Monchow Designs http://www.monchow.com/blog Austin based graphic designer Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:07:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Self Portrait http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=136 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=136#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:07:46 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=136 Continue reading →]]> So the quarter before I left for my internship. I took a class called Conceptual Design. We had to create a conceptual self portrait. What I told the teacher was…that the layers of this self portrait represents the different layers of my identity — as an Asian American, a Christian…etc….but its really just a regular self portrait on plexiglass =p. Its hanging in the school library right now…you can kinda see the bookshelves in the reflection. I dont know what to do with it when I get it back. I’m not going to hang a picture of myself up in my house….maaybe I’ll give it to my mom.

You can click on it to enlarge.

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=136 3 Summer 2010 Internship http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=106 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=106#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:43:00 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=106 Continue reading →]]> Sooooo, I took a ridiculously long hiatus. I went to NYC over the summer of 2010 for a design internship at Sprout Creative Group.  They’re a small intimate design studio that focus on a lot of lifestyle brands.  They’ve designed for Lacoste, Oscar de La Renta, American Express…just to name a few.  I was suuuper lucky to be able to spend time and learn from them =)  Thanks to my friend Alice Yang, I’ve learned so much about not only web design, but how the whole process works.  Soo ya’ll see their website there? I did that! With the guidance of Alice (Creative Director) and our “client,” Jessica (founder)…I was able to do something I’ve never done. Here are a few screen shots of the website.

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=106 0 Central Market Bags http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=81 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=81#comments Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:05:51 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=81 Continue reading →]]> Heres a project I’m turning in on Monday.  We need to design a paper bag for Central Market that promotes the use/buying of their reusable bags.  Whaddaya think?  I dont know if im completely happy with it yet…

I got this fact from some website online: Reusable bags save 700+ bags over the span of their lifetime!

Ooh those are plus signs in between the little bags btw….

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=81 7 High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes Rats Fat. http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=69 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=69#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:49:52 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=69 Continue reading →]]> High Fructose Corn Syrup makes you fat!! So dont do it…

This is one of my editorial projects.  We were suppose to illustrated an article, so I took this article that had been shared around on Google Reader.

Here’s the actual article:

A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=69 0 to a tea http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=50 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=50#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:06:32 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=50 Continue reading →]]> Heres another concept design project.  Our final project was to choose one of the projects weve already done and do a different one or expand on the one we already created.  Sooo I took the “How to Make Ramen” project and decided to go with the kitchen theme.  My next concept is a tea pot that tells you when the tea is ready.

So heres how it works.  Each tea pot comes with 9 colored gel inserts and 9 different types of teas.  You insert the colored gels into the slot on the side, and with its revolutionary color recognition technology, the words “to a tea” will slowly appear in the window.  Once it is steeped perfectly, the little window says “to a tea!” and you can enjoy perfectly steeped tea =)

You can click on each image to enlarge.

So do yall remember those things when we were a kid…where its written in blue, and then theres red squiggly lines all over it, then you put a red film on top and you see whats written in blue?  Anywaayy so thats where I went to create this….sooo my technology isnt revolutionary or perfect, but you kinda get the idea right? aallssoo when i did this project…www.toatea.com wasnt a real website yet…but now it is, so I guess i should take that off….??

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=50 2 The Weepies http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=36 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=36#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:42:15 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=36 Continue reading →]]> Have you heard of The Weepies? Theyre only one of my favorite bands eveeer.  Theyre a husband a wife duo playing folk/pop music…their songs kinda have a cool childlikeness to them but still for adults.  Which is kindaa what I was going for in my CD redesign project.  A little bit whimsical and a little bit darkish.

I used a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop.

ooh! and heres “Hideaway” by the Weepies =)

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=36 9 How to make Ramen http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=30 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=30#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:04:55 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=30 Continue reading →]]> Heres a project I had to do for my Concept Design class.  We had to show how to do something in an idiosyncratic way. So my concept was to create a ramen bowl with the instructions printed on as a design element.  I created the bowl and all the icons in illustrator, then put them together in photoshop.

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=30 2 Every Time….. http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=9 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=9#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:02:55 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=9 He’s a cactus not a giant prickly cucumber.

Hand sketched and then colored in Illustrator.

]]> http://www.monchow.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=9 4 Design Dump http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=1 http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=1#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:52:48 +0000 Monica Chow http://www.monchow.com/blog/?p=1 Continue reading →]]> Hello peoples of the internets,

Soooo, I am a graphic design student (I make things look pretty) at The Art Institute of Austin.  Every once in a while, I’ll do some freelance design work doing brand identity, collateral and also wedding invitations and stationary.

Weell, I decided I should get blog just so I can have a place to dump all my design stuff, sketches and other artwork.  Critiques are definetely helpful =) Good or bad…. I’ll also randomly blurb about life, talk about amazing designers that make me feel inferior =p

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