In my rough draft logo, I wanted to portray a logo to encourage voters. This relates directly to my topic because I’m passionate about women in politics. I began to think of what logo would portray my topic. I knew I wanted the recognizable ‘vote’ symbol. This would encompass American themed colors, and bold writing.

Around the CUB I noticed there were lots of posters mobilizing and encouraging voters. I got inspiration from their color schemes and fonts. I also looked at a lot of campaign ads to understand the patriotic schemes. As for the ‘girl power’ portion of my logo, I used inspiration from my sorority. In my chapter, we have a lot of pro-women posters hanging up. Thus, I looked towards these as inspirations using bright colors and similar fonts.

The font used for the ‘girl-power,’ is supposed to represent an army symbol. This shows that women are tough and strong, and can do anything men can do. I combined these two texts in order for the viewer to understand both aspects. How voting is important to America, but also to encourage more women to be elected. I tried to incorporate balance in my logo. This was done by making the font centered, and adequate space in between the two. Leaving the background white, shows figure-ground. 

My process started by first typing the words and adjusting the size. Since it is scalable, it didn’t really matter what size I placed the font at. Then I changed the fonts depending on what fit my theme. I added a banner which came with some troubles. I had to re-anchor some points because Illustrator would not let me shape the rectangle. I finally made the banner and colored it accordingly. I played around with different effects on the ‘vote’ text. I settled with rounding the corners on the ‘V’ in order to make it look like a check mark. I set the letters closer together as well. With the star tool creator, I made 6 stars that reflect each other. I think this goes along with the patriotic theme because stars are important to the American political system. Then I used the same color palette as the texts to color the  stars. I didn’t want my project to look too busy with too many graphics going on.

I’m proud to have completed my final graphic design project! This has been a long process, but I have learned so much throughout it. My project envisions a campaign ad. This relates directly to my theme of my career goals. I aspire to be a politician or an attorney. At the start of my project, I began to think of symbols that represent my passions. Things like monumental buildings, flags, famous politicians, etc. I looked at similar campaigns and posters to spark my ideas. 

In my poster, I have the Capitol Building which represents my career goal. Behind it I have a picture of myself and the American Flag. This shows how I want to become a public servant to the United States. The quote resembles how more women should be engaged in politics. This poster makes it easy to visualize me standing on Capitol Hill. I believe it can tell a story about my aspirations and passions. 

The photo of me is my own property. While I took the picture of the Capitol Building a few years ago on a family vacation. I ended up taking an up close picture of the flag with high resolution. The quote is by Kristin Hannah.

Once I put everything in Photoshop, it was pretty simple. I  used the “lasso” to cut the sky out of the picture of the Capitol. Next I layered the flag and faded the flag image. I used the same lasso technique on my picture, and blended the edges. I used the law of proximity to set the image of me and the Capitol close together. For the quote I just added a text and adjusted the format. I tried to maintain contrast with the text and background. It proved black was the color that looked the best. 

Once I received feedback from my peers, I could finally be able to perfect my poster. Overall, my feedback was pretty positive. A lot of it had to do with the characteristics of the quote. I added a drop shadow to make the words blend and stand out more. I made the author’s name smaller because viewers were getting confused about my name. Lastly, I cropped the construction zone out of the bottom portion of the Capitol Building. The constructive criticism helped my project so much. They were all small details that ended up making my project look so much better.

As you can see from the image above, this is my first draft of my graphic design project for COM 210! I had a difficult time imagining a project that relates to my theme. As a reminder, my theme is my career goals. I’m very passionate about politics and law. I began to think of symbols that represent my passions. Things like monumental buildings, symbols that represent the United States, famous politicians, etc. Finally, I brainstormed a poster that could be used in a campaign. I looked at many similar posters, and they encompassed some of the same aspects.

 As you can see, I have the Capitol Building which represents my career goal. Behind it I have a picture of myself and the American Flag. This shows how I want to become a public servant to the United States. The quote resembles how more women should be engaged in politics. This poster makes it easy to visualize me standing on Capitol Hill. 

The photo of me is my own property. While I took the picture of the Capitol Building a few years ago on a family vacation. I ended up taking an  up close picture of the flag with high resolution. The quote is by Kristin Hannah.

Once I put everything in Photoshop, it was pretty simple. I  used the “lasso” technique to cut the sky out of the picture of the Capitol Building. Next, I layered the flag and faded the flag image. I used the same lasso technique on my picture, and blended the edges. I used the law of proximity to set the image of me and the Capitol Building close together. For the quote I just added a text, and adjusted the format. I tried to maintain contrast with the text and background. It proved black was the color that looked the best. I did have trouble remembering some specific layering techniques. I had to occasionally look back at the tutorials for guidance.

Here are some potential photos for my graphic design project! I’m envisioning the Capital Building with a faded American flag behind it. There will be a picture of me standing behind the building. I will add a quote by Kristin Hannah, “A woman’s place is in the house and the senate.” All of these photos are my own.