welcome to my portfolio website. i hope you will enjoy some of my work as you scroll through them.
my name is harmony ho, a graphic designer that wants to make people smile. i hope that my site can put that little smile on your face and be a bit inspirational to you at the same time.
i am a graduate of san jose state university—bfa graphic design program. enjoy to do both print and web work, and am glad to design anything for anyone. i also love the challenge of coding along with my design, so i can be more than a graphic designer, but put my foot into the web developer, user experience field.
when i am not buried in my computer, i like to make crafts, build models, cook, killing... wait not killing, gaming XD, and alot other things that pops into my mind.
feel free to contact me with anything. if you love my work, hate my work, or just wants to get to know me. hope you enjoy this little site of mine.
thank you for visiting!
as I was playing social empires, i notice that the game is a lot like age of empire, but in a cuter and more of a 2d look. being a gamer, i notice there are a lot of information that i rather want to read first than what the user interface suggested. for example, for games such as this one, being able to read the players’ level is the most important. right after level should tell the population capable so to build their army up accordingly. it is with these attitudes that i have decide to redesign this game’s user interface.
original game design
wireframe redesign
proposed game design 01
proposed game design 02
i was looking at my boss playing texas hold'em the other day and was curious to play for myself why everyone is so addicted to this game. it is ranked one of the top games in the realm of facebook. as i started playing the game, i find alot of the interface were not to my liking, some too difficult to understand, some were not matching the style of the art on the interface, and some are just annoying and distracting to look at. therefore, i redesigned some of the user interface the way i would like it to be.
original game design
wireframe redesign
proposed game design 01
proposed game design 02
an individual approached me about making two web page layout for their business website. they already have a specific look and feel established, so the goal is to design something that can go with their existing brand.
one word they want these two pages to be associated with is “fun”. with the freedom of doing whatever is appropriate. therefore, this project’s hardest part was not having any boundaries.
this website’s targeted audiences are university/college students, so what and how the website icon can relate to them is what i have to think about.
how it works page
affiliate page
design creature was asked to redesign the school of art and design website for sjsu. lead by professor connie hwang, a team of 12 students were brought in to do this job. from designing the website to coding the content, all was done by design creature.
one of my main job in this project was coding the html pages. checking content and link access, making sure everything is in the right place. was also involve in part of the design for the website.
to visit the website, go to http://ad.sjsu.edu/
art and design home page
faculty page
student works page
individual program webpage
collaborative with miriam chan, elise granados, and joanne kwok
choosing the exploratorium to recreate all the pictograms and way finding system they presented in the exhibition. therefore, we recreated their logo, all icons and pictogram for each exhibition, map, interactive kiosk, etc.
working with the group, and branching out to do individual parts, i was assign to redo the map. mapping out where all the small exhibition within each section of the exploratorium and creating a way for people to see clearly where they need to.
map of the exploratorium
exploratorium book consists of two booklet
turnable table of content
title page of section
all pictogram for the exploratorium
using a person’s theory to make a set of typeface, one of the ideas was the pythagorean theorem. after some research, the pythagorean theorem was actually not about triangles, but the squares that made the triangles.
because origami has a similar idea to this theory, crease has its initial form. with a square paper, creasing and folding right triangles in them to form letters. using that as reference, vector letters were made to imitate folds and creases. also the theorem formula states that a2 + 2 = c2, so with all the combination of squares, it creates the typeface crease2.
crease2 poster (front)
crease2 poster (front)
crease2 all alphabets, numbers, and symbols
picking a city out of 5, and then redesign their city logo. based on their history and personality of each city, the logo has to corresponse to it. there is a lot of thing that created the city boston. the goal of this of this branding is to incorporate all of it into one logo.
there were two thing that really made boston the way it is now. one is that boston is the start of many things, like the american history, sports, school, library, etc., and two is that boston is next to the ocean. with the two main ideas set, the seashell logo was created. the pattern comes out, is a metaphor for where everything begins there and then to the other worlds. in addition, a business system is created for the city to use. an id guide was made to show others on how to use the given logo.
boston city identity
front cover of identity guide
the idea of going into the city
boston business system
collaborative with elise granados
this game is called the artitecture. objective is to create a promotional item for the san jose south first friday artwalk. we came up with an 3d game-board based on the alphabets. the idea is to create something that people will keep after buying or receiving it. so with this 3d game-board, it can change into a display or it can also be a furniture. there will be all 26 character of the alphabet, and people will be able to get each letter individually. each piece will have two parts and they can be turned or interchange with other character to create different path for the gameboard and different shapes. the goal of the game is to do tasks as stated in the cards. whoever get to the goal first wins. the start and the goal is to be decided by they players.
the 'artitecture' game board
letters of gameboard can be turned to create new paths
game piece and cards for the games
game boards are interchangeable for players to create new objects
this perfume packaging design is to express a persona of our pick. based on the likes and personality of my persona, vivid was created. it is to express that this persona is a very unique individual, and also she shine through all the others out there to highlight herself in the crowd.
a magazine ad was also design to sell this perfume, and the targeted group is the vogue magazine.
vivid perfume design and packaging
vivid's packaging
vivid ad for a magazine spread
choosing the exploratorium to recreate all the pictograms and way finding system they presented in the exhibition. therefore, we recreated their logo, all icons and pictogram for each exhibition, map, interactive kiosk, etc.
working with the group, and branching out to do individual parts, i was assign to redo the map. mapping out where all the small exhibition within each section of the exploratorium and creating a way for people to see clearly where they need to.
whole temperature comparison chart
each day's temperature difference between the highest and lowest
each day's rainfall record
choosing the exploratorium to recreate all the pictograms and way finding system they presented in the exhibition. therefore, we recreated their logo, all icons and pictogram for each exhibition, map, interactive kiosk, etc.
working with the group, and branching out to do individual parts, i was assign to redo the map. mapping out where all the small exhibition within each section of the exploratorium and creating a way for people to see clearly where they need to.
unfolded poster
cover of the brochure
brochure and poster is one in the same. when folded is a brochure, and when unfolded is a poster.
spread of the brochure
another spread of the brochure
exhibition postcards
miyazaki hayao is one of the most famous animators in the world. creating a poster about him, and research on his life brings many inspiration to my work.
because miyazaki’s work is so iconic, it was a challenge to make this poster not just about his work, but of miyazaki as an artist as well. in the end, using a minimal of colors and only having one or two accent color really makes thie poster pop. this is a poster where the audience can learn more about the artist behind all the amazing movies he has made.
poster based on famous animator, miyazaki hayao
timeline integrated into the background
using text as platform for characters to run on
pretending SFMoMA will have an upcoming exhibition call type as space, create a promotional poster for the event. there is a restriction of no photography usage and the poster has to be in a vertical alignment. based on that, the difficulty in this project is not knowing what type as space meant. with individual interpretation, the type creating the space came into idea. creating a sense of space from a wall and the type drop down to create the space with the word. that what’s my interpretation of type as space.
type as space poster
highlight on the space that created the type
the information for the upcoming exhibition
using individual’s route to school, we create poster describe our journey from home to school. using what i see on my way as inspirations, i realized there are many walk signals i have to press for the street crossing. therefore, walk signal is the main concept for this poster.
using circles to represent the buttons, it create the route that i took on my scooter. other than that, lyrics of music i listen to while scootering my way to school was also added. different language of lyrics was used to emphasizing the diversity of music i listen to.
map to school poster
using circles as metaphor of walk signal buttons and picture of a person on scooter crossing the street
the different song lyrics that i listen to as i head for school
using 4 different emotions, to package one cohesive idea together. i pick the japanese snack, mochi, and package them as game characters: monk, warrior, thief, mage. each character have their own emotion(personality) and according to those emotion, different flavor of mochi is made. monk is the purest, it is one pure white mochi. warrior is very hot headed, red mochi with red bean filling. thief are deceiving, it is green mochi with wasabi filling. as for mage, they are mysterious, so they have sesame covered mochi with sesame filling.
mochiality's packaging
illustration on the mochi flavor
the different mochi characters
overview of the mochi packaging inside