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2021Portfolio Review
Emily Kohlhof
(Preview version)
Who Am I?
Hi, I’m Em, a senior in graphic design at BSU!
For a long time I didn’t realize that
art and design were even options to
» Grew up in Shakopee make a career in. They didn’t seem
like marketable skills so I ruled them
» I love cartoons out for my future before even looking
» I play Dungeons and Dragons into them. Then I realized that was
ridiculous because someone had
» I want to inspire others the way ^^^ those to make all the things I enjoyed.
Someone had to get paid to design
things have inspired me! the games and shows and outfits
and characters I enjoyed watching.
I Organize
My Ideas By
Drawing Them
For me, daydreaming has always been just as
good as (if not better than) reading a book or
watching a show. Because of that, I’ve ended
up creating a lot of characters. Some are good,
some are overly self-indulgent, some of them
are downright bad. But consistently, drawing
them has always been what I do in order
to record, organize, and flesh out all these
characters. My love of creating and designing
characters is what lead me to choose this
degree and career path!
The Fool/s Journey Tarot
» Discovered Tarot by
chance
» Niche media filled with art
» Most decks have 78
cards
» I wanted to participate
Sketching and Research Full Color Card
There were a lot of learning curves to overcome with this
project. I had never tried to illustrate something in Photoshop
and was more comfortable with Illustrator, so I had to come
to a compromise between the two programs. I had a lot of
opportunities to experiment with ways to color, shade, and
add detail to the cards.
Flowers and Background
The
Major
Arcana
The Major Arcana
tell the story of
our lives as a
human. Each card
represents major
life events, trials,
changes, emotions,
and states of being.
They hold the most
weight in a tarot
deck.
The Fool » Golden Retriever » Eager, energetic, friendly » Doesn’t plan things out - Naive » Yellow-green skies - bad weather » High contrast complimentary colors » Pallet mellowed by blue-green The Fool represents beginnings and enthusiastic adventuring into the unknown. She is often naive to potential danger and may overlook warning signs in exchange for prolonging her journey. In this card the mountain is both her personal challenge and a potentially dangerous foe. The sky gives subtle warnings of approaching bad weather but the Fool is unbothered by this or her lack of preparation.
Death » Horse skull - horseman of apocalypse » First card I worked on » Out with old, In with new » Scythe - tool of labor » Daffodil once though to bring death » Harold of Spring (change, rebirth) » Air of Mystery Death is not a scary card, it just means it is time to allow change in your life. The reaper figure is ominous and this is because change can be scary. But, with his scythe he will cut away old growth in the field to make way for new, fresher growth. The background can appear like dusk or the very first light of the morning sky but both represent the beginning of something new.
The Minor Arcana - Swords Often, cards in the Minor Arcana get represented by pips and don’t include extra
symbolism or imagery. I decided against doing this because I find that having those
things makes it easier and more fun to interpret the cards. But the imagery needed to
be cohesive and couldn’t overshadow the Major Arcana. So for each suit, I chose
thematically similar imagery and symbolism to tie them together and show that they
pertain to smaller matters than the Major Arcana.
Element of Air » Matters of the Mind » Double Edged
Blades » Swirls to Create Motion and Enhance Tone »
Common Background Color Creates Unity
Queen of Wands » Magic and Mystery » Warm and Strong » Underlying Darkness » Potential for good acts to be tainted by selfish or dark intentions The queen of wands is my personal favorite of the court cards and a card I particularly enjoyed working on. The queen is a warm and powerful presence. She is a practicer of magic and mystery and has a powerful aura. But her light still casts shadow and her kindness can only extend so far. She is a card that warns us of how easy it is to use our power for both good and for bad. She has influence and power. It is so easy to slip into selfish or narcissistic intentions. Panthers are powerful big cats but her dark coat makes it all too easy to slip into the shadows. For now she sits in bright sunlight on a throne surrounded by sunflowers.
Hero Monthly Magazine
» Heroes are Celebrities
» Celebrity Gossip Magazine
» Pop-Culture
» Think Pieces
Originally “Hero Monthly” was just a single character
drawing. I realized the pose would make a great
magazine cover, so I made a series of 3 covers for
this made up magazine. Now, I’ve expanded the idea
even further with a few spreads that might appear in
“Hero Monthly.” The concept of the magazine is based
in the idea that within the world of the anime “My Hero
Academia,” heroes have similar status to celebrities. “Hero
Monthly” is just my own take on what a young adult
targeted magazine about heroes might look like in this
fictional world.The idea was to try and organically design the magazine covers. I wanted to simulate the situation most designers would find themselves in which is
being given images and a list of articles and quotes to include and being forced to find a way to turn those things into an appealing design.
[February Issue] [March Issue] [April Issue]Issue Number and Date
Masthead
Main Image
Creating these magazine covers I tried
to think about what kinds of articles
young adults and fans of heroes would
Tagline for Personality be interested in reading. One thing
I’ve noticed about magazines is that
Article there are certain articles which occur
in every issue like letters to the editor or
Cover Lines horoscopes. It made sense to include
a few articles like that, but more
important were the hero personality/
interview articles. Designing the
cover started with drawing the hero
Main Cover Line as though they had done a photo-
shoot with the magazine and then
fitting quotes and articles around that.
I pulled most of my inspiration from
magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair.Thank You
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