Mcneil johnston design portfolio 2023

McNeil Johnston Medium: Illustration. Software: Adobe Illustrator.

Portfolio 2 welcome! s a designer in the graphic communications management field, I have had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of design projects in both individual and team settings. I have enjoyed developing my skills in publication layout, cross media design, and project management, and begun to practice the fundamentals of branding design. Throughout my academic career, I have learned the importance of collaboration in the design process and have gained valuable experience in design-led problem solving. Working with others and their diverse perspectives and skillsets has encouraged me to view issues from all angles and points of view, ultimately leading to stronger and more effective design solutions. In this portfolio, you will see examples of the projects I have worked on and the lessons I have learned along the way divided into three sections: publication layout, branding, and cross media. I am honored to show you my beginnings as a graphics and layout designer. I am passionate about continuing my education in the field, and I am dedicated to supporting and collaborating with creatives to bring their visions to life. I am eager to explore my career interests in the fields of art, design, and communication as an ardent, personable professional, and hope to evolve skills in other mediums like illustration and design methodology. I have an immense love for people and the things they make, and I have challenged myself to use that passion to make a positive impact in the world of visual communication.

McNeil Johnston 4 2 of 4 of the front pages of The Appalachian from my first semester as Graphics Editor, in collaboration with Photo Editor Evan Bates. Medium: Layout design. Software: Adobe InDesign, Photoshop 01 publica tion lay out

McNeil Johnston 5 Published design for Mountain Times Publications. Under the team of designers I worked with, I learned the importance of sketching an idea. I have since implemented that in every design project. Medium: Graphic design, layout design Software: Adobe InDesign

Portfolio 6 have loved layout design since I began working on my high school yearbook staff. Since beginning my undergraduate program, I have had more and more layout experience, and have grown to love and appreciate it even more. In the summer of 2022, I worked with Mountain Times Publications as an intern, writing articles and designing layout for several publications in NC and TN. Since then, I have worked with The Appalachian student news as the Graphics & Layout Editor designing pages for monthly print editions.

McNeil Johnston 7 5 layouts from various editions of The Appalachian that I’ve enjoyed working on. As Graphics & Layout Editor, one of my favorite parts of managing the graphics desk is working with other student artists and designers to enhance an article with their art and doodles. That, and “exploiting” the photo desk! Medium: Layout design Software: Adobe InDesign, Illustrator. The Appalachian on issuu.com

8 Portfolio

Wine redesign for the Phoenix College Challenge. Medium: Graphic design; duty-free mockup Software: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop

Portfolio 11

McNeil Johnston 11 y experiences with branding and marketing are few and far between. I have learned more about the art of the brand identity more in my senior year of undergrad than any other year of college as a designer, but I do not under-appreciate the importance of this kind of design As the great Paula Scher once said, “Identities are the beginning of everything.”

Portfolio 12 The Appalachian presents: “Best of Boone” The Appalachian hosts an annual readers choice survey allowing community members and students to choose their favorite businesses and places in and around Boone, NC. The results are presented in a special print edition in the spring. The 2023 edition will be the 8th annual production of the special issue. Each year, they produce a new design after many collaborative meetings. This was my final design after working with the Editor-in-Chief, Visual Managing Editor, Marketing Manager, Business Manager, and Adviser. Medium: Graphic Design, duty-free mockups Software: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign

Wine The Phoenix Challenge College competition is a year-long problem-solving project for a team of college design students from various universities to present solutions to an industry-relevant flexographic problem. I had the pleasure of teaming up with 5 other students from my program to gather market research, problem-solve, design logos and packages, and practice print production skills in preparation for presentation to a panel of judges. This year’s problem prompt? Redesign a local business. Venture chocolate and wine is a local specialty chocolate shop selling wine, coffee, and various chocolate products. This business has only been open for a few months, but has not received as much traffic as anticipated. Professors of the GCM program suggested this business as the subject of our problem, and we have been working closely with them to redesign their logo and products in hopes to bring them more business. Medium: Graphic design, duty-free mockups Software: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Portfolio 14 Mockups with designs from the Phoenix Challenge team from Appalachian State University: Mattie Felker (marketing researcher), Sean Byron (graphic design), Becca Hartung (graphic design), Dylan Connell (project manager) Heather Byron (product design), and Me (graphic designer and project manager).

McNeil Johnston 16 03 cross media Poster entry for PGSF promotional poster design contest. Content supplied by PGSF. Medium: Graphic design, layout design Software: Adobe Illustrator

16

he Graphic Communications Management or “GCM” major at Appalachian State is broken up into two disciplines: Cross Media Production and Print/Packaging Production. While there is a large overlap in classes and no matter the intended discipline students gain valuable experience in both, the cross media discipline allows for the development of many skills in every area of “cross media.” During my time as a GCM Cross Media student, I have learned how to render and animate in 3D software, build a website in Adobe Dreamweaver, become fluent in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photo shop, improve in photography, assemble packaging that I designed in CAD, case-bind my own book, operate flexographic and lithographic presses, and machines for post-production. My class mates joke that our major should stand for “Glorified Craft Makers,” because maybe that’s what we are. But I love it.

Portfolio 18 My very first attempt at newsletter design (left) and my most recent (right). Thanks to Our State Magazine archives and the “Chicago” wikipedia page, I was able to use any content I wanted to find for class projects. My first try, the “Our State” design was for my Digital Media Composition Class that taught InDesign skills. The “Chicago” design, inspired by Airbnb was for a Digital Marketing class that encouraged students to attempt new promotional materials for a company of their choice. Medium: Layout design Software: InDesign (top), Canva (bottom)

McNeil Johnston 19 These two poster designs for an introductory course in Printing & Finishing were the first design products I printed on my own in our university’s print lab. The top design was my own, with a picture supplied from the university, and the bottom design from an anonymous student from the ‘90s, which I remastered for print. For this project, I learned how to preflight materials I wanted to print and adjust settings based on what printer or press would be used. For this particular production, I used a Ricoh printer. Medium: Graphic design Software: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop

Portfolio 20 Sticker designs for my junior year Inks, Substrates, and Toners class. Each student picked three spot colors to design three stickers with, and proceeded to print them on an Epson 7880 printer with different color profiles and on different substrates to see how different each profile and each paper type registered colors. Through this particular project, I learned that the Adobe RGB profile is the closest match when printing pantone spot colors. Learning about colors, inks, press operation, and substrates has helped me as a designer to understand how the design process and the print process help and hinder each other. Understanding both worlds has allowed me to become more efficient and have better problem solving skills because I understand the operation, vocabulary, and issues that can occur on both the design side, and the print side of graphics production. Medium: Graphic design Software: Adobe Illustrator

McNeil Johnston 21 3 out of 200 unique but similar “business card candy bar” designs for my Digital Printing Systems class. By integrating HP Smartstream Mosaic software into Adobe InDesign, I was able to create hundreds of unique designs from one ‘parent design’ using variable data. Ideally, my class was going to print these labels out and adhere them to candy bars to present to businesses, but COVID prevented access to our print lab.

Portfolio 22 Medium: Graphic design, duty-free mockups Software: Adobe Illustrator/Indesign, HP Smartstream Mosaic