Matting – The Specs

When it comes to finishing a design, one needs to find a proper way to present the design. This can be done a multitude of ways, but the method describe here focuses on attaching a design to matte board and/or foam core. Be careful! The blades are very sharp!

Learn how to properly display your work in a portfolio here and how to add your work to a disk or CD here!

Finally, click HERE to see some of my work displayed on the wall (and attached to foam core covered with plexiglass!).

Happy Designing!

Justice

Graphic Design in a Nut Shell

When it comes to design and visual communications, there are a few steps that are necessary to include so as to encompass great design. The following video displays these steps greatly and in a nutshell!

These include the following:

  1. Sketch!
  2. Create!
  3. Critique!
  4. Edit!
  5. and FINALIZE!

Pay attention or you might miss something! 🙂

Summer: The Best Time to Build a Portfolio

One of the things people tell you that you just don’t believe is that time goes by fast, and it only goes faster as you get older. It really is true and boy did my first year hear at Buena Vista University fly by. When it came to summertime, I was not ready to go home. In fact, ‘home’ was a lengthy 5 hour car ride, so instead I decided to become a summer RA. In addition to managing 60 some students over the summer, I also worked at the university book store.

Yet even with both jobs, I still had a tremendous amount of free time. What was I going to do with it all?! Here’s a little tip: If you ever find yourself with an excessive amount of free time, build your portfolio.

Throughout the three months I was in the ghost town called BVU, I worked with several student organizations to expand my portfolio. I created a few posters here and there as well as a couple logos. While it may seem like I didn’t do a whole lot design wise, I expanded my portfolio by at least five additional pieces. That is a LOT!

I took to Behance earlier today – an online portfolio website – and uploaded several of my best pieces some of which were created over the summer.

As a student, it should be a number one priority to update rĂ©sumĂ©s as well as continue adding new pieces to a portfolio. These two simple tasks will keep potential employers’ eyes on you like Sauron’s eye on the One Ring.

In the end, a portfolio is important and the best way to spice it up and add to it is to use your free time (in summer) to get it done! It is that easy. And there are several tips out there that can help with building the perfect portfolio! Get to it!

Design: Critical Thinking for the Creative Mind

As a Graphic Design student here at Buena Vista University, I have had the overwhelming privilege to work with various instructors who have provided me with the opportunity to be creative. However, being creative doesn’t mean I just go around flinging paint at a canvas or making pots useful for collecting dust. No; my outlet of being creative involves being a problem solver just by using critical thinking. Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t still design, paint and whatnot for fun. Design is my passion, so of course I still create for visual appeal.

The photo on the right is an example of a poster I created just because I wanted to. I didn’t have a need and no one else had a need for me to create this poster. I just did it ‘for fun.’

Wicked

For those who know me, Wicked the Musical is my other obsession. I have seen it live twice and plan to go several more times. I hope to one day see it on Broadway and on the West End in London.

If I could design posters such as these for Wicked (or any musical, really), that would be the most amazing job.

Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier. This is an example of designing just because. I am conveying a message, but I didn’t really use critical thinking or my problem solving skills to do so. I did want I wanted, and what I thought looked good: not what I thought conveyed the message best.

It is, however, seriously important to understand that as a graphic artist (yeah, I like that title), I put hard work into the things I create for others. I have created several posters and a few logos for various organizations on my campus that I believe reflect my work professionally.

This kind of work I had to think critically for. I had to solve problems. The number one problem I am faced with when it comes to design for others? How can I create something that conveys a certain message that I am proud of, that the client finds appealing, and that the audience understands. I am faced with this question every time I create something and this is ultimately the most challenging part of the design process.

Let’s start with the first part: how can I create something I am proud of? This almost seems self explanatory, but it’s a little more challenging than that. After I finish something I ultimately feel is quality work, I have positive thoughts about it. However, come a few weeks later, my opinion on my own work tends to shifts. I want to create something that I will constantly be proud of.

Second part: how can I create something the client finds appealing? This is probably the easiest part of all of them. Typically, the client will give you an idea of what they want for the design and more than likely, it will be more than easy to do using Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign. In addition, the client will most likely be coming to you due to a lack of ability to understand the graphic arts and being unable to understand the design programs, anything that you create for them is amazing and will be accompanied by a gasp followed by “I could never do that!”

MELTFinally: how can I create something the audience understands? This can be challenging because something that a designer creates is typically easily understood by the designer… because they created it. Something a designer sees, someone else might not and vice versa. It is nearly impossible to tell how the audience will interpret something, and therefore it is important to do the research necessary to at least try to figure out how the majority of people will interpret something.

This is an example of a logo I created for the Multicultural Engagement Leadership Team here on campus. I decided to go with the symbolism of flames to represent MELT (partly because that was the symbolism used in the previous logo by MELT). However, a friend of mine thought it represented more HEAT or FIRE than it did MELT. This is an example of how a designer (or group of people) can see something one way, and someone else can see it completely different.

Ultimately, this is why design can be a tricky field to get into. It is all about critical thinking and problem solving! It takes a hell of a lot more than being able to use the tools (Adobe Creative Suite) offered.

Justice Gage

First Post

My name is Justice Gage. I am a second year Graphic Design and Digital Media double major at Buena Vista University in small town Storm Lake, Iowa. I am from Carroll, Iowa so this switch was not a difficult switch for me to make. I am involved with the Tack, SAB, and Capture It as well as a number of other media organizations. I also like to spend some time singing in Choir, though I wish we would do more show tunes rather than choral pieces.