About Me
Nicholas Kennedy is a creatively conscious visual communication designer who seeks to get across a message in each of his graphic designs. Graduating from Champlain College in 2023 with a Bachelor's Degree of Visual Communication Design, Nicholas values the people met and unforgettable experiences that come with being a graphic designer in this modern, heavily online climate. Nicholas, having done internships with non-profit organizations as a graphic design and social media marketer, provided lessons and technological support for The Sarah Ramsey Strong Fund, Nelson’s Candy and Music and Wilton Lyndeborough Coop, and even broke into the world of freelance art and design, with his Instagram and Twitter profiles.
In 2021, Nicholas Kennedy was an intern for the Sarah Ramsey Strong Foundation, a charity founded in memory of the Champlain College graduate, seeking to support and encourage entrepreneurship among Champlain's student population. While at SRSF, As my up to date resume outlines, I showcased the ability to manage the social media and marketing of an organization during my time at SRSF. And I also showcased my ability to create effective graphic designs for the organization which led to the year in which I worked for them being their most successful yet.
Personal Identity System Design
Over the course of iterating on my Personal Identity System, I learned how to create a Professional Business Card, an Invoice, a Letterhead, design an envelope, and create a proper Presentation Deck. I found it valuable to design each of these things, because many of them I was not familiar with beforehand, and I am glad to have learned these skills.
3 Updated Projects
This is the section where I share 3 updates I made, to older assignments I did as a designer. The 3 assignments I have chosen to update, are:
- Week 4:: ASSIGNMENT :: Rebrand a Local Business :: PART 2
- Week 5 : ASSIGNMENT : Illustrated Letterforms/Typeface
- Week 8 :: ASSIGNMENT : Beverage Packaging Design Part Il
Week 4:: ASSIGNMENT :: Rebrand a Local Business :: PART 2
The first assignment I chose to create an update for and to include on this website, is Rebrand a Local Business Part 2. My new updated logos, more accurately reflect this purpose, as the first one involves paws drawn in a painterly style and with a fitting color palette. The second logo I have created, involves a cat sticking their head in a mug to take a drink.
My original submission, was a single color (black) illustration, of a cat wrapping it's tail around a cup (or perhaps holding the cup with its paw, it was hard to tell), in a silhouette style. I have included the original submission I made for Rebrand a Local Business Part 2, which features the cat with the mug silhouette as well as the sketches and moodboard I created for the sake of reference, and to see how I improved as I iterated on and updated this assignment.
My original submission, was a single color (black) illustration, of a cat wrapping it's tail around a cup (or perhaps holding the cup with its paw, it was hard to tell), in a silhouette style. I have included the original submission I made for Rebrand a Local Business Part 2, which features the cat with the mug silhouette as well as the sketches and moodboard I created for the sake of reference, and to see how I improved as I iterated on and updated this assignment.
Week 5 : ASSIGNMENT : Illustrated Letterforms/Typeface
The second assignment I have chosen to create an update for and to include on this website, is Week 5 : ASSIGNMENT : Illustrated Letterforms/Typeface. In the original assignment, I created my own typeface to the barest minimum (essentially, only creating my own handwritten version of the letters necessary to spell out Kitty Korner. However, this time, I have handwritten my own entire alphabet! This update now makes it so that I have truly created my own Typeface in its entirety.
Week 8 :: ASSIGNMENT : Beverage Packaging Design Part II
The third assignment I have chosen to create an update for and to include on this website, is Week 8 :: ASSIGNMENT : Beverage Packaging Design Part Il. My new update to the beverage I designed, Steamdrinks, has added a new background color for the Cherry version, instead of using a simple color which blended in with the logo. I made the decision to do this, because of the advice and feedback I recieved during critique. Positive feedback was directed towards the blue-black color which I used for the second flavor, Blueberry, and it was suggsted, that I do something similiarly unique (as in a black-fusion with another color) for the Cherry drink. So I chose to do the fusion of red-black!
Internship Work
Created for my Internship at Sarah Ramsey Strong Foundation, used to promote their 2021 5k Race event. This poster is an example of my dedication. I did several projects at Sarah Ramsey Strong Foundation, creating graphic designs for posters, newsletters, advertisements, race maps and more.
|
Cartoon Characters Concept: Trent and Mint
This is concept art for two characters of a potential cartoon I have been developing since my Sophomore year of high school. The girl with plum hair is named Mint, as she often wears green clothing. She, and her friend Trent, a dog human hybrid, both fight crime and defend their city. The series is an action comedy and loving parody of the kung-fu and action movie genres. Making the concept art was enriching. To create it, I taught myself how to use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrate to transform my pencil sketches into these renders. To me, this wholehearted dedication manifests itself in almost all of my artistic endeavors. I taught myself how to use Adobe Flash, and eventually ToonBoom to create an animated short film. I taught myself to draw pixel art for several customers in order to raise money and afford a car. Much like those passion projects, these character designs are wholly original efforts. These characters, and this concept art, are just another example of my determination. I have also developed scripts for potential cartoon episodes including them.
Click the below video to see an animation I made with these characters
Traditional Art - Champlain College
This is my Still Life of a Potted Plant. Created during my tenor at Champlain College, it features several iterations of a potted plant created in different mediums. I began by creating initial sketches, during which I gained many new skills such as an understanding of dimensions and space. I show my understanding of dimensional drawing by having the shadows in the finished, pastel version of the Still Life reflect what type of surface they are, such as glass.
I also learned how to draw the leaves on the plant better over the course of doing several iterations of drawing it. Overall, this assignment to me reflects the most concrete combination of the skills I learned in my Introduction to Drawing class. |
|
Creative Pattern Portrait
This project, was a series of Self Portraits, created in traditional paper and pencil materials. The process involved photogrpahs I took of myself using my Canon Camera, which I then redrew on paper while looking at high resolution versions of the photo on my computer screen. Then the assignment called for us to create our own patterns, which we then used to color the picture in. I truly got to express my creativity with this portion of the assignment, as I created many patterns which reflect who I am as a person, with some patterns even including characters from projects I have created myself such as Mint and Trent, who can be seen on the shirt of the second Self Portrait.
Created for a project in Form and Color, a class I took as an aspiring Graphic Designer, I took this project as an opportunity to prove myself.
Created for a project in Form and Color, a class I took as an aspiring Graphic Designer, I took this project as an opportunity to prove myself.
Commissions
I began doing art commissions on the internet as early as 2016. I used social media to run my own business: I was just a high schooler at the time. I did it to afford to pay for my car, and to help myself go to community college for my Junior year of High school.
I posted art of OCs, or "Original Characters" that I created and I also drew art for other artists I admired, and slowly by marketing myself I have been able to make more and more money off of my art.
I posted art of OCs, or "Original Characters" that I created and I also drew art for other artists I admired, and slowly by marketing myself I have been able to make more and more money off of my art.