Duvet Cover

This is the duvet cover I have on my bed. Its purpose is purely decorative, but I think it's also an interesting example of graphic design. All it is is the Swedish alphabet in black and white, but each letter is slightly different each time it's printed. The whole thing is laid out on a grid, making it look very uniform and organized. I think it's a good design.

Giant Microbes

This is a box that my friend gave me for my birthday. It's got little toys inside that look like germs and diseases. The design of the box is pretty simple, but it's good at telling you what it is and what's in it. The fonts are kind of playful and geared towards kids, just like the toys. There aren't any graphics, which I actually think helps. Because the background is two-tone, some kind of design would probably just detract from the overall design. I don't think there is really a specific design style when it comes to the box, but the type is set out along a grid, making everything appear neat and clean. I think this is a pretty successful design because of that.

The Umbrella Academy

This is a page I scanned from one of my favorite graphic novels, The Umbrella Academy. I figured that if a book cover is an example of graphic design, why not the panels of a graphic novel as well? Its purpose is to tell a story and draw people in. Images and type are combined to let people know what's going on with the characters. The images are arranged in a way that is supposed to be compelling and show different scenes. A lot of effort goes into designing pages in a graphic novel, and I think that this is a good example of graphic design.

Makeup Ad

This is an ad for makeup that I found in a magazine. Its purpose is to get women to buy what they see because it'll supposedly make them look better. The ad is split into two parts--one part showing a woman wearing the product, and another showing the product itself. The ad is pretty sleek, I have to admit; everything is designed nicely and with simplicity in mind. The font is clean and sans-serif, and balances out the woman on the left side of the image. I think that overall it's a pretty decent design.

Hair Stuff

I was at Walgreen's the other day and noticed these two bottles of hair goop. One is the name-brand version, and the other one is the generic version. They're fairly similar in design, although one is packaged much differently. The fonts are different, but the colors are the same on both. I thought it was really interesting to see two products that are essentially the same but designed differently sitting next to each other. Makes for a great comparison!

The News-Gazette

This is the header to the Local section of the News-Gazette. Its purpose is to tell you what section of the paper you're reading, as well as who the editors of the paper are. It's a fairly simple design, with only black and white and a little bit of blue. It's not supposed to be decorative, so the fonts are kept simple. The typeface isn't Helvetica, but it's similiar and set on a grid, making everything legible and understandable. The only ornamentation comes in the form of the newpaper's title on the right-hand side. The typeface looks gothic to me, so I think it's supposed to look almost Victorian in nature. It's such a familiar typeface for those of us who subscribe to The News-Gazette, and has been used for so long it's recognized by the majority of people who live in or around Champaign.

Poster

This is a poster I bought at an Ikea a while back and never bothered to put up. I bought it because I really liked the way different typefaces, styles, and images were used to create something unified and enjoyable to look at. I like that it doesn't matter which way you turn it, because there will always be some images that are sideways or upside-down. Its only purpose is to serve as decoration, although I think it's made up of different posters advertising performers (for example, I think the bright yellow square is advertising Bob Marley). There are many different typefaces from different times, instead of sticking to just one or two typefaces characteristic of a specific era of graphic design. Overall I think it's a really great design, because at first glance it just looks like someone threw together all these different colors and typefaces, but as you look around the poster you start to see that everything meshes together because of the lack of similarity among the squares. I think I'm going to have to finally hang this poster up. :)