Anabel Damstrom
SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS
Facebook Graphic:
Logo A 190 x190
Website/Facebook
Logo B 190 x190
Facebook Cover 851 x 314
Facebook Cover with Logo A
Facebook Cover with Logo B
Twitter Graphic:
Twitter Logo A 400x400
Twitter Logo B 400x400
Twitter Cover 1500 x 500
Twitter Cover with Logo A
Twitter Cover with Logo B
Twitter Logo via Mobile Device
Twitter via Mobile with Logo A
Twitter via Mobile with Logo B
Design Process and Tools Used.
The Process.
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Learning about the client
I visited the client’s current website and read about who they are and what they do. I also went into their sister site links and their newsletter page (where I go most of my images from). The Passaic County Cultural & Heritage Council (PCCHC) encourages the arts development in Passaic County through different arts programs, technical assistance and grants.
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Research
The research process for me was more about growing up in Newark and the NJPAC (The New Jersey Performing Arts Center) was being built along with the rebuilding downtown Newark. It was exiting to watch students’ artwork cover the construction sites.
In addition, street banners covered all of Newark representing its culture and history. A good example is that of the “Ironbound” section of Newark (see Figure 1). You can also see these banners on the NJPAC Arts Center along with colorful bold flags (see Figure 2-3).
Figure 1: Ironbound banners
Figure 2: NJPAC banners on side of building
Figure 3: NJPAC colorful flags
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My inspiration & stages of development using various tools
The “Downtown Newark Culture” transformation was my inspiration for creating a new design for PCCHC.
Free-hand Sketch
I wanted to give the Passaic County Cultural & Heritage Council the same type of web presence and brand as Newark has given itself in the physical world. So, I started by drawing a sketch (see Figure 4) that illustrated banners with different arts and culture illustrations.
Figure 4: Free-hand Sketch of my idea for logo
Adobe Illustrator
For the Website/Social Profile Logo A, I used Adobe Illustrator to create the four banners that I would use for the logo and to create the paint palette graphic for one of the banners (I could not find a decent CC image for this graphic).
Logo B: After viewing the original logo created, I decided to create a second Profile Logo with only the organization’s abbreviation in order to make the image more square and allowing for more room to bring out the logo’s illustrations better (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Profile Logo B with Abbreviation
For the Facebook Cover: I imported all the PCCHC images, changed them to gray scale, added a 5 pixel white border around each image, rotated them randomly and arranged them into a collage format to emphasize important cultural aspects of each image.
For the Twitter Cover: I wanted to keep the same feeling of captured moments in culture and heritage through photographs, but I wanted it to have more fluid in-depth lines. I found that the traditional vertical and horizontal grid system were not capturing this sense of movement, so I researched other forms of line use and found the "Dunlop" website (see Figure 6) using diagonal lines and thought it was appropriate for the images I was attempting to display.
Figure 6: Dunlop website using diagonal lines to illustrate images
I created 5 diagonal “fat lines” in order to incorporate 6 images into the cover. I imported selected PCCHC images (see below), changed them to gray scale, and fit them to size.
Discovery. After creating this look, I found this one site that said, “Another interesting trend that I noticed is that many of the diagonal line designs that I came across were from non-English-speaking countries. It seems that Hispanic countries in particular like this trend” (Johnson). Hence, this look would fit perfectly for a culturally diverse audience. Ironically, the Dunlop website was featured in this article.
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Adobe Photoshop
I used Photoshop to resize the logos and cover images, clean up the images and use the twitter cover “Paint Daubs filter” and change the Facebook cover opacity.
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Creative-Commons images
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PCCHC images
I scanned through PCCHC’s newsletter page and chose specific images, which I thought would best represent the culture and heritage of Passaic County as a whole. I wanted the images not only to represent the arts, but also the diversity of the people.
Elements, Principles and Requirements of the form
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Balance: The logo is created using “near” symmetrical balance--giving it equal weight in both sides by using four banners and 1-2 image within each banner.Yet, they are different due to its color differences.
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Vertical Lines: The use of banners creating vertical lines within the logo communicates the feeling of significant importance. This alone gives the logo prominence wherever it is placed or viewed. The banners extend and elongate the logo upward giving it a sense of grandeur.
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Diagonal lines: suggest a feeling of movement or direction, which is what PCCHC represents—cultural change and movement. In addition, the use of diagonal lines also suggests depth by pulling the viewer into the image.
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Collage: Unity and balance is achieved in the collage because it is not too bottom or top heavy and not too crowded in the center or along the edges.
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Font-Family used on logo: Gill Sans (see figure 7) was used to give it a more modern clean feel, yet with the classical traditional qualities. These letters are perfect for signs and banners.
Figure 7: Gill Sans Font Family for Logo
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Contrast through color and texture
Texture. I decided to use at textured cover for Twitter to achieve an illustration feel of the image. Doing this took care of both the design look I was trying to achieve and the problem I was having with some of the pixelated images due to their small size.
Colors used on banners:
Pink-purple: #a52566 creativity and imagination
Green-blue: #227487 energizing, refreshing, responsible,
Orange: #fa6a31 change and movement, friendly and inviting
Golden-Yellow: #f99e1c representing bright, happiness, hope and diverse in cultures giving it a sense of permanence.
Problems Encountered.
I did not encounter many problems. The only problem I had was with my original Twitter design (see image below) that did not come out quite like I wanted it to, but I just went back and changed the images and the number of images along with the filter.
References:
Chapman, Cameron. "Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color - Smashing Magazine." Smashing Magazine. 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/>.
Jirousek, Charlotte. "Introduction to the Elements of Design: Point." Art, Design and Visual Thinking 1 Jan. 1995. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/element/element.htm>.
Jirousek, Charlotte. "Principles of Design." Art, Design and Visual Thinking. 1 Jan. 1995. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/principl/principl.htm>.
Johnson, Joshua. "30 Great Looking Web Designs Built With Diagonal Lines." Design Shack - Web Design Gallery, Articles & Community. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/30-great-looking-web-designs-built-with-diagonal-lines/>.
Images: