Working with Caltech’s minimalistic and bold branding was a great opportunity to hone my graphic design skills through Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool as well as drafting and creating an advertisement that is visually dynamic and eye-catching. 

As a graphic designer, one of the main tasks was finding a way for the image to fit attractively with the required text and logos. Utilizing aspects of Caltech’s branding elements such as the topographical map and their signature Geospatial services colour I developed multiple different thumbnails. After collaborative meetings with the folks at Caltech and a handful of different draft versions, I finalized the design into a polished template for all three advertisements.

Photoshopping the Caltech staff members out of photos was a routine task as a graphic designer and I utilized the pen tool to ensure the cutouts were clean and precise. Out of the few tools I could have chosen I decided on the pen tool because any minor mistakes would be visible as the staff cutouts were on a minimal white background, and the pen tool allows for a precision that other tools like the magnetic lasso and quick selection don’t easily have.