2025
Design class, NCSMI
NCSMI Design Innovation Award
For my last NCSMI camp, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. I decided to take the design portion and help train/get closer with our upcoming design editor. I loved the challenges that the class brought and I enjoyed our projects. Right before the camp, I had been on a real Stanley Kubrick kick, so when we had the opportunity to design two spreads on someone who inspired us for our final project, I chose Kubrick.
While I had designed yearbook spreads before, I had never designed a magazine-style layout. One could argue that a good yearbook spread should look like a magazine, and while that is true, the camp gave me more design freedom than yearbook design rules allow. The experience helped me to have a newfound love for design as well. I understood better how design should be functional and should serve the viewer.
Something that I had not done before was research the subject matter before designing. This was something we were told to do in the class, and it was a game-changer. Because I had recently watched "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," I knew that dramatic shapes and dark contrast was a large aspect of Kubrick's style. I researched what some of his other movies looked like, and found that this was pretty consistent in "2001: A Space Odyssey" as well. I used the deep contrast and angular perspective as a design element that carried throughout the design.
(The copy was pulled from a Rolling Stones article as writing was not something we had to do for the spread, and this was an educational project.)
2024-2025
But Also
SIPA - Cover Design, 3rd place
The "But Also" cover is my favorite design that I have done. The year before, we designed a cover and then had a cover artist help make it sharp and execute the perspective a little clearer. For "But Also," it was completely my design without anyone helping. We got the inspiration for the theme after we realized there were so many connections in our school, with "but also" being a phrase used when connecting two clauses.
The cover for "But Also" was a mesh of all of the art I consumed during my junior year, and it is the culmination of hours of YouTube videos explaining Adobe Illustrator and combing through for inspiration. By the end, I was extremely proud that all the small details I had scavenged had come together to make a beautiful cover.
The theme felt jazzy and stripped down. I loved using lines to connect letters together. This was a recurring design element throughout the book. I wanted the book to have type playing a major role, because the theme depended so much on the connections of people's stories and their words. The letters being blocked but having lines overtop of them illustrated how each story was its own, but also how they intertwined and were affected by each other. I wanted to use shapes like designer Neil Fujita used on the album cover for "Time Out," an album on repeat during class that year. The shapes illustrated that the stories while happening simultaneously and separate from each other, also worked together to create a beautiful collection. Once zoomed out, you could see how they all played on one another.
"Only by the Night" CD that helped lead to the decorative font used in But Also.
"Time Out" album that started it all. The cover was used for inspiration and the music was used for background music to create to.
2024-2025
But Also
I had completed the football spread early, so I could help others in the class meet the deadline. I had also been to pretty much every football game, so I decided to go ahead and cover the last one, even though the spread was done and we had a plethora of photos. What I didn't know was that the game would be the one that broke the team's four-year losing streak. The seniors on the team had never tasted victory before, and now they were experiencing the feeling in the last game of the season.
Having to rush and complete everything in such a quick turnaround taught me just how important the fundamentals are. I knew the design rules, and I worked the spread like a puzzle. Without the fundamental rules of design, a blank canvas can be daunting. But because I had mastered the basics, the spread wasn't so intimidating and ended up being one that the school flipped to first to relive that amazing night.
I realized that this was the story that needed to be in the yearbook. Not a story about a close win, but a story about the win. I called my adviser and told him that we would need to pay for the spread back. I got all of my interviews and edited the photos immediately. I also had to design the entire spread in one night.
2022 - 2023
This Is Where We Are
In my freshman year, I spent a lot of time using the headline space to have creatively designed headlines. I didn't want the space to always be the classic headline, subheading, copy. While that standard design is necessary at times, this book's design element was a glitch, so having an innovative design was very necessary.
SIPA - Headline Package, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place
2023-2024
Are You Paying Attention
The cover for Are You Paying Attention actually inspired the book's theme. As I was walking down the hall at the end of my freshman year, I noticed that the light shining through the windows fell onto the hallway floor. As the day progressed, the light shifted and changed shape as the sun moved. What was interesting, though, was that depending on the time of day, you might see a reflection of light from the floor on the ceiling, with a swirly shadow that almost swam in the light. This was something very specific to certain windows within the school and could only be seen at certain times if you were paying attention to the ceiling.
I decided that the cover should be an abstract version of the hallway. I worked with a few others on our staff to create perspective. Having others to work with was incredibly helpful, especially their art backgrounds, which helped us create the hallway's perspective. After I figured out how to create the swirling effect in Photoshop, I showed the others on our staff who were helping create the cover how to apply it, so we could use it as a design element throughout the book.
This was the reflection that inspired the design element. While at this point the reflection was slightly on the wall and slightly on the ceiling, at other times it would be fully on the wall or fully on the ceiling.
Colophon piece from Are You Paying Attention