After such a challenging yet enjoyable year, I can reflect and feel truly rewarded with what has come from it. Being part of such a beautiful community I’m so happy and proud of who I have become and, who I’ve connected with on the way. My involvement through The Hawks’ Herald, Design Club, and Design Collective has provided me with fulfilling roles and experience and meeting people I love along the way.
Working towards rebuilding a club to welcome designers and non-designers to come, connect, collaborate, and share a love of design has been quite the journey and nothing less than amazing. Working as a team with my fellow peers has been a dream and I hope they are aware of the impact they have had on my experience as well as our design program as a whole! I am so very excited to see what will come of this club in the Fall and where we can progress our community and cultural engagement in the future.
From traveling to D.C. and NYC to meeting in the newsroom twice a week, I have created a bond I will truly never forget with my fellow Hawks’ Herald members. I’ve grown to love working in journalism and though I did have to take a step back from being chief designer in order to prioritize rebuilding the design club, I feel just as close to the newspaper as I did before. As we look towards the Fall, our new heads of office (both women in leadership roles) are planning some pretty exciting things that I look forward to being a part of!
The RWU Design Collective work-study internship program has truly made my experience in the RWU DSGN program so so stunning and beautiful. I’ve grown to mentor, and lead, but also learn, and experience. I have been able to experiment, fail, succeed, and fall deeply in love with what I and my peers do every day. This program has given me the opportunity to connect with my classmates and faculty on a higher level of connectedness and I can’t be more grateful.
And last but certainly not least, the courses I have been honored to take this year have been my very favorite and have given me the chance to connect with professors that I haven’t had since either Freshman year or at all! Being able to have such a variety of different professors has gifted me with learning how to work with different people, in different ways, and using different methods. Which I believe to be the most valuable thing I’ll be taking with me.
Ending this academic year after receiving the Nikki Juen Award for Community Engagement in Graphic Design, I couldn’t be more stunned and appreciative. This is awarded to a student(s) or faculty member whose design practice is informed by building respectful community interactions and creating a welcoming scholarly environment for all learners. My peer and good friend, Ally Houle, and I were given the honor of receiving this award after the news of Professor Nikki Juen’s retirement from academia and exciting future endeavors with the metaverse. We are all so proud of her and can’t wait to see what she accomplishes with this new opportunity!
I truly look forward to coming back to campus in the Fall and only expanding my understanding, love, and knowledge of graphic design, communication, cultural differences, and plenty more.
I have finalized all of my work for The Bubble Bar!! It was my first interaction with branding and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The process was very fun and definitely a learning curve though, I found that I was able to delve into the brand when I was able to think about the concept and how I could implement that into imagery, type, and color.
Hot CupHot CupPastry and Food BoxesCup HolderCup HolderBags
When creating my packaging I wanted to make sure I was able to use my concept on the cups used for boba since this was a boba shop. My process and thought behind it was to use my icon of the boba ball or “bubble” as a pattern on the clear cup mimicking the boba ball look. Being able to also incorporate the name of the shop with the pattern to create a sense of identity. I wanted to make sure that the text on the clear cup was white so that way no matter what color the beverage was, you could still see the text and it was legible. Making the green a distinct and identifying color, I made it the center of attention in this brand. So, on each piece throughout the packaging, you’ll notice the green is much more dominant but still incorporating the pink and yellow with the logo. When I use the all green background, I lean towards using the all white logo so it pops out to a customer.
ApronApronBandanaBandanaT-ShirtT-Shirt
With The Bubble Bar’s apparel, I wanted to extend the same technique as the packaging in order to create a cohesive brand inside and outside the shop. Bringing in that same bubble pattern as the cold cups onto the bandanas. The collar and hem on the sleeves are green/white to mimick the circular character of the logo and draw playfulness into the apparel. A similar idea is used with the aprons in using the green or white as the tie and neck strap bringing that cohesive brand identity.
Post CardsInstagram PostInstagram Slide Post
The promotional aspects of this brand were brought in through the dominant green and subtle bubble effects. Both through the post cards and Instagram posts I created a very subtle and faint bubble pattern as a background while an advertisement and promotion is being brought to the attention. Using boba/bubble icons for the boba card as a clever way of branding. Working in all colors of the brand to draw attention to certain areas and make the message to customers productive. On the postcards I made sure to incorporate a customized branded map next to the location and hours of the shop.
Overall, I was very pleased with the way this project came out and I was very satisfied with the outcome! I can’t wait to share more projects like these and my process 🙂
Hello all!! It’s been a while, and I’ve been up to a lot recently. Let me catch you up! It’s the Spring semester and I’m as busy as ever! I’m in the middle of a few different exciting projects right now. One is for my Brand Identity course, as we create a coffee/tea shop from the ground up. I’m creating a Boba shop, because who doesn’t love boba? I came up with The Bubble Bar since I found that a lot of people all boba, “bubble tea.” Check out the progress;
I’ve been having a ton of fun with this project, and I find that I’m creating something I’m truly proud of through this journey. I feel like I pushed myself a little outside of my comfort zone on this project, working with really playful type, and color to create a visual identity across all boards. This project is definitely still in the works, though The Bubble Bar I’m sure will be something great!
The second project I’m working on right now is in my Publication course. We are to design a magazine or book around a topic of our choice. Mine being the Moon. I find the moon to be fascinating and I find myself becoming a curious child when it gets brought up in conversations. I’ve had to do a ton of research and brainstorming, though after all that I think I’ve come up with something truly exciting. My thought is that I would do almost two different magazines into one. On one cover, it would be about the Cycles, connecting the phases of the moon to women’s menstrual cycles, and tides of the ocean, using the phases of the moon as a metaphor of the way you will move through the book. On the back cover will be another cover about the Chaos of the Moon. So ideally, in the middle of the magazine (the end of Cycles), the text will appear to be upside down, so the reader will have to then close the magazine, turn it around, and start reading Chaos. Chaos will be about the dangerous, chaotic, and intense side of the moon, talking about things like Apollo 13, and tying that to the chaotic feel of the visual identity on that side.
This magazine has taken a lot of thinking and conceptualizing but I think I finally decided on a concept that will produce what I’m most proud of. I’m definitely excited and anticipating what the finished product will look like though, we are in the very beginning stages of this publication.
I’ll be updating the further I get into these projects and as new ones arise, but for now, I’ll be staying excited!
Wishing everyone a new year and a happy Spring semester! If you’re not a student or teacher then I hope you’re finding peace in the holidays being 9 months away. I wanted to jump on here to discuss some of my goals and hopes for this semester as a subtle form of manifestation.
By the end of May 2023, I want to either have completed or successfully attain a design internship that offers tons of experience and networking. I’m hoping to get an internship that is either paid or SUPER hands-on based that will reward me with lots of portfolio pieces as well as experience.
By the end of February 2023, my goal is to have my first meeting for the design club. And when I say meeting, I want lots of designers to turn up! I have high expectations for the graphic design program to come to meetings or participate in the design club in any way that they can!
I obviously want to pass and succeed in all my courses this semester, and if I’m feeling really smart, I’ll have straight A’s this semester. As long as succeeding this semester in classes, that means having a good relationship with my professors. Going to office hours, taking the extra mile to be successful if you will.
As I’ve stepped down as Chief Designer for the Hawks’ Herald, I have taken on a new position as Social Media Manager. I know what I can and can not handle, and the amount of time the Chief Designer required from me wasn’t going to be sustainable for me as a student and designer. Since making that decision, I’ve made the active choice to take on a new role that requires much less time. My goal for this new position is to be as creative as I can get with posts. This is an opportunity for me to play around with social media as a designer and if I can get portfolio pieces out of it then that would be even better.
I could keep going on and on about my goals for this semester but, at the end of the day, my ultimate goal is to try my best!
I think the title speaks for itself however, I think I just need a platform to express my concerns and ask for some help from my peers.
So for the past year, I have been on the hunt for a solid internship and I know beggars can’t be choosers though, I do not want to waste my time with an internship I’m uninterested in or won’t learn anything from. Another challenge I’ve bumped into on this journey is the fact that a lot of employers want designers to work for free. Not only do I disagree with this thought, I simply can’t afford it. To have an internship that doesn’t pay you and have to also work a job and continue as a full-time student is not only impossible but it will lead me and most designers to burnout. With all of this, I have continued to apply to many internships and still have yet to get hired. I’m starting to get worried since I’m a Junior heading into the Spring semester but, I don’t want to give up. I’m really passionate and determined to find an internship that suits me and sparks my interest.
Now that we’ve talked about only a few of the challenges I’ve bumped into, this is the part where I ask for help. What advice do you have for me while I continue my hunt for an internship?
