Inspirational Postcard Project

A project in my Graphic Design III class involved making inspirational postcards for students around campus. My initial ideas for messages consisted of positivity and taking care of oneself, and after further brainstorming, I decided to base my message around remaining positive despite the stressors that college life can bring.

A key point in the design process was the “think wrong” exercise we did in class. Thinking wrong is conveying a tone that gives the opposite impression of the message being conveyed. However, this is an attention-grabbing design skill that uses opposing tones to convey a desired message. I already had my wording for my postcard, being “the world is ending” and “the world is just loud right now, you got this”, so I utilized interactivity with the post card by having “the world is ending” in bold letters lying face up, and if someone were to clip the card over, it would have a calming message on the back. Additionally, I made the “world is ending” side much more chaotic and distorted, contrasting with the neutral back side, to push the tones on each side.

This project taught me about thinking outside the box to create effective designs. Seeing how my thinking changed throughout my designs is very interesting and I intend to continue developing this skill by challenging myself more in my designs.