Fashion Show Program

As Public Relations of the Student Fashion Society, which is the fashion club on campus, I took on the job of creating the Fashion Show program for this year's show. I did this project in place of the brochure project. I made the front cover look nearly identical to the Fashion Show flyer I designed. I kept the theme cohesive throughout the file with the same colors, typeface and a triangle graphic in each corner. My biggest challenge with this project was preparing the document for print. I originally designed it in the order it will be read (as shown below), but only some printers are able to reorder the pages on their own the way they need to be printed, and of course the printer I went to was not capable of doing this. So, I had to rearrange all of the pages into 'printer spreads' which was really frustrating. Then, the printer told me they might not be the right size because I designed them to take up half of an 8.5" x 11" page. Luckily, they were able to double them up on each page of paper and the finished product was well worth the stress – well kinda.

Independent Client Project

My independent client is a friend who is working on starting a Caribbean food delivery business to college students in Oneonta, NY. He wants to provide the taste of home for students of Caribbean backgrounds and provide delicious dining
experiences for all others. We worked very closely in creating the brand for this company – I helped him come up with the name "La Casa" which means "The Home" in Spanish. I thought it embodied everything the company stands for in two simple words.

My job is to design a logo – 4 different colors – an alternate logo, a website header, a menu, and a business card. So far I have completed everything but the menu and business card. I have begun designing the menu, but it still needs some information added and some tweaking. I will post progress photos. To create the logo, I began with sketching out a bunch of different ideas and making them come to life on the computer (image below.) I showed my friend the options and he chose which one he liked best and that gave me a better idea of which direction to go in. He wanted a more vintage style logo, but with a playful twist. I used bold colors such as red, yellow, and orange because Caribbean culture is very colorful and vivid. The foods they typically use have these colors and even the houses and businesses in these countries are very colorful and bright. Ultimately, we decided on orange for the primary logo because it is commonly used in the food industry to stimulate the appetite and it radiates feelings of warmth and happiness - just like the feeling of being home and having your mom's delicious home-cooked meals.

Initial rough logo designs

It was definitely a different experience designing for an actual client and making work that will be used in the commercial world. My biggest challenge was being confident in what I am designing, hoping that my client will like it. It helped that my client is a friend, communication of what they were trying to achieve with the brand was much easier because I know them personally. I definitely learned the importance of asking questions from this project, and realized that it's okay to receive criticism because it pushes you to do your best work possible.

La Casa Brand Style Sheet

La Casa Logo B&W

La Casa Logo - Alternative

Proposed Summer Project

So it's that time of year again: the awfully dreaded finals week. The bright side about it is that it means Summer break is just a few days away. I am extremely excited for what this summer has in store for me. I will be studying abroad in Italy for a 'Fashion Styling' course for one month. I cannot wait to indulge in the Italian culture and get to witness ITalian fashion and design first hand.

Aside from all the fun, this Summer I plan to do a lot of recreational design (which is fun, in my books). I want to improve in every aspect of graphic design and get more familiar with the programs I use, such as Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. I want to create a series, I am not sure of what yet but some ideas I have include a Nintendo series, or an abstract crystallized series of animals. I will continue to develop and complete the materials for La Casa's brand as well.

My largest project this summer will be to create a logo for a hookah lounge my boyfriend is opening up in Oneonta in August. I will be creating an identity for the company as well. The logo is my main priority, then I will design the menu, business cards, and anything else that comes along. The name of the company is "Insomnia Hookah Lounge" and the brand is targeted at college students who are looking for a fun and relaxing alternative to going to the bars or house parties. The interior of the store will be very urban and rustic with wall murals, brick, and wood panelling. The brand promotes late night fun and socializing, and I will aim to capture the brand's personality when I design the logo and other materials.

One last project I plan to have completed before the Fall semester is a mini magazine portfolio of all my work and experience. I will design it using InDesign and incorporate all of my knowledge and skills in fashion and graphic design. One of my career goals is to be a creative director/fashion director/graphic designer for a Magazine company so this is the perfect medium to sell myself to prospective employers through. I am really excited about doing this and I cannot wait to see the finished product!

Oh, Helvetica.

Helvetica Film Reaction

 In class, we watched the film Helvetica which explores the proliferation of one typeface, Helvetica, since the 1950s to recent times through the eyes of many renowned designers and major urban cities such as New York. It was very interesting seeing how much one typeface has impacted design. I never realized how frequently the Helvetica font is used – it is literally everywhere from the NYC Subway map to street signs and literally around every corner. The designers that were interviewed can be split up into two main groups: Modernists and Post-Modernists. The Modernists were very stern on the use and effectiveness of Helvetica, while the Post-Modernists opposed it in the most passionate ways.

Massimo Vignelli was one of the Modernist interviewees in the film. He was an Italian designer who worked in many areas of design such as furniture design, showroom design, package design, and public signage. His designs were very minimal and used a very narrow range of typefaces. In the film he made a reference of type to music, in which he was trying to explain how perfectly formatted Helvetica was. He said that type isn't about the letter forms but about the negative space surrounding them, just like music isn't about the notes but the spaces between them that actually make the music what it is. Vignelli was an extremely successful designer and went on to found a design firm in New York City which came to be known as one of the largest design firms in the world. Some of his most notable works were the design of the New York City Subway system, the American Airlines logo, Bloomingdale's logo, and even IBM. Below are some examples of his work.



Paula Scher, a grpahic designer from the US was one of the Post-Modernists who were interviewed in the film. She was more concerned about the aesthetic of design rather than structure. You can tell she was much more of a risk-taker and likes to think outside the box, compared with the modernists.
 She enjoyed making text expressive in her work and using movement as a design technique to create a visually interesting piece. Below are some examples of her work.

Modernism vs. Post-Modernism

 My next project is to design two posters: One inspired by Modernist design with a Modernist quote and the other inspired by Post-Modernist design with a Post-Modern quote.

For my modernism poster I chose to use a quote from designer Massimo Vignelle. Vignelli lived by the saying, "If you can design one thing, you can design anything." This was very apparent because he had completed such a wide range of designs in different areas. I chose to use this quote for my Modernist poster because I agree strongly with it. Not to sound cheesy but, anything is possible with hard work and creativity. The best way to describe modernism design is very structured (strict use of grid), black & white, sans serif fonts such as helvetica, not much movement.

For my post-modernism poster I am using a quote from Chip Kidd. The best way to describe Post-Modernism is a rebellion on Modernism. Post-Modernism embodies craziness, and color, and is much more whitty than Modernism. It uses many Japanese art styles, Pop Art, layers, and eclecticism. Chip Kidd is the perfect example of a Post-Modern designer. His work is playful and fun, and he is a very successful designer. I chose to use his quote "Nothing worth knowing can ever be taught in a classroom." for my Post-Modern poster. I have always believed in this because you truly learn things when you are out in the real world and have no other choice but to do them, not by sitting at a desk being told what is right and wrong, and black or white. My poster will combine many Post-Modern ideals to create a fun, and eclectic poster that sends a message of independence and rebellion.


Poster 1 – Modernism

As stated before, I am using Massimo Vignelli's quote, "If you can design one thing, you can design anything." for this poster. I drew my inspiration from his design of the NYC Subway System and I used two different color schemes – Red & Black which is typical of Modernist design and CMYK which can be seen in the NYC Subway maps and also became very popular during Modernist time period. I also incorporated geometric shapes into my poster because that was used very often in Modernist design as well. I am a very Black & white person, so I am definitely leaning more towards that poster.

Poster 2 - Post-Modernism

I am using the quote "Nothing worth knowing can ever be taught in a classroom" by Chip Kidd for my Post-Modernist poster. I wanted to incorporate Marilyn Monroe into my poster because images were often used in Post-Modern art and topped with and surrounded by layers of elements and other designs. I am going for a rebellious and eclectic vibe with my poster and I hope it conveys that.

Thanks for reading,
Brittany Rendon
www.behance.net/brittanyjade
Bjrendon31@gmail.com

Article Review: Killing Your Darlings

I found the article, "Kill Your Darlings" Book Designers' Favorite Covers Don't Always See the Light of Day by Peter Terzian for Print magazine very interesting. The article explored several different book cover designs that never made it to the shelves for many different reasons such as new book titles, disapproval from the authors or the bookstores and much more. I think I found this article really interesting because I never really thought about this issue. I just assumed that once a design is finalized, the author would just accept it and make it work. It must be really hard as the designer, to have your designs rejected and have to start from square one, especially when you were extremely fond of your original design. Let's take the above image, for example, in Carol Devine Carson's first design (top left) she depicted the story in a successful way, and in my opinion this is the best cover of the three. However, the author felt it was kind of "sinister and mocking" and they went with a close-up of a canine (bottom left) instead. Personally, I believe that a cover that invokes emotion in the viewers (like the dog-baby design) will sell more than something that plays it safe (like the canine close-up.)

On the other hand, sometimes a redesign is exactly what a book cover needs. As a fan of simplicity, I am fond of John Gall's original design for Remainder by Tom McCarthy (top right), but his final design (both right) is definitely much more interesting. Gall actually killed his own design, after it was approved because he felt it needed "some color", and I think he was absolutely right. As I said before, I am fond of his original design, but when compared to the final design I would definitely rather purchase the latter.

Thanks for reading, 

Brittany Rendon

www.behance.net/brittanyjade

Peer Review: Art Show Poster

Here is a picture I took of one of my classmate's poster designs for the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. This design was my favorite among all the posters. This poster is very bold, and straight to the point. The unified illustration is very intricate, and it definitely makes this piece stand out amongst its surroundings. I believe this design sends the message that art students at SUNY Oneonta have strong imaginations and great ideas which lead to great art. I can also see the frustration every college student experiences with the multitude of work, and issues on our mind through the hands grasping the face. This design is definitely unique. It combines pretty elements with quirky ones in a way that isn't cliche. I personally favor this design because I love the transcendence from a person's upper body to different nature elements and alien-like details. It sends me the message that we are more than just what we are, and we can be anything we want as long as we can think of it.

Thanks for reading,

Brittany Rendon

www.behance.net/brittanyjade

Pack It Up!

The current project I'm working on is a packaging redesign for an existing product. My graphic design class took a trip to the local Hannaford's grocery store and observed all the packaging of the products in our assigned category — my category is beauty, hygiene, and baby products. Initially, I was having a hard time finding a product that I felt I could successfully redesign. I noticed that baby products used a wide range of bold colors and intended to appear organic, appealing to parents. I didn't take an interest in redesigning any baby products. In the hygiene aisle, most products looked similar — plastic bottles with squirting tops. There were a few interesting bottles that stood out with different shapes and colors. I would definitely be more attracted to those rather than the typical ones while shopping. The most innovative packaging was definitely the Method hand soaps.

(Source: http://getconcentric.com)

 

( Source: http://www.disneybaby.com )

Examples of Method hand soaps' packaging I saw at the grocery store

I ended up choosing to redesign a beauty product. I feel comfortable doing this because I am very much interested in makeup and such things, so I think I can design something fun and different that I would actually use. I am torn between two products; Eco Tools organic makeup brushes and Baby Lips lip moisturizers. The Eco Tools packaging works, however it's is pretty dull and boring. On the contrary, the Baby Lips packaging is pretty tacky in my opinion. I have drawn up some sketches for both, now I just need to decide which one to do. My idea for the Eco Tools is to place the brush in a bamboo-inspired tube because the brushes are made from bamboo and other organic materials. The substrate will be recyclable, to keep within the organic theme. My idea for the Baby Lips is to place the item in a rectangular box (different colors for each different flavor) and have one letter of "BABY" and one letter of "LIPS" on each side of the box — sort of like toy blocks that children play with. I got this idea from a design my professor showed us in class of the packaging of scents for babies, I believe that's what it was. My other idea is to make the box in the shape of lips.  What do you think I should do?

Existing Baby Lips packaging for "05 Quenched"

Rough sketches of Baby Lips design ideas

The Dieline website offered some greats inspiration for my project. There are tons of packaging products and helpful info for package design on this site. The designs range from simple and clean to intricate and bold. If I do the Eco Tools brush I will be going for a simple design, but if I do the Baby Lips I think I want something in between. Pictures will be posted shortly of my progress, maybe you can get a better idea of what I'm thinking.

Photographs of final designs

Thanks for reading,
Brittany Rendon
www.behance.net/brittanyjade
Bjrendon31@gmail.com

Art Show Poster

SUNY Oneonta's Art department holds an Annual Juried Student Art Show every Spring and my graphic design class was asked to design a poster for the event. Each student's task is to design 3 variations of a poster, each with a different element being emphasized. The best poster will be chosen for the event to be used around campus and downtown to promote the show.

Before I began designing, I created a Mind Map with "Student Art Show" as the main focal point and I drew branches from there with anything that I mentally related with the SUNY Oneonta Art Show. The point of this was to be free of any judgement and let my ideas just flow onto the paper. It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped, because a lot of the words I thought of were pretty cliche, but it definitely did help. I find that my biggest challenge when designing anything is choosing where to start. The Mind Map definitely did make it a little more simple for me to visually see my ideas, but I ended up trying about four completely different designs anyway, haha.

The first design I did was a very basic typography flyer with a simple color palette and not much visual interest. I quickly abandoned this idea and moved onto the next, which was a bit more quirky. I took an image of a fancy framed chalkboard from Google and used a simple typeface to add an unexpected contrast against the fancy frame. I loved this idea, but I am not sure if it is the perfect idea for this project. I reached a halt, trying to figure out how to make it look more interesting. My third idea was to create three different types of eyeglass frames to demonstrate the differences between every student. I want to add another meaningful element to this one but I also reached a halt. My last design is my favorite (most likely the one I am going to use). It combines a real photograph of a bird, with lines I have drawn in Illustrator around the bird to outline its shape and they all meet at the bottom left where I will have the text about the show. I love the contrast between realism and artificial design in this poster, it makes for a very intriguing concept.

First idea – Too Boring

Second idea – Didn't expand on it.

Third idea – Didn't know where to go with it

1 of 2 Final Designs

Which design do you like best?

Thanks for reading,

www.behance.net/brittanyjade

Bjrendon31@gmail.com

Judging a Book by its' Cover.

My current project is to create book jackets for Amy Tan's novels The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement. Before I began designing, I watched Peter Mendelsund's Read, Think, Design: Create Stunning Book Covers video to get some tips from a pro. A lot of the things he stated, I already do prior to designing, including writing down the most important parts of the manuscript (words, mood, objects, characters, etc.) But he definitely reinforced the importance of this step. I loved the fact that his next step was to take two blank pieces of paper and freely sketch different cover ideas. This makes designing on the computer much easier if you already have a rough idea visually laid out for you. He took the most simple ideas and ran with them, ultimately creating some very interesting book covers. 

Peter Mendelsund's video helped me realize that I don't need to over think things as much as I do. I tend to stress myself out while trying to decide on a design concept to go with, when I should just trust my gut and start with the first things that come to my head. I especially love how he stressed the importance of eliminating unnecessary elements. This simple action can really enhance any design. I look forward to sharing my final designs for these covers with you guys, stay tuned!

Existing covers of my assigned books. (Source:http://bookcoverimgs.com/amy-tan-books/ )


Below are images of my final book jackets

Thank you for reading,

Brittany Rendon
www.behance.net/brittanyjade
Bjrendon31@gmail.com