project 9: design portfolio

8/18/2019 Project 9: Design Portfolio

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Christopher Griffin

MY PORTFOLIO


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CONTACT INFO

Christopher Griffin12345 NW 6th Street

City, State 78910

(555) [email protected]


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TABLE OF CONTENTS4

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PHOTODESIGN

LOGOS

FLIER

WEB PAGE

EVENT AD

BROCHURE

MONTAGE

BUSINESS CARD

LETTERHEAD


4/21

DATE - 2.6.2016

COURSE - COMM 130

INSTRUCTOR - SARA TRANBERG

Description:This is a full-bleed photo layout for a job application.

Programs:Adobe Bridge, Adobe Photoshop

Objectives:Create a full-bleed photodesign application that incorporates an image and text.

Process:I began by sketching ideas featuring a landscape layout similar to a postcard.

With my sketches ready, I perused my apartment for ways to demonstrate being“one step ahead of the competition” when I came across my shoes lined up in theentryway. The shoes I’d most recently worn were apart from the rest which wereneatly organized. Moving the image into Adobe Bridge, I modified everything fromexposure to contrast to add clarity and emphasize the color tones I wanted to buildon.

After picking a quote and font, I quickly realized a landscape layout resulted in a lotof deadspace, so I shifted to a portrait layout. One of the project requirements wasto include swatches of the colorscheme used in the design, but I struggled to findan appropriate place to include them until I noticed how nutrition facts are laid out

on nutrition labels when I took a break to eat. I adapted the stacked bar setup to mydesign, and I was able to incorporate the swatches into the light, inner border.

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PHOTODESIGN


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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6/21

DATE - 2.20.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a logo intended for The subOptimal Network, a group of YouTube channelscovering a variety of topics such as gaming, cooking, music and more.

Programs:Adobe Illustrator

Objectives:Create three variations of a logo for a company or business entity that bestcommunicate their brand.

Process:I began by sketching over a dozen text layouts before picking versions I felt mostembodied the desired branding. Then, I digitized the sketches and asked friends andfamily to vote on which logo each believed to be the most effective. Finally, I createdthree more variations of the logo with the most votes. The result was a flexible baselogo with room to add a variety of icons and subtext to when associated with each ofthe individual YouTube channels.

For example, the space above “SUB” would hold a gaming related icon, and the text“Gaming” would occupy the lower right space below “optimal” when representing thesubOptimal Gaming channel within the subOptimal Network.

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LOGOS


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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8/21

DATE - 1.23.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a B&W (grayscale) flier advertising a leadership conference hosted by VouantCommunications for graduating seniors.

Programs:Adobe InDesign

Objectives:Create a black and white news flier for a company’s leadership conference thatincorporates their logo and an image.

Process:I sketched several flier layouts before settling on the one with the best visual flowwith regards to the importance of each design element. I created a rough draft inAdobe InDesign using a bold header with sharp contrast to illustrate the emphasis onthis being for a “Leadership Conference” rather than “Graduate”, as in “Go graduate!”.

After receiving feedback, I overhauled my design to further improve the visual flowof the design elements. My original positioning for the image overwhelmed andsquished the lower half of the design, so I adopted a new layout similar to a newspaper article both in form and feel. This gave the elements more breathing room, andit achieved a much better overall balance.

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FLIER


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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10/21

DATE - 3.12.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a web page detailing my design choices for the logos shown on page 7 of thisportfolio. It also demonstrates my design skills by using a design that supports thechosen logo.

Programs:Notepad++, Photoshop (for sampling)

Objectives:Size and optimize a logo as a .png for a web page that is 300 - 500 pixels on the longside. Then, write content to describe my design process and use CSS to extend thelogo’s colorscheme and design to the rest of the page.

Process:I built a rough layout of the page elements using Notepad++ before sampling colorsfrom the logo to proliferate the colorscheme using CSS. I established indigo as theprimary color for headings and the background while reserving the moderate grayfor copy text. This enhanced the visual relationship between “SUB” and “optimal” bycontinuing to use their respective colors for page elements with similar importanceor weight.

Building on this, I applied a thick border to the page’s content region similar to

the lines in the logo for design consistency. After that, I determined each element’spositioning and spacing with CSS. I also hid the tags by removing the defaultsymbol and modifying their spacing to resemble text subsections. This afforded megreater positioning control and avoided the often amateurish look of default listbullets.

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WEB PAGE


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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12/21

DATE - 1.30.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a full-bleed benefit event ad for a month-long gaming charity event hosted bythe fictional gaming community, The Dragonhunters Guild, in collaboration with ExtraLife.

Programs:Scanner, Microsoft Word

Objectives:Design a flier promoting a fundraiser for a charity using only scanned images andMicrosoft Word.

Process:I began by pulling large images from my collection of magazine artwork that weren’tcovered with text or logos. I picked a gaming genre (Fantasy), and culled my optionsdown to the best match: a Dragon! I scanned the one shown in the design andmoved to Microsoft Word to begin my layout.

At first, I tried using dark boxes behind the text, but I switched to brighter font colorswith drop shadow for improved legibility. I found a gaming-related charity logofeaturing colors that fit perfectly with the dragon’s color palette and further adjustedmy font colors to reflect this relationship.

To replace the dark text boxes behind the copy text, I went back to my magazinecollection to find “grungy” textures matching my color scheme. I found one withdark shades of red that I applied a blurring effect to. This blended the image intothe background, and I duplicated the image onto itself. By cropping and brighteningthe duplicate image, I acheived a spotlight effect with the darker version acting as asubtle border for the copy text region.

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EVENT AD


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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The Dragonhunters Guild is teaming up with Extra Life to raise

money for children in need! For every player who joins the

guild, The Dragonhunters will match their treasure hoard

dollar for dollar. Grab your friends, scour the countryside, and

compete to raise the most money!

Top contributors will receive dragon mounts, armor skins, and

other exclusive prizes. Winners chosen daily and weekly!


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DATE - 3.28.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a full-bleed, horizontally folded travel brochure featuring the city of Portland,Oregon.

Programs:Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop

Objectives:Create a two-sided, folded brochure with an original logo, four or more images (onebeing clipped and text-wrapped) and at least 250 words of original copy text.

Process:I began by perusing Google for various types of brochure folds that didn’t fall underthe typical bi-fold/tri-fold design. I noticed a large number of travel brochures whichreminded me of the nearby city, Portland. The first thing that came to mind was itsbustling nightlife, and I settled on making a travel brochure.

Knowing that not everyone is a night owl, I listed out various calls to action that allboiled down to “From morning until night, Portland has something for you!” Whilelooking for travel-related pictures, several Portland skyline pictures stuck out to me.I picked out one of a Portland sunrise and another of a Portland sunset that helpedfinalize my call to action: “From sun up… until sun down… Portland is the place to

be.”I reinforced this concept with a horizontal fold simulating the sun going down via thefold transition from sunrise to night. The effect is simple but clear. After much trialand error, I found a picture for the inner fold of “Oregon Welcomes You” with greentones I could generate my colorscheme from. This allowed me to emphasize thebrochure’s claim that Portland is the “greenest city in the world.”

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BROCHURE


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16/21

DATE - 2.13.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a full-bleed spiritually-themed montage. It is a combination of several imagesmasked together with filters and overlays to achieve a new composite image.

Programs:Adobe Photoshop

Objectives:Create a spiritual poster montage using filters and overlays to achieve a unifiedcomposite image. Include spiritually-theme text that support the resulting image.

Process:I began by mixing and matching “heavenly light” images with “praying” images untilI found a combination I was satifised with. The noisiness of the praying image didn’tmesh with the light image, however, and I needed to blend the darker sections toachieve the hand-drawn look I was going for.

First, I applied a custom blur to the nosier dark corners of the praying image. Then,I manually cloned out any remaining noise, as I made the image taller with healthier(less noisy) pixels. Lastly, I used a steeper mask gradient by brushing at 100% and50% to “block out” a blending region before refining the edges at 15-30%.

To pull the colors together and balance the wide contrast, I applied a pair of textureoverlays. For color, I used a grungy, red-painted canvas with the soft light blendmode at 70% opacity to pull out vibrant gold/orange/brick tones. For contrastbalance, I applied a grungy, but smoother, canvas with the overlay blend mode at25% opacity. As a finishing touch, I ran a custom action to bump midtones and useda mask to paint brightness into the darker areas, as needed.

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MONTAGE


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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DATE - 2.28.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is a business card for a fictional company, Prismatic Lighting, that providesprofessional lighting solutions for events of any size.

Programs:Adobe Illustrator

Objectives:Create a 3.5 x 2 in. business card featuring an original logo and design consistentwith the letterhead shown on page 21 of this portfolio.

Process:I began by iterating through a variety of geometric shapes I’d sketched while usingevery primary/secondary color to support the idea that “light” was their product.Once I settled on my best sketches, I digitized them in Adobe Illustrator. Having somany different colors on a dark background proved too distracting, though, so Iremoved the secondary colors.

My first draft also used black/white lines connecting to the primary colors, butswitching to matching primary colors (red to red, blue to blue) created a moredynamic visual hierarchy. On the black card front, the lighter red and yellow stoodout to act as an arrow pointing to the company’s name. The darker blue sank into the

background to serve as a subtle, less “competitive”, guide for the text. On the whitecard back, the color roles switched allowing the darker blue to lead the eye acrossthe card to the contact information.

In other words, the black background pushed the lightest colors forward to get theviewer’s attention while the white background pushed the darkest colors forward.

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BUSINESS CARD


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

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20/21

DATE - 2.28.2016

COURSE - COMM 130


Description:This is the letterhead for a fictional company, Prismatic Lighting, that providesprofessional lighting solutions for events of any size.

Programs:Adobe InDesign

Objectives:Create 8.5 x 11 letterhead featuring an original logo and design consistent with thebusiness card shown on page 19 of this portfolio.

Process:Having just completed the business card, creating the letterhead was a simpleprocess of adapting the design from the smaller card to a larger page. I extended thelines to the edges of the page while using the same layout as the white card back,only reversed. All other design elements remained the same. I chose not to use awatermark, as no matter how light I made the logo, it just felt awkward.

If I extended the lines to the edges of the page, it created subtle text regions that Ididn’t intend for. In order to correct this, I tried turning the logo so the lines createdan outline of the page with the blue pointing into the bottom right corner. That, too,was awkward, because it didn’t match the orientation of the original logo. Lastly,

terminating the ends of each line in white space or removing them entirely didn’twork, as it began to feel incomplete or otherwise unfinished.

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LETTERHEAD


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PROJECT IMAGE FRAME

project 9: design portfolio

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