Our GRAM (Graphic Portfolio) had to include our four Mandatory Assignments from this semester, and the reports for these. In addition to this, I added a selection of my learning activities. So my portfolio consists of: photographs, a logo for a fictive chocolate brand, an illustration for a song, and a layout for a cookbook. From my learning activities I chose to include a book cover, a packaging label, travel brochure, and parts of a magazine. The book cover had focus on thinking of, and considering, the use of colour. The packaging label is meant to represent a juice with orange and banana flavour. And finally, my travel brochure and magazine were both created in InDesign – with layout and design as the main focus.
Even though I have still yet to really find myself as a designer and my own very personal look, I believe all these products somehow represent me as a designer, in terms of them having a rather modern, and maybe a little contemporary look.
Working on all these assignments has been an interesting journey, and I do believe I have learnt a lot. Over the last few months I have been allowed, and encouraged, to challenge myself as a designer, slowly but surely getting new knowledge and improving my artistic eye.
The assignments we have been given have always been interesting since we have had some freedom to give them all a personal touch, as well as seeming like what could be real life projects. Working with photography, logos, illustrations and layouts has challenged me to broading my knowledge to programs such as InDesign and Illustrator. These are skills I know I will take much use of later in life, hopefully both as a student but also as a designer.
GRAM Design Choices
I needed to make the portfolio’s design represent me as a designer, and with a rather minimalistic and simple design, I think I have accomplished just that. The background doesn’t disturb the design, and I believe the fonts work well. I have tried making my images and products stand out a little more by applying a drop shadow to them.
My background is a photograph I took whilst shooting photos for our photography assignment. It is a photograph of the ocean, taken with a long shutter, and I have later turned it to black and white. Taking photos and play around with them like this is something I enjoy very much, and is thus another way for me to represent myself as an artist.
The whole portfolio is well organised, and easy to navigate through. Because of the minimalistic use of colours, there isn’t too much going on, which lets the viewer focus more on the actual products – this, of course, is the main purpose of a portfolio. I have done my best to try and make sure the design and layout of the pages are consistent both in the portfolio part of the assignment, and also the part including my reports. This way I think I have really managed to bind the whole GRAM together, and there should be no confusion whether or not these two parts belong together.
– This is an extract from my GRAM, and the whole assignment can be read here: GRAM –
Until next time, stay creative,
Monika
Monika RH Design 