During the Explorations unit, we were each given the opportunity to explore our passions and learn new skills. I chose to do an exploration in bullet journaling, which is a type of personal organization system that combines a lot of different concepts. You can use it to record to-do lists, wish lists, thoughts, dreams, calendars, birthdays, favorites, anything! In the end it creates a unique personal record presented in a visually appealing way. For my explorations project, I focused a lot on the visual presentation component of bullet journaling.

Process

I started out wanting to explore different layouts, but realized that I was more interested in the decorative elements that make up the layouts, so I began to play with those.

I wanted to be able to easily use these elements in the future, so I decided to use Adobe Illustrator. I drew all of these elements freehand, then went back in and cleaned up the lines and made them into usable vector shapes.

I did end up making one full page spread layout, that included a lettered quote, also completely freehanded. This process included a lot of redrawing on different layers until I was happy with the letter shapes. I finished the quote by deleting all of my guidelines, adding color, adjusting line thickness, and adding the decorative lines and stars.

Product

Below is my final product, including various elements that one could use while making a bullet journal layout. The various decorated notecards and squares would contain text such as a list or a memory. I also experimented with banners, stationery, and other layout elements.

One of the things I love about being a Freestyle student is learning how to communicate visually. Communication is a crucial skill in every field. Graphic design helps deliver a message in the most impactful and visually pleasing way, and I think that this project helped me be able to explore that further. I liked being able to explore one of my interests and end up with more inspiration and elements that I can use for future projects. Overall, I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me to expand on my interests while learning new applications of the skills we’ve been learning.

Experimental Music

In Digital Media, we learned a new way to make music using Pro Tools and used this to make a new piece. I chose to use the tune of the familiar song, Something Just Like This, and experimenting with adding different elements such as harmonies and different instruments, and overlaying certain parts of the song over each other to create an interesting effect.

Here’s what I came up with!

My inspiration for this piece was the song “Something Just Like This” by Coldplay, which is the main tune that I used as the baseline for my song. I took the main themes from this song and made them into my own song, “Something Just Like That.”

This project helped me learn a lot more about how to use Pro Tools to create my own music using various virtual instruments. I am very proud of the way that the beats I designed worked out, and the way that the different parts of the song are overlaid over one another.

I enjoyed working with Pro Tools to experiment with music. It’s a challenging program, but I was able to learn new applications and tools that really expanded my skillset in electronic music and audio editing. I already have some musical training, but I enjoyed being able to try something new with this application to add to something that I already love.