Fourth Journal

The following weeks has been very interesting and entertaining. Here at Quesbook we have been implementing our new branding guideline to all our different types of media. Our new website is finally up live and we have been working on other products that will be introduced in the future. For now, we are working with a new color palette we call highlighter. It gives more emphasis on the color yellow as the primary color.

Many of the projects have been visual projects, which is not surprising since I’m the UI Designer. I’ve so far worked on projects from everything from the website interface to business cards. Here are some examples of the work live:

Being part of the process for the new branding guideline has been interesting and helped me learn a lot. There are many factors that go into such a design change and it has to match with the voice of the company. The process has been great and there is a lot I’ve been learning.

Third Journal

After a week for working for the company, I think I have a fair understanding of the culture. Everyone Director respects each others works and always communicates among the goals of the company. This was a great source of communication. The company is very casual among clothes. The departments that dress a bit more formal will be the business side.

My office is open work area and everyone is in close quarters to speak and grab each other for any questions if there may be one. The office is beautiful and offers many different services. They use a WeWork office for their space. WeWork is a incredible company when it comes to office space. Its beautiful and makes the vibe good.  Everything from the kitchen to the bathroom are just beautiful interior designs. There is even a small common store in the office! Our typical hours is a choice among us. We either get to choose 9-6 or 7-10. We get one hour of unpaid lunch.

Everyone is kind to each other and the office is pretty laid back. We all respect each other and have one goal in mind, to improve the company. Everyones super excited for launch and attempting to make SAT/ACT experience better for students.

Second Journal

It’s been a week since I started working for Quesbook. This week has been great and very productive. I’m the Junior UI Designer for Quesbook. My job is to design the interface for their SAT/ACT prepping website. I also do other interface designs such as designing their triggered emails when a new user registers and other actions within the website. I’m also designing their new branding language and contributing to a interface library for future uses.

My supervisor is Silvia, she’s the Art Director for Quesbook. I came across this position while looking for a job. I knew I wanted to jump into a UI Design job and seeing Quesbook have a listing for a Junior position and expect 0-3 years experience was a great opportunity for me to jump into the field. When reading the description it was clear that I had the skill sets they were looking for.

The process was both short and long. It took me 2 weeks to get hired but the interviews were long. I had one phone interview which lasted 10-20min. Here I was assigned a UI design assignment to test my skills. The topic was interesting. I had to design a UI for a movie ticketing website. Making it easy and efficient for users to buy movie tickets. It also had to have a beautiful UI design. The in-person interview was long. I had a interview with the Art Director, Recruitment Director and CEO. I also had to present my project in front of their Art/Marketing and Business Director. The interviews with each person lasted a while and it took a total of 3 hours. I got the job offer the Friday before Labor day. That was 4 days after my interview.

During the interview I was asked many different questions. Since I presented my UI design it seemed like they were less curious if I had the skills and more interested in my personality. I was asked questions about my passions and why they should choose me. The questions were related to communications and my interest in the design field. They were curious to figure me out as a person.

First Journal

I was recently hired by Quesbook to be their Junior UI Designer. It has been a honor to get the job and I feel very grateful. The process took about 2 weeks and I went through many interviews. It took me 1 phone interview and 3 in-person interviews with the Art Director, Recruit Director and CEO of the company. I was very nervous, but I enjoyed it after the 3 hour long process. I felt confident that I had a high possibility to get the job and I ended up landing it.

Let me tell you a bit about Quesbook.  The company is privately owned by Chinese Investors. The companies primary business is to make SAT/ACT prep affordable for students and allow great results. The company is located in a WeWork office located across the street from Grand Central Station. The company has 11 employees in NYC and more in China. Their main clients would be highschool students who are trying to prepare themselves to take the SAT/ACT test. The company was founded in 2014 by a Chinese investor who’s child was struggling to find sources to prepare themselves for the SAT/ACT. They wanted to get prepared and come get a college education in the USA.

I work for their design department. The company is a start up and has no recent news about it.

Graphic Principles I

          Graphic Principles, what is Graphic Principles? When first entering the class, my expectations were different from what the results were. When thinking about graphic design, I thought everything would be done on the computer. Which made me think the class would be taught on the computer as well. I thought the class would be based on the Adobe programs. Which is wasn’t. When first reading the list of tools for the class, I came to the realization that we would be doing it on paper. Which wasn’t all that bad since it will teach us where it all started.

          During first few weeks of the class, I learned many things. We learned the basics of graphic principles. This will lead to me learning how to get the right sizing and space. These two are important aspects of design. For a perfect design you must have perfect sizing and spacing. Margins and actual size of an image have to be perfect for it to work. We would learn many things such as patterns and colors. Assignments such as two tones grey scales, would teach us how to pick the right amount of two colors to work together. Colors are important when it comes to design, you want the colors to work so that your audience so that they enjoy your work.

          Towards the end of the semester the assignments became more complicated. We would have to put all the elements we’ve learned through out the semester into one narrative piece. All the material I’ve learned throughout the year such as spacing, sizing, color and much more would be put into a narative piece. When working on the final project, I put all I’ve learned into it. Getting the size and margins right so that it works and making the colors work together.

          The end of the semester is almost near, and I’ve learned a lot. My expectations towards the class, was different from the results. The results were completely different, but they were also positive. Learning many things that technology couldn’t really teach you. Getting hands on with the shapes and colors was a different experience than being on the computer. They are the same elements to learn but a different experience. I can see the class have a positive output on my future and how I look at graphic design in the future. All my senses of design will be improved cause of this course.

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Angel Caquias Graphic Principle I

 

Offset Printing

When viewing the process of offset printing, i learned many things. Printing has been around for generations. Making books more accessible to people. This allowed people first to study the bible without going to a church. Then will lead on to other books such as education and the creativity of people. Leading to many opportunities for people to begin making posters and many more creative aspects of the world.

The process of offset printing was a long process, compared to the modern printing. You will need ink, as in ever printer. It also requires a template to be used. Not a digital template like we use in the modern world, but a physical template. When applying ink to the template it allows you to make copies of it when pressed against other pieces of paper. Allowing many copies to be made compared to hand writing every copy back then. It allows a faster way to spread ideas.

Logo

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The logo i have made for myself, represent me because of my initials. I chose to do my initials and put a little style in it. It has an ‘A’ and a ‘C’ integrated together to make my logo. I  also chose to put 4 black areas to represent that when we put 3 colors together we get a color we want in the center. While i don’t like everything being centered, i love the outcome of this logo. My future goals for the future is to continue growing my skills in graphic design. As i grow my skills i will create more pieces that people can enjoy. People enjoying my work is my goal. I also want to continue growing my skills to be known as a designer who’s good at what he does.