For my project I was asked to create a magazine layout for an important person. I decided to choose Diane Arbus because she is one of my favorite artists. For the layout, I wanted it to be like a “coffee top book” layout style. To achieve this effect I made sure there was a lot of white space and a serif font. The photos were also in black and white which helped. There are some minor tweaks to make, but overall I am, pretty satisfied since this was on of my first multiple page layouts.
The final assignment for Digital Production. This semester has flown by at break neck speeds; where’d the time go? Anyway:
I want to give a quick over-view of why my project is what it is. A few years back I worked in a board game store and this is where I was introduced to the Killer Bunnies card game. I taught my family how to play, any friends that didn’t know how, and everyone in between. So many Friday nights were spent at my apartment, 13 people crammed around my kitchen table, the majority of us highly intoxicated, playing this silly little game until 3-4 in the morning. No one cared who won at the end of the night; it was just being with each other enjoying life. I’ve also met some really great people, whether here in Albany, in Columbus, Ohio, or out in California, due to this game. I’d love to hold an event to bring all the friends and acquaintances together to have a huge KB night; just have a great time. This is the basis for my project.
First a postcard would go out to let all the followers know that we are up to something. The bunny in Albany grew from a suggestion from Mark; I thought, visually, it’d be exciting/interesting to have the hint of a bunny on the front with the full fledged rabbit on the back somewhere in Albany. I attempted to keep the artistic styling of the bunnies from the game by using Illustrator to bring them to life. The background images were found on-line; it’s to cold to take pictures outside.
The second wave would be an eNewletter again letting folks know, more specifically, what we are up to and that our website is up and running again. The buttons on the side of the page would link to various parts of the website.
The third piece, the poster, would be hanging at the event location both prior and during the event. If this event were to come to fruition I’d change the text of the poster to be more specific for the actual event.
Finally, since I’ve invested so much money in the game and this event, I’d unvail the first official Team Albany KB t-shirt for sale at a reasonable price.
While this project kept me awake for nearly a week straight, I had fun putting it together. I tried to swipe aspects of the actual game cards and use them in my design. The text boxes and web link buttons are derived from the cards. The violet circle in the upper-left of the postcards signifies a “Very Special” card in the game; I wanted to include little tidbits for the KB fan. After all, they are what this event would be all about.
For our last assignment of the semester we were given the opportunity to chose a project that would best suit our portfolio. Though I was very interested in doing something fun and illustrative, I was given the opportunity to work on the identity of a local non-for profit agency, the New York Council on Problem Gambling. For this assignment I was required to come up with a new logo and tagline and implement them into an advertisement.
As I began working with the company I soon realized that I was going to be very limited as to what I could do to manipulate the logo that they are now using. The client was very adamant on keeping the same color scheme as well as the New York State icon as part of the new design. The same holds true for their tagline, ‘Hope for you and yours” – it was something that they did not want to change. However, they were looking to implement their acronym into the design and this is where I concentrated my approach. The original logo is comprised of a dominant image of the state of New York with text laid casually over it. In my design I wanted to focus on creating an iconic logo that utilized the agency’s acronym as the dominant force and reduce the size of the state to make it a secondary element. I also wanted to focus on creating a logo that communicates a feeling of strength and stability, which I believe are important aspects of this organization in providing help for others. Over the course of the next few weeks I hope to be able to implement this design into other parts of their identity such as new stationary and media templates. If all goes as plans, this project could yield a great, practical piece to my portfolio.
My final project was to design a couple of promotional mail-out cards to be used to advertise the benefits of my natural science illustrations. I attempted to showcase the illustrations, in addition to pointing out the strongest attributes of the work and its benefit to the customer.
I wanted to keep the design clean and simple, and striking to the eye.
