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Portfolio
Laura Nelson

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Page 1

Contact

Table of Contents

Laura Nelson

3 Stationery

Contact Me:

5 Business Card

333.333.333
laura@lauranelsongdesign.com

7 Photo Montage

3333 Laura Avenue

9 Logo Design

Friendswood, TX 77546

11 Brochure

Find My Work Online:

13 Photodesign

lauranelsondesign.com
https://lauranelsondesign.wordpress.com/
laura@lauranelsongdesign.com

15 Webpage
17 Flier
19 Event Ad

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Page 3

Stationery
Date
February 28, 2015

Programs Used
Illustrator, InDesign

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A stationery design including a letterhead created for Sewful Living.

Process
To begin the design of this I drew some sketches of possible logos. I decided to use
a sewing machine to represent the business. I used Adobe Illustrators pen to to design a sewing machine that would have enough detail to be recognizable, but basic
enough to make the logo versatile in different sizes.
I used InDesign to create the stationery. I wanted to have a consistent and unified
feel throughout the stationery. I chose a fabric texture for the background and
increased the opacity to make the design favorable for writing letters. I chose to go
with a basic left aligned layout. I added a faint watermark to the page for repetition
to create unity. I added stitching at the bottom of the page to emphasize the sewing theme and add visual variety and interest.

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Business
Card
Date
February 28, 2015

Programs Used
Illustrator, InDesign

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A stationery design including a business card created for Sewful Living.

Process
I used InDesign to create the stationery and business cards. I wanted to have a
consistent and unified feel throughout the stationery. I chose a fabric texture for
the background and increased the opacity to make the design favorable for writing
letters. I chose to go with a basic left aligned layout. I added a faint watermark to
the page for repetition to create unity. I added stitching at the bottom of the page
to emphasize the sewing theme and add visual variety and interest. In designing the
business card, I took the same elements so that each piece of the stationery would
feel like part of a set.

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Page 7

Photo
Montage
Date
February 14, 2015

Programs Used
Photoshop

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
Design a spiritual montage using a quote and at least two photos.

Process
I began this design process with the message in mind. I chose two images. One that
I felt represented someone drowning and the other a hand. Hands denote action
and reaching out. I used the water image as my background and placed the hand
on another layer. I then created a mask and used the brush tool to blend the hand
image into the water background. I also went over the hand image at a low opacity
to allow some of the air bubbles to appear on top of the hand. I applied an overlay
effect to the hand photo at 50% in order to help the color of the hand blend with
the water. I also liked that it added a feeling of light on top of the hand to match the
lighting on the man.
When it came to choosing typography, I wanted a typeface that felt long and sinking so I chose Innercity and Hagin Caps Medium. I made drowning and help (the
two main points of the message) larger than the rest of the text to help it become a
focal point in the piece.

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Logo Design
Date
February 21, 2015

Programs Used
Illustrator

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A logo design for Spring Fitness with three different options provided for the client
to choose from.

Process
In order to create these three logos I began with sketching different concepts that
would communicate spring and fitness. I then took my sketches to Illustrator and
create digital sketches in black and white for my three strongest concepts. I mainly
used the pen tool to create the logos, but also used the shape tool as well. I focused
on making sure that there was enough negative space in each logo to keep the clarity of each logo when it is made smaller. Color was the last element I added to each
logo once I felt it communicated well in black and white.

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Brochure
Date
March 29, 2015

Programs Used
Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A brochure created for Bridge Tutoring explaining their philosophy and services.

Process
The first part of this project was designing a logo for Bridge Tutoring. I sketched
out various ideas. Once I found a concept that married the message of a bridge and
education I created several digital variations in Illustrator. I then fine tuned my final
selection.
For the brochure I began by sketching out ideas on how to organize the information
and make sure the message is clear. I used InDesign to organize images, text and
shapes. I used the eyedropper tool to pull colors from my images into my design. I
wanted to add a repeating element to create unity in the piece, and so I designed
the dot bridge. I used Photoshop to create a clipped image and wrapped the body
text around that.

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Photodesign
Date
February 27, 2015

Programs Used
Photoshop

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
Create a photodesign using a personally taken image and a quote.

Process
I began this design process with the message in mind. I chose two images. One that
I felt represented someone drowning and the other a hand. Hands denote action
and reaching out. I used the water image as my background and placed the hand
on another layer. I then created a mask and used the brush tool to blend the hand
image into the water background. I also went over the hand image at a low opacity
to allow some of the air bubbles to appear on top of the hand. I applied an overlay
effect to the hand photo at 50% in order to help the color of the hand blend with
the water. I also liked that it added a feeling of light on top of the hand to match the
lighting on the man.
When it came to choosing typography, I wanted a typeface that felt long and sinking so I chose Innercity and Hagin Caps Medium. I made drowning and help (the
two main points of the message) larger than the rest of the text to help it become a
focal point in the piece.

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Webpage
Design
Date

March 14, 2015

Programs Used
Notepad++, Photoshop

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A website design for Sewful Living using HTML and CSS

Process
In order to create a website design for Sewful Living, I used the Notepad++ text
editor. I wanted to design a site that matched the style of the logo and stationery.
I used the same texture for the website background that is used in the stationery.
I added that file to my folder so that it would link to the CSS and HTML to display
properly when the site is run. I chose not to incorporate the font used in the logo
name. While I like that font, I feel like it is too decorative to use in the website. I
chose to use Trebuchet MS for the headers because the g closely resembles the g
in the logo title. I felt it was a good compromise in finding a complimentary font to
the logo title without being too loud. I changed the body background color to a tan
in order to have it more unified with the texture background. To find the best color
for this I used a sample in Photoshop from the texture image to find the HEX values
that would correlate with it. I aligned all the elements with a center alignment for
this site. I wanted to repeat the sewing theme so I changed the border to a dashed
line to make it look like the body had been stitched onto the background. Visual
hierarchy was created using different font sizes, color variation and font variation.

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Flier
Date
January 24, 2015

Programs Used
InDesign

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
A flier created to advertise Vouant Communications annual Graduate Leadership
Conference.

Process
In order to create this flier I began sketching concepts that would create visual hierarchy and a strong focal point to express the intended message and captivate the
intended audience. I then used InDesign to transfer my drawn sketches into digital
form. I used a large image as my main focal point. I chose a large, bold font for the
title so that the readers attention would be led to that. I used a strict alignment on
the page that lined up with the D from the title. In order to add emphasis to the
details of the conference, I chose to break the grid by placing the date, time and
place opposite the other information on the page.

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Event Ad
Date
February 1, 2015

Programs Used
Photoshop, Microsoft Word

Course
COMM 130 - Visual Media

Instructor
Emily Kunz

Objectives
Design an event ad using a scanned image and Microsoft Word.

Process
I began designing the ad by sketching out different layouts. After choosing a layout,
I used Microsoft Word to create the ad. I scanned an image from National Geographic to use for the ad. I used different font sizes to create visual hierarchy within
the page. I decided to use repetition to drive home the message of the ad by creating keys from a keyboard to display both the title and the date. I chose to use left
alignment and have an ample amount of negative space.