Graphic Design Semester Reflection

My Projects

       This semester I did seven projects that I will discuss in this reflection. Each one is something that I did this semester. My first project I did this semester was and 11 x 17 poster that I had to make. The project details was that you had to make a poster for the Nelson Atkins Art Museum that is supposed to be represented by an art style I studied. Mine was constructivism and the planning took a lot longer than the making of the poster. It took about a week overall. I learned a lot more about history with my poster and thinking outside of the box. A challenge was coming up with ideas for the poster. I changed a lot about how I made the poster into something the represents the museum.

       My next project was a 5 x 5 artboard that I did for our typography unit. I had to use 4 quotes and make them each into 4 different artboards that were interesting as well as colored. It took two weeks to do overall, but that was including coloring and planning. Challenges I faced were making it unique and how to fit color schemes into the. I learned more about spacing and how to correctly use color schemes that worked well with my project. I changed color schemes a lot and it was difficult, but worth it.

 

      My third project i worked on was my combination mark logo for the Louisburg Cider Mill in Louisburg, Kansas. This project was very interesting as it started out very hard. We had to make 30 logo ideas and 10 fonts to go with them. However, it paid off as then making the actual logo was very easy. It took about four days to make each combination mark because we took our designs and put them all together into our 6 best marks overall. I changed a lot about spacing and the fonts of my marks. Colors too. We had to color each logo into 6 different color schemes so overall I had 36 different combinations marks to chose from. The process was long, but I learned a l to about colors an it really helped as a logo that I didn't color thinking it would be the one I chose to represent the brand, actually ended up fitting very nicely and was my final choice. This project really helped me as a graphic designer and I took a lot of insight from it.

       After the combination mark, I had to make a business card, a letterhead, and an envelope based on the combination mark I made specifically for the company. First off, the business card was fairly easy to make. It took about a day to make and was easy for me to manipulate into something that could represent the company. The color scheme was already given to me from my combination mark so I didn't have to worry about that. The only imagination I used was how the layout would work and what I had to put on the card. Challenges I faced was spacing on the card and making the card look like a legitimate business card. I changed the word spacing and the info I put on it a lot. The feedback given really helped improve the card overall and made it a lot smoother.

       The letterhead was very easy. Even easier to make than the business card. Like previously stated, the color scheme and ideas to base it off of was already given to me. However, this one didn't require as much information as the business card. One challenge I faced was putting the information on the letterhead and that was also the feedback given to me. I changed the information on it, like the address and email. But other than that the project was very straightforward. However, it did help my branding site a lot.

       Last but not least, the envelope based on my combination mark was probably the one I put the most effort into. I changed up the scheme of the envelope so that it's more interesting to the client. I also used the same stripes from the letterhead to keep the same overall feel to the entire group of branding. Since they're all from the same company I figured they should relate to each other. I changed up the colors a lot and the designs but it was worth because I was able to think outside the box a lot. The feedback was helpful and I mainly fixed the information on the envelope.

My Time in Class

       My time was spent doing projects and I stayed productive a lot of the times. The only times I didn't stay productive was when I was done. Granted, I should've still done more graphic design practice when I was done with my projects but I got better at it over the course of the year. I have grown a lot in graphic design and using the tools given to me for it. Outside of class I draw and do some designing on thing such as my personal logo and practicing making designs. I plan on working on it over the summer as well.

Strengths and Weaknesses

       My strengths were that I am very efficient in getting projects done, and done well. I am fairly decent at using Illustrator so my ideas are easily transferred to the computer. I believe that graphic design comes very naturally to me so I usually don't have a problem with the projects assigned. However, a weakness would be productivity. Since I usually don't need to spend a lot of times on the projects, I get distracted a lot in class. When I am finished with my work I don't tend to enhance it or make it better when I should.

Summary

       I loved every project this semester. They all were fun and made graphic design interesting. I love the freedoms that graphic design gave me and I hope to keep improving even though I won't be in e-Comm next year. I want to keep working with Illustrator and even if graphic design isn't something I want to do with my life, I still don't regret taking as it helped me become a better artist and helped me learn so much more about graphic designing. Over the course of a year, I already improved so much. I look back over the year to projects that I can actually be proud of and see how much I've improved. I would definitely try a lot harder to improve, even if I already have improved a lot. i want work more outside of class and over the summer. Next semester I would like to redo my personal logo into something I can be proud of. I started out the year hating graphic design but now as I've actually done the projects and tried, it's become so much easier for me to do, and now I love it.