Frame Your Design Challenge

Portfolio Progress #2

What a time to be alive, a worldwide virus has put most of the world on hold at this time but that doesn’t mean we’re any less busy. We’re finishing this term remotely and it looks like my part-time job will be unavailable for the time being so I guess the silver lining here is more time to work on my portfolio?

Accomplished:

Figured out the Nav bar

Have got a footer going

more pages have been made

a hover feature has been added

project pages are slowly being built

To Do:

nav photoshoot with the latest issue

bilk out project pages

reduce image file sizes

about me page

lightboxes for photography and sketch page

Activity One - Blog Post #2

Activity One turned out to be a more fun challenge than I initially thought. I picked up a package that had a hole cut into it and when I unfolded it, I actually found that there were two holes! I was dreading trying to cut it. However, I decided not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the process.

I started out by tracing the package twice on tracing paper. I found I had to be careful with the tracing paper because it crinkled up easily when I used my eraser. I had trouble with tracing the entire package without it moving because it was too long for my hands. Eventually, I realized that if I folded it halfway, it was doable. 

After taking the measurements and making note of all the writing on the little package, I finally decided to draw it out with my ruler using the measurements that I had taken.

Before cutting it, I carefully used my bone tool to create folds in the package. It was actually really good to struggle with getting the same effect in class with a pen lid, only to do it so easy with the actual tool at home. Even so, my tool got a bit ruined by my ruler because it was only hard plastic so I’d like to find a better material to use in the future. 

I decided to opt out for drawing the fold marks, going off the measurements and bone fold lines instead. The hardest part was definitely trying to cut holes into the package and unfortunately, I didn’t do the best job at it. I need to figure out better tricks for cutting holes in the future. 

This time, I tried cutting a pie into the holes, hoping that I could cut them out section by section. This just resulted in a choppy cut.  

Still, it was a joyful experience to fold my little package up and understand just why each flap had to be different, and understand how it fit together. 

While I wasn’t entirely happy with the recreation, I was satisfied with the way it folded together and when I pushed the flaps together correctly, I knew some glue would keep the holes lined up. I decided to leave it unglued for further work in class as it held together perfectly otherwise. 

Reflection: Working with something tactile for the first time in a while was a joyful and happy experience. It reminded me what I love about graphic design, the simple happiness of making something that works. I need practice cutting holes too and I guess I’m going to need a steady supply of fresh blades in order to get through this semester and my fresh pad of bristol paper. 

PLACE - Mood Board

Design Thinking  - Tim Brown

‘Design Thinking’ by Tim Brown is an article about the development of design thinking in the ideation stage of a project and how it has led to new ideas that have flourished due to the consideration of the human element.

It’s always interesting to discover a new facet of the design process and while I believe that Design Thinking is something that we have been integrating into our learning for the past couple years, it’s nice to take a more in-depth look at it and this article is an easy introduction.

Here are my key takeaways:

Innovation = design thinking. One follows the other, you can invent on your own but it won’t ever get far without other’s input and without thinking of the human element.

The design process has been reimagined in the sense that designers no longer come in late to the project but are involved from the beginning and are often even asked to help with the design of the actual product/program.

Design Thinking is only growing as a ‘trade’ as economies shift from physical products to knowledge-based outcomes.

Succesful design thinkers are empathetic, integrative thinkers, optimistic, experimental and collaborative.

I found this case study for a portable incubator called Embrace. Embrace was developed with the idea of keeping premature babies alive by offering a portable incubator to families that live far from the hospital. What I like about this piece is the objective behind it, and a key message in the article.

“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”

This project really focuses in on the people using it and went through a couple iterations before being finalized. It took feedback from users in the areas it was wanting to help seriously and that’s what made it successful. If they’d only designed something and sent it out to people without consideration, the project would have failed. This article does a good job of showing that.

In a world where most people have access to the internet, having an opinion is a dangerous thing. Bringing facts to the table along with your viewpoint is essential for anyone who wants to start a conversation on a topic and while there were some points that I thought made sense in Natasha Jen’s talk, I can’t help agreeing with Richard Banfield’s critique of her critique. 

While I’m not a person who really believes in the use of ‘buzz words’ to prove my point, I think that in some cases buzz words just appear naturally in conversation between two graphic designers. Buzz words are also often important to the client, depending on who you’re working with, they want to know the mystical process behind the design work. 

Now, I don’t personally believe that just because you’re using a design term it’s a buzz word. I was looking at Natasha’s list of words and while some of her concerns seem to be valid, a lot of the words she listed are common, easily understood terms. (scale, empathy, user outcomes, etc.) I’d have to agree with Richard that her talk leaned more towards making jokes it seemed than actually proving anything.

I’m open to see both sides of the story, and I do think that there are probably some cases where a process is mislabeled as design thinking because it’s trendy, but I think it’s incorrect to write off a whole process just because of some outliers. 

Also, though it’s popular to say so, a messy or cluttered space does not necessarily mean that the designer is a genius, nor does it mean that the designer did not use design thinking. (That felt like a desperate point in Natasha’s talk.)

The issue of ‘where crit fits’ in the process too is an odd one to me. Obviously, as a trained graphic designer, I know that crit comes at any and all stages of the process whether you’re asking for it or not. As someone who regularly critique’s my colleague’s work, I know that as soon as I show anything to them I will receive crit. Crit is in every single step of the process, for Natasha to focus so directly on where it fits almost makes me feel like she does not actually have a full understanding of her own design process, despite her lofty position. 

Perhaps that is incorrect of me to say, but hey, it’s just a little bit of crit for her.

I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and can certainly choose to follow their design process how they see fit. Critique on a process is always welcome at any time and will be thoroughly dissected, ingested and critiqued in return by the graphic design community. The coolest part about graphic design is that we are a collection of creatives, all with different opinions and ways of doing things. If you’re going to give a talk where you critique an entire school of thought though, it’s probably best to come prepared with more than just some jokes about post it notes, buzz words and demands to see evidence when you could just google search some case studies.

Final Portfolio Response

First of all, here’s my portfolio website!

I’m pretty proud of my portfolio overall. I remember starting this class and not being able to fathom at all how I could self-brand myself. It has been a period of self-reflection these last few months and while i’m glad to be through it, I know it’s never ever. Despite having the base of my website, there are a few things that I’d like to fix.

So learning Semplice has been a trial and a half. If you want my honest review, if you already don’t know how to use wordpress and you on’t have time to learn a whole new system, do not choose semplice for your first go. Just be a friend to yourself and choose a squarespace or wix template and then try semplice later. I’m saving you a lot of pain by saying this. Still, I’m glad I’ve put in the work and I vaguely get it now.

That being said, there’s some weird spacing that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to deal with. Semplice prides itself on how easy it is to edit but unless you already know how to use it, it’s really not. So I guess I’m going to figure out how to deal with the big gap between the footer and my information in my about page somehow. 

Otherwise all I really want to do is update some of my images in my project pages. For example, my balanced. project page could use a mockup of the booklet or a shoot of the booklet. I’ll try to get that when the print shop opens again. 

I’d also like to eventually add light boxes to my photography and illustrations page. 

Other than those items, I’m pleased with it.

Client Survey

General Company Info 

What is the name of your company?  Place

What is your business/what do you do?  Place provides a single location for a range of events in Nanaimo’s downtown core. It can be a pop-up market, a venue for a reception, an intimate concert, a wedding, a dance, an art class, the possibilities are endless.

How old is your company?  The company has yet to exist.

What is the size of your company? A small core of people involved in bettering downtown Nanaimo. two people leading a small team of 5-6.

Are there specific dates the project needs to be completed?  No.

Your budget dictates how much time can be spent on your project. What is the budget?  Open

Describe your business in one sentence.  No matter what event you are hosting, this is the place for it.

Describe your business in two words? Convenient, Reliable

Describe your business in one word? Perfect

What doesn’t your business do, or do well? Does not host large concerts, or sporting events.

What differentiates your business from competitors? Ease of access, Place’s main interest isn’t how much money can be made but in creating a place for the community to use without burning a hole in people’s wallets.

Is there a story that is unique to your company? When searching for a location for a grad show, Sara realized that there really wasn't’ anywhere in the downtown core that was appropriately sized or available for a small reception.

Or perhaps a unique story to the company name?  Every city should have a place, somewhere that you can go that would be good for a range of events, but also a safe please for youth to hang out and host community events.

What are your business objectives?  To create a beautiful place to host events that can host a range of things from shows, events, receptions, to tourist attractions in the summer months like a large market or informational sessions.

What do you want the design/redesign to do for your company?  I want it to give the company a modern look and feel that is also welcoming to the community.

General Image of Company 

If you company/brand was a person who would it be? Why? I don’t know if it would be a person so much as a representation or even an animal. Place should be able to represent Nanaimo and the future of Nanaimo and its community. If anything, I’d say that I’d want it to be represented by the Orca because of its sense of community and ties to the Salish sea.

Is there an important object, building or person for your business? The building for this business is what makes the business and it would be located right downtown, on the water.

How do you want the public to perceive your image?  A meeting hall, a place that represents Nanaimo, a sense of place for Nanaimo. It should feel like home but also fresh.

What do you want to be famous for?  Being the place that people go to when they need a place.

What words should the general public associate your business with? Name at least 3. Modern, Inviting, Perfect

How do you want your image to be seen in 2 years? 10 years?  Comfortable, familiar, renowned

Competitors 

Who are your competitors?  Vancouver Island Conference Center, Port Theatre

How are they better/worse than your product/service?  Vancouver Island Conference Center has a larger space to host larger events, Port theatre has better space for theatrical events.

Who might you compete with in the future? More developments. 

The Target Audience 

Who is your customer? Describe in detail. My customer is anyone who is looking to use a space but is having trouble finding a good venue for it. A lot of people in Nanaimo have to settle for a venue that isn’t necessarily ideal and we are lacking a community spot. 

What do they do?  Live in Nanaimo and actively work towards bettering the downtown community via productions or events.

What do they watch? Community productions, local musicians, short plays, open mics.

Who is the ideal customer? Someone who perhaps wants to bring more culture to the city but lacks the funding/space.

How old is your ideal customer? 20-60

How do they find out about you? Through advertisements downtown, facebook, Nanaimo’s website

What do they want from you?  A place to host an event.

What customers do you not want to attract?  People who want to host an extremely large event or have the money to do so elsewhere. (Large corporate events that exceed capacity)  

What do you offer your customers that your competition does not? A place that can be molded easily to fit their needs. The place isn’t designed a certain way to format one specific thing so it means its a space that can be used for a variety of things without many spacial issues.

Current identity 

Do you have an identity?  No

What are two identities or logos that you like? Dislike? I like the CBC logo and the CNR logo. I don’t like the Nanaimo Chamber logo   

What colours do you like? Dislike?  I like sunset colours and when you just use multiple shades. I don’t like intense greens or dull colours.

Anything else? 

What did we not ask that you want us to understand? The Place isn’t like anything that’s already in Nanaimo because it isn’t held back by a small size or a regular business, it isn’t meant to make money from events, just enough to cover expenses. It’s meant to be somewhere rentable that people can use to host a variety of events and promote community within Nanaimo.

Portfolio Website

The Links I’ll Use

about me, small joys, resumé

Which 3 (or more) projects will you showcase on your site?

Balanced Balanced is a project that I did last semester where we had to choose an issue and then try and solve it as best we could through graphic design. Balanced ended up being an integrative system to promote a healthy work/life balance for the issue. It showcases an app design, web page, smart watch, smart speaker and welcome pamphlet as well as a colour brand.

The Nav The Nav Student Press is a magazine that I have been art directing the past two years and worked on for the last three. It showcases my editorial skills and features two different base designs for me to show on my website.

Place Place is a branding project that I am currently working on for design for business. At the end of this project I will have a fully branded guide for a new business. This will include a logo, a pattern, style guide and branding elements. I will add it at the end of the term.

Fox & Koi Fox & Koi is the enamel pin business that I run with Teigan Mudle. Through fox & koi, we have designed over 30 pins and I have personally been responsible for 15 of them and collaborated on 5. I have also done some illustrative print work, designed backing cards and created stickers.

Where do you need to fill holes in your showcase?

photography

mockups

sketches/roughs for all projects

more active dribble, design instagram

What will you do specifically to fill holes?

write rationals

do photography of products and/or mockups

post more on my design instagram

post more on dribbble

organize past sketches and roughs into something legible.

What platform will you use?

Wordpress, powered by semplice

What is your domain name?

saraholmes.design

Opportunities for Change & Innovation

This seems like a very self-centred approach to this project because I might be one of the select few that faces this problem. But hey, I think it’s important to do a passion project every now and again.

Here are some vector versions of the logos I have chosen to work with and some possible colours to use as well. I plan to choose one of these and work on it further, I’m sure I’ll have a better idea of what I can do with these options after some feedback from my peers.