Author Archives: sv141358

Final Project Analysis

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Santiago Vinasco

For my final project I chose to do the signage option. As a daily commuter, I’m constantly facing a sign wherever I go. This year I’ve seen some clever ideas on the long, rectangular subway signs in the train carts, so I decided to try my own. It was a rewarding challenge because I had to use the rules and guidelines set forth by Professor Klein. That meant I couldn’t illustrate anything, even if I just use letters. This definitely allowed me to look deeper and closer at the words and subtleties in my design. I made more sketches and drafts for this project than I did for any other project in this class and thus I also learned the importance of manifesting your ideas in front of you instead of keeping them in your head. By the end of the project I felt that I did grow as a designer– being able to make a clear statement in the most minimal way possible is the mark of a designer who knows what he’s doing.

Illustration Quote Analysis

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Santiago Vinasco

This project was challenging to me because I was over-designing in the beginning. I thought I was doing okay… I started with a simple bled image of butterflies and placed the quote in the clear space in the image. But I thought it was too simple. So I added two other images that I thought would get my point across. I wanted the viewer to notice the symmetry inherent in nature. But I added too many images with too many design elements in the text. It looked cluttered and complicated. I wanted more subtlety but that’s just not what I was getting. I decided to choose the image of the honeycombs because I could put the words in the quote inside the honeycombs and play on the word “deep” and “nature”. Finally I had a design that was simple yet unordinary. I liked that i put each letter in the word “nature” in its own honeycomb to highlight it’s importance.

Critiquing my work now there are some things I should change. Very subtle but substantial changes. I had two lines that weren’t spaced apart from each other the same distance as the other lines. Also, the text was hard to read as it was kind of small. I chose a small type size because the longer words would not fit comfortably in the honeycomb. I still should of resolved the problem by perhaps going .5 or even .25 bigger. I also should of made “nature” bold so it really stands out. The lesson that I learned is this– just like an essay in English class, a graphic work must also be revised and revised and revised.

 

handwriting analysis

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Santiago Vinasco

For the assignment I chose Bodoni. I thought it was beautiful, elegant, and modern. I love the straight line look mixed with the older, classic typefaces. It is also very neat since the vertical axis is straight down.

I found this exercise very satisfying. I do enjoy handwriting (I’m very proud of my script) and drawing. However, it was still challenging even though this assignment was up my alley. I tend to write in a tilted/slanted fashion so to get accustomed to straight horizontal and vertical lines was a bit difficult. Overall, I think I did a decent job. Could of been better, could of taken more time to carefully craft every right angle. I also smudged some of the letters with my eraser. I found it most difficult erasing the right pencil marks, forcing me to redraw some of the ones I liked. Definitely learned how to be more careful and observant of typefaces– something I have hardly taken the time to notice.

What is graphic design?

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Santiago Vinasco

While I was reading the article I couldn’t stop thinking about how significant design is to any physical or digital object. A well-designed webpage is both aesthetically pleasing and effortless to navigate; a well-designed book will feature a point size and typeface that will make it easier to read for an extended period. Even a poem with a lot of negative space can have premeditated meaning in that seemingly empty space. Apart from this realization, I also did not know there were so many titles given to designers within the field or what some of those titles tell you about the type of designing these individuals take part in.

A question I would love to ask the author since I’m currently looking forward to working in this field is: “What are the most important tools an aspiring designer should master to stay relevant in the near future?” Perhaps the author will answer my question by telling me I should know the foundations, theory, and history of design. Maybe it’s that I should keep up-to-date on what types of images, forms, and words humans currently connect to the most. Or maybe he’ll say all of them.