The Project: Creative Director / Senior Graphic Designer / Graphic Designer for The Columbia Chronicle
I began working with The Columbia Chronicle as a graphic designer, then as senior graphic designer, then was able to complete my time there as creative director. As graphic designer then senior graphic designer I was able to create graphics and page layouts to suit each story put in front of me.
I then began my reign as creative director by reverting our logo to one created in 2016 (above) so as to regain the depth and class of the publication. In addition to that, I created our Orientation guide for the 2019-2020 year using the style guide for that year as well that I helped past creative directors make. Additionally, a large part of my job was to design the front pages of the newspaper and often create the designs that were to go one the front page.
The following designs are a few of my favorites that I created during my time throughout all of my roles.
Trans Misgendering:
This graphic was created to accompany an article about misgendering on Columbia's campus. To remain sensitive and inclusive for this project, I created a stylized trans symbol with the trans colors on the symbol, to highlight the subject matter but remain unbiased but still eye-catching and visually intriguing.
Enrollment Chart:
This graphic was made to accompany a very last-minute article written about the slight enrollment increase at Columbia in fall 2019. With this chart, my thought process was to mainly make this as readable and interesting as possible. Because it was such a small increase, I wanted to make sure I was creating something that wasn't boring, despite the subject matter and the fact that there are numbers involved. Because it's enrollment for an arts school, I decided to highlight aspects of an art student's life for what showcases the numbers.
Parental Leave:
This graphic was created to accompany an article written about Columbia College Chicago's policy's regarding parental leave. I drew inspiration from the elements/legitimate items of parenthood that tend to follow parents around. The briefcase was created to contain the objects representing the children while also representing the working parent.
Marijuana Legalization:
This graph was created for an article written about the amount of voters for and against marijuana legalization. I didn't want to just create a simply graph, so I was able to create a graph with the exact percentages and use the marijuana leaves to represent those in favor of the legalization, and the red background behind the blunt to showcase the percentage of those against. I also wanted to make sure the graphic had a naturalist feel because of the topic at hand, hence the imperfect and clearly sketched leaves and blunt.
Eco Air:
The story that accompanied this graphic was written to bring attention to the effect that creating environmentally friendly items has on the economy. I began creating this graphic with the thought of mother nature being in control of the air, and tied that to the economical points by including the money in her wind.
Harry Potter Brew:
I created this whimsical graphic to accompany a story that announced the creation of a Harry Potter beer brew. The magical/whimsical elements in the graphic represent the magic and fantastical elements from the franchise. The colors were chosen to match the plum and berry notes in the brew. The part that I believe brings it all together is the wand, this represents the magic that created both Harry Potter and the brew.
Respect:
I created this graphic to accompany a commentary that I also had the pleasure of writing myself. The graphic portrays a young woman, much like myself, screaming respect. This is essentially exactly what the commentary is about, people handing out disrespect without even understanding what they're disrespecting. It is hopefully to make people think about their opinions and consider each others before speaking against something or someone.
