Week 13

This week, I worked on my business cards, the responsiveness of my portfolio website (which was a bit of a pain), and am currently tying up some loose ends to release my gingerSNAPP app by Tuesday.


Business Cards:

gingerSNAPP

The rest of the app is pretty much complete, my boyfriend and I are just making a few minor adjustments, and have figured out how to add freckles onto the app. All I did was make my own "freckle brushes" and saved them as PNGs, so that when the user wants to use this function, they simply tap on the size of the brush that they want, and tap on their face to add the freckles.

small

medium

large

The last function, and the part that ties in my whole proposal for my self-authorship, which was to raise awareness of gingers, the before and after screen with the stereotype and truth is working great. I made a list of different stereotypes and truths that randomly generate each time the user goes to that screen.

I also designed the icon as well, and am please with how it turned out!

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Back in March, a bunch of us design students from Millersville went to a talk at York College called "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later" by Ken Barber. He works for House Industries, which has been noticed by Warner Brothers, Jimmy Kimmel, Autorama, and even the creators of the show "Powerpuff Girls" for their unique typefaces. They are unique in their process because they still draw out the letters  several times before they will make them digital. He firmly believes in stepping away from the computer every once in a while and do things by hand, which I found to be very inspiring because I have found that it clears my mind to just sit and sketch things out before rendering them on my computer. That way I'm not immediately faced with the constraints of technology.

Week 12

This week, I mainly worked on preparing my website for the Portfolio Review at the end of the week. I finally got it live, which was surprisingly easier than I expected. You can view it at http://www.kswangerdesigns.com/. Thankfully, Webydo, which is the site I used to build my own, also has hosting service, so all I had to do was add the A-Record for my site and save it under my domain on GoDaddy. It is still under construction in terms of design and content, but for now I have the pieces up that I would like to show to the reviewers. I definitely would like to refine how my pieces are displayed, and hope to get valuable feedback.

I also refined and re-printed my postcards, which I am very please with. On Monday, I was told to use a different hue of red, since what I had made your eyes "vibrate." This is a big lesson in the fact of what looks nice on screen may look very different printed out. After testing a few different hues, and making minor adjustments to the photos and thickness of the smaller lettering ("is a," and "only with"), I printed them out once again, and got an even better reaction upon showing them to my classmates. Since I do not have postcards yet, I may give these to the reviewers since they are my self promotion pieces.


Version 1:

Version 2

Week 11

This week, I started my Self-Promotion project. I decided that since print design has never been my strong-suit, that I would challenge myself by designing postcards. I am using photos that I took for my self-portrait project in my photography class. For this project, instead of taking photos of myself, I wanted to show who makes me, me. I photographed my family at home and my boyfriend, who right now lives about 600 miles away and Skype is our main source of communication. I went through some ideation in terms of sayings and design until I finally figured out what I wanted to do, but I feel like it was a great idea to push myself with print design to help become a more well-rounded designer.

 Final Design:

Self Authorship Update

So, as mentioned before, my boyfriend is currently in the process of developing my GingerSNAPP! app while I design the interactive elements and wigs to be put in. So far, everything up to the point of selecting and re-sizing the wig is done. Next is the option to rotate the image in case if the user's head is tilted a little bit.

 Here is the camera screen, which features the shutter button I designed and the facial recognition box that will give the user direction on where to position their face.
































The wig selection is complete, except for the fact that I need to illustrate more wigs. The aesthetics of adding the freckles is still being fleshed out in terms of how to make it functional and accurate to the user's face, as well as look realistic.

The re-sizing is functional as well, next step is to add the rotating function. At first the wig wasn't accurate with the re-sizing bar, and functioned a bit oddly. Thankfully the issue was fixed and we are ready to add the rotation.

Week 10

This week in class we looked over each others' project descriptions that would be put into our portfolio websites, and practiced writing cover letters. I've had experience before with writing a cover letter in high school, but I feel that this time really refreshed my brain, and gave me an updated idea on how to write a cover letter.



Example Cover Letter:

Red Ventures

1101 Red Ventures Drive

Fort Mill, SC 29707


To who it may concern:

I am contacting you in regards to the advertisement you had on Glassdoor,

and am inquiring about your open position for a UX/UI Designer at your Fort Mill

office in South Carolina.

My experience includes, but is not limited to wireframing, storyboarding,

user flows, prototyping, and the ability to conceptualize authentic ideas that

enhance ease of usability, even in the face of complex design roadblocks. I feel that

my empathetic nature and ability to put myself in the user’s shoes is a great benefit

in designing for the user. I can also bring forth new ideas for the interfaces you have

designed, such as Verizon’s Ipad interface and AT&T’s mobile interface.

 I look forward to meeting you and discussing the skills that I can bring to

your company. I will contact you in two weeks to follow-up. I am available after

5:30pm Monday thru Friday. I hope to hear from you soon.


Kymberlyn Swanger





Project Descriptions:

Next, I continued with my portfolio website. However, I ran into a problem on Webydo, the online web designing program that I'm using to build my website, as in the website broke. After contacting customer support and reporting the issue it was resolved after a few days, but by then I decided to re-do my website with a much simpler approach than what I was originally doing. I feel the way I am designing my website now better reflects my personality.

Week 9

This week, I finished my case study video for Sven's Cafe, which can be found on Youtube. It was a long process to get it done (longer than I thought), but I feel that the time put into it was well worth the time. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and feel much better about it versus the print case study I made last semester for this project. This was the last project that I had to work on as far as my portfolio pieces go, so next step is to continue working on my self-authorship piece, website, and begin my self promotion piece!







Self-Authorship:

I am still working on the video for my gingerSNAPP mobile app, and illustrating more wigs to send to my boyfriend so they can be put into the app. So far he has everything up to the screen in which you can customize a person with wigs and freckles. I am debating on eliminating the names of the wigs, as they are from fictional cartoon and movie characters and may get me in trouble copyright-wise.












I also began working on my portfolio website on Webydo, which I feel is going along well. I used a pre-designed template which had some functionality that I don't think I could figure out on a blank template, It is still a work in progress, but I feel that it is heading in a good direction, and will help me with my branding, as well.