A Self-Care and Art Nouveau Inspired Mission Badge

Posted on by Jay

When coming up with what I wanted as my mission badge, I had a few ideas of what I wanted my mission to be. Most of them involve the act of self-care in some fashion, but they do focus on different aspects of what it means to practice self-care; and because of that, I thought that my mission would be the idea of encompassing a multitude of different things. Since I cannot decide on just one thing, why not try and embrace a few things at a steady pace?

I thought that the best way to express this was to create a mission badge that would use the language of flowers to represent the side-quests—aka, the different things that I want to represent as what I want for my future. One of my drawings that I had done was of someone whose head was surrounded by a blooming lotus. Then I had the idea to use the flowers in a flower crown, which was something that I liked better.

Now, my idea is to create a badge that takes inspiration from the artist Alphonse Mucha, a Czech artist who created art during the art nouveau movement. Of course, I don’t think I would be creating the badge with as much detail as Alphonse Mucha put in his own art pieces, but I am going to try and utilize the usage of flowers and framing to create the overall essence of the badge.

The Initial Sketches
The Concept

The Importance of Designing for Everyone

Posted on by Jay

It is important, while designing something and adding text to it, that we keep in mind to make it accessible and easier to read, while also keeping the reader’s attention. In order to do so, we need to use colors that contrast well against each other, and we need to use fonts that make it easier for people to read.

Contrasting colors are colors that are easy to see and discern when put against each other, or even when they blend into a gradient. Typically, the contrast of two colors depend heavily on how opposing their values are, as well as the saturation of color. A general example of this would be black text against a white background (just like this text right now) – their values are polar opposites, and their saturation level works extremely well for differentiating text and background. Now, if the color of this text block would be white on yellow, then it would be a poor choice of color, as their values are very similar to each other, and it can be hard to read the text since there is no way to differentiate the text and background from one another.

Finding a text font that is easy to read is a vital thing to note when you’re adding text to a graphic, as people with dyslexia can find it difficult to read – sometimes people who don’t have dyslexia can find it hard to read! Sans serif fonts are fonts that are designed specifically with the intention of making easily readable text. For example: Arial is a sans serif font, compared to Times New Roman, which is a serif font with extra wind-dings at the edge of each lettering to give it a more fanciful look. Comic sans, for example, is a wonderful font to use (as often as many people slander it), as it is known to be a font that people find to be easier to read. It also helps if the font is in a bigger size, so that no one is straining their eyes to try and read the text even when they’re close to it (if billboards were to use small fonts for their signs, then no one would be able to understand what it was they were trying to advertise).

Overall, these specific design choices are important to factor in when creating something that can be easily accessible to everyone, not just people who struggle to read something less contrasting in colors, or who can’t read in serif fonts. If we make everything we create accessible, then it is something that anyone can use and consume with little issue.

User Interface and User Experience

Posted on by Jay

Often when we see color, we associate it with a certain attitude or emotion, or even status (for example: red is associated with anger, and purple and gold is associated with royalty, or an aura of luxury). Some color choices are intentionally used to tell a story, or emote an emotion to someone, or to catch someone’s attention. When creating a website for a business, or for personal use, keeping in mind which colors to use is typically an important aspect of how you want to properly present who you are and what your brand is. It is also important to keep in mind who your audience is and how you want to represent yourself to them. Using color matters—for both you and your audience.

A positive user experience (UX) is one of the most important things to think about when it comes to deciding on what colors you are wanting to use. Whatever colors you choose can affect how you and your brand are perceived, and therefore it is important to keep track of how brands have changed their style guides and how it has been received by the public. It’s important to keep that in mind, especially since picking a color that is “inappropriate” for your brand can bring negative reactions and consequences for your brand. It is also important to make sure that there is an inclusive user interface (UI). If a good portion of people who use the website struggle with where to look for something, that means that there is something wrong, and that there needs to be a change in layout to make it accessible for everyone. It’s good idea to have a palette that is easy to digest—and one that most people can enjoy while looking through the website.

It is also important to make sure that there is an inclusive user interface (UI). If a good portion of people who use the website struggle with where to look for something, that means that there is something wrong, and that there needs to be a change in layout to make it accessible for everyone. It’s good idea to have a palette that is easy to digest—and one that most people can enjoy while looking through the website.