Transfer Portfolio 2011

FIELDS:Typography, Graphic Design, Digital Photography

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Transfer Portfolio 2011
Portfolio for Admission to BFA Program
This was my portfolio for transferring from community college to an art school to complete a Bachelors of Fine Art.
I chose to focus on different ways that one can view any given scene. One can look off to the side of a path. One can look forward, straight down a path. And one can look up close at any given object.
I have the same photo repeated four times in various colors and artistic edits in each of the corners to show everyone sees the world differently, but there are parts where we come together even if it’s just a small part. I achieved these edits by using different layers, artistic edits and outlines.
This was a design created for a Battle of the Bands event. The font was already chosen when I was asked to create this piece. I felt “Break the Stereo“ is bringing to the forefront that where many people heard music is on the radio and this event was anti-mainstream, which the chosen font nicely embraces.
The theme was already chosen when I was asked to work on this piece. It was playing off the theme of the last conference which was iUnplug to Reconnect. Basically this put the consumer at the switch to decide when to be “connected“ to each other through various levels of communication whether that is through their smart phone, social networking, internet, telephone.
The project was to design a poster on tabloid size paper. Our focus was to not only give the history of a chosen typeface, but to make it appealing.

My focus was set on the name of the typeface itself. I wanted to put the fact that it was a serif font. I wanted to emphasize the elegance of serifs. I brought some color in to bring in the background of the typeface.
I had taken a landscape photograph of a bench during a huge snow storm. My intent was to show the landscape in its essence without an overpowering collection of manmade items. So I kept the bench as the only man made item in the piece and Photo shopped out the garbage cans, fences, houses, and boat dock.
When I first took this photograph what really caught me was not only the two cones simply sitting there, but also the square pattern on the wall in the back. The image looked good in just black and white, but felt that it was missing a key concept. I felt as if the stairwell to the lower area was someone’s hiding spot. Going off of that I emphasized the cones to show that this photograph was their story. Once I added the color back to the cones and brightened them, I felt it appeared as if the cones were telling their story.
This was a group project where the group was to choose the public service announcement. Then create a tabloid size layout.

We wanted to focus on the large number of drivers that we had seen that not only put themselves at risk, but other vehicles as well as pedestrians. Our slogan was “dtxd: dnt txt & drive.” We figured that our target audience would get caught by our slogan using texting lingo. Through a combination of sketches and mock ups, the group decided on. The next logo was
created with our group project with a public service announcement. I chose a photograph that I took and blurred the photograph a bit to recreate what it is when one texts and drives; what is important is in focus when what the driver should really be focusing on is slightly blurred.
My intent was to show how the simplest of things in life can become art. At first glance it may appear as if I edited myself in the photograph, but I did not. The mirrors and bits of rusted metal were part of an art sculpture in a city downtown. I had been visiting with my fellow interns, so they appear in the image as well. It pushes the idea that even though we may appear different from one another, it is one common theme or idea that can bring us all together. I kept everyone’s face not as clear as possible, because I wanted to bring the idea that nothing we do or people that we meet are never as clear as we think it is.
The assignment was to create wallpaper using one typeface and one simple graphic, if any graphics at all. Design a wallpaper that you could see in a room.

I chose a poem that I wrote and used a simple cube illustration to emphasize the white box. The poem focuses on the feelings that one has within this “white box“ and believed that more was said in what was not shown. Part of the feeling within the box was that there was this never ending alone quality. Through the use of repetition of the cubes on the wallpaper a sense of never ending and being alone is created.
I did not do many edits to this photograph. Mainly I pulled the colors to be brighter and changed the contrast a bit. I wanted to create the feeling of being one with the environment, not taking it for granted as mere background.
My initial intent was to make this tractor really stand out from the background but after changing it, I realized that the true beauty of the image was the perspective itself. By taking a closer shot of the tractor I not only gave the photo its focus, but I brought a story to the tractor. I attempted to keep the colors realistic as if one were to happen upon a tractor near a metallic building.
My intent was to show the beauty of nature as it is without the confines that manmade materials create. I achieved this by digitally editing out the power lines and thick wire that were once in this photograph. Once I did that, there was still something missing in the photograph, from there I started to play around with the use of colors in the image. I left the green of the grass and trees to still emphasize nature. I instead played around with different colors for the sky in the background. The orange really helped to offset the deep green of the image. It also helped to bring some brightness and positivity to the photograph.
These are logos that were created for various projects.

The Battle of the Bands logo was created off of the slogan “Break the Stereo“. I was given the typeface and slogan to be used. The focus was to be an aggressive, punk rock looking logo, similar to the stereotype of Battle of the Bands.

The next logo was created with our group project with a public service announcement. Our slogan was “dtxd: dnt txt & drive.” We wanted to focus on the large number of drivers that we had seen that not only put themself at risk, but other vehicles as well as pedestrians.

The third logo is De Sandoh! It is a play off of my last name. I placed emphasis where it is needed in pronunciation. My thought was to create a logo that was not only serious, but fun. I feel that this was achieved through using a san serif font, to make it serious. And to make it fun, I sized the O to be larger and added an h! to the end.

The fourth logo is “Plug In For a Purpose”. A logo for Phi Theta Kappa Illinois, a regional section of an international honor
society, Leadership Conference and Honors Institute needed to be created. This logo was printed on t-shirts that were handed out as well as on the binders and agendas that were passed out all weekend.
The project was to take a self portrait, either through a timer or by hand.

I chose to do mine my hand. I love texture, so I made sure that I chose a textured background, this one happened to be the sidewalk. Spray-painting was a big part of my life at the time, so I wanted to have the spraypaint mask in the shot as well. It was more of a “this is the me that you don’t see photograph.” Eyes speak more than words ever could; not only from what we see through them, but what we can see looking into them. So I chose to crop the photo and focus on my eyes, the dark lines of the face against a textured but lighter background.
The assignment was to create our own font through repetition of one item. My thoughts went to spray-paint, and its ability to mesh the world as I know it with more abstract thoughts, images and feelings without needing to follow a specific format or structure. My intent was to show that anything can inspire us to work on, fight through what we’re dealing with, and come out strong, similar but not the same.
My intent with this piece was partly to emphasize the car’s wear and tear. It was also my intent to show how technology that we use eventually becomes outdated and goes to waste. Basically this illustrates how we push older technology aside; stop caring for it just as we did with nature. I used vibrancies to help boost the colors and a black and white slide to keep the grass very drastic and unearthly.
The assignment was to create a logo for our own business.

My logo puts emphasis on my last name. There are not too many people that I have come across with the last name of De Sando. I know that a good company needs to either have a descriptive or unique name so I went with my last name.
My focus was to capture one of the faces that I make and add a texture to the image. By doing this I hoped to illustrate how my work and I become one. I think that it is really important to not only be creative but to breathe and feel it. I hoped that by adding the tree branches that I not only fused every day with art, but showed how there is no exact split between life and art.
The assignment was to create a magazine layout on tabloid size paper.

I chose Rolling Stone layout because of its combination of text and few images. I took the article from another article that had been written about Robert Downey Jr. I thought up a new title of the article that I felt fit better with the article. I found both images online and chose them because one showed Downey Jr. as Iron Man and one just as himself. I chose red as a highlight from the Iron Man outfit and pulled it across the spread.