Visual design

For the Visual Design assignment, I designed a single-page website about my favourite food: ice cream. I chose this subject because I enjoyed drawing it and it suited the visual style I was assigned: Layering and Overprinting. That style is all about lots of colour, overlapping shapes and a layered, playful look. It gave me room to get creative and make something that was truly my own.

During the project I learned the basics of visual design: how to work with shape, colour and typography, and how to use Gestalt principles such as simplicity, figure and ground, and proximity to bring structure and balance to a layout. I designed everything on the website myself, from the logo to the illustrations, without photos and fully in line with the chosen style.

The process played a big part. I sketched, experimented and tested a lot to arrive at a coherent design. This gave me a better grip on how to justify visual choices and how to create a clear look and feel that fits both the subject and the target audience.

This assignment helped me grow further in my role as a designer. I have become more aware of what design does, how you use it to get a message across, and how important it is to keep looking, trying and refining. It was great to discover that with simple means you can make something that really works, and that is completely your own style too.