Nia Does Design
Graphic Design Portfolio
Personal Icons
Experiment exploring personal branding and logos using ideas based on fruit stickers. Final illustrations done in Adobe Illustrator and printed with lino.
Reference
Sketches
Illustrations
Lino Printing
City Dwellers
Initial Painting
My final art project exploring loneliness in a city through colour and paint application inspired by my passion for film, specifically Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”, and the work of the painter Matt Bollinger.
Artist Study
Study of arist Salman Toor, I loved his style of paint application which I tried to recreate with the intention of taking elements and putting them into my other works.
Painting Exploration
Inspiration from my artists studies to create a painting for my city dwellers project.
Lighting Study
Here I increased my canvas size and tried to show neon lights in a city at night.
Bringing Elements Together
My theme had become too conceptual so I needed a tangiable city element which I showed here with the bus.
Final Piece
Conclusion of city dwellers project, a triptych showing three stills of a person's day.
Autism Teaching Aid
Idea Generation
For this DT project I took a brief from a primary SEND teacher to design and build an interactive prototype to help engage autistic children in the classroom. Suitable for years 7-10 I used personal experience and client research to investigate options.
I presented ideas back and they selected an interactive boardgame.
Design Process
Initial Ideas
Chosen Idea
Idea Refinement
After my client chose their favourite idea I iterated each element of the board game:
This is the base of the game. I tried using TechSoft Design to make a laser cut version and Fusion 360 for CNC routering and then vacuum forming. I chose the laser cut route because it allowed a larger base.
These are the prototypes for the mountains in the game. I again used Fusion 360 to design their shape which I then filament printed and used electronics for the lights in the crystal cave.
These are the game pieces which will attach to the board with magnets. I designed them digitally in Womp 3D to be suitable for resin printing.
Final Prototype - Work in Progress
I am currently working through building the final prototype using a combonation of laser cutting, resin printing and filament printing to create the pieces. I am then inserting electronic elements and magnets, before finishing surfaces with a combination of spray paint and hand painting techniques.
Tile Production
Resin Printing
Board Production
Short Courses and Exercises
UAL Graphic Design Short Course
Summer short course at UAL covering the basics of typefaces, layout, responding to a brief and working in a very international team.
By visiting the British Library I took inspiration from the exhibition to design a commemorative stamp.
Life Drawing
I took an optional course in life drawing at school. I found my observation skills and drawing speed improved rapidly over the course of the programme.
The exercises were focused on freeing up my mark making and making my work looser.
Sketch Book Pages
Compilation of inspiration and experimenation. In my sketchbook I collect ticket stubs, stickers and other paper scraps I find and combine them with drawing in an illustrative and graphic way.
Making a Typeface
Experiment making a font from spaghetti inspired by Siracha by designer Andrey Azizov.
Packaging Project
Early DT project to research and design packaging for a product. I created a company called “Notes” and used music and 1970s motifs to create a perfume bottle and display box with a disco theme. This project was done in limited time with a focus on ideas over quality of modelling.
Sketches, chosen ideas and orthographic drawings
Process pictures and final mockup
EPQ Project
Research
EPQ project looking at the history of design through a feminist lens and how beauty standards have changed throughout the years with a focus on the 1920s
Artefact
During the research I decided to make a lipstick for an 'IT Girl' of the 1920s. I made a prototype lipstick using a similar process to the era. I then designed packaging with Adobe Illustrator and presented the final product.
Good Enough to Eat
Initial Designs
I explored how women are used to sell food products and their consumption in the media. I took inspiration from Gabriella Sanchez, who is a Latinx American graphic designer who’s personal work depicts her culture and identity through a collage of family photos, graphical text and other iconography. I did a photoshoot and painted my own symbols with gouache before arranging in Photoshop.
Refinement
For these pieces I refined my process, adding more texture and feminist symbols. I collaged these physically to contrast with my first digital experiment.
Final Piece
This was my final piece for my theme where the focus was on the traditional wife and the expectations put upon these women. Just like Sanchez I used pictures of family members combined with drawn elements and a textured background.
