Today is the day! Good luck today everyone, I 'm excited to see everyone's final projects in class tonight :)

I saw this on Pinterest, and immediately thought of our class!

The final project proved to be easier than I initially thought, only once I decided on a concept and stuck with it. I am constructing a book about my life…well the things in my life that are important to me. Each page is dedicated to a person or a thing that I value. My sisters each have their own page, each of my nieces, as well as various others that hold a special place in my heart. Each page has photographs on it that I have taken.

Photography is a major part of my life. I take my camera just about everywhere with me and am always taking photos. I wanted to include photographs that I have taken for this project.

I’m hoping that the construction of my book goes smoothly…I am going to attempt to bind it by hand. I guess we’ll see how it looks at the critique.

...more final project brainstorming

So now that the final project work sessions are full-blown, it is decision time for me. I have sketched out a few ideas so far…

My first idea was to focus on my photography business…creating an identity package including business cards, a letterhead, and a brochure. But then I decided that that was a little to blahhh for what I want to do for this project.

Now I still like the idea of something that has to do with identity. But with that being said, I’m not just a photographer, so I feel like an identity package focused solely on the fact that I take photographs wouldn’t exactly be me.

I think that I am going to create a book about me, featuring photographs that I have taken. I want it to include photographs of things that mean a lot to me: my family (parents, sisters, nieces and cousins), my friends, and other things that hold a special place in my heart.

In my high school photography class, we created a portfolio of our work, adding photographs, notes, and negatives as we went along through the semester. Our portfolio took the form of a scrapbook of sorts, and we had to make it ourselves. We had to cut the paper, create a binding, and design a cover. I think that I may take a similar approach to this project….making it my own.

Final project brainstorming

Ahh so for our final project, (just about) anything goes. Which has left me with lots of half-ideas. I guess I’m one of those students that need a little bit of structure to get by, but I have some concepts that I’ve been thinking about going with.

I’ve been exploring the different approaches that I have taken with the four previous projects that I have done for this class.

For project one, I used a simplistic approach, using my name as an acrostic poem, with each letter having words that described me.

For project two, the instant book, I had no idea what I wanted to have my book be about. After going through lots of ideas, I wen with the story title “How to Piss Off Your Server.” I had a lot of fun taking photographs with my fellow servers at work and discussing the things that customers do that “piss us off.”

When project three was presented to us, I knew immediately what topic I wanted to choose. I’ve always been one to keep my personal life separate from my work life and my school life, but with the concept of this project being designing with a conscience and a message, I knew that my worlds were going to mix for the first time… telling my classmates that I have a girlfriend. I really wanted my poster to be simple, yet bold, with the entire focus being drawn straight (no pun intended) to the message. I wanted to focus on acceptance and belonging, rather than gay rights. I designed two different posters, both with a very simple design.

Project four also proved to be easy for me to choose my topic. For the tri-fold brochure, I used Roswell Park Cancer Institute as my subject. I chose this because for my PR writing course I also have to create a brochure, and Roswell Park is the organization that I wanted to use for that course as well.

So now, with this being our fifth and final project, I am not sure what approach I want to take, whether I want it to be personal, impersonal, serious, or fun. We shall see…

Project Four

For project four, I created a tri-fold informational brochure highlighting Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The front of the brochure features the name of the institute with a purple ribbon next to it. The purple ribbon is a symbol for all forms of cancer. The front also has a photograph of the institute with its address and phone number.

I was torn on what information I wanted to include in my brochure…six pages were a lot to fill, especially because I didn’t want it to be too wordy or have too many images. Inside my brochure I have pages with contact information to become a volunteer at Roswell Park, a page highlighting facts about Roswell, a page featuring RPCI’s mission statement, as well as a page dedicated to The Ride For Roswell. The back page of the brochure features an image of RPCI’s mission statement and their Facebook and Twitter account information.

I liked how Amy’s brochure that she shared with us had an accordion fold instead of opening to the center, so I mirrored her formatting and used an according fold. Using two pages, I created the brochure and printed it double-sided. I found difficulty in keeping the page order straight while I was designing the brochure. I think this was because with the way that the pages folded, the order that they were in when the page was flat was much different.

I was unfortunately out-of-town for our class critique, so I missed the designs of everyone else’s brochures. But from the work that I saw in project three from everyone, I’m sure that they were all wonderful. I have definitely noticed that the quality as well as the level of expertise in everyone’s projects has improved.

I have completed project three, though I have not narrowed it down to just one design. I ordered 11x17 prints from OfficeMax for two different designs. I’m not sure which one to present to the class yet.

I came up with six different designs in total, with variations in text, font and color schemes. I found this project to be enjoyable and even learned how to create my own gradient swatch using several different colors. I also played with the spacing between text characters, which was a new adventure for me.

Below is the second part of my project, a selection of a poster that conveys a message.

Legendary artist Arnold Skolnick designed the iconic 1969 Woodstock poster. Skolnick’s image of a dove perched on the neck of an acoustic guitar has not only become iconic, but has grown to define a generation. The image seen on the poster became an icon of the entire message that Woodstock represented.

The design is simple and bright, using contrasting colors to make it aesthetically pleasing.

All of the performing bands are listed on the poster, are of equal font size, and are listed in alphabetical order. One of the Woodstock organizers wanted all musicians to be treated equally, not having any “headlining” performers on the poster. The poster was designed in less than five day, with the project given to Skolnick on a Thursday and due that upcoming Monday.

The poster conveys a message of peace and simplicity. It is bright and though it has a lot of text, remains uncrowded and modest.

Project 3

I am excited for project three! I have a few ideas for my design already, and plan to put them into action in class tomorrow. I have chosen the topic of gay rights, which can be somewhat controversial, but hey, what topic isn’t nowadays. I definitely do not want to offend anyone in class with the concept of my project, though I am going to express my personal opinions.

I want to use a very simple design for this assignment, using white space to catch the eye, rather than busy design. I’m even going to hand in this assignment on time :)