Prehistoric Soft Drink

I came up with the idea of making a soda for our prehistoric ancestors. The bottle is shaped like a bone and the drink is called Paleo Cola. It's a prehistoric coke drink loaded with plenty of sugar to help rot our teeth gracefully.

Establishing Hierarchy - What I Learned

I always figured hierarchy is very simple and basic and is just common sense. Through this reading I realized that through hierarchy the eye is led through a meaningful journey and given a message, whereas if there was no hierarchy, the eye is left wandering around the page searching for meaning and purpose. No matter what the design type or message being revealed, hierarchy plays a very important role in leading the eye in the right direction to give the viewer the message. Hierarchy is more than just typeface and font size. The visual elements that surround and lead the eye to the text play very important roles in creating proper hierarchy, even the page number and headers play a role in creating effective hierarchy design. Grouping like elements is a tactic that can be very effective in creating hierarchy that flows well. By grouping elements, the designer is able to keep consistency throughout the layout as well as applying the same treatment to all elements in the group. Contrast, scale, space, quantity, orientation, position, depth, dimension, perspective, typography, color, graphic shapes and linear elements are all the factors a designer must take into consideration. Each one has a key role in establishing proper hierarchy. If any of the mentioned elements is not applied correctly, it could have a dramatic effect on the message being delivered through the design. Through the cohesiveness of all these elements, we are able to design and also able to create proper hierarchy to lead to the eye to message we are trying to portray.

What I Learned from Intuition in Design

The reading was very interesting. It helped me confirm some thoughts I've always had about designing. Here are some key points that were very useful to me and good information that I did not consider so much in the past. Learning the essentials of deign is critical to all graphic designers because it gives us the foundation to start building from. Without a solid foundation, designers will run into problems, and as designers, we are visually trained to fix visual problems. As designers, no two designs we create will be identical, even when given the same elements to work with. Each piece is unique with a touch of the designer's style. I learned that there is a connection between conscious and subconscious mind in designing, where one influences the other. I believe that in the end rational thinking would be the main reasoning behind our creations but I was wrong. Rational thinking sometimes contains and holds back our creative intuition and can ultimately leave us searching for new and innovative designs. Intuition is one of our strongest tools to creating successful designs. Our intuition builds our imagination which in turn gives us the ability to think outside of the box and come up with fresh ideas to create new and different designs. Intuition should not be contained. Ideas that come to our mind should not be neglected because that initial idea is usually a strong idea and should be processed and worked on by the designer. Trusting our intuition gives us designers the confidence t o take chances and risks in our designs without worrying that it may be "wrong." Sometimes its good to just sit down and put whats on our mind onto paper or into an illustration. This is not to say that we should not use the rational aspect of our mind but it is encouraging us to not worry so much and just do what we feel and think may work, even if it's radical and wild. Intuition is a great tool and it should be used but not solely relied on to complete an idea or design project. It is the combination of learned knowledge, intuition, and rational thinking that will help a designer become more well rounded.

Design Heroes - Studio 7 Designs and Lounge Lizard

I have never really sat down and searched through designers and design studios to see who are my heroes. Although I do love the work of designers like Shepard Fairey, I can't say these designers are the ones who influenced me because my style is nothing like theirs. I did a web search on many different designers and studios, looking through each of their portfolios. I came across tons of wonderful web designs and logo designs but two studios stood out to me as very good representations of the type of work I enjoy viewing and creating.

The first studio I will discuss is Studio 7 Design - http://www.studio7designs.com/ . I had never heard of this design studio before coming across it in my search. They are a design group located in Canada with a view of environment friendly designs,15 years of experience and clients world wide. Their designs are very clean and well designed with high quality imagery and colors. The design group not only makes logos but also designs websites. Id like to steal their brains because their websites have a very clean and cutting edge look to them. I was very pleased with the visual appeal that their sites had and could see myself working with a similar vision to creating successful logos and websites.I'd also enjoy the aspect of working with organic, environmental and earth friendly branding.

Here is a link to their portfolio which includes links for logos, websites and prints.
http://www.studio7designs.com/portfolio/
A few examples of the works I liked:

The second design group I came across was called Lounge Lizard -www.lounglizard.com . At the top of one of their pages on their site I read -"We mix a potent combination of interactive strategy with
a generous splash of creative juices and blend in technology-focused, customized solutions to achieve our results." That sounds like me! At least I hope to become successful to the point where my designs have that same feel and message. I enjoy the idea of interactive websites and designs and Lounge Lizard does just that with their iphone, android apps, as well as even right on their own website. They have clever design layouts and everything is interactive and works smooth and perfectly. Lounge Lizard started in 1997 as a world wide design studio in Bohemia, New York. Started off small by its owner and president, the company gradually grew and increased with more clients and more employees. The client list is now well over 75 clients worldwide. Currently, Lounge Lizard does an excellent job of creating new age and flash heavy websites for many companies. Lounge Lizard also recently began designing mobile apps and just this year began creating its own products. These are reasons why I'd want to pick the brain of its owner and president Ken Braun. The ability to start smart, market themselves and grow and expand into a successful and large design studio is something I'd love to start or just be a part of. I'd want to know the steps Ken took and how he got to where he is now.

Here is a link to their portfolio which includes links for logos, websites and prints.
http://www.loungelizard.com/web-design-portfolio/

My favorite examples of website creations:

Bibliography:

www.studio7designs.com
www.loungelizard.com

http://vector.tutsplus.com/articles/web-roundups/22-great-graphic-design-agencies/

Digital Comps for Project 2

I didn't finish refining my logo yet but I figured I would make the designs and then I can go ahead and reapply the finished logo to my finished designs.

Pic 1 is my magazine ad
Pic 2 is my letterhead
Pic 3 is my package design including box, glasses cover/box, and hang tag

Stationary, Package Design and Magazine Ad Sketches

First 5 are sketches for stationary.

 

Next 5 are sketches for package design.

Last 5 are designs for a magazine ad.

Please let me know if you have any questions on my designs.

Thanks

Part 1 Revision

I changed the text on my handout flyer and also added a second image. Spaced out the text so it doesnt look as text heavy. Also changed font and spacing on my Dream Catchers card on the bottom left hand corner. I am having a hard time taking my own images to show the three steps of my plan. I don't have anybody I know with a child to stage a scene where child abuse may take place. I am still working on these images.

Part 2 Sketches

Some very rough sketches so far, Im just trying to get some ideas of what the landing site will look like with the layout. So far my favorite idea is the idea with the clock and images of children at the four corners with some sort of message referring to how its only a matter of time until these children get abused, please help them.

For research, I have found many sites listing statistics on child abuse. I intend on using some of these statistics somewhere on the landing sites. Many of my other ideas have text about child abuse using statstics. The website http://www.dreamcatchersforabusedchildren.com/ has a lot of links to other child abuse sites which are mainly the ones I have been looking at.