Its been a while…

I was sitting here looking at the new RCC 2nd year Design Students blogs when all of a sudden I remembered I to have a blog. WOW. Has is been a while since Ive posted anything.

Well since March a lot of things have changed. I completed RCC. YAY! And I am now a student at WCU. Im going to try to get back into bloggin about my design classes and how things are going up here in Cullowhee for all those who are wanting updates. Maybe this will be the easiest way.

Well to start off with… This is not RCC or are my instructors Susan Shaw. But Im enjoying it. The first few weeks here I ran into a discussion on Color Theory being STUPID. So thank you Ms. Shaw for the semester of color theory and listening to me complain. I now understand how important color is. I have always been interested in color and affects it has on a person emotional or psychological. So being interested in color I didnt take to well to the color is stupid we dont teach it here conversation. However I did have a great instructor who did a great job in teaching me all about color.

So far the classes are going well. I have biology and communication (my non art classes) and 3D project design, and Live Drawing. I use to complain all the time about how much I hate drawing but im finding my self more and more everyday picking up a writing utensil and sketching even when Im not in classes or doing homework. In my 3d project design class we have completed three projects and currently working on my 4th (a team project).

Project 1: Guidelines- 12x32x5, solid black or white, cardboard materials only, non-objective.
Project 2: Guidelines- 12x32x5, anything goes, self portrait
Project 3: Guidelines- No guidelines, push yourself, self portrait.

and Project 4: We are currently working in teams of four to transform a student into a Halloween character. We are still in the building processes and I will keep you updated.

Im attaching a few photos of projects 1 thru 3. I hope you enjoy.

On a side note.. My migraines are starting to come back more frequently causing problems again. Lets hope they dont stick around for long and they venture away.

See you tomorrow.

What comes next…

Our latest blog assignment is to reflect on our future and our goals we want to achieve. For years now I have known I want a career that I will love. It took me a few degree changes over the last few years but I finally found the career I want to be a part of for the rest of my life. I complete all my classes this semester for graphic design and will complete my math courses this summer. After leaving Randolph county I will move to Cullowhee NC and attend Western Carolina. But before this semester completes I have a lot of short term goals I hope to complete. This semester we are working on our portfolios that we will present to professionals in the graphic design industry. This is a huge opportunity for me to present my work so far and to get industry people to critique so I can make adjustments as needed. As of right now I am working hard to complete three campaigns. I look forward to April 30 and hearing everything they have to offer me. I will take everything to heart and make the changes needed so that I can have a completed portfolio for interviews when it comes time to finding a job. Im not sure what life holds for me after my bachelors degree. I may stay in NC or I may leave the country. Im taking this one day at a time and I will see where Im going when I get there.

Photoshop

We had an assignment a few weeks ago given to us during multimedia class and we were to take and image and place it into photoshop and basically test out different features. The subject was to reflect on something that inspires us or that we once took part in. The first thought that came to my mind was horses. I had worked with horses for many years from giving riding lessons to training them and in that time I had met many people an fell in love with many horses.

My photoshop technique I wanted to create was a painted feel so I found an old images and played around in photoshop until I came up with this.

Western Carolina

This is my last semester at RCC in the Graphic Design department. I have finally coming close completing all my classes for the degree and as soon as I can get my last two math classes taken I will be receiving my associates degree. I am so excited to have finally earned a degree in something I am very passionate about. I came into this program not really knowing what graphic design was or if I would even wanted a degree in the program. But in the last two years I feel in love with it. This program has taught me so much about designing and advertising and I know this is the career path I want to be apart of. I have been fighting with myself for the last year trying to decide if my associates degree is enough or if i wanted to earn my bachelors degree. After long months of researching and college fairs I decided to apply to a few different schools. The first school I applied and was accepted to was Queens University. I really enjoyed the college when I went to visit however after looking at financial statuses and the cost of living and tuition at Queens I decided it wasn’t in my best interest to attend so I researched even more. After speaking with students at Western Carolina I decided to apply. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get in but three days after submitting my application I received an email and a letter in the mail stating that I had been accepted. Hearing this news made me extremely proud of myself for learning everything I had at RCC. I look forward to attending this Fall and completing my bachelors degree in Graphic Design and minoring in marketing. I should complete my degree within two years. and then I will decide if I would like to spend yet another year earning my masters in marketing.

Tiffany and Co.

Last week I finished up a joint photography assignment where the Graphic Design students create a campaign with the photography students here at RCC. My partner and myself chose to create a campaign in titled “Whats your desire?” Our goals for this project was to market the Tiffany and Co. jewelry. I worked on this campaign for a few weeks battling through the flu and other stressful moments however through everything I got the campaign completed and posted for industry review. Our industry review was also last week. We had three professionals that are in the photography and graphic design industry to come in and critique our work. All though the critique was hard to hear I took everything they said to heart and agreed with all of there suggestions. The main suggestion I was given was to lower the amount of items within each photograph. Looking at my clients pass campaigns they keep there photographs very simplistic. Other suggestions were to stack the type to create a interesting shape with the type, and to cut down on the amount of Tiffany’s blue and make the images larger. So now after the project was submitted for the first grading I am revamping my campaign and reshoting the jewelry. I have decided to do only pearls and taking out the rock candy and all other aspects I feel that the campaign will be much more affective if I use only one or two strains of pearls in interesting shapes than to cram so much into my photographs. Once I get the photography reshot and the layouts changed the campaign will be complete and placed into my final portfolio at RCC.

Here are the photographs of the first set of pieces to the campaign. Once I make all the edits I will re-post for everyone to see the changes made.

Billboards 1 and 2

Poster 1

Poster 2

Magazine Advertisement

 

logo

Ive been working on a logo for myself for the last few days and I think I have finally gotten a design I love. I am sure there will be changes made here and there but here is what I have so far. The kd will represent the stem of a dandelion and at the base of the d there will be a blooming dandelion. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear your input.

Tiffany’s and Co.

Today was a fairly great day. I began the sketches for my personal logo and for my portfolio website design. Im really looking forward to continue  working on those and finally making it to my final logo choice. My inspiration so far has been dandelions however the more I sketch the more I go away from that subject so all in all I am glad that I am exploring all my options and getting the best logo for myself that i can.

This evening my photographer for our Joint photography campaign for Tiffany’s and Co stopped by were we looked at the shots she has gotten so far and the best ways to crop and frame all the pieces of the design. I can honestly say that in the beginning of this assignment I was dreading the outcome. i personally dont wear or could even afford Tiffany’s and it is a category outside of my comfort zone. However after many trials and errors and all the hard work my photographer and I have been putting into this campaign i am throughly excited about the campaign and all the pieces. Tomorrow I will spend most of the day researching typefaces and music for our 15 second video and on Thursday the photographers will hand over there edited images for the designers to complete the work. We have about 3 or 4 weeks left to get 4 printed pieces, and a 15 second video perfect. The final results will be shown to industry members where they will then critic our campaign.  The campaign may not sound like a ton of work but when the photographer and the design have SEVERAL other classes and projects going on at the same time it gets rather complicated.

I will post a sneak pick of the type however we are keeping the photographs and layouts to ourselves until industry review. So keep checking back on our progress through this semester. As for my other campaigns and projects  I will be posting pictures throughout as I complete each piece.

 

Portfolio development…

Today I went back to school after being out all week due to some back spasms and I spent the day figuring out the exact details of my portfolio I am putting together. The portfolio must include two visual identities such as logos and business cards, 3 campaigns one being the joint project with a commercial photographer, two 12 pages books, and a personalized website. My best friend for the last few years is trying to get an organization started call Love Alliance. We have been discussing this for a while now so we decided with her photography experience and my graphic design work that it was time to get this up and running so one of my campaigns and visual identities will be about Love Alliance. My joint photography assignment is going great with Cara she had shown me layouts that she has already shot with the Tiffany’s jewelry and I am so excited to see the final campaign. I am still deciding on my final campaign but I feel much more confident that I have chosen two campaigns, my person visual identity system and my books. I am focusing my logo around my company kd kreative and dandelions I have a few sketches already set up now its time to put them on business cards and to bring in clients.

After my work study session at the school I came home to my family were I talked to them and my boyfriend about obtaining my bachelors degree. I have been considering attended a four year college to get my bachelors for a while now but due to being in college for 5 years and just now receiving my associates I get nervous about applying to other colleges. However all nerves set aside I filled out a college application to Western Carolina University. I have decided to put everything in gods hands and if I am to get a bachelors degree he will lead me.

This will be a tough semester trying to get all the work done before graduation however I look forward to building a strong portfolio to reveal the industry employees by the end of the semester.

It’s the beginning…

As a second year Graphic Design student we were asked to begin a blog. This will be my first blog and I hope to keep it updated on a daily basis to keep track of my last semester at RCC. My final semester here I am enrolled in three design courses and two extra humanities courses. This semester I am working on constructing my business website and my portfolio. So I hope to keep each project updated to show my improvement this semester. We started this semester with needing three campaigns to place into our portfolios. I am working with a commercial photography student on a campaign for Tiffany and Co. jewelry. We are using different types of necklaces made from Tiffany with rock candy to portray a new spring collection.  I hope you enjoy my road in this long journey that is just beginning.