I want to thank Meren for helping me set up this winterim. I also want to thank Rod, Terry, Jack, and Amy for all of their time and assistance with my project.

(side note- sorry the entries are out of order at the bottom of the page. I’m not sure how that happened.)

I think over the month of winterim, I learned a lot about graphic design. Going into it, I really had no idea what it entailed. I learned about the different ways to be involved in graphic design from account managing to actual designing. I also saw the professional side of those in the office. From day to day, it was fine to be somewhat casual because it was a small agency, but when there were meetings I was able to see how they conducted business. Explaining every detail in what you’re presenting is important, because you don’t want to client to miss any of the reasoning behind doing certain things. You have to explain why you picked a certain color or why you decided on a specific font versus another. All the details are important for the finished product to come together perfectly.

In the afternoon, I returned to Lesniewicz to help out with the photo shoot they were doing in their office for a client. They wanted blurred bodies moving around in the office, so we all had positions and we moved back and forth different ways. I had to rock forward and backward, haha. It really has nothing to do with graphic design; it was just funny to do for like 30 minutes.

Since I don’t really have much to say about my day itself, I think I’ll talk about what I learned a few days ago which was a branded house vs. a house of brands. You almost always want a branded house. This means there is basically an overall logo for the company and each specific product can have its own look as long as it still fits in the brand of the company or “house”. For example, all of the BGSU colleges are part of a branded house. All of their designs fit with the overall BGSU style, but they can have a little uniqueness. A house of brands would mean that each product has its own look and you really would have no way of knowing if they were from the same company at all. If all of the BGSU colleges had extremely different looks for their brochures, ads, etc, then people would not understand that they were a part of BGSU. They would look like a completely separate college off on their own. It is better to have an overall branded house, because people will see the same logo and style again and again and will be more likely to remember it.

I spent the rest of the day working on arrows and fonts to make my logo look  more student directed and fun. I learned more of the tools illustrator has and basically just got to play around with different things. I’m not completely satisfied with anything I did though, so I’m hoping Terry will have some ideas. I’m going to spend the afternoon looking at different arrows in other logos and planning out my poster. I have to figure out what outfits need to represent each section and the illustrations that should back them. I also need a headline. Once I’ve finished this, I think I’ll have the cover for my brochure done!

Meren is sort of my client though so I had to get her opinion still. She liked the design and I explained my reasoning for the arrow, circle, etc. Her only thought was that it should be more…almost playful. It’s directed to students so it should have a younger feel rather than a corporate look. She suggested changing the font a little or giving the arrow more style or flair. I thought her points made a lot of sense, so i’ll be working on finishing that before beginning my poster or brochure.