Held in the Mood

Fall 2024

Art, Photography, Design

This graphic design course pushed my creativity further than I expected and helped me grow both conceptually and technically as a designer. Through assignments that focused on moodboards, typography, visual research, and layout, I learned how much intention goes into building a strong design system and communicating a clear visual idea. For my final project, I was assigned Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and developed a concept vinyl as if I were an independent freelance designer creating a full visual direction for a real client. I took a personal approach by collaborating with a photographer friend and using original photos of two close friends to reflect the song’s themes of devotion, intimacy, and lasting love. From there, I used Procreate and Adobe Creative Suite, especially Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Lightroom, to shape the project and enhance the mood of the images, since many of the original photos were taken indoors in poor lighting. Overall, the course taught me how to better connect concept and execution, strengthened my confidence with design tools, and showed me how graphic design can tell a story across different forms of media in a thoughtful and emotionally intentional way.