B.S. in Visual Communication Design
Portfolio
My name is Ashley, and I am a visual communication designer graduating from San Francisco State University in May 2021. I was born in Carbondale, Illinois, but spent most of my life in Brescia, a small town in Italy. I decided to move to San Francisco because it was the right time and place to study visual communication since Silicon Valley is considered the ‘Mecca’ for graphic design. Being exposed to different cultures helps me incorporate into my work different designs, colors, and styles. I constantly adapt to changing conditions while experimenting and researching new designs, learning new programs, and improving my skills and techniques. I have a good knowledge of the Adobe Creative Cloud and am fascinated by art history, color theory, typography, and layout design. Since I have been a Girl Scout for twelve years, my motto has always been “Estote Parati” (“always be prepared”), which epitomizes my approach to always be ready for new adventures with a positive attitude.
Io Non Ho Paura: Book Cover Redesign
Io non ho paura, the Italian translation of I’m not scared, is a thrilling and dark story written by the international writer Niccolò Ammaniti. The idea was to redesign the book’s spine, front, and back cover by utilizing physical elements such as rope, rubber stamps, black ink, and black cardstock to showcase the narration’s theme and mood. Therefore, after arranging the elements and taking a picture of the composition, I visually interpreted and recreated the most striking scene described by Ammaniti. Photoshop was needed to distort the image to the point where it conveyed a cold, obscure, and eerie atmosphere, and InDesign to locate the artwork to capture people’s attention and unconsciously make them active spectators of the story. The deliverable is a book design where layout, color palette, and typography were thoughtfully chosen to communicate at first glance the essence of the book and to induce its purchase by capturing the eventual buyer’s interest.
Revitalize Switzerland: Packaging Series
Revitalize Switzerland is a fictitious Lindt-packaging series aimed to commemorate its cities, culture, and Swiss flavors. Since Lindt originated in Switzerland, the objective was to create a series that would help people worldwide familiarize themselves with the brand’s country of origin. The geometric pattern on the front is the main element of cohesion among the series, which changes color according to each bar’s flavor. The cross —which is located at the center of the pattern— aims to recall Switzerland’s flag and implicitly motivate the overall design’s stylistic choices that took inspiration from the International Typographic Style, known for its minimalism, cleanliness, and asymmetric disposition of the elements. To educate people about Switzerland’s main cities, Zurich, Lugano, and Geneva are the names chosen for the chocolate bars, and a brief description for each can be found on the package’s back.
The Crystal Fuck (The Crystal Goblet + Fuck Content)
This project aimed to create a typographic digital book combining the articles The Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde and Fuck Content by Michael Rock. The outcome is a 5×8 inch booklet that showcases how both pieces could be singularly represented graphically, and through the middle spread, my viewpoint regarding the importance of form and content, a topic that came to the surface in both readings. Since both essays communicate a firm opinion related to which aspect should prevail over the other, the intention was to portray this separation of ideas by locating each article at an opposite end. Therefore, it appears that the digital book has two front covers, each —according to which side the reader is starting from— introducing its point of view and following a specific style determined by the tone of its respective essay. From the typeface utilized to the layout, color palette, and manipulation of text, every stylistic choice was made regarding the article’s viewpoint and overall personality.