In 2021, the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities began crafting a new, collaborative, strategic plan. Including both faculty and staff, this ambitious new vision for the College required a bold, sleek design to pair nicely with the recent new viewbook. Since its inception in 2007, the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities […]
Viewbook for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities In 2022, the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) embarked on a second, more ambitious rebranding project. An updated viewbook was at the forefront of the design needs, as the viewbook or lookbook represents the primary promotional material for the College. As the […]
Romeo & Juliet Poster Series Designed for the Marshall Civic Players performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a freelance project. I hopped to emphasize the dichotomy between the union and the violence of the classic play.
AFTER/LIFE is a project at my Communications Assistant post at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH). Both photos utilized in the double exposure technique of the design are Creative Commons pieces. The photograph of the African American woman is by William Stitt. Learn about AFTER/LIFE.
Project: Resume Redux I’ve always liked the idea of a visual resume, one that would showcase what I did and what I could do while standing out from the standard templates. I created this template in Adobe Illustrator after researching some other resume layouts. The colors I chose have a united cool palette, with orange […]
Project: Icons Minimalist icons are a new experiment for me, and one I wanted to incorporate into a website for work. I needed three icons for the front page, one to use for the history section, one for the bird research, and one for the mission. The three needed to match in style and simplicity […]
Business Card Design For a possible business card design, I tinkered with a variety of ideas. I wanted the card to be a mix of traditional and digital media that featured my octopus mascot (see portfolio piece “Darcy”) with an original font. I created this lettering using a brush pen for my name and a […]
Project: Fantasy Graphic Design For school and work, I’d created a variety of pieces in Adobe Illustrator. Creating one of my own for personal experimentation was a project long overdue. I love the work of John Howe and other classical illustrators, but I also have found a recent inspiration in the minimalistic work of present-day […]
After having created an infographic for use on social media, I was tasked with creating a large format infographic for use on a vinyl 3 x 7 foot banner. This project had a broad audience, as the banners would be displayed at public libraries, so the language and art needed to be accessible to various […]
This logo was my first real brush with a complicated project in a professional setting. The Tawas Point Birding takes place every year in East Tawas, Michigan, and is run by Michigan Audubon. Since there was no prior logo for the event, I researched other birding festivals and conservation logos. The goal for the festival is […]
I interned with the Espresso Book Machine printing press at the Michigan State University Library, where I worked as a pre-press and printing assistant. During the course of my work, I handled everything from cover design to book layout. Initially, the Espresso Book Machine was used mainly to print dissertations and the occasional book for […]
I interned with the Espresso Book Machine printing press at the Michigan State University Library, where I worked as a pre-press and printing assistant. During the course of my work, I handled everything from cover design to book layout. Initially, the Espresso Book Machine was used mainly to print dissertations and the occasional book for […]
This is one of the sample books I created for the Espresso Book Machine. I wanted to show the smallest book the machine can print, and I felt that a poetry book would suit the small-size format well. The cover was created in Adobe InDesign using a Public Domain picture from pixabay.com. After selecting poems, […]
During my internship with the Espresso Book Machine, I had the idea to create sample books to help explain the range of sizes the machine could print. I created seven demo books: three novels, two photo-books, one manual, and one poetry book. Each book features Public Domain images from pixabay.com and was designed in Adobe […]
One of my final projects during my time at the Writing Center was to design a flyer for client surveys. The MSU Writing Center regularly asks clients to fill out a survey discussing their experience, and then this information is used to help consultants better cater to the needs of clients. Usually, the flyer is […]
I was so excited to start this photography course at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)! Typography is an area I aim to continue personal growth in, so it was an excellent opportunity to develop important skills in layout, kerning, hierarchy, and other type design focuses. This piece had a pre-created text for […]
Project: Sponsor Form At my work with Michigan Audubon, I often have to design documents. Designing documents that are branded, streamlined, and visually easy to comprehend is one challenge, while convincing my coworkers that I wanted to take the time to expand the design or put extra work beyond half an hour into a design […]
Project: Fantasy-Minimalism in Watercolor I created this piece as an artistic experiment, hoping to grow my skill with my new watercolor pencils. Previously, I had experimented with fantasy-minimalism in a digital format in Adobe Illustrator, and I wanted to implement a similar style in a traditional medium. Watercolor pencils translate well to simplicity, so I […]
Project Photobook This pdf is a book I designed as a capstone for my photography class in college. The goal of the class was not only to learn photography methods and techniques, but also to practice experimental photography. I took all of the photos and per class instructions, completed the layout in Lightroom. My focus […]
The Rusty Blackbird Blitz Infographic was another piece created for my current job at Michigan Audubon. This piece fit into a broader conservation project that I developed with a coworker. She spearheaded the organization as part of a national project to help count elusive Rusty Blackbirds, a species believed to be in a dangerous decline. […]
This was a deeply personal project that gave me the opportunity to explore mixed media work. I’ve always loved mixed media—it gives me the best of the tactile creation that comes with traditional work and the endless possibilities that comes with digital creation. For this project, initially for a contest, I wanted to explore the […]
Project: Fantasy Mini-comic I love dragons. They are one of my main inspirations in my art, and the reason I continue to create during rough patches in my life. Dragons are the type of artistic muse that forces their way into everything, from doodles on homework to classroom projects. During my private art tutoring, I […]
Project: Social Media Icons In my senior year, I assisted with the startup of a new student magazine on campus, SCI: Solve, Collaborate, Investigate. I created the brand standards, website design, logo, flyers, and social media icons. My partner, who was spearheading the project, had seen a selection of gradient logos and asked me to […]
Project: STEAM Logo for SCI: Solve, Collaborate, Investigate In my senior year, I assisted with the startup of a new student magazine on campus, SCI: Solve, Collaborate, Investigate. I created the brand standards, website design, logo, flyers, and social media icons. Creating the logo involved a short concept stage, and then a longer stage of […]
This is Darcy, the new portfolio mascot! Darcy represents my multi-genre skills, including writing, editing, art, and social media. I created little Darcy using mixed traditional and digital media (pencil, technical pen, Adobe Illustrator, respectively). Darcy is holding a tablet pen and a USB mouse to represent digital media, a quill and ink bottle for […]
Kristin Phillips: Portfolio 