3. meet the graduate
When did you realize you wanted to be
a Designer?
Ever since I can remember I just knew I wanted
to do something in photography and design. I
believe I have a creative mind and that’s what led
me into studying graphic design. Designing is like
a form of speaking without words. I’m able to get
my message through with the work I do and that’s
what I like about graphic design.
What’s the best advice you ever received
in life?
I remember my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Nottle,
telling us once, “anything is possible as long as
you believe in yourself.” She would also say that
if you put your mind and heart into something
and believe you can do anything, the sky is your
limit. I love my fifth grade teacher; she was such a
great person. She always encouraged us to do our
best. Thanks to her, I know I am capable of doing
anything, if I just believe in myself.
Give a quote that best describes
your personality.
A quote that best describe my personality would
be a quote from Jimmy J that says, “Really it comes
down to your philosophy. Do you want to play it
safe and be good or do you want to take a chance
and be great?” Sometimes I like taking chances. It
can either go terribly wrong or very well. I should
always challenge myself to do something different
and that’s why I believe in taking risks. I don’t know
what I’m capable of doing unless I try. I always tell
myself; I can do anything if I take the chance.
What is your most successful design project?
My most successful design would be the product
ad I designed in Illustration class. We had to
advertise a product and I chose Hershey Kisses.
I had the Hershey Kisses characters dressed up
for a romantic date set on a boat. My ad won an
Honorable Mention in the Juried Art Competition
in May 2012. I was so proud of myself, even though
none of my photographs made it to the art show,
my ad won an award.
Briana Pascual-Mejia
LOCATION: Graham, NC
EMAIL: bpmcreations@yahoo.com
EDUCATION: Associate in Applied Science Degree
Advertising and Graphic Design
Alamance Community College, Graham, NC
If you could interview anyone in the world who would it be?
If I could interview anyone in the world, I would like to interview
Ellen Degeneres. She’s a big inspiration to me. There was a point
in her life when her career went down the hill, but that didn’t stop
her from coming back to the comedy world. Lots of doors closed
in front of her, but she kept looking for an open door. Now she’s a
well-known famous celebrity who has her own talk show. She went
through some rough times, but she kept going and never stopped
believing in herself. What I like the most about her is that she’s
always helping people in need. Her favorite thing to do is to make
people laugh like I do. I hope one day I can help people the same
way she helps them.
As a professional designer —what would be your
“dream job?”
My dream job is to be a famous photographer. I want to travel
around the world taking photos that would be used in magazines,
newspaper, ads and TV commercials. I would like to work for a
big time company where I could gain knowledge and experience
and work as a team to accomplish every goal. I want my work to be
known, and to inspire people through my photos.
bpm creations|3
4. Samantha Bishop
says, “As a graphic designer, I really
enjoy developing designs. Being a
graphic designer for me is a way
to express myself, pushing me out
of the box to try new things. I love
helping others by giving back with
my design work.”
Scott Neville
has always wanted to be an artist.
His strengths are in illustration,
but he also enjoys drawing, hand-
art, and using Adobe Illustrator.
Scott says, “I try to keep my work
fresh and new by keeping up with
the latest trends and using many
different styles.”
Robert Boone
used to draw a lot as a child and
wanted to be an artist. Since
coming to ACC and entering the
Advertising and Graphic Design
curriculum, he has realized that he
actually wants to be a designer. His
strengths are in illustration, but he
also enjoys drawing, hand-art, and
using Adobe Illustrator. Robert
says, “I love to get lost in my work.”
Madison Childress
has loved to draw and has wanted
to be an animator since childhood.
Her strengths are in illustration, but
she also enjoys drawing, hand-art,
and using Adobe Illustrator. “Those
who dream by day are cognizant
of many things which escape those
who dream by night,” is her mantra.
Travis Oakley
has, since childhood, always wanted
to help those in need. The ACC
Advertising and Graphic Design
curriculum has helped him to realize
that he was put here for a reason: to
help with the Malawi coloring books.
His strengths are in illustration, but
he also enjoys drawing, hand-art, and
using Adobe Illustrator.
Jose Ortiz-Fuentes
says, “I have always preferred
being in a creative environment;
therefore, being in a creative
career was an obvious choice.
Multimedia and design are always
growing, which allows me to draw
inspiration from everywhere I
look.” He has enjoyed working
on projects that will help people
achieve a better life.
class of 2014
4|bpm creations
5. Rachel Godsmark
used to flip through the same
magazine more than 100 times and
still find it interesting. Naturally,
she decided to pursue a career in
graphic design. Since entering the
Advertising and Graphic Design
program at ACC, Rachel has
realized that she wants to pursue
a career making cards, stationary,
and wedding invitations.
Danielle Johnson
began drawing at an early age as
a means of communication and
self-expression as she aspired
to become an artist. As a young
adult, Danielle discovered ACC’s
Advertising and Graphic Design
curriculum, and as she progressed,
she was certain she had found her
calling in life. Danielle’s strengths
are in traditional and digital art,
web design, and attention to detail
Dayna Mack
says, “Music is the main influence
that drives my creative process.”
She loves to draw any idea that
pops into her mind. After enrolling
in the Advertising and Graphic
Design curriculum at ACC, she
has realized that her drawing and
illustration skills have advanced her
toward a career in graphic design.
Ryan Scott Paquin
says, “I have always had an
overactive imagination. My
imagination has led to a love of
drawing and writing. The act
of drawing something is quite
relaxing. Putting your own creative
thought onto paper is an
amazing experience.”
Tyler Payne
has always had a passion for art.
Entering ACC’s Advertising and
Graphic Design curriculum,
Tyler confirms that he still loves
designing. His strengths are in
photography and illustration, but
he also enjoys drawing, hand-art,
and using Adobe Illustrator.
Tyler Robbins
says, “I have always been a
conceptual person when creating
my artwork, using a basic idea or
inspiration to create thumbnail
sketches and build them into good
illustrations. Once the idea hits the
paper, it flows to the computer, and
I change the sketches into vector
artworks. I have a never-ending
game of creating ideas that make
the inspirations for my work.”
bpm creations|5
6. cheshire cat
INTRODUCTION
Justin Snyder from the Horticulture Department needed an animation Cheshire Cat to go along with the
Alice in Wonderland theme for the State Fair in Raleigh, NC. Although this project was a team project, each
individual had to illustrate their own Cheshire Cat in Adobe Illustrator and assemble it with the tools given.
We had to print the cat on thick paper and then cut each piece with the laser engraver for a mock-up to
present to the client.
CREATING THE ARTWORK
The cat will be animated and scaled up, therefore it needs to be created in Adobe Illustrator. Set up the
artboard proxy so it is located in the upper left-corner with the coordinates (Y=0, X=0). The artboard size is
11in. wide by 8.5 in. high: the paper needs to be landscape in order to align it to the laser engraver.
Take an image of the Cheshire Cat and use it as a reference. Start with the head first, the body, the tail, and
then the color wheel last. Remember each part should be in separate layers.
Head
Use the Pen Tool to create the head shape. Then, create the ears and everything else (e.g.
eyes, nose, smile, eyebrows and mouth). Use the Eyedropper Tool and copy the color
from the image so it will match. This is an easier way to match the color instead of
changing the different values of pink to get the right color. When finished, save the two
main colors of the cat on the Swatches panel. To make the head a continuous stroke,
and used the Shape Builder Tool to combine the ears and head.
Body
The Pen Tool is also used to create the body parts. Do a
continuous line for the body. After that use the Pen Tool to
create the stripes on the cat’s body. Then, create the cat’s paws
with the Pen Tool as well. Create a triangle form for the cat’s
claws. Finally group the paws and the claws together and
place it behind the head, but in front of the body.
Tail
The tail is the easiest part. Draw a continuous stroke for the tail using the Pen Tool. Use the Arc Tool to
create the curve lines. Fill in the color using the Live Paint Tool.
Color Wheel
Make an asterisk symbol (*) with the Arc Tool and color each line a
different color. Use the Blend Tool to blend each line together and you will
create a nice colorful wheel.
You will then need to create single strokes for each outline of the body.
You need to create bleeds as well.
6|bpm creations
7. LASER CUTTING SET UPS
1. Open the file in CorelDraw x4
2. Go to Layout, Page Set Up and under pages size change the width to 16 in and height to 12 in.
3. Go to Guidelines, then Ruler and change the vertical to 12 in and click OK.
4. Select all objects and align the table guide to the left corner of the paper.
5. On the right side you will see the layers. Move all layers into the Guides Layer. Under Layer 1, only place
one of the cat’s parts (ex: the cat’s body outline). You need to change the outline to Red and Hairline in
Object Properties and click Apply.
6. Next you will click on Print.
7. Check Properties like Paper and Cardboard and Matt Board. Change Material Thickness to 0.60 in.
You will now start cutting.
8. Click on the blue button on the bottom of the screen. This will open the laser program. Make sure the
outline is red.
9. Next you will load the machine with the paper you want to cut. You must align the paper to the left corner
of the table. Once everything is okay click on the green button on the screen or the Start button on the
laser machine and the laser will start cutting.
You will repeat this process with each cut.
ASSEMBLING THE PROTOTYPE
You need a piece of 11 in by 8.5 in paper. (You can have a blank page or you can create a background.)
1. Place the tail above the center towards the right side and place a rivet there and use the hammer to make it
go through the paper. On the back place the other half of the rivet.
2. Repeat the same steps for the color wheel.
Place the color wheel in front of the tail in
the center of the paper.
3. Place the color strip of paper in front of the
color wheel.
4. Tape the body on top of the strip
color paper.
5. Tape the head on top of the body.
Final product should look like the image on the right.
bpm creations|7
8. dynamic designers
DYNAMIC DESIGNERSis a project that provides the opportunity to
showcase my skills as a graphic designer. I had to incorporate a self-portrait and a mix of
vector and raster artwork to display in this project. I also had to create an animated version
using Adobe Flash.
Step 1
In the first step, I had to take a picture for the background. My idea was to put my artwork
on a billboard. I also had to get a self portrait to incorporate in to my design. For my self-
portrait, I have a camera to show my interest in photography.
Step 2
In the second step, I got some samples of my work to put on the billboard. The first example
is the Hershey’s Kisses ad I did in illustration class. The second sample is a photograph of a
flower. I also placed a photograph and an illustrated image of myself on the billboard.
In the left corner, I have a portrait of me with a camera. You can tell my interest in
photography. I’m either inside a camera or holding one. I used exposure lights to represent
my ideas going on to the billboard. This gives a senses of movements in my design.
(Final image on next page.)
8|bpm creations
9. Step 3
In step 3, I had to create symbols in Illustrator in order to animate objects. The icons that
I created as symbols were the airplane, globe, Apple Logo and the Eiffel Tower. These are
the icons I animated in flash. I also created a symbol for my vector self-portrait because I
wanted it to make an entrance on to the billboard in Flash.
Step 4
In step 4 I started the animation in Flash. The first thing that I animated was my self-portrait.
I made it bounce on to the billboard. Then, I made the globe pop out and enlarge. I also
made the airplane large and made it fly through the page and around the globe. I did all of
this by creating motion tweens for each of the symbols.
bpm creations|9
10. warm heart hope coloring book
IN THE SPRING OF 2013the ACC FLORA Club and Visual Arts Club joined together
to work with a teacher at Domasi Demonstration Primary School in Malawi on a Literacy in the Mother
Tongue (LMT) project to help students there learn to read in the language they speak naturally. Malawian
teacher Alinane Misomali wrote a book titled Vain Hope which was later designed and printed and sent to
back to Malawi.
The Malawian teachers, thrilled by the example of the book written by Alinane Misomali, sent 18 more
stories in the hopes of getting them made into books. In Malawi, where school supplies are non-existent,
resourceful teachers create TALULAR materials for their classrooms. TALULAR stands for: Teaching And
Learning Using Locally Available Resources. Cardboard from boxes, the backs of calendar pages, yarn, all
kinds of pre-used materials are regularly pressed into service for the teachers’ ingenious creation of much-
needed teaching tools.
Graphic design instructors David Davenport and Denise Archuleta took on this project in fall 2013.
ACC design students were tasked with taking these 18 TALULAR stories and crafting them as books for
children, rich with culturally-congruent pictures to support them in learning to read.
It’s a pleasure and honor to work on this project.
This is the first time I have ever made a children’s
coloring book. When Dr. Barber and Justin Snyder
did their presentation on Malawi, the children
overwhelmed me. They have so much eagerness to
learn with the little supplies they have. It’s amazing
how 150 or more kids can sit in a small room and
listen to one person and capture every word the
teacher says. If children attend school they are
less likely to get infected by HIV or AIDS. Not
every kid in Malawi has the opportunity to attend
school; education in Malawi is life or death. The
children know it’s very important for them to go to
school and that’s why they’re willing to memorize
everything their teacher says. One thing these
children taught me was to appreciate every little
thing you have. They may not have paper nor pencil
but that doesn’t stop them from learning. I am
thankful for this opportunity to change someone’s
life and to inspire others to do well. Illustrating the
coloring book was so much fun, I hope I be able to
do this again.
The Hungry Boy
Cecilia Kawiza
Illustrated by Briana Pascual-Mejia
10|bpm creations
12. warm heart hope logo
AFTER THE SUCCESS of the coloring books, it was time to create a logo to represent the
non-profit organization: “Warm Heart Hope” The objective for the Warm Heart Hope logo is to create
something that is educational, recognized, and understood by the Malawian teachers and children. The
logo must grow with the organization and be affordable as well. The requirements were that the logo must
include a symbol, name of organization, and work functional in black and white as well as in color. The
logo must be scalable and flexible for variety of uses for example website, t-shirts, caps, buttons and etc.
When I was first handed this assignment,
I was thrilled to get started. After Justin’s
presentation about Malawi and the start
of logo process, the first thing that came
in my mind was hands, sun, boat and
water. After doing more research about
Malawi, I know that Malawian people are
hard workers and most of them work in
the field or in the water. Also Malawi’s
landscapes are so beautiful that I wanted
to incorporate into my design. My first
idea was a boat on the water and the
sunset in the background. I did lots of
variation with the sun, water, boa. I also
tried to create a design with hands. I was
stuck in that concept trying to build a
symbol around it, but nothing seemed
to work just right. (Below are some ideas
I came up with.) I then decided to find
a font for the organization name. After
finding the perfect font for the logo, I just
went from there.
WarmHeart
HOPE
WarmHeart
WarmHeart
WarmHeart
HOPE
WarmHeart
WarmHeart
HOPE
WarmHeart
WarmHeart
WarWarmHeart
WarmHeart
WarmHeartWarmHeart
12|bpm creations
13. My logo focus on the name of the
organization and making it stand out.
I have the word “Hope” in all caps and
with a larger type size compare to “Warm
Heart”. The font for “Warm Heart” is
Britannic Bold and for “Hope” it’s Futura
Std Medium. I feel that this two fonts
complement each other. The line helps
balance both fonts and gives a foundation
for the word “Warm Heart.” Using a serif
typeface for “Warm Heart,” it gives that
welcoming and warm feeling to it and
by using a San serif for “Hope” it gives a
bold and strong look to the word. I used
the same color as the Malawi flag black,
red and green into the logo to represent
their country. I placed a little boy reading
a book in front of the “O” to represents
the concept for this logo, which is helping
children in Malawi in literature. The logo
works good in black and white as well in
reversal; it is still readable and sends out
the message.
I believe that my logo meets the
requirements; it is colorful, affordable
and importantly educational. It’s scalable
and able to be used on different media.
My logo focus a lot on the name of
the organization, which I think it’s
important. You want people to know the
organization’s name. I believe it could be
easily be recognized by the teachers and
children of Malawi.
Even though it was stressful in the
beginning, I enjoyed doing this project.
I want to thank Justin Snyder and Dr.
Barber for this wonderful opportunity
once again.
bpm creations|13
14. THIS PORTFOLIO WEBSITEwas a challenge and a fun project to
do; I really enjoyed working on it. The specifications for the website was to create a home,
portfolio, profile and contact page. The fonts for my website are the same fonts I used for
my logo which are ITC Avant Garde Gothic and ITC Isadora. I chose the color blue
because blue gives that cool, calm and welcome feeling. The blue also contracts well with
the background. The navigation bar is a rounded rectangle
attached to the logo. I used the San’s serif font for readability
purpose. I reversed the text to make it pop-out from the blue
and the rest of the web page.
On the home page, I have the word “welcome” in the script
font to give it a fun, formal invitation to the website. Also the
home page, I wanted my logo to be the main focus and I did
that by enlarging it. The logo is only scaled up on the home
page, so the viewer can distinguish the home page from the
other pages. On the other web pages, the logo is scaled down
and placed on the left side of the page.
When you navigate to the other page the words change to
purple to tell you that you are on that page. On the portfolio
page you will see graphic design, illustration, multimedia and
photography on the left side. You can click on each word and
it will show you samples of my work. On the bottom of the
artwork I have captions for each artwork. You can navigate
through each artwork by clicking on the purple circles
underneath the artwork.
Next, you can navigate through the profile page and read a small description about me. I
placed a background image of myself and changed the opacity so the text can be readable.
On the left side, I have a small statement about my interest in graphic design and on the right
side I have a abbreviated resume and a link for a full PDF version.
The last page is the contact page. Here you will be able to
contact me via email or telephone I placed a vector self-
portrait because I want the viewer to continue seeing my
work for the last time. I also wrote a small note to remind the
viewer that this is the websites where ideas come to life as I
mention on my home page.
My website is still under construction and it will be up soon. I
hope to be working on more web page designs in the future.
website
14|bpm creations
18. Briana Pascual-Mejia
751 Kernodle Lane Lot 3
Graham, NC 27253
Cell: 336-290-4596
Email: bpmcreations@yahoo.com
Objective
To obtain a position that will enable me to use my strong conceptual
skills, educational background, and be a team player.
Computer Skills
Adobe Creative Suite CS6: InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat
Mac/PC Platforms
Certified in Microsoft Office 2010: Excel, Access, Power Point, Word and Publisher
Skills
Photography
Graphic Design
Typography
Illustration
Personal Skills
Detail-oriented
Fast learner
Well organized
Team player
Education
Associate in Applied Science Degree
Advertising and Graphic Design, Alamance Community College, Graham, NC
Current GPA 3.25, July 2014 (expected graduation)
Work Experience
Operation Staff Memeber, Spoonflower, Durham, NC (Part-time, August 2014-Present)
Cutting, shipping, rolling and assuring each material is flawless.
Cashier, Kmart, Burlington, NC (Part-time, 2013-2014)
Handle cash, greet and assist customers, restock shelves
Host/Cashier, The Park Restaurant, Burlington, NC (Part-time, 2012-2014)
Handle cash, greet and seat customers, take-out orders, bus tables
Honors and Award
Honorable Mention, Graphic Design, ACC Juried Design Competition, May 2012
Client-base Project
Malawi Coloring Book - Created coloring books for children in Malawi, Africa
WarmHeartHope Logo - Logo design for a non-profit organization started by
Justin Snyder and Dr. Barber
The Explorer Magazine - New designed for ACC’s Literary Magazine
Literacy Program at ACC - Designed posters and brochures for the ESL Program
References
Upon request
resumé
18|bpm creations
