#im post

thank you!! ohh that's a tough question. the short of it is, i got a degree in illustration and worked soley as an illustrator for like 1-2 years after i graduated before i was forced to pivot to graphic design LOL. so i learned typesetting and digital design on the job out of necessity aka emails & social media...

then i got laid off and worked in the advertising/design agency world for a year. one client/agency i worked with was awesome. and then my last full time job SUCKED ASS...... unfortunately i have to say it did challenge me and i learned a lot and grew as a designer as a result

so sorry to say that was my process for learning graphic design LMAO. but in terms of blending graphic design with illustration, i think it started to come more naturally to me as i worked more with typography. also, my strengths as an illustrator don't lend well to painting full scenes with backgrounds, cool perspective, etc. i tend to think more about composition in terms of shapes, symbolism, grids and borders. i think of an illustration as something that consists of multiple design elements, like i know i want one full body character illustration, one spot illustration in a circle, a decorative foliage border... and i just had to start thinking about how to use typography as a design element. i still wouldn't say i'm very strong at it, but trying to get better!

as always i have a ton of reference for each piece i make. in the corporate life piece im referencing/satirizing the design/tech/advertising industry. so i looked a lot at two agencies whose work i genuinely like, instrument and fisk. especially instrument's campaign for pagerduty LOL if you look at that project you'll see how much of a referential talentless hack i am. two artists whose design/illustration sense i've been looking at a lot lately also are dollgirls and kuru731. especially since they both screenprint/design for screenprinted shirts... i was invited to take part in a screenprinting class and ive been trying to pare my work down to 2-3 colors (really difficult for me).

^collage of references

but yes.. type is hard. design is hard... when i'm designing a composition, i try to think about what i need to be in the piece: what elements need to be in there for the sake of the narrative. what elements need to be there for the sake of composition, color balance, etc. i try to not add decorative elements just for the sake of decoration, but think about what purpose each element is serving, whether that's a story-telling or visual purpose or both. i also was working with some constraints - i wanted it to be a risograph prints, so trying to get it to be 3 colors or less would be ideal. that helps narrow down the color scheme. i find working with some constraints can actually help you be more creative sometimes!

umm also tutorials haha. i use photoshop to draw but had to edit some of the type elements in illustrator using its more robust typography tools. annoying!!

oh also here's some process images for the corporate life piece

^very first doodle i sent to a friend LMAO and then i was like. this could be a sticker. this could be a poster

^i was struggling with the design of the boss makes a dime etc part. at first i had the text in a tall vertical column. but it looks like ass. and then i was like ugh fine ill figure out how to do type on an arc LMAO my graphic design skills...... are very rudimentary....

ANYWAY i'll boil it down to a few things. 1. look at reference and inspiration, look at what your favorite design agencies are doing and figure out what it is you like and how to put your own spin on it 2. think of typography, photography, patterns, etc as design elements of a composition just like illustration and icons are. how can they work together? what narrative are you trying to tell, and how can each element contribute to that story? 3. um..... i wouldn't really recommend designing emails and social media posts even though that's what i did. but posters i love to do! and it's a fun way to incorporate text and illustration together. if you already like drawing fanart, that's a way you can still do fanart and practice design skills at the same time!