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I’ve been telling myself for the entirety of second semester that I’ll start applying to jobs in March. I still don’t think my portfolio is entirely finished (it never will be “finished” but I would like it to have all of my completed work from school post-grad), but I still decided to put myself out there a little. I applied to Pride Neon and Paulsen, and I still haven’t heard back from either. I also applied not to long ago, so I’m expecting a super fast response from either place. I was thinking about applying to Carsforsale as well.

I took a break from working on my 10 Piece Campaign for a while when I was finalizing my Portfolio Campaign, and since that’s finished, I can shift my focus to my other projects again. I’m really excited to continue working on it, but I feel like I need to get myself back into “work mode” with the project because I haven’t done anything with it in a while.

In other news, I’ve been trying to discover local music for the past couple of weeks, and I have a lot of screenshots with bands I still need to listen to. Most of them are more metal-leaning, but there’s also some alternative rock and indie bands thrown in the mix as well. There’s a music festival happening in August that has a lot of Sioux Falls based bands on the lineup, so I was thinking of checking some of those bands out as well. There’s a show coming up in April with some of the bands I was interested in, but I’m debating whether I should go or not. I really want to get involved in the local alternative scene, but I’m really anxious because nobody I’m friends with likes the same music as me, and I know they wont want to go to any shows with me. Right now, this is the least of my worries, so I don’t think I should think about it that much, at least for right now.

I made the decision to re-work my resume after hearing from Tony about a job listing from Pride Neon. I emailed Mitch, and he told me to send my resume whenever I was able to. My old resume was made in Word, which made it harder to add pdf files of my design work. I remade my resume in InDesign mainly for that reason. I also think that as a designer, making a resume in InDesign can make you appear a little stronger as a designer compared to using a resume template from somewhere else. I also didn’t have any references on my old resume either. I also tried to apply some feedback I got from the resume review ad Ad Fest last semester. One of the main things I remember was to add more work to it. I added all of my pieces from my local rebrand project last year, and I added a few spreads and some ad samples from my magazine. I’m also thinking of adding some other miscellaneous projects, including some screenshots of my app prototype in Adobe XD.

I talked about my magazine in my previous post, and I’m finally done producing all three of my copies! Scoring and folding were definitely the most time consuming part of the process. I got the stapling and cutting done for each copy in no time! I still have to take a close look at all three of them and figure out which one looks the best, so I can have that one displayed at my portfolio show table. Speaking of, I’m really excited for the portfolio show! I’m still considering showing my custom CD case design, but I still need to get it printed before I do anything.

In my Portfolio Production Lab, I worked on folding my magazine copies and putting them together. Folding them felt really intimidating, since I’m not usually that precise in that aspect. Anything involving cutting and folding isn’t my strong-suit. It was helpful that we scored each spread before folding them, but I still think I wasn’t great at that either. I pressed too hard one time and ripped my score line, so I had to reprint one of my spreads. On the topic of reprinting spreads, I had to print three copies of a DIFFERENT spread because there weren’t any top bleeds. The image got bumped down, and it didn’t match up with the other side of the page it was supposed to be next to, so I had to reprint them.

I also took forever to fold. I kept trying to match up the score line down the middle and it took me a few tries to get it in the right spot for each spread. The more I did it, the better I got, though.

I’m not the biggest fan of the production side of design, but I feel like it’s a vital part of the process, and I’ll need to do it wherever I work at.

Everyone toured JDS Industries as a class today, and to me, I thought it was really interesting how many products they sold, especially larger items like machinery.

I also thought it was interesting that in addition to selling equipment for businesses, they offer their own services as well, such as engraving and sublimation. I liked seeing all the different production methods for design. While it’s not something I’d like to go into after graduation, the processes is still very interesting to me.

I was surprised by what the design team did as well. I thought it was interesting that they make designs for marketing/selling their blank products. In my head, I automatically assumed that the design team made the designs that go on the items.

I liked visiting the trade show room as well. It was cool seeing all of the different items that could get customized. There was one in particular that I kept going back to, which was the wooden pizza board. I don’t know why it struck out to me the most, but I liked it! I also never would have expected to ever see a customized pizza board in my life, so it was cool that I could. It was also cool seeing the water bottles that were passed around, too!

When working on the portfolio campaign, I knew that making the book and deciding how big it was gonna be would be very difficult. I divided an 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper into 4 sections accounting for bleeds all the way around each page section. After making the document for my printer spread. I made my reader spread, with each page being the size of the section that I divided on the other document (with bleeds included). After making the book with the correct bleeds, each page would fit perfectly into its designated section in my printer spread.

My only issue was that instead of two pages on a sheet, I had to work with 4 pages on a sheet because my book was fairly small. I had to use a different printer spread compared to my magazine, and I couldn’t figure it out by myself. I had to ask Tony yesterday what order my pages would go in. For most of class I worked on exporting and placing each page into my spread and they fit perfectly into the right spots (obviously…I made sure they would)!

I also had to take my first ever exam in the Testing Center today, and it was a little scary. I left a little earlier than what I should because I thought I’d get lost trying to find it (I did not…It was right in front of the entrance I went in). I also had to lock all of my stuff up, which wasn’t terrible, but it caught me off guard a little bit. I had a tiny locker that barely fit my coat and backpack! It was my fault for bringing the backpack in not knowing there were computers provided in the testing center, though. My SOC 250 exam only took me half an hour and by the time I was finished I had plenty of time to mess around before any of my classes started!

I’ve been trying to import my blog posts for a while now, but whenever I tried to, I got a security warning from Google and I wasn’t able to do it. It just recently occurred to me that I can just turn off the security settings (which is exactly what I did). I have to remember to turn them back on because I don’t want to get a virus (especially because I use my laptop to watch movies). I’m excited to start building my website once I have my personal branding pieces finished!

I had to work yesterday and the day before, and my manager made me push carts both nights in a row. Supposedly this is because our new store manager wants the parking lot to be clean all the time. All of our cart pushers leave at 10:00, so after that, we have to find someone else to clean the lot… that person being me. My closing manager and my other coworkers that were closing with me both of my shifts all had some type of medical exemption, so I was the only one who could push carts without hurting myself. Sunday night sucked because I didn’t wear snowpants, and my legs were super cold after. I also didn’t get the parking lot fully cleaned because it was past 11:00 and there were still carts in the lot. Monday was a lot better because I had more time and there were less carts for me to put back (I also put on snowpants that were way too big for me). I’d get a few carts done at a time and go back inside to warm up and mess around for a while. I also got to listen to music without getting yelled at!

Overall, I give pushing carts a 7/10 because it was freezing.

I didn’t know what trapping was before doing the lesson on Layout class, and I thought it consisted of separating the colors of a design into separate layers to make it easier to print. In my head, I automatically assumed it was that for some reason. I made that assumption because of work. When making screens with a design that has more than one color. Each color for the design is printed on it’s own sheet and burned onto a separate screen. This makes sure that the ink colors don’t bleed together.

During the lesson, knocking stuff out was the closest thing to my original assumption. When screenprinting, all of the colors are essentially “knocked out” and we have to adjust the screens so there aren’t any gaps in the design where ink isn’t being printed.

I was really surprised about how rich black versus 100% black being printed on top of colors. I didn’t know that having one color underneath the 100% black would make that much of a difference when printing.

I started working on my Portfolio Show book last week. I feel like the poster and the book are the projects that take the most time, so I wanted to make sure I get both of them knocked out before I work on the smaller projects like the table tent and the name tags. I was stressing out a lot about getting it done on time, but I feel a lot better since my book is 99% done. I want Tony to look at it next class so I can get some feedback on it, though.

I’ve finalized my logo for the 10 piece campaign, so I’m starting to make some of the identity pieces. I worked on the business card for a little bit during Portfolio Production Lab, and I’m liking how it’s looking so far!

I might need to adjust the sizing of some of my elements and move things around a little bit, but I think it’s a good start so far! I think I’ll start working on the pins and buttons after I finish the other identity pieces I need to do. I was thinking of making a circle sticker sheet with a whole bunch of designs and then make my favorites into more realistic looking mock-ups.

I finally bought my web hosting! I got the site name to only be my first and last name, which I’m really happy about!

I also ordered two small perfume samples from a decanter website (I ordered two 2mL bottles of perfume that I’ve been eyeing for a while). The normal sized bottles are both pretty expensive, but I still wanted to try them out. I ordered a sample of “Another 13” and a sample of “Matcha Soft Serve”

I heard that “Another 13” smelled really good, and I really wanted to try it out. It was also in the musky/skin-like scent category, which is a scent that I like a lot. When I first smelled it, I noticed that it was a very strong scent, and I almost thought it smelled like an old lady at first. As I kept smelling it, I picked up a very clean scent that also had a woody or paper-like quality to it. The vibe I got from it was “mysterious person at a bookstore”. It might not be the most accurate description, but I also don’t have a seasoned perfume nose.

I haven’t sprayed “Matcha Soft Serve” on me yet, but I was able to smell it from the bottle. The first time that I smelled it, I picked up the matcha note right away. It was a very green, earthy smell. The second time I smelled it, I smelled the other notes of vanilla and milk. The scent is described as a matcha ice cream smell. I think it smells more like a sweet matcha latte, but it’s still really good!

I don’t have the money to buy them right away, but I am interested in buying the full sizes of both if I like them enough. I still have to give both perfumes a few wears out to see if I like how they smell on me throughout the day, though.

I think I’m finally done with my portfolio poster! I did some fine tuning on it, and I think I’m ready to move on to one of the other pieces in the campaign.

I messed around with the maze background and the blue block at the bottom, as well as the opacity of some of the lettering to make it a little more interesting. I’m really happy with how it turned out! I’m not going to say I’m completely done with it, but I’m going to shift my focus onto something else for right now.

I’ve also started to work on my 10 piece campaign, which feels a little intimidating since I can make it on just about anything. I picked an imaginary coffee shop, and I’m currently brainstorming a logo.

I wanted it to look like a postage stamp, and I think the font I picked for the logo font works pretty well with what I was envisioning! I want to have something hand drawn (like the logo on the right), but I’m struggling with the drawing being too sloppy. I might get rid of the face on the coffee cup and ad some small details and line work on it to see if that makes it look any better. I like where I’m going with it so far, though!