Design Week Summary

This week was all about making clear design choices to make actual storytelling pieces; Just posters and a cover that work at a glance.

Part I – Links to my 3 Design Assignments

• Motivational Poster – “Quiet Coast”
• Event Poster – “Beach Cookout Today”
• Magazine Cover – “Catch of the Week”

What did you learn?

That simple, deliberate choices beat “busy.”

• For the motivational poster, a low horizon, breathing room, and one clean line of type can set the whole mood.
• For the event poster, friendly centered type + a warm field = instant readability (people should know what/when/why in one glance).
• For the magazine cover, realism hinges on matching scale, light, and a soft shadow rather than piling on effects.
  Here, I learned to pick the message first, then make type, color, and space serve it.

What was harder than you thought it would be? Why?

The composite on the magazine cover. Figuring out how to cut myself out of a picture without anything unneeded took lots of small tweaks. Trying to figure out a good contrast for the picture was rough too; one pixel too bright and it looked pasted on.

What was easier than you expected? Why?

The motivational poster. Once the line “Let the tide carry the noise away” was set, the layout practically designed itself—low horizon, centered title, and done. GIMP had a built in blur effect that did most of the heavy lifting.

What drove you crazy? Why?

What drove me crazy was trying to figure out the best way to pose the motivational poster. At first, I was going to do a simply blur and add a white text box so that the words didnt blend into the back-ground. However, I was unable to figure out how to do this. So instead, I blurred the edges, which made the text at the bottom really stick out.

What did you enjoy? Why?

I really liked to change the color and mood work on the beach images. Tiny shifts (warmth, edge blur, saturation) changed the feel immediately, and seeing that happen in real time was satisfying. I always find messing with the presets fun!

Conclusion

Through the three design projects, I learned a lot of practical use case for my skills. For example, deciding what you want people to notice, give it space, and let the rest get out of the way. Hopefully I can continue to use these skills further in my life!