Portfolium Next Steps

I am very happy with the final projects I have uploaded. It was really fun to do all of them and I can't wait to see how I continue to improve since this is just the beginning for me. I was only able to fully upload 1 project the website "Portfolium" but I did leave the rest of my pieces under draft, I just need to add descriptions and tags to them and finally click publish.

In order to make my portfolio look more professional I personally think I need a couple more edits/final projects. My main end goal isn't really to become a fully fledged graphic designer but I would love to show how versatile as an artist I can be. To do so I need a couple more projects because to a certain degree I have only focused on really one things, my own company materials. I want to display and develop my skills in other directions not just for personal business which can be basically anything. I haven't really be able to create something, in my opinion, really professional.

I really am proud of the work I have done and of the skills I have acquired In this graphic design class but I know I can do even better. I really do love my works but I know that they are very amateur looking, being very simple and to me they give me a feeling like they're missing something. One way I know I can really develop my portfolio or my skills in general in through practice and trail and error and thats what graphic design is all about. Professional graphic design artist usually go through many drafts until they settle on one final project to finalize and I was really able to learn that with the projects I had. I will continue to do my best! 

Portfolium Blog Post

I have learned that ePortfolios are extremely important especially in the current times we are living in. People and especially prospective companies are now able to easily see your work. One can even insert their process behind a piece and therefore people are able to read and consider it. This allows for those seeking to hire you to peek into the way you think, your mindset, and decide wether or not you are the one they are looking for. You can also be offered and accept jobs easier with an ePortfolio through doing everything online, keeping the job thought is up to the person. If you have a physical portfolio you could show that at an interview and thats not necessarily bad but having an ePortfolio show how updated a person is and how willing they are to adapt to new formats and the current condition of the world, older companies go crazy for that these days.

After seeing my ePortfolio in Portfolium I learned that I still have a lot to learn! my pieces to me look look really nice but I realize now how much better I can make them with the skills I have acquired. Its nice to see how I have improved, gives me that feeling of, "Oh! how cute, thats how I started". 

Nothing really surprised me once I finished uploading my ePortfolio with Portfolium. What I did find was something very funny and that was how many things you could count as skills. For me, many of the things you could include such as "hard worker" or "good at following instructions and directions" were already ingrained in me as a child and so it's funny how companies can hire those who aren't hard working or good at following directions since thats what having a job should already include, It should be an immediate requirement! It's also kind funny to see my work all in one place for the world to see, I put a profile picture that I thought was nice but i'll probably change it later. I just hope people look at my works and like it. Not only that but I hope that they go beyond that and also see the hard work that went into making them. 

I have actually already made connections through the website! It's with my fellow class and seat-mates, Jimmy Chavez and Darik McGhee. 

Honestly I really do feel as if I need my own website even after my experience with designing my own ePortfolio. My ePortfolio serves a certain purpose and so does having my own website. I would use my ePortfolio to go displaying my work in a professional manner but my own website would be used as a way of adding a more personal touch to how I "put myself out there". In my own website I have the freedom to put whatever I like, such as links to my social media and to payment methods, I even have the ability to input my rates on their own rather then it being grouped with the other things which just confuses things. I don't have that freedom with Portfolium's ePortfolio and thats great in it's own way, it is for professional matters and I would like to keep it that way. 

https://portfolium.com/RedAvila

What, Why and Who to designing

I did my best to keep to my target audience. I'm limited by the knowledge and current capabilities but I have ideas of where I want to go. The audience I was seeking to target was from teens to midlife adults. People today are looking for something more different, something that stands out and with my logo thats what I tried to do. I don't have a company I know that can get the specifics I wanted on my items because I'm just starting but as i get more known I will be able to further my brand and evolve it.

I think targeting an audience is extremely important! If you don't have one it's like shooting an arrow with no bullseye to hit. Having a target audience means having an achievable goal, you want to provide or fulfill what that audience is seeking. If you spread out too far you'll get lost. An example of a company that does very well at going for their target audience would be hot topic. They aim for those interested in the major pop culture topics, things such as anime or K-pop are extremely popular in this era we live in and what do you see they sell on their website. Mostly Anime and K-pop related things, its because they have an audience they want to reach and they reach it. Having one store for a specific topic also makes things a whole lot easier. You know where to go for exactly what you want. If you don't act on a target audience and what they want then thats like having a clothing store with a grocery market in one store. It would make you confused as to what they are trying to do as a company. Likewise my goal is to do my best to hone in on my target audience and "strike".

After I have seen my products become physical i have come up with a lot of ideas in order my marketing designs to my target audience. My Logo itself to me does not need a rework its what I put it on and how I use it that needs a rework. I don't wan to make it too simple where it looks plain but i can't it too complicated because that may drive out my target audience. For instance, If wanted to make a tie-die shirt with my logo on it I couldn't, the websites and shops I know of can't do those so when I officially start my brand I will seek those who can do those kinds of clothing and accessories and much more. I'll do my best to be more creative with my logo and gain a great following.

Marketing Portfolio With Material Blog Post

I designed a great amount of things for my marketing portfolio and it was really fun!

Doing so broadened my audience and allows for people to buy more things if they really like my brand. I know for me when I really like a brand and find it trust worthy I try to buy as much stuff as I can from it from then on and i tried to keep that in mind. Product diversity was also a big thing for me, when people don't like a certain object I can show them how I have many others from them to choose from. I tried to make things that could work in everyday life and match with other items of clothing in case the audience doesn't like a certain product. I specifically made the product with the mindset of improving them when I can. This is just the first line and I will continue to vastly
                                               improve my brand. I did what I could with what the
                                               current tools and knowledge I have at my disposal.


There were actually a couple of difficult parts of designing my marketing portfolio. All were fun to do but really made me think hard. Finding the right files to us when choosing to make my logo ready for printing was pretty annoying until I was helped by my teacher to learn how to export and use a PNG file on the website rather than an AI (Adobe Illustrator "working" file) one (the website I used to make my t-shirts and stuff didn't take pdf).




Designing my business card was really interesting because I had to test a lot of ideas to finally come to the final decision, I had a problem with the size of the text in proportion to the logo itself. I had to use both the principles and elements of design such as emphasis and keeping in mind my negative and positive space and how I used it in order to bring my logo to the spotlight without it totally overshadowing the text which was also important just in a different way.

Another issue was when designing my letter head, I finished it pretty early in comparison with the others in my class room and kept thinking I made it too simple and that was "killing me". When I asked for the opinion of my classmates they said it was pretty good. They gave me their piece of advice and I made my small adjustments and came to a satisfying middle ground you could say. I remembered that the letter heads are supposed to be simple because it's basically a template for your company to write letters and so text would be used on it and I had to make it so nothing would distract the potential readers from the important point of the letter/s. 

Final Logo in BW and Color

The principles of design that I employed to finalize my logo aren't that advanced but that was the point, simplicity was the goal. Due to the different type's of text I used I had to keep it Asymmetrical, It looked very unbalanced and visually too heavy on one side then the other when trying to keep it symmetrical. I kept consistent to the style that is throughout my whole logo, in the beginning I had used a hand drawn logo but I felt that although it had character it didn't look totally professional. I used emphasis in a couple of ways, one was to the character in the logo. I made it purposefully bigger with clear defining black line, just like the one that is surround the logo, so that it could be easily seen while I made all the other text unbounded and white. This allows for both to be aspects of the logo to be emphasized while not confusing people of what the main focus point is.

To start finalizing it I really didn't have to do much. I just really thought about how the negative space worked with the piece and adjusted that along with the stroke sizes. I played around with the lines and to give a more interesting look I added colors to the eyes of my character. I really thought about how I could add more to the piece without making it too crazy.

I made the logo with no set color in mind to make it more versatile but I had to compromise when I was asked to make a set color for the class. I used a set of secondary complementary colors to make up the colors of my logo. My favorite color combination is red and black but I felt that the combination, for the moment, was a too "exciting". I wanted it to give off a more cool and professional feel. I played around with the color wheel tool on Adobe Illustrator and found this color combination and thought it was really nice!

I felt I really succeeded in making a pretty good logo. I wanted to make something different and interesting. Something that could catch peoples eyes and make them curious about the story or reason as to why my logo exist. As we have progressed further and further as a society we have put more and more emphasis on clothes and how how our outward appearances are. I want to make something new! My logo does a pretty good job in conveying those feelings when it adds a character not really seen on many clothing items today. Many times around the internet I have found people who make clothing with literally a couple words on it with no creativity found whatsoever. I want to go above that and my logo does that. The colors just add to the cool look and the good thing is that if people don't like the color then I can change it, what matters is the identity behind the logo and mine has a clear one that can fit any color combination.

Last 3 and 1 Final Logo Design

The process I went through creating my logo was extremely fun! Usually at first when designing a logo you figure out the name of the company but I actually did that second. I had created My little character first and then figured out the name. Then i had to organize where the character would be and how that would fit in alignment with the text for the name of the company.

The obstacles I had encountered were actually very interesting. The Biggest one I would say was finding a balance between making the character hand drawn or using just adobe's shape tool. When it's hand drawn it adds character and liveliness to the character but it doesn't look very professional. Whereas the one using mostly just shapes looks too boxy and robotic but it looks very professional. I solved these problems by starting over from scratch and reworking the whole icon/character from nothing (using the original design as reference of course). I used a variety of tools the program "Adobe Illustrator" has and was able to have my character "reborn" with a good balance between the two aforementioned drafts. Another obstacle I faced was the language used to represent the name of the brand. It was brought to my attention that in order to broaden the demographic having simply just Japanese words would not be good. To solve this I inculcated Both the english and Japanese versions of the word. Doing this created a new obstacle. The Japanese language is not restricted to one alphabet and so I had to decide which version to go with. Do I include the Hiragana version or Kanji version? If I included both of them it would be too cluttered. I eventually just decided to go with the Hiragana version since it was the shortest, only having two characters, fitting best within a box with the english version included. 

I honestly do feel like my Logo was successful. I did my best to make the design as symmetrical as possible fitting within the invisible and visible lines that I created for the image. Those lines create an equal and proportionate emphasis on the image as a whole. The proportions are good, one image isn't too overly bearing than the other. The design also makes good use of simple geometric shapes, a simple triangle shape as the base, that are easy to remember. overall it conveys everything I wanted it too so I'm especially ecstatic. 

Logo Ideas and Process

The name of my company in which I'm making my logo is "Sakuga". It's a Japanese word meaning "Drawing Pictures".

The products my company sells are fashion-related items. From clothing all the way to accessories, we got everything.

From the 10 main drafts I designed. the ones I chose for further development areas noted...

 -The one on the top left (I chose it because It was the original design for everything else. It has sharp shapes and the interesting design I was going for in this whole process).

  -The one next to the first pick (It has a good outline and led me to create the newest version I have in my head right now. I just need to refine it even more and I can have exactly what I'm trying to create).

  -The hiragana and kanji for sakuga (I chose this one because I wanted to add the Japanese aesthetic that is very popular today into my design. I wanted to add multiple options to pick from in creating and combining the logo with my character. If the hiragana version doesn't work out then I can use the kanji version. With further development and combination with my logo character, I know it can become a very creative logo that will catch people's attention).

  -The one in the middle-bottom ( Interestingly enough the character I created fit perfectly into the hiragana version of the word sakuga and so I chose this one because I felt it would be very interesting to have the logo character be embedded into the logo like the way it was).

 -The one on the bottom right (I chose this one because I wanted to try and salvage the triangle design instead of just giving up on it and going to the diamond shape. I also wanted to test what it would look like if I included both the hiragana and kanji for sakuga in the logo)