Food of Chicago

Chicago Bears Football Team

Chicago Historical Figure Benny Goodman

Chicago Comedy Clubs

1. What did you learn?

I learned how to combine all the aspects of what we learned over the semester including grids, color palettes, typography, and editing images. Also how to research a topic and create a design based on a location was another thing I learned.

2. What was easy?

Creating and choosing colors was easy and so was picking the cultural aspects of Chicago once I picked it. Finding images was also easy once I knew what I was doing.

3. What was challenging?

Lining up the typography and images and creating the correct size of these aspects was difficult. Trying to blend typography color and gradients was a little difficult.

4. How could your submission be improved?

Adding more images with more variations in colors could be a way I could improve my submission.

5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?

I think everything is well thought out in this assignment and I don’t know how to improve this project.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

Knowing how to combine all of these design skills is important for any design project because every project uses these skills of grids, colors, and typography. In any digital art job even knowing the basics of design is helpful to impress employers. Also knowing how to brainstorm and create a design from almost scratch is super helpful.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

I didn’t have any specific reading or video that helped other than inspiration from other student’s work.

1. What did you learn?

I learned how to customize and arrange type into compact and creative designs. I learned how to change the weight and spacing of letters to work and get them closer together along with learning different font types and styles.

2. What was easy?

Thinking of an overall design for each line was easy and positioning them into a general structure. Making the frame last made this project much easier.

3. What was challenging?

Arranging the words to fit in a shape with no gaps was difficult with letters overlapping or open gaps happening in the design. Trying to move the words precisely was also difficult especially trying to line them up in a margin.

4. How could your submission be improved?

Lining up and squaring off the words more and trying other fonts as well could improve my submission.

5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?

This assignment is pretty straightforward and the addition of allowing to make the frame after the design is much easier. I don’t have any suggestions for improvements

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

Making a type that is easy to read and pleasing to look at is important in design and forcing it to fit in certain parameters can be used to create posters or advertisements in the future. Learning and getting familiar with certain fonts can also help me be more efficient when working with type in the future.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

I didn’t really use any outside inspiration other than the in-class demonstrations

Sketches/Draft

1. What did you learn?

I learned how to brainstorm and create visuals to display a message in a picture. I learned how to mask, skew, and blend images in Photoshop.

2. What was easy?

Creating the actual photo was easy and masking the image along with changing the lighting.

3. What was challenging?

Coming up and finding a metaphor was the challenging part. I started with happy as a clam. Visualizing that was impossible so I chose Mountain of Knowledge which could be conveyed more easily.

4. How could your submission be improved?

Blending the books into the terrain so it look more together would make it look more “real.”

5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?

Teach a little more about how to do the project in Photoshop.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

Masking and combining images is key in graphic design and can create new images with different pieces.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

Professor Dunkle’s feedback gave me enough ideas for my final submission.

Arctic (Monochromatic)

Seascape (Triadic)

Outer Space (Complimentary)

Reflection Questions

1. What did you learn?

I learned how to put together interesting color palettes from monochromatic to triadic. I also learned how to pick colors to create a mood picking warm or cool colors depending on the landscape. Using gradients was another tool I learned to use to blend colors together to prevent sharp contrast. Lastly how to change saturation and tint to create different looking colors.

2. What was easy?

Picking colors and palettes to match the landscape was easy along with setting gradients to give a sense of depth.

3. What was challenging?

Sometimes sticking to colors in the color palette was difficult especially in the monochromatic arctic image. Trying to make a sense of depth with one color is difficult. I also had trouble making it look different between the ice and water. Gradients being see through was also a problem and required making a second shape to create the look of one object hiding behind another.

4. How could your submission be improved?

Possibly with more of a range of landscape looks and other focal points in each image they all are sort of similar. Adding a larger range of shapes could have made the images more interesting but I also did not want to make them too cluttered.

5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?

This was a fun assignment I don’t have any suggestions.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

Knowing how to pick colors is useful for any visual piece and knowing how to use them effectively is key for graphic design and even video.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

Professor Dunkle’s presentations and demonstrations were a good inspiration and so were the smashing magazine articles from the beginning of the unit teaching about color palettes.

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a Tuffet

Eating Her Curds and Whey

There Came a Big Spider

Who Sat Down Beside Her

And Frightened Miss Muffet Away

Reflection Questions

1. What did you learn?

I learned how to combine simple shapes to make bigger figures that could be used to tell a story. I have learned how to frame figures better using the rule of thirds. I have learned and gotten more comfortable using Figma for creating art.

2. What was easy?

Putting together shapes to make figures like the spider and Miss Muffet was pretty easy and creating images using figure/ ground, repetition, and proximity gestalt principles.

3. What was challenging?

Trying to get certain shapes to line up and avoiding symmetry was difficult, especially with the spider design. A lot of shapes overlap creating a cluttered look. Only being able to use black and white was difficult when trying to distinguish between Miss Muffet’s head and body. Creating a design for the curds and whey was challenging because of needed 3 layers to display it and trying to make a messy jumbled look.

4. How could your submission be improved?

I could have made more variations of the spider and Miss Muffet in different frames instead of keeping them so similar. I could have created more background in the frames to create a more noticeable environment. I could have tried adding more Gestalt principles in each frame.

5. How could the professor improve the assignment for the next class?

I don’t really have any suggestions for improving this project for the next class.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

The knowledge of layout and gestalt principles are the foundation for graphic design so I know I am going to use this knowledge in every project in the future and if I work with graphics.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

The reading posted on d2L was a great starting point on how to use the Gestalt principles to create images. Being able to go over and see what other classmates did helped inspire and teach me what to do and not do.