Ryan Jones
Senior Capstone 2021
2021 Resume
Ryan Jones
Resume
Capstone Research Paper
Ryan Jones
Research Paper
The University of Southern Mississippi
MatchWear color you can trust
Ryan Jones Graphic Communication Professor Lawler March 25th, 2021
For my senior capstone I wanted to solve a problem that would really benefit society. I had multiple concepts but ultimately narrowed it down to two concepts that I am passionate about. The first one was a gender natural clothing company; its goal would have been to get rid of the stereotypes regarding colors. My second concept and the one I chose for my senior capstone project is a clothing company for people who suffer with CVD, Color Vision Deficiency. I say people because it is not only men who have it. Robert Roskoski, author of “Guidelines for Preparing Color Figures For everyone Including the Colorblind” states: “Because about one in 12 males (8%) and one in 200 females (0.5%) are red-green colorblind, care must be taken in preparing colored figures to accurately convey the desired information.” (Roskoski 2017)
You may be shocked to know that individuals with CVD take up a large majority of our population. “There are more than 20 million humans with colour vision deficiency (CVD) in the world.” ( Barry 2005) Which is why I chose this project to take on specifically. Color vision deficiency is directly correlated to the cones of the eye and the cone-photoreceptors that correspond with CVD. One way that we are able to recognize someone with CVD is through a lack of ability to classify test images into categories. “Humans with normal vision perceive colours via three types of receptors, which consist of L, M and S cone cells. When a deficiency exists in one of cone cells, CVD occurs. Doctors typically diagnose a human with CVD when wone has difficulties in distinguishing between certain colours combination within test images” (Maximilian 2016)
Interestingly enough, we are also able to recognize and categorize the different versions of color vision deficiency through light. “In bright light, cone-photoreceptors are active and colour vision derives from a comparison of signals in cones with different visual pigments. This
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comparison begins in the retina, where certain retinal ganglion cells have ‘colour-opponent’ visual responses— excited by light of one colour and suppressed by another colour. In dim light, rod-photoreceptors are active, but colour vision is impossible because they all use the same visual pigment. Instead, the rod signals are thought to splice into retinal circuits at various points, in synergy with the cone signals. Here we report a new circuit for colour vision that challenges these expectations.” (Fong-Gong 2019) Although the above quotes were quite lengthy, they helped me to understand how color vision deficiency occurs and just how many people suffer with CVD.
In 2016, I was greeted by the harsh reality that is the lack of resources in our everyday world for people who suffer with CVD. I met my girlfriend Jocie, her family, and flew to Utah to meet them all. I had a great time on the trip, and while I was there we played a lot of games. I was sitting by her dad and he seemed to be really confused at one of the new games we were playing. As it turns out, he was color vision deficient and was not able to decipher between the colors red, green, blue, and yellow in the board game. Once realizing this, I took a pen and wrote out all the names of the colors in order for him to be able to play. This moment is what emphasized the importance of fixing this problem for me. Another reason why fixing this issue to me is so important is this. The week before pitching my concepts to the class, I went shopping with Jocie. We were just walking around the store until we noticed a man staring at us in confusion. It made us uncomfortable, but we continued shopping. About five minutes later he walked up to us holding a pair of pants and said “ Hi, I am colorblind. Would you mind picking out a shirt that goes with these pants for me?” I took this moment as a sign that journey is what I needed to embark on for my senior project. As you can see, I have always been aware of color vision
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deficiency and noticed the struggles that CVD individuals face daily- so I have taken upon myself to fix this problem.
You may be wondering, how I am going to fix this problem? Well, my company is going to use a symbol matching system that allows someone with CVD to color coordinate their clothes by themselves. Upon researching, I did manage to find some products that are supposedly meant to help people with CVD, yet unfortunately there is no real effective treatment for these individuals who have color vision deficiency. “As CVD is a genetic condition, no effective medical treatment has been developed to date. However, a lot of colour‐to‐grey methods have been conducted to improve visual effects for CVD. This can be integrated into smart glasses to help human with CVD to perceive information in colour images.” (Liang 2018) but the problem with these products is that it only is shown to fix certain types of CVD, and not others. Another example of this is by the authors Ro Geonmin, Youngbo Choi, Myeongju Kang, Surin Hong, and Younghun Kim who wrote “Novel Color Filters for the Correction of Red-Green Color Vision Deficiency Based on the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Effect of Au Nanoparticles.” They say: “Color filters are promising tools for the correction of color vision deficiency because a medial cure of this physiological is unattainable.” This tells us that there is no cure to CVD, and no good solutions.(Geonmin 2019) My company will stand out among others due to our willingness to work with any type of color vision deficiency. We are able to do this because we are altering their clothing and how they match their clothing, not their physical ability to see color. My companies’ goal is to help people with CVD gain back their independence. My idea for creating a CVD company came from multiple things. My mom’s best friend has a son who is
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color vision deficient, so growing up I watched him enlist in others for help when picking out his clothes. He is currently in his late twenties and is still texting his mom pictures of his outfits, asking if they match or not. Upon researching CVD resources, I was shocked to find out that there is not yet a solution to solve this problem, until now.
Intrigued yet? Let’s jump into my process. I started with a wordlist to help inspire my name, slogan, etc. In the beginning I landed on the name MatchWell. I enjoyed this name because I felt that it explained the goal of my company perfectly, to match outfits well. After talking to my professor and my classmates, we decided the name did not ‘scream’ clothing company. We all really enjoyed the M and the W paired with each other, so I changed the name to MatchWear. By changing the word “well” to “wear”, it is indicated that it still remains a clothing company and keeps the company’s goal in the name. The new name change also allowed me to keep the M and the W, which creates a nice visual secondary logo.
Next in my process, I used the words on my wordlist to create iconography. This helped me tremendously in making my website and clothing designs. After completing this step, I started working on my color- guide. I created a color chart that would allow me and the viewers to gain an outlook of how these individuals view the world through their eyes, incorporating all three types of CVD. “Protanopia is the lack of red cones, which are retinal cones sensitive to long wavelengths; people with this condition are unable to distinguish between colors in the green-red section of the spectrum.” … “Deuteranopia is the lack of green cones, which are sensitive to medium wavelengths; people affected are also unable to distinguish between colors in the blue-yellow section of the spectrum.” … “Tritanopia is the lack of blue cones, which are sensitive to short wavelengths; people affected are unable to distinguish between colors in
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the entirety of the spectrum.” (Go 2010) To sum it up, protanopia relates to red/green CVD, deuteranopia relates to yellow/blue CVD, and tritanopia relates to seeing only in grayscale.
This helped me in creating my color-guide because it allowed me to pick the colors that the majority of CVD people can distinguish. It also helped me in deciding which colors I could layer on top of each other throughout my branding process. I ultimately decided to go with a four color pallet, using pantone colors because I know they will always look the same. The colors I chose are PMS 2736 which is a medium dark shade of blue, PMS 4151 which is a solid blue color, PMS 7549 which is a medium light orange color, and lastly PMS 102 which is a shade of yellow. I have chosen these four colors for multiple reasons, the first one being that red/green CVD (which is the most common type) can see all four colors similar to the actual pantone color. Secondly, these colors create a really nice grayscale for the people who have monochromatic color vision deficiency. And lastly, people who have yellow/blue CVD will see a completely different color pallet than the other CVD types but the colors I have chosen will give them their own visually satisfying color pallet.
When creating my logo, I drew inspiration from multiple brands. Some of which are: Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Louis Vuitton, Anne Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger. I really enjoyed the simplicity of these brands word marks paired with their secondary logos. When looking at Louis Vuitton and Vera Wang, I noticed both of their initials incorporated in their secondary logos crossed over each other. I took inspiration from this to create the visualization X of the M and the W in my primary logo. Calvin Klein, Anne Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger’s word marks all have a light simple stroke to them that makes the brand feel welcoming, so I took inspiration
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from that as well to create that same atmosphere for my brand. To do this, I rounded the edges of my logo because I want my brand to be softer and more inviting.
For my Secondary logo I took inspiration from the brands Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, and Banana Republic. I chose these brands because they all use their secondary logo in a similar way, using the first letter from their company names. When using this as inspiration for my secondary logo, I made the stroke similar to the thinness of Calvin Klein’s secondary logo. Michael Kors and Banana Republic both have their letters touching each other whereas Calvin Klein are not touching but the C is significantly smaller, which I found to be very visually appealing and wanted to integrate into my secondary logo. To do this, I took the first letters from my company name, M and W and choose to leave the letters separate from one another like Calvin Klein, while keeping the letters the same size as Michael Kors and Banana Republic. I feel that this creates a very professional look while still maintaining the welcoming nature, as mentioned above.
For my symbol matching system, I created symbols based off of my logo and secondary logo. The M and the W of MatchWear creates a diamond shape that I previously had considered using as my secondary logo, but after discussions with the board and my classmates I decided to use it for my symbols instead. Each one of my symbols has the same weight and roundness to them along with the smokey gray color used in my logo. They also each incorporate a diamond shape in their own special way. I have included images of my logo, secondary logo, and symbols along with what color they represent at the end of this paper.
At MatchWear, our goal is to allow people with CVD to gain back their independence. The symbols mentioned above will allow people with color vision deficiency to be able to color
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coordinate their clothes independently, which is how the goal of my company was inspired and how it will be reached. We want them to not only have to rely on anyone other than themselves to match their clothes daily, but to also feel personally responsible for their confidence on a dayto-day basis- which is something that I’m aware they’re currently missing out on. To go more into depth, each symbol is associated with a specific color that coordinates with an article of clothing. For example, a diamond shape represents the color black, and a half diamond with a dot in the middle is represented as the color red. The dot that goes with some of the symbols were inspired from the dots that surround my slogan in my main logo.
The symbol will be located on the clothing tag of the article of clothing. On shirts, the tag is a cloth tag located on the bottom right on the front of the shirt, folded inwards. The outside of the tag displays the MatchWear logo, and once you flip the tag inward you are greeted by the symbol that the color represents. The same process is done for pants, hats, shoes, socks, ties, bow ties, etc. I decided to go for this form of tag because I wanted the symbols to be discrete due to some people who suffer with color vision deficiency being embarrassed by their condition.
Once you find an article of clothing you want to wear, you locate the symbol on the tag, then go to your MatchWear Closet Guide to find out what other symbols you can match it with. You might be wondering “what is a closet guide”. My closet guide is an infographic explaining which symbols correlate with each other along with what color the symbols represent. I call is a closet guide because it is intended to be hung in your closet to help you learn how to use my symbol matching system. It also is an 11x17 poster so when you are in a rush you can just glance over at it instead of having to go through a booklet to get the information you need. For example, a diamond symbol represents the color black. Upon going to your closet guide, you’ll see other
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symbols such as a diamond with a dot in the middle or two parallel diamonds that represent the colors yellow and orange. These are the colors that you can match your black shirt, among others listed on the closet guide. Of course, this description is much shorter than the actual scenario, due to your personal want to accessorize or not. You’ll be able to determine this process in my closet guide and additionally on my how to use guide. You will receive your closet guide posted folded into a folder along with the how to use guide in your bag at the checkout register.
The how to use guide can be described as a simpler breakdown of the closet guide, intended to help first time users walk through their first outfit coordination. There are many outfit pairings listed on the closet guide, so I felt that it was needed to include something that would help them kick-start understanding the closet guide and putting together cohesive outfits daily. The how to use guide displays a photo of a male, including the symbols of his outfits and how he decided to put them together. It is a brief explanation, but upon showing many first-time viewers of my brand it allowed them to gain a quicker understanding of my goal. The guide uses lines and diamonds to indicate what to look at for each short paragraph. For example, if the paragraph is talking about a white shirt, there will be a line drawn to the shirt with a diamond on the actual shirt. This gives the viewer an easier understanding of what the guide is explaining to you.
As for the paper tags that are attached to the clothing, I mimicked the diamond shape of my logo and my symbols to create a rounded point at the top to tie everything together. The front of my paper tags include images made from the gold color in my color pallet and a black duotone. I used this duotone because I was inspired by Calvin Klein’s black and white images that they use in their advertisements. I find them sophisticated and appealing, but quickly realized that I could not use black and white imagery for my company because that would completely throw off our
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message. Meaning, a company’s whose slogan is “color you can trust” shouldn’t advertise this by displaying marketing tactics using only black and white photos. I also could not use imagery that is in full color because it would be too hard for someone who is color vision deficient to read the text over. So, I decided to meet in the middle and use a duotone that still has the sophistication of a black and white photo just without the confusion aspect. Notable to mention, I also use these duotones consecutively throughout my brand. Paired along with the duotone image is my logo and my slogan. Under that, you will notice the symbol that correlates with the color of the clothing that the tag is attached to. The symbol on the front will help new users learn the symbol matching system and is convenient for the regular purchasing customers.
For my website, I used the same gold and black duotone as I used throughout my branding except, I added a duotone. I created a second duotone using the light blue color in my colorguide because in my opinion, my website needed more color than just gold and black. I used these duotones to separate the pages of my website by exchanging the colors on every other page. Doing this allows for a simple indicator that you are viewing a different section of the website. Now let me walk you through my website. On the homepage I use a hero image topped by my slogan “color you can trust.” As you scroll down, you will see a call to action to visit our “about us” page and then a section to entice my viewer to shop the MatchWear merchandise. I do this as a tactic to assist in navigating my viewer throughout my whole website. Next, is my About Us page. I start the page with a hero image with a description of MatchWear’s goal for the company, then you scroll down to see my “how to use guide” that you are able to print from the website. As you continue to scroll down, you see the symbols along with the colors they represent along with my closet guide that you can also print from your home. Finally, you see a call to action to our shop page, in hopes that the viewer will buy our clothing.
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If you click the link that is embedded to the call to action, it will take you to our Sort By page. This is where you can narrow down what you want to look for. For example, Men, Women, Size, etc. Once you pick the category you want to view, it will take you there and show you another sort by tab. This sort by menu is a drop-down tab that will allow you to go into more detail of what you are looking for. I use a lightbox when you click on an article of clothing because it is more sophisticated than taking you to a new tab to view all the clothing information. After you find the clothing you want to buy, you will check out and receive a pop-up letting you know your receipt and tracking number has been sent to the email you provided, along with a call to action to follow MatchWear on Instagram.
To conclude, I found this project to be incredibly eye opening. It was interesting to me to discover that the media, clothing industry, art, and other aspects of daily life really only cater to one form of vision, which is color sighted. I began to wonder why there were no resources readily made for people who aren’t color sighted, or why color vision deficient people just dealt with this issue. Upon further research, I was saddened to find out that they have accepted these ways of living as their form of normalcy and had given up on hope for catering to their needs. I felt a strong desire to change this and create a positive impact on these individuals, hoping to create a domino effect for all forms of media. We should cater to people with differences and embrace their ways of living, instead of ignoring their conditions and having them adapt to the way we live our everyday lives- because in reality they simply aren’t equipped to do so. I hope that MatchWear is able to make a long-lasting difference in these individuals’ lives and will continue to spread awareness in the media for people with common differences.
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Works Cited
Roskoski, Robert. “Guidelines for Preparing Color Figures for Everyone Including the Colorblind.” Pharmacological research 119 (May 2017): 240–241. Joesch, Maximilian, and Markus Meister. “A Neuronal Circuit for Colour Vision Based on RodCone Opponency.” Nature (London) 532, no. 7598 (April 14, 2016): 236–239. Zhang, Liang, Qing Xu, Guangming Zhu, Juan Song, Xiangdong Zhang, Peiyi Shen, Wei Wei, Syed Afaq Ali Shah, and Mohammed Bennamoun. “Improved Colour-to-Grey Method Using Image Segmentation and Colour Difference Model for Colour Vision Deficiency.” IET image processing 12, no. 3 (March 2018): 314–319. Cole, Barry L. “Impact of Congenital Colour Vision Deficiency: Congenital Colour Vision Deficiency Does Cause Problems.” BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 330, no. 7482 (January 8, 2005): 96; author reply 96–96; author reply 96. Tanaka, Go, Noriaki Suetake, and Eiji Uchino. “Lightness Modification of Color Image for Protanopia and Deuteranopia.” Optical review (Tokyo, Japan) 17, no. 1 (January 2010): 14–23. Ro, Geonmin, Youngbo Choi, Myeongju Kang, Surin Hong, and Younghun Kim. “Novel Color Filters for the Correction of Red-Green Color Vision Deficiency Based on the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Effect of Au Nanoparticles.” Nanotechnology 30, no. 40 (2019): 405706–405706. Wu, Fong-Gong, Chao-Yuan Tseng, and Chun-Min Cheng. “The Composition of Visual Texture Design on Surface for Color Vision Deficiency (CVD).” Computers in human behavior 91 (2019): 84–96.
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Capstone Proposal
Ryan Jones
Capstone Proposal
Ryan Jones 2021 Capstone Proposal Statement of intent For my senior capstone I would like to create a clothing brand for color-blind people. My clothing brand will not only help people with colorblindness match their clothes better, it will also help them take back their independence/confidence by using my clothes matching system. For my proposal I would like to create a clothing matching system using symbols on the tags of all clothing wear.
Nature of Topic The nature of my clothing brand for the color-blind that makes it an appropriate subject for my capstone project is that there is not already a solution for this problem. In my research I have not found a reasonable solution that helps people with colorblindness match their clothes solely by themselves.
Area of Focus The specific area of focus that my design investigation will be on is branding/ clothing. I am going to focus on the design of my color matching system that will be on my tags and the clothing brand itself.
Impact The impact my investigation will have on the design field is that it’s never been done, it is a simple solution to a big problem, and I believe it could inspire others to broaden their thinking towards problems without conclusions.
My Growth This investigation will contribute to my growth as a designer/artist in many ways. The first one being that it is my first project that allows me to work on mainly my own schedule. It is the first time I will be able to create multiple elements of design into one complete project; and it will allow me to show my strengths throughout the semester.
Methodology The methodology I expect to pursue in my investigation that solves the problem at hand is a symbol matching system. I believe this method would be the most effective in reaching my goal of giving color-blind people the confidence and ability to match on their own. This methodology will create a new level of investigation for me because I am researching the psychology behind my unique symbol matching system. The methods I will be using to create this project are branding, creating a matching system, a pamphlet/ brochure on how to use the matching system, advertisement online and in print.
Obstacles When asked if I foresee any obstacles in my investigation that might require a restatement of intent these is only one obstacle I can think of and that is, if the color-blind do not want help in gaining their independence/ confidence. A sub problem I encountered was finding out what color was a color-blind person’s favorite color to wear, in their eyes. Also, a small sub problem I had was researching the colors they see in order to create a color guide that is inclusive.
Timeline The general steps I will take in order to complete the required time frame are: 1. Start with research 2. Complete the research paper 3. Complete each step of the process book 4. Start physically making the clothing and tags for my brand 5. Photograph step 4 6. Assemble my final notebook, final presentation, and Exhibition
Ten criteria for senior project proposals: 1. Is the concept original? Yes 2. Is there a need and/or niche for this concept? Yes 3. Does the concept have marketability (Will it sell)? Yes 4. Have you fully documented the concept’s originality, need and viability? Yes 5. Have you determined your audience? Yes, Color-blind people 6. Can you assert that this concept will have value to this audience? Yes 7. Will your concept benefit society in a meaningful way? Yes 8. How truly practical is your concept (Is it within your ability to realize it)? Yes 9. Are you willing to devote an entire semester to realizing this concept? Yes 10. Is the concept really important to you? Yes
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Process Book
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Wordlist/Iconography
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Thematic Guide
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CVD Example
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Color Research
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Color Guide
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Logo Thematic Guide
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Logo TN’s
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Secondary Logo TN’s
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Symbol TN’s
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Logo progress
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Secondary Logo progress
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Slogan Progress
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Style Guide Progress
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Clothing Thematic Guide
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Clothing Tag TN’s
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Clothing Tag Progress
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Clothing Tag/ Symbol Progress
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Cloth Tag Mockups
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Paper Tag TN’s
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Paper Tag Progress
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Infographic TN’s
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Infographic Progress
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How to Guide TN’s
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How To Guide Progress
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License
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Final Logo/Slogan
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Final Style Guide
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Final Symbols
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Final Clothing Tags
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Final Paper Tag
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Final Closet Guide
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Final Closet Guide Mockup
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Final How To Guide
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Final How To Guide Mockup
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Final Shopping Bag
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Final Billboard
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Final Poster
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Final Website
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Final Website Mockup