A Sprinkle of Design Teagan Ellefson ART 130 - Fall 2023 St. Norbert College
Introduction This process book is an overview of all of the work I have done in Introduction to Design, which I took first semester of my freshman year of college. In all honesty, this class was really daunting to me. The last art classes I took before this was Arts and Crafts during my freshman year of high school. This course, which was by no means college level, went over cultural crafts like basket weaving or mosaic art, and didn’t go in depth into art terms. In simple terms, it wasn’t very challenging. Intro to Design did the opposite of this, and really challenged my low level of art experience. I found it difficult to work with abstract art or using only text. Once we got into using Adobe, I really felt like my skill level grew. I previously have experience with using these programs, but was self-taught. I never realized how much you could do with them and also learned a lot easier ways to do things that I previously learned. Overall, I have really started to enjoy art and graphic design through this class. Although I am not a design major, I could possibly see myself doing some freelance design in the future!
This book is dedicated to baby dolphins. I feel like Professor Ries says“For the love of baby dolphins” WAY too much not to recognize them.
Crash Course Our first project for Art 130 was a crash course project where we were partnered with another student to create something that would help their experience on campus. We went through the interview process, define a problem that they had, and then create a prototype.
Steps 1-2
Steps 3-4
The first two steps involved interviewing your partner. The first eight minutes were just asking basic questions, and the next six minutes had you dive deeper into what you already asked. I asked my partner questions about her hobbies, what she struggles with in school, and what she wished she could be able to do better in school.
The next two steps involved laying out a clear objective of what you wanted to create. For my partner, we came up with the fact that she needs to get good grades but hates studying and loves to have fun.
Steps 5-6
Step 7
Steps 8-9
Steps 5 and 6 involved brainstorming. We were given the task of sketching five unusual ways to meet the needs of your partner. We then had to present these ways and get feedback. Next time, I will ask more questions about my partner to get a firm understanding of a problem they wanted to solve. I feel that if I were to dive deeper, I could have had a more creative idea.
Step 7 had us narrow down which idea we were going to use and sketch it out. My idea was a chair that forced my partner to study and only let her get up when she was done studying.
Steps 8 and 9 was building the prototype and then getting feedback. This was hard because we were so limited on time. I am a people pleaser, so when I must finish with something that I know could be better, it’s hard to give someone something that isn’t what I wanted it to be.
Engaging with a real person was a mix of helpful but also a bit challenging. Although everyone understood the fact that we only had 10 minutes to create a piece for them, it was hard showing them something that was imperfect and could have been corrected. However, it was helpful to hear feedback from others whether it was something they liked or some constructive criticism. I also didn’t love the pace. I am the type of person that needs to have time to thoroughly lay out all my ideas out and really become solid with one main idea that I am going to be pursuing.
Dot - Line
The Dot-Line project focused mainly on the idea of abstract art. The class was given the task of taking three words and illustrate them using only dots and lines. We also focused on the concept of gestalt. Without googling, the concept of gestalt basically refers to how people see the world and interpret certain images that may not always be seen with the naked eye. Gestalt relates to this project because each person interpreted each dot-line composition differently. Some people in class really saw what the artist was trying to get at when they looked at the composition and how it relates to the word chosen, and some saw that the composition could’ve fit a lot better under a different word, for example.
Joy Chaotic Energetic This exercise and the ideas of gestalt and abstraction can be used several ways in everyday life. People see the world differently in many ways, whether it be through their opinions, beliefs, or overall, just lifestyle. Practicing empathy and gestalt concepts can help us see into other people's lives and understand them better.
Joy In-Process
Chaotic In-Process
Energetic In-Process
It’s easy for me to make a “well-crafted object.” In general, I am always trying to perfect the little things no matter what the task is. For one, my eye is constantly drawn to what I could do better when I see small imperfections in a great piece of work. In addition, I always catch myself regretting not turning into a better piece of work and end up beating myself up about it in the long run.
Final
This project opened my eyes to the idea of abstraction. Before doing this project, I had negative thoughts about abstract art. I was always in the mindset of “Why create art for nobody to understand? It is practically a waste of time.” But now, after making abstract art, I can see why some people find joy in creating it. It was interesting to see other people’s interpretations of my art, and how they deviated from my own interpretation
Final
I found it difficult to present ideas without illustrating them. I found that when I had to represent an idea that people may not think of when it comes to a certain word, it was hard to show it with the limitations we were given. It also made it somewhat difficult to hear other people’s interpretations and how they weren’t the original thought I had in mind. Final
Letterforms The letterforms project was our first project where we were allowed to use text. The goal of this project was to take a word and use ink stamps and create a straight-line print of the word, and then come up with different variations of the word. You could use the photocopier to distort the letters, place the letters on an image, etc. I chose the word “cloud” and created different variations of it resembling both physical clouds but also a clouded mind.
By working with letterforms this way, I learned that you could take something as simple as a letter or a word and turn it into a story. We took simple words like “idea,” or “ooze,” or “focus,” and physically manipulated them to show how we connect with that word or what that word means to us. For example, I took the word “cloud” and transformed it into a clouded mind for one of my iterations by positioning it on a picture of my head to show the head space that I and I am sure many others are in right now. This project showed me that thinking outside of the box is key to making your work unique. It really opened my eyes to finding the deeper meaning of art and overall looking at the bigger picture.
Bringing my final compositions into Adobe Photoshop really helped the quality of the letterforms and the overall compositions. It was easy to take out smudges, line stuff up, and edit certain things out like the white space in the ‘U’ on the choice compositions.
Straight Line
WIP Typographic Variation
Modifications
Choice Composition
Final
Straight Line
Typographic Variation
Modifications
Choice Composition
Iterative Illustrations For the iterative illustrations project, our objective was to take an animal of our choice and create several different illustrations of it using the following styles: figure-line, type, collage, geometric, and imitations of different “master artists.”Then, we were given the task of editing them in Adobe Photoshop and placing them in Adobe InDesign. For my animal, I chose the bottle nose dolphin. One of the interesting things I learned about bottlenose dolphins throughout this process was that they can grow to be 13 feet long!
So...
Many...
ITERATIONS Some that worked... Magazine Collage
Master Artist #1 - Frida Kahlo
Type Collage
Others needed a second look!
Geometric Iteration
Master Artist #2- Keith Haring
Magazine Collage
WIP Poster The media that was the most challenging for me was the figure line compositions. I like adding a lot of detail to my drawings but found it hard to do that when I couldn’t pick up my marker. I really enjoyed doing collage, however, I found it so fun to make each different composition unique and add fun pieces of paper into them, whether it be human eyes or text. The media that was the most challenging for me was the figure line compositions. I like adding a lot of detail to my drawings but found it hard to do that when I couldn’t pick up my marker. I really enjoyed doing collage, however, I found it so fun to make each different composition unique and add fun pieces of paper into them, whether it be human eyes or text.
Final Poster Since I have already previously used Photoshop, I feel like I know about a lot of the tools that it offers. However, now that I had proper guidance about how to use these tools, I feel like I know a lot more about cutting things out easier, using commands, etc. Going forward, I think I will use these new skills for a lot of different marketing projects as well as editing photos.
If I were to continue doing this project for a year, I would make a lot of different orientation layouts and place different compositions in different places to see which ones I would like better.
PSA Posters Our final project for Intro to Design before working on our final was to create PSA posters. For this project, we were partnered with one other person in class and created a PSA poster for something our partner wanted to bring attention to. My partner, Prudence, wanted her poster to bring awareness to the danger of fentanyl, more specifically fentapills. She wanted to get the message out that people like us who are willing to take risks are the most at danger, and that it is important to be aware of what we are surrounding ourselves with, especially in college. This project involved research, communication, creating multiple different versions of our poster, etc.
Thumbnails galore
Like several other projects, we started by creating thumbnails. Laying out several different ideas I had for how I wanted the poster set up really helped me get a clear idea about what I wanted the poster to look like when I went into Adobe InDesign to actually get to work on creating the poster.
I used scale by creating some text bigger and some text smaller. For example, I wanted the title to clearly show that one single fentapill can kill someone, so I made sure to make that big and bold to draw readers in. In addition, I also took up most of the space with the dark rectangle up top, the smaller dark bubbles, and the text. I still left some yellow space and created eyelines, however.
I found it easy to be limited to using type only for this project. Being able to use knockout text and create bubbles for certain statistics really filled up the page, so I think my poster was still visually appealing.
WIP Poster
l l i P e n O Can
l l i K
Know the Dangers of Fentanyl Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than other synthetic opioids.
The high potency of fentanyl greatly increases risk of overdose, especially if a person who uses drugs is unaware that a powder or pill contains it
Illegal fentanyl is being mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and MDMA. This is especially dangerous because people are often unaware that fentanyl has been added.
The drug has no taste or smell, which makes it extremely difficult to tell when it has been consumed.
It can be people like you, young and willing to take risks.
“One pill can kill” is a phrase that is often used for fentanyl and fentanyl pills. In reality, to kill someone, it only takes the amount of the size of the grain of salt or simply one pill. It could happen to anyone, especially young people who are willing to take risks. For more information about fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, visit www.songforcharlie.org
During our in-process critique, I got a lot of good feedback. I found that I used the negative space really well, and that there was a clear visual hierarchy that drew readers in. One of the things that several people suggested editing was rearranging the text below the black box since it felt squished.
I learned overall that you can create successful pieces of work when using text only. It doesn’t take interesting pictures or tons of different colors to get your message out there.
For the final poster, I took the suggestions of reconfiguring the layout and feel that it made a huge difference. Moving the black bubbles with the dangers of fentanyl statistics makes the poster flow a lot better and looks a lot more balanced.
Final Poster
l l i P e On Entire Poster
Can
l l i K
“One pill can kill” is a phrase that is often used for fentanyl and fentanyl pills. In reality, to kill someone, it only takes the amount of the size of the grain of salt or simply one pill. It could happen to anyone, especially young people who are willing to take unnecessary risks. For more information about fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, visit www.songforcharlie.org
It can be people like you, young and willing to take unnecessary risks.
Know the Dangers of Fentanyl Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than other synthetic opioids. The high potency of fentanyl greatly increases risk of overdose, especially if a person who uses drugs is unaware that a powder or pill contains fentanyl.
Illegal fentanyl is being mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and MDMA. This is especially dangerous because people are often unaware that fentanyl has been added.
The drug has no taste or smell, which makes it extremely difficult to tell when it has been consumed.
What’s something you made in the last two years that you are proud of? During my senior year of high school, I was given the task of creating the paper copy of our senior edition newspaper. I was a self-taught Adobe user, so, at first, this was a pretty daunting task to me. I was in charge of choosing the layout for the paper, proofreading everyones copies, deciding what questions we wanted to ask, keeping track of making sure that each member of the class was included in the paper, etc. Given the small size of our newspaper staff and their lack of knowledge with Adobe as well, I took this job on all by myself. The end product turned out really well, and I was really proud of all of the hoops and obstacles I had to face along the way. After the newspaper was done, I ended up being named the 2023 editor and won several awards at the w (Northeast Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association) conference!
If you were guaranteed it would support you financially, what would you want to design for a living? If it were guaranteed to support me financially, I would start my own sticker business. I would love to create my own stickers using Adobe, have them printed out, and sell them across the world. I feel like it would be such a diverse thing to sell and stickers can contain a lot of important but subtle messages. It would be cool to see what people would put my stickers on and where the stickers would end up!
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2023. The fonts used include Active and Source Sans Variable. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center.