While at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, I took an Introduction to Graphic Design class where I learned about the core elements and principles of graphic design. We were introduced to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in order to complete the many projects throughout this class.
IMAGE PLATES PROJECT
The Image Plates Project was where students were asked to find a black and white, high-resolution photograph online and crop it down into a square format. Once the photograph was formatted properly, students then created 12 plates manipulating the original image.
Here is a list of the 12 plates used in the project:
- Original Photograph
- High Contrast Photograph
- Soft Focus Photograph
- Posterize Photograph
- Mosaic Photograph
- Vector Drawing
- Vector Drawing with Color Fills
- Simple Geometric Shape Abstraction
- Silhouette with Clipping Mask
- Silhouette Using Symbol with Clipping Mask
- Formal Abstraction
- Symbolic Abstraction
To view the plates for this project, please download this PDF.
ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE PROJECT
The Alternative Narrative Project was where students were asked to find a photograph that they would use to construct a visual narrative in an accordion book format, using a single color.
IMAGE CHOICE
The image presented is the original photograph I chose and the color I decided on was red.
To view the accordion book format for this project, please download this PDF.
ANIMATED NARRATIVE
Along with creating a book format for the alternative narrative, students were also asked to create an animation for the narrative using Adobe Photoshop’s Timeline feature.
TYPOGRAPHY AND LETTERMARK PROJECT
For the Typography and Lettermark Project, students were asked to create their own lettermark using the first and last initials to their name. Once a design was picked out, students were then tasked to pick out colors for the logo and animate it using Adobe Photoshop’s Timeline feature.
DESIGN CONCEPT
When first working on this project, I came up with words that I thought represented me best that I wanted to then portray in my design: Cryptic, Weird, Introverted, and Strange.
I then came up with multiple concepts before landing on two that I would pitch to the class. The image shown is the concept my classmates and I liked the most.
COLORS AND ANIMATION
As I wanted to keep to the aesthetics of the UFO design in my lettermark, I decided that two shades of green would work best for the letters in the design while keeping the UFO black. I finalized the design and colors in Adobe Illustrator. Once I completed the lettermark design, I then drew out the individual frames in Adobe Illustrator before moving them to Adobe Photoshop’s Timeline feature to animate.
To view the final design and colors for this project, please download this PDF.
ZINE PROJECT
For the Zine Project, students were asked to pick a concept that they would then design in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign before printing out the final product.
CONCEPT IDEA
I had a variety of ideas when I first began working on a concept for this project, but I ended up landing on the idea of one’s own mind and what topics make it up.
To view the completed Zine Project, please download this PDF.