Here's a visual review of some of the design projects I've worked on in the past. I've also included a cover letter and resume here for your convenience in case you're hiring. Thanks, and hope you enjoy it!

1. d e s i g n
P O R T F O L I O

2. 17 April, 2016
Prospective Employer
C/O John Doe
123 Somewhere St.
Creative City, CA 98765
Greetings John Doe,
Hi, my name is Erica Dostal and I am writing to apply for the position of Graphic/
Web Designer in your company. I am submitting the following cover letter and
resume attached for your consideration. With a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic
Design, an AA degree in English Composition, and a talent for coming up with
creative solutions to common visual and business communication problems, I
am confident that I will make a great candidate for your position!
My skills as a Graphic/ Web Designer you will find extend across a wide number
of different platforms, including responsive web design, mobile app development,
and the creation of print collateral. I am also experienced with many of today’s in-
dustry standard design tools and softwares, including Adobe Illustrator, InDesign,
Photoshop, Muse, and Cinema 4D. I have obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Graphic Design at California State University San Bernardino as well as an Associ-
ate Degree in English Composition at College of the Desert, showing a consistent
ability to communicate and solve problems successfully, both visually and verbal-
ly. Please see my online portfolio at www.ericadostal.com to see samples of some
of my past design work and projects.
I look forward to contributing to what already looks like an organization with a very
exciting and worthwhile future. If you have any questions or would like to set up an
interview please feel free to contact me anytime at (760) 442 - 9733. I look forward
to your call and hope to talk some more with you about the position in person.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!
Sincerely,
erica dostal

3. erica dostal
graphic/ web designer
experience
awards
education
softwares
Adobe Illustrator
BA in Graphic Design
skills
Illustration/ Sketching
Photo Editing
Logos/ Branding
Color Theory
Website Design
Mobile App Design
Ad Design
Layout/ Composition
Copy Writing
Motion Graphics Product Design
Animation
Desert Best Friend’s Closet
Silver medal in Addy’s student poster design competition
Design of DBFC promotional materials & social media graphics
Public speaking & client presentation experience
Communication & attention to details, satisfying needs of the client
Program Manager/ Student Assistant
Logo & branding designs used in “Joining Forces: Plant to Paper,
The Veteran’s Initiative in the Arts” sponsored by the NEA and CAC
July 2014 - Sept 2014
AA in English Composition
California State University San Bernardino
College of the Desert
Palm Desert, CA
San Bernardino, CA
Dec 2016
June 2014
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Cinema 4D
Adobe Muse
Adobe Lightroom

4. The first thing that interested me in design is the same thing that keeps me fascinated
by it today - it’s ability to tell a story with no words at all. Sometimes a design’s story is
short and sweet - so short that you might even be able to distill the whole piece down
to a single feeling or action like sadness or joy, running or falling. Sometimes it’s much
longer and has much more to say than can really be comprehended in a single view-
ing. These are the type of designs that you tend to revisit throughout your lifetime be-
cause they offer brand new insights and perceptions each new time you “read” them.
But whether embedded with many meanings meant to be discovered over a peri-
od of time or perhaps just a single meaning meant to be understood instantly, all de-
signs have an incredible, paradoxical, ability to be simultaneously simple and complex.
It’s the ease with which a design can be understood by the viewer, without the need
for any verbal or written language, that makes a design feel so remarkably simple. But
it’s the difficulty of conveying so much with so little, without the support of any writ-
ten or verbal language, that can also make creating a design so incredibly complex.
design statement

5. Fruit
on demand

6. Brand
experience
“Fruit on Demand” was a brand iden-
tity project we worked on for CSUSB
health promotion. A new fruit stand
had just been introduced to the main
campus and our client was looking for
ways to increase both interest in and
awareness of the new service. Ultimate-
ly, the end goal for the new brand de-
sign was to help students view the
fruit stand as an accessible, tasty and
fun alternative to less healthy options
on campus. Keeping all this in mind,
I designed the following solution.

8. New
era type

9. In New Era Type, I was asked to design
a direct mailing brochure / poster ad-
vertising a new fictional lecture series
on typography. My goal was to promote
the event to other designers so I played
particularly with the fact that Stephan
Sagmeister and Herb Lubalin were
to be the main focuses of this series.
As they are world famous designers,
both with very distinctive, individual
aesthetics that I thought most design-
ers might be familiar with, I decided
to take elements from both of their in-
dividual styles and incorporate them
together into the mailer’s overall aes-
thetic. The brochure/poster would liter-
ally be a visual metaphor for the “merg-
ing” of the two great typographical
minds in the upcoming lecture series.
Poster
& brochure

11. SCRAM
magazine

12. SCRAM magazine was a particularly fun
project where we got to take a fiction-
al travel magazine (called SCRAM) and
design it with our own particular style
and target audience in mind. For mine,
I chose to target a more middle class
audience, especially those seeking more
unique experiences and adventures
while traveling. Overall the magazine was
designed to be inviting and compelling
to the reader and, while luxurious, not
feeling overly extravagant and unrealistic.
Layout &
composition

14. Wildwood park
neighborhood association

15. The Wildwood Park Neighborhood Asso-
ciation was a client that approached our
class with a big need for brand identity.
Around since the 50’s, the Wildwood
Park Neighborhood Association had ex-
perienced a lot of change in a very short
period of time, including changes in
population, diversity. and homelessness.
The association came to us with the de-
sire to create a brand that encourages in-
volvement within the community while
also helping them be perceived as a saf-
er, more family friendly neighborhood.
Brand
identity

18. Illustration
various work

19. The following are some of my pencil
sketches and digital drawings. Their
dates of, and purposes for creation
vary and so do their different stories.
Sketches
& illustrations

21. the veteran’s initiative in the arts
Joining forces

22. Joining Forces: A Plant to Paper Proj-
ect was a project specifically funded by
the NEA (National Endowment for the
Arts) and CAC (California Arts Coun-
sel). It was a fun 4 month long project
where our military veterans gathered
together to pull invasive plants out
of the grounds of local parks and re-
serves. From there, the invasive plant
parts were recycled and used in a series
Event
promotion
of therapeutic arts and writing work-
shops for veterans suffering from PTSD.
The program really did a phenome-
nal amount of good in many tradi-
tionally unrelated areas so our first
job as designers for the event was to
create a single powerful symbol that
brought all these elements of the proj-
ect together into one recognizable logo.

25. Wet Dog
shampoo/ conditioner

26. Wet Dog was a fun 3D mod-
eling project where we got to
create a brand and product de-
sign of our choice. At the time, I
was taking care of a large, hairy
old dog who loved all things
wet and dirty - but not baths.
It only made things more diffi-
cult when bath-time came along
Product Design
& 3D Modeling
and the pet shampoo & condition-
er I was using didn’t turn out to be
very effective. This was how the
idea for Wet Dog - a fun, eye-catch-
ing and ironic brand for pets - was
born. The brand is designed to
make bath time more fun and
humorous for the owner, while
quicker and easier on their pet.

28. SaveAPet
web/mobile design

29. SaveAPet was a local nonprofit organi-
zation that supported a No Kill Animal
Shelter and Low Cost Pet Clinic near
my home town. Being an animal lover
and disappointed by the design (or lack
there of) of SaveAPet’s current website
I decided to try redesigning SaveAPet’s
website as a personal project. SaveAPet
Responsive
website design
wasn’t funded on either state or federal
levels, so they relied entirely on dona-
tions and the support from the local
community to run. For this reason, I felt
it was particularly important that this
new website by responsive, engaging,
fun and professional in order to at-
tract support, volunteers and donations.