Graphic Design, 3D Rendering, and Illustration

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 standards manual
  • 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)
  • 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

   • Visual and theoretical works and publications that can provide a context for your work.
   • Collect inspiration images.
     • Rebrand — Gallery of real world branding work
   • For branding projects, complete a branding research document.
   • Creating mood boards
   • Dribbble — A great showcase of work in UI, branding, illustration, typography, etc.
   • Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler and Debbie Millman (PSU Library eBook)
   • Everything you need to know about Design Systems
   • Logo Lounge Annual Trend Reports

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

3. Design iteration and improvement

   • Image Assets
     • The Noun Project — Creative commons vector icons
     • Unsplash — Creative Commons stock photos
     • Pexels — More CC stock photos

   • Typography

     • Google Fonts
     • Adobe Fonts
     • FontShare — Excellent library free, high-quality variable fonts.
     • Font Squirrel
     • Butterick's Practical Typography — Short but insightful guide to type principles
     • Web Typography Learning Game — Useful for any type context

   • Software

     • Adobe Illustrator — Vector editor; great for logos, screen design, layout, illustration.
       • A few tutorials on making simple illustrations in Illustrator
     • Adobe Photoshop — Raster editor; great for editing photos and digital painting.
       • Removing images from backgrounds with the Select and Mask tool.
     • Adobe InDesign — Dynamic Publication editor; great for multi-page documents or anything with a lot of text and images assets.
     • Sketch — A paid vector editor favored in software industries, includes powerful collaboration tools.
     • Adobe XD — Design UI screens and connect them to make interactive prototypes; more limited in visual design than Illustrator.
     • Figma — Free cloud-based design app, excellent collaboration and prototyping features.

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)

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.