å September 2015

Design in my life
I am very interested in graphic design because ever since I was a child I have been interested in art, but did not know how I was going to make a living off of it. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I found out about graphic design and started taking a tech school class on it. It sucked me in right away and I became very passionate about my art pieces. Though I did not know anything about Photoshop or how to use it, I learned from others and my teacher and was able to get the hang of not only Photoshop, but other programs as well. I know how to use Photoshop, Illustrator and I somewhat know  how to use InDesign, Muse, After Effects, Premier Pro,  and 3DS Max. I plan on majoring in Graphic Design.

Advertising  Design
An area in graphic design I am very interested in is Advertising Design. I am interested in this field because  I think advertising is a very demanding job and that’s how companies promote themselves. Advertisement is also everywhere whether people realize it or not and it is also very competitive. I am genuinely a shy, quiet person, but I believe in graphic design I am a hardworking person, especially if  I am competing against another brand that the competitor/ creator in me will come out. I also love how advertisement is also meant to draw people in, but you have to know and research the people you are trying to promote to to appeal to them.

Book Jacket Design
Another area in graphic design I am interested in is Book Jacket Design. I am interested in this field because even though there’s the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” people generally do. I believe that being able to create a cover for a book gives the designer the opportunity to be very creative, but also help the author express what the book is going to be about. I want to make book covers that people are intrigued by and would want as a poster.

Why I’m Interested in Graphic Design
I have loved art and design ever since I was a little girl. My dad is a self employed residential architect that works from an office on our property. When I was young, I would be in the office all the time watching his crazy designs go from a messy sketch, to a blue print, then eventually become an insanely beautiful home. Being in his office watching him not only love what he was doing so much, but also seeing the thrilling process of a creative thought becoming reality was a thrill I wanted to experience.  Although Residential Architecture and Graphic Design are very different, my dad’s love for design was engraved in my DNA. Throughout my adolescence I was always paying attention to the art around me. I was especially interested in advertisements and the decisions the designers behind them made. I find it so intriguing that a color, font, or single design choice can determine the way someone views a business/company. Thats when I started to realize I wanted to be a Graphic Designer. I want to design logo’s and advertisements for big name companies.

Advertising Design
The area of Graphic design that interests me the most is Advertising Design. The idea of creating a visual identity while using marketing strategies excites me because not only does it allow you to be creative, but it is also fast pace and always changing. I feel that advertising design would be an exciting field to work in because not only do you get to create visual artwork used in advertisements, but it is also used to promote every product and service sold, which makes the possibilities endless.

Publication Design
Another area of Graphic Design that interests me is Publication Design.  Although the mixing of typography and photography is interesting to me, the part of publication design I find fascinating is the design of Magazines, because not only is it more open to creative interpretation, but every magazine has it’s own personality that a designer needs to communicate on every page.

Advertising Design

Publication Design

How Design Sparked My Interest
Since I was about twelve years old I’ve had a love for graphic design, even though I hadn’t truly realized it at that point. I had always taken an interest in the process behind my favorite album covers and movie posters and wondered what it’d be like to do something like that myself. As I started to grow up, I became active in blogs and forums online and noticed that some people used those places as their outlets for their own fan-made designs for their favorite singers and bands. It was cool to see a fan’s vision of an album cover I had known and loved, as well as the feedback other people would give them, so I figured I would try. I started out on Microsoft paint (which was obviously a tragedy), eventually grew up to a program called GIMP, and then discovered Photoshop. During a talk with my guidance counselor my freshman year of high school, I mentioned my passion for design when she asked about what I was thinking about doing after getting out of high school (I know, a weird question to ask so early). From there, she recommended that I join a vocational program where I would take design classes for 3 hours a day, and my regular academics the other half of the day. I partook in that program from sophomore to senior year and it was probably the best decision I’ve made in my life so far. The class expose me to so many new things and techniques. It was an eye-opener for me at first, because the whole first year was all the basics (drawing, painting, etc.) and no computer whatsoever which I wasn’t used to. Through the class, I entered and won various state-wide competitions and designed the yearbook cover for my school my senior year. All of these things really helped me grow not only as a designer, but as a person as well. I was taught to not take things to heart because not everybody is going to love everything you do, and that criticism is only there to help you, not to bring you down. On the other side of that, though, It truly does feel fantastic to get recognition for doing something that you love. Overall, the class really reinforced my passion for the field, and also helped me confirm that it was definitely what I wanted to pursue in college.

Advertising Design
The field of design that I’m most interested in is advertising design, mostly because that’s what I’ve had the most experience in. Advertising Design is the integration of type and image to strengthen a concept and portray a message. We see examples of this everywhere we look, whether it’s in stores, on a billboard, on a poster in the student center, etc. I like this field because I think it’s cool to see the various ways artists portray their messages to the public, and I would love to get some of my own out there one day.

Package Design
Another field I’ve taken an interest in is package design. I was able to touch upon this field in my high school design class, where I was given a random item that I had to design a package for. My item was a bulldog clip, and I decided I wanted it to look like the roughest, toughest bulldog clip around (because of the name), so my packaging portrayed a cage with danger signs around it promoting it’s “toughness”. I thought it was pretty nifty at the time. That’s the thing about package design that I like – if you want to sell a product, the design surrounding it needs to be “nifty” or have a sort of “wow factor” to grab the consumer’s attention. That in itself comes as a fun challenge to me.

Why graphic design?

I grew up loving art; my grandpa was a painter so he was a big influence on me when i was younger and is probably the reason i really got into drawing and painting. I never really knew graphic design was an option for me until i took a class my sophomore year in high school. I loved everything about it. I love working on the computer and being able to be creative with the things that i make. Both of my brothers are in the design field as well, so I’ve learned a lot from them. I don’t really know what part of graphic design i want to go into but I think i’m leaning towards advertising because that is what i have the most experience in. I’m hoping to be able to figure it out soon!

One area of graphic design that i’m interested in would have to be package design. Products need presentation. I have to admit that when I’m shopping, I want to purchase some things because of the cool package design. I feel like if the way the product is packaged is boring, it’ll be less popular, even if it’s a good product. When something is a product for kids, you can really tell because of the color scheme and designs compared to if something is more for adults. I love looking at the boxes some products come in and the detail that’s put into it. I feel like designing that would be fun because you can take a bit of the product but also put some of your own ideas into it.

The next area of design that I’m interested in is definitely have to be advertising design. I’ve had the most experience in this part of the field and i really love doing it. No matter where you go, you see advertisements. There are so many creative and fun ways to get the message out to the public that can really catch their attention. There’s so much you can do with it as well. Some ads have many colors and pictures, which can really help sell a product or an idea to people. Others can be very simple, which can be just as effective. With this coke ad is really cute and i like how straight forward it is. You can clearly see that it’s an ad for coke but it also kind of makes you smile. There aren’t anythings popping out at you but sometimes less is more in advertising. This ad for glasses i think is very cleaver because you can clearly see what they’re trying to get at. I also think it’s kind of funny because the painting looks blurry because of the painting style and now it look “clear” because of the glasses. I just really love that there are so many things you can do with this area of design.

Why Graphic Design
In High School, I was clueless to what I wanted to do. I decided to take a few courses that could help me decide what direction I wanted to take in college. Going into junior year, I was convinced that I was going to become an architect. I took a Production Graphics course just because my mom suggested it as a possible career in my future. It turned out that I hated architecture and loved the Production Graphics course. In the class I made logos for made up companies, stationary, and posters for clubs. Although I loved this course, I was still unsure if it was right for me. I took an independent study class in Graphic Design my senior year, where I focused making logos that were actually used, pamphlets for organizations that were printed, and posters that would advertise for real events. It was a step up from my class the year before and, if anything, I loved it even more. I also took a computer art course. This class focused on Photoshop. I made a Slothaphant (a sloth and elephant hybrid), a steam punk scene, and basic portraits. It was my first exposure to Photoshop and I was able to learn quickly and produce work I was proud of. I also did side projects. I made the winning logo for E.O. Smith Reads, the cover for the Senior Awards Night pamphlet, and a pamphlet for CLCC (a nonprofit organization).

Types of Graphic Design that Interest Me
It’s hard to narrow my interests in Graphic Design down to two types. My top two favorite types of design are Advertising Design and Motion Design.

Advertising
My favorite part of magazines is looking at the ads within them. I love looking at vintage advertising as well. Advertising lets the designer combine text with an image to portray an idea or emotion. I have some experience with advertising. I made a poster for my high school’s science club. I really enjoyed working with the client to make the best poster to suite their needs.

Motion Graphics
I also love Motion Graphics. I thought at one time that I would become an animator. I now realize that the jobs available in this area are few and competitive. Motion Graphics can help bridge the gap between animating and the less interactive form of Graphic Design. I made an animated commercial of sorts for my Anatomy class. It was far from finished since I had no real animation programs and I had only a few weeks to work on it. Although it was tedious at times, I always looked forward on working on the project.

I have always been more of the artsy and creative type ever since I was little! It also happens to run in the family! I have always been told that I have an eye for detail and notice things most people would just walk by. I am not too sure what I want to do as a Graphic Design major but I picture myself living in the city when I graduate creating beautiful things! I also hope to do an internship out in LA.

Anyways, one area of Graphic Design that I found interesting is Advertising (logos). You see hundreds of logos every day without even realizing it! Logos are extremely important – yet so simple. Companies take great pride in their logos as they represent the company and this is how people recognize them! Such as Nike and Adidas, everyone knows of these logos as they are extremely popular all around the world. Logos are extremely essential so that they grab your attention and have you interested.

Another area of Graphic Design that I found interesting is Book Design. We often hear the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – but lets be real, we all do. When there is a book with an amazing front cover, it catches your attention even if it is an awful book to read. Whereas a book with a terribly designed front cover could be an amazing book to read but it is not striking enough to catch the readers attention so they won’t even bother looking into it. If you are an author and you want your book to be marketable you should probably have a great cover design. That is why book design is so important!