—LAURA KEUNG— GRAPHIC DESIGNER PORTFOLIO —SELECTED WORK14|15
CONTENTS
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Laura Keung: Resume Povera Center for Arts & Culture
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INSET Magazine
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Hannah: Typeface Design
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Graphic Design: Open Studio Holism in Graphic Design
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Retrospective
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Past+Present+Future
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Bachelor Thesis: Meanings of Home
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Laura Keung: Portfolio
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LAURA KEUNG Graphic Designer Portfolio Selected work 2014/15
Hi! my name is Laura Keung and I am a graphic designer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, raised in Bolivia to Asian (Hong Kong) & Latin American (Bolivia) parents. I consider myself a contemporary nomad, I experienced a foreign exchange student program to the U.S. Currently I live in Salzburg, Austria and recently completed my studies (June 2014) at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD U) with a Bachelor in Graphic Design. I am a passionate, curious, motivated and determined designer, deeply in love with editorial design, book design, hand-made work and typography. I enjoy experimentation and exploration through different processes in order to find a final solution to a problem or to simply discover new things. I am anxious and always excited to learn something new. Perseverance, punctuality, collaboration and my intense love for books come naturally. EXPERIENCE Kiska GmbH, graphic design intern Salzburg, Austria. September 2014 — Present. ALSO Collective, graphic design intern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. July 2013 — August 2013. The Office of Gilbert Li, graphic design intern Toronto, May 2013 — June 2013. CADECRUZ, graphic designer Santa Cruz, Bolivia, February 2008 — May 2010.
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE OCAD U Student Press, workshop instructor & coordinator August 2013 — August 2014 OCAD U Faculty Search Committee 2014, student representative The hiring committee was in charge of recruiting new faculty members for tenure track positions for the Design Faculty and the Graphic Design Program. Poster Design for OCADU's 2014 Design Competition. STUDIES OCAD University, bachelor of design Toronto, Ontario, Canada. September 2010 — June 2014 Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, graphic design Santa Cruz, Bolivia. February 2008 — June 2010 Union County High School, foreign exchange student Program through ICB (Intercambios Culturales Bolivia), Kentucky, U.S, August 2006 — June 2007 WORK IN PRINT Ink Sculptures, Rivet Vol. 1, 2012, Published by: OCAD U Student Press SKILLS Creative problem solving, concept development, constructive criticism, attention to detail and always having a plan b. Digital: Industry standard Adobe Suite: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom and basic DPS; Type tool 3, FontLab Studio 5 & experience in digital photography. By hand: self-taught silk-screen printing, intermediate letterpress and bookbinding. My native language is Spanish and I am fluent in English. DESIGN APPROACH My approach to design is pragmatic and relevant. Clarity, simplicity & design with purpose is key to communication. I like to create work that is conceptual, interesting and impactful. I make a genuine connection with the audience and put myself as if in order to solve a problem creatively. I believe I should make the best work I can by producing infinite iterations, experimenting with different mediums & producing design that keeps people stimulated and interested through a visual dialogue.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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POVERA CENTER FOR ARTS & CULTURE
Branding, 2012
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A brand identity developed for a fictitious arts and culture center. Povera Center for Arts and Culture is a place for the development of the fine and performing arts which is well-known for its architecture. The identity was focused on the architecture of the center, creating a structured and distinctive blue-print like icon with colours that represent the diversity that happens under one roof.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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Students were required to develop a stationery system that extended from the logo’s concept and branding manual in which I chose to include photographs I had taken on a trip to Munich.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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INSET MAGAZINE
Editorial Design, 2014
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Inset Magazine is a fictional magazine created for an Editorial Design course. Focused in art and design, the magazine includes essays and interviews of notable graphic design figures.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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Content was taken from websites in order to work and typeset real body copy rather than ‘lorem ipsum’
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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HANNAH TYPEFACE
Typeface Design, 2013
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The initial sketching process for this typeface started with double pencil explorations to understand the contrasts between thicks and thins. I continued developing “Hannah” by hand sketches and many form variations. The goal was to find interesting forms that make the typeface sophisticated and structural. The typeface form was first developed in Illustrator, to understand serifs, oval shapes and strokes. Also to create uniformity throughout the characters. The word “hamburgerfonstiv” was used as primary word to explore the forms, both in lower and uppercase. Later the characters were transferred to FontLab for further development in width and height: ascenders, caps, baseline, x-height, descenders.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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abcd efghi jklmn opqrs tuvw yxz
ABCD EFGHI JKLMN OPQRS TUVW YXZ Laura Keung: Portfolio
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GRAPHIC DESIGN: OPEN STUDIO is a non-discipline specific design studio offering an opportunity for students to consider design in the broadest possible terms & explore the potential for trans-disciplinary design thinking. Focusing on the core principles of design practice (recognition, consideration, understanding, creativity, critical reflection) & the expanding range of platforms for the iteration of design theories, processes and outcomes across a diverse range of contexts and situations—actual and speculative, material, virtual and experiential. Students were given 3 projects along the semester and consisted of: Critical Design, Design as research-led response and Design as a Personal, Expressive Response. For each project students were encouraged to create their own briefings and push the boundaries of the ‘normal’. The following projects were created under the instructor Jayson Zaleski.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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HOLISM IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Critical Design, 2013
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As a graphic design student I had found interest in hands-on methods of composing elements to create design. Due to the fast technological innovation we, graphic designers have forgotten about the real craft. We have relied on computers and the internet to design, the internet has become almost a recipe book where we can find any effects and apply it to anything we desire. Using analogue methods we are the creators of recipes and gain ownership of the end product. By using this approach it is more likely that we feel more proud of a unique project and therefore have passion for our practice. END PRODUCT
As my final product I chose to create a series of posters attempting to create debate and thinking. The concept is “software restrain us from creativity”. This series of posters is composed of three pieces, each containing one of the following sentences: COMMAND+Z IS THE DEAD OF EXPLORATION
Many designers skip ideation & sketching before creating a piece specially the new upcoming generation. As designers work with softwares creating images and graphics, we have the ability of correcting the slightest mistakes by pressing Command+Z, this restrains designers to explore and experiment. It is through mistakes and trying things that we can actually grow. YOU CAN’T GOOGLE HOW THIS POSTER WAS MADE
As I mentioned before, many effects can be easily looked up on the internet, design has become a planned recipe book that we can just look up and apply to anything we are creating. To improve we must push ourselves constantly beyond our limits. HOW PASSIONATE ARE YOU ABOUT YOUR MOUSE?
Passion comes experimentation, innovation, making ideas happen and feeling our work. The only way to reach this is by getting our hands dirty. A mouse keeps us from getting immersed in creativity. Laura Keung: Portfolio
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These posters were executed after a 2 weeks exploration with different materials and teaching myself silkscreening (see following page). Softwares were only used to print sentences/words.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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Laura Keung: Portfolio
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Process book created for the project included own photography and all materials and exploration done through the time given for the project.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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RETROSPECTIVE
Design as Research-led Response, 2013
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Retrospective is defined as looking back on past events or situations and a compilation showing the development of the work of a particular artist over time. I conducted a personal research by documenting myself for a week, taking photographs of things I was doing every 15 minutes with the goal of finding patterns, behaviours, sequences, timing, details and to notice the unnoticeable. At the end of the documentation I collected 400 photos & created a book that includes a mapping of the research on the dust jacket. Additionally, the book includes a timeline with supportive documentation since the research map does not have all 400 photos. In the timeline there are some blank spaces, this means I lost track of time due to either isolation or deep concentration on certain tasks. Black time slots mean I was asleep.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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The “Sleep page� is a french fold page that the reader can tear apart to reveal the dream of a specific night.
The dust jacket was folded in three parts and later wrapped around the book. One side shows a quick overview of the week and the other side photos of the week.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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PAST+ PRESENT+ FUTURE
Design as a Person, Expressive Response, 2013
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This is the last assignment created for the Open Studio class in which students were allowed to translate “design as personal response” in our own way. For me this was an opportunity to explore my roots and understand where my family comes from. I was able to interview my family and gather photographs and documents to tell my story. At the end of this project I designed 3 books called Past, Present and Future. The books have a color gradation starting in black & white to color. Each book tells the story of my family’s past, myself and the future. This projects has a high value to me as I had the opportunity to understand the past and why people move. This project was also the kick-off for my bachelor thesis called “Meanings of Home.”
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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The documentatio gathered was printed and treated through various processes in order to recreate an old decaying feeling.
Laura Keung: Portfolio
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Dingbats was used for text that was too personal to be shared with the reader.
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MEANINGS OF HOME was my bachelor thesis project for which students were given two terms to develop ending in a final presentation and a graduation show open to the public. This project was developed under the supervision of professor Richard Hunt whom I met weekly to discuss the development of this project. The United Nations estimated 154 million people moving to other countries in 1990. In 2013, 232 million people are international migrants or living abroad, an increase of 37% in two decades. This makes “people on the move” the 5th largest nation in the world. “Where is home?” This is a question that can be answered in a matter of seconds but if we thought about it longer and looked into it deeper it would get more difficult to answer. Moving to another country can sometimes be looked at as a privilege or a burden. In this project I focused on a single person mobility and the process of settling in a new land in order to
find the meanings of home. Home goes beyond the physical building. Freedom of movement can be considered a privilege but it can also affect the perception of home. A nomadic life can turn into isolation when people are not in one place for long, this is a barrier to create long lasting relationships, sense of identity, a sense of belonging and a sense of home. I approached this project by planning a bi-weekly topic research related to the notions of home. This resulted in a series of books exploring personal meaning & extending the research to other peers near the project’s completion. The topics explored included: constructing home, objects as memory, nostalgia, the uncanny, longing and belonging, ephemera and home as a reflection of the self. Additionally, this project allowed me to: work in the university’s woodshop, wood carving, paper marbling, book-binding techniques, embossing and letterpress. The final pieces of this project were exhibited at the 99th Annual OCAd University Graduate Exhibition and consisted on 3 books and posters: MEANINGS OF HOME: based on a Maslow theory I created the book “Meanings of home”, a concept book developed to be interactive with the reader/ audience. The book features a series of photographs related to the notions of home created by myself & participants from a research group. The photos are split horizontally allowing readers to create a sense of connection with the story developed in the book. For instance, the book includes photographs of: food, family, cityscape and home interiors; the pages are able to flip to one side or the other creating new images and new meaning communicating a complex idea as is home. Laura Keung: Portfolio
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HIDDEN HOME: the concept for this project is “Home is there but we don’t always see it.” People living alone in a foreign country experience different stages and aspects of settling in a new land that makes them realize where home is. I decided to write a text and create blind embossed pages/cards to go along the concept of home being there & being unnoticed. The text is only readable at a certain angle and lighting to create shadows in the indents of the letters. EPHEMERA: something that is originally meant to not be long lasting but have become an object of memorabilia or keepsake. At the beginning of this thesis I started by looking at objects and memory as something closely related to home due to its sentimental value. I decided to invite individuals to send in banal objects that are valued more for the memories they recall than for its monetary value. I was able to collect about 40 objects from different people in different countries and a wide age range. Participants were asked to take a photograph of a mundane object that they relate to home and describe memories that this particular object evokes. I decided to display the objects and cropping some areas to create points of interest. The object’s memory is hidden by applying french fold binding. In order to read the memories the readerhas to tear the page to reveal the content, this is a metaphor for “digging for a secret” as home is something very personal. I gathered a group of 10 participants for research and gave them a disposable camera to document what is the meaning of home to them. I proceeded by creating portraits and using their photos/meanings.
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10 different plates were created to blind emboss all the text for page. All pages were printed by hand.
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40 objects were collected resulting in a great compilation to define home.
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Thank you for taking the time to look at my portfolio, if you are interested in more work you can visit my portfolio online: www.cargocollective.com/laurakeung
CONTACT: Laura Keung keung.laura [at] gmail.com Reference letters are available upon request.