Eden
A hand-bound book of digital drawings based on pieces of creative writing interpreting the concept of the Garden of Eden and Creation.
Creative Labs Website
Creative Labs is a digital design community at UCLA bringing together students of diverse backgrounds and interests to collaborate on creative projects. Joining Creative Labs at its inception spring 2016, I spearheaded the design of the group's website and style guide.
We wanted to create a website for Creative Labs to share the group’s philosophy and work with prospective team members, as well as potential clients and sponsors. In the process, we also worked to establish a style guide and overall look for Creative Labs representative of the group’s fun, collaborative spirit and vibrant, diverse community.
The choice of serif fonts exudes modern design and encourages readability through their minimalist strokes. Montserrat and Sofia Pro are both circular based in form, their rounded, sloping letters producing fluidity and elegance. Each font contains contrasting character and quirks of their own, Montserrat Bold with its loud confidence and Sofia Pro with its slim grace, allowing for variation in tone and emphasis.
Use of hand-drawn flat illustrations and icons contribute a youthful, playful quality reflective of the student-run community behind Creative Labs. At the same time, the visuals remain clean cut and simple, maintaining a dogma of conciseness in communication.
While vector visuals and typography were relatively quick to pin down, the color palette proved to be more difficult to select. Initially, we wanted a wide range of colors allowing for flexibility in expression and use in different contexts. However, after the first interface design iteration, we found so many colors proved too difficult for cohesion in style from page to page. We eventually narrowed down the initial five colors to purple and pink as the main tones to use throughout the website. Teal and yellow were added to the palette as extra colors to be used more sparingly, for instance when additional splashes of color were desired.
We also found when we boxed content into strict rectangular sections on each page, the design became too rigid and predictable in appearance. Through overlapping of text blocks and visuals, we broke the traditional structural grid and made the pages more dynamic and variable.
Creative Labs’ website design and style guide embodies the group’s energy and creative boldness. Collaborating alongside one another with constant feedback and iterations, we crafted an easy and engaging navigation experience for visitors. The site not only presents our philosophy and work, but is in itself a sample of design we strive to provide for others.
Visit our site at uclacreatives.com.
Project Credits:
Design Rosalind Chang, Alison Jeng
Development Rishabh Aggarwal, Mihir Mathur
look. listen.
Our usual perception through a mixture of senses often diminish our appreciation of each individual sensory experience as we are overloaded with so many sights, noises, and smells. Thus, I wanted to somehow isolate different senses from one another and produce a world where people could immerse themselves in an environment one sense at a time. The digital nature of this project limited me to only sight and sound, but with development onto other platforms, it may expand to include the other senses of smell, taste, and touch in the future.
Clicking on the lamp in each scene, the viewer can switch between a purely visual or auditory experience. By clicking or hovering on various shapes and objects, new sounds, scenes, and creatures are discovered. Through the division of sound and imagery into two different experiences, the viewer is able to contrast visual and auditory elements of each scene and appreciate them with greater attentiveness.
It All Began with a Burst
Book featuring 40 single cover album designs for the song "It All Began With A Burst" by Kishi Bashi. For each 5 sets of covers designs, we were given set limitations on color and font.
