Jason

This is the cover of a children's book I illustrated and designed last summer. It's about a very smart bird, Jason, and is based on a true story by the author, Marcela Durán.

When I had to start dealing with the printers, I had just started Production Process with Mike Elston. Since then, I've learned so much from him, and I just cringe when I see some of the mistakes I did (I actually overlapped the crop marks with the bleed!)

Tidbit: I'd virtually finished the entire book when I noticed that the red marks with the white spots were below the wings, not on them. I had to go back and adjust all the illustrations of course. I'm just grateful I noticed my error before the book went to print, although I thought he looked really cute too the other way.

Semi-Formal

Though not complete, is is my first usable font, since it's upper and lowercase, popular punctuation, and most of the French and Spanish accents. I see it as a very neat version of my hand-writing. It was inspired by Optima and Gabriola (for if I needed a second reference, or if I didn't like what Optima had, like the numbers). My goal was to create a compressed version of Optima except with embellishments and super high ascenders and cap-heights (I've got a thing for short x-heights). 

This was a very satisfying project, and we even got to make use of our new 3D printer at the school! Again, if you'd like to see my process, I've included a video.

Bobo: Profile of a Working Dog

For this project, I decided to create a booklet with my dog, Bobo as the subject. I've categorized a few of his many occupations and used him and his relevant surroundings as materials for creating the letters. Bobo is a good dog that will (generally) do what he's told—at least with the right motivation. Unfortunately, having his picture taken is a dreadful chore for him and he didn't find get excited until I was done photographing him and moved onto the objects (ex: his leash). It was very, very labor-intensive, but lots of fun too. I've added a video of my process if you're interested!

The Death of Free Thought

I had a lot of ideas for this one—probably because I watch too many crime shows. The most time-consuming part for me for this project was definitely making the newspaper and table, followed closely by my choosing of deceased free thinkers.

Obsessed With Speed

Another typesetting exercise I had lots of fun with.

As a side note I'd like to add that this semester I had Kim Dalrymple. I loved Andrea Emery as a type teacher, and she really drilled us as to the correct rules. It's thanks to her that I'm now extra picky with adding ellipses and em and en dashes in everything I write, and I love it. Having Kim was a whole different dynamic that allowed us to grow in a different direction. While it was still most assuredly a type class, she really encouraged self-direction, and letting us play around. That being said, I love that we had Andrea first to lay down the foundation, and Kim after so we could play have the freedom to play within the rules that we learned.

Fonts used: Franklin (sans serif), Garamond (serif),

Trendsetter: Cell Phone Etiquette

Spread for the fictional Trendsetter Magazine. For some reason the colours look way, way brighter than the original, though I'm not sure if it's my file or the website. It might be a temporary problem, but it still does look kind of cool with the brighter colours.

Fonts used: Blackout (display), and Cronos (sans serif).

Ransom Collage

This was a 2-part project. The first week, was focused on designing the text, and the second week was focused on the collage. I remember feeling very stressed over this project. Although I have nothing against collage, cutting and pasting things that are more or less random is very difficult for me. I decided to ditch randomness and design my collage completely around part one of my design. I gotta say it was much, much easier once I decided to take that approach and did up a bunch of rough proposals. The result is probably the cleanest collage ever, and I'm pretty sure mine was the only one that was in greyscale. Still, I'm happy with it, and the style is very me (I've learned I absolutely love to embrace white space).

Fonts used: Futura (sans serif) and Brioso (serif)

Lowe's Buckin' Bronco Informational Booklet

This was another graphic design exercise I had to do. This time it was an informational booklet, for if you were to ever purchase one of these little rockers. To my dismay I also had to invent the product name and logo, as well as re-trace all of the infographics.

Bridgehead

A typography exercise. Very hard, but satisfying to fit everything in neat sections.

Grimm

I had to illustrate a Grimm story typographically. Though I chose to go with The Turnip, I had fun coming up with rough proposals for a few more Grimm stories

Furniture Flyer

My first attempt at designing a flyer! Let me tell you it was seriously hard to fit everything in and still make it look half-decent. I think this might have also been the project that made me start to appreciate the drop shadow (please don't judge me!). I'm pleased with the way it turned out though :) My thanks to Alain Paradis for his computer lessons (usually little mind-blowing exercises!). He's so awesome!!

Bedbugs Informational

This was an informational that we had to do using the Algonquin Times template. I chose bedbugs as my subject. It details things you should know about bedbugs, and what you need to do should you ever have a bedbug infestation. The illustration can be viewed from 2 perspectives: first is that the bedbug is a bed, and the second is that the person is a drink.