portfolio website: project statement

  Create a list of all users that may visit your site (not from the WWW but those you’d invite).

•  Creative Directors
• Art Directors
• PR Personnel
• Clients
• Students
• Teachers
• Friends
• Family

What will each of those users want to see in order to enjoy their visit to your site? Name your intended audience (the person(s) you need to persuade.)

• Creative Directors and Art Directors:
  Images of projects that are easily accessible and quick to navigate through. Easily found and downloadable or selectable resume and obvious contact information. Probably a safe bet that less is more- showcase your work, less clutter.
• PR Personnel:
  Resume that is easy to download or select. Obvious contact button.
• Clients:
  Beautiful work and easy navigation with a seriously easy to find call to action! Hire me or contact me button should probably be on every page. 
• Students:
  Inspiration! Students are more interested in picking apart your coding, finding how things work and looking at your work to get ideas for their art. 
• Teachers:
  Easy and quick navigation. Concept driven work with explanation of work.
• Friends:
  Work that looks "realistic" and makes sense conceptually. Fully functional page that is not hard to understand but that really showcases my work.
• Family:
  Any work posted by their awesome daughter/cousin/niece/relative that they can be impressed by. Must be VERY easy to understand with anything that has an image clickable (basically).

Describe what you need to inform and persuade them of:

Promote my: designs! I need things to show that are WORTH promoting.
Goals of the site are: showcase my work in a way that is easy to understand and navigate, without overwhelming the viewer but still keeping interest. 

My ultimate message/philosophy (about who you are): "Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated." -Paul Rand
I believe that the most promising and beautiful work is the most simple, and conceptual. A picture can say a thousand words, and I want to prove that to you with my designs.

What is the story you are telling? Simple is beautiful. 

List the assets you need to persuade the user: Which 7 (minimum) projects? scans of what?, photos of what objects? images from what computer graphics program? what descriptive text? list them.

•  Backdoor at Roxy's Identity System and Collateral
  Logo
  Letterhead, Business Card, Envelope
  Direct Mailer
  Menu
  Signage
• Bathtub Gin & CO Identity System and Collateral
  Logo
  Letterhead, Business Card, Envelope
  Menu
  Table Tent
  Style Guide
• Roq La Rue Gallery Illustration
  Pen Illustration
  Full color pencil illustration
  Flyer
• GQ Magazine We The Living Dead Article
  Splash page
  Pull quote
  Spread 1
  Spread 2
• TWIF Beard & Stache Fest
  News paper ads
  Billboard
  Teeshirt
• Nintendo Super Princess Daisy
  Logo
  Process Book
  Game Cover
  Splash cover design
• Trader Joes Newsletter
  Cover
  Spread
  Folded Newsletter

 For the purpose of structuring your website portfolio pages, list the categories of work you will show. (for a Photographer, or example, it may be portrait, product, sports photography categories).

 Potential subcategories

• Print Work
• Web Work
• Photography and Retouching
• Hand-drawn work

Concept Statement:

The main purpose of my website is to show my work to future employers and potential customers. My work should be the focus and star of the website, so I don't want it to get lost in a messy or cluttered homepage. I want the website to have very intuitive and easy to understand navigation, with the aid of thumbnails and directional arrows to drive users to change projects. In order to grab attention and keep attention on my page I will use variety and show my best projects as well as include large, high quality images. As a designer, and a person, I rely and use humor in my work and my life. It is important to me to reflect who I am to my audience but also to keep my humor aside from my professionalism. 

In order to show the best possible me, and best possible projects, I want to hand pick the designs I showcase. My personal logo or name will be a stationary position on the website along with the navigation to create a feeling of consistency and ease. I will utilize arrows to toggle through projects as well as have click-able links so a user can always easily change what they are seeing. My main goal is create a website that people can browse without fuss or hassle that has an obvious call to action: hire me!

unit one reading and inspiration: graphic design portfolio

READING SUMMARY
These first two chapters were about going back to basics. Just like most design classes have taught me, keep it simple! Successful web design is web design that can be navigated and understood easily from the users perspective. When things get overcomplicated on a website it becomes hard to navigate and frustrating. The second chapter really talks about how users are more-or-less, rapid clickers. Tunnel vision sets in when there is a goal in mind (and honestly, how often are we NOT looking for something) and people tend to just click whatever strikes their fancy first, even if there is a more straightforward way to find what they are looking for. We are habitual creatures that tend to do things the way that we know how, even if it's not the most efficient way.

While I felt like the things that were covered were relatively common sense, I think it is really very important to take into consideration our habit-forming nature. Personally, I have used Adobe Photoshop for years- probably since about 2004. I do things the way I taught myself to do them if I wasn't sure the correct way. I am currently learning hot keys and shortcuts and my mind is blown. I initially turn on autopilot and try to do things the old way, but the more I learn and utilize these shortcuts, the more time I devote to what I'm doing and the less time I have clicking around. I feel like web users are very similar. Once something works, they will do it that way until they train themselves otherwise. Our job as designers is to not only make things work beautifully, but quickly and comprehensibly, in a way that might aid our visitors to learn! That sounds like a big responsibility!

Why Mood Boards Matter was a very interesting article explaining the importance of mood boards. As a designer I am always looking at pictures of ANYTHING to get inspiration. A mood board is just a collection of inspirations that give the vibe of the direction you want to take your project in. They are a great source to refer back to when designing as well as a great option to show clients. In the design world we always want to SHOW and not TELL. A mood board really does just that. Now if only I could settle on one style...



INSPIRATION

These are some really beautiful graphic design portfolios and websites!

Cymetriq

Charlotte Tang (don't forget to check out the awesome color hover effect!)

Olly Gibs (love the type and the hover- also check out the about me page, love how it opens to the right)
 
Paul Currah (so, basically I am obsessed with hover effects)

Ben Barry

Kendra Schaefer (sassy and sarcastic. I can dig it)

Cast Iron

Moreten Claussen (you're welcome for the mind explosion)

M1 (it's not in English, but it is so fun!)

Ben Hulse

Ryan Scherf

Scribble Tone

bathtub gin & co website proposal

Open publication - Free publishing - More bathtub gin

bathtub gin & co identity system

new 2 color logo

letterhead, envelope, business card.

full system, letterhead, envelope, business card, and style guidelines.

style guidelines.

bathtub gin & co creative brief

Client Brief

2205 2nd Ave.

Seattle, WA 98121

206.728.6069

bathtubginseattle.com

What do we do: Modern-day Speakeasy style Bar. Stock a wide selection of rare and local spirits. Hand crafted cocktails. Limited food menu.

When did we begin: Owners Jessica and Marcus started BG&Co July 25, 2009. 

Who works here: Small, personal staff includes 4 bartenders and 4 cocktail waitresses. Family-like atmosphere.

Who comes here: 26-31 year old young adults who enjoy the intimate, speakeasy scene of the past. 31-50 year old patrons looking for specialty, hand-crafted cocktails and exotic spirits.

Us in One Sentence: Intimate, modern-day speakeasy with a knack for mind-blowing hand-crafted cocktails.

current logo and webpage

The current logo for Bathtub Gin & Co is very beautiful, actually. I love the use of shape for the text, because it is very 1920s-esque. There is a bathtub shape in the middle of the logo, and the floral/ornate decor is reminiscent of a bathtub brand label. The colors are an alright scheme to suit the business, but I feel like there could be better. The business card uses a script type as the secondary type for their information. 

Why do I want to change it? I feel like this logo leans on the edge of “girly” and I feel like their brand would be better suited with one that is less swirly and “pretty”that utilizes strong 1920s style type and shapes. I also am concerned about scalability with this logo, as it needs to be very large to be readable. I would like to change the color scheme as well to convey more of a rich, secretive feel. I would like to use the bathtub icon as a separate piece that can become a pull-away. 

twif beard & stache fest newspaper ads

twif beard & stache fest creative brief

The World Is Fun Advertisement Creative Brief

Job: Beard & Stache Fest 2012 Ads
Date: 05.10.12

Client: The World Is Fun Non-profit
Page: 1

Types: 5 Black/White Newspaper Ads

Project Description (What is it?)

Design a set of black and white newspaper ads for a non-profit organization. The ads need to relate to one another and appear as a series that is consistent and recognizable. Up to 5 ads may be designed as well as possible collateral. 

Target Audience (Who are we talking to?)

Primary: 18-40 year olds interested in volunteering.

Secondary: Men with facial hair willing to volunteer.

Purpose (What must it accomplish?)

The advertisements much generate interest in the event, as well as the non-profit group, The World Is Fun. The series should attract attention and provide an enticing, and easy call-to-action that people don’t negate because it’s volunteer work. It should also appeal to those who feel like they cannot donate financially, so they can offer to donate their time.

Style & Tone (What do we want them to think?)

The ads will be printed in black and white, but need to be fun and exciting. They should make the viewer excited to look into more info about the event, and in turn, attend. Body should be concise and minimized as to not draw attention from the ad focus point.

Benefits (What benefits does the company offer? What makes us unique?)

The World Is Fun is a Seattle non-profit group that runs fun, social events that don’t seem like volunteer work. From the Beard & Stache Fest, to cook-offs, to bicycle maintenance parties, TWIF offers a variety of events that are less like work, and more like fun. 

"We are The World is Fun! You can call us TWIF. Our mission is to be the catalyst to connect volunteers, corporations and charities in need and we are here to do things a little differently. TWIF is 100% volunteer run. We support Seattle by connecting volunteers, local businesses, and Seattle nonprofits to create a mutually beneficial community for everyone involved. In other words – we can’t do this without your help! There are about a million ways to help TWIF - from volunteering to donating to simply tweeting – but we don’t have room to list all one million, so here are a few. (When you come up with one of the 999,980 ways to help that isn’t on this page – contact us! We’re always open to new and creative ways to get involved with our community!)"