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 front (v1)The front (v2)The back design
I ended up going with the second front design.
The frontThe back
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.
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.
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!
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 designnew 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!
After the exhausting saga of calling my local legislators, I wanted to draft up a quick library flyer design. I’m not looking to print them en mass from another site, so I want to print them on a 11 x 8.5″ sheet of paper.
The Process
I opened up InDesign and started with a 11 x 8.5” size file. I snapped guides to divide it into four even sections.
I looked at my original poster design. I wanted to take the elements of the big poster and condense it into a small flyer.
After looking at the previous poster, I decided I wanted: a headline, short summary, and a qr code with resources.
The Final Flyer Design
Side by Side Comparison
The Flyer The Original Poster
I can’t decide if I need the black outline or not. It might make the flyers easier to cut (or at least, that was the idea).
How do you design flyers? I’m off to finish some homework. Ciao!
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?
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.
A recent postThe second post image
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!
Well guys, it’s been a busy break! I visited more family, worked on more projects, and am trying to stay in my software.
Adding the yarnAlmost done!Hung out with my family at Falls Park
After seeing my mom’s side of the family for Christmas, I used my days off of work to start an awareness campaign. Right now, the proposed South Dakota budget reduces the SD Library budget by 64%! Click here for the article. I’ve always loved the library and want to let South Dakotans know. Together we can let our voices be heard and retain our amazing library resources.
So as a start for my campaign, I wanted to create posters. I like my initial Lorax idea but upon second glance, the Lorax is a copyrighted icon. So he had to go.
The first poster idea
I decided to keep my poster simple. I really wanted to make it eye-catching and memorable, but time is of the essence in this moment. By going with a simple poster, I’m able to redirect my energy into the social media aspect.
The final form! (for now)
Now that I have a poster made, my plan is to print off copies and hang them up around town. Maybe even in surrounding towns. I also created a social media account (sdlibraryadvocates) on Facebook and Instagram. My goal is to highlight the many resources that our state library provides for us, as well as how to fight the proposed budget cut.
I’ll keep you posted on my library crusade! Until next time 🙂
I’ve been chipping away at my final projects! Right now, I’m finalizing my last article spread. I really want to have it nearly finished so I can get feedback and turn in my magazine before class ends tomorrow.
Here are my different iterations:
I think I’m leaning towards the last one. Maybe I’ll change the top bar color.
I’m also working on my perfume label. It’s come a long way since my last update.
When I got some pointers from my teacher, it was clear that he wanted imagery instead of illustration. I might switch the colors from green to orange because it is an orange scent. Not too sure right now.
That’s all she wrote! (for now) Wishing all students an easy finals week.
I’ve been steadily working on my perfume label in class. Initially, I wanted the perfume to have the scent of bleeding heart flowers, but since the bottle is an amber color, I decided on an orange scent.
I’m still playing around with font combinations for the brand. But I am happy with the body copy font (The Seasons).
The brand font in this early stage was GautreauxHere are my WIP font options… still not sold on any yet
Then I wanted to include orange blossoms on the label for some floral imagery. I found a reference online and digitized the flower for a sketch/illustration feel. I then resized it to better fit the label.
The current iteration of the perfume label, with a different brand font
I think I’m starting to get somewhere now. I need to play around with the borders (color, thickness, etc) as well as the color of the label itself. The brand font is better, but needs to be tampered with a bit. The orange blossom flowers need stems and perhaps leaves. This is far from its final form. Stay posted!!
Jessica Walsh is a graphic designer, creative director, author, illustrator, design teacher, and founder of the design agency &Walsh.
Her Career
Walsh was born in Rhode Island in 1986. Before even stepping foot in college, she coded and designed websites at 11 years old. She got her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. Shortly after, she was off to New York City to pursue design. Walsh interned at Pentagram under designer Paula Scher. Her career continued to explode. She was at Sagmeister Inc. for two years, before becoming a partner. After years of working at Sagmeister & Walsh, Walsh split and formed her own agency (&Walsh). Walsh also teaches typography and design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She’s worked with Jay Z, the New York Times, Adobe, and Levi’s to name a few.
