August 2010
2 posts
10 tags
2 tags
July 2010
1 post
June 2010
1 post
April 2010
1 post
“Do not seek to change what has come before. Seek to create that which has not.”
– David Airey (via)
March 2010
1 post
Designer's Confidence →
I really like what Paul Scrivens says in this article. I think, no matter what profession you’re in, you have to have the confidence to stand up for your choices but also the intelligence to see when you’re wrong and the desire to learn from your mistakes and grow. This article has inspired me to work harder at all of those, maybe it will for you as well. Enjoy!
February 2010
1 post
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
– George Bernard Shaw
January 2010
2 posts
“Networking with prospective clients is not unlike talking to someone you find...”
– Isaac Gube, Six Revisions
4 tags
Creating a personal identity →
It’s time for us Graphic Design seniors at Ferris State University to being thinking of what we want our brand to say about ourselves and how to design a personal identity system. Here, brand identity designer David Airey shows some of the process that he went through with creating his own identity. He shows different sketches and discusses the thought behind the different themes of...
December 2009
1 post
Social Networking Smarts, Do You Have Them?
Social networking is becoming increasingly important to all job seekers, especially in design related fields.
What is Social Networking? Do you have a Facebook? A Twitter? A MySpace? A LinkedIn? A blog? If you answered yes to any of these then you’ve been on a social networking site. Each site has its different uses, such as Facebook and MySpace are about staying in contact with old friends...
November 2009
24 posts
Linda Powell on Sabbatical
Last week Linda Powell talked to our class about what she did on her sabbatical 2 years ago. Her sabbatical took place at Herman Miller, where she’d worked for years before beginning her time as a teacher for the Graphic Design program at Ferris State University. There were 3 main projects that she ended up working on for the 16 weeks she was there.
PROJECT ONE The first project she joined...
6 tags
How do YOU FTP?
Recently classmate Troy Rojewski introduced us to the open source FTP/SFTP, WebDav and AmazonS software, CyberDuck. This tool can be used to share documents between computers or upload to a host server for a website.
This past summer, I downloaded and attempted to use CyberDuck to upload a website I was working on to the server. I didn’t have much luck and couldn’t get it to work so...
Designing for T-Shirts
T-shirts may seem simple to design for but there is actually a lot to it. I am on the team for the 2010 Fifth Third River Bank Run this year and we recently just sent 3 training t-shirts to be printed. It took all 5 people in our team, as well as professors Alison Larabel and Linda Powell, working together to get the three shirts designed, approved, and packaged up and sent to the printer in time...
Designing Brand Identity - Part Three
This is the third and final post about Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler. This section of the book showcased best practices of designing brand identities. In this section Wheeler discussed the process and strategy different companies used created their brand. It also gave information about how the identity was created and the person or team that worked on it along with the results ans...
Mac's "Mail"
Mac’s Mail application was introduced to our class last week by Nick Conflitti. I have never used the application so it was interesting to find how easy it was to set up and use. The application imports the emails and contacts from other mail accounts so you can check them all at once. This would be helpful in keeping organized and saving time if you have multiple email accounts to check. A...
“It is important to use your hands, this is what distinguishes you from a cow or...”
– Paul Rand Paul Rand: Conversations with students (via Bruce Mau Design and Monoscope)
Flipping Typical
Today in class, Jacque Edwards introduced us to the website Flipping Typical. It’s a great resource for viewing words in different typefaces. All you do is type what you want, it can be a word, a sentence, or a paragraph even and the site will return what you wrote in the different typefaces that you have one your computer. This will be so much easier than duplicating boxes of type in...
Camera Raw
Camera RAW was introduced to our class by Nick Conflitti, Jenessa Smith, and Steve McMahon. It is a plugin for Photoshop, After Effects, and Bridge that allows you to manually adjust RAW image files. The plugin manipulates data that is taken by your camera when it is in RAW mode.
Using the Camera RAW is similar to editing .jpegs, .tiffs, and other image files in Photoshop but all of the setting...
Cool Kuler
Today we were given an in depth look into Adobe’s Kuler by Leslie Parks. Kuler allows you to upload and use colors from images or create color palettes from scratch. I created the color scheme shown above from a photograph my boyfriend took during our AIGA group’s trip to Chicago in October.
Another useful feature is the Kuler tool that can be used in the Adobe CS4 programs. You can...
All about Genuine Fractals
This past Thursday, classmates Richard Swenor and Ian Williamson introduced our class to Genuine Fractals. This Photoshop and Light Booth plug-in allows users to interpolate images better than the native software does. It enables users to create larger scale images of higher quality than if they had just used Photoshop or Light Booth because it has a better equation for interpolation as well as...
Design Student Resource →
Shows everything we’ve learned in the Graphic Design program plus some. It’s a nice site for review and reference. (via rachelkatt)
Stock Photography
We recently were given an in depth look into stock photography by classmates Leslie Parks and Troy Rojewski.
Stock Photography In General A stock photography company is a company that offers digital images that can be purchased to be used in print and digital pieces. In addition to images, you can get illustrations, flash swfs, music clips, and video clips. Stock photography images are a cheaper...
Postal Regulations
There is a lot of information that comes with postal regulations. Last week, Alissa Rader and Andrea Jarvie taught us seniors what we as designers really need to know from all of it.
The image above is a diagram of a business reply card. It shows the six design requirements for designing Business Reply mail (BRM). These include:
NO STAMP REQUIRED: This means the postage has been paid for by...
Projecting, Scanning, and Printing.
Recenlty, Nicole Steffen and Trevor Dobias gave us some insight into the printer, scanner, and projector/document reader that we use in the senior lab.
Projecting The projector and document reader has been a tricky device since sophomore year. No one ever really knew how to work it very well or what buttons meant what. Nicole and Trevor really helped us to realize, it’s not really that...
“Don’t design for everyone. It’s impossible. All you end up doing is...”
– Leisa Reichelt (via Quotes on Design)
I’ve Lived: Post-it Notes for Neighbors →
I found this experiment interesting and unique. This was an instillation of “post-it notes” for people of a neighborhood in New York to fill in regarding their living situation, such as where they lived, how long they’ve lived there and the cost. This was meant to answer the question of “how much are my neighbors paying for rent?”. This experiment was inspired by...
Adobe Acrobat and PDFs
Most everyone has used Adobe Acrobat and/or a PDF at some point in their lifetime. A lot people though, don’t know what they really have to offer. There are a number of features that Adobe Acrobat has that are especially useful for designers. Combining PDFs One of the more useful features of Adobe Acrobat, in my opinion, is the ability to combine various PDF files into one document. This...
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge is a program that comes with the Adobe suite. It allows users to organize, browse, and find content. You can add tags and keywords to files and documents which makes files easier to find when searching. This program is useful when using the same images and other files for use in other programs. For example, if you’re using an image for a spread in InDesign but need to edit it in...
Duotones & Goe Systems
Yesterday in class we learned about how to make true duotones, how to use the duotone Pantone books, and a little about what the new Pantone Goe system is.
Duotones Creating duotones is really quite easy and I think having a book to reference will make it even easier. There are two duotone books that we were shown today, one for coated paper and one for uncoated. These books show a variety of...
2 tags
Toggl
Toggl is a time tracking tool that allows you to track your time for multiple projects in an easy, efficient way. Toggl can be used by individuals as well as by entire teams. This tool allows users to track their time by client and by project for that client.
A few things that I really like about Toggl are:
There is no limit to the number of clients or projects you can have.
Toggl keeps track...
6 tags
Chicago Trip - The Art Institute of Chicago
Saturday morning, our group spent wandering around the Art Institute of Chicago. We began in the museum’s new modern wing and then made our way through the classical works.
Modern Wing My tour of the museum began in Architecture section of the Modern wing. The room was filled with architecture, furniture, and other contemporary works. One piece that immediately caught my eye was this sketch...
October 2009
13 posts
Chicago Trip - Tour of Specialty Shops
The second part of our Saturday in Chicago consisted of wandering the city street looking at specialty shops. Before our trip a couple of alumni (Levi Borreson and Erin) were gracious enough to create maps for us to various specialty shops around the city. In addition to some of the shops on this list my group mates (Alissa Rader and Nicole Steffen), and I found a few other shops along the way. A...
All About Paper
On October 20, paper rep Kristi Samuels came to the Senior Lab to talk about what was new at XPEDX. The visit gave a nice refresher about paper and its uses as well as gave us a chance to see all of the brand new paper samples from the convention the week before.
Paper Basics Kristi brought us a lot of useful information about paper properties, categories, and sizes.
Opacity: How opaque a paper...
Chicago Trip - Tour of VSA Partners
Last weekend the Ferris State AIGA group took a trip to Chicago. Friday was our first day in the windy city. we woke up bright and early and carpooled to Dune Park. From there we took the train into Chicago. Once we were off the train we stepped out of the station on Michigan Avenue and into the rain. Umbrellas in hand we quickly traveled to our hotel on Illinois Avenue and dropped off our bags....
Designing Brand Identity - Part Two
Here is part two of the three piece discussion of Alina Wheeler’s book Designing Brand Identity. The second section of the book discusses the process of designing brand identities and how to design for different mediums and uses. No matter what is being designed, to be successful, one must follow the process and designing for brands is no different. Wheeler divides up this section of the...
Art Prize Adventure
My Day at Art Prize On September 26 my boyfriend, a friend and I ventured to Grand Rapids to see what Art Prize was all about. Ever since opening on the 23rd, we had heard nothing but raving about how amazing the event was and had to see it for ourselves. When we got there, we were more than stunned. I was like a child in a candy store, looking around at all of the different pieces of artwork...
Designing Brand Identity - Part One
This is the first of a three part series of discussions from the reading of “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler. The first section of the book explains what brands and branding are and what goes into them. A number of components go into creating a successful a brand, the following are a few of the more important ones.
Positioning Statement “Positioning breaks through...
“A blog is the next business card.”
– Alx Block Designing Brand Identity
Definitely something to keep in mind when blogging, or even mico-blogging.
The Making of "Good Design"
On Friday, October 2 our senior class went to the Muskegon Museum of Art to visit their “Good Design” exhibit which had been designed by Barb Loveland. Setting the Criteria The client is the Muskegon Museum of Art. Because of this, the overall design direction was decided by the museum curator, Tim Chester. For 3 years, the exhibit will be traveling around the United States. Because...
WatchA video by Matthew Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth as a response to Hewlett Packard’s D&AD Student Awards. The goal was to “present an idea which promotes HP Workstation’s ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.”
It amazes me what two people can do with a little free time, a few printers, and an idea!
To learn more about the two men who...
Letters, Memos, and Emails
Letters, memos, and emails are all very important in maintaining contact during projects, contacting other professionals, and with most any business communication. There are a few basic guidelines to follow when writing any of these.
Should always keep a positive tone in the writing.
All of the formats are able to have some sort of enclosures whether physical documents or email attachments.
...
September 2009
14 posts
Reviewing of a Vision: The Meyer May House
Recently our Graphic Design class took a trip to downtown Grand Rapids to tour the Meyer May House. We not only toured the house but also watched an in depth video about the renovation and refurbishing of the house into a historical destination.
Designing it Wright This house was fully designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, from the house itself to the living area to the tableware. The house was...
FreelanceSwitch.com - 4 Steps to Better Filing →
Since I am the definition of a pack rat, I am constantly filling up my work space as well as any other living space there is. I try my hardest to keep it cleared off but it’s very hard when there is so much stuff. This article it goes through steps in deciding what really needs to be kept and has some great information for helping you clear out your work space.
As the article says...
WatchSlow motion video around Moscow. Interesting how different things look once everything has been slowed down.