Seasonal Design: Literary Magazine Halloween Edition

Project #1: Leadership in Graphic Design & Marketing

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What I did

Wabi-Sabi Literature is an independent literary magazine woven through the raw, the authentic, and the incompleteness. As a staff member and graphic designer for the literary magazine, I help design outstanding yet soft posts to further its marketing campaign and expand its audience. For this year’s Halloween post, I was tasked with creating an Instagram slideshow carousel featuring two cake recipes, a mood board, and some scary movie recommendations along with my fellow graphic designer, Cori Liu. The challenge was to create a spooky yet aesthetic post that spoke the true feelings of the holiday while also following Wabi-sabi’s signature soft pink and green branding.

It definitely wasn’t easy. Cori and I spent hours trying to make Halloween’s vivid orange, blacks, and purples blend with Wabi-sabi’s gentle greens, pinks, and whites. But, by scrapbooking pictures on a shared board in Pinterest, organizing similar graphics and photos with Adobe Express, and collaborating intensively on shared themes in Canva, we were able to create what I think was a near-perfect Halloween post for our literary magazine.

Outcome & Praise

Our festive Halloween post for Wabi-sabi Lit was able to reach a vast audience, receiving over 116 likes and 48 comments, including some of the larger literary magazines such as Sonder Literary (18.6k+ followers) and Vellichor Literary (89.9k+ followers). Below are some of the featured comments and praise we received for this post!

"GUYS YOUR POSTS HAVE ME DOWN BADDD. THEY ARE SO GOOD 🥹💞" - CyberValkyries

"THE GRAPHICSSSSS🛐🛐🛐" - Ataraxia Library

"OMG THE GRAPHICS THE RECIPES IM IN LOVE WITH EVERYTHING" - Yuna Library

Art Meets Advocacy: Breast Cancer Awareness Visual Campaign

Project #2: Spreading Awareness and Fundraising w/ Graphic Design

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My Impact

As the art club’s publicity officer and lead designer, I collaborated with my school's HOSA club in order to bring awareness to breast cancer through a powerful visual campaign. The challenge was to transform a simple trifold board into an engaging, interesting piece that would catch attention, inform, and inspire empathy among students, as well as hopefully encourage them to donate for a good cause!

Using bold and descriptive design choices, cohesive pink palettes, and meaningful typography, I created a visual narrative that connected emotion with purpose. This project not only unified our school’s community, but it was also able to help raise $635 to support breast cancer awareness efforts!

BONUS - Designing Sairo: A Character Creation Journey

Project #3: Commission Spotlight w/ Custom Character Design

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The Challenge

Aside from doing freelance graphic design, I have also been a freelance artist for over three years now! I have completed artworks for over 15+ clients and made over $300 selling and creating whimsical artworks for people. As such, I mainly draw portraits, landscapes, and character concept sheets, and my commission prices vary for each. If you would like more details or are interested in purchasing, please see the bottom of this site!

One of my favorite projects was creating a character called SAIRO for one of my clients. She was a cyber soldier who could control the very matrix in the world in which she lived from her home, a skyscraper called The Umanoki Tower, alongside her adorable pet, Twiggy. When I heard about this concept, I was incredibly intrigued, to say the least. My client gave me some of her signature colors, which included stark whites, vivid reds, and dark greys, along some of the features they wanted me to include, such as an iconic moon and star symbol and various other cyber technologies.

Needless to say, my first sketch was not perfect. Far from it, really. Since my client didn't really give me an exact vision for what she wanted to do, I was able to take creative liberties in designing Sairo, but that also meant that we would undergo lots of revision. One of the most essential skills that a freelance artist must have is collaboration, and I was very flexible and proactive in communicating with my client to ensure that the necessary changes to Sairo's design matched what the client wanted to convey or showcase.

In the following days, I implemented the changes that the client asked for and drew a second sketch, this time in a poster format. I do this so I can define the high contrast colors and see how the character might look like as a splash art, or essentially how they would look like when its just them and no other distractions. My client was very happy with this design, but she still had some things she wished to change. For one, she decided she didn't want the mask anymore, and secondly, she decided that she no longer wanted the character to be a stoic, strict cyber soldier. Instead, she wanted the design to pivot into a more magical girl style, with the character still being cunning, but this time more mischievous. She showed me some reference pictures on Pinterest for the character's clothes and I got to work.

After I sketched the poses and fashion for Sairo, I consulted with my client before I went ahead with the rendering. We finalized her outfit, accessories, shoes, and debated about including her wings or not. Ultimately, we settled on this design (shown in the picture above) and I got to work on the rendering!

Finally done! This sheet took me a lot of time to complete, but it was also really fun. I always include a front, back, and headshot of the character alongside their color palette, additional stickers, and fun typography + information. The platforms/resources I used to make this amazing finished sheet are Procreate and Adobe Express!

My Creative Process

Want to learn the formula to easily creating beautiful character design sheets like me? I break down character creation into three deliberate stages:

1. 🩷 The Foundation Sketch & Concept– A bustshot that captures the core personality and energy; this part is mainly quantity over quality, where I brainstorm as many ideas as I can for the character's colors, clothes, and accessories, then select which can most effectively capture their identity.
2. 💛 The Visual Identity Poster– A graphic-design-style showcase highlighting key traits and aesthetic; high contrast and focused on details, this step defines the character's design but still leaves room for changes and shows off the character's personality.
3. 💙 The Complete Concept Sheet– A fully-rendered, publication-ready reference that brings every detail to life; this is the final sheet that can be now used and referred to, complete with the finished color palette, a front, back, and headshot of the character, and other additional details that may need highlighting.

By following this process, you can ensure that each stage builds upon the last, guaranteeing that the final design is cohesive, compelling, and true to the client's vision. Remember to always confirm and stay in constant communication with your client to ensure that the design is exactly what they envisioned, if not even more so!

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Testimonial & Praise

"...Every element of Emma's work, no matter how big or small, demonstrates its beauty." ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆⋆˙₊˚ෆ

I am proud to say that the final character concept sheet definitely exceeded my client's expectations, capturing Sairo's dual nature—both her mischeviousness and elegance—through deliberate design choices in pose, expression, and costume details. Additionally, beyond client satisfaction, this project greatly strengthened my technical skills in rendering and anatomy, and it also refined my ability to translate abstract character traits into concrete visual elements. While designing a character from scratch may seem daunting at first, breaking the process into smaller, more achievable steps is incredibly helpful, and that's the procedure that works the best for me!