My semester in J365: As a creative advertising major, I took J365 because I have always loved graphic design and wanted to improve my skills in graphic design so I knew this class was not only a requriment to be able to graduate with my major , but something that I am actually interested in. Later on I want to become a creative director so taking creative skills class will help me acheieve that! Throught this semester I have leaarned so many things that I did not know and improved my skills!
Project 1: Front Page
Project 1: Design the front page of a fictional newspaper called Thee Newspaper using provided articles and promos, selecting stories, photos, and layout elements to create a cohesive and visually effective prototype that demonstrates strong hierarchy and professional design principles.
For our first project in J365, we had to design the front page of Thee Newspaper. Prof Layton gave us four articles and a few promos to work with, and it was up to us to decide which stories, photos, and layout would create the best design. I really liked this project because it gave us creative freedom to structure the page with a strong centerpiece and a clear hierarchy.
I partnered with Emilee since we sit next to each other in class, and we worked really well together. During class, we planned out most of the layout and picked the stories we wanted to include. We sketched a rough draft, and for the most part, we stuck to it. When it came to typography, we made sure to follow the three-family rule—using Georgia and Charter (both serifs) for body text, headlines, and decks, and Helvetica (a sans-serif) for things like promos, labels, and bylines. Since we couldn’t finish everything in class, we shared the InDesign file through Office 365 and kept each other updated through texting to make sure we were both on the same page.
We decided to use the Crestwood story as the centerpiece because it’s a local story that’s interesting and attention-grabbing. To make it stand out, we placed the headline inside the dominant photo and used white space to separate it from the rest of the layout. We also included the Tariff story because it was timely and relevant, and we chose the Superads story since the Super Bowl was coming up. For the promo at the top, we highlighted another Super Bowl-related story, and in the bottom right corner, we promoted additional articles. Overall, we designed the front page to feature five stories, using a modular layout to keep everything organized and visually appealing. I work for the magazine Season here at IU and we use Indesign to keep it as professional as possible but I’ve never created a newspaper front page. Comparing the two when it comes to a newspaper and a magazine, a newspaper is more specific and detailed whereas magazine has more creative freedom and everything doesntshave to be specific. I think it was good to learn the way that the newspaper works alongside the skills I have with a magazine!
Project 2: Magazine
Project 2: produce a prototype of a new graphic design magazine called "365," including a cover, four-page article and an alternative story form.
For my magazine project in J365, I designed a six-page edition of THREESIXFIVE, focusing on a London theme. I really enjoyed the creative process and tried to incorporate some cool design elements to make the magazine feel visually cohesive and engaging.
For the cover, I went with a cut-out effect of a Buckingham royal guard, which I think gave it a bold and dynamic feel. I wanted it to capture attention while sticking to the London theme. For the opening spread of “Going Underground,” I aimed to reflect the underground theme by making the word “going” look like it was literally going underground. I think this effect tied nicely with the story’s concept and made the layout more interesting.
The second spread was more straightforward, but I added some graphic design touches to keep it from feeling too plain. For the sidebar, I experimented with overlapping the posters to give it more depth and make it feel like they were spilling out of the page — kind of like how posters would look layered on a real wall. For the last page, which highlighted the top five album covers, I think I could’ve pushed the design a bit further. I tried to keep it consistent with the overall vibe of the magazine, but it might have needed a bit more polish.
Overall, this project was a fun challenge. It pushed me to experiment with layout, typography, and visual hierarchy while keeping the London theme consistent. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but there’s always room to improve!
Project 3: Poster
Project 3: Design an original poster on a topic of your choice that follows the project’s core guidelines, using tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to explore illustration, color theory, typography, and texture in a cohesive and visually compelling layout.
For our third project in J365, we were tasked with designing a poster from scratch that centered around a topic of our choice, as long as it followed the core guidelines of the assignment. For my design, I decided to create a fake poster for a skateboarding competition. I wanted to approach the project with a playful and grungy vibe, something that felt true to skate culture but still allowed me to explore color, texture, and illustration in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
The first thing I did was illustrate a broken skateboard in Illustrator. This felt like the perfect visual centerpiece for the theme I was going for—something that suggested intensity, rebellion, and rawness, all of which felt aligned with the skate world. Once the skateboard illustration was done, I used the eyedropper tool to pull a muted greenish tone from the board and plugged it into Adobe Color to experiment with complementary colors. That process helped guide the rest of my color choices. I ended up using a combination of green and black text to keep the layout visually grounded but still readable.
While I liked the colors and the central illustration, I felt like the plain white background was making the poster feel too clean and kind of lifeless—especially for a skate comp. So I experimented with halftone effects using both Illustrator and Photoshop to create something that added more depth and texture. I really wanted it to look gritty and a bit chaotic, like a wall of stickers and graffiti at a skate park. I ended up creating this layered halftone pattern filled with tiny color dots and a grainy pink graffiti-like texture behind the board to add more personality and contrast.
One of the most challenging parts was figuring out how to balance all these graphic elements without losing legibility. I also had to be intentional with my typography, making sure that the event details stood out while still feeling cohesive with the overall design. I went with a bold but slightly distressed typeface for most of the text, especially the venue and date, and kept things clean for ticket prices and entry info to help guide the viewer’s eye.
Overall, this poster gave me the opportunity to combine illustration with design in a way that pushed me creatively. I got to play with color theory, texture, and effects while staying true to the culture and tone of what I was trying to emulate. I feel like I grew more confident using Illustrator and Photoshop together, especially in how to make a piece feel dynamic without overwhelming the viewer. This was a fun, expressive project that made me realize how much I enjoy creating something that feels like it could really live in a physical space like a skate shop or on a telephone pole downtown.
Project 4: Infographic
Project 4: Create an infographic that presents data in a visually compelling and thematic way, using design, typography, and layout to clearly communicate a story or trend. For this project, students were encouraged to combine research with creative direction, developing a visual narrative around a topic of their choice.
For this project, my partner Luke Vogel and I created an infographic titled “Resurrecting the Record”, which shows the evolution of music formats and the unexpected comeback of vinyl in today’s digital age. We were really interested in how something once considered outdated is now leading the music industry again, and that idea became the core of our concept.
The infographic starts with a pie chart titled “VINYLS RISE AGAIN IN THE TWENTY-TWENTIES”, where we put sales data from 2024. The numbers were honestly pretty shocking , vinyl records brought in $1.44 billion, which was more than double the amount CDs made ($541 million) and almost ten times more than digital album downloads ($167 million). We included a small header called “BACK FROM THE DEAD” underneath to play into the theme of vinyl being revived, which also tied into the overall title of our infographic. The second half of the project, we used a a line graph titled “MUSIC MEDIUMS LAID TO REST”, which tracks the rise and fall of older physical formats, specifically 8-tracks, cassettes, and cassette singles, from 1975 to 2010. This section was about showing how quickly trends can change in the music industry and how many formats have become lost over time. We added a description above the graph explaining how, before streaming took over, these were the main ways people experienced music. Now, they’ve become almost symbolic, part of what we called the “Deceased Media Graveyard”. We used color-coded lines to distinguish between the three formats and labeled each with a key to keep the data clear and readable.
In terms of design choices, we leaned into a retro horror kind of vibe almost like an old-school horror movie poster, to match the “resurrection” theme. That’s why we chose phrases like “Back from the Dead” and “Deceased Media Graveyard.” We added a pale purple color to balance not only the font color but tp make the graphs stand out better. We wanted it to feel like vinyl records had clawed their way back into modern relevance, while the other formats stayed buried in history.
Overall, I think this project helped both of us think more critically about how to present data visually in a way that’s both informative and engaging. Luke and I balanced each other’s ideas really well. I think our infographic captures that surprising narrative in a fun and visually impactful way!