Kynnedy Smith: Final Project - FAB LAB Thank-You Card

Step 1: Brainstorming, Sketch, refine, and final design

While I was pitching Ideas for my final project to Mr. D, he suggested that I should make a thank you card stamp for the Fab Lab. Intrigued by the challenge, I accepted. So, I started sketching. Since this was a card for the Fab Lab I knew it was important that I designed the card the way Mr. D wanted. So after I finished all of my sketches I received more feedback so that I could refine exactly which sketch I wanted to use as my final print. This process actually took the longest amount of time because it was hard to decide what I really wanted - I mean hopefully the school would be sending this out, so it was a big deal! In the end, I actually ended up combining two of my initial designs! After sketching out what it would look like and checking in for more feedback, I re-drew my final design and traced it with a black sharpie.

Step 2: Digital Design

After finalizing my design, I scanned it, traced its bitmap, and placed it into Adobe Illustrator. From there I cleaned up its design and received a bit more feedback on it as well. I got a few comments saying that it was missing something, so I decided to place some idea bulbs in the back round. I think it really made my design come together. The hardest part of this was the tedious action of fixing my lines because there were a lot of gaps from its original drawn design. After fixing up the lines, I inverted and reflected my design multiple ways for print!

Step 3: Prototyping

This step was definitely the most simple out of the steps so far. The ultimate goal was to be able to print the design inverted on a piece of wood, then be able to put paint on it and stamp it on cardstock, however, we did not have enough time. In the end, all I got to be able to do was print my design on wood. The design printed really well and I think that it definitely would transfer if I put paint on it!

Next Steps?

If I had more time, my next steps would be to test out this stamp, receive more feedback, tweak my designs, and try again! I actually think that I may return to this project once intensives start and see how my final product will look!

What did I learn?

I think that this project has helped me to fully understand the design process and why I should stick to it. In past projects, I did not fully follow it and I would always have some flaw in my final product. However, now that I really understand the process, it made this project run a lot smoother and take a lot less time than my other projects did!