Graphic Design, Illustration, 3D Images

Whether creating work to tell your own story, or developing branding to communicate the message of a client, this type of visual design can take many forms.

For long term projects, ensure that you are producing an appropriate amount of work. So rather than a single logo or poster, you might develop a series of images or variations for diverse use cases.

Project types

  • Branding and/or print design
    • Design system or style guide
    • Logo design
    • Stationary or merchandise design
  • Posters and Infographics
  • Typeface design
  • Digital illustrations
    • Concept art for pre-production (character, vehicle, environment design for comics, games, film, etc.)
    • Sequential comics (print or web)
    • Storyboards for narrative media (\see animation page for more)
    • Digital children's book (for iPad or mobile device)
  • Architectural renderings
  • Product renderings
  • App or website mockups (see those respective development pages for more)
  • Data visualizations or Infographics
  • 2D or 3D assets for games including character design and environment design
  • Code-generated art

Production requirements

  1. Research

  2. Design ideation

    • Generative processes including kit bashing, photo bashing, or other means.
    • Thumbnail sheets
    • Create low fidelity sketches to arrive at a design direction.
      • Traditional drawing
      • Digital illustration
      • Digital design
      • Digital art
    • Common shot types — A quick summary of shot types like "close-up" and "wide shot" that make up the grammar of films, comics, animation, and other cinematic work.

  3. Design iteration and improvement

    • Image Assets

    • Typography

    • Software

      • Adobe Illustrator — Vector editor; great for logos, screen design, layout, illustration.
      • Adobe Photoshop — Raster editor; great for editing photos and digital painting.
      • Adobe InDesign — Dynamic Publication editor; great for multi-page documents or anything with a lot of text and images assets.
      • Figma — Free cloud-based vector design app, excellent collaboration and UI prototyping features.
      • Sketch — A paid vector editor favored in software industries, includes powerful collaboration tools.

  1. Packaging and presentation.

    Consider how to present your work in a professional distribution package. How can you provide context for your design beyond simply exporting some JPEGs?

    • Project website
    • Printing a physical book
    • Poster prints
    • Formatting for digital devices
    • Digital publication (PDF)

    Often brand projects are presented as a style guide which can be a splashy presentation of the brand assets in action, and/or an authoritative "handbook" documenting all the visual assets that make up the brand's design system. If you're making a PDF or slide deck, you might include:

    • Primary logo
    • Logo variations
      • Simplified logo versions for small scale
      • Multiple lockups or variations of logo pieces.
      • Improper variations of the logo to showa client what not to do.
    • Color palette
    • Fonts and text styles
    • Decorative icons, patterns, shapes, etc.
    • Sample product or advertising images, social media posts, etc.
    • Value statements, copywriting, slogans, etc.

Proof of concept

A proof of concept should demonstrate drawing skills, ability to use the elements and principles of design, and proficiency with your software of choice. Showing process is important for the proof of concept, consider recording your screen, show ideas written on paper or journal, and your ability to approach a personal or client project critically and with an industry standard process.

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