1. Ruben Salazar commemorative poster
Project: Given an activist/poet/movement/artist, I had to create a commemorative poster in honor of that certain person. With a poster I must grab the attention of, and communicate the vital info to, a viewer who may be simply walking down a crowded city street or driving along in his/her car at 25 mph. Timid, subtle design strokes will not suffice.Solution: Took a photograph of my hand with fake blood on it and a notepad to represent Ruben Salazar, who was the first Mexican – American Journalist and was killed by the police during the Chicano Movement. I took the photo and then did the poster layout/design in Adobe Illustrator.
2. George Lois's Commemorative Stamp
Project: Given a certain graphic designer, I had to design a commemorative stamp of that graphic designer in black and white and then color. The image could be on the designer or on one of his work. The stamp must also contain the birth date and death date of the designer if he is now dead.
Solution: My graphic designer was George Lois, an award-winning American Art Director, designer, advertising leader for the Esquire Magazine. For the stamp, I wanted to show how creative this designer was, so I had pictures and artworks flying out of his head to show how he always have a lot of ideas.
3. Title: Ruben Salazar Book Jacket
Project: Given an activist/poet/movement/artist, I had to design a hardcover bookjacket that is primarily typographic. Photographic images had to be made by myself. The bookjacket must include front cover, spine, back cover and interior flaps. In addition, the book jacket must also include: author’s name (on front cover and spine), book title (on front cover and spine, publisher’s name (on spine and back cover),
publisher’s address (on back cover or flaps).
Solution: Took the same photograph that I used for my Commemorative Poster and use it for the cover. The back side is a cut out of an actual newspaper over an article that Ruben Salazar has done. I lay them all out in Adobe illustrator.
4. Magazine Redesign: NewType Magazine
Project: Taking any magazine, we had to redesign its feature story, cover, and other pages that the magazine has in all of their back issues.
Solution: I use an anime magazine, NewType, and redesigned the cover from its original one. In the original cover, the anime character, Ichigo Kurosaki, was looking straight at us, but I thought it would look better with him looking away with his head tilt because it shows more action to the character. The typography was all done using Adobe Illustrator and the image and redesign of the NewType’s title was done in Photoshop.
