Mind of a designer

There is always some underlying feeling of disconnection on some level whenever I get around my “non-art” friends. I never quite understood it. It was always just a subtle nuance of maybe not interpreting a t-shirt the same way, or not noticing that typeface on the new menu at a favorite restaurant. Whatever the difference it always comes down to me feeling somehow different or alone in my way of thinking. Sometimes it is if I’m speaking Greek trying to express myself to blank stares and blinking eyes. This is why the collaboration among my art friends, coworkers, and classmates is so vital to my creative development.

Without their feedback and encouragement it wouldn’t be long before the blank stares of the “outside world” would diminish my desire and need for creative thinking. As designers I believe we all need that camaraderie between our peers, lest we eventually we begin believe that maybe we actually are crazy. I know I have spent countless hours answering the question “so are you in school for?” or “what kind of art do you do?” and more often than not, the person who poses these questions were looking for a simple one word answer with no explanation of any kind. Unfortunately for them, that is virtually impossible for me. I can’t explain how I love design or how design is in everything from the shirt they’re wearing to the magazine they’re reading to the sign they’re looking at behind my head while trying to get out of this “artsy” conversation they’ve somehow managed to fall into. 

With my peers, I am able to express myself and describe things as I see them without feeling crazy or “out there” or just plain strange.

This no longer has to be just a boring poster:

Designing for function

For the past few months at work I have been working very closely with our project manager to create a survey to send to one of our clients that will be sending it out to over 500 of their retail stores. This has been both fun and challenging.

First, having to write the copy in a way that anyone who picks it up will be able to understand. We wrote and re-wrote almost every question and had others review to make sure everyone thought it was easy to understand. Then everything had to be formatted in a way that was simple, but now overwhelming. With so many pages of questions and pictures for reference, it quickly became close to 20 pages long. By working with the image size and changing the font, we were able to shrink it down to exactly ten pages. All of the color choices were minimal, using only black text and sometimes a soft yellow background to include important information that was not part of an actual question.

Making the answer choices simple was another challenge  too. We wanted to make it easy to understand and choose and answer without getting confused, so we eliminated most fill in the blank type questions and used mostly multiple choice. Now that we are starting to get some of these surveys back, we have realized that taking the time to make sure the survey was designed to function well has really paid off. Almost all of the questions are answered easily and in the correct format, making everyone’s job much easier!

Favorite Design Inspiration

Well over the course of school and work I have come across several websites/magazines/books/artists/groups/studios/projects that have really inspired me. I wanted to share about one of my favorites with you today. I have found that this website has a TON of resources for the designer or just for anyone with a passion for the creative. I find design inspiration, type inspiration, color inspiration, web inspiration, and just about anything else I could be looking for, including some tutorials.

Smashing magazine’s website is where it’s at! I always go here to start:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

And I usually always end up looking at their inspiration page:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/monday-inspiration/

Even though I have been through all of these enough times to have them memorized, but there’s always something I found I’ve missed, rather it’s a great typeface, a new web development, or a great color combination. Here are some of my all-time favorites:

                                  

Aside from their inspiration page, there are plenty of how-to sections and tools. This is a great way to keep up with change and to remain educated and at the top of your game. I will keep posting more of my favorite sites for inspiration, but I have found that Smashing Magazine has so much to offer all in one place, it is convenient and fun! PLUS they are always really good about giving away free Photoshop brushes and fonts, so check in often so you don’t miss an opportunity!

Portfolio Website

I have never been more frustrated and been more engaged in another project as much as this one. Designing my own web site reminded me a lot of the self-branding project I did last semester, only harder. It was great to be able to design something that reflects my personality and my visual aesthetic, but the web is another beast compared to print. I have to think of accessibility and web standards, and then there’s just the fact that I wasn’t able to become a web genius in one semester. There were so many ideas I had and I am so excited that my favorite one – the accordion menu of my portfolio – was up and running successfully. This project helped me to get together a portfolio and organize in a way that I can showcase it online. I divided my portfolio section into three pages: design, photo, and multimedia. I also have an about section that has a quick bio, my resume, and some fun pictures. I decided to include a links section because I am always thrilled when I visit a web site and learn about another awesome site through their links. I wanted a chance to share the places I have come to enjoy with anyone else who might feel the same. Overall I really enjoyed this project and actually didn’t mind the hard work. I definitely see it as a jumping off point to be able to continue to build and improve upon what I’ve already learned by hopefully being able to integrate more javascript and jquery.

Coptix Visit

Last week, our class had visitors from Coptix come and give lectures. It was so informative! Just being able to listen to Josiah and Melinda talk about working with clients and about design and their journey was so inspiring. I really appreciate having a professional be honest about real working environments, both the rewarding aspects, and the challenging ones. It was very enjoyable to just be able to have a conversation about the design process.

When Daniel, Tyrick, and Bekka came, it was extremely educational. They took us through a project they had been working on for a website that had a ton of pages and demanded attention to detail. It was so helpful to be able to see their files and to watch how they evolved from wireframes, to mock-ups, to a live website. It was also really great to see how they keep their files and layers organized and it definitely gave me a few new ways of working. Daniel was able to show us little tricks using JavaScript that are easy, but that can really transform a webpage, just by integrating a little interactive element. He seemed like a wealth of information on coding and troubleshooting. It was probably most helpful just to watch and follow along as he demonstrated certain techniques that definitely save time from the way I was used to doing things.

Overall it was a really great experience and I would love to be able to have more professionals come in and talk about their projects and experiences.

Web Standards

Web design is something that I honestly thought I would never be interested in, but I was so wrong! What I never realized is that it greatly appeals to my organized nature. I like everything to have structure and order, and web design allows me to apply that part of my personality when coding. Using web standards, I am able to create something beautiful and structured. Web standards not only make it better for the designer, by keeping code meaningful and organized, but it is the best way to ensure that a site is accessible to everyone, regardless of disability, and consistent over different platforms.

 

The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C is the group responsible for setting the standards and making the guidelines that should always be followed when creating a web page. First of all, there are three different versions of HTML: Transitional, Strict, and Frameset. Transitional HTML was created to help ‘transition’ from the old to the new. Depreciated elements are allowed, however, they are marked as so to let the writer know they will be excluded from future versions of HTML. Strict HTML is what we are learning to use in class. This is the ideal version of HTML because all of the depreciated elements have been eliminated, allowing HTML to work the way the W3C envisioned. Frameset HTML is used to describe framed elements, however frames are rarely used in web design anymore because of usability and accessibility problems. XHTML or eXtensible HTML was created to be able to mark up any kind of information and content to be shared using and XML language. XHMTL is similar to HTML with the exception that syntax is crucial. Everything must be marked up correctly in order for the page to validate.

 

When creating a website the first thing you have to do is tell it what kind of document it is. This is done by giving it a DTD or document type definition. There are three different DTD to coincide with the three different versions of HTML. By declaring a DOCTYPE, the browser now knows to display the document in standards mode. You will also need to character encode your document. The most common is UTF-8 because it is a Unicode and includes characters for most languages around the world. After you have marked up your document, you will need to validate it. This ensures that you have followed all of the rules of the DTD declared at the beginning of the document. Valid documents are more accessible, consistent, and are quicker to display.

 

All of these things are essential for building a web page within web standards. Accessibility is extremely important for companies to consider when building a web page. Everyone needs to be able to access all of the information on a site regardless of disabilities, or what type of device they are using. When a page isn’t properly coded using web standards, a screen reader may not be able to detect what is supposed to be displayed on the page. The consequences can be steep, such as in Target’s case, where they were sued for not having a web page accessible by a screen reader. It is also important simply because, you want as many people as possible to be able to access your information. By following web standards, you can ensure you are not excluding anyone from viewing your web page. Another critical factor to consider is usability. Today there are so many hand-held devices capable of accessing the web, you want to make sure that your page still displays properly at any size on any platform. Even if the page cannot be viewed the exact same as on a full screen, when following web standards and using proper code, the critical information can still be made available.

Printer Guide

This was an especially difficult project for me.  Everyone in my class had to reasearch two assigned printing vendors that would be collected and made into a resource for the class for future printing endeavors.  The difficult part came into play because we each had to design our two pages for the book using images from our word pair project and using the words as a theme for each page.  Once I let go of boundaries and concentrated on the words fast and slow for my themes, I was able to push the limits of legibility and design something that followed that concept.  Overall, I found it very difficult to incorporate the two ideas (word pair images and print guide) into one cohesive composition – I learned that limitations can often time be our friends.

 

Volume Through Volume

For this project we were able to emphasize the importance of registering to vote (and actually voting, of course), as well as getting out the name of AIGA. We are producing posters and buttons using the name Volume Through Volume. This name speaks to the significance of each and every vote, and how all of those votes come together to form on voice – the voice of the people.  This project was challenging, but also very rewarding.  It was very different to work for clients who are design professionals.  We are held to a higher standard of work that forces our class to push our ideas and produce carefully thought out designs.

I designed my poster using the Volume Through Volume template and the AIGA color palette for inspiration.  From there I decided to use several subtleties to develop a design that I felt communicated the message and was aesthetically pleasing.

 

Self-Branding

This project was both difficult and rewarding at the same time. The difficult part was trying to define myself with just a logo. It was very challenging to first decide who I am and who I want to present myself as and second to design a logo that encompasses all of those things.  I eventually designed a bird that I decided on for a logo. I felt like the simplicity of the image had a quiet elegance that I wanted to convey, and by adding a stroke, it became both evocative of design and of my personality.

Applying the logo to other pieces was challenging, but fun. I started out by having the logo blown way out, or abstracted beyond recognition. I decided to pull back and let the simplistic nature of my logo speak for itself. On most of the pieces, it is quiet and small, not overpowering.  However, both the color and density of the bird give off a strong, positive energy.  Overall, I really enjoyed this project more than I thought I would. I put a lot of time and effort into it because I really enjoyed being able to design for myself – using the type of imagery that I like, using typefaces I am fond of, and creating something that not only represents me, but also my design sensibilities.

Below is both the front and back designs for my business card.

 

Chattanooga State

While working on Take Root, the final deliverables were all printed at the Chattanooga State printing facilities.  This was an especially rewarding trip to be able to take because we were able to see all of our pieces both as they were printing, and after finishing.  That gave us the opportunity to see how they mix the PMS colors for printing, watch how it is applied to the printer and also how it looks on the final product.  We were also able to see the folding machine in action and watch how fast all of the brochures were sent through and folded.  The most important thing I learned was how important it is to check the quality of all the prints that are being made.  The pressmen were very conscious of checking the prints and adjusting everything until they came out just right.  In return, we got a quality finished product thanks to their dedication.