first quarter work | july – september 2011

Final Project | Web Development 1

Our final project for Web Dev 1 was to recreate a simplified version of the ZURB.com website. Using only HTML and CSS and no code from the existing website, we were instructed to strip the images and go. It was probably one of my favorite projects all quarter because it allowed me to be both creative and use skills that I had stored up all quarter. Designing a website involves a lot of problem solving. You are given the final project and someone says “make it for me.” I find it to be one of my favorite forms of creativity because the end result is so rewarding. It doesn’t matter if you like the design or even the brand. As long as the final project looks as it’s supposed to and functions beautifully you’ve done your job.

Final Project | Information Architecture

One of my favorite classes this quarter was Information Architecture. Basically the study of User Experience, IA taught us to design webpages and applications with our user in mind. Whether they were an advanced user or a beginner – knowing their strengths, weaknesses and site-oriented goals drove our designs and had us making all of our decisions. For our final project we were tasked with using a set of pre-compiled data points to create a new website with three different pages, including a home page. Because I was also designing this website for my Photoshop class – mine has four pages. In addition to showing the website in an inactive state, we were to show how a user would navigate the site from drop down menus and hover states to the actual mouse click as the user moved from page to page.

Using the information compiled from my Pinterest Boards, I designed ORGANIZEIT, a website designed to organize your entire life. From integrating with your calendar and your budget to storing photos and inspiration boards – ORGANIZEIT allowed a user to put his or her day-to-day life onto one site without having to jump around to see what was going on. Also a social site, ORGANIZEIT had tremendous privacy options ensuring that information was only shared with audiences chosen by the user himself. The site also comes with multiple color scheme options so the user can customize to fit his or her taste level and needs.

Cut Paper Poster | Intro to Graphics

When I first toured The Creative Circus I found myself looking at the cut paper posters with awe. “You’ll do that in your first quarter” my tour guide told me and I remember thinking ‘not a snowball’s chance’. What he failed to mention that I would not only be doing it, but that I would be doing it in my third week and that it would take a bigillion hours. But it was all worth it because I couldn’t be more proud of the end result.

Each member of the class was assigned a tribe (Seminole) and an insect (American Carpenter Bee). Given those two pieces of information we were tasked with learning as much as we could about both and then telling a story through cut paper. My story is the story of creation. Once we cut the initial “background” as you might call it – we were then tasked with adding words. You see these posters had become the opening day posters for a new addition to an exisiting theme park. Mine was the addition of Chenti Sofcokala to Magic Kingdom. In addition to the headline we also had to have a sub headline telling the reader what they would experience while at the park, an opening date and the park’s existing logo. Trust that cutting out the Magic Kingdom logo that tiny is not easy. And posters were just the beginning.

Gift Shop Bags | Intro to Graphics

I told you that our posters were to be a part of a new addition to a theme park and what would a theme park be without a gift shop. After designing our poster we were tasked with designing gift shop bags that our visitors would be able to take home merchandise in. Each of the gift bags had to have a reuse so as not to be wasteful.

The bag to the right was my medium bag. Using the same inspiration as the poster, this bag was designed to turn into a skirt. The handle came off to become a belt with the Chenti Bee as the main focal point. To wear the skirt, the child simply unties the orange ribbon at the bottom and un-strings it from the loops in the skirt. Very simple and very easy to put back together again.

Next on the agenda was a large bag. This bag was designed to turn into shoes and jewerly to be worn with the skirt. Inside the bag are two shoes serving as the bottom of the bag that a child simply removes and wears. The handle becomes a necklace and the outside of the bag is designed to be cut apart. Each of the patterns can be worn as bracelets, necklaces, anklets – whatever the imagination dreams up. Since we had bags, we obviously needed things to put inside of them.

Products | Intro to Graphics

By far my largest design came in the form of what I affectionately call my puffy portable blanket. With handles this little beauty is perfect to travel with whether you’re spending the day at the park – want to use it for a doggie bed, whatever the need may be this half bean bag, half blanket is the ideal way to go. Like the bags, all of the products followed the same design inspiration. I used a combination of colors from the two bags to bring all four of my designs together in a collective brand and I really love the result. This little blanket actually started out as my least favorite design and quickly grew to become my favorite project of the quarter.

Next up was the vest. For this I envisioned a little girl wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. No ordinary girl – this was a girl who had a big imagination, loved the outdoors but still had a girly streak and loved to dress herself in whatever struck her fancy that day.

The front was designed with the two bees as the main focal point while the back was made of a combination of bees coming together to form one bee in blue in the center. The vest was actually made of foam and was one of my favorite things that  I made. Because the products came last I felt as though I had a better grip on materials and thus was able to do a better job with the designs.