Design
Foundations of Journalism Intern, Designer & Artist to Design Editor
2023-24 DESIGNS
E-PASS EXPLAINED
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E-Pass Explained challenged my ability to convey my ideas while having space for writing, an infographic and a QR code in one page. I wanted to combine the old and new perceptions of our pass system, from paper to electronic. By being a primary writer of this editorial, I was able to design with the story to convey what I could not in words. I used muted colors of the passes in our school to represent the paper passes, and a black and white sketch for the electronic aspect.
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THE PC ADVANTAGE
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The PC Advantage allowed me to work on a new artstyle. I've always wanted to try pixel artwork and this provided a perfect opportunity. I also wanted the page to represent a vibrant gaming setup, using a vaporwave palette and creating a main title menu with a profile picture of the writer.
EQUITY NOT EQUALITY​
This page challenged my comfort zone by taking on a sensitive subject. I wanted to convey the spectrum of people who are affected by affirmative action, as well as a spectrum of those at our school. The middle subject represents the writer of this opinion piece, putting her story right in the middle of the metaphorical debate. The news images take into account the media coverage of affirmative action, as that is often where students got their information about affirmative action. I choose duller background colors to make sure I did not take away from the subjects and provide depth to the scene.
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WELCOME ABOARD​
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Welcome Aboard mirrored my spread from last year about saying goodbye to retiring teachers. I challenged myself to get pictures that showed the teachers personality rather than plain headshots. I also made the page entertaining by including the idea of a truth-or-dare interactive page. I worked on geometric apples that are associated with teachers and represent West High's colors. I also color coded titles to match with names and the answer key.
CONTRACEPTIVES​
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This​ is my second cover story in my time on WSS. This cover I challenged myself with infographics and a limited palette in hopes to create a clean and simple design. I included both art and illustrator work to create visually appealing and a welcoming look to an often uncomfortable topic. I didn't want to shy away from drawing contraceptives, as we are trying to inform about misconceptions and usage. I used pink and blue interchangeably as colors to represent the stereotypical representation of female versus male products. By using them interchangeably they represent that colors do not identify with a particular gender or align contraceptives with a certain gender.
2021-23 DESIGNS
MISSED CONNECTIONS​
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Missed Connections was my first back cover I worked on. As a recurring series, I looked at past issues to receive inspiration but as well as make sure I make something new and unique. The title reminded me of unread messages, so I decided to go with an internet themed spread. I limited my color palette to shades of pink to represent Valentine's Day colors. I first went for a text message layout for the title, before making a pop up screen from a laptop as the main body design. Each pop up has a different theme correlated to the internet, such as blogs, music players, emails and more. I then worked on designing more for an interactive web layout. ​
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NEWS BRIEFS
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My goal for my first news briefs was to convey a winter wonderland different to previous winter news briefs, as similar layouts had been made before. I decided to create a wooden board as a background for images and texts that could be posted to it. I then used the white background as snow to put animals around the landscape and include winter themed plants to convey a nature scene.
LET'S CHAT: GPT​
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Let's Chat: GPT was my first cover story as a designer my junior year. I wanted to try out a style of art I enjoy that uses dramatic lighting, shading and contrasting colors to sharpen the subjects. I worked with Blender and Procreate to create dimensional art that uses flat colors and lighting to pop against the page. I wanted to convey a cluttered desk space that had different decades of technology expressed. That followed through the rest of the pages, starting with a full page artwork and a diagonal piece at the end. I created a character representing AI that flowed through the pages in what humans perceive AI as in a technological setting. It was also my first time working with complex infographics where I worked to break down the complex data and information on artificial intelligence.
INTO NEW WATERS​
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Into New Waters was my second DPS I had designed. I had a connection to this page as I had pitched the story and my twin competed as a diver at West High. I wanted to use white space to my advantage to contrast against the colors of the pool. I also used this as a chance to work on perspective lines, creating a 3D model of the pool, diving board and diving platform. I wanted to accurately represent the difference between competition and recreational diving boards. For example, I included the fulcrum on the board.
ART-IFICIAL ART​
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When jokingly suggested that I should use AI generated art in my design, I firmly denied the notion. This design was my gift to myself and the art community. Arti-ficial Art was both written and designed by me, and it let me work with a new program called Blender where I learned three dimensional artwork skills. I was starting from zero experience in a very complex program and I worked hard inside and outside of class to get the result I wanted to convey. It let me express my art in a visual way that did not rely on the use of artificial intelligence programs as well. I used blue and red as contrasting colors, as they are commonly used in artwork to express emotional scenes. Being a close subject to my heart, I thought this would accurately represent my emotions with the subject. Finally, I use hands as the representation of humans due to the trouble AI has with generating hands correctly. Artists also commonly struggle with hands, being an important part of an artist's journey that AI does go through. Reaching for the television represents the temptation to use AI over human artists.
SOUNDS LIKE SUMMER​
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I wanted to create a fun and interactive page that represents WSS's music taste and give students optional playlists for the summer. I collected song recommendations from the WSS staff and sorted all of them into four playlists of the most similar songs. I then made the playlists, themed covers and codes. I wanted to convey the feeling of summer sunsets, so I used a gradient background and black silhouettes to pop against the background and match the text. ​
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FACULTY FAREWELL​
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I decided to keep this page simple with the format, using green and yellow blocking due to West High's colors. I made sure to accentuate the pictures of the teachers over all other aspects of the page. I used symbols to represent the subjects the teachers taught and add a QR code to more in-depth online coverage of retiring teachers. I also kept this spread simple in order to dedicate more time to the other designers, as this was my first time leading a cycle as the new design editor.
HOME​
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Home was the cover story of the fifth edition of WSS my sophomore year. I was shadowing a designer working on this spread when I was in Foundations of Journalism, when I was asked to create some artwork for the spread. I ended up drawing the human aspect of the spread to represent the topic of homelessness. I had to learn how to communicate between my upperclassmen with color palettes, file requirements and textures. I learned more valuable lessons with first-hand experience in the workroom setting, and this spread was also what convinced me to move around my packed schedule to join WSS print.
Web Designs
Along with working on print designs, I also work on feature images, infographics and more for web and social media content. I've also worked on podcast covers and video thumbnails.
