Rebrands and Redesigns #1
Happy New Year! My holiday break has been a good mix of rest and work on a couple of exciting projects. One project I’m working on is a design and personal development project. This year, I will be using Photoshop to work on a series of mockups and branding concept projects from apps to books and beyond, which will improve my workflow in and deepen my knowledge of Photoshop.
I’ve used Photoshop quite a bit before but primarily when making gifs, Instagram filters, and some small branding concept projects to mock-up designs. I’m taking a more focused approach and getting back to basics by watching and applying Phlearn’s 30 Days of Photoshop series. I’ll also be applying what I’m learning about Photoshop to more concept projects like the one featured here, in which I redesigned a book cover.
2020 was a big year for me in terms of design whether it was doing design projects or reading about design and tech. One book on tech that I read and highly recommend was “Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet” by Claire L. Evans.
Broad Band introduces readers to women from Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper to more contemporary pioneers like Pam Hardt-English who led a digital bulletin board in California in the 1970s. This book centers the influence that women have on digital technology and touches on the minoritization of women in tech that happened as it started to commercialize and become a mainstream, lucrative good.
I wanted to do a redesign project, because I’m interested in visual design and brand identity. Additionally, because of the book’s nods to counterculture environments, technological pioneers, and cyberfeminist communities that were prevalent in the history of digital technology, I wanted the book’s cover to more reflect that tone and dynamic nature. Not to mention, the author Claire Evans is the frontwoman for the band, YACHT, and creating a book cover that more mimicked a bright, bold punk album but also that was not overtly or traditionally feminine seemed more fitting.
To design the cover, I used colors that were pulled from the micro-controllers on the current cover. I also mood-boarded some images of punk girl bands, New Wave movies, and feminist posters. I used those to inspire the additional colors and one of the fonts, Americane Condensed, which I rounded at the corners to make it easier on the eyes.
I have a few ideas in mind for the next projects, including a redesign of my favorite skin care line and a mock up of my concept for a Harry and Meghan Heritage mug(mine broke recently — welp!).
Excited to share more!
Originally published at https://www.sarahcoloma.com on January 3, 2021.
