Reference for this design and all designs that I've modified;
Hanysa. 2023. Pink and White Minimalist Professional Portfolio Cover A4 Document. Canva. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFt9GNldHk/2sKQuEbYQ4xKoOsmtgQPkw/edit.
My Self Portrait
This Self Portrait was certainly something different for me as I have never used Illustrator or any other software for that matter as I came from a small school which had no electives for this course, therefore, this was a challenge, but it ended up being fun and I got a chance to make a creative self-portrait of myself by matching the style of the sample attached.
As a new member of the QCA Design Studio, I’m required to create an icon of myself in a style that matches the existing icons used by the studio. The task was to use Adobe Illustrator which is a powerful creative software used for creating logos and professional vector art. Once I started to get familiar with all the tools, I started to get a hang of how things work. The main tool I utilised was Curvature using a stroke of 2 pt. to match the sample design. I then created the coloured circle by using the eclipse tool and by pressing down on the ‘shift’ tab to make it the perfect circle. I chose a colour that best represents me using ‘properties’ on the right-hand side and changing the fill colour of the circle while removing the stroke completely.
My Logo Design
A tech entrepreneur from New Zealand, who is currently based in Australia, is working on a funding proposal for a new app called WAVE. This app aims to connect independent local music artists with a broader audience. The entrepreneur is looking for a logo to include in their promotional kit for potential investors. They are drawn to the artistic style of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and would like the logo to reflect this traditional art style. However, they are open to your guidance as a designer with expertise in engaging with cultural content appropriately.
While the entrepreneur hopes for an "Australian" vibe in the logo, featuring plants and landscapes, it's important to note that they do not have approval from any First Nations person or community to use cultural symbols, and they do not have Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural connections.
The logo had to incorporate the text "WAVE" along with an icon or supporting graphic element. The entrepreneur has provided examples of logos they like stylistically from the internet, therefore, my concept aligns with these references.
I was able to draw my design in Illustrator using the shape builder tool and incorporating the colours green and gold to give it colours commonly associated with Australia. I started off by drawing three circles layered slightly above each other and used the shape builder tool to cut out the excess in order to make a singular wave shape. I then copied and pasted that wave shape a few times to create the multiple wave effect.
My A5 Event Poster
For this brief a local furniture design business, Hello Furniture Co., wants an A5 portrait poster for an upcoming open studio community event. They've shared a sample poster from Pinterest and requested a near-identical layout – same fonts, text positioning, and images. However, instead of the original little person illustration, they want a new illustration featuring a person wearing a zebra mask. The client hasn't obtained the necessary licensing permissions for the intellectual property used in the sample. Therefore, I was given a small number of images that include walls and sky like to what is in the sample provided by the client and tried my best to mimic the client’s inspiration. The software I used to get this outcome was Abobe InDesign which is a professional publishing software that has powerful tools that can create documents that are suitable for commercial use. I used a sky background and a yellow looking garage that is like the sample and incorporated the client’s details. The tricky part was to find an image of a zebra head- one where the client doesn’t pay anything. I needed to then place that image into Illustrator and trace over and colour in- I also drew a party hat onto the zebra to not make it look so serious and more fun and colourful. I also got an image of a man sitting on the edge of a cliff, placed it onto photoshop along with the finalised zebra head and put it onto the mans body. I then put that onto my design and got my completed outcome.
The Phope. 2018. Sky Wallpaper. Online Image. UnSplash . https://unsplash.com/photos/9X1rJClbnmg.
Luo, Mitchell. 2019. Yellow Garage. Online Image. UnSplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/HexbdGWe7I8.
PeskyMonkey. n.d. Nervous Businessman Sitting Outdoors on the Ledge of Steep Cliff Face Looking down at the Red Rock Canyon Below. Online Image. Adobe Stock. Accessed September 12, 2023. https://stock.adobe.com/au/search?filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aillustration%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Azip_vector%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Avideo%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Atemplate%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3A3d%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&k=man+sitting+on+ledge&order=relevance&safe_search=1&limit=100&search_page=1&search_type=usertyped&acp=&aco=man+sitting+on+ledge&get_facets=0&asset_id=334596275.
My Large Format Protest Poster Print
This brief challenged me as a designer to create a large-format protest poster. The theme of the poster was entirely up to me as I was encouraged to choose a political issue that personally resonates with me and what I believe deserves more attention at this moment. The theme had to reflect what I wish were different in the world or what I believe more people should understand. It tapped into my passions and frustrations, as well as acknowledged the privileges I have that others do not.
I truly believe the poster I designed is explicit and powerful, conveying its message quickly and effectively. We were allowed to use text, images, or a combination of both. As part of this assignment the poster had to be printed before the class critique and for final submission.
I had to think of something I really cared about, something I wish I could change and that would be my country, Syria. I try to visit Syria every two years and every year I’ve gone; it’s getting worse and worse. There are no opportunities there, no jobs, families on the streets begging for money, they only have electricity for 3 hours of the day and in the wintertime and where the weather is constantly snowing there is no gas to provide people with heat and if there is, it’s too expensive for the wages they are receiving. We are truly lucky to be living in such a beautiful country where we don’t worry about this stuff. Syria has political sanctions imposed on it by the United States which deny the export and import of essential goods such as food, fuel, and other resources. This has plunged almost the entirety of Syria below the international poverty line and has created an irreversible level of inflation. Most Syrian people are therefore deliberately left unsupported; indeed, even their own efforts to help themselves and re-build their lives are hampered by sanctions. It is appalling that the people of Syria must face further suffering, inflicted and compounded by economic sanctions.
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. 2020. “Why Economic Sanctions on Syria Must Stop.” Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART UK). Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. August 1, 2020. https://www.hart-uk.org/why-economic-sanctions-on-syria-must-stop/.
I used Adobe InDesign to layout my poster and retrieved a photo from a magazine and provided a powerful message. I played around with the fonts to find one showcases that this message is important and serious. I put in the colours of the Syrian flag as well as implementing them into the writing the way they are showcased on the flag, as I thought it would be a clever and creative way to portray the message. For this task I placed the image into InDesign and made sure the image was high resolution by going into the View tab - Display Performance – High Quality Display. I then used the type tool to incorporate the text and then played around with the fill colours to match the writing to the flag in the properties tab. The biggest concern was having the white writing on the white background. It made it a bit hard for me but I was able to get a good result by adding the drop shadow effect to the text which allowed the text to stand out even against a bright background.
Nalbandian, Nish. 2016. Photographer Nish Nalbandian on Bearing Witness to the Violence in the Syrian Civil War. Magazine. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/photographer-nish-nalbandian-bearing-witness-violence-syrian-civil-war-180960467/.
My Composite Image
The week 5 design brief challenged me to create an A4 landscape document that is made up of a surreal composite image using specific stock images from Unsplash. I was required to choose one background image and one "hero" or person to feature in my composite. The key task is to etch around the selected person and then seamlessly combine this etched image with the background. I had to make the composite image look almost believable, ensuring that elements like shadows, perspective, scale, and etching blend seamlessly with the background image. While the composition can be surreal, it should still maintain a realistic appearance. The focus is on maintaining consistency in colour, shadows, tone, sharpness, and accurate outlines between the background and the hero element.
This brief was to be completed in Adobe Photoshop which is an extremely powerful software that is used to edit images. This application was challenging to use, especially because I was learning it for the first time, but I read a tutorial that was provided by the course resources that explained the tools and techniques and watched a YouTube tutorial that was provided by one of the tutors of the course on how to extend the background of the images.
PiXimperfect . 2021. “Hate Cropping? 3 Ways to Expand Photos in Photoshop!” Www.youtube.com. February 19, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6VAkRQPels.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP. 2022. “Get to Know Photoshop.” Adobe.com. August 29, 2022. https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/how-to/ps-basics-fundamentals.html?playlist=/services/playlist.helpx/products:SG_PHOTOSHOP_1_1/learn-path:get-started/set-header:ccx-designer/playlist:ccl-get-started-1/en_us.json&ref=helpx.adobe.com.
I had to start off by using the content aware fill tool to expand my background onto the whole page. I then had to crop my hero out of their original background onto my new background image which was a cloud in the sky however I needed to place my hero behind that cloud as in the original photo the hero’s feet were under water. In order to do this, I had to crop the cloud using the magnetic lasso tool and paste the cloud onto a new layer which I then brought forward so that my hero was sitting behind the cloud but was given the illusion that she was standing on the cloud. Because there were harsh edges, I used the blur tool and the smudge tool to soften the edges and to further enhance the illusion that my hero was standing on the cloud. There was a problem where when cropping my hero out of her original background part of her head was missing. I fixed this problem by using a mixture of the clone and smudge tool. I noticed that the lighting in my background photo was coming from the light and my hero in her original background photo was facing the left so when I put her onto the new background, I made her body face the right since the lighting was coming from that direction. I then had to match my hero’s colours to my background image as she was originally cool, and my background was warmer. I did this by adjusting the colour temperature of my hero using the colour balance and vibrance options to give her a warmer look as well as adding a pink and blue tinge to my hero.
My Multi Page Layout
For this Brief, my task was to redesign the document titled "The Gender Pay Gap by Age Group, June 2022" to make it more creative and appealing to a wider audience. They value the information in the report and believe that a more creative, visually appealing layout will help reach a larger audience.
I was provided with an InDesign file that includes grids, and a folder with pre-selected images from unsplash.com. My task included to edit the text in the original document, as not all of it will fit in my redesigned layout. It was essential to understand the content of the document before deciding what to include and exclude.
I had the option to use ChatGPT as a tool to help me summarize the text, which is what I did and to be honest I have never used this tool before but it did such a good job at summarising the article so it could fit the data in two pages like I ordered it to. It made my life a whole lot easier and saved me a lot of time. I did read it to double check that what the tool summarised was accurate and appropriate. Upon reading the document I developed a goal that was in the text and made it the centre of attention in the second page.
When starting my design, I wanted to choose a theme colour that would run through the whole article. I chose the colour dark blue as it represents knowledge, power, integrity and seriousness as this document is by the Australian Government. The colour blue in general communicates significance, importance and confidence which is why we see higher authority wearing that colour, for example police officers. I chose images in this regard that had some or small amounts of blue to keep that theme going. The images used were for the visual appeal as it breaks up the text. I went ahead and placed key things in the article in the first page and placed the rest of my text in the following page using columns so people don’t read long sentences going across the page. This made it more interesting and more readable. By doing this, I right click on the text box and go into Text Frame Options and put in the number of columns I want, in this case, I just wanted two. I went for a more serious font and used size 11 text. Using the selection tool and clicking on the text box I was able to choose blue as the fill colour to highlight anything important and same thing applying to the text but by using the type tool.
Unedited Creative Photos
Edited Creative Photos
Unedited Staged Photos
Edited Staged Photos
My Product Photography
The creative director at MVM has tasked me with a photography project for an unconventional perfume company. This company is known for creating fragrances inspired by everyday objects that are not typically associated with the perfume industry. At that moment, they did not have specific details about the fragrances they plan to launch, so I was tasked to use random everyday objects as my inspiration.
The assignment involved me going to a local supermarket and purchasing three items. These items should be unrelated and not typically associated with one another. After selecting these items, my task was to arrange them in an interesting and visually appealing way and then capture a series of photographs using a smartphone. In essence, we're using these everyday objects to spark creativity and capture intriguing images that align with the unconventional nature of the perfume company's products. I was to capture at least 3 images using the light tent/infinity background and at least three creative images in a staged background. My edited photos should be A4 either landscape or portrait and 300ppi/dpi).
For this brief I mainly used adjustments such as the brightness and contrast, highlights, saturation and the vibrance in order to make my image look crisper and pop a lot more. I also had to get rid of any imperfections in the background using the Spot Healing Brush tool which removes any marks or blemishes.
