IDD270: April 2014

Throughout this course I have grown in many ways and having critiques in class has allowed for me to learn even more and be more open with my ideas. Working with a parter, as well, allows for me to have more ideas of how to make my designs the strongest that they can be. This course has really taught me that designs are never finalized and always open for improvement, which I think is one of the most important aspects to realize about design and the future that it is leading someone to.

MP1 -
Looking back at my own work with my partner, it was easy to talk through what could have been differently and some of the major areas to work on. A huge area that needs to be looked further at and changed is to create a strong visual hierarchy that includes contrast with text and images. It was also important to realize that if the images aren't working, then to create something that works really well with the text alone. The paragraphs within this design should be kept shorter and shouldn't include hyphenations. With these paragraphs, it is also important to watch for widows. Another huge aspect to watch for in this design was to make sure that all justification is consistent and that nothing is justified or centered, and with the text, watching the sizing and spacing is also really important to watch for along with kerning, especially with larger text.

MP2 -
When looking at project two together it was possible to see that with my comps that were first created, I needed to include more forms of the font family that I was given. The comp that included all different symbols in the background, I need to fade them a little more and change them from one color to multiple colors that are included in the railway system. By doing this and adding contrast I was incorporating parts of the fonts history into the poster in such a subtle way. It was also easy to see that along with MP1, within this project I had to and still have to focus on alignment of all text throughout the poster and that it remains consistent, and to really work with hierarchy and contrast so that the poster makes the most sense.

MP3 -
By MP3, I felt much stronger with my design skills, but my partner and I were still able to find different aspects of my poster that could be worked on further. Throughout one of my designs, it was important to watch for the tension between the photo of the artist and the picture of his artwork that I used. This poster design, along with my other two designs, it was still really important for me to watch the text justification throughout the whole design and to make sure that it remained consistent. There was a part of the poster that didn't make sense when looking at hierarchy and the format of the text, so it was important to realize that and to make those changes so that the order of the information made the most sense. Looking at my original third comp, it was important to create something that tied both halves of the poster design together.