Senior Projects
1/23 Resume:
Note to self: Spell out Pennsylvania not PA as it is above. Format number: 814.706.7865
References and transcripts upon request
Questions:
3.5 is my cumulative GPA, but my GPA in graphic design is a 3.76, can I add that instead? If so, 3.76 exactly or just 3.7?
Round to 3.8
Add Illustration I & II and Scientific Illustration to relevant coursework
Do I keep skills and interests in resume or put it on my “personality card”?
Cut interests on resume. Have interests on the personality card and skills can be on there too, but cut it out if there’s no space.
Interests:
- Psychology
- Writing
- Painting
- Baking
- Interior Decorating
- Traveling
- Listening to Music
- Photography
Thumbnail Sketches:
Despite different formats and packaging, I would like each of these Ideas to include simple Illustrations/patterns since that is my minor. Maybe use my own handwriting in places as well.
1/28: I think I will move forward with option #3 because it is more unique and I have more ideas for packaging and additional pieces. It seemed to have gotten the biggest reaction in class out of all my ideas, so I think I will try the humorous route to try to stand out from other candidates.
Color Scheme Ideas:
Typefaces:
I enjoy the idea of using my own handwriting to help tie my resume with the illustrative components that will be added to other pieces in my self-promo. I’m leaning towards the first handwriting since I anticipate the lowercase “g” and “y” will create some spacing issues. Working with uppercase letters will be more neat and clean for the resume (but still holding personality).
For the body copy: I know I want to do a san-serif, and I want to keep it as simple as possible since I have handwritten text that I hope will provide a nice contrast. I didn’t play around with this too much because I was instantly sold on Avenir Next. I haven’t used it yet in any of my previous designs and I think it's very readable and appropriate for my resume since it will contain a lot of text.
1/30 First Finish of Business Cards and Resume:
I’m not completely sure if the pattern on the business card is one that I will keep. Once I make more progress with the “adopt me” cover, I think the illustrative patterns will come together and it will be easy to just transfer that onto the business card instead of forcing the pattern I just created to fit on my main promotional piece. But I wanted to have something solid to show the class what direction I’m going in. I will be adding more elements to the resume to tie it together as well. The circle in the resume is reserved for an illustration of myself using the chosen color palette.
2/1 Bios
I would like to keep a longer, more humorous bio on the promo piece and keep my resume simple and serious.
Promo bio:
I’m an even-tempered designer and illustrator eager to join the family. In my natural environment, I can be found snacking on cheesy stuff, finding design inspiration, and absolutely crushing it in Mario Kart. I’m organized, detail-oriented, and focused on creating projects from concept to final delivery.
Resume bio:
Organized and detail-oriented graphic designer and illustrator focused on creating projects from concept to final delivery.
2/5 Self-Branding Brainstorming:
- A designer
- Perfectionist
- Illustrative
- Organized
- Accommodating
- Modest
- A creative
- Strategic
- Curious
- Pro-active
- x
- x
- An individual
- Calm
- Practical
- Friendly
- Creative
- Sensitive
2/6 Updated Resume and Business Card:
I just added things I was missing and adjusted alignments in my resume. I also added in the resume bio.
2/7 Logo sketches:
I feel that logos 4, 7, and 8 are working best.
2/11 Personal Branding Applied to Resume:
I’m still between two logos and a couple of different color combinations. I like the idea of the circle being irregular and I experimented with a stroke instead of a full shape.
Also, I was originally planning on doing handwritten text, but I decided to ditch that idea because I feel like I already have many hand-drawn elements and I think it would be best to keep some things nice, clean, and very legible.
2/18: After last critique, most agreed that my second logo looked like “ge” instead of “gz”, but I’m not entirely sold on just my name. I would like to play around with my letters, so I decided to go back to my sketches and try something else out. The “GZ” in this one is pulled from my art signature, so it has more meaning because it can be found on every single thing I’ve ever drawn since I was about 14.
I took many personality tests for this. I don’t have a lot of options for my “interests” side because there are very few ways to make 8 icons fit well
on the canvas, but I have more variety for the “character” side with a couple of different arrangements and ways to represent my charts. For the first one, I have arranged my Myers Briggs Results with a hand-drawn circle graph. The second column is a more traditional pie chart (also hand-drawn). I was also messing with the placement for my enneagram number.
2/21 Cohort Names:
“Angel number 21 is an invitation to celebrate important milestones.”
- 21 Milestones
We mentioned just how diverse our class is. We all have different styles and personalities, but at the end of the day, we all come together. We have also collaborated together.
- Fusion
We talked about our struggle with Covid and transitioning to online classes. It’s impacted our education a lot, but we still made it through and we are now on to bigger and better things.
- Turning Point
I didn’t come up with this one, but I’m putting it down because solstices occur on the 21st (there are 21 of us) and solstice can represent our transition from college to the workforce. It symbolizes one chapter closing and another opening.
- Solstice
2/23: 2nd to Last Revisions
I played around with different color options on the panel. Not sure which one works best when printed without color?
I filled in the whole back of the card with the pattern. I think I like this better. Both look fine in black and white, but “GZ” gets highlighted more with the full pattern.
I didn’t do much here, just narrowed down which graphs I wanted on the “character” side. Lacks a little contrast in black and white, but you can still see everything clearly.
2/26: Self Promo
I like the dark blue background best. Should I do “Employ Me” instead of “Adopt Me”? Also wondering if I should handwrite “Interests” and “Character” on my card so that I have something handwritten to tie to the poster. I like the navy background the most especially in black and white.
I tried tying it all together and I feel like the poster relates to the business card and character card okay, but I feel like it’s not working with the resume because of the way I applied color.
So, I applied a darker color to the Resume, and I feel like it works better, but now the character card is the only piece that doesn’t have any navy at all. I’m also reluctant to use this dark color on everything because of the way it will print. Plus I wanted to stick with something light and fun for the final result and using dark on the whole thing will take away from that (I think).
However, when I use something that is similar to everything else for the poster, it becomes too similar. I feel like there's too much turquoise. I also don’t think this color is the most fitting for the poster and that the navy is stronger. And a reminder that navy is working best in black and white as well.
Or maybe the first screenshot looks okay and I’m just overthinking it.
3/14: Cohort Wordmark Sketches
3/18: Cohort Wordmark (finalish stages)
I decided to move forward with stitching and patches within the wordmark. I feel that different types of stitches reinforce the idea of imperfections since usually clothing and other items do their best to hide these features, even though the stitches make it all come together. I also didn’t place stitching on all the words to support the idea that “nothing is finished” (another belief that stems from Wabi-Sabi). For the color palette, I explored CMYK to relate to graphic design and to stray away from the earthy tones typically associated with Wabi-Sabi. The other color I explored is Pantone 21C, since there are 21 people in the senior class. The First Wordmark can be translated in black and white, but the bottom two with patchwork don’t have a back and white version.
