Day Four - Blog Post #5

Refined Rationales Blog Post #5B

Project Title: The Nav

The Nav is a unique project because it undergoes a visual identity change yearly. The challenge lies in creating new energy for the student-led press while keeping it recognizable as The Nav but it is also an opportunity to push myself as a design student and push the boundaries. This year I had the task of redesigning my own design from the previous year. The goal was to reign it in and give it a cleaner look from last year while maintaining the distinct personality within. I also needed to make sure that the layout was simple enough that a team of three could ay the 40 page magazine out in one day. 

Project Title: Balanced

Overwork is a worldwide social stigma that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Through this project, I wanted to work on a solution for people who lead an unbalanced life by giving them tools to change their relationship with work. The challenge lay in creating something usable that could be integrated easily into a busy lifestyle. I decided to create a scheduling app that would guide users to make healthier choices through education on mental health and forced rests. To this end, I designed a smart ecosystem that learns and adapts to the user through use. 

Project Title: Fox & Koi

Last year, I realized that I needed a way to reconnect with my passion for graphic design and push myself to create outside of classwork. I’ve always loved enamel pins and so along with a business partner, I began an enamel pin shop. There’s a lot that goes into a pin from conception to iteration and the final physical object. Through Fox & Koi I’ve not only worked on my illustration skills but my business skills as well. I run the business side of fox & koi. I speak to the manufacturers, find new manufacturers, coordinate locations and markets for selling the pins, create the websites, package the pins, do the marketing and I also design pins, stickers and prints.

The Core Values of Place

If you build it, they will come.

Together we can do so much.

Do something today that benefits tomorrow.

You have power, do good.

A hearth should always be warm.

We share this Place with everyone.

Day Two - Blog Post #3

Today we swapped the packages we’d worked on this past week and our assignment was to recreate the new package but digitally! My new package is fun because each text block has a gradient colour scheme. After getting a close to accurate digital outline, I made sure to grab the correct swatches for the gradient from the Pantene swatch books that my professor provided in class.

I’m lucky that I’ve had quite a bit of practice with the pen tool this past summer or I may have found this a bit more frustrating. At this point, I think that illustrator is my favourite program to work in. I still need to get on buying some replacement blades for next week to ensure a good cut. I really want to make sure I get this package as accurate as possible so I’ve scanned the package itself to double check my work.

Reflection: Taking this tactile work back to digital adds a fluidity from hands-on to computer work, something that I’ve always appreciated about design work. 

DAY ELEVEN - BLOG POST #13

Today we met with our client for the first time since our initial meeting two weeks ago! We also had a visit from Gord Wright, a Hemlock Printer rep. He had a lot to tell us about the printing process and he was very informative. 

With that though, I realized that the seed paper that I was so attached to might not be the right way to go. The problem with seed paper is how moisture effects it. Grocery stores and the Goodlife Juice store may not be a great environment moisture-wise for that. Then, there’s also the seeds that are used and whether or not they are native to BC. If the seed in the paper is an invasive species, that would not be great for our environment. 

Oh well, kill your darlings.

My client liked the box with the pour spout best out of the ideas I showed her but then we realized that the granola will probably be packaged inside a plastic bag inside the box to keep it dry. I’m wondering if I can come up with a solution for this, like a tearaway that’s attached to the bag and box so that when you pull the spout out, the bag is torn open. I’m not sure how this will work, but I’d like to give it a try.

If that doesn’t work, I’m also thinking of just cutting a corner of the top of the box out so that when it’s on the shelf, the bag can be seen. The user can then just tear the bag open without even having to open the box and reseal it with a clip.

I guess I’ll have to try both of these things.

DAY TEN - BLOG POST #12

The aim for this stretch of the project was to create thumbs, mapped layouts and sketch model mockups. It’s hard however to get the appropriate size when you don’t really know how much space 250 grams of Good Life Granola is going to take up. 

Now, something I was told to work on was my ideation component so I worked really hard to come up with at least 50 thumbs to work with. I’m not the type to put myself into a box (*bdm tss*) so I found that just letting my pencil take up the space it wanted was the best way to go for me. This created a bit of a flow of ideas rather than me just trying to fill little squares with thoughts. Sometimes, you need to think outside of the box. (*bdmmmm tsssss*)

Here are the ideas I came up with.

I wanted to make sure that I worked through as many shapes as I possibly could think of to be thorough about the ideation period. Although I came up with some really fun, crazy shape ideas, I found myself drawn to a simple box for ease of production and cost when it came to the packaging and decided to develop those concepts further.

After fleshing those out a bit more, I decided to just sit down and have fun. I forgot how much I loved this part of the ideation and creation period. Although I messed up a couple of times, I didn’t let that frustrated me and instead just enjoyed the tactile puzzle I was dealing with. 

These are the design solutions I have come up with thus far:

I can’t wait to get proper measurements down so that I have a better idea of what I’m working with. I’m not even sure at all which one I like best so far, although I can tell you that the most interesting one to try and create was definitely the rectangle with the pour spout! (I thought my brain was combusting a little bit as I tried to visualize what I had to do in my head.)

Here are some vector versions of the logos I have chosen to work with and some possible colours to use as well. I plan to choose one of these and work on it further, I’m sure I’ll have a better idea of what I can do with these options after some feedback from my peers.

Erin Gibbs Response

This past week, we had Erin Gibbs join our class and present her process to us. She was extremely knowledgable and very thorough about her process. As someone who creates items for a customer base already, I found it really cool and helpful to learn about how she creates and how her items get manufactured. It was our task to come up with a piece in response to her work or inspired by it. I remember immediately scratching out this phrase after the class, perhaps the fact that she showed us a jungle-inspired line was to blame. Either way, I had a lot of fun making this piece though it alone took me 5+ hours. I can’t imagine creating a whole line based on it! 

Design For Business

One of the biggest things that people think of when they think of graphic design is logo design. I must admit that it isn’t necessarily an area that I feel particularly strong in. Conceptualizing a logo isn’t easy though, I shouldn’t speak like it is. Sure, you can go online and pay someone five dollars for a logo for your business, but when you do that, you’re getting the quality of work that you pay for.

The process of branding a business is definitely more than a five dollar job. A logo takes thought and care, it shouldn’t be taken lightly because a logo can and usually stick with a business forever, depending on how successful the logo is. A logo can even add to the success of the business it’s for. 

The current project that I’m working on to develop my branding skills, is creating the logo for a business designed to promote tourism for Vancouver Island. 

Because I noticed a real lack of it and I love taking the opportunity to promote tourism within my own city, I decided to imagine a venue downtown that could be used for a multitude of things, its main purpose being to promote a sense of place and provide a venue for activities in Nanaimo such as open mics, community classes, receptions, showcases, art shows, intimate concerts, etc. The opportunities are pretty endless. In the summer it could double as an information center downtown for tourists and hold informative talks about Nanaimo’s history. It could be a gathering place for those that come in on cruise ships and a banquet hall. 

I decided to keep it simple and name it ‘Place’. As in, “That could be a good place”, “This is your place”, “This Place is so cool.” I felt that calling it Place gives it almost a sense of ownership to Nanaimo.

Before getting into sketching, I started with a mind map. Mind maps are a really good way to get some concepts and ideas down on paper, things that you maybe didn’t even realize were connected before can all come together in a mind map. I also filled out the survey seen in the post previous to this one. I decided to focus on uses, anatomy of the place, emotions that should be evoked when thinking about the Place and associations I wanted to be made with it. 

Then I went on to starting to draw out some logo concepts. These all look a little goofy but there’s a reason to the rhyme and a rhyme to the reason. Before you can have some truly good ideas, sometimes you need to get rid of the excess thinking in your brain. I worked fast to try and get some of the bad ideas out first and tried a lot of different things, in some simply trying symbols, and others only trying word marks.

I’ve got a couple of pages more of these little logo sketches but they aren’t much better. While I worked on them, despite getting out a lot of ideas, in some instances I only felt frustrated. I know there’s a logo concept there that’s truly great but just out of reach. If I need to get all of these ones out first before I can get at it, then so be it. In the end, I wound up with around 100 little sketches, give or take. 

Having definitely exhausted my creativity when it comes to the letter ‘P’, I’ll probably work on narrowing these concepts down to just three choices and develop them for the next step in the logo process. If I don’t like anything I have, I’ll just have to sketch another hundred up. (The joys of being a graphic designer. :)

When I think about Design Thinking, I mainly just think about a circle. A circle represents fullness, infinite and the feeling of being complete. It also has no actual beginning or end, much like the design thinking process. Sure, you start with a problem and you end with a solution to the problem (hopefully) but your path to get there isn’t always linear and can involve a lot of back and forth. Or, you get there in one full turn. Either way, each step of the process is connected. Whether you choose to believe in design thinking or not, you most likely have a loose concept of it that you follow anyway.

Brand Statement

Hi, my name is Sara. I am a graphic design graduate. When I’m not designing, I’m running my small enamel pin business or slinging coffee at White rabbit Coffee Co. No matter what the task, I put my all into it with gusto. I work bright and fast. I want to create real, positive change through my work, no matter how small. 

Brand Promise

I’ll always do better than before. (WIP)

Pushing the limits on every project. (possibility?)