Tori Azize

Victoria Azize Fall 2021

A Look Into the World of Design Projects, Processes, and Reflections

Intro to Visual Arts Computing

Project One Snippets

For project 1, the snippets I chose were “Wear Your Heart On Your

Sleeve”, “You Get What You Give”, and

“Be Savage”. At one point during class, we talked about seeing things from a different perspective, so that’s what

I tried to do with all of these quotes.

For example, instead of considering

“You Get What You Give” in a strictly

positive way in the sense of showing kindness to receive kindness, I tried

to express the alternate side to what

that could bring in life. You could give as much kindness as possible, yet still only get things such as cruelty and/

or pain in return. That’s likely not the

first thing that comes to mind with the quote, but it’s an unfortunate truth

in our world and proves that even if

you do get something back when you give, it may not be what you expect.

Attached are pictures of my sketching

process for all three snippets. I started with a rough idea of what I wanted

everything to look like, then moved to recreating/lining the final pieces and adding any extras/changes to make

everything come together a bit better.

While I went back and forth on if they were turning out like they should, I

was happy with them in the end and

wound up enjoying the project more than I expected to.

Reading Response

Michael Bierut

I genuinely enjoyed this reading and was able to connect to it fairly well, especially when it came to Bierut finding a love

for design while in school. I’ve always been the type to enjoy the cover work for a project more so than the project itself, and the feeling he expressed when he got to see his work

around the school he went to brought back memories of my own school’s paintings, posters, and the like that I was lucky

enough to get to work on. It was also wonderful to hear how

quickly he was able to get a job in the field he loved outside

of college and how since then he’s only changed jobs once. I

“...finding a love for design while in school...”

feel like a lot of people steadily warn you that certain degrees won’t land you a job, or that if it does it would take years

of searching first. It’s nice to see that go a different way for

someone in an art field, even if it doesn’t work that way for

everyone. I’m still not sure myself if design is the specific track I want to be on but getting to read into someone’s positive experiences was refreshing nonetheless.

Project Two

Great Ideas Poster

For project 2, the quote I chose to

create a poster for was “The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read a page.” (Saint Augustine) and I began with a rough idea of

what I was going for, which was to

create the idea of different places and cultures coming from the pages of a book. The sketch involved chunks of

land and various vehicles coming off

of the pages, but I wound up changing the idea to the pages themselves

being made from the world (maps,

postcards, et cetera), to express how

one’s travelling and experiences would be what would fill the pages of their life’s book. Another couple changes towards the end was to adjust the

background to give it a more natural feeling, so it was changed from a

plain color to a wooden desk-like

background, along with removing

some black silhouettes and instead adding additional pages stuffed

into the book in a less precise way.

Attached are pictures of each step to

show the changes along the way and how the final poster came out!

Reading Response

Stefan Sagmeister

For the Stefan Sagmeister reading, my first thought was how great of an

“...he’s either brilliant or completely insane, although most likely a little of both...”

idea it is to take scheduled sabbaticals after long periods of work. Honestly,

not many people would have the opportunity to take such breaks, even

if they wanted to, but if you’re able to do so, I completely understand why

you would, and I for sure would too.

Aside from the expected upside of

enjoying the probably much-needed time off, it’s also insanely impressive

that Sagmeister managed to make his

sabbaticals a financial success by using the time to come up with some of his

next ideas. I also don’t know many

people who would be bold enough to use a nude photo of themselves in

a studio opening card, so he’s either brilliant or completely insane, although

most likely a little of both. Either way, he definitely sounds someone to take advice from considering how well he’s doing with his out-there ideas.

Video Response Aaron Draplin

It was incredible to watch Draplin work and to see how quickly he can make a logo design idea come together for a client. To be able to jump so rapidly from

loose paper sketches to an Illustrator

design and have numerous workable ideas put together in just a few minutes

is amazing to witness. Coming up with

a singular idea seems to take me days as it is, so I’d relish even the smallest

chance to be that comfortable with a program in the future. In addition to that, Draplin was able to come up

with an appropriate color palette in

practically no time at all, and in a way that was so simple, yet so clever. I also

love how he pulls inspiration from older designs to show how well something

simple can age and how easily an old

logo can continue to look relevant after decades have passed.

“...he can make a logo design idea come together...”

Project Three Character Logos

For project 3, the characters I chose to create logos for were Beetlejuice and

Juno, both from the movie Beetlejuice.

I started with rough paper sketches, trying to come up with a simplistic

design that could easily be read as the character it was for. Both logos went through quite a few changes, some during the paper stage and many

more in Illustrator until deciding on a final design. For the Beetlejuice logo, I started with blocks of alternating heights with the type of his name

floating above, but changed to have

the blocks intersecting each other with the type bouncing within those blocks

to create a much more chaotic feeling.

From there I altered colors, fonts, and overall sizing and placement until the

design felt balanced, while also feeling just disjointed enough to match

the character’s personality. For the

Juno logo, the final design changed drastically from the initial sketch,

which was the idea of cigarette smoke forming the first letter of her name.

That was adjusted to incorporate her neck gash to pair with the smoke to create the letter, then finally a more complete version of her head, neck

gash, and smoke, all paired with a very sharp font to create a hard, impatient feeling. Attached are images of the

initial sketches, final sketches, and final Illustrator designs for each logo.

Reading Response

Mark Fox

I appreciate how the reading

expressed the difference between

“...an inspiration to those who want to get into design...”

logos and branding, as I feel like

those two terms are sometimes used interchangeably even when they

mean different things, so getting

that clarification up front is helpful.

It was also extremely interesting to

read into where the swastika’s design originally came from, as I had no

idea that it symbolized good fortune

before being widely known as the Nazi party symbol. You don’t always think about where a symbol came from or how it could have been used in the past once it holds such a negative

connotation. Also, in response to the Mark Fox portion of the reading, it is impressive that someone so young

took it upon themselves to create their own design portfolio that was strong enough to get them hired when the

designs themselves weren’t even for real businesses. That’s definitely an

inspiration to those who want to get

into design but may not have a degree in that specific field.

Project Four

Syntax & Semantics

For project 4, I chose to use men’s

However, once I found a way that

a large pool of options with lots of

a good bit easier for the others. I

pants as my subject so that I had

variety to select from. Once I narrowed down my four selections (to khakis,

jeans, sweatpants, and dress pants), I

found it difficult starting out with their syntax descriptions. For something

that sounded so simple, I got caught up a few times when being sure to

describe them as a form, as opposed to exactly what they are – pants.

worked well for the first pair, it became didn’t have as much trouble with

the semantics portions, but still took a little while to get the hang of the

connotation and expression portions.

Even though it was a quick project, I

did enjoy it and feel at the end I was left with a better understanding of

syntax and semantics. Attached is an image of the completed project.

Reading Response Paul Buckley

Firstly, just the mere idea of overseeing a “gazillion” people sounds like a

chaotic nightmare, so I have no clue how Buckley handles that, but good on him for doing so. Additionally,

I’ve always considered myself to be a worrier – The type to panic if things

don’t seem like they are going right – so reading about his process and

how even he sometimes panics and just slaps something decent down

when he can’t think of another idea

is reassuring to someone like myself

who always thought of it as a negative thing. It’s also really nice to know that Buckley values genuine enjoyment in the job, and that he looks for others

who love their work just as much as he does, as opposed to picking whoever has the most experience or largest

portfolio. Just knowing that there are people like him out there who would give you a shot for being yourself is amazing.

“Buckley values genuine enjoyment in the job...”

Project Five Process Book

For project 5, we put together a book displaying our previous projects and

blog posts. I really enjoyed the entire

process of this project and was glad to get another crack at InDesign before

the semester was over. My initial page layout for the book was definitely a

“fixer upper”, with text that was too large, unnecessary text box breaks,

and strangely arranged pictures, but it didn’t take long to find something that worked and build off of that.

Before I knew it, I had something that didn’t look like complete trash, even though it still needed a lot of work.

From there it was what seemed like a million smaller (yet still somehow

very significant) changes that made

it all come together. This is probably the project I’m most proud of from

the semester, and It’s great to end on something that I feel shows how far

we’ve all come in just a short amount of time. Attached are images of the

process on the first couple pages that

show the initial layout, the layout after a few major changes, and the more finalized layout.