Part 1
Brianna Carbaugh is a graphic designer and photographer from North River, Washington. Her style is clean and simple with a natural aesthetic and attention to detail. Her work explores themes of nature through print media, collage, and photography. In college, Carbaugh received the 2017 Outstanding Art Student Award and two Talent Award Scholarships in 2018-2019. She has an A.A. degree from Grays Harbor College and will earn a B.A. degree in graphic design from Whitworth University in 2020.
Most of my photographs are unedited because I value the authenticity of the originals. This challenges me to take high quality images of each subject as I see them. While I shoot a wide range of subjects and types, I am most interested in close-ups. Macro photography helps me stop and appreciate the tiny details that often go unnoticed in the bustle of life. Hardy Geranium, Hellebore and Trillium are just a few examples.
These photos are complementary in style, each one featuring a different flower. All three were taken using a built-in black and white filter and have not been digitally edited. Hardy Geranium is an exploration of the high contrast between light and shadow in a short depth of field. The lack of color combined with this light variation gives the photo a dramatic appearance that enhances the details in the flower’s petals and center. A similar approach was used with the other two photos; however, the contrast is lower because both flowers are softly lit. This allows the speckled petals in Hellebore to be in sharp focus, giving the image a fine, textural quality. In Trillium, emphasis lies at the flower’s center while a side perspective intensifies its unique star shape.
Part 2
In my work, I strive for clear and visually engaging designs that are both easily understandable and attractive. BothU.S. National Parks and Parrish & Grove Botanicals show how color plays an important role in the delivery of information on print media.
Through flat graphics, map outlines and typography, the U.S. National Parks infographic relies on images for visually communicating eight park facts using very few words. These images utilize the U.S. National Park Service’s official colors – green, white, gray and orange – which are enhanced by the teal background.
To practice designing under a brand identity, I was tasked with advertising a service for an existing business. The cover of the Parrish & Grove Botanicals trifold brochure features a di-cut of one of their bouquets. I added pink to balance the brightly colored flowers and to accent their branded color palette of dark green, black and white. I also included one of my own photos for the background to provide texture and a cohesive aesthetic.
Part 3
My logo designs showcase my preferred style of using simple, clean graphics to fulfill the client’s objectives for brand identity.
Commissioned for the fish lab at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, Washington, the GHC Fish Lab logo was my first freelance project. The goal was to update and simplify the existing logo, while clearly highlighting the combination of fish and science. The salmon, fishing line and DNA strand were elements I incorporated from the original logo. In addition, the concentric circles, typefaces and varying letter sizes mimic Grays Harbor College’s official emblem.
The Oleum logo was designed for a fictional company that specializes in an organic line of cleaning products. The drooping leaf incorporated into the “O” and flowing script font represent the natural ingredients used in the products. This is emphasized further with the mint blue color – a symbol of freshness – that drives home the company’s values. The accompanying style guide allows the client to use this logo and exact color palette to keep the brand identity uniform.
Part 4
One of the things that first drew me to graphic design was the visual interplay between images and text. The following examples display two different approaches – handmade and digital – to this image-text relationship.
Spread Your Wings is a handmade collage that conveys its message through medium, color, text and imagery. I layered elements found in magazines over a stylized, hand-drawn background. The finished product uniquely allows me to combine my love of quotes, photography, graphic design and fine art. While most of my work is created digitally, I find the process of making things by hand therapeutic. For this reason, I plan to incorporate collage into my future designs whenever possible.
Inspired by the Seattle Children’s Theater world premiere production of Black Beauty, this poster was created to advertise the play in a fictional setting. The story of Black Beauty is a tale of animal cruelty and hardship told from a horse’s perspective. This juxtaposition is depicted in the horse head image because it combines both real and fictional elements, much like the story itself. Using the head shape from one of my own photographs, I added the graphic pattern to resemble the style and form of the large horse puppet in the play. Additionally, I chose to make the eye detailed and realistic to represent the narrator and to instill an emotional connection with the viewer. Limiting the color palette to gray and black unites the text with the image.
