Trinity Howell

I am the office administrator for A-Clean Chimney based in Evertt, WA. I've been with this small business since 2021, and have had the opportunity to hone my skills in coordinating activities throughout the company to ensure efficiency and maintain compliance with state policies, supervising members, and managing agendas, travel plans, and appointments for upper management. I've also stepped into the social media manager position, where I've been asked to increase audience engagement and brand awareness. I've been tasked with creating a seamless, coordinated, and effective brand image between platforms for A-Clean Chimney and the new business my boss acquired at the end of 2022.

Duties included:
Organizing and managing files.
Provide friendly, efficient, and courteous service resulting in customer satisfaction.
Acting as the receptionist.
Creates invoices, generates purchase orders, and draws credit memos.
Scheduling meetings and appointments.
Social Media management: duties include communications, digital creation, and
collaboration with management for scheduled postings.
Supporting staff with organizational tasks.

The All Paws Shelter Logo was created during my Visual Communications and Design course taken winter of 2022. In this assignment, we were instructed to create a new logo for the selected organization, that showcased our knowledge of principles and elements of design. I had also created a few test logos at the start of this project, reviewed them with peers, and their feedback allowed me the adjust my logo with the critiques in mind. When creating the All Paws Shelter logo, I wanted to encapsulate “All Paws Shelter” in the name, while also taking advantage of shapes to create symbols. My goals for the logo were to evoke a friendly feeling while also being easy to read since our targeted audience is seniors. Based on the semiotics theory- “the assumption that virtually anything can be a sign or symbol, which means that it can stand in for and elicit in the viewer's mind an object, person, or concept separate from the sign itself” (Littlejohn, S. W., & Foss, K. A. (Eds.) (2009) I found that I could easily replace the literal word “Paws” with a vector created that symbolized a paw print. The tail is aligned at the end of the phrase along with at the end of the paw symbol to represent the plural word paw (s). I was able to use the pen tool and imported images to trace the symbols, making them exactly what I had intended, rather than trying to freehand. At first, I had left the symbols without texture, but to make the text and the symbols connect, I used the brush stroke and outlined the paw and tail. An element of the design I chose to highlight was the color. I went back to color theory notes, and found that blue can represent “trustworthiness, security, and stability” (Hughes, 2019), parallel to the message All Paws Shelter is trying to communicate. A non-profit organization looking to raise money for other non-profits in the area that have been recently destroyed by the hurricane.

During my visual communications and design course, students were instructed to use the basic functions and tools in Adobe Illustrator to create three illustrations that represent the moods provided. Out of 5 different moods, we were able to select only 3 that we wanted to recreate, and I chose to create images that depicted "peace", "happiness", and "anger". In my first vector, I chose to represent the word peace and the first few ideas that came to mind were themes of trippy hippies, unity, and the 70’s era. I used the 60-30-10 rule to choose my colors, where 60% of the image is light blue, 30% is the rainbow gradient, and 10% is a light lavender color. I chose light blue to dominate the design because “blue often communicates peaceful, clean qualities” (Hughes, 2019). This representation would immediately signal to the viewer that this is a calm piece. In my first draft, I had a rainbow off to the side and the peace sign to the other, and while thinking of ways to incorporate typography I decided to create a rainbow with the word I was representing. By incorporating the colors of the rainbow and the well-known arch, I was able to design an image that represents a rainbow while also clearly communicating my message. Our textbook, explains that “colors can communicate; we receive information from the language of color” (Hughes, 2019). I used this knowledge to create a design that not only read the message I was trying to communicate but also represented it with my choices of color and design properties. The balance of this design is even and provides stability and structure. When people view this image, I want them to feel balanced, calm, and relaxed. Finally, my topography choice showcases a rounded letterform and this type falls under the decorative category. These types are often distinctive and ornamental and provide an easy way to add personality to a design. When you look up 70’s aesthetic, this bubbly font was widely used so I wanted to incorporate something similar into my design. My next vector represents the word happiness. I wanted to challenge myself in creating two different images with words that are similar in feeling. When brainstorming what happiness meant to me, images of the sun, warm summer days, and hanging out by the water came to mind. A challenge that arose with this design was my fresh experience with Adobe Illustrator, and my inability to create the “arms” of the sun. I was still set on creating a sun for this design, so I chose to represent this circle with colors that symbolize the Sun and warmth. Analogous hues of red, orange, and yellow were incorporated into the gradient, and to symbolize sun rays, I repeated the image throughout the space given. My next step was incorporating typography into the design and instead of representing the word, I chose a song that also reflected the image I created. The song You Are My Sunshine represents love, uplifting your significant other throughout the hardships of life, and the bond that is created in a relationship. I am familiar with this song from preschool, and memories of singing it as a child. Viewers may share similar memories, so my choice to only incorporate the most well-known lyrics of this song will trigger viewers to recall their memories and happy times. The contrast of the words and the color brings more attention to the lyrics and the warm color helps instill warm thoughts into the minds of the viewer. Finally, I chose a word that is the opposite of the previously selected words. Anger is an easy thing to feel but representing it on paper can be challenging. When brainstorming ideas, I kept thinking of memories that made me angry but would be hard to convey the same feeling in an image with no context. I then thought of ways anger is depicted in animations, and typically these characters a red, represented with flames coming out of their head and ears, and very loud and dominant on screen. Once again using the 60-30-10 rule. 60% of this image is red, which symbolizes danger, violence, strength, and power depending on context. 30% of the image is grey and 10% is white. These are more neutral colors that bring more attention to red. Using the shape and pen tool created the shapes that would construct an angry stick figure. The arrows above and the angry animation on the forehead help the viewer recognize this figure is angry. The topography aspect helped bring this design together, most of us when we’re upset either think, huff under our breath, or straight up yell out loud “WTF”. It’s a way for us to let everyone know we’re angry with the situation, or a way for us to let off steam. We’ve all been in a situation where yelling a curse word is the first reaction we have. It’s a short outburst of anger, and I wanted to represent the short outburst.