Looking for more entertainment?
Check out “Ghosts of design work past” over at VelvetAnt.net!
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Remember when you designed your first logo, illustration or poster? Yeah… try not to cringe. 
I recently found some of my old design work and had a hilarious walk through memory lane. I thought I’d share some of my design gems from the past give you the chance to share yours as well!
Design Store Poster
I believe this is the original ‘Mouse’ character that I designed… He’s really more of a spy mouse with a headset. I’m not exactly sure what a mouse has to do with advertising for the design store, but hey people recognized the sign and knew where the store was! Also – notice the contents of the vending machines – mt dew, cheese and dr pepper.
El Lissitzky Book Cover
Remember when I told you that I had a design crush on El Lissitzky? I wasn’t lying… This was an assignment from one of my first design classes. We had to pick a designer and make a book cover in their style of design. Pretty awesome?!?!??! My Photoshop skills really shine through with this design. Cyrillic text, shapes, blending modes oh my!
BAAAA Business Card
This design was something that I half-assed at the last minute… right before class. We were supposed to design a fold-able business card. So I thought I would take my tried and true ’smart-ass’ approach to design.
Halloween Sign
Next up we have of my lovely first forays into illustration. This is a sign I designed for the children’s section of the bookstore I worked at. While I still enjoy the basic theme of this illustration my execution still makes me laugh. I love that my personality started to show in my designs back then
Typography Assignment
One of those typographic assignments that everyone goes through… find a subject matter and then combine text and image in meaningful ways. I of course chose the book 1984 and made this design to go with the quote. Check out my mad blending mode skills in Photoshop.
Icon Design + Book Layout
This project was titled “A day in the life of a graphic design student the day before a project is due”… I was quite the copywriter I know We were assigned to design icons based on a grid and then write a story and design a book with the icons. If you are up for it… you can download a ‘work in progress’ PDF (4.6mb) version.
T-Shirt Design
An idea for a t-shirt I had… not bad!
Logo Design
Superb logo design for a friends church group. Check out the hand drawn type and AWESOME gradients!
Hair????
Last but not least I thought I would mention that even my uh… grooming skills evolved over the time I was in school. I think my hair was going through a ‘design phase’.
I want to see your first attempts at design!
I know I’m not the only one out there that has committed heinous typographic sins…I’d like to gather a bunch of design work from other designers and blog about it! Fill out the form below and send me some of your AWESOME design work
Looking for more entertainment?
Check out “Ghosts of design work past” over at VelvetAnt.net!
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16 Responses to “My First Designs…”
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September 8th, 2009 at 4:08 amMy First Designs…
Remember when you designed your first logo, illustration or poster? Yeah… try not to cringe.
I recently found some of my old design work and had a hilarious walk through memory lane. I thought I’d share some of my design gems from the past give … -
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September 8th, 2009 at 4:11 amStory added…
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February 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am[...] discovered effects in Photoshop or the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator? (I remember these moments quite fondly…) Its always great to look back and where we came from and laugh at ourselves I asked some [...]
Sneh Roy says:
LOL .. cool stuff Niki as always
. You forgot to give that sheep a pink mohawk on the business card 
September 8th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Mirko says:
That’s a brave move to show your first designs, I wouldn’t show mine… they’re probably destroyed anyway…
September 8th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Sayz says:
I enjoy this post and would like to see how every designer 1st design looks like, =) awaiting your post on it Niki…
September 8th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Steph Adamo says:
Um, yetah my old designs are way more embarassing than this. These all look pretty decent except for that Engage logo.
If i still had my old embarrassing stuff i’d gladly submit it.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Renee says:
Dude… if these are your first designs, you have nothing to be ashamed of! They have great quality and layout even as a beginner. My designs were sooo bad. I mean bad. I’m talking like, straight type in a line, on top of an image, with a fat Photoshop stroke. YIKES! Ha ha.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Aaron says:
I just accidently deleted a ton of my old work thinking it was in a different folder. Part of me is glad that I never have to see it again, but another part of me wishes I could take a stroll down memory lane with you.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Antonea Nabors says:
Nice share Niki. I did a similar post featuring a bunch of different designer’s first design pieces for anyone interested in checking it out. http://velvetant.net/blog/ghosts-of-design-work-past/
September 8th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
tim says:
My first designs… were created on large sheets of board, using hot wax to adhere graphics and galley type printed off on 8.5×11 pages from a Laserjet. (!) Yep, I’m an old guy. I might have some of those lying around for scanning, I’ll have to see.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
BebopDesigner says:
What a great idea for a post! Thanks for sharing I really enjoyed it. Loved the sheep man!
September 9th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Becky says:
@tim
we have some of the waxer machines and A2 paste-up boards at work (and in use still) They’re great for keeping tea/coffee warm in the winter too!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:08 am
steven says:
this almost made me cry. I lost a lot of my designs (i have been studying for 6 months) in a massive hard disk failure. I dont know what happend it just got a BSOD and then all my partitions were gone… But, move on, i think. Thanks for that.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
tim says:
@Becky – that makes me smile, thinking of the gooey wax, and trying to keep the rollers adjusted properly. Do you still use rubylith? XD
September 10th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Thinh says:
Wow, that was a really great post. I’ve always wanted to see what others work would look like before they became a professional. Thanks for expressing your past designs in this post.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:17 pm