Why / Intro
About a month ago, I applied for a graphic designer position within my organization. Unfortunately, I didn't pass the first selection round, but that won't stop me from trying to become a designer. I'll just have to reconsider my approach.
I have been busy with the logo and overall design for this website. Although most of it is basic and fundamental, it upgraded the website significantly, and I have a good basis standing now. Before I was constantly blocked by with the design process, which prevented me from posting and archiving my work. For a while I've been wanting to focus more on publishing my work and sharpening my skills. Working on these projects became a nice exercise, as I got to put visual design knowledge into practice.
How / This Month in action
A Rice Pot
The Rice Pot logo already got some work done last month. This month, I tried to document the process and actually use it for the website. First, I’d like to explain a bit of the process, as I got a good chunk of exercise and learning points while working on this logo.
So why a logo of a Rice Pot? Well, it has to do with the very first lines of the landing page, the Rice Pot Poem. This poem and my beautiful rice cooker at home, initially inspired me to make a logo of a rice cooker. However, after inspecting the poem it made more sense to make a rice container or pot, to represent this very website. As metaphorically speaking, the website (pot) holds the important content (rice) that people want to consume.
I am already familiar with vector graphics and how to make digital graphics. I normally use inkscape to make drawings or svg’s, but this time I wanted to learn software closer to the industry standard. So I decided to pick up Affinity for the first time. I already knew that this logo would be used for my website’s favicon and as a watermark for my portfolio. My goals were clear, the tools were in front of me, so I'm ready for action.
Still, I decided to outline a bit more. First, get some inspiration, to bring the idea home, and find a context on which I will base my design. Unfortunately, I can’t just think of a logo and throw it on a canvas that instantly. After some orientation, I started ideating, sketching, and seeing if I could express my ideas and inspiration into reality. Then I just tried to draw it in affinity and that completes one iteration.
After three iterations I was able to build version 0.75, which I am satisfied with for now. It has well defined shapes, has cultural references, and scales quite decently. Most importantly, it conveys meaning and has character. You can find the archived documentation here if you want to actually see something visual. (or look at the top of your browser haha).
Design Language or System?
I decided to redesign my website, with the focus on laying the foundation so I can start posting and publishing. At first, I had in mind to create an emergency ui-kit, yet surprisingly enough, I was actually building towards a design system. Simply 'cause the need for clear communication was strong.
My previous approach was rather exhausting: gather inspiration, rebuild it visually, make it functional, make it coherent with the rest, rinse and repeat for each discipline. As you can imagine reading that process, I'd get tired of building so many different things. The worst part is that every design was different, following different rules and systems. The theme was overall the same, stationery-themed, but the consistency in reusable components and communication was just not there.
This made me inspired to lay out the purpose and overal aesthetic of my website, which in turn made me realize that I could approach this design problem systematically. I had to decide on some typical aspects: typefaces, spacing systems, layout rules, color schemes, etc. Which ended up in some ui-primitives and foundations. And most importantly, less thinking in the future, leading to straight designing and coding pages.
With these building blocks, I was able to design the types of pages that will hold my work. These are basically my expressions. I created three types of expressions for now: text-based, image-based, and one hybrid a.k.a. zine-based. Since I have clear rules and primitives that I can easily write in css and react, I can just easily build a web page now. 'cause I did the thinking process ahead of time. Also, I just have way more breathing room for other topics, e.g. like what content should I post or does this page present my work as I intend.
So now I can post poetry, blog pieces, fashion galleries, and graphic design galleries (finally some action). I am so stoked to actually curate and show off my work, 'cause I have been working on stuff for a hot minute (5 years). I just needed a space for that work to sit comfortably and confidently.
What / Conclusion
To bring it all together, I have put a lot of visual design stuff into practice. And that gives me a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. If you remember the last couple of months, I doubted the use and implementation of a design system for solo design teams. Well, Here I am trying to actually build and use one. How the turn tables, right? On top of that creating a logo that is rooted in my personal story. Getting in the process of prototyping, one bad step, one good step, though every time closer to the end goal. That is exactly what design is about, and why I love design.
Both projects are definitely going on my graphic design portfolio. My idea for next month is to start chipping at my portfolio space, where I'll be curating and showcasing with more direction and more polish. The archive I have right now is more for raw processes, where you can see more purer material and maybe more honest and personal stuff. So at least, I’ll keep pushing and showing that side of me for now.