Purpose and Objectives
The main purpose of my project was to create high-quality designs for the Larry H. Miller Company and its subsidiaries. My goal was to expand my skill set, learn more about professional design and business-focused social media, and apply my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in a real-world setting. I also wanted to deepen my understanding of key design principles by focusing on the audience, message, typography, and color scheme in each design I created.
I was able to study and learn how the Adobe programs operated and gain a better understanding of their tools and features for creating effective designs. This gave me the opportunity to explore different techniques, improve my work, and create original advertisements from scratch. Each week, I saw my skills and confidence grow as I pushed myself to see what I could accomplish.
I had a wonderful mentor, Kennedy Jones, who works as the Communications Coordinator for the Larry H. Miller Company. Each week, I met with her to receive feedback on my designs and make improvements. She also shared my work with the company’s lead graphic designers and social media managers, helping me learn and grow through their input. This experience ultimately boosted my confidence and expanded my skills in both Public Relations and Visual Media.
The Project
My project was focused on creating three designs for companies owned by the Larry H. Miller Company. The companies I designed for were Swig, Real Salt Lake, and the Salt Lake Bees. In my final week, I chose to create additional promotional designs for Megaplex Theatres, Swig, and the Salt Lake Bees.
These designs were specifically created for social media campaigns. After researching top social media platforms, I found that Instagram was the most effective for most brands. I formatted each design to fit Instagram’s dimensions, ensuring they displayed clearly and professionally. Along with the visuals, I wrote accompanying posts aimed at increasing brand awareness and reach.
Swig Designs
Real Salt Lake Designs
Salt Lake Bees Designs
Promotional Designs
For each design, I also created a detailed report that explained who the targeted audience was, the message or purpose of the design, the typography used, and the color scheme of the design. I also made a list of the images that were used to create the design, and included the link to the original image and the license type category affiliated with any trademarked images.
Example of the full design report: https://codling23.wordpress.com/2025/05/13/swig-designs/
Challenges Encountered in Completing the Project
One of the biggest challenges I faced was editing images in Adobe Photoshop after removing their backgrounds. For example, the LAFC logo originally had a white background, which I removed to isolate the logo. However, this process accidentally removed parts of the logo itself, making it look incomplete. To fix it, I used the eyedropper tool to match the exact colors and the brush tool to carefully fill in the missing areas.
Original Image
Skewed Image
Final Product
Learning to use the brush tool to blend and blur the images was challenging and required a lot of patience and precision. I had to fill in gaps while maintaining the original look and feel of the design. This required repairing any parts of the image that were broken or incomplete.
Another challenge I faced was deciding on the right typography for each design. The Adobe programs offer thousands of fonts, and offer even more on their website. I had to be intentional with every font choice, as it could completely change the tone and feel of the design. It was important that the typography matched the message I wanted to convey and that it was not distracting from the purpose.
The final challenge was understanding alignment and proximity when arranging text and images in the design. Everything needed to look balanced, and the font sizes needed to avoid being too small or too large. I noticed that adjusting the font size often meant resizing images to maintain balance. I spent a lot of time making small adjustments to the placement of each element until the overall design looked balanced. This would take a large amount of time to perfect, even the smallest level of detail.
Project Processes
Each week, I would research the company I was designing for. After learning about the brand and analyzing its social media pages, I had a clearer idea of how to create my own designs. I used Adobe Photoshop to experiment with headlines and plan out the look of each design. For the backgrounds, I would create my own or use free stock images from Pexels.com. I also cropped and added company logos to enhance the ads. I also spent time each week reading articles and watching tutorials to learn more about Photoshop tools and features, which helped the quality of my work.
Once I completed each design, I met with my mentor to review my work. During our meetings, she would provide insight and suggestions to help improve the designs. I also learned new skills through her expertise, which helped with my current designs and the creations I made moving forward.
After receiving feedback, I revised my designs until they were complete. The final step was to create a design report that broke down each design by explaining the target audience, message, typography, color scheme, and images used. These reports were important because they clarified the purpose behind each design and demonstrated how I applied fair use when incorporating trademarked logos.
Overview of the Experience
My experience with this project was extremely positive. At first, I was nervous because I lacked confidence in my ability to create high-quality content and had never designed for a major company before. It felt a bit intimidating, and I was not sure how it would go. However, working with my mentor helped me gain confidence and realize that I could succeed. I began to see noticeable improvement with each design and felt more comfortable exploring different styles to make each ad unique. I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to associate with the Larry H. Miller Company and now have a list of designs to include in my professional portfolio.
Insights and Takeaways
The biggest insight I gained from this experience was to not be afraid of trying new things. Visual media was completely new to me, so I was unsure of how I would handle the project. However, with the guidance of my mentor and studying online, I was able to increase my confidence in creating professional designs. With each project, I became more confident in my ability to produce quality work. The positive feedback I received from my mentor helped me believe that this is something I could do as a career or job after graduation.
In my life, I’ve never considered myself good at drawing or traditional art, but this project helped me discover an artistic side I didn’t know I had. It allowed me to expand my talents and develop new creative skills. I also built a meaningful connection with the Larry H. Miller Company, which is valuable for networking and strengthening professional relationships.
I’m grateful for this experience, as it not only helped me strengthen my professional portfolio but also allowed me to expand my skill set and expertise in both public relations and visual media.
My Website: https://codling23.wordpress.com/comm-297r-communications-practicum/