Posts

The End of My Professional Practices Class - Thank You MaeLin!

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I know we didn't have to post anything for the final class, but I just wanted to make a post to thank you for bringing this class back this semester. I'm so glad I decided to take it. I felt that the class helped us all learn more about the business side of design through the video lectures and field trips. The personal branding project was perfect because it's something all of us will be able to use in the future and not just pointless busy work. Everything we learned this semester is going to be super helpful for both me and my classmates that are going into portfolio next semester. It'll be my second shot at it, but I feel a lot more solid in who I am as a designer now than I did while I was still in Portfolio B. I really appreciated how relaxed the last class was and how we were able to walk around visual asylum. I had been there once before back when Amy was teaching type 2. She had her final class there too so it was cool seeing the new stuff you guys h...

Field Trip - Hollis Brand Culture

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For our last field trip, we went to Hollis Brand Culture on kettner blvd. Don Hollis was our guide and talked to us about his creative lab. He gave us a brochure with their mission statement on the front that let us know a little about what they're all about. He went on to expand from what the brochure said and then took us on a tour of his business. He first showed us the cool neon sign he has up on the 2nd floor. He told us the story behind it and how it was originally meant for a client but the lights ended up being way too bright so the client didn't want it. He really liked it so he decided to keep it and put it in his business which I found funny. Leading up to the second floor there's a staircase in between the walls with art all over the right wall. There's also a cool little library full of books for research. His office is on the second floor along with one other employee's. The rest of his employees had their own space up on the third...

Guest Speaker: Attorney Lisel Ferguson

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Today, our guest speaker was Lisel Ferguson; a law attorney that works at Procopio. Her presentation was full of the legal information that graphic designers should be aware of. She talked a lot about copyrights, trademarking, how to search for available domain names, and gave us examples of cases in which a party was infringing the copyrights/trademarks of another party. She did a really good job of explaining everything in a way that made sense  to people that didn't know much about law. We were able to ask her questions at the end of her presentation and some people were able to ask for her advice regarding design situations they or their friends were in. It was great getting to hear her response to those questions because those were all real world examples of why we as designers need to be aware of copyright/trademark laws. None of us want to end up accidentally pissing off a major party who could sue us. I appreciate that she was able to make it to class and ex...

Guest Speaker: Jill Dunkery from Neenah Paper

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  Our guest speaker today was Jill Dunkery; a representative employee from Neenah paper. I had first heard of Neenah paper in my packaging class with Min last fall. She said they were one of the best paper companies around for both packaging and print. She passed around some of their paper swatchbooks so we could all see and feel the quality of their paper and the different types that they make. Jill started off by showing us a presentation of the history behind Neenah paper, so I got to learn a lot about their origin and just how long they had been in business. I was very impressed when some old footage of the 1930's came up on the screen showing Neenah's workers making paper the old fashioned way. The video then stated Neenah's mission statement and I was able to get a good feel of authenticity from their brand and what they were all about. The presentation then shifted towards the types of paper they make and papeer terminology. Some of it w...

MaeLin's Design Tips & Organization Lecture Notes

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I'm glad I was there for this lecture because MaeLin talked about a lot of things that don't get covered in other design classes. She went over how to organize your digital work files and mentioned how you should always have a hard copy of said files stored somewhere just in case. She also talked about her own journey with graphic design and any mistakes she made to let us know not to do the same things she did. It was a very informative lecture that I think should be taught more often in other design classes because organization is extremely important to employers in the real world.

Brand You Presentation

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The final presentation I gave in class. It still needs work, but I love my final logo mark and pattern. I love the fonts I chose too. Just need to work on a better color execution and making the wave more flowy and I think it will get there :)