After I started on the first design, I visited the contact office in person and was able to see some cards from the past with the winning designs. (Not everything is on the Internet!)
At least four previous winners have included the same building logo that I used in my first design, shown below, so I developed a second design later.
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| cover, Chance Bldg wrapped as present |
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| inside, Create Your Present by Creating Your Tomorrow |
SAC has a logo based on Chance Academic Center that sports an abstract form of a red building with horizontal black bars for windows. "San Antonio College" looks like it is in Birch Std, a narrow font. The tag line is "Create Your Tomorrow." I wrapped that building shape in a ribbon and bow, made it into a vaguely three dimensional box and added sky and clouds. I had fun with the text.
The plan sounds simple, but it took hours in sketches and in Illustrator and lots of revisions.
Both images have a white border that barely show up om my monitor as light gray.
Now I wish I had added a drop shadow to the end of the ribbon in both images.
The second design, below, is based on typography. ("... the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible"--Wikipedia)
The curvy gold design on the right is the Alamo College logo, based on the Alamo outline, on its side on the cover and then tilted inside the card.
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| cover |
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| inside |
The description gave requirements that were not as specific as I would have liked. The specs sheet called this both a holiday card and an invitation to an annual gathering. I visited in person and learned that: no particular text is required and there is no restriction on number of colors or colors bleeding to the edge. We do not need specific information for the gathering.
We are not required to design the inside or back, but I wanted some element of the cover to be repeated on the inside to unify the card
We were instructed to make the card 5x7" and to avoid use of die cuts, foils or embossing.
Fonts I used include Birch Std for "President's," Edwardian Script for "Annual," and Century Gothic for "You are invited."
This project shows how much progress I have made in two full semesters, six classes, in use of programs, design principles, and typography. In a year, I may cringe when I look at these images. But I have to stop tinkering with this personal project and continue working on my projects for classes.
After the winner is notified on Oct. 23, I hope that I can include the winning design or a link to it in my blog.
