Mel Fish

Design Strategy

As I began the design process, I decided that I wanted to have both a clean-cut and visually stimulating résumé. Since my target audience is a Public Relations firm in New York City, I determined that I wanted to represent myself as an experienced and modern creative thinker. I feel that these firms are innovative and in search for this type of intern. To accomplish this, I made a clear visual hierarchy, used a crisp shade of blue to guide my audience down the page, and used most of the space on my résumé for the ‘experience’ section. Through my use of blue for my last name, the second line of my contact information, headers, and bullet points, I feel it gives the résumé a modern feel, as well as effective eyepoints throughout the page.

Another major design decision was how to represent my name on the wordmark. My full name contains 7 letters, and I felt that a horizontal wordmark would not accomplish the image I am aiming for. To handle this, I created a stacked and colored wordmark, where I kerned the first two letters of my last name so that the M of my first name could sit symmetrically on top of my last name.

In creating my wordmark, I was drawn to the flat cross strokes of Memphis LT Std. Light for my first name. The reasoning behind this is that the letters sit flat on top of the superimposed (FI) and the ascender of the (H), in which I utilize the san serif quality of Franklin Gothic Std No. 2 Roman. This is especially true for the capital (M) in my first name. The stacked wordmark looks symmetrical and helps make my name seem less strange. For the body of my résumé, I used Memphis LT Std Light because not only does it have a relatively small x-height, but it is easy to read and has a crisp feel to it. The small x-height is important to my résumé because it helps save space, which was an issue as I went through the design process. For the ‘education’ section of my résumé, I felt it was still important for it to stick out even though it is at the bottom of the page. To do this, I made the font slightly larger for the information in this section

Week Three, Stefaniak

As Lupton says, 'one of design's most humane functions is...to help readers avoid reading." In this picture where the designer has used letters to form an object instead of a word, the design has succeeded. By disrupting, compressing, and migrating the letters, the designer has produced a better effect than if s/he were to simply type "gun" and "bang." The serif of the "r" creates the perfect trigger, just as the serifs elsewhere provide for the perfect outline for the design. It's evident that by manipulating the text, the designer knew that this form of typography was the best way to go.

However, as soon as you look away from the beautifully designed object, it's clear that something's not quite right. Though the thin/thick strokes create a perfect design for the gun, they detract from the threatening message of the actual words. The kerning/tracking adds to the skew of the message, replacing fear with delicate overused typeface. Overall, though half effective as a typeface, word exercise has proven to be extremely beneficial for this design.