STUDIO 903 CTE GRAPHIC DESIGN 2 | SAMPLE PORTFOLIO

Once we had our thumbnail sketches reviewed, we decided which sketch got the green light and proceeded to design on the computer. I worked in several programs to complete this project including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Here is my final design below. This is the file we used to PRINT the cover for assembly.

Once printed, we cut and assembled the album cover, affixed adhesive to the label and attached it to a real vinyl album. Then, we use the pop ups studios and SLR cameras in Studio 903 to photograph our work to present it here. Here is the final work!

In addition to the design for the album cover and record label, we had to create a social media post with the same assets to help promote the "release date" of the album. This was a chance to design with unity and branding in mind for our musical artist -- making additional assets that all go together for the album for various purposes. It also gave me a chance to use Adobe Express and try the animation effects. Click the button below to view the social media post I created to promote the "drop" of this new album I designed

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

ANIMATED GIFs • SPRING 2021

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we worked on something a little different. We created animated GIFs using a very simple technique with frame-by-frame animation in Photopea or Photoshop. This is a really simple intro to motion graphics and a great way make something fun that moves!

First, we worked through The Creative Process. We researched by watching "how to" videos, brainstormed our ideas for simple stories we wanted to tell with frame by frame style animation and sketched our ideas out. The creative process was very helpful in sorting out what to do, and it gave me a chance to think like an animator -- to think about my story in frames and snippets.

Once I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, I created simple illustrations in Gravit Designer using artboards/pages for each frame. I ended up with 12 pages/artboards to use as frames. I exported each page as a .png and brought each .png into Photopea. I named each page in advance, so it made the transition Photopea very easy. As I open & placed each image in Photopea, a new layer name with the file name was created. Once in Photopea, I arranged my layers in the correct order for the animation sequence, and renamed my layers using the "_a_" animation code to ensure layers would animate when exported. Finally, I exported my file as a .GIF, set the timing and my animation was done!

I also experimented with Adobe Spark Video to create a little video to show my animated GIF. For some reason, Adobe Spark will not let me load the .GIF file as is, so check this out below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

INFOGRAPHIC RESUME • SPRING 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week students learned about Infographics and how they are used to visualize data and information. An infographic is a collection of imagery, charts, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic. Infographics use striking, engaging visuals to communicate information quickly and clearly and we learned about how to create a visually striking resume with an infographic element to help us stand out from the crowd. During this project, students had to practice several habits of mind including: Thinking About Your Thinking, Applying Previous Knowledge to New Situations, Creating, Imagining and Innovating, Communicating with Clarity and Precision and more! They had to think about their soft skills, interests, experience, technical skills, and objectives for future career and/or a summer job! Then, students had to determine which parts of this information to represent visually through an infographic they designed.

The sample below is from a previous student in the Fall of 2019.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

MY OWN FREELANCE WEBSITE • MAY 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

For the past 2 weeks we have been building our own website to help us get started as a freelance graphic designer. The website can also be used to showcase our skills to be hired by a company or for contract work. We were asked: How can you effectively showcase your graphic design skills and services through a personalized website to get you started as a freelance graphic designer?

We started with the creative process and I researched websites and looked and how professional designers for hire presented themselves and their work on their websites. I also went back to my portfolios for GD1 and GD2 to review and select the work I best felt represented my skills. I reviewed all the personal brand assets I created in GD1 to see what I could use for my website and I began collecting all of these assets into a project folder so I could have everything in one place for this project.

Then I started brainstorming ideas for how I wanted to present my website -- we need to have 3 pages 1) Portfolio 2) About Me and 3) For Hire with pricing information for our services. Putting a plan together took some time and thought and after I brainstormed and gathered my ideas I got to sketching out a wireframe of my website so I have a solid plan on paper before designing my website in weebly.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

STUDENT, STAFF & VISITOR ID CARDS • MAY 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we had the challenge of designing the artwork for the MVHS Student, Staff & Visitor ID Cards to be used on campus next school year. The project this week gave me a chance to take everything I have been learning and incorporate it into a purposeful design with a specific use. We had to work with a template with specific measurements for the ID cards - there are some areas that are off limits because they will be imprinted with bard codes or other information. Understanding the available area for design and creating a design that demonstrates the principle of UNITY in a horizontal version for students and vertical version for staff was a nice challenge. I had to pay careful attention to my selection of font, colors and other graphic elements like size and direction to ensure that both cards looks great.

All of our designs will be submitted to admin for review and one will be selected to be used for the actual design on the ID cards for next. year! Here is my process below. I began with researching and watching some video tutorials, the brainstormed my ideas and finally created 4 thumbnails - I worked on 2 concepts for vertical and horizontal versions of the card below.

I used AI features (Adobe Firefly) to get some ideas for backgrounds.

Once I reviewed my sketches with a classmate and got the green light on the top two sketches, I downloaded the template and got to work making my design in Adobe Illustrator - we had the choice to work in PS or AI. I kept it very simple with vector graphics, using geometric shapes and repeating the same typeface, in the same size on both of the cards to achieve UNITY. I kept the same color palette on both cards, but reversed the colors on the Staff ID in consideration that a name will be printed in black in under the area where the image goes. I thought the lighter green color would provide a better backdrop and more contrast for the black printed staff name text. For the Visitor ID, I removed all the black so the ID would stand out for visitors on campus. Here is my design below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

THE HOWL 2 PAGE SPREAD • APRIL 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

For the past 3 weeks we have been working on layout and composition of our 2 page spread for The Howl. This is the school newsletter, which we will be publishing in print and online. It's been quite a journey, working on this spread and being a small part of something bigger. For this project, we were able to choose our top 3 spread topics to work on with a Journalism/Yearbook partner. Mrs. Juliano made the final assignments, based on our top 3 choices and we got to work.

The content for each spread came to use from Mrs. Dumbeck's Journalism/Yearbook class, in a folder on a shared drive. We reviewed the materials and started The Creative Process: researching, brainstorming and sketching our ideas to sort out what we wanted to do with the materials provided by Journalism/Yearbook. Some of us had more details and assets than others; some had a lot of text and other had very little text. It was interesting to see what each designer was working with as the publication came together.

We communicated with our Partners through the SHARE FOR REVIEW function in Adobe InDesign several times each week to share our progress, get their feedback and collaborate on the spread. With feedback from our Journalism/Yearbook Partners, Mrs. Juliano and Mrs. Dumbeck along the way to refine and revise our spread over the past 3 weeks - we were able to polish, revise and refine for the final outcome. Each week, our timeframe for feedback and revisions got a little tighter and we also had other small tasks and assignments to do throughout the project.

While this project took several weeks, we had an opportunity to collaborate with another class, to give and receive feedback all while polishing our work to get the to the best final result. It was a good exercise in patience, practicing the habits of remaining open to continuous learning, striving for accuracy and thinking interdependently. Over the next few days, Mrs. Juliano will be assembling all of the spreads to publish the entire newsletter online and print an abridged version! Below, you can see the different versions of my spreads. Each version has changes implemented based on feedback received from my Journalism/Yearbook Partner, or from Mrs. Juliano and Mrs. Dumbeck.

In addition to learning more about the revision and feedback process, we learned how to SHARE FOR REVIEW through Adobe InDesign. My final version can be seen online by clicking the button below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short, thoughtful AND specific paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project you have been working on for 3 weeks.

MIDTERM • IRON WOLF DANCE SHOWCASE • MARCH 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

We had a chance to return to client work this week for the Dance department and Ms. Ross. The project this week was to create promotional materials for the upcoming IRON WOLF DANCE SHOWCASE. The client requested several promotional materials, but as a class we designed the Promotional Poster, Banner and a Social Media Post to help promote the upcoming production. Once the client decides which design she wants to go with, the designer who had their work selected with work with the client and Mrs. Juliano to complete the other items for the show like the program cover.

One of the objectives this week was to demonstrate the principle of UNITY across all the items were were designing. Since they are for the same show, they all need to look like they belong together; in a sense we created a mini-brand package for the show to help promote it. We used Photoshop to edit, retouch and create the "key art" for the poster from dancer photos provided to us; the banner was created in Illustrator along with other vector graphic assets. All of these assets were then placed in InDesign to layout and compose our final designs for the Poster. The Social Media Post was completed in Photoshop using the assets created in the other programs. Here are my sketches below.

These are the final designs. I'm eager to see which designs will be selected for use by the client.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

2 PAGE SPREAD • MARCH 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we learned the difference between Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing and dug in deeper to the rules of layout and composition using a NEW program, Adobe InDesign. This practice project was a great introduction to the program and helped me find my way around and learn the tools and functions I need to know for upcoming projects.

For the topic of my 2 Page Spread, I selected my trip to Chicago. My sister and I traveled there to fangirl at the Wizard World conference! Once I selected my topic, I did some research online to find some images and text for my spread. I also reviewed the photos I took at the conference to decide which ones I wanted to use in my design. Then I brainstormed ideas of what to include and put pencil to paper to make some quick thumbnail sketches. Since this is a practice project I used filler text, kept it simple and tried to focus on keeping everything tidy and aligned on the page. Here are my sketches below.

Here is the screenshot of my workspace showing pages, layers and links.

Click the button below to view my 2 Page Spread published online through InDesign.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

MIDTERM • SPRING DANCE SHOW MATERIALS • MARCH 2023

INTRO • WHAT I DID

It's Midterms and we are learning how to design for a Client. Our client is Mrs. Ross from Dance department and we are creating marketing & promotional materials for the Spring Dance Show: Disney Magic. This is an annual event at MVHS featuring student dancers. The client requested several promotional materials, so as a class we designed a show title for Tshirt Design, Poster, Program Cover and a Social Media Post to help promote the upcoming production. Once the client decides which design she wants to go with, the designer who had their work selected with work with the client and Mrs. Juliano to finalize the files to deliver to the client for production.

One of the objectives this week was to demonstrate the principle of UNITY across both items were were designing. Since they are for the same show, they all need to look like they belong together; in a sense we created a mini-brand package for the show to help promote it. We build the files using Photoshop to edit, composite, retouch and create the key art photo from photos provided by Mr. Salley of the dancers; the title of the poster was created in Illustrator along with other vector graphic assets. All of these assets were then placed into a 3 artboard file in Adobe Illustrator to layout and compose our final designs for all of the items. Here are my sketches below.

Here are the final designs.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

CLIENT LOGO WITH VARIATIONS • SEPTEMBER 2023

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we are working on logo design for a client we have selected. We learned about visual identity and the history of logo design. From hieroglyphics as animal brands, symbols of faith and hallmarks to mark precious metals, logos are meant to be identifying marks. At that time, we also learned about different types of logos: Wordmarks, Lettermarks, Brandmarks and Iconic Logo design and this week we were reminded of the fundamentals for logo design. A logo must be 1) simple 2) memorable 3) timeless 4) versatile and 5) appropriate. It should always be designed in a vector based software program so that the logo can be scalable, and as designers, we should always start on paper.

For this project, my client is a baseball mom friend of mine who is building her own small brand on social media to include organic recipes, natural beauty tips, yoga and homeopathic uses for essential oils/tinctures. Her brand name is Intuitive Roots. When we initial discussed her logo design, she liked the idea of a the human form as a tree with roots and a very muted color palette inspired by nature. From there I started on paper sketching out some ideas for a woman in tree pose with roots and a circle of light behind her. For this project, we were also asked to create at least one variation on our original logo for the client. My sketches are below.

For the logo variation, I decided to make a horizontal and stacked version of the logo for my client so it could be used in any format with the most flexibility. Here are the 2 final logo I created for my client.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

COLLEGE APPLICATIONS INFOGRAPHIC • FEBRUARY 2023

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we learned about infographics and visualizing data to create a simple infographic for our client, Mr. Chodola. He has requested several infographics for the College Applications Seminar. In total, Mr. Chodola requested 34 individual infographics for all of the JC, State and UCs in California. These infographics will be included on a large map of California in his classroom, and will help student learn and remember key information and data about their colleges of interest.

I started this project with research about the school I selected and learned about their school colors, admissions info and other interesting facts and information about the school. Then I brainstormed how to translate this information into bite-size information, short bullet points, key data and started thinking about visual examples for these more digestable points of information. I kept narrowing down my ideas to get to the basics - data that would be interesting to prospective students, but also that could be visualized. I also searched up many examples of icons for key words in my brain dump. Then, I sketched my ideas and made 3 thumbnails to help me make a plan for how to layout this information in a 6x6 infographic. Here my my sketches below.

Here is my final work. I paid careful attention to the colors and viewed the brand guidelines for this school on their website to recreate a color scheme that was on brand. In the center, I included an image of the icon UCSD Geisel library designed in the late 1960's by William Pereira.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project..

THE HOWL COVER CONTEST

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week, we took a closer look at Design Trends for 2021 to get inspired for our own design of the cover for the upcoming student newsletter, The Howl Spring 2021. Studio 903 designers will be designing the interior spreads for The Howl later this Spring with all the content supplied by our Journalism and Yearbook classes. Before we design the newsletter spreads, we are hosting a contest for the cover design! The Cover Contest is open to all students at MVHS, and for our project this week, we had the opportunity to create our own design for submission to the Cover Contest. Taking inspiration from at least one of the 2021 Design Trends, I chose to focus on chaotic type and a muted color scheme.

We were able to use whatever programs we are most comfortable with, and I used both Photopea and Gravit Designer to design my cover image. I used Photopea to edit an image of the Covid 19 virus, masking it off the background to create transparency; then I used an adjustment layer to change the hue to a more muted color and desaturated the image over all. Finally I added a gaussian blur to it, then brought it into Gravit Designer where I designed the type for the title of the magazine, making several copies and creating a full page lock up with them. I also created a vectorized graphic of a wolf's head, then blurred that using the effects in Gravit Designer.

To start my created process, I did some research which included reading up on the 2021 Design Trends and brainstormed some ideas for my cover; then I made 3 thumbnail sketches for 3 different cover concepts. My sketches are below.

I decided to move forward with a combo of two of my sketches for my final design. Merging the idea of the wolf's head with C19 virus floating around it in a muted colorspace, with chaotic type layered above -- all with a very muted color scheme which is one of the design trends for 2021. My final design is below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

IRON WOLF DANCE ENSEMBLE LOGO • SEPTEMBER 2021

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week in Studio 903, we had a client to design for. Mrs. Ross, the dance teacher and advisor for the new Iron Wolf Dance Ensemble requested a logo to be designed for Iron Wolf. She requested a combination logo with the dance ensemble name and a symbol. We learned a bit about the different types of logos this week and logo variations so it was helpful to know this information going into the project. We also learned a bit more about Design Trends and had a chance to look at the 2021 design trends in an online article and a short video - that was interesting and provided some inspiration for my creative process. The client also requested a variation of the logo for use on sweatpants/joggers for the dance ensemble; this meant we had to create a second version of the logo that was only a wordmark that could be used in a vertical space for this purpose.

I created my logos in Adobe Illustrator; logos should be design in a vector program so that they can be infinitely resizable without any loss of resolution. I set up my Ai file with 2 artboards: the first artboard was for the full logo and the second artboard for the variation. I started with my creative process, by researching, then I brainstormed and finally sketched some thumbnails to work out my ideas. My sketches are below.

To present my logo designs, I created a black background on my artboards so that the client could preview what the logos would look like on a black shirt or pants. Here are the final logos below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

BOARD GAME DESIGN GROUP PROJECT • NOVEMBER 2023

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This project provided new opportunities to co-create with Mrs. Juliano and our classmates. We started off by brainstorming the different parts of the project including our objectives/I can statements, Required Content/Scope of Work, Deliverables and Milestones. We discussed these as a class and Mrs. Juliano put our thoughts on the board. Then we broke into table groups to define each of the areas a bit further. Finally, we agreed to everything and the Project Brief was created.

Next, we broke into small groups of 2 - 4 students and then defined roles within our small groups so we each knew what was expected of us individually and as a group. There were a couple of small assignments to do, and of course we had to create sketches for our game board, packaged design, and other game accessories. We also needed to determine game rules. Once we had this plan in place we went to work designing all the pieces.

Here are my sketches.

Here are the screenshots of my workspace in the programs I used. I did the work in Ai, Ps and InDD. Other members of my group did the work in Photoshop and then gave me the raster assets to include in the design of the game board.

Here is the Game Design mockup created in Photoshop using the assets we created as a group. I used one of the templates provided to show this final mock up of our design.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

FUSION DANCE SHOWCASE • OCTOBER 2023

INTRO • WHAT I LEARNED

We had a chance to return to client work this week for the Dance department and Ms. Ross. The project this week was to create promotional materials for the upcoming student choreography dance showcase called FUSION. This is an annual event at MVHS featuring student choreography and student dancers. The client requested several promotional materials, but as a class we designed the T-Shirt artwork, Promotional Poster and a Social Media Post to help promote the upcoming production. Once the client decides which design she wants to go with, the designer who had their work selected with work with the client and Mrs. Juliano to complete the other items for the show like the program cover.

One of the objectives this week was to demonstrate the principle of UNITY across both items were were designing. Since they are for the same show, they all need to look like they belong together; in a sense we created a mini-brand package for the show to help promote it. We used Photoshop to edit, retouch and create the "key art" for the poster from dancer photos provided to us; the title graphic for the T-shirt was created in Illustrator along with other vector graphic assets. All of these assets were then placed in InDesign to layout and compose our final designs for the Poster. The Social Media Post was completed in Photoshop using the assets created in the other programs. Here are my sketches below.

These are the final designs. I'm eager to see which designs will be selected for use by the client.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

PRACTICE PROJECT • 2 PAGE SPREAD • MARCH 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we learned the difference between Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing and dug in deeper to the rules of layout and composition using a NEW program, Adobe InDesign. This practice project was a great introduction to the program and helped me find my way around and learn the tools and functions I need to know for upcoming projects.

For the topic of my 2 Page Spread, I selected mushrooms. I was trying out AI Firefly to make some cool incandescent mushrooom images and I thought they were so pretty, I decided to base my project on the topic of these fabulous fungi that appear to be from outer space! Once I selected my topic, I did some research online to find more inspiration and the right typefaces. I also reviewed the images I created in Firefly I had stored in my CC Libraries to select the right images to use. Then I brainstormed ideas of what to include and put pencil to paper to make some quick thumbnail sketches. Since this is a practice project I used filler text, kept it simple and tried to focus on keeping everything tidy and aligned on the page. Here are my sketches below.

Here is the screenshot of my workspace showing pages, layers, links and swatches panels.

Click the buttons below to view my 2 Page Spread in share for review and published online through InDesign.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

VECTOR PORTRAIT • OCTOBER 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

For the past two weeks we put our pen tool kills to the test by completing a series of Pen Tool Precision Drills. These were very helpful and challenging; working on the drills throughout the week really helped refine and hone my skills with the pen tool and helped me as I worked on the project. For our project, we created a Vector Portrait using a source image of a celebrity or someone we know. I chose to make a portrait of Catriona Balfe, an actress on a show called Outlander! She is an actress, director, mother and humanitarian. She portrays Claire Randal Fraser, wife of James Alexander Malcom Mackenzie Fraser.

The source image I chose is an image of Cait from the January 2022 issue ofVanity Fair, photographed by  NICK RILEY BENTHAM. Cait's piercing blue eyes and beautifully, classic feature make her a great subject for a vector portrait. I chose this source photo below paying careful attention to light, shadows and highlights so it would help me to make my shapes and lines to capture Cait in an illustrated format. I started by bringing the photo into Ps to crop, and make some adjustments to the highlights, shadows and hue saturation.

And here is the final vector portrait. The text "Ethereal Beauty" is a reference is a subtle nod to a Season 6 storyline in which Claire Fraser becomes addicted to ether.

I experimented with Adobe's Generative Recolor functions to try out some different color palettes. I used the prompt "Disco Queen" to get these results. Then I edited some colors manually to balance each image.

Here is the screenshot of of my workspace in Adobe Illustrator showing my artboards and meticulously organized Layers. Keeping the layers organized with an essential part of my workflow on this project.

Here is the view of my vector portrait in Outline Mode (CMD Y). This shows only the paths I created and the complexity of my work with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

VECTOR PORTRAIT • MARCH 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

For the past two weeks we put our pen tool kills to the test by completing a series of Pen Tool Precision Drills. These were very helpful and challenging; working on the drills throughout the week really helped refine and hone my skills with the pen tool and helped me as I worked on the project. For our project, we created a Vector Portrait using a source image of a celebrity or someone we know. I chose to make a portrait of Sam Heughan, an actor on a show called Outlander! He is an actor, entrepeneur, director, and best selling author. He also portrays my supercrush TV boyfriend, James Alexander Malcom Mackenzie Fraser. Fun Fact: I met Sam in October 2021 at the Wizard World Convention in Chicago. He was super nice and really liked this vector portrait I created for him!

The source image I chose is an image of Sam from Esquire Magazine, photographed by Juan Carlos Carrion @JUANKR. Sam's piercing blue eyes and chiseled features make him a great subject for a vector portrait. I chose this source photo below paying careful attention to light, shadows and highlights so it would help me to make my shapes and lines to capture Sam in an illustrated format. I started by bringing the photo into Ps to crop, and make some adjustments to the highlights, shadows and hue saturation.

And here is the final vector portrait. The text "Renaissance Man" is a reference to multitude of interests, charitable endeavors, skills and talents including My Peak Challenge, Great Glen Company, Sassenach Whisky and Wild Scottish Gin, Men In Kilts; his best selling books Clandlands, Waypoints and his numerous TV and film roles. He does it all while still being a great TV boyfriend.

This year, Adobe introduced some new AI functions in their programs and we have access to Generative Recolor in Illustrator. I tried this out to get some different looks. I used "JAMES BOND" as my text prompt for the recolor function and here are a couple of results that I liked.

Here is the screens of of my workspace in Adobe Illustrator showing my artboards and meticulously organized Layers. Keeping the layers organized with an essential part of my workflow on this project.

Here is the view of my vector portrait in Outline Mode (CMD Y). This shows only the paths I created and the complexity of my work with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

VECTOR PORTRAIT • MARCH 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

For the past two weeks we put our pen tool kills to the test by completing a series of Pen Tool Precision Drills. These were very helpful and challenging; working on the drills throughout the week really helped refine and hone my skills with the pen tool and helped me as I worked on the project. For our project, we created a Vector Portrait using a source image of a celebrity or someone we know. I chose to make a portrait of Sam Heughan, an actor on a show called Outlander! He is an actor, entrepeneur, director, and best selling author. He also portrays my supercrush TV boyfriend, James Alexander Malcom Mackenzie Fraser. Fun Fact: I met Sam in October 2021 at the Wizard World Convention in Chicago. He was super nice and really liked this vector portrait I created for him!

The source image I chose is an image of Sam from Nobleman Magazine, original photograph by Braedon Flynn from Film Supply Club. Sam's piercing blue eyes and chiseled features make him a great subject for a vector portrait. I chose this source photo below paying careful attention to light, shadows and highlights so it would help me to make my shapes and lines to capture Sam in an illustrated format. I started by bringing the photo into Ps to crop, and make some adjustments to the highlights, shadows and hue saturation.

And here is the final vector portrait. The text "Double Gold" is a reference to his award-winning whisky, The Sassenach. It has since won more than 10 double golds!

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

CLIENT LOGO DESIGN BUS ROADEO • FEBRUARY 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we had the opportunity to design a logo for our client, The VUSD Bus Drivers and their upcoming event The Bus ROADEO. They have a team called Bus'N Moves with the motto "Bus Around and Find Out." Our client has requested a logo they can use on a short sleeve polo for their team uniforms at the event. The logo can also be used for any promotional materials for their team. They shared some specific inspiration images of what they were looking for, including a logo that was designed for them already which they rejected. We are hoping to provide them with a viable solution from Studio 903. After doing some additional research on the Roadeo event I experimented with some ideas in Adobe Firefly and with Text to Vector functions in Ai to get some inspiration for my own design. Here are those inspo images below and my sketches.

I did some research online looking for images of rodeo cowboys and buses that I could use as visual references to create my own design. I searched for images with the cowboys in a particular position and a front view of a flat nosed bus. I even brought the image into Ai to image trace, warp and distort it, then printed it back out and used a light board to create composited sketch images. My brainstorming and sketch process is visible below with the reference images.

I used Adobe Illustrator to design the logo. Here is my workspace in Ai below. I tried to keep my layers as organized as possible. When I added more artboards for the logo variations this organization came in handy.

Below is the final image submitted to the client, and the 2 logo variations I worked on.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

MYTHIC MIXED BEAST • FEBRUARY 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID

This week we worked with raster images to create a composited image of a mythical mixed beasts. First, we researched, brainstormed and created 2 concept sketches. Then, we reviewed sketches with classmates and decided which concept to proceed with. I chose to move forward with "The Elephly," a mythical, beautiful combo of an elephant and butterfly found in the parallel dimension wilds of the Serengeti desert.

For this project, we had to refresh our skills in the raster image editing program Photoshop, applying previous knowledge from Photopea and from the video tutorials we've been watching. The project required non-destructive editing with layer masks to hide and reveal the parts of the beasts we wanted to show; adjustment layers for color correction and blending. This was a good project to refresh making selections with various selection tools, and refining those selections for layer masking to help make the animals from our source images blend together. We also learned about how to find good source images from Stock Photography websites; copyright Information for photos and the difference between finding inspiration and copying another designer's work.

As part of this project, we worked with a template provided that had multiple artboards and guides included. The first artboard included the Template for the faux magazine cover of UnNatural Geographic. The template was helpful to see how a file like this could be built, and we used the additional artboards to tell a color story for each of our sources images and our final composited image. There were a lot of repetitive actions in making the color story using the template provide, but it was good practice for keyboard shortcuts, sampling colors and filling selections. It also gave me the chance to look at my project as a whole to find the unity in the color story -- for the individual images and the final image.

My initial sketches are below for my 2 concepts: the Phlizzard and the Elephly.

The Elephy got the green light and my final image of The Elephy on the cover of UnNatural Geographic is below.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

MOVIE POSTER • FEBRUARY 2024

INTRO • WHAT I DID WEEK 1

For the past two weeks we have been working on a movie poster design. We spent some time last week watching Adobe Illustrator Tutorials in preparation and then built the first draft of our movie poster using Adobe Illustrator. For this project, the objective was to show what we know to create a Movie Poster of our life demonstrating a decisive use of at least one element of design with one principle of design. We started this week reviewing the steps in The Creative Process, so before doing any design work on the computer I worked through the steps to Research, Brainstorm and Sketch in order to have a plan in place for my project. I prepared at least 2 thumbnail sketches, reviewed them my classmate during class, and together we decided which sketch would get the "greenlight" to proceed with on the computer.

This was a good project to get back into the design programs to sort out how my prior knowledge with a would translate back to making this poster in Adobe Illustrator. The movie poster is for a movie about our life and needed to contain all the key components of a movie poster: Movie Title, Key Visual, Release Date, Review Quotes/Slogans/Taglines, Studio & Rating Logos and a Billing Block.

It was fun to think about what kind of story I wanted to tell and to learn more about how movie posters are created. I decided to use TEXTURE, SHAPE and COLOR as my elements of design with the principles of EMPHASIS and CONTRAST. Here are my thumbnail sketches below.

Here is the first draft of the poster made only with Adobe Illustrator.

WHAT I DID WEEK 2

In the second week, we went back to our first draft and made revisions to the design incorporating raster images to refresh out Photoshop skills. We got feedback and suggestions for revisions to our poster and watched Photoshop tutorials this week to get us back into raster image editing. We made new assets in Photoshop that we could bring into Illustrator to revise and improve our design.

It was good to have a second opportunity to revisit and revise this work; especially after getting very specific feedback to improve it from my peers in class. Some of the feedback I received was to make the illustration more photographic so I used a real photograph of a wildflower I took on my hike and edited it in PS. I also got feedback that the billing block section could look a bit more like a real movie poster by adding a rating icon and changing the color of the studio logos.

For the key art, I used an image I took of a flower with a gradient overlay and blending modes. I also used a darker gradient to provide more contrast at the bottom of the image. I created the key art image in Photoshop, exported it as a jpg, then brought the composited image into my original Illustrator file and replaced the illustration with the raster image, embedding the photo into the AI document. The elements of type, shape and color are used with the principle of contrast in the title design. The principles of contrast and emphasis are used to place focus on the title and the large mountain. I've also used space leaving the image area of the mountain unobstructed with the element of texture layered in there. Here is the final design below.

The differences are subtle, but important. There is a bit more contrast in the Title treatment with the color yellow helps the title to be more visible on the background and it feels more whimsical than the solid black. The vibrant color ties into the image of the flower. I also added a gradient at the bottom of the image to help make the billing block more visible and switched out much of the black text to white. I updated the logos at the bottom to be in the correct color palette for the rest of the poster for a sense of unity. The elements of type, shape and color are used with the principle of contrast in the title design. The principles of contrast and emphasis are used to place focus on the title and the image of the wildflower. I also discovered that texture is used in the background with movement to help the viewer know where to look. The movement tracks this path: first, the movie title, then down the page to the the image of the flower and farther down to billing block and studio logos.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

ELEMENTS & PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN MATRIX • JANUARY 2024

INTRODUCTION • WHAT I DID

This week we did a refresh of the Elements & Principles of Design, and for Graphic Design 2, we added a couple of new elements and principles into the mix. It was a good refresher, and an important reminder that the elements and principles are the building blocks of good design.

For this first project, we created a matrix of the elements & principles with 100 thumbnail sketches to represent the "intersection" of each of the 10 Elements and 10 Principles of Design in our Sketchbook. Then, we chose one of the Principles COLUMNS and designed the entire column of sketches digitally in Ai. This project was very helpful as we start the new term to get back into the mindset of a designer and to get reacquainted with the tools and interface in Ai. It gave me a chance to brainstorm and sketch thumbnails and come up with a lot of ideas. Then, I had the chance to take those ideas and recreate them on the computer in Ai. I really enjoyed the process of figuring out how I wanted to visually represent the "intersection" of each of these elements and principles and the various ways they can work together in design, and the opportunity to refine and improve my thumbnail sketches in Adobe Illustrator when I was recreating them digitally. I have a much better understanding of what the Elements & Principles are and how I might be able to use them in my designs this term. I also now have a visual vocabulary tool in my sketchbook I can refer back to through this term. Winner!

I chose to recreate the PROXIMITY column in Ai. Here are the images showing my process from start to finish.

REFLECTION • WHAT I LEARNED

Write a short paragraph here describing what you discovered, how you innovated and how you think you have demonstrated growth during your process and after completing this project.

WHAT'S UP STUDIO 903? • JANUARY 2024

Hi, it's great to have you back in Studio 903! I wanted to share a little update on what's been going on since we last worked together.

This is my SEVENTH year teaching, but as you know, I have been working in the Arts, Entertainment, Media and Marketing Industries for many years now. I live in Carlsbad, and grew up right on the border of Vista and San Marcos off of Sycamore Avenue. I went to San Marcos Elementary, San Marcos Junior High and San Marcos High School (RBV opened the year I started High School). I was/am a proud Knight, but am thrilled to be a TIMBERWOLF at MVHS!

Prior to MVHS, I worked at LEGOLAND California Resort for 18 years, and enjoyed my time there as Entertainment & Events Manager/Show Producer and most recently as a Creative Services Specialist in the Marketing Dept. You can read more about this on my home page.