Playing my way through design

I truly can't believe it's the end of May already.

Just last week, I wrapped up my Design Foundations certificate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). Yay!

In 2023, I enrolled in a series of graduate-level courses with a goal of expanding my visual storytelling skills through formal studies. Looking back, it totally checks out that I'd end up here. As a kid, I spent a lot of time making handmade menus, cards, album artwork for CDs that I burned, and full handwritten magazines with printed images pasted in and all (definitely hoping to dig them up). When I learned that some of these things would be my projects in class, I was ecstatic. Little Katie would be proud.

The classes encouraged me to play while deepening my knowledge in visual literacy, layout design, ideation, color theory, typography, and brand identity. I loved getting hands-on, creating a magazine (dream project), an identity system for a cafe, my first stop-motion video using collage, and so much more.

Here's a preview of my magazine project. I look forward to sharing more work soon—I wouldn't be me if I didn't need to refine or expand on a few things first.

Cheers to learning!