Experimental Design

Graphic Design Portfolio

From billboards to Facebook banners, Jessica has used her graphic design skills to promote organizations, new and rebranded TV programs, and newspaper layouts. She's knowledgable in Adobe Creative Cloud products including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. 

Newspaper Page Designs

Counting Stars

   Artist Statement

     My project was based on the song “Counting Stars” by the alternative band Onerepublic.  The song describes how people should make their lives more simple and just enjoy the little things, like love and being out in nature: counting the stars.  

     I originally interpreted the song to be from the point of view of a man who is with a woman who shouldn’t be with him, for whatever reason.  I looked at it as a love story.  After storyboarding the narrative, I decided that I wanted to make something more unique and more interesting than a love story that has been told thousands of times.  I came up with the idea, after being influenced by a couple other artist’s work and ideas.  

    To create the photographs, I took a thirty second exposure of a night sky.  Then I took two one second exposures.  The first where the model held a fishbowl with LED lights in it and the second where the model remained in the same position with someone holding the fishbowl slightly above the model’s hands.  I then masked the images together, adding in more stars to the background and adding real photographs of stars that were modified color-wise. I had the models hold the fishbowl in different ways to achieve the different lighting scenarios that we discussed in class.

    I wanted to achieve a fantasy, dream-like photograph that represented the song and how the song made me feel. I want people to see these photographs and be inspired to achieve their dreams and know that when things get too overwhelming, that it helps to go back to the simple things that we did when we were children, like counting stars and imagining the impossible, like holding a star in your hands.  I want people to feel inspired when they look at these photographs.

Demons

Artist Statement

This series was made for a portfolio photography class in college. After trying several other themes for this fine art project, I became frustrated and confused with what pictures I should make. I decided that I wanted to make something different, shocking, creepy. and just a tad bit strange. The idea came when I was sitting at my desk one night, listening to music and trying to come up with something to shoot for this project. The song Demons by Imagine Dragons came on. I soon realized that this project was my demon and as cheesy as it is, I had to conquer it. I began thinking of all the other demons in people’s lives. Anorexia, death, and bullying were just some ideas that came to mind. This project was made by mainly using a 50mm lens on a Canon Rebel T2i and asking my closest friends to model. I made my pictures dark, unsaturated, and a little blue to represent how the subjects are feeling. This series means that I conquered a challenge that I did not understand and felt was impossible to do. It shows my demons as well as some of my friends that I think many people can relate to.