“Be kind to yourself, learning is hard, design is easy”

Learning new skills was super hard for me in the beginning of the semester although I had already taken a graphic design course last semester, I did not work on any photoshop skills after that so I was a beginner once again. I didn’t research on my own as much as I should have and I regret that big time. Research on how to use different tools on photoshop and a paper layout to have an idea of where I wanted to go with my projects would have helped me submit more intricate work. Overall my time in the class was well spent and I plan on continuing work with photoshop in order to hoan my skills and begin to make flyers for events.

A piece that Milton Glaser created that surprised me was the I ❤ NY logo. For the longest time I always thought somebody just made this logo up a t-shirt but an actual artist designed this. Its’s such a simple design but very very popular. As an artist I wonder if he ever thought his design would become so popular or imitated by so many other artist and individuals.

For our final project we had to pick an environmental issue and turn it into a mosaic. I decided to focus on the issue of water pollution. Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities. Water bodies include for example lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants are introduced into the natural environment. The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills organisms that depend on these water bodies. This was one of my favorite projects because once I understood the concept the execution was super easy, and I love the final outcome I was left with. In total I mad about 3 mosaics before I finally reached the one above, they were good but nothing like this one which is probably why this was my favorite project.

My anatomical drawing of choice was the heart, and I chose to focus on heart disease. Surrounding the heart are facts and statistics regarding heart disease. My first infographic represents the races that are at the highest risk of dying early from heart disease and stroke. The left side represents women and the right side represents men.

The second set of statistics which is represented with a pie graph illustrates heart disease and stroke statistics from 2018. Blue= treated and controlled, Green= treated and uncontrolled, Yellow= not treated but aware, and Purple = not aware.

Afrofuturism is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a black lens. The term was conceived a quarter-century ago by white author Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future,” which looks at speculative fiction within the African diaspora. The essay rests on a series of interviews with black content creators.

What makes Afrofuturism significantly different from standard science fiction is that it’s steeped in ancient African traditions and black identity. A narrative that simply features a black character in a futuristic world is not enough. To be Afrofuturism, it must be rooted in and unapologetically celebrate the uniqueness and innovation of black culture.

I am actually super excited as I make this post because I didn’t think the gif was going to actually post as a gif. I thought I was going to have to convert this into a different file and do a whole bunch of things I honestly don’t know how to do, so this is exciting. Making a GIF was a lot easier than I expected it’s just when I tried to get more complex with the design I had trouble creating the frame animation so I decided to keep it simple.

“They going get this black girl magic today whether they want it or not.” – TherealKenyaT

This collage piece is inspired by my idea of what a perfect world looks like from the beautiful flowers to the tall palm trees. Of course my perfect world would include way more things, but this is just a glimpse of what it would include.