Katalyst Design Emporium

*Please click the image to enlarge for clear viewing* I know, I know...I went over the top when completing this assignment. I've finished quite a few SWOT analyses and SMART goals (before The Art Institute closed, I took an E-Commerce and Social Media Marketing course, as well as doing these for my own business); therefore, I am intimately familiar with this process. I have a preference for coordinating branding when it comes to assignments like this, so naturally, I applied that to my SMART goals to match my SWOT analysis.   

 

For this week's Design Blog, I want to talk about shoes. More importantly, a shoe brand most of us know and love. We've been instructed to choose a company that we'll work with for the next 4 weeks, and I chose Vans - a brand that is near and dear to me for various reasons. Firstly, I've attended Vans Warped Tour since I was in high school. I have dozens of fond memories of showing up to my local tour stop on the hottest day of the summer, and running around with my friends seeing our favorite bands. Secondly, Vans are my favorite brand of casual sneakers. They offer an abundance of styles and variations, while always being reliable. They have a long history and constantly release original and creative designs and collaborations, while never compromising their quality and what they're known for.  Vans created its signature branding in 1966, and it's still recognizable today. According to Google, " Vans' branding timeline began with the 1966 founding of ...

For my movie recreation, I chose Nosferatu (2024) because I thought the imagery was spectacular. The poster shows Ellen’s face tilted upward in a mix of surrender and dread while Orlok’s clawed hand reaches toward her in a gesture that’s both predatory and intimate. The black-and-white contrast gives it a haunting, gothic stillness. The lilacs at the bottom add symbolic weight, as lilacs represent innocence, desire, memory, and death all at once. Altogether, the image is impactful because it compresses the film’s themes into a single moment: beauty meeting horror, seduction crossing into doom, and the supernatural creeping into the human world. Original Poster: The typography was difficult to match, as most are combinations of different fonts, as well as custom work. I couldn't find anything remotely close to the title font, as it was custom-drawn. The closest I could find were several blackletter families, but none gave the elongated letters or sweeping calligraphy.  For "Su...

When I first sat down to attempt this project, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I couldn't get a clear idea of what direction I wanted to take this piece, and with the added hurdle of only using our own photos or AI we had the rights to use...I was stumped. I had 5 different versions started at once, none of which ended up being the final piece. I actually ended up using one of my previous creativity exercises to get some ideas, and I thought, "What if Nichole were a fairy queen?". Once I had that direction, the ideas started flowing freely.  During this assignment, I got a lot of practice with Photoshop's AI. I knew I wanted to use as much of this software as possible, while also using a real-life image. I did each part of this piece in separate layers so that I could blend them myself (and so I wasn't relying on AI to create the entire piece as one image). First, I asked it to create a "dark fae throne that appeared to be made from the forest itself". I w...

I last posted about the typography on a band's merchandise that I saw over the weekend (I'll include another photo for reference), and I truly can't stop thinking about it. I understand the basics of typography and can (sometimes) figure out what would have looked better on a design that's already been created, but when it comes to my own work, I struggle immensely. Typography can have a significant impact on how a piece is perceived (as I experienced when deciding which t-shirt to purchase from the booth in my last Design Blog post). It's difficult to stray from what I personally prefer to choose something I may not like, but that works better for the piece and its message.  I decided to attempt to redesign this same shirt, with minimal changes, just to see how it would look after changing the script-type font.  The recreation isn't perfect, and I'm sure with more time, I could completely redesign it. For the sake of this post, I wanted to keep it as close ...

I've done quite a few "how can I change this random item" creativity exercises, but I thought this one had an interesting twist. It's called "Reverse Problem" , and the objective is to take an ordinary object, make it worse (not better), and then fix the "problem" in a creative way. This exercise showed me that thinking “backwards” can reveal hidden problems and spark real solutions. Essentially, it helped me to practice troubleshooting creatively. By deliberately breaking an object, I forced myself to notice design flaws (or potential ones) I normally ignore. Flipping the worst idea to fix it helped me come up with practical, creative solutions I wouldn’t have considered otherwise.  This exercise has a few more steps than the ones I've posted in the past, but it's actually kind of fun!   What you need: one everyday object, a timer, and a way to write down your answers (pen and paper, type it out, or just speak it out loud). Time: 90 seco...

“Random Word Remix” Time: 2–3 minutes Materials: None Steps: 1. Think of three random words as fast as possible. Don't overthink it. 2. Set a 90-second timer. Your challenge:  Create one idea that connects all three words in a way that shouldn’t make sense, but somehow does.  It can be a product idea, a short scene, a visual concept, a tagline, anything.  When the timer ends, write one sentence summarizing the idea as if you were pitching it. Why it works:   It forces rapid associative thinking while preventing you from defaulting to your usual ideas. The constraint creates creative tension, and the timer stops you from polishing. When I tried this exercise, this was my result: Words:   camera, book, headphones Concept:   A “quiet camera” that only takes photos when you’re fully immersed in an audiobook. Pitch:  A pair of smart headphones that senses your focus while reading or listening, and automatically snaps ambient ‘memory photos’ with a tiny buil...

We've gone over a lot of typography lessons in the past few months, yet it's still the thing I struggle with the most. That being said, I went to an event this weekend and saw this shirt at one of the merch booths, where I immediately turned to my friend to say, "The typography choices don't look cohesive." Band merch should do two things instantly: grab attention and communicate a vibe. In this example, the type choices work against the message, rather than supporting it. The shirt features multiple typefaces that don’t seem to have a shared visual language. There’s a bold, rounded sans-serif for the band name at the top, a softer script-like type for the “are you feeling LOST?” line, and then another blocky sans-serif for the location at the bottom. None of these styles complement the other, so the eye has no clear path. Instead of creating hierarchy, the design feels visually scattered. The biggest issue is that the typography competes with the imagery rather ...

Every year, the holiday season brings out the best of our cozy rituals: chilly mornings under warm blankets, sitting by the fire, and drinking something warm. I wanted to capture the nostalgic feeling of waking up on Christmas morning, and the first memory that came to mind wasn't the gifts...it was my mom, sitting with her cup of coffee while my sister and I ransacked the living room. My mom really went above and beyond for us, even when it was hard for her. This is an homage to all the parents who sit with their coffees on holiday mornings, just watching the happy chaos unfold and enjoying their time with their families.  The full-page ad was the first one I completed. I made up a company name that would reflect the holidays and centered my ads towards a holiday blend that the coffee companies usually release around this time. This was the first time I used Brusheezy for brushes, and the site made it so easy to find and download some smoke/steam brushes, "magic"-themed...

Hi everyone! We were tasked with finding reputable websites for brushes, actions, and plug-ins for Photoshop and to compile a list. This is something I'm inexperienced with, so I may come back to edit this at some point once I have a chance to try some of these for myself.  Brushes: Brusheezy - A large community site offering thousands of free Photoshop brushes in a variety of styles. I like that there are a lot of options, and it's easy to browse by category. FBrushes - A site dedicated to free high-quality Photoshop brushes & textures: for example, dirt brushes, smoke brushes, and large resolution packs. I like that they offer high-resolution brush packs and more “design-specific” categories (for example, “real smoke brushes”), which is optimal if you’re doing special-effects work. All Free Download - Offers a large collection of free Photoshop brushes, among other resources. I like that it's a straightforward source with many downloadable packs. This one...

While working on the "emotion" piece this week, I learned a lot about design and different techniques. Using multiple pictures to explain emotion sounded easy enough, especially since I had a lot of songs to choose from (music makes me emotional, what can I say?). However, it proved to be a lot more in-depth than I anticipated.  I had a lot of difficulty finding images that worked with the idea I had. Because of this, I had a lot of lessons in pivoting and not getting too attached to an idea. I knew that I wanted to convey the feelings of hopelessness turning into hope, transformation, and growth. Originally, I wanted to use the imagery of a woman underwater, swimming to the surface. I got about halfway through putting it together and realized it really wasn't portraying the right emotions. So, I had another idea. Butterflies are often a symbol of transformation, so I was really attached to using them in the piece...but finding renderings of butterflies on fire was becomi...

For this project, we were told to visually show the emotion we feel when listening to a song of our choice. This was actually so much more difficult than I thought it would be. I had a really hard time choosing a song, because music itself has always been very emotional for me. As soon as this project was assigned, I had about 10 songs immediately pop into my head from various genres that evoked different emotions or memories.  I've made a few posts about the rave community, so I sat down and really thought about what songs played at those events could instantly shift my mood. In the end, I decided on "Feel Something" by Illenium, Excision, and I Prevail. Explaining how this song makes me feel is so hard. It conveys a feeling of hopelessness, but also somehow inspires me. It gives me a feeling of transformation or transcending, like things may not be perfect right now, but it won't always be like this.  These are the pictures I used to create my final image: I used a...

Hey everyone! I wanted to do a fun, low-stress creativity exercise this week, and I think this fits the bill. This should only take 3 minutes, and who doesn't have 3 minutes to essentially daydream? It was pretty simple once I decided on an object, which was truthfully the most difficult part (but it wasn't that difficult, I promise anyone can do this one). The “Object Time Traveler” Game Goal: Practice imaginative flexibility and storytelling Steps: 1. Look around you and pick any everyday object (a pen, mug, charger, plant, etc.). 2. Imagine that object has just time-traveled from another era, past or future. 3. In 3 minutes or less, write or say out loud:          - What time it came from           - Who used it           - What role it played in their life           - Why it ended up here, now *Optional twist: Describe how it’s slightly different from a normal version b...

BOY, did I learn a lot about design this week. While working on my postcards, I tried something different: matching the font colors to the small border colors, which were pulled from the image. This worked for some of them, but not all of them. I had to workshop a lot of ideas and needed to go through over 200 photos to find the best 5-8, so I was really focused on the overall composition and "theme" of the postcard series. I love historical architecture, but photographing it comes with its own set of challenges. Unfortunately, many historical buildings aren't well-maintained, which can either be a benefit (if you're looking for a grungy/edgy feel), or a hindrance if it looks "dirty". I also learned that, while some structures may look symmetrical to the naked eye, they actually aren't...and it becomes apparent when photographed. I ran into that particular issue twice while editing my postcard photos: at Hollis Garden and at the Promenade. Hollis Garden ...

For this assignment, we were asked to take 5-8 photos and turn them into a postcard series. I chose to drive and walk around downtown Lakeland and lean into the city's history. The idea is that, if these were real postcards, they would have a small blurb about the location and its historical significance to the city of Lakeland on the back. During this assignment, I learned why it's important to take a lot of photos from multiple angles, as most of the pictures I thought were "the shot" actually didn't translate well into a postcard. I continue to learn how difficult it is to pair typefaces and choose correctly. I also found it really difficult to get the photos to the same size, and I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice and figure it out during this course!