"in the meantime" design projects

For all you high school and college-aged students: sometimes, school loads are light and freelance design work isn't going to exist for a week or two. It is in those moments that I get out the handy-dandy list of "in the meantime" design projects. The projects that are quick and fun and give you complete ability to gear them toward your own personal style and likes. 

Sometimes it's good to design for yourself and have a reminder of what it is that you like. I also can't even tell you how many times professors and designers of 10, 20, 30 years of experience have told me to design for myself once in a while. Design when syllabus' and critics aren't involved. Design to remind yourself why it is that you love it and why it is that you were born with a brain that focus' on textiles and kerning and package designs instead of the periodic table of elements or algorithms or world history (thank God).  


Also, for those of you that are interested in graphic design, this is the best place to start to begin to teach yourself design principles and the way to use certain design programs. 

Here are eight places to start when you feel the need to design something seemingly official that you could put into a portfolio (but that doesn't come from the mouth of a professor or a client) and you don't know where to begin:

Brand a Restaurant. The restaurant down the street from you that has great food and the worst design. Take a to-go menu, snap some pictures of its menu in the store or the horrendous logo design, and check to see if they have a horribly designed website to go along with it. Get a feel for the restaurant vibe, food, and decor, and re-brand the entire place. You can definitely go the extra mile with to-go packaging and paper cup designs and even wall graphics if you'd like. Business cards, vinyls on the door with hours of service, and an in-store menu are also options. This kind of stuff looks brilliant in a portfolio, even if it's never actually existed in a restaurant before.

Create a Book Cover. Go to a thrift store, grab a few ridiculously designed books and re-design the cover. This kind of project is really easy to do, really cheap, and if you print out the cover and wrap it around the book it's looks as official as it could possibly be.

Re-Design Product Packaging. Go to Ikea or any store that sells reasonably priced options to package things in, buy some rad containers and stop on by a Trader Joes or a local market to buy some boring packaging designs. (Target is a good place to look too if you want to re-design a beauty product. If you are going that route instead of the food route, you can just peel off the sticky label and make a new one to stick on there. Even more official, right?) Also, designing a series of packaging designs of similar products with different flavors/different ingredients looks legit in a portfolio. This kind of project remains one of my favorite to do.

Create a CD Cover. This is a good option if you are looking for a way to express yourself and you're just plain bored one day. You can pick an artist that you enjoy listening to with a style that suits your own taste and create something that is really geared toward that. Also, you can likewise go the extra mile with this project by making a CD booklet or show posters or band t-shirts.

Make a T-Shirt. (Check out Sevenly for some inspiration.) Sketch out ideas of shirt designs that you've never seen and you think would be rad. Perhaps include quotes you love, imagery that suits your own personal style, or invent a cause that you could advocate for with a t-shirt. Scan those sketches into the computer, edit them on Photoshop and perhaps bring them into Illustrator to add on type. And bravo! But hey, if you aren't wanting to, or are too nervous about hand-drawing elements of the shirt, just do it purely on the computer. Then, go to a print shop that offers t-shirts, and you'd be surprised at how cheap it is to produce an actual t-shirt with your design on it. Who knows, some friends of yours may want one too.

Design a Logo Series. Make up a catchy company name or find one online that's not well known. Make 6-10 logo options that show a variety of ways to convey one company's motives and values. This is probably one of the quickest ways to get a feel for graphic design and also to figure out what aesthetic you are naturally drawn to.

Invent an App. If you haven't noticed, people with the skills to get involved in user experience and app design make bank nowadays. So even if you'll never get into that field, it's good to dabble in what that sort of field is like just for personal experience. Find a poorly designed iPhone app and redesign it. Or start from scratch, inventing your own application and producing an extensive series of screens to map out the product.

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