vizcom2. v2. kidwell class. reflect.

I honestly had no idea what exactly was going to be covered in this class, as based off of the name it was a continuation in my mind off Visual Communication1(VisCom1), except there was a different professor. I was honestly waiting the first day to receive a subject that I would have the whole term, same as VisCom1; we never did. We dived into terms day one and I believe that is the day that we took a class photo.

the day that we all decided to wear dark colors. ;)

It's been an interesting semester, full of many frustrations and break downs on my side due to this class. Our first poster had become my favorite project...the first project at KCAI that I didn't hate; I was progressing. I didn't fully know how, but assumed either I was growing, it was Kidwell's doing, or something else. I went back at the end of the semester with a better head on my shoulders and reworked on the train poster. I am still proud of the poster; I know work still can be done, but I am on the road to effective communication. I really strove to make myself work and grow, so I had pushed myself to use no images or heavy colors, only text. It was an extremely difficult task, but I needed to know how far I could push myself and still succeed. I ended up successfully portraying both emotional and informational perspectives in my California Zephyr AMTRAK train poster.

The second project forced me to work with a partner; I chose someone who I was attempting to design like, Wendy is awesome. I thought with her design abilities and my words/concepts we could take over the design world! We didn't do that yet, but one day we will. It was a bit of a difficult partnership as we both had our own ways of completing projects, but we ended up with a fairly successful How-To that I think incorporated both of our styles. 

The last project as basically rebranding, even though it wasn't really rebranding. This project was one of the most difficult for me during the semester because we needed to narrow on one pop culture reference and change how it is seen, make it a better icon of culture. I put a lot of research into this project, as well as past knowledge as a fan of David Bowie. The most exciting and interesting part of the project for me was using our 8 visual elements to create a t-shirt design, calling card, CD + case and a website. 

Throughout this course I learned more about the ways to work in a partnership, combining not only both schedules, personalities, and automatic design responses. What I mean is how we, as designers naturally respond to a given design problem/prompt. I also learned more about making smaller, subtle changes in typography, color, and lines to add emphasis, following along the lines of "less is more." I have definitely changed as a designer, and become more calmed with my design skills. I still need to figure out how to push myself further than I am comfortable going; that is one of my major setbacks as a designer.

Ziggy Stardust Project 4 Final(which is really the end of project 3)

My focus for the calling card was focusing on the visualization representation of Ziggy. I overlaid the image of Ziggy's face on the card. I wanted the image to wrap around because Ziggy was all about breaking the norm and changing what was accepted. One thing that sets Ziggy apart from others was his two different colored eyes, so I also put the face on the card fr that as well. I added a pictogram of Ziggy to the business card, because Ziggy's focus was that he was an alien rock star who sang, wrote songs, and played guitar.

close-up 2 sided calling card.

calling card front.

calling card back.

The Website continued the idea of the new CD coming out by Ziggy and the Spider From Mars. I incorporated the well-known lightning bolt, with the logotype, Ziggy's face and the alien rock star pictogram. I wanted to create a website that had a multiple number of items that had a direct relation to Ziggy. The new CD compilation chronicles the rise to Earth fame of Ziggy which is the direction that I took the website, to be a companion to the CD. 

website mock.

website in action.

With the CD, I did not want to just redesign a CD so I created a specific compilation of songs from the Ziggy era that chronicled his rise to fame. I chose the red for the cover of the album to reference the lightning bolt that was on his face, as well as the strong, flamboyant styles of Ziggy to the CD. I kept the overall design pretty minimalistic to let each segment speak louder for itself. On the inside I kept the CD red to very lightly reference Mars, as well as continue the red from the front of the case.

CD front.

CD side.

CD back.

CD inside.

I wanted to continue to incorporate the unexpected with the shirt design. So I used the lightning bolt to wrap form the back to the front. On the front dropping down from the lightning bolt is my symbol of a spider. I wanted the shirt to represent the whole band, not just Ziggy. His band mates are the Spiders from Mars and thus I figured that it was appropriate to use the spider for the band and the lightning bolt to represent the whole band.

t-shirt.

Pop Identified update

calling card.

different opacity options of the cards, opacity on screen is not the same as the print outs.

website.

t-shirt.

front of CD.

back of CD.

CD.

or

behind CD.

Pop Identified Continued Application Two

CD case outside.

CD.

Behind CD.

calling card option1.

calling card option2.

calling card option3.

website.

Pop Identified Continued Application

updated logotype.

updated lettermark.

updated symbol.

updated calling card.

CD cover mock 1.

website mock 1.

Ziggy Stardust: 8 Visual Elements final

The difficulty in my project was deciding on how to embody Ziggy Stardust, not David Bowie, or the personas of David Bowie, specifically it was Ziggy Stardust. This is a statement that some could argue is what really started to make Bowie so popular and well-known. David Bowie, born David Jones was a lover of theater and portraying what was unexpected. He pulled the persona of Ziggy Stardust from inspirations while he grew up. When he put all of the pieces together he became Ziggy Stardust, an alien from Mars that was sent to Earth and became the epitome of a rockstar. Attempting to define what never quite ever existed, and representing the idea was extremely difficult for me to do.

the essence statement.

the photograph.

My intent was to focus on his clothing and rockstar appeal with the photograph, the side that one associated with Bowie, Ziggy & rockstar all at once. Although the image was originally in black and white, it really added to the strong, rockstar appeal.

the illustration.

I brought in a known image from one of the record covers and overlaid the lightning bolt over the image. I wanted to reference Ziggy without throwing the whole shape at the viewer as it had been in the past; a way to reference without stealing an idea.

the pictograph.

My focus was on the alien rockstar aspect for the pictograph. I pulled inspiration from the "Coneheads" (1993) as well as images of Ziggy playing guitar, as it's well-known that he did.

the lettermark.

My focus was was for the logotype to be "in the spotlight" just as Ziggy was constantly, both on and off the stage. For some parts of Ziggy he seemed to just end up blending with his fans, as they copied his style, so he became almost lost in a sea, kind of like the white on white interaction above, with only the shadow as the base of the logotype. Ziggy did not care what people had to said; he did his own thing and was happy while doing that.

the lettermark.

My focus was for the lettermark to be strong, but significant of the fact that Ziggy was different/unique which is referenced in the lack of straight lines and lack of consistency in letter thickness and shape.

the symbol.

My focus was to push this the furthest which I did by using a representation of a spider and a not quite perfect circle for a planet The reference of the spiders is for Ziggy's band, and the circle is for the fact that he is from Mars.

the swatches.

My focus was on strong, rockstar, flamboyant for my colors; which all three fall under. They are also very close in the color palette.

Calling Card Seven and then some

front: photo & logo

back: text only

front: photo & symbol

back: text & logo

front: illustration & symbol

back: text & logo

front: lettermark & color

back: text & logo

front: photo

back: text & logo

front: photo & lettermark

back: text & logo

front: illustration

back: text & logo

other iterations