Portfolio Research - Blog Posts
Refined Rationales Blog Post #5B
Project Title: The Nav
The Nav is a unique project because it undergoes a visual identity change yearly. The challenge lies in creating new energy for the student-led press while keeping it recognizable as The Nav but it is also an opportunity to push myself as a design student and push the boundaries. This year I had the task of redesigning my own design from the previous year. The goal was to reign it in and give it a cleaner look from last year while maintaining the distinct personality within. I also needed to make sure that the layout was simple enough that a team of three could ay the 40 page magazine out in one day.
Project Title: Balanced
Overwork is a worldwide social stigma that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Through this project, I wanted to work on a solution for people who lead an unbalanced life by giving them tools to change their relationship with work. The challenge lay in creating something usable that could be integrated easily into a busy lifestyle. I decided to create a scheduling app that would guide users to make healthier choices through education on mental health and forced rests. To this end, I designed a smart ecosystem that learns and adapts to the user through use.
Project Title: Fox & Koi
Last year, I realized that I needed a way to reconnect with my passion for graphic design and push myself to create outside of classwork. I’ve always loved enamel pins and so along with a business partner, I began an enamel pin shop. There’s a lot that goes into a pin from conception to iteration and the final physical object. Through Fox & Koi I’ve not only worked on my illustration skills but my business skills as well. I run the business side of fox & koi. I speak to the manufacturers, find new manufacturers, coordinate locations and markets for selling the pins, create the websites, package the pins, do the marketing and I also design pins, stickers and prints.
Rough Rationales Blog Post #5A
Project Title: The Nav
The Challenge:
A new visual identity for an 8 issue annual student magazine that should have a new energy but must be recognizable as The Nav.
Should appeal to and embody the whole student body.
Need to be able to leave the magazine layout to the design team with the confidence that they can do it.
Redesigning my own design from the previous year.
The Approach:
Pull it back and give it a cleaner look from the previous year while still maintaining the personality within.
New set of standards and styles
What I did:
Art director
delegated layout, gave standards and rules
Initial design and layout of mag
coordinated a new printer and rules for mag layout
Notes:
Figure out which Nav to focus on, most likely most recent.
Highlight the leadership role.
Project Title: Balanced
The Challenge:
Overwork is a social stigma that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle.
I wanted to change the way that people thought of overworking and give them tools to change their relationship with work/life balance.
Create something usable that could be integrated easily into a busy lifestyle.
The Approach:
Not trying to be a fix-all but guide the user to make healthier choices by offering an integrated scheduling system.
An ecosystem that learns about the user through use.
What I did:
I created a web app, mobile app, smart speaker (ish), smart watch ecosystem that could be applied to all aspects of life.
Ish - an ai that learns about the user through conversation and gives helpful tips on a healthier work/life balance.
Brand identity.
Research.
Art Direction
Notes:
Clarity!
Explain this project to someone who has never seen it outside of class.
Project Title: Fox & Koi
The Challenge:
Last year, I realized that I needed a way to reconnect with my passion for graphic design and push myself to create outside of class work. I’ve always loved enamel pins and so along with a business partner, I began an enamel pin shop.
The Approach:
A pin business is a lot more than just drawing pins, there’s a lot that goes into it including the business side of it, like speaking to manufacturers and suppliers, understanding costs, creating a website and a presence in the online world and community.
What I Did:
I run the business side of fox & koi. I speak to the manufacturers, find new manufacturers, coordinate locations and markets for selling the pins, create the websites, package the pins, do the marketing and I also design pins, stickers and prints.
Notes:
Put focus on leadership roles.
Explain more about the pin process?
Portfolio Website
The Links I’ll Use
about me, small joys, resumé
Which 3 (or more) projects will you showcase on your site?
Balanced Balanced is a project that I did last semester where we had to choose an issue and then try and solve it as best we could through graphic design. Balanced ended up being an integrative system to promote a healthy work/life balance for the issue. It showcases an app design, web page, smart watch, smart speaker and welcome pamphlet as well as a colour brand.
The Nav The Nav Student Press is a magazine that I have been art directing the past two years and worked on for the last three. It showcases my editorial skills and features two different base designs for me to show on my website.
Place Place is a branding project that I am currently working on for design for business. At the end of this project I will have a fully branded guide for a new business. This will include a logo, a pattern, style guide and branding elements. I will add it at the end of the term.
Fox & Koi Fox & Koi is the enamel pin business that I run with Teigan Mudle. Through fox & koi, we have designed over 30 pins and I have personally been responsible for 15 of them and collaborated on 5. I have also done some illustrative print work, designed backing cards and created stickers.
Where do you need to fill holes in your showcase?
photography
mockups
sketches/roughs for all projects
more active dribble, design instagram
What will you do specifically to fill holes?
write rationals
do photography of products and/or mockups
post more on my design instagram
post more on dribbble
organize past sketches and roughs into something legible.
What platform will you use?
Wordpress, powered by semplice
What is your domain name?
saraholmes.design
We were asked to think about where we’d be in 5-10 years and what we’d like to be doing. This is a good tool for portfolio work because it can help guide what you want others to get out of it.
My Vision:
I want to be changing the world in a positive way through design.
Steps:
Work full time at Common Foundry and develop my design skills.
Create work for clients and passion projects for myself that is effective.
Involve myself in the community and take initiative.
Create every single day and travel often, meet new people, learn, grow, adapt and problem solve as best I can.
The biggest challenge I have when looking at portfolio websites is that oftentimes, the user experience is poor because of the amount of focus the designer has put into the user interface. I can appreciate a flashy website with a lot of moving pieces but I don’t think that there’s a place for them on a portfolio website unless it’s serving a purpose. For example, it might make sense for someone whose career is in uiux to show off what they can do, but something that’s been drilled into me as a design student is the concept of function over form.
When looking for a portfolio website that inspired me, I found that I leaned towards websites that used grids, that had a definite branded look (colour, style, etc) and that was easy to navigate.
Kate Moross is a bit of a hero of mine. (Kate goes by they/them) They’re a fantastic designer that has been in the business for over a decade and is based out of London. Their work is vibrant, stylized and unique.
Their website neatly links to each piece and gives many examples of it in different lighting and with great photography. They lay out their involvement in the project in most cases and Kate’s site seems to update each year.
I really like the way Kate’s site is laid out because while they utilize a grid, it has a couple of quirks to it which stays true to their nature as a designer. Kate isn’t afraid to be themself on their own website and I think that’s important, as it was discussed in class, it’s vital to represent yourself truthfully.
I also really like how easy it is to navigate Kate’s website.
The sidebar is bright and easy to find and it pretty much takes you anywhere you might think to go. Kate also has an extensive background though with a lot more experience than I’ve had. They’re well known worldwide and even if you think you’ve never seen their stuff, you most likely have. While my portfolio will be smaller to start, I think a simple layout like this would be easier to keep building up.
Summary of takeaways for my own portfolio site:
Keep it simple, only use flashy stuff if it’s necessary. As a designer, I tend to lean towards a minimalistic approach so my website should reflect that.
Be honest. Don’t use language that you don’t mean when referring to yourself.
Give users the information that they’re seeking with minimal effort.
Try to use excellent photography and avoid unedited/poor quality imagery for the website. Reshoot if you have the time or use mockups for now.
Explain what you did for each project so that people can understand what they’re looking at and why.