Corporate Design
In high school I was an intern at Spire Corporation with the graphic design and marketing department. I attended many trade shows and would also help with the preparation of the corporation’s trade show booths. This required a lot of printing of documents retaining equipment information. Experiences enabled me to learn printing skills and really turned my interest to corporate design. I enjoy designs that are clean and to the point; and that is the style in the business world. This is why I think that corporate design would be the perfect fit for me.

Interaction Design
Interaction design is a computer-based skill that helps create user experience through the Internet. For any corporation, the Internet takes up a large percentage of their audience. Because of this, it helps to know interaction design very well. I think I would be a good fit for interaction design because I really enjoy using computers and I enjoyed the programming classes I have taken in the past.

Advertising Design
In order to have really great marketing designs, designers have to understand advertising. This type of design uses images and type creations to visually appeal to an audience of traditional campaigns. I think I would be a good fit for advertising design because I really enjoy working with typefaces, and one of my favorite hobbies is photography. These three aspects of graphic design will put me in the best path to getting into a great corporation.

Research:
iStock is a website that allows users to search high quality pictures, illustrations, videos and audio clips. Stock websites are very popular to designers. They often use websites like iStock and GettyImages to search for great ideas or to use images.

Vistaprint allows users to browse through or upload their own designs to print for a low price.

Friends of Type
These are type creations posted for entertainment and cool ideas.

Advertising/Marketing

This category really captures why I love graphic design. The idea of creating an eye-catching label in order to promote a brand, product, or service is what really started my passion. In high school, I was the Graphic Design Manager for our school store. There, I began creating posters, business cards, flyers, and designing the store. While doing this, I realized that I enjoyed looking at a product, and thinking of a way to promote it using words, colors, prints, etc. I love the idea of someone telling me details of what they are promoting, the look they are going for, and be able to expand on it and create something that fits and suits each product. Nothing is ever the same with graphic design, and that makes everything more fun and unpredictable.

Type

Type would be a great field of Graphic Design to get into because of the importance. Type is everywhere and most of the time, the most important factor of the design. All of the different font faces, serifs, hooks, etc. of a word can really create a personality. Being able to master the ability to make the fonts come alive, and tell the story without reading it yet, is an amazing talent and really intrigues me. Ever since I was little, during classes I would just draw my name over and over in different colors, styles, and layouts. I also love playing with words and designs, because I love English and writing. Being able to do both of those studies in Graphic Design is ideal.

Brand and Identity Design

The idea of creating a single logo for a specific product and being able to incorporate the feel of the product, as well as make it visually appealing and eye catching is a true talent. Having a single logo represent a product, and make it memorable for the customer to identify every time he/she sees it truly incorporates design. I personally would love to make a logo for a clothing company. I love the idea of working with shapes and color schemes to create a design that can all come together and tell a story.

Dragon Fly Marketing
I found dragonfly marketing to be incredibly inspiring. This website provides examples of great designs in the field of advertisements. Each advertisement has the ability to grab attention and tell a story.

CMYK
CMYK is a great magazine to get inspiration and ideas for color combinations, layouts, and portfolios.

Print Magazine
PrintMag has great examples of different texts, styles, and prints. I like this website because the “image of the day” is always eye catching and makes you think. The images are always fun which provide a personality for the designs.

Shutterstock is a website that provides thousands of forms of designs. Usually, the designs are a logo or a way to represent an object. This is a great way to get ideas to connect a design and a product together. Here, you can find a lot of logo inspiration.

WebDesignerMag provides great examples of work. I really liked the “Hot 100” spread. The work is beautiful and can inspire a lot of work.

Even though CommArts focuses on the communication aspect of design, it still shows examples of beautiful work. This website helps me think of ways to connect with the design by using words and layouts.

DigitalArts provides examples of colorful, vibrant, pieces of work.

ComputerArts provides web design specific to graphic design.

Luke Lucas is an artist that has great examples of type, spacing, lines, and visual relationships.

Research

Jorge Pardo does an amazing job using space, layout, and colors. His art is visually appealing and makes your eye wander all throughout the page rather in one spot.

Everyone always says, do a job that you love and it wont feel like a job. For me, that job is graphic design.

Advertising and Marketing

What interests me for a career path in graphic design is creating different types advertisements, and in the future I want to find a way to incorporate marketing into my work. My ultimate dream is to follow in my mothers footsteps and become a civilian for the military, which will then allow me to travel around the world while still doing the job that I love. My junior and senior year of high school I got the opportunity to work for an organization that mainly focuses on graphic design, advertisements and touches on marketing. While I was working with them I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, because it is what I love. I was able to create posters, movie schedules, logos, business cards, and much more. The main reason I think this is a good fit for me is because I love the idea of being able to create something from scratch that instantly catches someones eye and makes them want to keep reading, or find out more information.

The Graphics Magazine is very useful for me, because it has a lot of inspirational layouts and portfolios that anyone can view. I really like the CMYK Magazine because it has also has a lot of blogs, contests, and portfolios that the viewer can look through.The last magazine that I found in my area of interest is Eye Magazine, because it has a lot of great images and designs, as well as different articles that you can go through.

I really like Peter Harris because his works for magazines are very inspiring, his portfolios are so much fun to look at as well.

Type

One thing I really love about type, is you can be as creative as you want. It is essentially the base of the design, whether people realize that or not. They really isn’t a guideline to what you can and cannot do. Depending on what type of ad, or logo you are creating, you might not use the same type as a poster or even a book cover.

A major part of graphic design also has to do with type, so I found I Love Typography to be very helpful, with a lot of great information and ideas. Another useful typography website is MyFonts because it allows you to see and download fonts that you want to use in your design.

Luke Lucas is a very inspirational typographer. Looking at his work has helped me realize how important type is, and also how fun it is.

Packaging

On daily life, whether it is a new poster, a movie advertisement, CD/book cover, or even something as simple as food packaging or a bottle of water, graphic design is present and it is what makes that particular item interesting. If we walked into a store and everything was just white with a few words on it, it would be extremely boring. Everything that we use on a daily basis is a form of graphic design, from a water or soda bottle to the designs featured on our clothing. This is why I find it so fascinating, it is all around us everyday whether we realize it or not.

I really like boredpanda because it has a lot of interesting and creative ways that show how packaging can be unique.

Paola Giustacchini is an italian graphic designer that focuses on packaging. Her work is often simple, but still very beautiful.

Research

I found the book Creative Type by Cees W. de Jong, Alston W. Purvis, and Friedrich Friedl. I picked this book because as soon as you open the cover, it catches your attention. Inside, there are a lot of great Type ideas.

In the book, Graphic Design Annual 2009, I found this image that can be used as a poster, or a flyer to get their meaning across.

I really like this page, because it has a strong type that instantly catches your attention. Then you read in the upper left hand corner, and you see what they are trying to get across.

The next New York Times Magazine cover I found was in, Graphis Annual 81|82. I really like this cover because it gets the point across and is eye catching, even without all the colors that we use today.

Everywhere

Graphic design is everywhere from the logo on the cereal box that we eat in the morning to the cover of the book that we read in class, Graphic design is a major factor in our lives whether we realize it or not. In result, graphic design can be broken down in to many categories. Just a few of the categories that interested me during the reading included Brand and Identity Design, Publication Design and Package Design.

Brand and Identity Design really caught my eye because one single logo can make such a statement and can give a face to a company or brand. Brand and Identity design takes a single logo or design layout and brings a unique look to a company and can give the consumer something visual to remember. I think I could succeed at this because I love to draw and have a great eye for color schemes and  I am always constantly admiring logos and graphics on products. I also think it would be an awesome feeling to create and see my own logo on a product or sign.

A great brand and identity designer is Steff Geissbuhler. He is often referred to as one of the most important graphic design artists ever. He designed for Time Warner Cable, NBC, Crane and Co. and many more. Listed below is his personal website.

http://www.geissbuhler.com/

Publication Design this area of graphic design allows the designer to create layouts for periodicals, which can include journals, newspapers, magazines etc. I also like how text, graphics and photos can be combined to creates unique layouts that give a magazine or newspaper it’s own identity. More than 75,000 periodicals are published each year in the United States alone. That number shows how many job opportunities can possibly arise within this branch of graphic design. I think that I could succeed with this field of graphic design because I like messing around with different fonts, and enjoy taking pictures. I am also pretty good with computers and could learn how to use web based design programs.

Kate Moross is a great publication designer from England. Who has designed for Nike, Topshop and Google. Listed below is her personal website.

http://katemoross.com/

Package Design I also found that package design pretty interesting. This branch of graphic design seems pretty awesome because the final product is tangible. This includes designing for everyday life products such as food and beverage, cosmetics, household products and pharmaceutical. I think this would be a good fit for me because I am a designer and consumer so I can design packages that I could see myself buying.

I couldn’t find a single package designer but I did find a packaging company that I thought everyone would enjoy it is called Festina Watches. It is a German waterproof watch brand that packages the watches in water!

http://www.festina.de/en/herrenuhren.html

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/design/2014/3/festina_engineered_for_water_1.jpg

I checked out the book, Icons of Graphic Design by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic. This book with over 1,700 illustrations displays some of the most influential graphic design work from the early 1900’s to the present. Below are just a few of many works that I found interesting.

Creative.

After carefully reading chapter one in the book, Guide To Graphic Design by Scott W. Santoro, I truly feel that I have a better understanding of what graphic design is. Throughout the chapter there were multiple graphic design categories that I can see myself pursuing as a career for the future. These categories were Brand and Identity Design, Book Design, and Advertising Design. What interest me about Brand and Identity Design is being able to create something that can be very simple and be so eye-catching to the viewer that can possibly change the way they look at things. I believe that I would work well in this field of Graphic Design because of my creative thinking which gives me the capability to express my thoughts and create logos and websites that people will see and ask themselves, “Wow, thats actually interesting”, rather than all the pointless ads we see that really have no meaning to them. Book Design is another field in graphic design that is interesting to me because if the cover or back of the book is not appealing to the eye, most likely that person may not purchase the book even if the story inside is an award winning novel. The outside of the book has to stand out and pop to the consumers eye’s in order for them to give it a chance. I can see myself in this field because I understand what can or cannot work to make a book cover all around look great and be able to be as good as the writing inside. Lastly, Advertising Design is the field where I can see myself in the future doing as my career. What interest me about this field in graphic design is how someone can create an advertisement that has such an amazing meaning to it and all it can be is a simple slogan, picture, or logo that impacts its viewers. I believe that I would work well in this field because of my love and compassion for design and my talent to be able to create something that will sell and be looked at rather than it just be ignored.

There are two books that I have found that connect to what I am interested in. One of the books is called, “100 Best in Design 2012” and “Graphic Design: Inspirations and Innovations”.  From the first book here are some images that capture what I’m interested in:

Here are some other images that I found from the other book I looked at:

April Greiman is a great designer and has great work on her website.

http://aprilgreiman.com

Here is another artist who works in the Book Design field of graphic design.

http://www.kitfosterdesign.com/Home.aspx

Justin LaFontaine is a great artist and his website has a lot of his work that I personally would enjoy doing.

http://www.jlafonta.com

The area of graphic design that i am most interested in would have to be the creation of labels. I would like to work for a alcohol company and make all the labels for them, this is because you can be very abstract or make a crisp or incredibly clean and sophisticated label. But it could also be a design for any type of drink or food. I see a lot of things on the internet about interesting concepts for things so simple like juice boxes. I like the idea of taking something simple and giving it a great twist in terms of the design of it. I think i would do well in that area of graphic design. Another area of interest that i have would be designing modern offices and creating what would be on the walls and try to make it  look like something no one has ever seen before. The idea of creating an entire environment and make it look as futuristic. There are places that have this already and i think they look incredible, places like car show rooms for expensive car companies. My last area that i am really interested in would be designing ads. i have always loved the crazy type of abstract ads. I admire the fact that someone thought to put certain things together in order to draw someone in so much.  having the ability to be a creative as you can be and having the freedom to put together an abstract ad that actually works would be a great career for me. I think in general i just want to be in charge of creating something new because if i can create new things i could have a chance making my own business which would be the best thing i could think of. 

Graphis DesignAnnual2005 was the book where i got these pictures

Graphic Design encompasses many different fields but publication, advertising and book jacket design are some of the most interesting to me. Publication is interesting to me due to working in a grocery store and constantly being around magazines. Each magazine has a slightly different way of catching the eye of the viewer, as does each advertisement.  Some magazine covers, such as the Enquirer, as FULL of headlines and pictures. The idea is to catch the customer on their way out of the grocery store with all sorts of saucy photographs and news of celebrities. However, on the same token, you have Time magazine which is so elegant and simple, yet it gets just as much attention. For me, the idea of attracting a specific audience with my work is exciting and challenging. I’m a people person a lot of the time so finding ways to reach out to someone through a simple play of words and photographs is thrilling. Advertising is interesting to me for some of the same reasons. I make posters on the side for a local music venue so its always a challenge to put across the message of what band is playing and what the owner wants me to produce. I also like the idea of making incredibly simple but beautiful advertisements. Some magazines, like most health nut ones, have awful advertisements that have too many words and its hard to figure out what is going on. It drives me insane. I also am really interested in book jacket designing because I read a lot. Sometimes I’ll even specifically buy a book for its cover. I do the same with comic books. There’s just something so satisfying about looking at a well done book cover. I think book jacket design would be fun for me because I am an avid reader so I have an idea of what consumers are looking for when they swing into a book shop.

These photos are from Black and White Graphics by Andrea Lugli
The left is a poster design and the right is a book jacket.

The next photos are from The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson by Lewis Blackwell and David Carson
All of these are covers and subscribe pages from magazines.

The next photo is from Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945 by Jeremy Aynsley
This photo has some advertisements.

Here’s a link to David Carson‘s site. He’s a pretty cool dude. Take a peek at all his other work!
This link has some really nice selection of design examples through out history.
This website is actually quite interesting to look at. There are a lot of different examples of graphic design. This specific link is to one of their articles on 25 creative ads. Webneel