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Brand and Identity Design and Book Jacket Design

Why Graphic Design?

Throughout my four years of high school, I lived in the “Graphic Communications Lab.” This was a class that I took randomly as a ninth grader, and soon fell in love with. It became more than a class to me, it became my home. Through this class and the ones to follow, I gained great knowledge in how to use InDesign, Illustrator, and I dabbled in Photoshop. I also became comfortable using the technology of a color printer, a large format printer, a screen printer, a printing press, a laminator, a folding and scoring machine, a cutting machine, and many others. I was incredibly lucky to have gone to a high school that gave me the opportunity to find my passion. The shop was able to continuously buy up to date equipment by having the students participate in live jobs for parents, employers, and the city itself. Working with clients and being responsible for creating work that I could later see being utilized throughout the town taught me important skills such as time management, professionalism, work ethic, and confidence, as well as increasing my experience on the graphic design programs. Throughout my high school career, I fell in love with creating logos. By reading “What is Graphic Design?” I learned that I am most interested in Brand and Identity Design and Book Jacket Design.

Brand and Identity Design

Throughout high school, I had the opportunity to create logos for local companies. Whether they were being put on business cards or printed on clothing, knowing that my creation was the focal point for many printed advertisements of said companies was inspiring in itself. I love how logos can have an incredibly simplistic design and still be unique and eye catching. They are functional and designed to embody something about the company they are for. This symbolic expression of design allows for a lot of creativity. The piece of artwork literally becomes the brand’s identity which means that along with stating something about the company, effective logos use emotion to express the company’s goal. It is this challenge of creating something never done before that is both simplistic and memorable that I love about creating logos.

Book Jacket Design

I personally have never listened  to the phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” I used to be an avid reader and I largely picked the books I wanted to read purely based on whether or not they were attractive and compelling to look at. I always felt that the visual design on the front gave more insight on what the book would be about, then the summary on the back. Standing in a book store with all the time in the world, I take a step back and scan the side edges of all the book covers. If one pops out to me, I will remove it from the shelf and examine the front of it. I love how much power the design of a book jacket has on potential readers. Although many people deny it, I feel as though all books can be judged by the design on the front for it is usually the sole image in the entire book and thus it starts reader’s imaginations. I think this process of creating a book jacket is fascinating because there are limitless possibilities to what impact it could have on the reader.