Graphic Design Portfolio 2024

POR T F OL I O GRAPHIC DE S I G N

AL IANNA BECERRA Art has always been a major aspect of my life. My grandfather was an illustrator, my grandmother a painter, my dad a photographer, and now myself a designer.

Although I have always loved the creativity of arts like illustration and painting, I’ve also appreciated the more structured aspects of design. I like that it can combine the creative mind with the analytical.

Throughout my life and career I have continued to focus on both creativity and analytics. I spent most of my studies in college in art history, architecture, art and design classes. This allowed me to incorporate a more creative eye into my work in design and a more analytical eye into my art. The influences each of these areas have had on each other through my work have served to be the foundations of myself as a designer.

Professionally I have focused my career on both graphic design and architecture.

These experiences and influences throughout my life have informed my designs and my portfolio aims to show that. Through a mix of designs, I intend to tell a story not only of these designs, but of who I am as a designer.

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CONTENTS PROFESSIONAL

04. URBAN CARTOGRAPHICS 08. BATTERY FARM LOGO 10. JOHN SNYDER ARCHITECTS

EDUCATIONAL

14. SELECTED 2D DESIGN WORKS

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URBAN

CARTOGRAPHICS 2023-2024

In early March of 2023 I began working as a Graphic Designer with Urban Cartographics, a small group of planning and zoning consultants specializing in the NYC development approval process.

Here I created a lot of maps, presentations, and other related graphics to help clients throughout various stage of the development approval process. I made these visuals mainly through the use of QGIS for map making and CorelDRAW for making presentations. I also used various other tools to aid my design process including SketchUp, Photoshop, Rhino and more.

In this section, you can see a few different samples of the type of work I did throughout my time at Urban Cartographics. Included on this spread is the Urban Design Diagram (left), which was created to help clients visualize early massing models on their site.

Also included on the right is the Plan Beautification Project. This was an initiative I developed to help clients to better interpret the architects’ plans for their projects.

Addresses in this section have been changed or redacted for confidentiality purposes.

Urban Design Diagrams - SketchUp, Rhino, Photoshop 4

Plan Beautification Projects - QGIS, CorelDRAW

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Full Presentation Slides - CorelDRAW, Client Plans 6

Full Presentation Slides - CorelDRAW, QGIS, Client Plans, NYC DOF As I became more familiar with the team’s work throughout my time at Urban Cartographics, I became the lead designer on presentation work. These presentations were often used by our clients at meetings during their development approval process. The goal through the presentations was to dissect the plans for the site in question and present them in a way that was clear for any viewer with any level of zoning knowledge to understand.

Although I created a lot of these presentations for various projects, no two presentations were ever the same. There were some

slides that were seen in almost every presentation to some capacity, such as the “Access to Many Transit Options” and “Tax Map” slides seen above, but I also created many unique slides that were customized to each project. Examples of those are the “Contextual Design” slide to the left and the “Existing and Proposed Developments” slide above. Despite variety in some of the content of these presentations, they were always cohesive with one another and aligned with the identity of the Urban Cartographics brand.

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B A T T E R Y F AR M L OGO 2022

In 2022, I was hired to create a logo for Battery Farm of North Salem, New York. The client wanted the logo to be based off of the historic cannon on their property, which can be seen in the reference photograph to the right.

I created a number of iterations for the client based on the reference photo and based on my client’s artistic style preferences. Some of these iterations can be seen to the right as well. The client chose the logo highlighted on the right page of this spread, as it was the most cohesive with his design style for other aspects of his life, such as the logo for his business.

Reference Image

After creating the logo, the client wanted to produce a variety of clothing items to print the logo on. In order to do this, I created mock-ups of the logo on a hat, t-shirt, jacket, and tote bag, as seen on the page to the right.

Preliminary Logo Iterations - Illustrator, Photoshop 8

B

T E RY F A R

M

AT

BATTERY FARM

NORTH SALEM •• NEW YORK •• 1804

BATTERY FARM

NORTH SALEM • NEW YORK • 1804

BATTERY FARM

NORTH SALEM •• NEW YORK •• 1804

Final Logo Mockups - Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

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J. SNYDER ARCHITECTS 2020

During my final semester at Ithaca College I worked at John Snyder Architects (JSA) as an Architectural Intern from February until June. This internship provided me with valuable information about the architecture industry and the skills to better my practice of architecture.

A lot of the work I did during this time was for the redesign of the JSA website, including the work shown in this section. During this time I worked hand in hand with the website designer to create various graphics showing our past and current projects.

This experience working on redesigning the JSA website allowed me to practice my graphic design skills in a more professional setting than I had done previously during my time in college.

In addition to the work shown in this section, I also worked on a variety of technical drawings and designs for different projects including residential homes and car dealerships.

Website Imagery - Illustrator, Photoshop 10

Website Imagery - Illustrator, Photoshop 11

Employee Headshots - Illustrator

About a month into my time working with John Snyder Architects, the Covid-19 pandemic was quickly escalating throughout the world and where we were located in Ithaca, New York. This began a long period of remote work that forced us to re-imagine what our practice would look like.

During this time, I was doing a lot of work on redesigning our firm’s website and we were in need of a set of new, cohesive headshots for the team. This proved difficult being that we were all in different places and unable to meet with a professional pho12

tographer. Because of this, I decided to make digital headshots for the team based on recent photos that they sent me, as seen above. This allowed us to have an up to date set of headshots that were all following the same format. This also helped me to make the headshots in a style that was connected to the style of the rest of the website imagery.

In additional to the technical architectural design work I did with John Snyder Architects and the graphic design that I did for their website, I also was tasked with managing the firm’s Instagram. They did not post on their Instagram very frequently, so I made it my goal to post more often and engage more with our community so people could know more about JSA as a firm.

In doing this, I started a “Throwback Thursday” series, where on Thursdays I would highlight a past project we did. To the top right you can see two images from a highlight I did of The Bank Tower building, a building in Ithaca, New York, that the JSA team did renovations on. Through research of this project I was also able to find historical records of the building before our renovation of it to include in this post.

Between this initiative and other interesting posts I made about JSA, I was able to increase their Instagram’s engagement by an average of 155% and inform the community more about our team and the work we did.

Social Media Posts - Instagram 13

DAVE’S W A N D E R I N G 2D DESIGN WORKS SELECTED WANDERING

DAVE’S DAVE’S

DAVE’S

2019-20 2 0 WANDERING The following section W A consists NDER ING of 3 different projects that I worked on throughout my time at Ithaca College as an art minor with a focus in Graphic Design.

Brewster, NY • 845.582.0668 • wanderingdaves.com • @wanderingdaves

The project seen on this spread was created for the Graphic Design II course at Ithaca College. The task was to create a new logo for a business that were Wwe AN D E familiar R I N G with. I chose to create a logo for Wandering Dave’s, a restaurant and food truck in my home town of Brewster, New York. I began by designing a logo for the business then implementing that logo and style onto a Wnumber A N D EofRdifferent I N G products.

This included their Instagram, food truck, website, note paper, and business cards.

WA NDER ING

DAVE’S

Brewster, NY • 845.582.0668 • wanderingdaves.com • @wanderingdaves

Another project highlighted at the end of this section is a specimen book for the Baskerville font inspired by the movie Hidden Figures. Baskerville was used for the advertisements for this film and is also a font that I use frequently myself when looking for a staple serif font. For this project I used themes and imagery from the film as a means of exploring and displaying the font.

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WA NDER ING

DAVE’S

WA NDER ING

PUTTING A FORK IN THE ROAD Lakeview Plaza Shopping Center 1515 RT 22 D4 Brewster, NY 10509 Store 845.582.0668 Catering 845.746.3451 wanderingdaves.com @wanderingdaves

E’S

W A N D E R I N G WA NDER ING

W A N D E R I N G DAVE’S WA NDER ING

DAVE’S

WA NDER ING

DAVE’S

WA NDER ING Brewster, NY • 845.582.0668 • wanderingdaves.com • @wanderingdaves

WA NDER ING Brewster, NY • 845.582.0668 • wanderingdaves.com • @wanderingdaves

WA NDER ING

PUTTING A FORK IN THE ROAD Lakeview Plaza Shopping Center 1515 RT 22 D4 Brewster, NY 10509 Store 845.582.0668 Catering 845.746.3451 wanderingdaves.com @wanderingdaves

Wandering Dave’s Brand Redesign - Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop 15

“THE LAND OF THE FREE” “The Land of the Free” Poster - Illustrator, InDesign 16

Photograph of my work in “How Did We Get Here” exhibit

Screenshot of my work in article from The Ithacan

The piece pictured on the left was featured in the exhibit “How Did We Get Here” at the CAP ArtSpace Gallery in Ithaca, N.Y. from November 1st through December 3rd, 2019. The exhibit featured art that focused on ideas of displacement and migration and portrayed various different views of and experiences with these topics.

for. If it is not a place that is free for all, regardless of where you came from, can it really be called “the land of the free”?

Featured artists included Ithaca City of Asylum resident artist Pedro X. Molina, Ithaca College professor Paul Wilson, and students of Ithaca College’s Graphic Design II class, including myself. I was honored to be part of this exhibit with such talented artists and grateful for the opportunity to bring light to this topic in this way.

The piece that I had featured in the exhibit drew a parallel between the physical barriers that are often called for in the current conversations about immigration and the concept of freedom in the United States. It questions who the United States is actually free

“The Land of the Free” was also featured in an article from The Ithacan about the “How Did We Get Here” exhibit. The article, “Local Exhibit on Migration Showcases Student Art” was written by Emily Hung and published on November 7th, 2019.

After being featured in this exhibit, my piece was one of two pieces of student work from this collection to also be chosen as part of Ithaca College’s 2020 Provost Show. The pieces chosen for the Provost Show are displayed in the Ithaca College Provost Office for the entirety of the Spring semester to be viewed by members of the community. I was very grateful to have had my piece chosen for this show to be displayed on campus for my peers and the community to see for the semester.

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“There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself. And

10pt Regular

I can’t use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, Mr. Harrisson. My uniform skirt below my knees, my heels.

18pt Regular

And a simple string of pearls. Well, I don’t own pearls. Lord knows you don’t

pay the colored enough to afford pearls. And I work like

a dog day and night living on coffee from a pot

C

none of you want to touch! So, excuse

me if I have to go to the rest-

room a few times a day.”

26pt Regular

34pt Regular

42pt Regular

50pt Regular

58pt SemiBold

66pt Bold

790pt Bold Italic

CHRISTINE DARDEN

50pt Regular

CHRISTINE DARDEN, despite not being feartured in the film Hidden Figures was a key player in the work of the real life “Hidden Figures.” She joined NASA’s team of “human computers” in 1967 to help them process data. But her goal was to not just process the data, but to create it. She processed data for eight years before being transferred to the engineering section after she approached her supervisor to ask why men of the same educational background as her were being hired as engineers, but she was not.

During her 40 years with NASA, Darden led an advisory team, became a deputy program manager, and in 1999 was appointed director of a major aerospace program.

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10/12pt Regular

Pages from Specimen Book inspired by “Hidden Figures” - InDesign, Photoshop

NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA 30pt Regular 30pt SemiBold 30pt Bold

NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA 30pt Italic 30pt SemiBold Italic 30pt Bold Italic

NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA 30pt Regular 30pt SemiBold 30pt Bold

NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA • NASA

Bb

9

Ascender height

Cap height

Ascender

Cross bar

Counter

Serif

Baseline

Stem

472/566.4pt Regular 12/14.4pt Regular

BASKERVILLE

40pt Italic

DESIGNED IN THE 1750S, BASKERVILLE is known mainly for its proportionality as well as its contrast and crisp edges.

It was created by and named after John Baskerville, a master type founder and printer from Birmingham, England.

Despite being known as a master of type now, John Baskerville was not always the magnificant type creator that he became.

He was originally a servent in a clergyman’s house when his employer noticed his talent for penmanship and sent him to learn how to write. Baskerville was illiterate, but became very interested in calligraphy. His strokes and embellishements that he practiced were later what created his printed typeface that we know today.

Baskerville is a transitional typeface, as it is a stepping stone from old style to modern. It wqas inspired by the idea of perfecting an older typeface: Caslon. Baskerville’s idea of perfection was very subtle and simple. He focused amainly on making higher contrast between thick and thin strokes, sharpening serifs, and shifting the axis of round letters to be more vertical.

This maade the round stroes more circular as well and caused for more regularity and consistency in the letter forms.

10/12pt Regular

Pages from Specimen Book inspired by “Hidden Figures” - InDesign, Photoshop 19

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RESUME EDUCATION B.A. in Architectural Studies Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY Minor: Art (Graphic Design) Magna Cum Laude

SKILLS Adobe Creative Cloud • CorelDRAW • Revit • AutoCAD • SketchUp • Rhinoceros • QGIS Google Workspace • Microsoft 365 • Hand Drafting • MicroStation • OpenBuildings

EXPERIENCE Urban Cartographics, New York, NY Graphic Designer

March 2023-October 2024

Battery Farm, North Salem, NY Graphic Designer

February 2022-September 2022

Lee Harris Pomeroy Architects, New York, NY Junior Architectural Designer Architectural Intern

July 2020-August 2021

John Snyder Architects, Ithaca, NY Architectural Intern

February 2020-June 2020

Ithaca College Art History Department, Ithaca, NY Teaching Assistant - Architectural Studies Volunteer Tour Guide

August 2018-December 2019 August 2018-March 2020

AWARDS Ithaca College Department of Art History Prize G. Ferris Cronkite Scholarship

Peggy Ryan Williams Award

2019-2020 2019-2020 February 2019 21

Alianna Becerra issuu.com/aliannabecerra alianna.becerra@gmail.com