Going into this unit, design was very new to me. I am an artist and a writer, and while both of those disciplines are used in design, I hadn’t engaged in design work beyond making simple posters before this unit. Design has a lot of different elements to it, as I detail in this reflection post, and intentionality in using or not using these elements is important to creating effective designs. In the designs I made for this unit, I was conscious of each element and tried to be intentional in using or not using each element.
Stories in Design
I created three stories using design through this unit. They can be found below.
- Cultural Losses (4 stars): In America, there is an expected “unified” culture for us all to fall into. That has led to suppressions and erasures of many cultures. This story expresses my mourning of my family’s loss of cultural heritage.
- A Twist in Time (4 stars): VHS tapes are a source of nostalgia for many. Follow me as I interact with the child I was using a VHS tape of a movie I love.
- The Prophecy Brought by Butterfly Wings (3.5 stars): Video games are a grossly underused form of narrative. See a game story that has been floating around in my head for a while.
Reflection
These three designs were enjoyable to create. One of the big things that I learned in this unit was that uses of certain elements can greatly impact the way a design turns out. Color and typeface were two elements that I found impacted the design in particular. As part of the prompt for “Cultural Losses,” I needed to make three alternative designs that only changed the text of the image. In doing so, I found that the font choice impacted the tone of the writing greatly. As well, the choice of color also impacted the final design greatly. Using a more saturated color, like in the wings of “The Prophecy Brought by Butterfly Wings,” drew attention to the part of the design, and certain colors, like the yellow sticker in “A Twist in Time,” also drew attention.
The hardest piece for me to create was “The Prophecy Brought by Butterfly Wings.” After making the piece, I found that I wasn’t really happy with the end result. This piece was hard for me to create because I have such a strong idea of what I want for the start screen of the game, and I feel that this piece did not measure up to what I wanted. I learned from this piece that having too specific an idea going into a design can be a major detriment to a creative, well-design piece. If I were to make this design again, I would use assets from the game that I am currently making, and I would do more idea sketches so that I wasn’t sold on one specific concept.
The easiest piece for me to create was “Cultural Losses.” The writing in the piece was part of a set of three hermit crab pieces that I wrote, so I already had a good understanding of the piece going into the design. That made it really easy to figure out the design part of it. It also helped that I was limited by the images I could find on The Noun Project. I didn’t have too much free reign in the base image that I added the writing to, so it was easier to figure out a composition. It was also easy to create because my design software, Clip Studio Paint, makes altering the color of images really easy.
None of these pieces drove me crazy. I didn’t dwell too long on any individual part of a piece which helped me stay creative and helped me stay sane creating the pieces.
I enjoyed creating both “Cultural Losses” and “A Twist in Time,” but my favorite part of creating these pieces was probably writing the story for “A Twist in Time.” It is a story that I would not have likely written if I hadn’t made the design, but I really love the way it turned out. I love the theme beyond it; loving yourself, your inner child, and the process it took to get where you are isn’t something I thought of going into the piece, but it felt very natural given the way the design turned out. Overall, it is my favorite part of this unit because it was an unexpected joy to write.
Conclusion
Overall, this unit was filled with new information. I hadn’t known about the technical aspects of the elements of design going into the unit, but it all made sense when I was creating the designs for this unit. This unit is important to me because of the ways that design can impact accessibility, as disability studies says, but also because of the ways that these designs take from other art forms and vice-versa. Knowledge about design layout, for example, can help me in writing a manuscript that will be effective once it is on the page. Knowing which colors draw the eye in design can help me make better digital art. In fact, I have already used the information I took in from this unit on layout and colors in order to make a balanced sticker design that draws the audience’s eye where I want it to go.
Those are my thoughts on design and the designs I created. What are your favorite designs, though, and why? Please share your thoughts in the comments of this post!
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