Rachel Harrell | Portfolio 2015

RACHEL HARRELL | 2 0 1 5

RACHEL HARRELL

I grew up home-schooled in rural Delaware. My

days were long and usually spent alone; exploring,

reading, or making some little craft or another. I

didn’t have the chance to take art classes and the

only art I was exposed to was at old lady art fairs;

usually expressionist paintings of the beach or

a cat in a basket. Even though I didn’t consider

myself an artist at the time, everything I did was

infused with design. These days, I feel extremely

thankful that I am able to make things ALL THE

TIME. I am energized when I design, never

wanting to leave the mac-lab or the studio. This is

the stuff that keeps me up at night with my mind

racing on a new project and I know I wouldn’t be

fulfilled doing anything else.


01 // S E N I O R S H OW

02 // P E R S O N A L B R A N D

03 // B E R G S B R E W

04 // B A S JA N A D E R

05 // FA L S E E Y E L A S H E S

06 // E DWA R D B U RT Y B S KY

07 // U N D E R T H E S TA R S

08 // H E L L O F R I E N D S !

C O N T E N T S

PROJECT NAME / / Senior Show

CLIENT / / Point Loma Nazarene University

PRODUCT / / Poster, Postcard, Web banner

This was a class project for all of the senior

graphic design students. Our task was to create a

poster, postcard, and web banner for the upcoming

spring student art shows. Over Christmas break,

a mixture of students and faculty from the art

department voted to decide which brand would

be chosen to promote the school’s events and

my work received the most votes and was sent

to production. Posters advertising the event

were placed around town and invites were sent

out to students, faculty, and reviewers, and the

web banner was uploaded to the University’s

website. In my design I combined hand lettering,

illustration, watercolor, and graph-paper to

represent each of the department’s concentrations

featured in the poster. I drew a hand reaching into

the frame, placing the letter “a” to add a playful

element and feature the designer as a part of the

image. I kept the feel of the work whimsical with

an illustrated floral wreath framing the text, and

chose subdued greens and blues with pops of red.

N0. 01 | S E N I O R S H OW

N0. 01 | S E N I O R S H OW


PROJECT NAME / / Personal Brand

CLIENT / / Self - initiated

PRODUCT / / Website, Stationary

For my personal brand, I wanted to create

something that reflected the juxtaposing facets

of my personality: old and new, tough and tender,

subtle and bold. I combined a fresh, lightweight,

slab serif with a sturdy traditional university font.

I filled the type with a vintage 70’s floral wallpaper

to give it a charming, personal twist and extended

the brand throughout a letterhead, envelope,

business card, thank-you card, and website.

N0. 02 | P E R S O N A L B R A N D

N0. 02 | P E R S O N A L B R A N D


PROJECT NAME / / B e r g ’s B r e w


PRODUCT / / Cane Soda: Company Brand

Berg’s Brew was developed in an illustration

class as an assignment to combine branding

with illustration. The premise of the project

was to choose 3 objects out of a hat: a product, a

location, and an animal. I received soda, Iceland,

and a walrus. My conceptual direction was to

create a fun, youthful brand that would appeal

to the modern American consumer while still

referencing traditional Icelandic culture. I choose

fresh, modern flavor combinations ( ginger peach,

blood orange, and lemon mint), and petite glass

bottles for a unique and exclusive feel.

N0. 03 | B E R G ’ S B R E W

N0. 03 | B E R G ’ S B R E W

BERG’S BREW IS AN ICELANDIC

PRODUCED, ALL-NATURAL

ALTERNATIVE TO UNHEALTHY

CARBONATED DRINKS. NOW IN

THREE REFRESHING FLAVORS:

BLOOD ORANGE, GINGER PEACH,

AND LEMON MINT.

N0. 03 | B E R G ’ S B R E W


PROJECT NAME / / Bas Jan Ader


PRODUCT / / Multi-page Publication

I created this project as a fictional publication

called “Vanishing Artists” that would feature a

new artist for each journal published. This issue

spotlights the work of Bas Jan Ader, one of my

favorite artists. The challenge for this project

was bridging the gap between the design world

and the contemporary art world. If you flip open

any edition of Art Forum, you’ll notice the pages

are almost anti-design, focusing entirely on the

art work featured and giving little attention to

type, layout, and color. My goal was to create

a thoughtful, attractive design, that still felt

contemporary and would appeal to artists. I kept

the color simple: a fresh hot pink used sparingly,

and intentionally kept the type styling to a

minimum. I had fun creating an unexpected flow

through the pages, having tiny photos bleed off the

edge of the page, or keeping a spread completely

devoid of any information by covering it with a

sheet of color.

N0. 04 | B A S JA N A D E R

N0. 04 | B A S JA N A D E R


PROJECT NAME / / False Eyelashes


PRODUCT / / Album cover and poster

This was a project developed in an illustration

class. The prompt was to create a mixtape with a

unified theme and then design a cover for it. I‘ve

always had an affinity for old country music so

I decided to create a playlist staring some of the

classic ladies of country. Dolly Parton has a song

titled “False Eyelashes”, which divulges some of

the woes of being a female country singer. I used

that track as my inspiration. For the album’s cover,

I illustrated a pug with a Dolly Parton-esque

hairdo, generous eyelashes, and cigarette hanging

from her lips. I chose a color palette of vintage

mustards and teals to throw it back to the era of

Jello casseroles and hair curlers, and created some

quirky, off beat, hand-lettered type.

N0. 05 | FA L S E E Y E L A S H E S

N0. 05 | FA L S E E Y E L A S H E S

FEATURING THE

VOCAL STYLING OF:

Dolly Parton

Tammy Wynette

Patsy Cline

Connie Francis

Nancy Sinatra

Reba Mcentire

Loretta Lynn

Lynn Anderson

Kitty Wells

Tanya Tucker


PROJECT NAME / / Edward Burtynsky


PRODUCT / / TED talk winner booklet

This project was a multi page publication

highlighting a previous winner of the TED talk

prize, photographer Edward Burtynsky. I chose

him because I was struck by his powerful, large

scale photos of the earth’s changing landscape.

His images feature beautiful color and incredible

texture, so I kept my layout simple; with bold

lines, clean text, and minimal color to allow the

photographs room to standout.

N0. 06 | E DWA R D B U RT Y N S KY

N0. 06 | E DWA R D B U RT Y N S KY


PROJECT NAME / / Worship Under the Stars.

CLIENT / / PLNU

PRODUCT / / Event Poster, Water Bottle

Worship Under the Stars is an annual PLNU event

that provides an outdoor, worship experience at

night. This was a last minute project that needed to

quickly spread the word about the event. I chose to

illustrate the poster because I knew I could execute

it relatively fast while still giving it a hand crafted

feel. I drew an anonymous person standing alone,

looking up at the night sky in reflection and kept the

colors a narrow range of blue-greens to standout

against the dark background.

N0. 07 | U N D E R T H E S TA R S

N0. 07 | U N D E R T H E S TA R S


PROJECT NAME / / Hello Friends!

CLIENT / / Nazarene Compassionate Ministries + PLNU

PRODUCT / / Website, Installation, Tee- Shirts, Stickers, Bracelets, Stamp, and Soap.

Hello Friends started as a graphic design class

project, where we were asked to create and

design a campaign to raise money for a well in the

Democratic Republic of Congo. My design was

chosen from the class to represent our school in

the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries national

competition. We competed against 8 other

universities and eventually received the 2nd place

prize consisting of an $8,000 implementation

grant and a $7,500 scholarship for human

trafficking survivors to have the opportunity to

attend our school. My aim when designing Hello

Friends was to consider both cultures involved.

I wanted to honor the Democratic Republic of

Congo’s aesthetic and culture but had to keep

in mind the target audience for donations was

California college students. I studied colors,

textiles, and patterns of the DRC and decided

to illustrate those elements in a way that would

appeal to my generation. I used cheerful, modern

handwriting to give it a personal and friendly

voice, and mixed the vibrant colors typically used

in African cultures with a clean black and white

pallet to freshen up the look.

N0. 08 | H E L L O F R I E N D S !

N0. 08 | H E L L O F R I E N D S !


Over the course of three weeks,

we campaigned to meet a goal

of $6,000 that would go toward

a well at a primary school in

the DRC. We spread the word

through soap making events, cliff

cleanups, toothbrush collections,

and a full range of social media

platforms. Two iPad donation

stations were installed on campus

in addition to an Indiegogo

fundraising platform. By the end

of the campaign, we well exceed

our goal and raised $10,500.

FONTS USED

Vincent

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Florence

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

N0. 08 | H E L L O F R I E N D S !


N0. 08 | H E L L O F R I E N D S !


THANK YOU!

Thanks to the Lord for directing my path to

Point Loma, before I even had a desire to come

here and for giving me the opportunity to spend

my life creating. Thanks to my parents who are

unceasingly supportive of me in all my pursuits.

Thanks to Courtney Mayer for pushing all the

senior designers to fulfill their potential and for

caring about our work just as much as we do.

W R I T T E N A N D D E S I G N E D BY R AC H E L H A R R E L L . T H I S

B O O K WA S P R I N T E D BY C L E A R STO RY, S A N D I E G O O N

8 0 L B , M O H AW K PA P E R . N O P O RT I O N O F T H I S B O O K

M AY B E US E D O R R E P R O D U C E D W I T H O U T P E R M I S S I O N

F R O M T H E AU T H O R .

R ACH E L H A R R E L L DE S I G N.CO M // 3 0 2 . 727. 6 3 14

T H A N K YO U

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Rachel Harrell | Portfolio 2015