Category Archives: J. Sandler

Paperhouse Publishing Logo Animation

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Click to watch my full animation!

For the animation project, we were instructed to create a 10-second animation in Adobe After Effects. This animation had to be of the logo we designed for our publishing companies in Project 1.

Going into this project, I had a few ideas on how to animate my logo for Paperhouse Publishing. I knew I wanted to keep this animation sophisticated and elegant to match the tone of Paperhouse publishing in Project 1. Additionally, I wanted to include animations for the book pages and the arrow-looking part of the house in my logo.

I began this animation by bringing the book part of the logo into the center. I increased the scale of the book and moved its position downwards to make it appear like it was moving in from far away. As the book came forward, I used puppet pins to make the pages in the book look like they were opening. Next, I worked on the house part of the logo. I knew that I wanted it to look like an arrow moving upwards to tie in the arrow-like section of the house. To do so I brought the house into its correct positioning within the logo, then had it grow upwards. The last visual aspect of the logo to animate was the name “Paperhouse Publishing”. I brought the word “Paperhouse” in so that it synched with the upward direction of the arrow-like house. Lastly, I animated in the word “Publishing” at the bottom. I played around with the different animate in effects until I found one that seemed sophisticated and elegant.

Lastly, I added a sophisticated and elegant-sounding tune that faded out as the logo was pieced together in its true form. I used a wooshing sound at the end to match up with the animation of the word “Publishing”.

Overall, I am happy with the way my logo animation turned out. This was one of my first times using Adobe After Effects, so it was a bit challenging at first. However, I enjoyed learning how to use a new Adobe program and further enhancing my design skills.

Conceptual Illustration – Personal

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Click to see a PDF of my full design!

For this project, I designed a conceptual illustration for the “Personal” story. This story is about how social media’s personal touch outweighs its downsides. It highlights examples where social media has helped people to feel connected to loved ones who have passed away. The story conveys the message that although these people are no longer with us physically, social media helps keep their memories alive in the digital world. I wanted my conceptual illustration to convey this same message.

I began my creative process for this project by sketching different conceptual images that all convey the message of the story. I eventually decided on this image of a social post of a family on a laptop. I felt it effectively illustrated the idea of connection via social media with loved ones who have passed. In this family photo, I added a halo above the father and also pixelated him while leaving the mother and son unpixelated. I made these design decisions to convey that the father had passed away, but social media kept his spirit alive and connected to his wife and son.

Next, I decided on the headline Connected Through Loss. I felt it effectively reflects the story’s message while also grabbing the attention of the reader. Lastly, I formatted the layout of these magazine spreads. I used blue colors from my illustration throughout both magazine spreads so that everything in the article was visually tied together. Additionally, I feel like blue can be related to heaven, and therefore relates to this story about social media connecting people with those who have passed on.

Overall, I am happy with my final design for Project 3. Designing a conceptual illustration is more challenging than many other graphic design projects I have worked on. I felt that it encouraged me to push my creativity even further than usual, however, I had fun working on it and am proud of the way it turned out.

Influence Poster: Paula Scher

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For my influence poster project, I chose to be influenced by American graphic designer Paula Scher. Scher is known for her branding designs and her unique use of typography. Some of her most known designs are her posters for The Public Theater. I chose to be influenced by her work because I like the way she creatively uses typography as the main elements of many of her designs. I also enjoy her use of bold colors and angled elements. 

Paula Scher began her design career as an art director in the 1970s. She has been a partner at design firm Pentagram since 1991. She has a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and honorary doctorates from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Moore College of Art and Design, and Columbus College of Art and Design. She also taught for over 20 years at the School of Visual Arts. Scher has won numerous honors and awards. Her work has been shown around the world and is permanently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. She is well recognized for her work on brand identities, promotional materials, and more for clients such as Citibank, Microsoft, Adobe, Coca-Cola, and more. As an advertising student, I find her work uniquely inspiring, which also led to my choice in using her for my poster’s influence. 

I specifically chose to be influenced by her poster work for The Public Theater, which won the Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. Scher served as the in-house designer for The Public Theater for many years. These posters feature large street style typography. The unconventional typographic style began to pop up everywhere, having a significant impact on theater advertising going forwards. These posters feature bold typography, playfulness, vibrant colors, and collage-like compositions that blend large type, angled text, photographic elements, and some illustration. I really enjoy the slightly chaotic playfulness that the angled collages of typography adds to these posters and wanted to recreate this in my own poster.

I began my process for creating this poster by arranging the type in different sizes and angles to reflect the style of Scher’s typography in The Public Theater posters. I chose a simple, clean looking sans serif font, as this is what Scher used in all of these designs. I then separated the different sections of type with lines as Scher often does. My choice to make these lines dotted was in order to add more of the playfulness that The Public Theater posters have. I added the grayscale cutout of the cyclist, as this is also a common element in Scher’s designs. I ultimately decided to add extra outlining around this cutout as I enjoyed this playful element in some of The Public Theater posters. I chose the vibrant red as the background as it reflected both Indiana University and Scher’s inclusion of bright colors. Lastly, I changed some of the typographic elements to be black, as Scher often includes different colors in her typography. 

Overall, I would say I am happy with my final design for this Little 500 poster. Finding a balance between using the influence of another designer and still developing an original design was both challenging and fun. I feel as though my inclusion of large, clean, and angled typography reflects that of Paula Scher’s work for The Public Theater. Looking back on my process of developing the typography, I would have maybe tried to add extra text about the Little 500 bike race because Scher’s designs typically include a bit more text than this. However, I think the typography is still recognizably the main element in my design. Additionally, I am happy with the photographic element I included as well as my choice in the vibrant red.