I choose this
picture for my postcard because this is the same picture I used for my law
school admission exam. You’re probably thinking what does that have to do with
anything, so I’ll explain. In order to enter into the law school exam, you need
a picture of postcard sized picture of yourself, to prove that you were yourself.
This picture symbolizes my ticket into a better life. Without this picture, I
would have not been allowed into the exam. Without this picture. my dreams of
becoming a lawyer will not come true. This picture means a lot to me. That’s why
I incorporated the scales of justice behind this very picture. It symbolizes my
goal of one day of not becoming a statistic. It symbolizes my goal of becoming
a role to young girls and boys from my side of Buffalo who do not believe in
themselves. It symbolizes my goal of one day becoming a lawyer and making my
parents proud.
The green and white
used in my background represents my culture, and never ending pride I have for
it. I wasn’t always proud of my culture; I was actually very ashamed. Growing
up I was picked on for being “different.” I was not accepted by my peers and I
was ridiculed daily. I put the Nigerian flag to show myself and others that my
culture will always remain with me no matter where I go. I put this Nigerian
flag to show others who insecure about who they are that it’s okay to be
different, and that being different is what makes you special from everyone
else.
The fonts I used
were the Lion King font and the Neos font. I downloaded both of these fonts
from Dafont.com. I used them because I knew they would be very appealing. Another
reason why I choose to use these fonts is because Lion King was my favorite, this
font reminded me of my favorite childhood movie “The Lion King.” The movie The
lion king movie is originated in Africa, where the main character learns in the
end to take pride in himself and also pride in where he’s from. which ties in
with the theme of my postcard.
When creating the
postcard, I incorporated the design hierarchy and was it was very successful. The
way I incorporated the design hierarchy was by adding the text wrap to middle
so that the viewers would be able to read the words in my bio clearly.
Using all
three applications InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop for this assignment was
a requirement because it helped sharpen up our skills. Funny thing is that before
taking this class, I used to be an art major in high school, who dealt with
nothing but Photoshop and Illustrator but for some reason this class made me
forget everything I learned. This project taught me new ways on how to maneuver
these applications that I previously did not know how to do to before. Even
though we had to use these application individually, I believe I gained the
most knowledge in this project through Photoshop.
In
Photoshop I learned from the project how to finally use the pen tool properly.
Whenever I was asked to clear the background of a picture, I always used the
magic wand, has a shortcut, but for this project this wasn’t the case. I would
use the magic wand multiple times, clearing the background of my profile pic,
and I would save it under so many formats hoping that I would it save with no background
for InDesign. WRONG! Each time I would place the image in InDesign, it always
came with the background. I decided to swallow my pride and finally ask the
professor for help. She explained the reason this was happening was because I
was not clearing the path with the pen tool. I finally had the answer to all of
my Photoshop problems. The minute she explained that to me, I felt the shadow
of doubt that hovering over me, disappear.
Overall, This assignment taught on how to think like a graphic designer, Before, taking this class this semester, I never in a million years would think I would able to think of a concept and actually create it. My postcard tells a story, without even having to look at the words in the bio. It tells a story of Nigerian girl, who has a big smile, and also an even bigger pride in her country.
