Milky Way

The second entry in the t-shirt contest mentioned below. I tried to think of imagery all of the volunteers in our stajj would find familiar, whether they live in a more urban area, a more Arabic area, the deserts of the south, or in Berber villages in the mountains. I got inspiration from old travel posters, and chose a donkey since it seems like we all wake up to their overwhelming voices no matter where in Morocco we are. I put a person on its back in part to make the donkey itself a bit less controversial to Moroccans (Hasak!).

The version selected did not have the script on the bottom (which reads “Environment-Health”). That was added at the request of the “t-shirt committee”, and as may still be apparent, I had more trouble than I expected in adding it without throwing the composition out of whack.

Book cover design, 1

Istanbul, Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk

Book cover design 2, Hong Kong, Epilogue to an Empire, by Jan Morris

Book cover design 3

Great Plains, by Ian Frazier

Package design 1 (Thanks for your help with the images, G.!)

Package design

Package design

Package design 2

Package design, first draft…

The assignment was to create a brand (with a specific target audience in mind) and sketch the package designs using that brand over three types of products.

The audience I’m thinking of here buys produce at farmers markets, tries to know where their food comes from and what it’s made of, and prefers unprocessed food generally. It’s a grain company that purchases its raw materials from a small network of organic farms and then minimally processes it into foods that small farms close to urban areas (the usual farmer’s market fare) usually don’t produce.

It was recommended I carry the roughness of these sketches over to the final design, as a reflection of the organic, hand-made nature of the company. That was probably harder to do than if I tried to polish it up. I hope I was successful…

Package design, first draft…

PSA poster

Type Sample Book, selection 3

…I know I TOTALLY need to rework my whole type sample book, but for now (end of class) here is something from it. In some ways this was the hardest assignment. Type’s so elemental, but there’s so much to consider when putting together a type sample book. Letters are shapes, gaps, rhythms, and patterns, but then there’s meaning to the words plus how their connotation changes within their context. Then there’s additional context provided by their typeface, weight, positioning, and placement relative to the rest of the page, all of which changes by so many other additional contexts. One part seems to infinitely compounded by the next.It’s overwhelming and exhilarating to finally have to think this way!

So first there is learning the “rules” of good, clean, professional type. Then there is how it all feels without the rules in mind. Be inventive/take risks… Make it look well done and professional… Yeah, I’ll definitely have to revisit this project. And then a few months after I’m finally satisfied with it I’ll have to redo it again. With more practice comes more knowledge and instinct which fuel each other, right?

Type sample book, selection 2

Type sample book, selection 1.

Everything from this post and above is the version of my projects at the end of class.