Visual CommunicationMy senior year of college I happened to schedule two classes that would later turn out to be my absolute favorites. The first was Public Relations to count for my Communication credits. I still think it's a little funny because I only signed up for the course because I was missing a requirement for my senior year and this was the easiest class to take to fill it - funny how things work out. The format of the class was perfect for my skill set. My professor let is pick small groups to work with for the rest of the semester (which everyone knows is a blessing and a half) and each member picked a public relations related job, I acted as the creative director for my group. From there, our professor matched each group with a real-life, active company to complete a semester long assignment for. My group was matched with Alpha Omega Pregnancy Center. The goal for us was to create a marketing and advertising track for an upcoming publishing of a curriculum. Additionally, to design a cover and brainstorm a title for said curriculum. The purpose of the curriculum is to provide awareness regarding every aspect of what it really means to be pro-life. The curriculum would be sold to churches to be used for small groups or even individual reading. As the creative director I was challenged to design the cover for the curriculum. I composed four examples for the author to choose from. I won't go into the thought process of it all but it was a joy to go through adorable pictures of real families from the area and put them together in an aesthetically pleasing and meaningful way. The first four pictures are the four of my designs.
The second class I took was Intro to Design. A terrifying course while in it, but extremely rewarding by the end. As an accomplished artist I entered the class fairly confident in the skills I already had and thought that would be enough, but I was dead wrong. Composition and style for drawing and painting is much different than design (if a successful designer or artist is reading this they're probably laughing at my youthful cockiness). Our first project was to rearrange black rectangles and squares on a blank white sheet. Sounds easy, but my professor was rarely pleased. By the last project I was finally getting the hang of things. The project was to design a fake magazine page for a real company. With the information and logos already provided I chose three different companies I believed I could be creative with. I played with fonts, sizes and colors. One piece had to be fitted left. one fitted right, and the last fitted both ways. I honestly thought this was going to be the first class I would ever fail (which was extra terrifying as a senior) but I ended up with an A-. I have yet to figure out if I actually proved I learned about design or just won my professor over by desperately spending time in the studio to finish my work well. You can be the judge by looking at the bottom three pictures of my final designs.
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Instagram, Twitter, & FacebookLove Thy Neighborhood matched me according to my skills with non-profits in the Louisville area. I spent most of my time working along side the volunteers at Refuge International (formerly known as Refuge Louisville). The goal of Refuge international is to partner the local church with incoming refugee families and aide them in whatever needs they have as the enter the United States for their first three months.
Here I created tons of media content for summer events. I also announced the opening of a brand new Welcome Center for new refugee families in the community. The Welcome Center offered a safe place for men, women, and children to come for a variety of services, for instance, help with homework or job applications. Refuge International threw a huge soccer tournament in during the same time as the World Cup where church and refugee families created a soccer team representing the country they are from and competed in an all day tournament. For families coming to watch we threw a carnival surrounding the tournament. This was a huge event that took months to put together and it needed much marketing and advertising. Below are some of the flyers and social media ads for the event. There were many other formal events put on by Refuge International, however, the greatest and most memorable event was a tea party the female interns and I put together. We had Turkish cookies and yummy teas and chatted with the women as their children played outside or by the couches of the Welcome Center. After a few tea parties throughout the summer the women were comfortable enough to take their headscarves off and be truly at ease in our presence - and I will keep that confidence in my heart forever. NewslettersDuring a summer internship with Love Thy Neighborhood, I had the privilege of being a Media & Designer for various non-profits in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Aside from my work that I did (which can be seen under the "portraits" page) I had to fundraise my pay for the summer. Below are three newsletters that I wrote to supporters. They are more than simple updates, but a storytelling tool to raise awareness and gain support for the work myself and the non-profits I was working for. People enjoy stories and I did my best to entertain while inform.
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