LIM College

by Meghan McDermott

I recently took LIM College’s Advanced Display Graphics course, which is the follow-up to Display Graphics. While it is required for Visual Merchandising majors, I’ve always had a passion for graphic design, so I thoroughly enjoyed the work. We were instructed to create a brand and then design a style guide and marketing package to convey our concept to the class.

I chose to create an internet cafe called OUTLET as a play on words between an emotional or creative outlet, as well as a physical outlet used to charge gadgets and technologies I chose to design my own website from scratch, create social media platforms (Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter), and design business cards, coffee cup sleeves, subway ads and an ad to be placed in magazines like Nylon and AP to cater to my ideal customer. This was the most fun I had with a project in a very long time, probably because I was and remain incredibly passionate about the concept.

We were guided through Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to design a logo from scratch, going through a lengthy process of trial and error. Some days we would have to do 50 thumbnail sketches of our logo to test out a multitude of options to go through the process of selection by our professor, classmates and peers. Exercises like this were common and while they seemed tedious, they really helped us evolve our concepts from something basic to something remarkable. Throughout the semester I probably had more than 100 different variations of my logo and it wasn’t until the night before my final that I came to a final decision on which one I absolutely loved.

Creative technology courses, whether they are Photoshop, Illustrator or even CAD, are very time-intensive. I would work on elements of my final every single day, and still felt like I could have used more time! I think the most important things to remember when taking this course are: 1. Time is of the essence and to use it as efficiently as you possibly can and 2. Never be afraid to take risks and try variations you wouldn’t consider, while absorbing the constructive criticism you receive from a multitude of parties. You never know what may ring through or resonate with your process hours, days, months or years after the conversation has passed.