Download - Courtney Hendricks Portfolio 2014
Print & DigitalCraftswoman
Courtney Hendricks
Queer Film Festival
About the Project The Queer Film Festival is a three day, annual event
hosted by the University of Oregon’s Cultural Forum.
QFF showcases work by the LGBTQ community’s actors,
writers, and directors.
My Role With a logo already established from the previous year,
it was my task to create a visual identity for this year’s
event. I wanted it to be unique and recognizable, but not
clash with the overall branding that our audience had
become accustomed to. Essentially, my job was to get
the word out about the festival (which, on campus, is
usually best achieved via print materials), and to provide
schedule information at the festival itself, which I decided
would be best achieved with printed programs.
What I Learned Things change. A lot. I had a tough time adjusting my
work to keep up with the client’s ever-changing schedule
information. I learned that I probably should have allowed
more negative space in the designs for those inevitable
last-minute changes. And while this job sounded like a
pretty straightforward one, it was difficult to decide on
esthetics because my options seemed so wide open.
I knew I wanted something colorful, but certainly no
gender-specific colors. I also considered using a photo
from one of the previous years’ movies, but choosing just
one photo to represent an event that was so diverse just
didn’t seem right. The pattern I finally chose started out
as a fun side project, (which coincidentally met all of the
needs for this project), so I chose it for the background
of the designs.
Tabloid Poster
PROJECT Queer Film Festival
ROLE Graphic Designer
DELIVERABLES Tabloid Posters, Handbills,
Tri-Fold Programs, Newspaper
Advertisement
PROGRAMS / TOOLS InDesign for general designs,
Illustrator for pattern graphics
DATE February 2013
Handbill
Programs given out at the event
About the Project The Erb Memorial Union is the student union building at
the University of Oregon. My office is currently rebranding
the union to accompany its renovation happening this
winter. Part of our rebranding is the redesigning and
restructuring of its current website (designed in flash,
circa 1990s). The EMU Website project is huge and still
ongoing, but I thought I’d feature some of my higher-
fidelity mockups and explain my process.
My Role Since the site is still being built it’s difficult to talk about
my role, but I can at least describe what I’ve done so far.
I sent out a survey to stakeholders via email and social
media to get us started. The results weren’t too bad, as
we received a few hundred responses. This data gave
us a solid direction towards what our users absolutely
needed from the website, as well as what was (and
wasn’t) working on the current site. From there, I began
wireframing and making general decisions informed by
our data. Because of a tight deadline, we’re currently
tackling testing and creating higher-fidelity designs at
the same time (which, I’m learning, is a mistake). Our
testing specifically includes some card sorting exercises
to determine our information architecture, and one-
on-one, interactive wireframe testing to determine
generally what isn’t working.
Erb Memorial UnionWebsite
Higher-fidelity homepage
PROJECT EMU Website
ROLE Web Designer, UX Designer
DELIVERABLES Responsive Website
PROGRAMS / TOOLS Photoshop for mockups, Axure for
UX wireframes, pencil & paper for
wireframes
DATE August 2013
What I Learned I was fortunate enough to work with a UX professional
on campus who taught me a bunch of tricks and tips
on usability testing. At the time, I was also reading
Steve Krug’s books on testing (Don’t Make Me Think
and Rocket Surgery Made Easy) which were also a huge
help. Aside from learning the basics of user experience,
I also learned more about my workflow for designing
responsively. There are so many considerations that
must be made when designing for mobile devices, and
it wasn’t until I had worked on such a big project that I
realized how complicated that process could get.Interactive Axure wireframes
Detail of a directory page
About the Project The Erb Memorial Union is the student union building
at the University of Oregon. In an effort to increase
awareness about the great programs & activities offered
there, our office decided to make student academic
planners for the 2013-2014 school year. The planners
have advertisements for various EMU Programs placed
at the beginning of every month to inform students that
these programs exist and what they do. Our primary
audience for this project was incoming freshman who
are new to campus and looking for ways to get involved.
The planners were handed out for free to freshman
during Summer Orientation, a time when they’re usually
figuring out their class schedules and what student
groups they might want to join.
My Role I collaborated with another designer in this project, with
the work split pretty evenly. First, we came up with the
general organization and the content we wanted to
include. Intuition and personal experience told us that
the EMU is an extremely confusing place to navigate
(even for upperclassmen). This is why I designed a room
directory and QR code link to a mobile-friendly map
of the building. The planners also included: a monthly
calendar view, ample room for notes, an EMU Ad before
Erb Memorial UnionPlanner
PROJECT EMU Planner
ROLE Graphic Designer
DELIVERABLES Student Academic Planners
PROGRAMS / TOOLS InDesign
DATE July 2013
every month, a place to fill in your class schedule before
every term, and of course the weekly spreads with lots
of room to write in homework info, etc. The weekly
spreads included basic information like holidays, but
also events happening in the EMU that freshman might
not necessarily hear about. Our designs stayed within
the EMU style guidelines that our office had agreed
upon before this project began.
What I Learned I learned a great deal about printing and designing for
print with this project. Our measurements had to be
exact, taking into account where the binding and bleeds
would be. For cost reasons, we chose to do a two color
print job (black/grey and a pantone green) on an offset
printer, which actually freed up some money in our
budget to spend on a nice card stock for the cover. We
were also very lucky to get to work with the people at
UO Printing & Mailing Services ( those guys have a tough
job, so I’ll openly suck up to them).
Glidden Paint
About the Project Every year, the American Advertising Federation
has a competition (the National Student Advertising
Competition)between colleges to see who can create
the most effective ad campaign. This work was not
published, but rather presented to judges as a sort of
mock campaign. I was a part of the University of Oregon’s
chapter, where we placed third at regionals. Last year,
our client was Glidden Paint and as the designer of the
group, my main task was creating a campaign book that
displayed our creative executions, research, strategy,
media plan, and budget.
My Role My role was primarily book design, but as a member
of the group, I also designed and helped come up with
creative executions, and I contributed to conversations
about the direction of our campaign and strategy. I also
designed a Keynote presentation and posters which we
used at the regional competition.
What I Learned I have never received more experience with working in
a group in my life. That’s the best way I can explain it. I
was able to work with sixteen talented teammates which
was empowering and instructive, but also chaotic and
at times incredibly unproductive. But we learned. After
working as a whole in a somewhat democratic system,
we split up into small groups (creative, strategy, media)
which proved to be far more powerful and effective.
PROJECT Glidden Paint
ROLE Graphic Designer
DELIVERABLES Glidden campaign book,
Keynote presentation
PROGRAMS / TOOLS InDesign for the book,
Keynote for the presentation,
and countless paper & pencil
sketches
DATE March 2013
PNW Art Annual
About the Project The Pacific Northwest Art Annual is an annual, juried
art competition that is organized by the University of
Oregon’s Cultural Forum. The winner of the competition
has their work purchased by the University who then
adds it to their permanent collection.
My Role My initial role was to design handbills with a call to action
to get artists to submit their work to the competition.
Then I created tabloid posters for the show itself and
the reception where they announce the winner. For
esthetics, my options were pretty open, although the
client did want me to emphasize the local, “Pacific
Northwest” theme of the competition.
What I LearnedThis project had a very fast turnaround, so what I
struggled with most was making a quick, definitive
decision on strategy. I finally chose the headline,
“Showcase Your Art at UO!” (on the other side of the
handbill) as my way of targeting Art Students to get
involved. I thought emphasizing that their work would
be in a show would be a good way to peak interest.
As for the photos, I frequently shoot film photography
as a hobby so I had a bunch of forest shots on hand.
The client liked the direction (very PNW), especially since
they were trying to get more photography submissions
that year.
Handbill
PROJECT PNW Art Annual
ROLE Graphic Designer,
Photographer
DELIVERABLES Handbills, Tabloid Posters
PROGRAMS / TOOLS InDesign for the designs,
Photoshop for a few image
edits
DATE November 2012
Tabloid Poster
About the ProjectOR Magazine is the first student-run iPad magazine at
the University of Oregon (and in the country). This “digital
magazine” focuses on human-interest stories about the
state of Oregon. We produced the second issue using
Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite which, at the time, was
only a year old and still being developed. Our design
team actually came in one day to find that the interface
had changed and additional tools had been added.
My RoleMy responsibilities at OR were to design a few interactive
article spreads (or, as Adobe calls them, “stacks”), shoot
photos for various stories, and to get the word out
about OR by designing a one-page responsive website.
For the sake of brevity, I’ve included my favorite stack
that I designed and shot many of the photos for. The
concept for the article was to interview a variety of
Portland “creatives” and ask them about their jobs and
their creative processes. I pitched the idea to our staff,
OR MagazineiPad Article
PROJECT OR Magazine- iPad Magazine
ROLE Designer, Photographer
DELIVERABLES Interactive Article Stacks
(Pages)
PROGRAMS / TOOLS Adobe’s Digital Publishing
Suite, InDesign for page
layout/interactivity,
Photoshop for image editing,
Illustrator for drawing
buttons/shapes
DATE May 2012
who thought it would be a good addition, and I
found two friends who were as excited as I was
to help with photos and video.
What I LearnedThis was the first time I had ever designed for
interactivity, specifically for a mobile device.
I was hooked. I was able to experiment
with a new format for design (landscape &
portrait for the iPad) and I learned about the
design considerations that are necessary for
interactive design, such as: “Is this button big
enough for someone on an iPad to click?” or “Is
it obvious that this text scrolls?”
OR MagazineWebsite
About the ProjectOR Magazine is the first student-run iPad magazine
at the University of Oregon (and in the country). This
“digital magazine” focuses on human-interest stories
about the state of Oregon. I had many responsibilities
for this publication, but this page explains the one-
page responsive website I worked on.
My RoleMy role for this project was to work with a front-
end coder to create a website for OR Magazine.
We decided that the site should serve a few basic
functions: explain what OR is, provide a download
link to the apple store, show off its beautiful new
cover, and provide ways of connecting people to the
magazine, either by social media or email. I didn’t see
any reason we should make some huge, full-blown
website (especially because we didn’t want to give
away any of our magazine content), so we decided on
a simplistic approach.
What I LearnedThis was maybe my second time designing
responsively, so to say that I learned a lot would be
an understatement. I came to realize that minimal is
always better with responsive design, and since I had
some coding knowledge, I was able to make better
design choices because I knew what problems my
developer would be encountering.
PROJECT OR Magazine Website
ROLE Web Designer, Photographer
DELIVERABLES One page responsive website
PROGRAMS / TOOLS Photoshop for mockups and bg
image editing, Canon T2i DSLR
for the image
DATE July 2012
Fender Guitars
About the ProjectThis project was a class assignment to create a print
campaign for a brand of my choice. I worked with a
friend who wrote the clever copy in the designs. We
chose Fender because we both had a relationship with
the brand and we wanted our message to mirror that
sentimental relationship.
My RoleMy role was primarily design, although I did
brainstorming and strategy with my partner as well. We
both thought that stories are easy ways for people to
connect, so our campaign followed that strategy. Each
double page spread focuses on a different stage in a
guitar’s life: From starting out as just a piece of wood in
a forest, to being shaped into an actual instrument, to
being used by a musician. The text mirrors this concept
and tone, while also touching on the fact that Fender is
an American-made guitar company, and that the people
who cut down those trees, make the guitars, and buy the
guitars are all Americans.
What I LearnedThis project was a great way for me to think about
strategy and to focus on how the message of a campaign
should be consistent throughout all of its materials.
PROJECT Fender Guitars
ROLE Photographer, Graphic Designer
DELIVERABLES Three, full-spread advertisements
PROGRAMS / TOOLS InDesign for general designs,
Photoshop for image processing
DATE January 2012