This was a large multifaceted class project in which we had to develop a campaign for the Festival of the Arts. We needed to create a double-sided 16" x 20" poster, a folding schedule, a double-sided postcard, and digital signage. I wanted this campaign to convey diversity and community. I chose to represent those concepts abstractly with my use of shapes, their relation to each other, and variety of color. My biggest challenge with this project was trying to fit all the given text into the poster and schedule while still creating space for me to design in. The end result was a colorful, fun, and flexible system of design elements that could be applied to a variety of mediums. In addition to what was required of me from the class project, I created a short animated promo video that can be viewed on the bottom of this page.

For this class project, I had to create a set of playing cards with a theme of my choosing. I chose to do steampunk as my theme and dove right into researching both steampunk and traditional playing card design. I used gears to show the number of each card—starting with two gears and building up one at a time to visually create a machine that is complete on the ten card. I played with the negative forms of the gears to create the patterns for the face cards. My colors were inspired by both steampunk tradition (brass, iron) and culture (emerald, purple). I used the traditional suits as a way to pay homage to the past much like steampunk culture takes inspiration from the Victorian era. Lastly, I gave the cards an aged look by incorporating a textured background. The end result was a complex, but cohesive, system that tied into the theme and aesthetic of the steampunk community.

This rebrand was a class project where I was presented with a hypothetical situation in which Sacramento State was shut down ten years ago and it was my job to rebrand the school for its grand re-opening. As a team of four designers, we collectively conducted research which we then drew from as we individually came up with our own solution for how the school should be branded. Once I developed the message I wanted to convey, I designed the school’s new logo. I played off of the double S from the name Sacramento State and ultimately choose to go forward with my design that utilized geometric shapes to create a ribbon that wrapped around itself. The one continuous ribbon in my logo symbolizes unity while its multi-colored areas symbolize depth and diversity. The green and yellow I chose as the school's new main colors come from the trees and the sunshine in Sacramento and California, while the blue relates to the American River which flows near the campus. The shield behind the ribbon is symbolic for the protection that a well-rounded education gives one in the real world. After the logo, I created a system of elements and applied the brand to a new website for the university. In order to distinguish the athletics department, I created a logo for them that was a reworking of the main university logo mixed with the school’s beloved mascot. I also created some sample collateral to show what a typical business suite, brochure, digital sign, and t-shirt would look like. By staying within my established brand guidelines I gave the university a unified feel that is inviting and playful.

This was an ongoing series in which every other week we were given a band and information about a local upcoming show and had to create a poster for that performance. What made this project unique for a class project was that we had free rein to come up with any design solution we wanted and had no input from our professor. This really allowed us to explore our own process and allowed our personal style to develop. What made this project challenging was that we had to come up with a new design every two weeks on top of all our other regular assignments and since we were working on these on our own we had to be self-motivated in order to complete them. I have selected some of my strongest pieces to showcase here.

For this class project I had to create a three postcard set for the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? What made this project an interesting challenge was that we had to create the visuals for the postcards using photographs of paper that we then had to abstract in Photoshop to convey the proper tone of the play in an undercoded way. One of the main themes of the play that I wanted to play off of was the idea of illusion vs. reality and more specifically, the unraveling of illusion. I did this by using transparent paper and light to show layers and depth. The light represents reality and the torn paper represents illusion being ripped away. I chose the contrasting color scheme to represent the emotions of the play which has both serious and light parts.

For this class project we were asked to design and produce an issue of a quarterly publication centered around the art scene in Sacramento. We were put into groups including graphic designers from other classes. One thing that made this project very interesting and challenging was that we had to develop all our own original content including the name of the magazine, photos, articles, and interviews with local artists. Once we had all the content gathered we then ventured off on our own and each designed a unique magazine complete with three advertisements relating to our topic. Our group split up the tasks fairly evenly so that we each had an opportunity to experience the different facets of publication creation. Aside from designing my magazine, I was also responsible for presenting our research to our client, attending an art gallery reception and writing an article based on my experience, and photographing my classmate's interview with a local printing press shop owner.

For this class project I had to create a 20 to 30 second title sequence for a fictional television series. The show is a half-hour animated comedy series that would air on FOX about a group of the world's worst bank robbers who go on a world tour of robbing banks together. I chose to use a timeless, highly stylized graphic style for the intro inspired by Saul Bass. The upbeat and catchy music plays a large role in tying together the visuals with the tone. To contrast with the dark silhouette forms, I chose to use bright exciting colors that reflect the humorous aspect of the series. The end result is a bright and striking sequence that tells a story of the show's premise while also setting the tone.

For this class project, we were tasked with reviving a dead brand. My group and I decided a revival of Blockbuster would be an interesting challenge. We asked the questions, “What if Blockbuster were around today?” and “How would they adapt to thrive in our new video streaming culture?” Our solution was to use Blockbuster’s exuberant history to our advantage by tapping into the current nostalgia trend while updating the brand’s image to compete with the new big players like Netflix and Redbox. The logo we came up with was a collaboration between a fellow classmate and I. The logo retains the bold, block letters of the original logo but with an updated typeface more suitable for digital devices. We chose to preserve the blue and yellow color scheme but tweak the hue and saturation to give the logo—and brand as a whole—a more vibrant and playful tone. The K in the middle of the logo is a play on the rewind symbol referring to our company’s past. I was also responsible for creating an animated logo intro and outro for our brand video, infographics for our brand book, package design for our branded merchandise, and the design and execution of our brand table that was displayed during Sacramento State’s annual spring design showcase. 

For this class project we were given a choice between a few different black & white photographers to select from to make a brochure for Aperture’s Masters of Photography series. The brochure had to be eight panels and feature ten of his photographs (three of which had to be large-format). I choose Walker Evans because of his gritty, realist photographic style. As usual I started my journey with research. From this research I found out what inspired his style and drew from that inspiration to come up with a color palette and textures that would complement his work. The end result was a dynamic grid system that allowed me to intertwine large images with a large amount of text, yet still feel airy and true to Evans' vision.

For this class project I was asked to choose a novel and design it from cover to cover. I chose one of my favorite sci-fi novels by Philip K. Dick called Ubik. In the novel, the main character is caught in a situation where reality starts deteriorating around him as he regresses back through time. One of the unique aspects of this novel is that each chapter starts off with a fake advertisement jingle for a product that represents the time period he is currently in. I chose to represent this idea by basing my design off of the old Tide laundry detergent boxes. The blue circle on the cover represents an eye while the jagged lines represent the shattering of reality. I added a texture to the cover and faded the colors to make it look aged. For the interior of the book I brought in the orange color to reflect the exciting nature of the novel. I chose the typeface Bembo for the main body text for its legibility and status as a standard in publication design. The end result is a visually striking book design that relates to the novel’s plot and tone without being obvious.

During my last semester at Sacramento State, I took on an internship at the California Energy Commission, California's primary energy policy and planning agency. This internship gave me real world experience as a graphic designer allowing me to work on a variety of projects as part of a talented team of designers. During my time at the CEC, I worked on developing new brochure templates, infographics, icons, posters, and logos as well as taking on many different roles such as graphic and web designer, print shop technician, craftsman, and events promoter. The most valuable skills I learned while working at the CEC were how to be creative within established brand guidelines, working under the guidance of a creative director, and file organization systems.