change something?

contrary to possible belief, i'm still alive. barely. and i have SO much to write about. later. this semester, school decided to take over my life.

no, really. my. entire. life.

true story.

it's actually been a pretty rough few weeks. sickness, stress, and frustration has somehow sneaked their nasty little selves into my life (and they won't leave me alone, the meanies). however, i just have to keep remembering this:


however, at times i want to just punch something (thing, not someone) just to get the energy of frustration out, then move on. and i think that occasionally, that's okay too. i guess that's what running is for. :]

ps, i found the image on the website of a company who e-mailed me, asking me to apply to be one of their networked freelance graphic designers......??

typefaces give us signals

it's another typography post. i'm obsessed. i know.

have you ever thought about this before? it's what typography is all about. i think that typography is a main root of graphic design. we design to portray thoughts/feelings/expressions, to help people think a certain way or see a certain thing. this is why it's so crucial that good designers are good typographers.

Typefaces give us signals from erik spiekermann on Vimeo.

2 addendums:

1) i haven't forgotten about my 'whyit'sawesome' series. stay tuned!
2) thanks to those who commented on my portfolio (and those who will, hint hint). i really honestly love the feedback, especially after working on it for a while before i actually posted it.

my online portfolio!

check it out! i've been putting together an online portfolio, mainly so i can force myself to digitize pieces and get ready for 'the real world'.

it's definitely a work in progress, but so fun to do!

find it here.

i would LOVE your feedback, so just write under the 'thoughts' section of this post.

to reward you for reading my blog, you may have seen a lot of the things in there before. however, you may be surprised at others. and others that are already on there are forthcoming blogs...so it's kind of like a sneak peek.

or a box of chocolates.

mmmmmm.....chocolate........

deadline

i love being a graphic designer. but sometimes, i feel like this.

periodic table of typefaces

remember how i adore typography?

yeah. me too.

i just found this site as i've been searching for design inspiration. enjoy!

this is now my new desktop background:


i didn't create this, but i wish i would have.

why it's wonderful I - typography::

now that my 'antisocial' series about fall 2008 is over, i'll write 'why it's wonderful' posts about the winter 2009 semester. stay tuned, hopefully these won't be as spread out over time :) i actually wrote this one on april 23rd.

Day: Wednesday
Class: Typography
Time: 7-11.....pm.

you'd think, with that schedule (on top of the fact i had class/work on wednesdays from 8 am-3 pm, 5-7 pm, and 7-11pm) i'd hate the dang class.

i didn't.

i actually...absolutely loved it.
the class::
typography is the study of type as a crucial element of graphic design. we learned things like kerning (how close each letter is to each other), tracking (how close the spaces in between words are) and leading (the space between lines of type). we learned the anatomy of letters, such as the x-height (height of a lowercase letter 'x', used to determine height of main body of fonts), ascenders and descenders (parts that ascend and descend the x-height, such as the tall part of an 'h' or the bottom of a 'g'), and counters (the middle parts of letters with enclosed spaces, such as 'p', 'g', 'a', 'd', etc). we learned about specific typefaces and created posters about them after we researched them (i chose neutraface. good-lookin!). we took note of type all around us with our 'typographic journals'. we also learned what good type looked like...and what it doesn't look like. we even created our own fonts!

*all images copyright kristin gulledge, 2009

the final project::
our culminating project that took the entire last half of the semester was the magazine re-design. we had to take a lifestyle magazine and redesign the entire thing, including the masthead (the actual letters that make up the name of the magazine, giving it an individual feel.) i chose spin magazine, because it's a music magazine for really artsy music lovers. perfect for me. ;) (however, after researching a lot of them, i don't suggest reading it...not all the issues are exactly my cup of tea).

i worked for many long and grueling hours on it, and would have posted the progress, but i was so busy and exhausted by the time i'd be able to post so i opted not to. BUT...here it is. the final project.

DISCLAIMER::
i'd rather you see the final physical project; it was so time intensive...we had to print it and mount it on foam core, then crop it. it looks awesome in real life. i guess you can check out the details here though. enjoy!

*note: photographs (excluding the garage photo) were found on the web, and used for educational purposes only. magazine masthead copyright kristin gulledge, 2009.

the nitty gritty details::
for those who would like to learn more

• we had to design the masthead, mine being 'spin'. i had a bunch of different ideas and came down to the one you see below and one in a circle. i chose this because it's more interesting, and my teacher made the observation that it's more interesting because we usually think of "spinning" things as circles...not rectangles.
• i tried to keep this rectangle thing as a theme throughout the whole magazine: i slanted the headlines and call-outs, also the photo (do you recognize it?) for the table of contents. consistency is crucial.
  
• we were required to have one department. each magazine has many departments, or similar types of articles in each issue.
  
• we were also required to have a 6-page feature, which is what the focus of the magazine is on in any particular issue.
  
• grids are essential to good design. i used a three-column grid for the feature and a four-column grid for the department.
  
• call-outs, in magazines, are certain parts of the text that are set apart from the rest of the words to give emphasis. mine are red and black, slanted with varying font size. this was actually inspired from my blog stylization!
  
• captions, in magazines, describe pictures and they are set apart from the text as well by a different design element. mine are smaller, always next to a photo, and gray colored.
• dummy text, or greek text, is just nonsense text that we use to fill in where text would be in a real magazine. even this, however, had to be custom-designed to an extent.
  

my goodness. i feel as if i've told all my design secrets; i guess i have no more to share. now you can go out and design fabulous magazines as well. piece of cake.*

*this is, in fact, a lie. it's NOT a piece of cake. it's more like a slab of stone...a really really big hard stone that you have to carve with a knife. a butter knife. call me masochistic, but i really love doing it.

Antisocial: Part II (Graphic Design)

{{...And YOU thought that I had forgotten about my 'Antisocial' series. Think again! I will be posting the 3rd and final installment this week or next (I wrote the actual blogs a while ago- this was written January 9...I just had to get the images). Then I will post my art from this past semester. The camera is up and functional again, so here we go!}}

Wow! I got a lot of feedback to my first installment of my Antisocial series...thank you all so much! You have no idea...after slaving away on these projects it's nice to just present them and hear what people say.

On to my second time-consuming class in Fall 2008: Graphic Design.
In this class, we had to make up an alternative fuel company. We went through many series of sketches, drafts, and printouts to get to the point we could produce a good final project. Joe Jackson was our teacher, and our class turned into a big survival posse, as we'd all work slavishly on the h-fac computers or in the print lab.

The project: Brand a pseudo-alternative fuel company.
We first researched alternative fuel companies, then based on what we learned or what interested us most, we each picked one. I picked hydrogen fuel. Then, we produced sketches of ideas for a logo for that type of company.

However, before we kept sketching or started taking our ideas to the computer, Joe had us think of traits or qualities that we wanted our company to have. We made a long list of these qualities. Then, we had to narrow it down to our top three. Mine came out to be:

1- innovative
2- intuitive
3- user-friendly

Then we based our sketches around these qualities. It was an interesting process: it kind of made me think backward. I liked it, because it turned out to be more applicable. We went through a series of what we called "horizontal thinking", which was to expand our ideas in many different directions. Here are a few of mine (out of MANY MANY sketches I did....I have a notebook full of them. Literally).

After we picked about 3 logos that suited us, we continued to expand into "vertical thinking" which was to go in depth on those 3 ideas. Finally, we produced our logo, based on our initial 3 words and presented it. Later, we chose the company name. Joe didn't care so much about the name as he did about the typeface and whether or not it went with the traits and logo of the company. Eventually, we presented the logo and company name:


Then we did a "transformation" assignment: We had to "transform" our logo to fit a bunch of requirements, which was actually pretty fun. The explanations for the transformations are under each one.


After that, we went on to do what was probably the most laborious part of the process: the corporate, or brand, identity package. We had to successfully brand a letterhead, envelope, and business card. It took a LOT of time and concentration, with a prevailing eye for accuracy.

Draft after draft, dead tree after dead tree, we finally got to the point where we could call it complete. We selected special paper to print on, and I did waste a bit. Then we had to mount it. Here's mine:

*note: it looks way cooler in person. cool texture and everything.

(And here are the actual files. Click to enlarge. They look in their final printed stage [so come by and see!], but not so great in the above photo.)

Throughout the process, we were always thinking of application ideas. It couldn't be
"swag" (basically anything you could buy at a football game: pencils, mugs, t-shirts, etc...unless we could convince Joe). It needed to correspond to our company and logo. I decided to screen print a white canvas bag, used for shopping in grocery stores instead of wasting paper or plastic materials. Simple, but I was okay with that:

(I should acknowledge that I couldn't have done this last part without Jeff, who found me the white canvas bag. A normal tan colored canvas wouldn't have worked with this, because that would introduce another color into my color scheme. Tricky, eh? I also couldn't have done it without Craig, who connected me with his brother's friend Steve, who screen printed it for me.)

Then, we presented. And it felt gooood.

Travis Lovell (who was at one point my photography teacher and now works in the print lab) made the comment that was along the lines of, "graphic designers notice the tiniest things that no one else would ever even think about checking." So annoying. But it separates good designers from excellent ones.

Again, comments are appreciated. Let me know what you think!

*all images copyright kristin gulledge, 2008.