Winding Down the Summer...

Well it's that time of year again... the end of August brings school. This is my last year of college here are USU!! I will be graduating at the end of Spring 2012 semester! That is so crazy to me! This summer I have been working full time at Aquamira Technologies Inc. as a student graphic designer. The job consisted mostly of packaging, but I did all sorts of graphic projects, including some web design, branding, and photography. I want to do a separate post on my experience at Aquamira, so for now I want to share some of the photos I took over the summer from all the many adventures I went on. I love photography, so tell me what you think of the pics! This was my awesome adventurous 2011 summer:

The Caine College of the Arts

Well here it is! My final project in Type Image and Visual Continuity.. that's a mouthful. We had to design a poster to represent the new Caine College of the Arts here at USU. This poster shows the coming together of the different sections of the college including: Music, Theater, Interior Design, and Art. This was a difficult assignment since hardly any of us knew what exactly the client wanted, but we knew we had to represent all the different sections of the college with one idea. However our one idea had to be interesting and not cliche, which it's hard to do! I mean what do you think of when you hear theater? Of course it's the opera masks.

Point is our assignment was to depict all the different areas of the college coming together as one. I chose to depict creativity as a colorful flame which fires and empowers the passion of the Caine College of the Arts students. This fire is what drives us to create amazing pieces of work, whether it be music, a painting, digital art, or a ceramic vase.

Here's a picture of the poster I made. The critique went great, and I thought that all of us in the class had a great concept. Now for the USU art donation board to pick one!

FOCUS

I finally finished the publication of myself! This was my assignment in Bob's class that has taken a little more than half the semester to complete. Technically I am not finished since this book includes my portfolio and my portfolio is ever expanding and improving. However for now it is finished until I want to swap out old work for new stuff. The point of this assignment was for us as students to figure out what makes us unique and design a catalogue carrying that theme throughout it.

I found out a lot about myself doing this assignment. I determined what makes me unique and created something I can give to a perspective employer as a leave behind after an interview. I really think this project was beneficial for future reference. It's a great piece to add to my portfolio along with something cool to give to a employer for them to remember me. Who knows it might just be the thing that gets me the graphic design job I dream of!

Well here's what I finalized about myself. It's kind of a lot to read but by writing my mission statement and positioning where I stand in the design world I think I have taken a huge leap into my career:

My mission as a graphic designer is to visually solve problems that are proposed to me with an original, fresh and unique perspective. I aspire to be known for my creativity and passion for graphic design. I will accomplish this by learning and becoming an expert in the necessary software programs used in graphic design, and by staying current in these programs. I will dedicate myself to improving my own style and technique by working on new projects and learning from other experts in my field.

I am unique because I have learned through my own experience to be disciplined and focused in order to reach goals that I set. I reach my goals by following a specific trajectory and staying with it until I complete the task. I have learned to never give up. I have my own way of looking at things from a design perspective. I am an artist at heart, but my passion is graphic design. Therefore, I am determined to merge the two and bring an artistic quality to my graphic work. I have the dedication needed to research and gather core information, and interpret it with a logical, yet artistic approach, resulting in a pleasing and effective design. My goal is to be perceived as a positive, hard-working, honest, and genuine person, who gets things done efficiently and professionally to the satisfaction of the client.

Here's the first 12 pages of my publication along with the front and back covers. (The rest of the book is my portfolio.)

Scott Randall

Here's a logo I created for my brother Scott Randall. He is almost done with his mechanical engineering degree at Weber State. He figured since I am a graphic designer that I could just whip him up a logo like nothin... well it took long enough but I am pretty pleased with it and so is he. Take a look!

Dream Parties

This is a logo I created for a small business called "Dream Parties by Kindra". It's cool to get experience and work for a real client. I love graphic design, it is so FUN!! Take a look:

Fly fishing is pretty much BOMB!

Today is an absolute fantabulous day! My website is done!!! Woo Hoo! This is the first website I have designed and coded this spring 2011 semester, (I will have 2 more completed when it is over). I chose to design a site about fly fishing, mainly because I LOVE to fly fish! Check it out! Here's the link:

http://www.spring11.graphicinterfacedesign.com/students/hrandall/proj1/main.html

Overall, I had a pretty positive experience this time around. I really like working in flash and hope to eventually have actionscript as one of my secondary languages (which is going to take a while). I feel like Dave taught us more efficient ways to build our sites this time, which made my life a lot easier. A definite bonus was that I didn't have to stay up all night, not even once this time!

Yay! I seriously love my major SOOOO much and I really like web design. Hopefully I can continue to learn what it's all about.

My Mind Map

This poster is the beginning of a project I am working on for a Bob's class this semester (type, image, and visual continuity). It's my mind map, meaning it is a poster/collage of my life and what I aspire to be/have. All of the type and imagery outside the "frame" is what has shaped me into the person I am now. Everything inside the frame is what I hope to be as far as personally and professionally. This poster is just the beginning tool for completing the "catalogue of me" that I will have produced by the end of the semester.

Get Paid To Be Yourself - An Afternoon With James Victore

Meeting James Victore yesterday was a fabulous, inspiring opportunity. Being around someone so different from myself, or even the people I’m around everyday, was eye opening. It was neat to meet James Victore in person and see that he is definitely a man of action. He didn’t waste any time getting into what he had prepared for us. Time went by so fast! I wish I could sit and talk to him all day, but from my short workshop this is what I learned:

He started off by saying, “Knowing about the little things like jazz music, auto-racing, and wine can make you a better designer. Graphic design should be about stories from your life, experiences you’ve had, and using your hands. The best designs do stuff like punch you in the gut, or, at the very least, stop you in your tracks.” I believe that his work definitely, at the very least, makes you stop in your tracks. It is very different from the things I have seen and am used to. I feel like James is a great designer to learn from, especially since his motto is to get paid to be himself. And I believe he is doing it right now. What a great motto! He says, “Be the producer and director of your life, not the actor or actress. You should enjoy the graphic design business and have more influence in your life than anyone else. Be the boss of yourself. If you are in a career that you love, then you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s how I feel, all I do is be myself and get paid for it.”

One topic of conversation at the workshop was how James Victore, as a designer and teacher, is trying to give back by teaching students to have a sense of bravery; bravery to put yourself out there, to not be too attached to your work, to be honest and genuine with everyone, to be ok with criticism, and to have the ability to relax and not try, just do. He then quoted Yoda from Star Wars, “Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.”

James made a solid point that in order to be successful, strong, smart, educated, or focused in your life, you MUST set goals. He says, “You know? Think about 5, 10, 12, 16, whatever years from now, what do you want to have accomplished and be known for? Set goals, have a plan, choose an amount of years that’s significant to you and set the goals. For me it was 15 years because I loved country music back in the day and that’s how long it took for my favorite artists to become famous. Keep your eyes on the prize and don’t ever let off the gas. Imagine how you’re going to feel when you have accomplished these things, what you’ll look like, where you’ll be living, and other things like how much money you will have made. Then do stuff! Be active to achieve your goals, then make more!”

The second part of this workshop was the idea to “Get your head out of your pod,” or think outside the box and mainly to GET OUT OF THE MOTIONS. Just be the person you are and be cool with it. He said we need to have a massive amount of self-acceptance in our lives and that this is very hard for most people to do, especially graphic designers. I would have to say I agree with him. I feel as if most of the time graphic designers are always trying to solve other people’s problems without really daring to solve their own. We also are very critical of ourselves and worrying about whether the work we do is good enough. James says heck with that, be yourself, be honest, be genuine, accept who you are and run with it, that is what’s interesting to people.” He summed up with these three things 1-Look for the truth. 2-Do great work. 3-Learn to live.

I guess what I gathered from this experience was to be myself, be honest and genuine, get inspired - especially by doing, not just reading about it or looking at photos, to be different and get out of the motions - don’t just be another graphic designer that works in a cubicle. Have courage - because graphic design is a career where every minute we put ourselves out there for criticism, to set goals, to have a plan, to never let off the gas, and to LEARN FROM THE MASTERS. We can only do what we know, so I say, learn from those who know more than you!

“Get your head out of your pod. –love, Victore” is one of his posters. He gave us all a sticker of this poster at the end of our workshop. I shook his hand, got his John Hancock, and left with a whole bunch of new knowledge and inspiration. Thanks, James Victore for this amazing experience!

Logo Animation

This is a logo I created in my Branding class and have now animated in my Interface II class. Provenance is a "company" that invests in small, just starting out businesses. Here's the link to the animation:

http://www.spring11.graphicinterfacedesign.com/students/hrandall/anim/provenance.swf

Brand Identity

The final project in my Brand Identity class fall 2010, was a group project. We were required to work with a real client, the Logan Downtown Alliance, and re brand downtown Logan, UT. This was a very neat project and was a kind of intro into the "real world" experience of being a graphic designer doing logo design. I learned so much! Now I have a great project to add to my portfolio including, not only the actual designs, but also showing that I am capable of working with a group to complete professional results. Thanks Bob for this great class!

Logo I designed for branding downtown Logan.

Banners my group designed to apply the logo to events happening in Logan.

Examples of general banners and the kinetic identity of the logo.