Final
In the beginning of the internship, I started with getting to know the company, their products, and their procedures. I browsed through the company site, checking every page to help myself familiarize with how they brand themselves. It took a while to become familiar with everything, but eventually I familiarized myself with them. My supervisor started assigning me with simple tasks such as assigning leads to salespeople, making small changes to the website’s content, and creating simple graphics. Gradually, I started gaining more complicated tasks such as rebranding, creating new templates for their datasheets, and updating more content on their website. Eventually, my boss assigned me more tasks that varied with complication such as making a change on Adwords, creating extensive infographics, and making changes to the layout of the website itself. Working with these tasks have allowed me to improve my skills as a graphic designer and my knowledge in digital marketing.
I started my website with a simple idea. I wanted my website to be platform for me to showcase my portfolio and to market myself to prospective clients. I didn’t have much coding skills back then, only basic HTML and CSS knowledge. My first struggle with this project is coming up with a design. Of course I did extensive research online to see how others designed their personal website. As I conducted my research, I took notes of what I liked and what I didn’t. I looked up tutorials on how to start a website and I downloaded programs that I needed for coding. After conducting extensive research, I started drafting a design for my initial concept. And I came up with this.
And with this concept in mind, I started my coding. Each week I added something new to the site; from the navigation bar to adding new pages. Every week, I found new things to add that could improve my website. And each week, the layout of my website changed.
From this,
to this…
Pretty much I just played around with the coding, experimenting with different things to see what works and what doesn’t. I also applied all of the suggestions made by everyone in the class.
As weeks rolled by, I became more skilled with coding. I learned new techniques and new information on how I can better utilize the various codes to benefit my website. Eventually, I settled with this final design, which is a vertical website with parallax scrolling.
Of course I continued playing around with the coding. I added a background, I made everything fall in the center of the page, I added the porfolio pages, I added an image slide show, and I added a contact form. I customized everything to fit the theme of the website. And now I have a finished live website that I can use to market myself and showcase my artworks.
This is the finalized website: Timberly Creative Design
The idea for my independent study was supposed to go hand in hand with my website project. The independent study is a self branding project. I wanted to develop my own brand that I could use to market myself. Just like the website, I started out with research and jotting down ideas. I jot down what I liked and what I didn’t. I wanted my brand to be fun to reflect my personality, yet professional enough for clients to take it seriously. I also wanted it to be simple but colorful.
So, I researched different types of logos to see which one would best fit me. I started drafting different concepts and designs. At first I decided I would go with this design, since everyone seemed to really like this and I liked it as well.
However, it didn’t seem to fit the my “fun” concept. It seemed to rigid especially with the box around it and it didn’t go well with the website. So I came up with this.
I liked this one more. It looked more dynamic and open without the box. But then I felt like it was missing something. It doesn’t feel like the final product yet. I felt like it was too simple. It needed something to make it more exciting and more in line with my personality. An idea came into my mind. I decided to add an illustration along with the logo. And I came up with this.
I made this my finalized logo. After creating my logo, I started creating designs for my business card, letterhead, and resume. It didn’t take me long to finalized these. It was a lot easier designing these collaterals than actually developing the logo. I made sure all of the print collateral designs matched each other and the website.
After finalizing those, I started drafting my style guide. My final project is supposed to be in a form of a style guide where it details the visual identity of my brand and their applications. Of course, I made sure the design matched all of the other designs. As with the print collaterals, coming up with the design for the style guide wasn’t difficult at all.
This is the finalized style guide: Brand Book
Overall, the internship and these projects have improved my design skills and knowledge tremendously. It made me a more well-rounded designer, that could not only create designs but can also develop a website and know how to utilize digital marketing.
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