Bar Mitzvah Invitation

One day I might be more concerned with the level of refinery that I show on this blog, however as a student I am way too amused with the silliness of what I've been creating that I just can't help myself!

This week I was assigned to create a concept for a bar mitzvah invitation.  Having never been to one myself, I did some research and found that most people nowadays have themes to their mitzvahs.  Putting myself in the shoes of a 13-year-old boy, I decided that I would have a guitar-themed mitzvah.  Hence, the invitation:

Front View of Invitation

Inside of Invitation

If I were a 13-year-old boy I would love this! I mean, I'm a 29-year-old girl and love it! It's a total party! Yeah!!!

Comp-town

Over the past few weeks my favorite class this semester, Design Principles and Strategies, has taught me perhaps the most important lesson that I've learned about design thus-far: create many, many, many, and still many more different options.  Every professor I've had prior to this has really just focused on revising, revising, revising.  This time around it's more like how many ideas can you come up with for the same project? Ok, now comp up twice that many, and revise, and now comp up more, revise, and comp up some more.  In the end you should have a piece that's pretty phenomenal once you weed out all the crap. Initially, I was pretty nervous about all of this since I'm not exactly the most prolific designer I've ever met however, this process has taught me that there really are limitless ideas and limitless ways to communicate the same message.

Here is what I've come up with so far for a black and white poster advertising the BSO production of Gershwin's "An American in Paris" (phase 3 of 4):

Turns out, I really do work better under pressure!

Did it really just happen? Did I really just put off working on a final project until the very last day? Did I really just pull an infographic poster out of my conceptual thinking ass? I did.  And it doesn't suck. 

To be fair, I did do all the research weeks before hand for the research paper that this poster accompanies.  But I did have to write it all over again in a completely new way and design it.  And I thought about doing it for days and days.  Until the last day, when I couldn't think anymore--it had to get done!

Anyway, here it is--my last minute infographic poster on Saul Bass, master of film titles and the New York style:

Beth Beat's Back!/ What I did today!

After a well-deserved break from school and all things design-related, I'm back in the swing of things and that means a return to the blogosphere! Woo!

For my writing and design for digital platforms class we had to create a company and design a promotional e-mail for it.  I created the coffee shop of my dreams, The Marching Flamingo, and designed an e-mail highlighting our "March specials and events".  Here it is:

Designing this kind of made me wish it was real.  Maybe one day, student loans will turn into business loans and my friends can all come and play fiddle by the fire!

Week of hell / Part 2

I wanted to get this done yesterday but didn't.  However, it was due today so it had to get done today! This is a series of book covers for Typography.  For our final project, we had to pick three titles by an author and design covers for a series of books.  Naturally, I chose Hunter S. Thompson as he is one of my favorite writers.  Looking back, I could have chosen easier titles to illustrate with type (these are kind of abstract), but I always like a challenge.  Don't know how effectively I took this on though-oh well, you be the judge:

Infographic Tuesday

After having a nice little holiday break from class for a few days, I'm back in the swing of things along with my pesky little procrastination habit.  Infographic comps are due today and I feel totally lost and I really have no clue what I'm doing.

On the upside, I created a cute little illustration of the fab four circa '64:

What I did today/ Corporate Identity

Once again I'm posting a project from typography class. These projects come and go so fast it's like giving birth every week. And what good Mama doesn't like to brag about her children just a little bit?

This week I finished up a corporate identity package for the fictitious restaurant, a.spice. The main purpose was to develop a logotype and the subsequent materials featuring said logotype:

Creating your own typeface/logotype can be extremely intimidating however I learned that like most daunting tasks, once you break them down to their basic elements it all builds up quite naturally. It also reinforced what I already kind of knew-I love designing menus. Something about organizing a lot of information in a small space, the psychology of getting the customer to gravitate towards expensive items, making peoples appetites whet with color...I dunno, I love it!  Now if only I could do this for One World...

What I Did Today

This is what I did today:

This is part one of my typography assignment for the week: to illustrate depth and texture with typography in a table of contents page.  I got the idea for this piece from yoga class.

This is part two of my assignment: to work without a grid. Or something like that...I'm real tired. The inspiration for this piece came from the color guide.  Yay for color guides.

The lesson I learned from doing these pieces is to never procrastinate on typography assignments again.  They take a long time, they're hard and seven hours straight in the design lab leads to an unhealthy crazy feeling.  Time to go work on my campaign project...after I eat a large meal.