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@Designedbyvalerie

Freelance graphic, product design & commissions

Freelance Designer
Overview
An assortment of graphic designs, flyers and commissions I have done in the last few years. I've made over $1000 in artwork through RedBubble and Instagram!
location
International
duration
Ongoing
product year
2011-current
THE PROBLEM

From newspaper to shirt design to merchandise... I am my friends' go-to when they need any sort of item designed (and recently, produced & created).

apparel
Over the years, I've done the graphic design t-shirt logos for lots of my peers Greek life events such as philanthropy shirts that are sold to donate to a chapter's phil organization, COVID-19 relief fundraisers, and also am currently doing custom designs through my platform on Instagram. Production of product was completed through San Diego screenprinting with the exception of clothing I made for myself.
GRAPHIC
Aside from designing graphics to go onto t-shirts or apparel, I do a fair share of regular graphic design whether it's for myself, my friends, inspiration, to sell on stickers, or just for fun. On average, I design graphics on PS/Illustrator about 2-3x a month. Not everything I've made is pictured here. Recently, I've switched over to Cricut Design Space as I've been a lot more physical products lately (see next section).
beginnings of my products on
instagram
Below are all the products I currently have made and sold on my Instagram @designedbyvalerie. All of them come from different forms of inspiration... Pinterest, holidays, Instagram explore, the Cricut Instagram, my own crazy mind. :) Aside from the here and there colleagues who hit me up to design, this is definitely my freelance focus for 2021. Hit me up for custom cards and home decor!
research
insights
DESIGN
Sketching

Prototyping
Implementation

SKETCHES
No items found.
Prototypes
The mobile prototype was create first, following black styles to remain "professional." However, stylistically we went ahead and discussed using our branded blue as soon on the desktop prototype.

The idea here was to provide easy access into the website and to give clear understanding that the purpose is to browse different things and places that exist in a specific city.

These sketches translated into lo-fi prototypes I did on Figma. I followed closely to the prototypes that "won" approval and also ones I believed were most modern. Despite the design being modeled off of typical app design, Andres had a liking for it on desktop as well.
Prototypes
01 Prototype

The way the Product Design team functions is more so on seeing the visual prototype. With each sketch, I translated it into Axure, a prototyping software, and showcased how it would actually look on the software. The orange button was not the correct color and the length of the button was a bit too wide here. Our style also does not permit buttons on the left hand side.

1.5 Prototype

Moving the placement of the button to right below “Add Another Custom Message” was an idea I had, yet it then showed as a “competition” to adding another message. In addition to this, they would both need to be blue which would then compete even more. My next solution was then to move the send preview button to within the “Custom Messages” widget.

02 Prototype

My director at the time shared the brand library with me as I realized I did not have it at my disposal. Due to the orange being for a different action, the gray button aligned with the importance of this new feature. Important, but not as important as orange. Moving the button within the box made it clear that it pertained to custom messages only.


prototypes
Full product elements were scrapped to just include short preview of products.
FINAL prototype
REFLECTION & FINAL NOTE
Using my passion for design has followed me throughout my entire life. I am blessed that I have found UX/Product Design but doing custom designs to help others will always be something that I will continue to do on the side. I am still trying to build my business, it's hard because I try to keep it to be a hobby, but I believe that in the upcoming years when I am more established I'll be able to figure out a system that is not just through word of mouth! Thankful for all my friends and family for always using me as the "I know someone who can design that" trope.

Other projects

Wells Fargo Premier
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Advice Analytics Website Redesign
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events.com Custom Confirmation Layout
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Freelance graphic, product design & commissions
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