Grassroots Design

I'm really pleased with my new website. I designed it in Muse and took advantage of the lightbox composition as well as some subtle scrolling effects. My work is now displayed in a much clearer and more elegant way. I tried to keep everything to the minimum.

The navigation sits on top as you scroll:

The projects are organised into a grid of thumbnails and a lightbox opens when you click:

My research for the website included (of course) browsing through hundreds of portfolio websites. But I also took a look at my current website, both from the visual and the functional perspective.

It helped to take a look at google analytics and see what kinds of devices and screen resolutions are used most commonly to view my website. Although I'm aiming for responsive design, it's good to know what the majority of users use and where should I aim with my optimal design.

I also checked what generates traffic on my website. Turns out it's mainly the mentions from satisfied clients on their blogs, websites and facebook pages :) Social media also play a big role. I will keep that in mind when considering promotion strategies in the future.

I also looked at some companies with the same or similar name, to see if I won't blend in too much. Luckily, the other Grassroots Designs are totally different both in terms of visuals and sometimes in what they do.

My end of the year show is this Tuesday and I'm getting everything ready. This week I selected projects I want to show and almost finished mounting everything on foamboard. I also wrote short descriptions for the projects and designed them to match my logo and business cards:

As part of my final college projects i also had to design a visual identity for myself.

I showed my logo development and the final logo in the previous posts. My new website is underway. I also designed my business cards and have them printed at moo.com. I'm more than pleased with them.

Here are some ideas and different layouts I tried:

I was really tempted by the vertical layout, but the cards I decided on are really tiny (28x70mm) and my details just wouldn't fit on them.

Finally, I chose horizontal ones with 6 different back designs that show some of my work. This is what they look like:

I finished the posters. I chose simple vector illustrations and sweet/retro colour palette. To my surprise, the ones that looked best on screen, were the weakest in print, and the one that I liked the least is now my favourite after I saw it printed off. I recorded my workflow from creating one of the illustrations:

First, I sketched a few ideas and thought how to communicate the idea. I also had to think which one of them would work best with the technique I wanted to use. My sketches are in this post.

Then I scanned the sketch to my computer, lowered the opacity a bit and locked it in the background. I'm using Illustrator CS6 with snap to grid turned on. This is what my workspace for vector illustrations looks like (yes, I stick it to the left side!):

I recreated the sketch by drawing simple shapes on it and moving them to the side. I only used the ellipse, rounded rectangle, rectangle and polygon tool, occasionally adding anchor points and moving them around with the direct selection tool. The pathfinder panel is your friend with drawings like this one. The candy floss (and the tiny writing on the backpack) was created with the blob brush tool. You could, of course, trace it with the pen tool, but this shape didn't have to be precise and the blob brush saves lots of time.

Somewhere along the way I decided to move the candy floss to the other side and turn the kid's head towards it. I also created a colour palette, using the Kuler extension and colour guide panel. Creating groups of swatches from selected art also helps a lot when you're working with colours. Then I just start colouring by selecting the shape and copying the colour from a square beside it (V - Select, I - Eyedropper, click on square, repeat 51454512 times)

I created a few versions of the picture before deciding on the final one and adding details, gradients and shadows.

Then I just add a few subtle (!) gradients. Use gradients sparingly, otherwise it will look like from the 90's (and that's not the kind of nostalgia we're trying to achieve here).

Final illustration, as it appears on the poster:

The logo is finally finished, I also designed and ordered my business cards. It is really difficult to design for myself, I compulsively change every little detail and try to make things perfect. I usually end up with too many versions to choose from, each of them looking almost exactly the same :)

But here it is: 

I moved on from paper to computer with my logo. I decided to use my handwriting in the logo and make it a bit messy. Still trying different options.

This week I've been working on the bake sale posters. I got feedback from the client, who wanted the info text bigger (the last poster I designed for them was focused on the event title and illustration), and wanted to include the day of the week beside the date. That's something to keep in mind while I'll be working on the final layout, meanwhile I was given the 3 themes of the events and sketched the ideas for them.

The first event - "As seen on TV" (Polish title: "Znane i Reklamowane") - will focus on home-made vegan versions of well-known commercial sweets and cakes.

The second one - "Wonders on a Stick" ("Cuda na Kiju") - will feature a variety of pops, lollies and other treats on a stick.

The third event will be entitled "Childhood nostalgia" ("Smaki Dzieciństwa") - the title is self-explanatory. I am still a bit puzzled by this one, because the theme seems to require more elaborate illustration, while the vector style that I chose for the series relies on simplicity and minimalism. I had a few ideas for this one, still haven't decided though:

I also sketched raffle tickets that may be used to raise more money at the events. They will all be printed on one sheet, already numbered, and they will include graphics from the posters. I'm thinking of designing few different values in different colours and pictures on them

I decided to enroll in an online class as a part of my research. I finally paid for membership with Skillshare, who have hundreds of online courses - really worth the $9 a month.

I'm looking for a way to simplify the logo and still include all elements that carry the meaning (grassroots movements activism + design). Finding some brilliant examples in my research, but I'm still a bit stuck.

Only 4 weeks left to the End of Year Show. I have 2 last projects to finish before the 17th of June. One of them is creating my personal visual identity and a promotional piece. The other is a series of posters promoting animal rights fundraising events. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of designers' promo-packs and other promotional items. It's like they all want to scream "I'm original!" and end up looking exactly the same. I'm pretty sure people in creative agencies have seen it all anyway... So far I focused on research for both projects and did some sketches. I want to re-resign my logo and website, and I already started panicking that I will run out of time.

Logo sketches - I'm currently fixated on the idea of resistance fist holding a pencil. I want it to look organic (roots) and stencil-like. One of my concepts for identity includes linocut prints, so the logo would have to be simple for the best results.

Pinterest research:

Finally, my website is up and running (well, offline, but still...). I decided to introduce a bright colour to the design, to break up the black and white monotony. I found a similar solution at one of the websites while doing my research and I really liked it. It was using bright lime colour, I decided on orange because it worked well with the photos I used. So the final menu bar looks like this:

I also added social media icons using this useful little tool from Adobe Muse:

It allows you to import a file directly from Photoshop and use its layers as a different states of the button.

While doing my research I encountered this amazing flickr stream. I really loved the photos and ended up using two of them in my project. I've been also doing some paperwork: questionnaires about HCI and colour theory, and my UCAS application which is both scary and exciting at the same time.

I'm slowly moving forward with my website. It's really hard to go back to 'work mode' after 2 weeks of not touching computer at all. I neglected the blog as well, so I'll just quickly go over what I did earlier. WEEK 4 

Just before Christmas I finished my splash page. It's just a photo with logo and text slowly fading in. I didn't want anything too invasive, I used subtle music and minimum text and tried to keep it simple. There's an information about a sale and at the end you are given the option to go to the online shop or to the main page:

I used free music from the Youtube Audio Library, which has hundreds of free tracks you can legally use in your movie clips. The photo I used is by Stephan Geyer.

WEEK 5

Finding good quality, royalty free photos has been so far the most time consuming part of the process. I got some help from my friend Artur (check his tumblr here), but many photos I had to find myself. Finally I found what I needed and created the main page, which consists of a big slideshow and simple navigation bar.