Brand Identity: Thailand

The Winter Term is more than half way over and we only have T minus four weeks until graduation!
Below is my process work so far for my Graphic Design 5 class, Identity and Branding.

Graphic Design 5: Identity and Branding

I am creating a branding and identity for Thailand, beginning with logo design. We have moved on to choosing color palettes as well as beginning to design our branding book.
Below I have pictures of my process so far, from logo to the thumbnails of the branding book.

Thumbnail sketches

Thumbnail sketches, visual element sketches

More visual element sketches

Two of my developed logos that I chose to go with were a wordmark logo and a combination logo.

Wordmark logo

Combination Logo

I ultimately decided to go with the Wordmark logo and to develop it further. I chose to go with curvy lines and swirls because Thailand culture is heavily influenced by these shapes.

Color Palette

Visual Element to be carried throughout the Brand Book

As you can see, I pushed the logo even further, adding a serif to the "T" to give it the same feel as the rest of the letters (should have thought of that earlier!) and simplified the dots from five to three, which will be easier to see when it gets scaled down.

I wanted to recreate the dots in my visual element, which will be repeated throughout the book, so they would stand out and be more noticeable. Thailand culture is very bright, bold, and beautiful which is why I chose these colors for the palette.

Stay tuned for when I have the Branding Book completed!

Photoshop 2 — Final Project

As of this last Monday, I am (basically) officially done with Fall Term! Talk about stress! There was so much that happened, like being at FedEx Office until 2 a.m. to finish my Magazine Project, saving over the wrong files, lots of late night cups of coffee, yadda yadda yadda.

I have six more months until I get my Associate's Degree, and I couldn't be any happier! This also means that this term was my last Photoshop class EVER! I would just like to state that for the past two terms I have been having a horrendous time trying to understand Photoshop, but after working with it for multiple projects this term, I have come to have more of a love/hate relationship with it. ;)

Anywho, I would like to share with you what I have been working on for my final Photoshop project for the last however many weeks.

A little info on the project:
We had to choose an Oregon non-profit and design a Vehicle Wrap and a Billboard for said non-profit. I chose to go with the Oregon Humane Society, because... ...Well, honestly I just wanted to look at kittens and puppies all day. :) After lots of research I was able to decide on my fantastic idea: Helping You Find Your Perfect Pal. I chose to go with a concept of people and their pet's wearing some kind of the same accessory to show that everyone has a perfect pal out there! Below are the final designs I created:

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I would like to thank everyone who helped "model" for me to accomplish this project! Especially Little Miss, Mia, and Leo for their fantastic modeling skills! ;)

Stay tuned for other Final Projects being posted by yours truly!

The life of a Graphic Design Student

Opening Feature Spread
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Secondary Spread
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 This is what I spent today doing for the opening spread of my magazine for my Graphic Design 4 class.
I would very quickly like to add that this looks like NOTHING from my thumbnails (I wanted to play off "de-stress", my instructor wanted me to play off "madness").
I've been up for 14 hours now working on this on and off again and am content at where it's at for a day's work. I plan on making it stronger for the final magazine due at the end of the term. But for being due tomorrow, I'm going to call this good.

What did you work on this weekend? :)

Crosshatch, Line, and Stippling

I've decided to start blogging about my process on projects that I'm doing to help prepare me for my portfolio this Spring. Here is my latest piece:

A ways into the process...

Scared to do the faces...

...So I'll do them second to last

Hey! Not so bad!

I totally nailed that fur hat!

Right now we're wrapping up our cross hatch, line, and stippling segment in my Illustration for Graphic Designer's class. We were broken up into groups of three and had to decide on a theme for our project and then create a museum poster for said theme. Our group decided to go with a theme for the National Museum of the Native American. Other cool ideas in from other groups included a Mushroom theme at the World Forestry Center and a Reptile and Amphibian show at OMSI. I think I can honestly say that EVERYONE in the class went with stippling and only one person, who happened to be in my group, went with line for his illustration (I think everyone chose stippling 'cause of control issues! Hahaha, oh Graphic Designers...).
Overall, the stippling of my project took about 12 hours and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out! The hat on the baby is some kind of fur and I feel like I executed it really well.  Below you can see the final poster design with the line and stippling projects of my two classmates. I took the circle design from the woman's shirt to apply as texture for the top and bottom blocks of color. The typeface is Goudy Old Style.

What would you suggest I could have done to make this piece stronger? 

My Final Stippling Project

Final Museum Poster

Fall Term has begun.

Wow, the third week of the term is almost over. Only nine more to go!
This term includes magazine (re)design, illustration (silhouettes, high contrast, stippling, cross hatching, line drawing), more photoshop techniques, and learning more about print!

I would also like to say that I have been able to quit my gross retail job (YEAH!), and am now working as a Graphic Artist with the Student Leadership at my school. It's been a great experience so far, including how to deal with difficult co-workers...

There's a couple of blog posts I have in mind that I want to do, so stay tuned!

"The second best friend you can have (the first being someone who can give you a good job) is another designer or illustrator." –Ward Schumaker

Artist Profile: Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser 

A Quick Bio: Milton Glaser was born in 1929 in New York City. He studied at many art schools, such as Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, Cooper Union, and The Acadamy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. In 1954, Glaser founded Push Pin Studios in NYC with Reynold Ruffins, Seymour Chwast, and Edward Sorel, all fellow graduates from Cooper Union. Glaser and Chwast directed the studio for 20 years, and it became a guiding reference in the world of graphic design. Today, Chwast is principal of The Pushpin Group, Inc. 

In 1968 Glaser founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker, where he was the president and design director until 1977. In 1974, Milton Glaser Inc. was established. Here, Glaser has created, designed, and illustrated corporate identities, packaging design, product design, environmental and interior design, and more than 300 posters! 

Today Glaser is represented in many permanent collections such as Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Israel Museum (Jerusalem), and The Chase Manhattan Bank (New York) to name a few. In 2004 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his profound and meaningful long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design. To read more about Milton Glaser's life, click here.

Specialty: Graphic Design and Illustration

I <3 NY by Milton Glaser

Best Known Work: You may have seen his "I Love New York" logo here or there. Yep, this is the guy who designed it! The logo was created and used to promote tourism in New York City, and later for New York as a state. The font used for the logo is American Typewriter. Another work that he is known for is his Bob Dylan poster. He was inspired by one of Marcel Duchamp's works: "Self Portrait" and by Islamic paintings from which he drew inspiration for the hair. You can read a little more of his inspiration for the Bob Dylan poster here.

Bob Dylan Poster

Inspiration: Glaser draws his inspiration from the history of art and graphic design. 

Quoted: “Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.”

"The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence."

Additional Links: Click here to learn more about Milton Glaser. You can read a longer biography, "10 Things I've Learned" (recommended), and read a few interviews he has done with Macworld, Step-By-Step magazine, and more! 

Video: This is a 15 minute video of Milton Glaser at TED speaking of how great designs make new ideas.

Which designers would you like to see an Artist Profile of?

Designers You Should Know

So here's what I want am going to do.

I'm going to start posting about Graphic Designers and why you should know who they are. And they're porobably going to start out being "Duh. Of course you should know them," designers. Like Paul Rand, Massimo Vignelli, David Ogilvy, etc. Maybe you don't know who they are. Maybe you do. But I'm doing this not just for you, but for myself as well. I'm very much looking forward diving into some research and practice writing well, again. I will become a stronger person and designer through this. So I hope you enjoy some future posts from me. :)

-Sarah