hilary short

branding and marketing

When possible, I like to be actively engaged in the development of programming. I love the process of development, and from a design perspective, I can chase the perfect element to bring it all together through this explorative phase.
    In the case of Words Matter! there were many design elements to think about: a poster series, a web campaign, and a workshop presentation. For a long time I messed around with the “M” form and “W” form, and I’ve seen many successful examples of this, but it was never quite pulling all the pieces together. Instead, my final form ended with a simple highlighter aesthetic. Within the academic setting, this is a familiar intervention. The programmatic intention of the workshop was to highlight phrases or sayings that are culturally familiar. But instead of automatic acceptance, the workshop teaches how to pause, and notice. 
    As a designer, I think of my output as my reaction to content. In the case of a , I thought about the idea of progress and forward motion. Similar to a , I thought about steps or gaps and infused those meanings into the visuals. I start at a literal place and then abstract outward until just a feeling of it remains.
    I have also started illustrating more, personally and . Due to my training in typography and form, I began to see illustrations as extensions of simple shapes. 
    Lastly, I think about the user, the audience. In the case of a , I took elements of accessibility: high contrast, larger type, and not using color to solely depict meaning, and infused it completely into the project. For the cover, I played with scale and abstracted the pie chart.