Document design
I'm an artist at heart. I love soft colors that are easy for the eyes to process most, but over time I've learned to prioritize contrast over my own particular aesthetics.
In the program, I've learned that a user-centered approach works best, which means testing documents on real users. It also means keeping the visual focus on the most important text. For instance, size, color, and other types of contrast to focus attention on specific elements of a design, then locating important elements on areas of the page which follow the eye's natural vertical movement create a strong visual hierarchy.
I've made design projects for a wide variety of audiences and purposes. I use my skills in the classroom of course, but over time my work has also been used in a variety of campus publications.
Click the images below to see some examples of my work.
IT Services
Assorted posters
Little Rock writing project
Color code
I wrote Color Code for Nonfiction in my undergrad. Color Code is a digital essay about something one of my favorite subjects to write about- video games!
In my essay I talk about how game designers use color to communicate certain messages and feelings to players. This is a concept that should be familiar to graphic designers because they often use color in the same ways.
Color Code won a Writing Award in the Design category in 2018.
Literacy and Video Games
Literacy and Video games is another digital essay that I wrote (for Technology of the Book). I cover both the history of books and the history of video games, arguing that games are developing in a similar way and can just as useful for learning.
I did a ton of research on neuroscience for this project. I cite a lot of scientific journals and studies to make the case that video games are as good as textbooks for learning.
Another cool feature of this project is that I got to create a visual timeline of how books developed and am able to correlate this development with the rising number of published authors. I create a similar timeline with video games and make the same observation- as they become easier to make and publish, normal people will be able to add their ideas to the video game industry as a whole.