ART
Camden Fireworks
From Firehouse to apartments and an art gallery
After 96 Years of Firehouse Service, then a stint where it was converted into apartments, the antiquated building was then abandoned until it was restored into the Camden Fireworks Art Gallery where I happened to have my very first studio working space.
Camden Fireworks is a dedicated space for artists to both practice, and display their works for viewing and purchase. Here you can find monthly engagements open to the public like free painting classes for children, poetry nights, and live gallery shows to name a few.
Typography Study Foundation
In this project, I focused on maintaining the core elements of the gallery’s original branding. My goal was to emphasize these elements by replacing the custom font in the logo with an existing one followed by branding assets that incorporate the new font while furthering the branding experience.
I first practiced with other existing brands where the font carried all of the weight of their branding experience. Through experimenting with fashion house Balmain, I discovered the integrity of their existing font selection and the taste it implies as it associates with their clothing.
Logo Typographic Study
I chose Henriette Black designed by Michael Hochleitner,
for its tick serifs, but smooth curves and legibility to honor the history of the building while still feeling visually contemporary.
The font is also highly functional, as I was capable of using it throughout the examples of branding assets I designed and listed below.
Business Cards
Social Media Branding Examples
This design employs the brick red lifted from the building icon in the logo in the form of a gradient wash. The red provides a nice filter effect for the photo beneath the gradient layer, while also acting as a platform to launch the stark white contrast of the logo and copy that creates an easier and attention-grabbing experience.
In this isolated approach, the brick read becomes an opacity effect that darkens existing colors beneath the color layer. Again, I focused on creating a platform for the type to contrast the image so as to maintain the integrity of the logo and brand recognition of the art gallery.
For my final social media post design, I combined the branding with the post image by the gradient wash and an extension of the copy across the image. I was interested in what it would look and feel like for the image as well as the branding to become one cohesive image rather than separate entities.
Brochure
The brochure presented an opportunity to play, experiment, and be a little extra. In this design, I represented the beautiful exposed brick from within the gallery as an accent design adorning the background while also leading the eye. I admit it can use some fine-tuning, but overall this was a fun asset to develop.
Website Typographic Study
The Camden FireWorks website is a balance of type and images. They want to express a decent amount of information, with a limited selection of images to represent an overall vibe. I chose to further the homey, warm and secure atmosphere of the firehouse here through the font, and color choices, and spacing between bodies of copy, images, and white space.
Lourdes Radiology
2NE1 and the Legacy of Female-led Groups in the music industry
Music has been an important part of my life since my childhood, and girl groups hold a very special place in my heart for their songs about love, independence, and belief in oneself. One such group from the K-Pop scene of South Korea epitomized these themes, paving the way for all-girl groups that would come after.
The prolific 2NE1 is comprised of Park Bom, Sandara Park, Minzy, and the self-proclaimed “baddest female” CL leading the group. It was this girl group’s 2009 debut that introduced the United States and many other countries to K-Pop music. However, they have since disbanded, and have forged their own solo careers that continue to inspire fans like myself today.
The long-awaited return of their former lead vocalist, Park Bom was especially exciting! This was her solo debut and first appearance in the public eye since the 2016 disbandment of the group. In celebration of her return, I set out to design a few pieces inspired by the music video of her debut song Spring.
Inspiration
In my earlier years as a traditional artist, I feared using color in any of my work. With sketchbooks full of charcoal, graphite, and ink drawings, the use of color simply did not fit in. I did not understand it. Everytime I used it in a piece I permanently messed it up. And I just…no
When I finally discovered vector art at fourteen in my graphic design vocation class, color suddenly became a possibility. Through trial and error I found myself moving in the opposite direction of my style as a traditional artist from highly detailed black white, and grey drawings, to restricted two or four bold color illustrations that popped off the screen. I doubted myself often, and spent countless hours reworking edges, and curves trying to emulate fluid movements even at points of juncture at edges. It was not until I came across the work of Malika Favre that I began to trust my instincts.
Favre exhibits effortless splashes of color in provocative and at times subtle vector illustrations in magazines, promotional packaging, and motion graphics. The French artist inspires me to trust my process, and allow myself to have fun along the way.
Malika Favre
Reference
This gif shows the moment from the music video that I found most inspiring, and would eventually reference. The crimson jacket and lips, strands of hair frayed aside from the well styled body, and her eyes looking above and then outward together indicate a struggle. The white oval zipper tag represents the purity of familial bonds, whilst the red all around it represents the all consuming hate that surrounded them.
Process
Working from reference provides a strong platform to build upon. Although, I believe as a designer we sometimes need to strip away the safety of a balanced experience in order to provoke the truest emotions and convey purer messages.
In my process I embark on a journey of discovering what the piece wants to become, and how I want to communicate that identity with the tools afforded to me. In the process of creating DARA, I sketched around the form of the model and captured an exact likeness. Then I worked to pull away elements that hindered the experience, while elevating some that would aid in provoking the desired emotions.
Below you will see the development period, and follow visually with me as I made decisions to remove and alter the piece.
Develpoment
Process
Working from reference provides a strong platform to build upon. Although, I believe as a designer we sometimes need to strip away the safety of a balanced experience in order to provoke the truest emotions and convey purer messages.
In my process I embark on a journey of discovering what the piece wants to become, and how I want to communicate that identity with the tools afforded to me. In the process of creating DARA, I sketched around the form of the model and captured an exact likeness. Then I worked to pull away elements that hindered the experience, while elevating some that would aid in provoking the desired emotions.
Below you will see the development period, and follow visually with me as I made decisions to remove and alter the piece.
Desing Appreciation
Homestyle
Rebranding An Icon
Aunt Jemima products have adorned the shelves of households across the U.S. for over 130 years. During that time the racial stereotype of the “mammy” character, a southern black nanny to white children in a white household, has finally reached its retirement as recognized by parent company Quaker Oats in an effort to promote racial equality.
Though Aunt Jemima was fictionalized, she represented all of the features of the “mammy” caricature as an overweight, dark-skinned woman and was based on the real, Nancy Green. According to CNN, “The brand’s origin and logo is based off the song “Old Aunt Jemima” from a minstrel show performer and reportedly sung by slaves.” – (Valinsky, 2020, CNN Business).
Existing Branding
Overview
Our group initially touched on replicating the premise of the motherly figure that Aunt Jemima represented. However, we quickly realized any use of another character can be perceived as a replacement for Aunt Jemima and disrespectful to her memory as many do not know she was an actual person.
Therefore, we are choosing to develop a new logomark based on the name of Pearl Milling Company. It does not have a strong presence or recognizable identity as a mark. Therefore, we are focusing on a mark that will target the younger audience who pushed the company to recognize the need for change.
Mission
Create a branding identity reflective of the quality products produced by the brand for over a century. The previous Aunt Jemima inclusions while iconic, are rooted in values contrary to the family, home-made, and classic feelings associated with the brand. Therefore, we must craft an identity that associates with the brand’s existing history and not detract from it. To complelty reinterpret the branding would seem as if they are not claiming responsibility, thus hurting its value with consumers.
Vision
The vision of the motherly figure that Aunt Jemima represented is powerful, and should not be restated. Any use of another character can be perceived as a replacement for Aunt Jemima and disrespectful to her memory as she is an actual person. The best way to represent the product would be to scrap the new name, “Pearl Milling Company“, for it is too long and somewhat difficult to remember. The updated brand is still on par with the old branding in terms of color, and font use, which is a good way to ensure loyal customers continue to recognize the product. A simpler brand name that is easily memorable would enforce better clientele as well as word of mouth.
We decided to maintain the existing colors along with making our own brand name interpreted into a similar font style. Homestyle refers back to a lot of the feelings consumers associate with Pearl Milling Company products, as well as what Aunt Jemima herself was enlisted to represent. Many can connect Homestyle to the feeling of family and togetherness like Aunt Jemima herself without disrespecting her memory or racial identity.
Project Process Book
Social Media AD
This social media ad is based on Tik Tok platform advertisments. I focused on reintroducing the new branding to users in a way that would familiarize them with the pancakes mix and syrup just like the previous branding was known for.
Magazine AD (by Gina Giordano)
Gina was interested in the print side of advertising the branding for Pearl Milling Company. She posed the question of how the logo would appear in a magzine ad, and thus the print example created by her expert hand was born here to the right.
She’s also a cool friend and classmate 🙂
Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party: Malika Favre Entry
A Dinner Party Entry addition for women of the arts
Upon studying the women artists of the world like Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Yayoi Kusama, I was introduced to Judy Chicago and her feminist work The Dinner Party.
As the many inclusions covered women from many ethnic backgrounds, professions, and educations, I was given a choice as to who I would like to include should I be given the chance. Which would be very cool by the way!
Anyway, the women here are known for their acts of heroism, courage, talent, dedication to academia, the arts, and many iconic feats during their lifetimes. I decided to choose a woman who inspired me as an artist and continues to represent an elegant standard of quality and attention to detail through her work, Malika Favre.
Malika Favre
Favre is a French illustrator and graphic artist who has lived in France, London, and Italy during her career as she has created minimalist works in the styles of Pop and Op art for clients like The New Yorker, Sephora, Penguin Books, Vogue, and Vanity Fair to name a few.
I first came across Favre’s work when I accompanied my mom to a Sephora store that had her work on display for their Spring 2015 product launch. I was a junior in a vocational high school, studying graphic design and trying to develop my sense of style. Favre’s work was bold, popped, and direct. A clear extension of herself that could not be misunderstood, or misinterpreted. The clarity of her work inspired me to search for my own clarity in my work, and she continues to inspire me today as my favorite contemporary artist.
Become enamored with Malika Favre’s work on her website here.
P.S. If she ever reads this,
Thank you Miss Favre, for being true to yourself through your art and investigating beauty in the smallest details.
Reference
The Dinner Party has many examples of tapestries, and plates that represent the female guest. The plate designs are often associated with vaginal artistic interpretations crafted through sculpture. Some guests like Sojourner Truth, are represented with an illustration of highlights of their feats in life.
For Malika Favre, I felt representing her work through the most common mode of consumption in a digital age felt appropriate for her place setting. However, the selection process was difficult considering many works that Favre’s catalog provided were excellent choices.
Process
Initially, I knew I wanted to represent the classic red, white, and black style derived from Favre’s logo in the place setting. It allowed me a somewhat easy way of representing her in the tapestry, and utensils. The plate was a different story.
No single work of Favre’s felt weighted enough to be a single example of her artistry. Considering the range and quality of work presented in her portfolio as seen in the gif to the right, it was a tough choice. Then I remembered that some of her vector artworks are animated.
I searched through Favre’s Instagram account and screen-captured a few of her animated works. I then converted the screen captures to video clips, and sequenced them together into one clip. Thus Favre’s plate would be empty, so as to transform from a plate to a window frame that peers into the many works of the artist’s career thus far.
But this was not enough. I needed to include something more, considering the majority of the work presented was not my own other than designing the place setting itself. Then I remembered the works I created inspired by Favre and chose Textured Dreams. This piece was a personal exploration of the beauty of curly, and textured hair. I animated my work using Adobe After Effects for this project and included it at the end of the sequence to represent Favre’s legacy as she inspires the next generation of artists like myself.
A Selection of Works by Malika Favre
Place Setting Animation
ELEVAR
The Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is an organization dedicated to empowering Hispanic independent business owners through educational programs, seminars, pop-up events, and the like in an endeavor to benefit Hispanic businesses in the greater Philadelphia area.
That said, their name is a mouth-full.
In this project, I aim to rebrand the chamber through a lock-up approach to create a shorter, more memorable branding concept that can help to attract the businesses that they seek to empower.
Existing Branding
Overview
Established in 1990, the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GPHCC) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting the advancement and economic growth of Hispanic businesses and professionals in the greater Philadelphia region. We accomplish this through educational programs, a broad range of services, and special events. The GPHCC proactively serves a diverse membership—consisting of entrepreneurs, Latino businesses, Latino professionals, corporations, and government—with the overriding goal of helping these critical constituencies capitalize on the many opportunities their diversity, enhanced by our Latino multicultural mix, offers.
Mission
To develop, promote and advocate for Hispanic business in the Greater Philadelphia region while encouraging the advancement and economic growth of the Hispanic community.
Vision
To be recognized as the premier resources organization and voice servicing Hispanic businesses as well as the major force of positive change in the Latino business community
The Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is currently represented with a circular logo of what seems to be a resounding sound wave accompanied by the name in partially tracked type then bolded larger pt. font size.
Cultural References
Initial Font Exploration
ELEVAR seeks to empower Hispanic businesses from various industries and therefore needs to appear professional with an air of simplicity. Running an independent business is hard enough without having to figure out obscure methods to improve your revenue.
Therefore, I determined a wordmark based on an existing elegant font with a bit of tweaking would better serve the varied market that Elevar seeks to empower.
The font I initially selected is Lato, an Open Source font designed by Adam Twardoch, Botio Nikoltchev, and Łukasz Dziedzic. Upon finding inspiration in the lighter 300 pt. weight, I then moved on to developing the wordmark through a lengthy series of explorations.
Elevar | ELEVAR
Elevar | ELEVAR
Elevar | ELEVAR
Elevar | ELEVAR
Elevar | ELEVAR
Wordmark Exploration
Below you can see the evolution of the wordmark through my many studies.
Sationary
Adopting the signature red of the chamber, I took the wordmark design approach I selected from my exploration and tested it in a series of scenarioes based on professional stationery.
The very first design I created, and most commonly used in an organization like this, was the letterhead. I decided to lean into the diagonal led by the red rectangles in the wordmark to include the lockup of the chamber’s full name to enact the lockup.
From there I moved on to the business card and envelope designs that challenged my initial approach to utilize the red rectangles to deepen the branding essence.
Application examples
In today’s world, you can save a bookmark to a website on your phone and make it appear like an application. I thought of some more younger business owners possibly utilizing this unique function and took the time to develop a monogram design that could also be leveraged for an app icon.
Should the chamber ever create an app, I imagine it would look like the photo where I staged the app live on an Apple iPhone.
Taking things a step further, I thought of the inclusion of the wordmark in an office setting. The chamber at the time of my design project maintained an office presence as a part of a greater facility that housed other organizations. If the chamber wants to stand out and be easily recognized among other brands, I imagine they might print out vinyl die-cutes of the wordmark and place them on windows throughout the office and on facility directory signage.
I manipulated the image and placed the wordmark on the glass with a gentle light reflection to emulate the effect of being in a well-lit room. Granted, they may not do something like this, but I did design the wordmark to stand out and it feels really nice on glass.
Website Design
The existing site for the chamber lacks organization, typographic hierarchy, and proper use of branding colors. In this initial above the fold website design, I imagine what the chamber might be more in line with communicating to their clients.
A clean, easy-to-navigate, and well-branded experience that provides an air of professionalism. Here I focused on a design that garners trust from small-business owners who may need help trusting the future of their business with the chamber.
Elevar Ad Spot
Considering Philly is a major city, getting the word out needs to go beyond printed material. Here I found stock video footage of Center City Philadelphia, and then created a little jingle, and developed a small ad spot for the organization.
Checkout the complete video with the jingle I created to go along with the motion graphic of the wordmark logo animation below.