My Stuff

W&O Training Solutions

"Kitreate Capstone" 2nd Year

What even is this?

For a good few years now I’ve been searching for a program to categorize my ideas, stories, characters, and whatever other nerdy stuff I can think of in one clean, organized place.
Kitreate is a program meant for worldbuilders, writers, and roleplayers who want to be able to keep all their stuff in one place. It features a map maker, character visualizer, document section, and more. It also has the option to purchase your visual creations like standees of your characters or posters of your maps.

Logo Creation

I had the logo in mind before anything else. I was set on Kitreate’s little box icon from the start, but I wasn’t too sure how to portray it. I gathered a bunch of inspiration photos from Pinterest and stuck them all together to create a conglomerate of my vision.
I tried placing the Kitreate name inside the box, but it just wasn’t working the way I wanted it to. When it comes to developing logos, I usually start with a page of sketches in my sketchbook, then take photos of them to vectorize them in Illustrator.

The Name

The name was harder for me to come up with, I was smitten with the name Kitterly because I found it so cute, but unfortunately someone else from California had thought the same thing, so I decided to do what I do best when I name something: just mash a bunch of words together and see what happens. At one point I got so fed up I started making anagrams and turning them backwards, which is how I ended up with such gems as “Erut Nevda” and “Srot aerc tik”. Truly genius names, but I swear it works sometimes. I’m just glad I didn’t get to the point where I start looking up latin words, spelling them backwards, and summoning a demon from the 10th circle of hell.

The UI

The UI itself took me the longest amount of time, mostly because the amount of procrastination I put into this specific project was through the roof. I think the worst decision I could’ve possibly made during this project was spending 8 full hours without any sort of break whatsoever on making assets for the character visualizer that Figma didn’t even have the capabilities to make functional. So note to self and anyone else who needs to hear this: make sure both the program you use and your skill set are up to the task before devoting a full work day’s worth of your time to something ultimately pointless.The categories of Kitreate are sorted into “Character Development”, “Story Structure, “Worldbuilding”, “Settings”, and “Custom Folder”. The custom folder section would ideally allow the user to be able to make their own section template customized to their liking and workflow.The home section shows you recently opened tabs and your current projects, clean and simple.The map maker section is one of the most important parts of this software to me, because I hate flipping between tabs and having to update them externally, then re-import the files every time I make a change. The section has some basic features like brushes, textures, and labelling, and a handy little notes section at the bottom to write any quick facts about your map.The character visualizer is similar to picrew or one of those flash dress up games from the late 2000s. Each piece would have multiple selections available to fully customize your character the way you want, no drawing skills needed. To the side is another notepad to fill out basic information about your character, because you can never have too many notepads.The chapter document is where you write your story. Once again, there’s a little notepad to the side for all your “don’t forgets” and “to dos”. My favourite part about this is the fact that the document scrolls when everything else stays sticky. It’s the little things in life that count.Finally, there’s the shop. It’s tucked away in the top corner because I just know I would accidentally click this bad boy so many times if it was with the other sections in the side. It’s unobtrusive and out of the way. The Kitreate shop works similarly to Red Bubble or Heroforge, where the user can order singular items of their own creations (either custom made or made through one of the program’s visualizers) to have a physical piece of something they made. For me, it’s so nice seeing my work come to life in the real world, and I know so many people who feel the same.

Shop Stuff

I'd also designed packaging for mechandise bought through Kitreate's shop. It's a simple sliding box that contains your product, wrapped in a Kitreate branded ribbon.

"Lil Prairie Market" 2nd Year

What is Little Prairie Market?

Little Prairie Market is a rebrand for a fictional craft marketplace originally called "Maker's Collective". We were given freedom to change the name, choose the direction based on the creative brief given, and create the logo, branding, advertisements, and website for it.

The Inspiration

I started by going over the creative brief and gathering a bunch of images that felt like they matched the vibe into Figma. The first moodboard did gather a vibe, but it wasn't really one idea — rather a bunch of vague concepts I had in mind. For the second moodboard, I knew I wanted to keep that textile feeling, but also lean into that 50's vibe with it, emphasizing handmade quality that was meant to last. I gathered a few illustrations, textures, and font choices I thought might fit, then moved onto creating the logo.

The Logo

I did a LOT of sketching with this logo. I had a lot of trouble nailing down what I wanted, I was wanting to mix that 50's vibe with a modern, thin linework, which just didn't really exist in the way I wanted it to. I had 2 pages of sketches in my sketchbook, as well as a few in my tablet I created when I was just doodling, trying ANYTHING to get out of this creative block I was in. I was trying to mix a haybale with a needle and thread, but that wasn't working, so I decided to doodle a dainty hand that was similar in style to 50's advertisements and old Disney animation. I drew the needle and thread and it kinda looked a bit like the curve of a P...P as in... PRAIRIE MARKET! EUREKA!!

EUREKA??

YES! EUREKA!!I was determined to set off on this path of the needle and thread. It was perfect, it was elegant, it was just the right design to spark my interest. I did a LOT of iterations, getting it to look juuuuust right. I spent HOURS perfecting the P and matching fonts and colours until I ended up with the final logo, which I absolutely adore.I went with muted, earthy colours because I wanted to play into the "prairie" side of the brand instead of going all-in on the "retro 50's" vibe with bright colours and flair. I think I managed to nail that balance between modern linework and retro handmade pretty well if I do say so myself.

The Advertising

I needed to create 2 types of advertisements: one for promotional, and one for a limited time offer. Playing into the 50's/Prairie vibe, I created a little mascot I call Dot. She's inspired by retro art and fashion, wearing earthy tones and placed in front of prairie scenery.I wanted to keep that texture element, so for the promo ad I mixed Dot's illustration with a real photo of a piece of paper, giving it a nice blend of handmade and digital. Thinking back on it as I write this I definitely could've done the same with Dot holding a real hourglass photo, but that's knowledge I'll take forward with me.

"Don't Forget" 2nd Year

The Breakfast Club? In MY portfolio??

"Don't Forget" was my idea for my final motion graphics assignment in year 2. In this assignment, we were each given a potential client to advertise for; mine was Dole Fruit Cups.I started by thinking, "I don't think I have ever seen an advertisement for Dole in my entire life", so I looked into their marketing. What they had was limited, but it gave me just enough for an idea. Their existing advertising tended to feature bright colours and fruit with little smiley faces, so I took that and ran with it.

The Storyboard

The idea I had come up with was a fruit cup rushing to make its way into the backpack before it took off. I wanted to emphasize the importance of a healthy, convenient snack in a fun and playful way. I love the little cup dude, he's so cute. I chose the song "Don't You Forget About Me" to play with nostalgia as well as the lyrics fitting really well with the tagline "Don't forget your snack!"

Story version

Two versions of the animation were made, one being the longer "feed" ad for things like Instagram or Facebook, while this shorter and taller "story" one is for short-form content platforms like Tiktok or Reels.

"Colour Symbolism Poster" 1st Year

Problem:
This assignment was pretty interesting, we were each given a colour to research and create a poster of, I was given pink. On the poster we had to include:
-The meaning and symbolism of the colour
-Positive and negative associations with the colour
-An entity or brand that associates with the colour
-A quote or song title involving the colour, and
-An interesting fact about the colourOn top of the research, we also had to create a poster that had only that hue with varying tones and shades to create depth and interest.Solution:
I have a pretty deep connection with pink due to my mom going through her breast cancer journey in 2023, and also modelled the figure after her. I decided to give the poster a heavily feminine lean due to the colour's current connotations.Process:
I started by researching a few facts about the colour. I already knew I wanted to include breast cancer symbolism like the ribbon and mastectomy scars, and through some more research, I decided to add a pink triangle to the illustration, which I drew as a raster image in Clip Studio Paint.I then took the transparent PNG of the figure illustration into Indesign to place text into it. I chose two typfaces: one with a more formal and elegant look for the title, and a clean sans-serif to make the body copy easily readable. Fun fact: all the white-looking colours are still pink, but are a very light tint of it.After formatting the type to wrap around the illustration, the poster was finished. Ta-da! My mom thought it was a nice poster :)(Probably cuz I kinda drew her on it)

"Holiday Postcard" 1st Year

Problem:
This assignment was to create a Christmas postcard in Illustrator and to use creative thinking to show what the holidays are all about. The card had to have a setting, a focal point or character, stylized text, as well as a custom made stamp.Solution:
Where do you get your Christmas cheer? That's correct it's at the store, so I decided to pander to corporate Christmas and design a card in celebration of the poor souls of retail workers everywhere.Process:
As per usual I began with a basic sketch of my idea, with the front, back, and stamp. I've worked two Christmases in retail, both times with my ears annihilated by the unstoppable force that is Frosty the Snowman, so I wanted to dedicate this card to all the fallen soldiers of mall staff past, present, and future.I continued by taking the sketch into Illustrator and designing a shopping cart, which is my favourite form of cart, Christmas presents, which are my favourite form of presents, and store shelves which are my least favourite type of shelves. From there I altered the shape and colours of the illustrations until I was happy with them, and moved on to the stamp.The worst type of circle to have around the house at Christmas time is the holiday bobble, or as my cat, Bucket, likes to call it, "My favourite toy ever". So I designed a simple bobble shape, surrounded it with a few circles to type on the path, and roughed up the edges with a brush. And voila! The postcard is ready to be shared!

"Vector Character Design" 1st Year

Problem:
The assignment given was to create a character in Illustrator using shading techniques to give them depth, along with showing body language, facial expressions, and other props to tell a story.Solution:
I elected to take an unfinished sketch I had started a few years ago and turn it into a finished artwork.Process:
I started with the sketch, which was referenced from a pose I found on Pinterest. I then took him into Illustrator and outlined pieces of him to build him up from basic body parts like his head, face, horns, and shirt. When I separate basic shapes I like to colour them really obnoxiously so I can focus on each part as a different entity. After working on his basic forms I gave him his colours, fixed up his position on his chair, and boom! A stinky king was finished.

"Create a Newsletter" 1st Year

Problem:
The assignment here was to create a two-page magazine article including a front and back cover. With this, we were given 3 kinds of magazines with supplied text and titles, these being Gamify, a gaming magazine, Revved, a car magazine, and Palette, a food magazine. We were only allowed to use one font, excluding the masthead which was allowed to be different, and each page needed to include all supplied text, and all excluding the back cover needed a minimum of one image.Solution:
Because the most I know about cars is that the gas goes in the tank, and I have a track record od setting at least one stove on fire, I decided to go with the gaming magazine. I am not a gamer, but my partner is, so I recognized one single game in the given text, which was Valheim. I also enjoy the aesthetic of a nice RGB keyboard, so it was an appealing choice.Process:
I started by gathering my royalty-free images (Unsplash by beloved), and started laying everything out on the pages. For the front and back, I wanted to have a pink/blue colour theme, or what we in the LGBT community call, "bisexual lighting". Fun fact, I made everyone in class laugh with that term and I will ride that high until I am dead.Once the front and back covers were laid out, I moved to the internal pages. I decided to have a simple two-column layout with a few images with a blue/red theme, similar to Mario, which is a game series I have always sucked at, and I think that says something about my gaming expertise.I kept everything consistent with paragraph styles, which I accidentally figured out on my own before we were taught about them in the next class (I am so cool for that), and masked out the girl in the bottom right in Photoshop for a more immersive look. And presto! The first magazine I've read in a decade was made!

"Snack Illustration" 1st Year

Problem:
This assignment here was one of the first ones I was given in the class and I'm still pretty happy with it. The assignment was simple, to create a simple, yet engaging vector illustration of our favourite food or drink.Solution:
The subject was simple. I am never seen far from a Timmies and have held more iced capp cups than Tim Horton himself, so I chose a mocha iced capp without whipped topping. This was not a lazy choice, but a realistic choice reflecting my real-life issue with eating the texture of whipped cream. Did you know I also eat cake without icing too? Ask my partner how fun my birthday parties are for everyone else who has to eat dry angel food cake :)Process:
My original sketch was actually inspired by a scene I remembered from after a car accident I had where my iced capp was spilled onto the snow. My vision was super cool, but at the time I wasn't familiar with Illustrator and I decided to choose something easier for my skill level at the time.With my second idea, I traced the general shape of a large iced capp cup from a photo I took of one I obviously had on my desk, and built on each part starting with the cup, then the drink, followed by the straw, and so on.For the background, I merged the two main colours of Tim Hortons from their 2000s cups with their muted red and brown, and the current bright red and white palette. Add some nifty lines and presto! This iced capp will never spill!

Some stuff I've made