DESIGN THINKING

What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

The problem we are trying to solve is a workaround the excess waste of coffee grounds during the preparation process. 

Take a stab at framing it as a design question?

An easy solution for making a quick, easy drink with no stress

Possibilities?

A tap feature or bent spoon to insert in bag or jar

Constraints?

Environmental impact

Sustainable resources and materials

Tweak original question?

Case Study: FRECIPEE

1. The Challenge:

What’s for dinner? Have you ever found yourself at the supermarket doing weekly groceries knowing you want to prepare a fresh-cooked meal, but have no idea what ingredients you need to buy? Supermarkets rarely have information ready on location to the customer on how to cook freshly prepared meals

2. The Approach:

The mobile application for the inexperienced cook will open up new doors with easy-to-follow recipes and now have readily available resources. It is convenient for portability and accessibility on the go. 

3. What I did:

I created a user-friendly, simple design system to make browsing for instant recipes that cater to one’s needs. The logo itself stands for the brand values and speaks truly of the overall motto “Every Lifestyle, Speciality Recipes.” *Branding, UX/UI

Nanaimo Crime Stoppers 

1. The Challenge:

The Nanaimo Crime Stoppers needed to create public awareness for a tip line that could be used by the community to forward information in regards to criminal activity. 

2. The Approach:

I wanted to divert away from the typical crime-stopper posters that would often showcase a car break-in or robbery. I thought it was important to highlight ongoing issues that evoke emotion. I decided to center my photographic campaign around issues that are often swept under the rug and not spoken about. It’s the usual case of we know it happens, but don’t talk about it. The three topics I chose were date-rape drugs, sexual assault, and human trafficking because there’s a lack of information shown to the public. 

3. What I did:

I conceptualized the meaning behind each composition. I directed one of the models pictured, in human trafficking, to wear a barcode tag. Not only did I choose to do this for shock value for the viewer, but to create attention. In the second picture, the sexual assault, I envision the model to be trapped and enclosed in a small space with no escape. Finally, in the last picture, the date rape, I wanted to capture the “drug” in stop motion as a means of freezing the scene because, in reality, it all happens so quickly. My hope was to create memorable pictures that can not only promote the tipline but for people to pay more attention to these sensitive topics. 

EDC Musical Festival Poster + Website 

1. The Challenge:

In regards to this particular project, there were three focus points, the first being promoting the event to sell tickets, redesigning an existing festival and create consistency between the festival and website. 

2. The Approach:

I decided to create the music festival’s mascot as the main center of the attention in the poster, but ditch the illustration for vivid imagery and logo in place for the website.  

3. What I did:

The task at hand over the span of the next three weeks is to produce completed illustrations that depict a hand held object implementing different styles. I’ve attached three varying iterations of a lipstick I found in my never-ending makeup collection. I’ve had this set goal in mind for the past few years that in the near future I’ll want to dabble into designing for cosmetic industries at some point in my career. The process is as follows: I spent countless hours working on line art to transfer to vectors with a split of solid colour and gradients. Next, I took my second iteration into Photoshop: Overlayed textures , played with master opacity and overlay blend mode for everything to work together and added a few touch ups ( including creating background ). I didn’t want to go over-the-top with textures in this piece, so I applied a halftone to the lipstick’s packaging components.

I could’ve easily spent less than two hours composing a piece to submit for ‘marks’, but as per usual I pushed myself to set a higher bar in my design work. I tend to view my process blog Illustrations or any work as a matter for fact as if a client were peering into it. This thought process makes me want to strive to put my knowledge in Photoshop and Illustrator to the test and produce good visual content.


Although our suggested time for these weekly process blogs are supposed to be anywhere from thirty-minutes to an hour, but I really wanted to take the time to create something that wasn’t or looked “rushed”. I took inspiration from one of my favorite illustrators out there, Malika Favre.

We were tasked as a class to take on the challenge of incorporating colour into our composition. I decided to take it upon myself to challenge myself to create a digital piece that stems from a personal hobby of mine. I have a knack for cosmetics and thought it’d be fun to create a quick mock-up packing design in illustration. This is my first time jumping into this line of work, but I had a great time working on it and I’m quite pleased with the result.

Colour palette:

#e5c4be ( Baby Pink )

#de9c93 ( Salmon Pink )

#99534e ( Soft Red )