Final Portfolio

Here is my final portfolio. I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made over the semester and I think it shows in my work.



This piece was the last project of the semester. We had to create an audiobook and design the packaging. I chose Pride and Predjudice and went off of the letter-writing for my concept (since there are plenty of letters written in the book). I dyed paper to make it look like parchment and did an illustration in india ink with colored pencil to add definition to the faces. I created a tri-fold booklet to hold the three discs and put excerpts from letters on the CD labels. I was happy with how this piece turned out.


This project required us to create our own beverage and 6 pack carrier for it. I created a beer that I called "Hoptimist." I tried to keep the whole mood of my beverage happy and sunny yet simple. I created a logo and tagline which i put on the box, while all other information was included on the labels. I also made sure to use smiley caps, because smiling and "hoppy" moods is what my beer is all about. I was happy with this project in the end. I wish there was a heavier paper I could have used so I could feel more confident when picking up my box.


This project required that we provide our own photography for an article about Fall. I took photos at Thousand Hills Park. The background has a subtle texture from a photo of the woods with goes along with the title. I used a c.o.b. on the left page to help the title stand out and balance out the spread. I used a compilation of 3 photos on the right page with different colors to add variety and work with the copy. This piece was full color 11 x 17. I was happy with this piece but wish I could have had a little more Fall colors incorporated.


This project required that we redesign a magazine spread for a stress article. The challenge with this piece was that there was a great deal of copy to work with. I used my own photography and took a picture of my mother because she is closer in age to the main audience of this magazine. Space was an issue which I resolved with photo placement. This piece was full color 11 x 17.


This project required that we use a professional photo in a magazine article, magazine ad and poster. All full color. I chose a photo of an orangutan. For my magazine spread I found an article about deforestation and its effects on oragutans. For the poster I made up a music festival based off of "Lollapalooza" and went with the 70's concept. The article was full color, 11 x 17. The Poster was full color, 13 x 19. I'm happy with my final pieces. I found this project especially fun because we had more free reign and could choose something that interests us.


This project required that we recreate a magazine spread. The challenge for this project was that we had very little copy to work with. To overcome this I chose to emphasize my photo and headline and wrap the copy around. This was a full color piece 11 x 17. During the creation of this piece I was having trouble with the photo tag and its placement. However, I was finally able to resolve this issue and I'm happy with the result.


This project required that we recreate a poorly designed poster, in this instance, a "Dance Fusion" poster. This was a two color piece and size 13 x 19. I decided to use a simple graphic that I created in addition to a grid. The abstract dancer is meant to pull the viewer in and then the information is available at a closer look. I actually redid this poster from the very original and I'm happy I did.


This project required that we recreate a poorly designed poster, in this instance, a "Dance Fusion" poster. This was a two color piece and size 13 x 19. I decided to use a simple graphic that I created in addition to a grid. The abstract dancer is meant to pull the viewer in and then the information is available at a closer look.

Audiobook Final

Here is my final audiobook design. I chose to go with the letter-writing concept so I created my own parchment and illustrated on it with india ink. The CDs are also labeled with copy from one of Mr. Darcy's letters to Elizabeth. I'm pretty happy with the result and I think i captured what I was trying to with this piece.

Final CD project

Here is my final Joe Six pack project. I am pretty happy with the final result. I designed my packaging to look bright and inspire a "hoppy" mood. "Hoptimist" is the name of my product and I tried to follow that theme throughout including my packaging, labels, and even bottle caps.

Here is my CD template...I haven't finished my illustration yet which will go on the front on the right and left sides. I will be using a calligraphy pen to illustrate the faces of the characters and going in with colored pencil to ad subtle dimension and shading. The CD labels will have copy from one of Mr. Darcy's letters on them. On the back i will have a heart illustrated in ink and on the middle panel there is a synopsis of the book. The extra half panels at the bottom will fold up to create pockets for the cds (which there will be 2 of).

Red Barn Final...Red Barn and I are NOT friends

Here are my final red barn campaign designs. My overall theme was magical and whimsical, which went along with my slogan "Discover the Magic of Red Barn Arts and Crafts Festival." The first piece seen at the top is the web banner ad. I like the photo I used for this pieces, but i wish I would have made it more asymmetrical. The next piece is my poster. Again, my favorite part of this is the photo I used; i like the perspective, but I think I could have done more with the typography. Next is my newspaper ad, which I probably like the least of the 4 pieces. I enjoy the photo, but I'm not sure if I like it in the duotone, it ruins the look of the sunlight glinting off of the display. Lastly is the brochure, which I actually printed on a shimmer paper. I liked this piece, but I wish I would have done something different than the back panel rather than the photo collage. Overall I wasn't a huge fan of Red Barn; I'm not sure my concept was that strong and the cohesiveness of all of the pieces wasn't very good in my opinion. Anyways I don't like Red Barn, k thanks.

Packaging Ideas for Joe six pack

SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS FINAL

Final print for society of illustrators...printing it was NOT fun but it finally worked. I like my concept with the "express yourself" and the grafitti, however, I feel like I could have done more on the inside with it. Anyways I'm over it and here it is.

S of I Final Rev...On to print next!

Society of Illustrators final rev. Still needs some work. I noticed when it opens up half of my text is read upside down. I also have some orphans and other minor details I need to work on along with horsey type which I hope can free up some space because my pages are somewhat crowded. Sooooo hopefully next time I post this it will be much more resolved...

Red Barnnnnnn

Red Barn pieces, so ugly...need a lot of work. My theme is magical/whimsical but I need to work on that a little bit too

Society of Illustrators self-mailer, rev 2

Second rev of SOI...still not sure what I think of this. I'm not sure how legible the yellow text is, I'm working with it.

Time in the Woods

Final "Time in the Woods" layout

Final "Professional Photo" pieces

Here are my final pieces for the professional photo assignment. I'm happiest with my "Monkeypalooza" poster, which is promoting a music festival, a play off of Lollapalooza. I believe the article, "Marooned Orangutans" is clean, but maybe not as exciting. For the ad, I tried to go with a more modern look. I only did a 2 color spread and left a lot of white space on the left page.

Viscom II Midterm Portfolio

This piece was a redesign of an article in which the challenge was having very little type. I went around this by using a large graphic and headline. For the headline and other colors I grabbed colors from the photo to help make everything more cohesive. Then, for the photo caption, I used an arrow as a graphic element to link it to the photo. I feel this was one of my most successful pieces. I especially enjoy my curved text wrap which I spaced out more from the photo since the original since it used to be pretty tight.




Stressed Out layout: Totally revised. There were lots of issues with this revision. I changed the headline to fix the awkward negative space. I also moved the photo and flipped it upside down and put it on the top. The actual photo cut off the elbows, so I wasn't sure how to fix this. By making the photo bigger I could run it off the page, but I couldn't use this much space with all the copy. I tried to solve this by adding the red bars. I'm not sure how I like this, but it did solve the photo issue. However, it does bother me that the far column just barely wraps at the top right. This spread took me quite a while, especially since I redid it. I like the outcome alright, not sure if I enjoy it more than the original. I do like the headline much more however. Anyways, I like it enough to submit, so here it is!




This piece was the Dance Fusion (Shut up and Dance) poster for TSODA. We only did one comp for these posters, and I really didn't like my first one. However, I did enjoy my graphic. Because of this I went back and re-did this piece. This was a b/w with spot color poster, and to make it a little more dynamic I decided to use a different opacity on my headline and my graphic. I used a 3 column grid for the information. I wanted to keep this piece simple yet eye-catching which I feel like I've done, I'm pretty happy with the outcome, especially since there was only one comp.




This piece is our recent "choose your own professional photo" spread. This is my article for that photo. I found the photo and then the article to go with it later. The issue with the article is that it was very lengthy, however, with this being brownie points I decided to work with it. I wanted my image to be large so I blew it up along with the headline and used one page for that. I used a pull quote to break up the copy on the second page and imitated the border design element from the first page on the second page as well to add to the design aspect of page 2 since it is very "wordy". Overall I like how this layout turned out. I'm sure there's always something I could do to it (actually I know this) but I'm pretty happy with the product.





This Latin Dance Party poster was a black and white 8 1/2 x 11. This was the first poster where I did my own illustration, rather than a photo. Some things that I've changed on this from the original poster include the font and the graphic. Before I had all of my font as the display font, but I changed this because it was just too much. I tried to make my pepper more interesting by adding a gradient mesh. I messed around with his body to make him look more "latin dance"-like, but everything I did looked awkward, so I went back to a similar pose that I had him doing at first. I kind of like my pepper's dance move, it's nerdy like he is. I like this piece much better after my revisions.





NAHM, aka Poop Drum. Many many many many issues with this spread. First of all there was the poop drum. I thought I revised this by cranking up the contrast and adding an opaque mask to certain areas, however, when uploading this revised version to the blog it didn't show the transparency on the opaque mask...BAH I HATE BLOGGING TECHNOLOGY! Anyways to I had to do it this backasswards way which was very difficult and inconvienient and involved lots of annoying annoying processes, and this is how it turned out. The other version had a much more intense transparent yellow, this one is more muted but still works. Also, in the background I changed it from the zig zag pattern to these indian dingbats. I like this background pattern more. I also changed it from yellow and black to gray and black to help the graphic stand out as the main element more. Overall I liked how this piece turned out, I only wish you could see that the yellow on the drum is in fact much more vibrant...try to just close your eyes and imagine...great.

Final Layouts

Final Layouts: Here they are, the final layouts for "How Safe" and "Secrets." I really like my "How Safe" except for the question mark, which still seems unresolved. I do, however, feel that my photo caption works much better in this version. The "Secrets" layout is ok, but still seems boring to me. I think I could still do something to make it pop out a little more, but it works.

Fishing Lures Ad...Comp #1

Here is my first comp for the fishing lures ad. This is very rough but gets my initial idea across. The silhouette is eventually going to be an illustration. I was thinking watercolor and pen and ink, but for now it's just there for placement. Still not sure what I think of my color scheme with the light blue background and green headline, but we'll see.