Miriam+John+Final+Infographic

__Final Design:__

__Artist Statement:__

Given the advancement of technology in this past decade, new methods of informing and learning have made many lives easier, such as infographics. An appealing, easy-to-understand layout with thorough and precise content makes for a successful infographic, and that was extremely important to me as I created my own. My task was to create an infographic delineating the process of how to write an argumentative essay for AP World History and do it in a way to get the most points on the AP test. Given the knowledge and experience I have of taking both the class and the test, I was careful to use imagery and vocabulary that I knew the WHAP students would understand as it would be part of their curriculum and my infographic was meant to affirm their learning. My concept was to have a portrait oriented image, with text bubbles going down that would indicate one step after another in chronological order, spoken by historical figures in chronological order. In this way, I would achieve the client’s wish of plastering in the students’ brains the complex, step by step process to writing a successful AP essay in an easy-to-read and engaging format. To make it even more appealing, I added Mr. Douglass himself as the last character to add a bit of humor that I think both he and the students will enjoy.

Thus I drew inspiration from the style of educational Youtube videos, who use drawings as their characters and often employ a sketchy, quirky style. In arranging the text bubbles vertically, it would portray to the students that there is a process to write an essay that they must follow and to reinforce that I had them being spoken by historical figures they would know which would also help them in reviewing for the test. Because the only color was the splash of yellow in the background, it allowed for the focus to be on the information, while still making the image vibrant and pleasing to look at. In sticking with the “old” theme, I kept the heads of the figures in black and white instead of color to again keep the focus on the words themselves. After conversing with my client, he told me he wished the poster to be understood by both the top student and the struggling student in the class, therefore, even if what I wrote in the bubbles were obscure, I used a bold, large typeface to attract the eye to key takeaways of each step. This way, anyone reading my infographic would not be fumbling for it’s message because it is very clear, through both the title on the banner and the eye catching typography. As a whole, I tried to stay away from the script fonts in order to preserve readability and other than the bolded words, stuck with sans-serif fonts. This made the important words stick out that much more. In terms of craftsmanship, seeing as this was digitally produced, I feel there was little room for error and I tried to achieve a modern, calligraphic look to my poster, but add a little sketchy quick which is why the line on the speech bubbles do not align with the white part. In this way it makes it more visually appealing. Otherwise, I tried to keep a clean simple look by paying attention to the detail and spacing the text to follow the shape of the word bubble or altering the photos of the historical figures to remove harsh lines and leave only the bust remaining. Thus I feel like I paid a lot of attention to detail which only strengthened the graphics and overall appeal of my infographic.

I certainly used value a lot in my infographic, whether it be from the faux watercolor background to the grayscale images, value was key to making the most out of a limited color palette and in that way drawing more attention to the information itself. I also used a significant amount of shape from the speech bubbles to the banner at the top. The speech bubbles were useful in providing a space for each step and emulated the many educational videos we watch over the course of the class. The ribbon-shaped banner was an elegant but subtle addition to the poster that doesn’t demand attention but ties the whole piece together in terms of aesthetics as it has that calligraphy feel that is extremely popular right now, and that brings me into my last element which is line. Calligraphy is all about different pens and textures, and whether it was decorative, like at the top of the infographic, or purposeful, like the lines around the speech bubbles, they accentuated what was important about the infographic and made a dark but simple contrast to the two lighter colors used predominantly in the piece.

I can definitely say I am very proud with how the piece turned out and I feel like if I had this when I was in the class my experience would be heightened. I loved how the watercolor background turned out and how, mixed with the charcoal lines and the ribbon banner, it really had a scrapbook vibe to it. I knew I didn’t want a solid color background and I was glad to find a technique on Photoshop that allowed me to do it! I also love how the words on the banner turned out as I layered the less important words on top of each other and in a smaller size. That really makes it look like a real poster. As much as I love the banner and the lines that surround it though, I wanted to make more of the ribbon, but my limited knowledge of realistic shapes hindered me from creating a ribbon banner that curlicued to my liking, thus I added the dashes to fill that empty space. If I could go back, I would figure out a way to make a pretty ribbon banner that extended across the top.

Thinking back all the way even to the shape project, the most useful thing would definitely be maneuvering Photoshop. It is a skill I will desperately need to pursue my passion and this class has allowed me to struggle, learn and grow through it to find techniques and processes that work best for me in order to produce my best work with it. I not only see it in my work, from the shape project until my social justice poster (which I think best showcases my progress), and now, but I see it in the class as we collectively struggled to meet deadlines, please clients and ultimately create works that pleased us as well. This journey has really set us up to become better graphic designers and better people as we all learned how much we can push ourselves, given the constraints of our clients, which I especially loved seeing everyone overcome. The projects throughout the course of this semester have been vastly different so it is hard to assess just how much I have changed, but while my style may not have changed, and certainly feel as if the work I have produced has become more refined as I went along. I learned more things about the programs I was using; I learned to accept minimalism as a positive trait: and I learned how to polish my designs in a way that gave it the professional touch I needed. As I went along, gaining inspiration from the work of my peers and the mistakes I made in the last project, I worked to add that to my next piece and I can confidently say that my more recent works are akin to those I admire online and look much more professional purposeful than my past projects so in terms of craftsmanship, the quality of my work has certainly evolved and I look forward to seeing in evolve even more.