University of Redlands
BIO and ARTIST STATEMENT
Moe Yokota was born and raised in Japan, and she is an international student, majoring in computer science and studio art with a graphic design concentration at the University of Redlands. She started learning design after she entered college, and she has been focusing on how to deliver a story in a clean and aesthetic way in all her projects. Since English is her second language, graphic design is not just a skill of making a message visually appealing or eye-catching to her. She strongly believes that it is an essential skill of universal communication, which allows any person to receive and comprehend the message with ease. With her other interest in computer science, which has developed an efficient logical problem-solving skill, she is always drawn to find a polished and rational solution to address a problem in her design process.
Among all kinds of graphic design work, Moe is most passionate about packaging design. Designing a 3D piece requires a lot more consideration in physical user experience, especially regarding how users touch and use the object; however, despite this challenging aspect, she feels so much satisfaction and pleasure about being able to touch the work she has designed on a screen. In her capstone, she put a lot of focus on packaging design projects while working on a different target audience group for each piece to improve her graphic design skills.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
The main goal of my Capstone is to work on target audience groups that I have never tried before. In the previous projects, I tended to select a young, often female, target group, so I did not experience much difficulty in understanding the user’s perspective. To challenge myself, I decided to make a wine label package, which would target adults, mostly middle-aged people, and I chose the CALERA wine to redesign for. Since this wine company is known for its long history as one of the pioneering pinot noir winery specialists, I put a lot of effort into finding a new modern interpretation of this brand while keeping its originality and tradition.
