Wrapping up the semester and the year.

This has been an amazing semester full of amazing experiences, new experiences, new knowledge, and new abilities. I am so happy to say I have learned so much from my Intro to Typography and Intro to Graphic Design classes. I've learned a lot about personal process, sketching, the Adobe Creative Suite, and many other things. At the beginning of the semester I never thought I'd be able to do some of the projects on the syllabus but here I am and I made it! I am pretty pleased with the work I put out but I know with even more effort and learning I can better these projects I've already done and kick even more ass during Spring semester. I can't wait to take Intermediate with some of my fellow classmates and rock the portfolio review so I'll be on my way to great things. Farewell 2014 and here's to 2015.

Btw if anyone would like to keep in touch, next semester I'll continue to blog on here and also you can either add me on Facebook or follow me on instagram: hhaleyanne. :)

In my spare time,

I love to paint and draw/doodle. Here are some of the things I've done this past year:

YouTube

YouTube is actually a very helpful tool in the design world. Along with Creative Cloud Adobe tutorial videos, and Lynda.com tutorials, I have learned several things that I didn't know how to do simply by searching through YouTube. One of my favorite people on there is Terry White. I'm not sure if any of you have also ever heard of him but he is very popular and also has some podcasts to my understanding.

Sometimes We Adventure;

After we started working on the ad projects this semester, I realized just HOW MUCH FUN PhotoShop actually is..like how had I never realized this before? So above it my first "just for the hell of it" PhotoShop journey featuring myself as Captain America and my friends Spencer as the guy riding the bike from ET & MaryCatherine as Thor, and my cat Vader as ET. :3

I couldn't just stop after creating the first picture..I had to go on to make another. This picture includes myself as Finn the Human and friends MaryCatherine as Princess Bubblegum & Jacob as Rick Grimes, and my husband Eric as Spyro the Dragon. :)

Design Challenge Book

A few months ago I was browsing online and came across this book that has 80 challenges to help you become a better designer. Inside it has 80 different "timed" challenges, all within different subcategories, that can help you learn your own creative process and to help you learn to work within time limits. We, as graphic designers, will "never have enough time"..or at least not as much time as we would like to create a product for a client. I plan on starting to work on some of these challenges over the break and when I have time next semester. I think it will be a great tool to help me learn more about the field and about myself as an artist..It's inexpensive and I am suggesting it to you to check out as well. Below is a picture of the book and a link to the amazon page where you can purchase. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418544517&sr=1-1&keywords=design+challenges

Final Event Poster

Going back through my blog, I just realized I never actually uploaded my final Event Poster, so here it is:

I absolutely loved working on this project. I chose this band after having seen them live just the week before. I love the band and I love what I was able to do for their "fake concert". It was so fun being able to hand make the watercolor background and actually use it and edit it into a cool digital version. There are some things I will be editing as well before portfolio review time but overall this was one of my favorite projects to work on once I figured out what I actually wanted to do.

Typography

I've seen a couple of other people do it so I figured I would share my GRD 3150 (Intro to Typography) final projects. :)

Project #1: Typeface Anatomy Mural

Project #2: Quote

Project #3: Event Poster: MODA's Second Sundays

Project #4 (Final): 8 page Font Showcase Booklet: Garamond

**Sidenote** I was pretty proud of how far I've come compared to where I've started but I do plan on editing and re-working a lot of these to get them ready for portfolio review in the Spring :)

Jesh.

Sneaky sneak sir. I found Waldo.. I mean your logo. :)

FINAL PRODUCT!!

This is it you guys.. My final, constructed package!!! I am very happy with it minus a minor mistake in cutting and a VERY minimal amount of hot chocolate powder leakage... If I could fix some things it would be to not have a minor cutting mistake, either figure out a better way to line the inside or just leave the hot chocolate in envelopes.. This is probably why hot chocolate only comes scoopable if it's in a tin... But here it is :)

Finished Packaging flat

Below are some pictures of my finished flat design mounted on my mat board and ready for critique Wednesday:) (I printed on satin paper.) Tomorrow my plan is to finish constructing the actual product and I will update once I've done so :)

Packaging Project: Update #2

A lot has changed since my first progress report.. And I do mean A LOT.. like the whole design. I am making my product a seasonal packaging design and it's got a rich chocolate color to remind you of what you're about to drink.. I've incorporated Christmas ornaments, snowflakes, seasonal colors and I've used Helvetia Neue as my font choice. I'm loving my design. Below I am going to post some progress pictures and later I will post what the actual flat design looks like printed on a satin finish.

Pinterest

So one of the cool new trendy websites that has changed the way people all over the world organize their thoughts, ideas, likes, and dislikes is Pinterest. Pinterest has a lot of really cool design and typography boards so I thought I would share some of my favorites with you guys:


http://www.pinterest.com/houseofcurrent/house-of-packaging/


http://www.pinterest.com/cookrepublic/typography/


http://www.pinterest.com/treeringcorp/design-ideas-tips-and-how-tos/


http://www.pinterest.com/danabrahams/graphic-design/


http://www.pinterest.com/danabrahams/packaging-design/


http://www.pinterest.com/jimmccauley/4ds/


http://www.pinterest.com/creativebloq/poster-design/


http://www.pinterest.com/creativebloq/branding-and-logo-design/


http://www.pinterest.com/creativebloq/typography/


 ENJOY! :)

Packaging Progress Update #1

So far I've got my packaging layout picked out and I've got some ideas I'm working with as far as design and placement. I've created my own Nutrition label in InDesign and I've printed a mini version of my packaging product to make sure I could properly assemble it and that it would look like what I was wanting it to. Below are some photos of what I've got going on so far.. But I'm nowhere near finished with the design and I'll probably change my mind tons of times!

Packaging Project

This is it guys. The LAST project in GRD 3000!!! For this project we were asked to select a product that we thought needed a better packaging design and layout.. Or a product that we simply thought we could execute better than the original. I chose Nestlé Hot Chocolate because the holidays are coming up, Nestlé has a boring logo, and I thought I could execute a seasonal packaging design and layout better than what's currently available. Here is a picture of what Nestlé currently has going on:

Book Cover Final Product

In catching up, it's now almost December and time is seriously FLYING by... I finished my Alice In Wonderland book cover and I am going to post some photos below. This was a very fun project and at the beginning of the semester I must admit while reading the syllabus I was definitely nervous about it. I had a lot of fun working on this and during critique I got a lot of ideas to help make it better than it is now. I noticed some mistakes, flaws, and overall characteristics of my cover I would like to change before portfolio review. But for now here are those photos I've promised:

Please ignore the fact that I just uploaded these as screenshots that I took on my phone but these are some images that I found intriguing/inspirational for some ideas I have for my book cover. 

Project #4: Book Cover :)

I chose "Alice in Wonderland" for my book cover project. I am very excited for this project...with so many variations already made for the book I feel like this is going to be challenging to bring something new and exciting/not already done to the table. Here is a summary of "Alice in Wonderland":
   Alice the protagonist must find her way through this strange place called "Wonderland".She is a 7 year old girl who while sitting with her sisters falls asleep and enters this world by falling down a rabbit hole. She follows the White Rabbit who leads her on many adventures throughout the book
     Lewis Carroll's book "Alice in Wonderland' is full of fanciful characters, each one adding a bit of humor and dimension to the story.When Alice falls down the rabbit hole she encounters various talking animals and an unusual Queen.Alice is the protagonist of the story,a little girl who goes on the adventure in Wonderland. The first character she meets is The White Rabbit, he reappears throughout the book and acts as Alice's guide, which is amusing because he doesn't seem to know even what time it is. There are lots of other characters in this book including an evil queen: the Queen of Hearts, cheshire cat, a caterpillar that smokes hookah, and the mad hatter.

And here are some variations of the book cover that I liked/found intriguing:

Progress on Event Poster Project

So my idea for this event poster is to make it colorful and playful,  a lot like several of You Me At Six's previous albums cover art was. They are a mostly upbeat band and I just love their use of color on some of the covers of previous albums. While using color, I am also wanting it to be simple and clean cut as well so I am going to basically use my own hand lettering for the band name and put it on top of the romantic numeral for 6 (VI), which will all go on top of the watercolorered image I did. I am still deciding whether I want to hand letter the details or find a font that works with my hand lettered band name/placement of said details. I am really loving my idea and how it's coming together so far. I do not have a high quality scanner so tomorrow in class I will be scanning in my lettering/watercolor image and I'll be putting things together!