BA project2

Alyssa Doust 2022

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
FALL 2018
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to my Senior BA portfolio submission.
Everything featured is art by myself, Alyssa Doust, during my years at
the University of New Hampshire. The work includes packaging design,
illustrations, logo design, photography, publication work, and more.
Enjoy.
I’ve always known I was meant to create, to be an artist. Lately I’ve been
inspired to live and make more simply. I’m going back to my roots. Why I
started drawing and painting and making in the first place.
Simply for me.
I’ve done many jobs for small businesses, designed for digital marketing,
operated a few social media accounts, and none of it feels right. There’s this
constant need for more. A buzz of greed or the cycle of algorithms, a never
ending desire to please others. That’s not why I wanted to be an artist as a
little girl. I wanted to satisfy a curiosity.
It’s about creating for the sake of creating. Drawing on paper, putting cheap
paint on canvas, experimenting with type, all because I have an itch that
needs to be scratched. Lately, my goal is to make things that feel right,
not for money, not for popularity, not even for the public eye. Just making,
being, feeling, and creating because there is a desire, not a demand.
So this portfolio is a stepping stone. I’ve tried a lot: 4 internships, 8 semesters
of classes, plenty of commission work and I’m here. I’ve learned a lot and
failed a lot, but I’m certainly ready to continue challenging myself, to simply
slow down and create for myself.

PACKAGE DESIGN PROJECT SPRING 2019

UX PARKING PROJECT FALL 2021

UX PARKING PROJECT FALL 2021

UX PARKING PROJECT FALL 2021

MENU DESIGN: THE BIG BEAN SPRING 2021

TYPOGRAPHY PROJECT SPRING 2020

MAGAZINE PROJECT SPRING 2021

MAIN STREET MAGAZINE DESIGN CASE STUDY
INTRODUCTION
Main Street Magazine is a student-run publication at
the University of New Hampshire that publishes a 100
page magazine twice a year (once a semester). The editorial
staff consists of 7 students, who receive honoraria
from the Student Activity Funding Committee, which
also funds the publication costs and marketing materials.
Main Street is a sister organization to The New Hampshire,
a student-run, digital newspaper, which shares its
funding with Main Street.
INVOLVEMENT
I joined Main Street my Sophomore year, the Spring semester
of 2020, as a contributor who helped with spread
design and layout. My Junior year (2020-2021), I was hired
as a Design Editor, focusing on branding materials and
the production of the publication. My main role was to
design the magazine. In my senior year (2021-2022), I
moved into the role as Editor-in-Chief, where I managed
a team of 6 other students on staff, organized meetings
for our 50+ contributors, corresponded with our Business
Manager on budgets and funding, communicated with
Printing Services for the final publication, and directed
the design for the magazine. In total, I have worked on 6
Main Street Magazines.
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
As Editor-in-Chief, I wanted to increase four areas of our
student organization. Our addition of art, consistency
in the overall publication design, inclusion and student
engagement, and building a community to extend into
campus life.
1. Inclusion of art and photography in the magazine.
Problem: Incorporate more art and photography in the
magazine, exclude stock photos when necessary, organize
artists and photographers in a more cohesive way.
Solution: As EIC, I chose a student to be our Art Director,
whose role would be to correspond with and organize
artists and photographers. They would be present during
meetings to take notes on topic’s writers were pursuing,
then match up an appropriate creative to a writer. This
was able to keep almost all our art in house and by students,
elevating the artistic community, while also alleviating
some stress on the EIC. In addition, the Art Director
was able to recruit more artists in the UNH community
and we were able to make a photography gallery in the
center of the magazine, allowing focus on creative visuals.
2. Consistency in the overall publication design.
Problem: Consistency in the design of the overall look of
the magazine, both aesthetically and practically.
Solution: Dictating a theme begins in the beginning of
the semester, when we decide the type of stories we
want to include. Some magazines are focused in creative
fiction and poetry, while others are non-fiction based material
about campus life or pop culture. This leads into
the design of the magazine, as it also influences artists
and photographers when they begin to collect their portfolios
to submit to us. Once all the materials have been
submitted, an overarching design theme is applied and
assets such as fonts, colors, and other creative materials
are chosen to keep all the pages consistent. Practically,
font size and margins are indicated beforehand as well.
3. Inclusion and student engagement.
Problem: Student engagement and knowledge of Main
Street Magazine around campus was low, as well as many
of our strong and reliable contributors had graduated.
Solution: In order to increase student recruitment, we
worked hard to print out flyers that had information
about our student org as well as tabling at a few locations
around campus to hand out posters, brochures, and
stickers. The success of the recruitment was profound: in
the Fall of 2021, 75% of our content was from new contributors
to Main Street and we had 100 new students
sign up for meetings and the email list. In addition, we
had many students ask for creative prompts over Winter
Break, so we had created a Winter Break Zine to keep
creative juices flowing in the interim.
4. Building a stronger creative community.
Problem: As a student involved in an org and knowing
many members of other organizations, it was clear that
there wasn’t enough overlap into other areas of the community,
despite all having the similar goals as student
organizations.
Solution: Beyond the pages of our magazine, which in the
past Spring 2022 issue, heavily promoted campus life, local
businesses, the music scene and more, we had fun
when it came to releasing the magazine as a way to integrate
it into the community.
In the Fall of 2021, we hosted a release party in one of
our main campus buildings, to encourage new students
to check out MSM and to celebrate our publication. As
much of a success as it was and despite many faculty and
students asking for another release party in the Spring
for our 2022 issue, we elected to host pop-up tables at
other campus events, in order to celebrate other student
organizations and their events. With this, we hosted a
table at the Dominic Fike concert put on by our student
event organization (SCOPE), another table at Field Day for
the dorms, and Unity Day, celebrating all students and
organizations. These pop-up tables allowed us to spend
money on merchandise, promoting our organization even
further by handing out items with our name on it.
ALYSSA DOUST 2022

PERSONAL COMMISSION DESIGN WORK 2019-2022

INTERMEDIATE DRAWING FALL 2021

INTERMEDIATE DRAWING
Artist Statement
FALL 2021
Featured work

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE DRAWINGS: 2022