did and I think it will work fine. A lot of peer feedback brought it to this point, and many fixes have been implemented.

The envelope.

Combination marks for the final logo.

The letterhead.

CONCLUSION

In this class, I may have wasted some time, and I may not have done my best every time, but I truly think I've learned and grown during my time here. My skills have even come in handy outside of class, as evidenced by number 5. As a graphic designer, I think I'm very good at doing measurements, getting things perfect, but I'm not awesome at managing my time, and I just don't have that gut instinct you need to make things look just right. My favorite part of the semester was the side-stuff; doing graphic design work for stuff I enjoy really makes me happy. If I could do anything differently, I'd definitely work a bit harder. The hard-work thing is a good takeaway, and next semester, I'd like to not be in this class. Well, wish granted, I guess.