In my intro graphic design course at MSU, we were given several assignments to create graphic design art for any organization. I choose to focus on Swanson's Fabrics, a second hand textile shop from Boston, Massachusetts. Over the course I designed a logo, wireframe of the homepage, an app wireframe, an animated logo, and a flyer. I also learned how to use a bunch of Adobe's tools like Illustrator, After Effects, and InDesign. Below I will go into more detail about the design process for each project.
Before sketching out potential logo designs, I created a mood board to help me pick a direction to go towards. While filling in the board I wanted to use reference photos that reminded me of the Swanson's Fabric's store. I gravitated towards textile materials. My goal after this mood board was to design a logo to try and capture Swanson's Fabrics character.
I went on to sketch 30 different logo choices all based on the mood board. I wanted the logo to capture the crafty side of Swanson's Fabrics. So majority of my sketches contained textile tools and material. After submitting these sketches, I talked with my professor and we decided to merge #1 and #19 for the final logo.
Following the sketches, I learned how to use Illustrator to build the logo. As shown above the left image shows some of the different details and ideas I had for the logo. The color scheme was also influenced by the store's current website. I made the decision to keep the basket all black so the store name could be placed on it. I like the fact that the store name is two different colors. I feel like the white on black makes Swanson's stand out more to grab the viewers attention. The final logo can be seen right below.
The next module for my graphic design course was to design the homepage of our chosen shop through Figma. I've always wanted to put a logo in the middle of the navigation menu, so I tried it out. I was super happy with the position, especially since Swanson's aligns nicely with the navigation labels. A big focus for this project was aligning everything. Another thing I'm big on is adding images of the shop/restaurant on their website's homepage. The website should capture the personality of the company so the costumers get an idea of who they are buying from. So in my homepage design I added a picture of Swanson's shop from the outside and a picture of some of their products. Based off the character of my design, I would enjoy shopping there.