Design Co Visual Design Apprenticeship
I engaged in a rigorous 12-week program, diligently completing various hands-on assignments centered around visual, graphic, and brand design. Produced nine meticulously branded pieces of content while acquiring fundamental skills in Adobe and Figma, and collaborated on a final brand design and case study.
Assignment 1 was to create a logo, Assignment 2 was an introduction to UI Design, Assignment 3 was to create a music festival graphic, and Assignment 4 was for merch design, where I chose a sticker. Final Assignments 1 + 2 were a brand Identity & Case Study, with a final showcase and portfolio for Final 3.
This apprenticeship was my first time stepping out into the design world, but I've always loved making art and playing around with Photoshop on my own.
It was an extremely fulfilling experience and has given me so much new knowledge and confidence. Below are my completed Assignments 1-4 and Final Brand Case Study, as well as some of the processes and ideas for creating each.
Logo Variants and Colorway Revisions
Final Logos
A1: Create a Logo
Bite Food Delivery App, Pre-Revisions
Suggested revisions by mentors were:
Loading Screen
Reduce the logo down to 1-2 stars to make the screen/logo look less busy
Sign-In Screen
Reduce the number of stars in the background to eliminate competition between elements
Subdue/gray the Google and Apple buttons while the Account & Sign In buttons have more focus
Home Screen
Try adding more spacing between each element
Try overlaying the text on top of the images to make it look more modern
Try to keep the styles consistent - drop shadows vs flat
Revised Bite Food Delivery App
After receiving feedback on the design from VDA mentors, I started by spacing out some of the background stars to make the screen a little more readable and less crowded. Then I worked on redesigning the bite logo, eliminating the star from the "b", and making it look a little more streamlined.
For the Sign-In screen, I again spaced out the stars in the background to eliminate some busyness and kept that throughout the Home Screen. I grayed out the Google and Apple buttons to give more focus to the Create an Account and Sign In.
On the Home screen, after spacing out the elements a little more, I worked on overlaying the text onto the images in a way that was still readable. The best result seemed to come from bold, widely-spaced white letters. I then cleaned up the elements to be a little more consistent with the Sign-In page, eliminating the drop shadows and adding a thin black stroke.
A2: Intro to UI Design
Music Festival Graphic, Pre-Revisions
Suggested revisions by mentors were to:
Create a clear flow of content
Opt for a right alignment and organize the elements into a grid structure
Establish a clear hierarchy of font, size, and direction
Possibly shrink the glowing text so that there is a dramatic difference between that and the heading
Decreasing the glow from that font may help make the text read better
Stick to fewer color variations
Revised Music Festival Graphic
After receiving feedback on the design from VDA mentors, I condensed the poster in order to correct the text and the spacing issues, and decided to reverse the gradient to contrast the stars. Simplifying the color and sizes in the text aided in the readability, as well as eliminating the glows and shadows from all elements except "Moon Goddess" to direct focus.
A3: Social Media Graphics for a Music Festival
A4: Merch Design
I learned how to make a sticker! It's a simple design, but I wanted to focus on understanding the tools. This was my first time using Adobe Illustrator, and while I still need to spend a lot more time with it and get used to its functions, I think I did pretty well, and I am proud of the finished product.
It got a little tricky trying to shape the text to a roughly-made heart, especially when adding the bleed/cutline. I couldn't have done it without the VDA tutorials.
