This was meant to only be a social media post, but after going through my old portfolio I felt the need to truly deep dive into it and talk about why it's all wrong and how I've improved since! Before we dive in, I'd like to point out that all of these projects (except for the NAIT LRT one) were either fictitious clients made up for college projects, or real clients where my submission was not selected. The NAIT LRT one was a project created in conjunction with the marketing class at NAIT, and as far as I know, was run as a marketing campaign. These were all created in 2013 and 2014, before graduating with a Certificate of Graphic Communications.
What I still kind of like
I think these two pieces are the only ones where I still have positive things to say. I still have issues with them, and the main one will be a recurring theme throughout this blog post. The fonts! I think Abra "Kid" Abra's fonts are alright, however should have evoked more childishness. The overall design of that one probably should have focused more on the "kid" part. That being said, I still think it mostly looks fantastic. I really like the continuity between the different branding pieces, and it still evokes some childishness while looking professional. The colour choices were fun and inviting and utilized in a way that wasn't too overbearing.
World Air has the most boring font choice of all time. Yes, it's professional, and using that font for the internal copy looks clean and nice. Using it as the logo though was a poor choice. I think the font might have been okay if I had used different weights and colours to draw the eye. The word Air appears very disconnected from the word World, unfortunately. The page numbers were a weird choice; why did I make them so big and obvious? They are not important enough to be so obvious. That all being said, the colour's look wonderful, the layout is clean, professional and inviting. The graphs fit the theme and are useful.
Overall, I think this is a very good example of a basic understanding of graphic design principles without the real-world experience to back it up.
What I think is... meh
These jobs are exactly what I said; Meh. They fit the bill, they stick with the feel of the clients, they are effective communication. But they just feel boring. The colour choice on the Bodoni one in particular feels poor. The type on all of them is boring; there's no weight variation and it makes everything feel quite disconnected. Again, these are great examples of a college student that had learned design principles but had yet to work with real-world clients and feedback. I did enjoy seeing the technique I used on the Bodoni poster though! It was a very fun and unique idea that I hope I can implement again at some point.
The Worst of it
These are the things I made that completely missed the mark. I can't even understand why I included them in my portfolio! I think the type is boring and in some cases hard to read. The logos for them are just - kind of nothing.
The Alberta Medical Association one isn't even a proper logo! I think this may have been one of my earlier projects and I had trouble grasping the difference between logos, logotypes, and how they could work together. The colours of it could have worked with different tints but, as is, contrasts too much and it makes it hard on the eyes. The images on the banner stand and poster were laid out in such a way that made the two white background ones run together and cause an imbalance in the images.
I recall having a lot of trouble with the golf cart project. I couldn't think of anything creative for it - I did very minimal research for it and it shows. The page layout is boring and would be very hard to read after awhile, and the plaque (in the bottom left) is equally boring and hard to read.
I think the Parkland County Firefighters was a decent concept, however poorly and inappropriately executed. The font on the badge itself is - again - very boring, and does not fit the theme of the rest of the designs. The line work is also too thin to be used as a logo or badge. The banner stand! Oh gosh, why did I make everything on fire. It's so dark and depressing and not at all good imagery to promote a fire brigade. It feels like a propaganda poster!
The Prince Alikhan menu is hard to read and boring. The layout is quite bad and would be very hard to read in a restaurant setting. In my defence on this one, I do think the parameters of the menu size and the amount of information required on it was a huge hindrance to making a nice layout. I think if I were given this project by a client now, I might gently suggest that they allow me to create a different menu size in order to keep the menu looking professional and easy to read. That being said, the thin, black text on dark red needs to go!
All in all I think these designs were a culmination of bad practices that developed because I wasn't receiving real client feedback. Doing this little blog post was eye-opening for me. I sometimes think that my learning ended when I left college and that I haven't improved much since then. Revisiting these old pieces has shown that to be untrue. This has inspired me to challenge myself to learn more and to work even harder. Let me know what you think of these pieces!
And stay tuned for updates to all of these pieces! I'll be uploading re-designs of them to my Facebook and Instagram pages.
Christine Weighill
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