This design is essential exercise in
design communication because it is a great stepping-stone in learning how you
personally view your individual self. It is hard to design for other people and
companies. You have to first learn how the company works and how the company
wants to be viewed. Their image says a lot about their company. This post card
project gave us the opportunity to create an image for ourselves using our own
personal picture. People are very particular about how they take photos and
selecting a photo you like of yourself is even more particular. This project
was essential because it helped us identify ourselves as graphic designers. From
here we can learn to immerse ourselves in identifying with other projects. By
giving us the tools to create a design for another company that may or may not
have our own little touch to it.
The use of color in my design was
very important. I selected the color of my shirt and accented it to the rose
flowers to the left. This helped create balance on my post card. I also changed
the color and texture to my photo. Even though the photo was a high resolution
I thought it could create a visually appealing type of watercolor painting. The
background color is a neutral with a canvas texture on it that also coincides
with the watercolor theme. Watercolor is typically a very soft and delicate
much like the flowers to the left. My hair is very calm and straight. This goes
along nicely with the idea of the post card being soothing. I did not want to
use the typical black font coloring so I went with a dark blue color. I wanted
the coloring to look soft to match the shape of the font and the general flow
of the post card, but more on that later. Blue is softer than grey and black,
but it is still legible. Although there is no blue in the photo or graphic I
believed it to accent the dark maroon red of the roses and my blouse.
The fonts that I chose to use were a
font called Noteworthy, which I received from Dafont. My name font I am not
sure of, I have it downloaded to the computer in class, as well as the
Illustrator file that contains the name of the image. Nevertheless, both fonts
are slightly loopy. Loopy I mean cursive, or gently gliding from one letter to
the next. Noteworthy has the look of a font you would see in a elementary
school class room. Even though I do not plan on becoming a teacher, my photo
has this type of innocence to it, which if you catch me on a no makeup or hair
not done day, is quite the opposite of innocent.
The use of design hierarchy in my
post card is solid. My post card is equally balanced on both sides and my text
wrap appears on both sides of my photo and graphic. This creates a nice flow
from the graphic to the text and over to my photo. Using Illustrator, InDesign
and Photoshop for the post card project was not difficult. Rather it made
completing the project must faster. I feel more confident about placing
documents into different programs now. Furthermore, taking advantage of the
strengths that each program has to offer. I would not have been able to
accomplish the project without the strengths that the programs have to offer,
for example, editing my photo and applying a filter as I did in Photoshop. In
closing this project was a crucial element in the learning the design process.
We had used all of the programs individually but now after completing the
project it helped create cohesion across the board with the use of the
programs. Furthermore, I think it has helped each of us realize what program to
use when we need to accomplish a specific task.
