Category: Uncategorized

  • fun packaging scavenger hunt

    I’ve been on the lookout for fun packaging. When I’m out running errands or to my favorite coffee shop, I’m looking. Below is what I’ve found so far!

    Boxed mac and cheese from Aldi

    I thought the boxed mac packaging was soo cool! The bright, bold colors stood out and I noticed it right away. The names (cheddy mac and shella good) were also really fun and clever. The box that holds all of the mac is even a bright blue. Overall, it was a fun design that seemed trendy and modern.

    The Breaks’ bulk bean bags! Perfect for a cuppa joe

    The simplicity of this bag is top notch. I like the use of red for details and the logo. Also, the skeleton riding a bike is always gonna be a win in my book. The design is seamless with a dash of whimsy.

    That’s all I’ve found for now! Once I get out and find more cool packaging designs I will report back to the masses. Enjoy the weather!

  • learning trapping part 1

    Lately in Layout 3, we’ve been learning about trapping. It’s a printing technique. I’ve learned how to design, but it’s nice knowing the print side as well.

    Here’s a great video that explains the basics.

    This articles talks about trapping and different methods.

    In class, we talked about different methods, and created our own samples in Illustrator.

    It’s a lot to understand and wrap my head around. In class, we didn’t go over everything yet. There’s still more!

  • gettin it done (my portfolio show logo)

    Out of the plethora of projects I’ve been assigned, I’ve been making progress on my portfolio campaign. Right now I have a finalized logo (yay!) but then I have to make about ten other components. I’m working on my posters right now. I’m by no means finished but, I figured I’d share my progress.

    The completed portfolio show logo!

    So the portfolio logo is for our college portfolio show. The gist is, the design students create portfolio show campaign and the school uses the winner’s design.

    I wanted my logo to be funky and modern. I like the movement of the words and the fun font. If I had to quickly write up a design statement it would be this: When designing a logo for the portfolio show, I wanted to create something that showcased our graduates. The movement of “portfolio” suggests the playfulness and fresh new perspectives that STC students bring to their projects.

    This iteration of my poster is the closest to my original sketch, but honestly, it’s not my fav
    This is far from done, but I like the emphasis on the logo. So far, this is my fav iteration

    I’m far from finished, I still have 10 other pieces to design. Wish this girl some luck!

  • making mixed media animation (both ways)

    When you start mixed media animation, there are two ways to go about it. There’s a longer way, and a shorter way.

    The more arduous way entails taking a video frame by frame, printing it out, adding the mixed media aspect, scanning it back in, and then lining up each frame in post. It’s very lengthy, but it’s more customizable than the shorter way.

    The colored frames for the long mixed media animation pro

    The easier way, is to take a video, import it in Photoshop as video frames to layers, make your edits in photoshop, and export, then arrange it in post.

    I did both and have some videos and thoughts below!

    The long process pros and cons

    Pros

    • It was easier to customize the animations with crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc
    • More freedom

    Cons

    • harder to line up scanned in images
    • took a long time to line up said scanned images (very frustrating)

    The short process pros and cons

    Pros

    • saved time
    • was easier to export (create frames, line up in post, etc)

    Cons

    • not as much creative freedom
    • dependent on Photoshop brushes/photoshop manipulation for mixed media effect

    Resources

    Have you tried this? What did you think? Keep creating!

  • engraving leatherette ornaments

    Today in my Production Lab class, we got to engrave tree shaped leatherette ornaments. It was a bit scary, but I think that’s because I didn’t want to mess with the engraver. I made up my designs below in Adobe Illustrator.

    The back design

    I ended up going with the second front design.

    My takeaways

    • When printing on this type of leather, bold letters show up better
    • If I would do this again, I would thicken the stroke of “Ethel Cain”
      • I had to do this on the fly and engrave the back twice because I could barely see the engraving the first time
    • It was a lot easier to use the engraver than I thought! Now I’m not as hesitant to use it.
  • mixed media animation

    My teacher introduced a new project. Yay! We have to make self promo videos. Honestly, videos aren’t my strongest skill, but this is a great opportunity to learn. I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do for my video or how to make it stand out.

    The more I thought about it, I wanted to do something fun and artsy. Something collage/craft like. So I started looking up “multi media animation tutorials”. There are so many cool ways to add to your videos! (Find a cool example here) It seems like there are two ways to go about multi media animation: using plugins/editing effects or the more lengthy process. The plug ins are not free by any means, so I think I’ll experiment with the more time consuming process. The idea is to take a video you’ve shot, bring it into software and save it frame by frame, print your frames out, and then bring out the markers and start drawing, etc. Most people seem to use Adobe software, but I’ve seen others use Canva and Capcut.

    Here are some cool videos I found!

    So after getting some inspiration, I got to work. I combed through my email, phone, and my mom’s facebook account to find clips of myself. I brought the clips into Premiere Pro and edited them. It took me a minute, but I started to get the hang of it again. I kept my editing simple. I made a lil montage. I think I’ll try mixed media animation soon!

  • revising past projects

    I’ll be the first to admit, I wish I could do all of my projects to 210% of my ability. But with multiple school projects, working twenty hours a week, and trying to adult, it gets to be a lot sometimes. Because of my busy school and work life, sometimes my projects aren’t to the caliber that I try to uphold. So with some extra time this week, I wanted to revise some past projects.

    Victim number one, I mean project number one, was my packaging design from last semester. I love the idea of it, but it just felt a little flat to me. The back seemed too plain.

    The original packaging design

    I made some minor adjustments, by increasing the size of the tagline above the rainbow, and keeping the rectangle motif. I think that helped it feel a bit more streamlined and professional feeling.

    slightly tweaked packaging design
    new logo type w/tweaked packaging design

    I wanted to play around with the logo design as well. It just felt a bit rushed. In the future, I’ll take my revised versions to my teacher to get some feedback. The new logo design is growing on me. What do you think?

    Hopefully I’ll post some more revised projects. Until then!

  • beefing up my Linkedin profile

    I think everyone on the planet has a linkedin profile, myself included. However, I have not done much with it besides create an account. With some extra time during my first week of school, I wanted to try to beef up my profile.

    What I did

    • Added work experience and skills
      • I included soft skills and more technical ones
    • Started watching Learning Linkedin (on linkedin learning)
    • Change my profile and banner picture
      • Eventually, I need to update my headshot
    • Added my college details (degree type, AAS, awards, etc)
    • Connected with classmates/previous classmates to expand my network

    I’ll admit, I definitely need to learn more about how to manage my LinkedIn profile. But I have a great start and hopefully will have more to add in the next months before graduation!

    How do you clean up your LinkedIn profile? Any tips or tricks?

  • managing library social media efforts

    Well team, figuring out how to find your legislators has been a hassle. It’s what I’m working on currently for my library awareness social media campaign. Right now I’m in the midst of finding out how to contact legislators about library funding. I’ll update yall on that later.

    Right now, I try to post every other day on my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I primarily repost SD Library Association updates, resources, and legislature updates.

    I usually make Instagram posts using Canva templates. Ideally, I’d like to hand craft each post in Adobe programs, but I don’t have that time with school and work.

    I’ve also started hanging up flyers in my spare time. I don’t have as many hung up around town, but I’m trying when I have time.

    One of my posters I hung up

    In the meantime, I’ll be starting up school and going to work. I’ll keep you updated!

    XOXO

    gossip girl (jk, it’s me, Autumn)

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