Graphic Design Final

Favorite Projects:

The first project I enjoyed the most was the Vector Illustrated Portrait. There were two different ways you could design the picture. You could either do the low poly with several small triangles or use the pen tool and make it feel more organic. I chose to do the low poly with a picture of my dog Buster who is a beagle. There weren't many challenges during this project except for the fact that it was very time consuming. Making all the small triangles took almost 3 class periods and then I had to fill them in with colors which took even longer. I learned how to make lines into their own separate shapes through Pathfinder. I had to change some of the colors because since the eyedropper tool selects from singular pixels and the colors would appear a green/blue shade. I didn't change much from my original idea but I was very proud of my work and you could distinguish that it was my dog so that is always a plus.

The next project I liked the most was the Event Advertising. For this we could either choose an art technique or a band that would be touring at the Sprint Center/Nelson Atkins. I chose Zac Brown Band and researched the band. We then presented to the class about our person/technique to tell them about album art, most popular songs, and members of the band. There were three things we had to design: a poster, postcard, and ticket. Some of the challenges I faced were creating the guitar. This took me a long time to create but my hard work payed off. I advanced my pen tool skills throughout this project. Some feedback I got was to align my text better which I tried my best to do. Some of the changes I made were my color schemes. I liked the blue shades I used since the complimented each other nicely. This project was really fun and spanned throughout a whole quarter almost.

The last project I enjoyed was the logo designs. We started off by sketching at least 30 designs. We then narrowed it down to five that we wanted to bring into Illustrator. I didn't learn much from this project but ended up with a pretty cool logo that I will be able to use for different occasions. I like clean and simple logos so I tried to go for that aesthetic. I haven't got feedback for this project yet. I wish I could have changed some of my color schemes for the logos but they will work for now. My favorite logo is the 3d one and the grays go good with it. My overall opinion is pretty good. My first three logo designs were pretty strong but my last two weren't my favorites.

Class Time:

I spent my class time pretty well throughout this semester. Sometimes I would get off task and talk to Cade Wait/Owen Dalton/Roman Clark/Drew Sappingfield. Or since we have this class 7th hour, I would log off my computer early and go line up at the door with everyone else. I would always turn in my projects on time but wouldn't have enough time to go back and revise some things that I wanted to change. I did not look up ways to improve my work unless I didn't know how to do something. I was able to receive some critique while I was working and changed accordingly. Outside of class, I don't do much but everyone once in a while I will watch some videos on some graphic design related work on youtube.

Strengths:

Now that I have been in Ecomm in for 2 years, I have developed several strengths in the field. I enjoy 3d modeling in animation in Maya. For our last project in Animation, we incorporated video and special effects to create one project. My group decided to do an Indiana Jones remake and that was really fun to do. In graphic design, my strengths are in Adobe Illustrator. I prefer this application over photoshop. Illustrator is very clean and I like the ease of the program. I am pretty good with the pen tool and use that for almost every project we have done. My creativity has grown throughout this year and will continue to in my upper classmen years. 

Improvements:

Some things I can improve on are my Photoshop skills. There are so many tools in Photoshop that I don't know how to take advantage of. I should start staying after school to improve these skills. I could manage my time a little better and not get distracted by my friends. Being creative can be hard at some times but if you keep practicing it will start to be easier as you go.

Conclusion:

The thing I loved most about graphic design this year was the projects and my funny classmates. One thing I would change about this class is the blog posts. I just don't really see the point in them even though I am typing one now. One goal for next year is to just keep improving my technical skills before going into the real world. Graphic design is such a big field and there aren't many who are prodigies. If you take the skills you learn in these classes and keep practicing them, you will be set for your future.

Comments