Interaction Design - Site Redesign

Click Here to View My Version of the Website

Click Here to View the Original Tribe Website

Our goal of this project was to recreate a website of a local Austin business that would need a new and improved site. Out of the choices, I decided to go with the business of Tribe Comics & Games because comics are a big interest of mine. I chose to keep the same color scheme but added more content to the site because the original is lacking much content. I also felt like some pages could be condensed in a utility bar to keep content unified and less confusing. My skills allowed for me to create a complete, basic website that looks more pleasing than the original, but I would like to return to this project and make it even better after learning more HTML and CSS.

Junior Studio - Field Guide

Our goal was to create a field guide about anything in Austin that could be categorized. I decided to do the project on something I love about Austin, which are Arcade Games. I decided to categorize them not only by businesses, but by what kind of Arcade Games there are. These categories include Retro, Modern, Japanese, Redemption, Versus, and Pinball. The 8-bit style I chose for this project helps bring out the aesthetic feel of arcade games and this book is something a person can use out in the field if they wanted to explore arcade games not only at businesses, but even the more hidden ones around town. 

Junior Studio - Concept Map

For this assignment, we needed to create a poster showcasing a concept map of a certain topic. Of the topics to choose, I picked the Civil Rights Movement. My layout changed many times in the process but I was happy with the final layout I chose. I chose more of a patriotic color scheme that fits the design without being too cliche. Many of the key terms connect to others and the info-graphics help to further understand the Civil Rights Movement. 

Graphic Design History - Timeline

This was our final project for History of Graphic Design. I gathered all of my notes and looked up more info to create a timeline on what are the most important dates in design history. The original format is not a book but I formatted it this way for easy reading and navigation. I decided to use a simple layout for this project because it is more about the content and wouldn't want to have distracting designs in the way of the content.

Graphic Design III - Locating Place: Book

This project was a different approach to East Austin but in the form of a book instead of an interactive piece. Branching off from the first project, I chose to create the book on the graffiti of East Austin. It includes the history of graffiti, quotes, types of graffiti, a gallery, and even a section to draw your own. I decided to use photography as a basis of my book which is why I chose a horizontal layout instead of vertical. Book making and binding was new to me at the time, so I had learned so much by the time the project was complete.

Graphic Design History - Symbol Design for a Cause

We had to choose a cause and design symbol for it so I decided to create a logo on the Drug War. This symbol represents the violence that comes with the distribution of drugs, which is why I put drugs making up parts of the skull with guns behind it. I come from a border town and with the violence going on in Mexico, it only seemed fitting to create a symbol that hits close to home.

Graphic Design History - Site Redesign

For this project, we needed to recreate a part of a website but in the style of an illuminated manuscript. I chose the lineup for FunFunFunFest and recreated it in the 1400's style of Aldus Manutius. One of his characteristics is to bring the type down at an angle and I wanted to recreate that since there is a lot of hierarchy treatment needed for a lineup of bands.

Graphic Design History - Visual Effects, Shapes, and Gestalt

This was a quick assignment where we study a certain era of design and study either visual effects, shapes, or Gestalt traits in artwork. We had to recreate a piece in that style that gives a statement about one of the traits. I chose International Style and I noticed that a lot of basic shapes were used in the artwork. So I chose black and white rectangles and repeated them diagonally across the image. I placed the statement "Repetition is key" because I feel that style of design flourished because of the repetition of basic shapes. 

Graphic Design III - Locating Place: Interactive

Click Here to View Interactive Piece

This project was a choice between an interactive or motion piece about East Austin. I chose to create an interactive piece and the topic I chose for East Austin was typography. When I did field research for this project in East Austin, I noticed the different forms of signage and that's what inspired me to create this interactive piece. I originally wanted to do this project in Flash, but my professor encouraged me to try it in Dreamweaver and this allowed me to learn a lot during this project. Click on the link above to learn about the different categories of Graffiti, Handwritten, Sans Serif, Serif, and Slab Serif type.

Graphic Design II - Identity Series

Our assignment for this project was to create a set of 1-inch buttons and a poster of a certain era in graphic design and showcase it as if it were to be used at the Blanton Museum for an exhibit. I decided to choose one of my favorite eras in design which is Swiss design aka International Style. After that, I had to figure out a system of how many buttons to create. I decided to create 18 buttons which includes 3 buttons for each day the museum is open. The guest would either receive an informative button, a button of the artis for that day, or a button of the artist's most famous work. The designs of the poster and buttons work well together because I made them reminiscent of the International Style of design.

Advanced Typography - Program Booklet

In this project, we were asked to create a program booklet for an event titled TASA 2012. These events exist but we had to design it as if the event was being held at St. Edward's that year. There was a lot of content in this book so I decided to put all of the information in the document and then figure out a grid, color, and type system from there. I decided to go with a gray and blue color scheme but I also added a special part of the book for easy navigation. This part is shown in the last picture and I created a foldable layout that makes it easy to see both the schedule and map of Austin. You can also close the book and keep the map sticking out for easy reference. Because of this layout, it is not viewable as a PDF and I took pictures to showcase the main parts of the book.

Advance Typography - Weather Report

In this assignment, we used After Effects to animate a futuristic weather report. It needed to have 3 transitions so mine consisted of Location, Time, and Category. It may be abstract, but I feel I succeeded in creating a futuristic theme. I learned many After Effects skills with this project.

Graphic Design II - Kitchen of Meaning

The Kitchen of Meaning project is one where we needed to define a word by using illustrations and other elements of design. My assigned word was "zeitgeist". As a part of the project, we needed to provide a design synopsis and it is as follows:
 
"For a word that is defined as “the spirit of the times”, I went for a different approach from the American Flag idea to define zeitgeist. Since zeitgeist is based off of a certain time period, I decided to base my design on a time period that has much history behind it, the 1960’s. The 1960’s is represented on my poster by the color scheme, the typefaces I chose, and the different symbols that define the sprit of that time period. I decided to make a symbol for every person in the class and placed their names under them to show that the 1960’s was a time period that the people played a big part of, not just events or ideas." 

Graphic Design II - Instructional Design

Our goal of this project was to design a set of instructions for a certain goal that is easy to follow. My topic was "How to Mail a Package". My intentions were to create these instructions as if they were a link on the USPS website. These instructions were designed in Flash so that you can click through each step of the instructions with ease.

Image Methodology - Critical Mass

As a class, we had to take pictures of different objects and upload them to the class server. Using those objects, we needed to create a metaphor that represented a science topic. I decided to use all of the pictures in the server that were food items and recreate the Big Bang Theory. Instead of planets, the Big Bang Theory is represented by food in this video I created.

Image Methodology - Material Studies

Open publication - Free publishing - More design


Typography plays a big part in graphic design and in this project we had to materials in order to create a word. I studied materials such as utensils, head phones, and skate boards. This book shows the process of how I got to my final word which includes the different variations of the different materials I studied.

Image Methodology - Scales

As a project, we had to create a Tumblr account and post artwork that we used to answer questions. I chose my best three pieces of work to show in this blog and I created them in the international and constructivism styles. To view the rest of the assignments, you can click here for my blog: Tumblr

Image Methodology - Scavenger Hunt

Click here to view this project


This was my first project in Image Methodology and I had to take six different pictures that represent the different elements of design. Each picture had to have an element of design in common with the picture before it. Here is the list of the elements of designs I used as transitions:

Picture 1 to 2: Space
Picture 2 to 3: Line
Picture 3 to 4: Color
Picture 4 to 5: Texture
Picture 5 to 6: Shape

Graphic Design I - Personal Geography Interactive Map

For this map, we had to design our longest walk on campus in a well-designed, interactive manner. I created it in a way that you read my thoughts and see what I see on my trip from the Fine Arts building to the Huddle for lunch. This was the most challenging design project because I had to learn Flash and it can be stressful at times. Other than that, I enjoyed this project and learned a lot from it.

Graphic Design I - Blue Squares

As a class, our professor uploaded a video and we had to experiment with Adobe After Effects to try to replicate it. It was a challenging assignment but fun as well because we got to learn how to use After Effects. In After Effects, it is crucial to learn how to move objects, change opacity, rotation, and edit sound. We were able to learn all of those elements with this assignment.