Designing my comps for the final was fairly simple because I worked straight from the thumbnails we did in class. Since my logo was an octopus, I knew before I started that I wanted a theme that had to do with water. Basically, I knew even before I registered for this class that I wanted my portfolio site to tie in with my logo somehow. I chose the octopus because it’s got 8 arms and in this industry it feels like I have 8 arms in order to meet all my deadlines and juggle multiple projects at once. It just seemed appropriate. ANYWAY, I decided on color and this illustrated kind of style because it is very playful and bright. Like I said in the blog about what I planned on doing for the final, your portfolio website doesn’t only show potential employers your work, but also shows them who you are. I think that the people looking at my site will recognize the style and either relate to it or not. I have a very distinct style of illustration and this is a way I can showcase it. I want to work for a very fun and imaginative business possibly illustrating children’s books or ing bring stand out pieces, so I think this site would achieve that to an extent. This isn’t the only kind of designing I do, but it is one of my favorites. I think the small groups we broke into in class were good for bouncing ideas off each other. I think I had a pretty solid idea of where I wanted to go with it so the suggestions I took away from the group were simple changes. 

Since I have decided to do a personal portfolio site for my final.. I obviously looked up 3 other portfolio sites that I liked. In my response to the article we read a few weeks ago, I don’t really enjoy this part of the design process because now I have ideas that come from other people and not my own original ideas… but the sites I found were pretty cute so I figured I would talk about them.

The first up is AMRTALAAT.COM

This page has one graphic that takes the entire screen with one single column of copy. I thought the site was just very graphic design of him. I think he used a little bit of flash, but something like this could be pretty easily simulated with html and CSS. 

The one thing I saw that I didn’t really like on this site was the way they displayed their work. I would probably use iframes to show mine. 

The second up is MYDEZZIGN.COM

This site is so cute. I love it because it is so colorful. This website is a great way to show off personality. It made me remember that the website we are building for ourselves (the graphic design students anyway) is not only a tool to help sell our services but to sell ourselves and personalities to potential employers. 

Again, this site used a little flash, but didn’t need to. This could be achieved without it very easily. I liked this site a lot.

Lastly, SINGULARITYCONCEPTS.COM

I love the whole mood of this site. It is filled with color and textures. It is all very appealing. One complaint is the feeling of being cluttered. With so much going on with the background, the content should be very straight forward. I found it a little hard to focus on what needed to be noticed. Also, I would show my work in a different way. Like I mentioned before I would try to incorporate iframes or something.

Design Process… it is something that changes often. It is different from project to project because the way you draw inspiration is different every time. I agree with most of the article, I use a lot of the same steps to get to the final design.

It usually starts with research. Who is it for? Who is going to see it? What do they need to take away from it? What will my client like? What are some appropriate color schemes and typefaces? What are competitors doing? and so on, etc., etc. 

From there, I will drive around, read books, look at magazines, take pictures, talk to people, draw, go shopping at a store with neat little trinkets.. and eventually from somewhere in life I will get a concept going in my head from what I’ve seen or heard. I keep a visual journal of magazine ads, pictures I’ve seen, websites I liked, and other things and I refer to it often if I can’t figure out my next step. Ideas don’t always come right away.. sometimes they come in the middle of the night, so I try to keep paper and a pen by my bed. I don’t think that this part of the design process can actually be defined. We are all different and are exposed to different things, therefor we get ideas from different places and people. 

After that, I generally will sketch something, big or small, doesn’t matter. Usually it’s on a plain piece of computer paper because my sketchbook pretty much stays in my car on accident haha. Not only do I sketch the entire concept, I put arrows and explain what I was thinking about in caveman terms so if I don’t get back to it for a while I still remember what I was thinking. Then, I will sketch out those things in more detail in their own thumbnails or whatever. 

Next, I jump to imagery. I can’t help it I will draw a vector illustration or draw it on paper and scan it in. Sometimes this step is wasted because i end up not using what I did, but the fact that I put something into the computer jump starts me.

 Around the same time I will explore type. Sometimes I draw it myself, others times I will make a page like the one in the article with dozens and dozens of faces to choose from. I will then combine type and imagery. 

After I have everything I need, I usually wait a day or two.. get out and think about other things or other projects and then come back and critique my own work. I show it to people and get their opinions and THEN i start my layout. 

The process goes back and forth, in and out of order. Like I said, I don’t think I know any designer that has the same process every time. Anyway, it was a good article. I hadn’t thought about my own process before, so I appreciated the assignment to take time to evaluate mine.

XO