Self-Portrait Project

This is my self-portrait design. I basically took an image of myself on my phone (photo creds to my brother) and added a speech bubble type shape coming out of my phone. It is a simple design, but the bubble includes various things and moments that are special to me, such as my dog, Cocoa, and winning the Boys 3A VHSL Soccer State Championship. This design is pretty representative of how I keep images because they are all on my phone. I don't have them around my room or house, but rather always with me because my phone rarely leaves my side. I liked the project and the way my design turned out because it was my only idea.

Eddie Opara

Eddie Opara was born in London in 1972 and received his education of graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University. After earning a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1997, he moved to New York where he worked for multiple graphic design companies. Opara worked for Imaginary Forces until he received a position at 2x4 where he later became art director. After working in this studio for several years, he decided to follow his life-long goal of creating his own graphic design company. Subsequently, Opara's studio, The Map Office, was established in 2005 in New York. Currently, Opara teaches narrative design at the University of Arts in Philadelphia and serves on the board of AIGA, the professional association for design, in New York.

This is my graphic design inspired by Eddie Opara's style. My simple design consists of oddly shaped letters to stand for AD, my initials. This is similar to Opara's style because the letters are abstract and actually designed, not just taken from a font. The use of black and white is also similar to Opara's designs which usually only contain shades of each. To stress this, I put a black/white gradiant in the background which also makes the image more appealing and less plain. I am not necessarily a fun of this style of design but like the way it turned out. Learning about these graphic designers was a fun and interesting project.

Sources:
http://www.pentagram.com/#/partners/109676
http://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/eddie-opara

Cipe Pineles

Cipe Pineles lived from June 23, 1908 to January 3, 1991 and accomplished a lot in those 82 years. She was born in Austria but moved to New York to study graphic design. After studying at the Pratt Institute, she remained in New York in order to kick start her graphic design career. While there, Pineles was a graphic designer for various magazines, including Seventeen, Charm, and Mademoiselle. She made a name for herself through her works and became very successful and well-known, becoming the first female member of the Art Directors Club in 1943. Later, in 1975, she was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. She was in the graphic design industry for a stretch of 60 years and taught graphic design at the Parsons School of Art and Design until her unfortunate death. She is remembered as one of the first women to join men in the graphic design industry. 

Above is a magazine cover that I created with the inspiration of Pineles' style and work. I chose to do a magazine cover because of her deep involvement in the industry, especially with seventeen, a magazine for young women. The cover is simple and true to Pineles' traditional designs, including a woman, the title of the magazine, and the date. Pineles' seemed to like the blur effect so I also added blur at different strengths around the image.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipe_Pineles
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-cipepineles/