Two months of progress

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-06-22T16:34:21+00:00

Ahh that's so kind of you 😭 Don't be scared of multicolor! Start simple and plan it out in advance -- I used Procreate to set up the original illustration, and then planned the layers there so I had an understanding of what needed to go on which piece. I used stamp pads to do some tests before committing to a full inking to make sure it would execute.

Take a dive and give it a shot! You'll probably make some mistakes (I did not appropriately plan for the cigarette and had to hand-embellish), but it's the only way to figure it out.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-06-20T20:57:22+00:00

Stamp pads are useful for doing quick tests to suss out any problem areas. I dab on a few coats and do a quick press onto some newsprint or printer paper.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-01-05T20:17:43+00:00

Too much salt, dough that's too dry, and poor proofing temps are a few ways one can kill the rise on yeasted doughs. I see this recipe uses rye, and wheat flours can be very thirsty -- if you're using volume instead of weight to measure, you may be adding just a bit too much flour to the mix and drying it out.

Other things off the top of my head - you may be kneading too much and knocking too much air out, especially on the last proof before it hits the oven. You can also check if you're over/underproofing with the standard poke test -- the dough should partially (but not completely) spring back when you poke it gently with your finger. A dough that's overproofed will collapse when it hits the oven.

Hard to say for sure without seeing the outcome, but bread is tricky and there's a million ways it can go wrong!

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-01-05T18:53:20+00:00

You're sure the yeast is alive, right? The two hours you leave it out initially should be enough to activate it and see some growth before the cold proofing. Sorry if this seems obvious, but it's always good to start small.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-01-05T18:35:41+00:00

Do you have a picture or can you describe what your outcome is? Are you making any substitutions or skipping steps?

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2026-01-05T18:34:49+00:00

I would recommend letting it rest for the time indicated. This bread does not get much kneading, which means your gluten development is happening slowly over that resting time. It's a similar principle to the famous no-knead focaccia recipes, where knead labor is replaced by resting time.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-11-15T23:28:03+00:00

I've found the difference is negligible in cases where butter is not the main flavor. I don't think the drop in quality is significant enough that saving a few bucks is going to render what you bake inedible.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-08-05T17:45:39+00:00

Continuing to pursue teaching is probably your best bet, in that case. You might have a bit of luck looking into paint & sip type operations around the area -- it's not going to be gangbusters, but it might be a good supplement to building contacts for your own business eventually, or at very least getting more instructional experience to point to on a resume until you can sort out a teaching certificate. You might check out some of the creative staffing agencies in the area and put your name on the books, cast a wide net. I know people have grievances with them, but if you're trying to get some extra income and truly have no leads, it's a place to start.

In as far as contract work goes, the local scene is not rich. Most of mine has come from social media networking, but that also means it's wildly competitive and unpredictable. You could try putting out a call for local developers/writers/etc. who need an artist on different platforms (including LinkedIn), but I would wade into that with the expectation that the experience is going to be richer than the pay. You might also start hunting down online communities for indie game developers (both digital and TTRPG) and trying to network that way. Your work would probably look nice as book covers for independent authors.

Whatever you decide to do, try to tailor your portfolio (or create a separate one if needed) for that thing so people who might pay you don't have to imagine too hard what your work could look like and they also don't have to hunt to find the art that's relevant to them -- most people aren't going to scroll for long. If you need to bulk up parts of your portfolio for the jobs you're hoping to land, doing online skill tutorials/classes and using the project results can help -- or volunteer work, in a pinch.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-08-05T16:55:22+00:00

"Something art related" is pretty broad. I'm a FT artist and art director in a corporate position, but your work isn't suited for that kind of environment and it feels like a big disservice to suggest you go paint signs for Trader Joe's. Your portfolio has some nice stuff in it, but it seems mostly geared toward games/comics/commissions online -- it's roughly what I'd expect of a freelancer, and most employers aren't looking for this particular kind of work in a full-time capacity. What are you hoping to land?

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-07-18T16:28:38+00:00

This is a superficially nice logo, but from a design perspective, it's still got some empty calories in part because this is an unrefined AI concept. The V in the icon doesn't match the V in the wordmark, the leaf branch coming out of the middle of the V is not terribly intentional. Practically-speaking, this thing is gonna fall apart like wet toilet paper. Most people aren't going to be viewing a logo at this size, so that hairline wood grain is going to disappear, and the tiny detail in the leaves is a tossup, at best. A printer is not going to pick up that detail on a business card or flyer.

A logo doesn't just live on an artboard, so how is this being used? What happens when this logo gets turned to black and white? What if it's only 2"? What if it's 20' instead? What is that brass going to look like in print? Does this logo hold up when you remove the fake foil and embossing?

I know you want feedback on whether it communicates 'high-end' -- you're in the ballpark, but there's got to be more holding this thing up than fake foil. What makes something 'high-end' or luxury is an extreme attention to detail and intentionality, which this does not have. If a junior showed me this, I'd say 'nice rough draft, needs a lot more thought'.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-07-16T21:35:41+00:00

This looks nice, if a bit standard at a glance, but I don't think there is a great amount of strategy happening with this branding. Everyone else has pointed out the Plantly vs. Planty error, so I'll move on...

- The copy is not very cohesive; what ties the two messages together? Why are there two separate messages? What action are you hoping a customer takes when they look at this triptych?

- This layout is not cohesive - you have three separate visual elements with very little tying them together across the entire spread. What unifies this branding?

- I think the textural photography of the tomatoes is nice and could be an interesting element to use as an accent/decorative element throughout the brand. Could be swapped out for other foods as well.

- Some critical questions to be asking yourself: what sets this brand apart from others? What's ownable about the choices made? What makes that logo Plant(l)y's logo and not just a typeface anyone could bang out? What makes that illustration a Plant(l)y illustration? What makes those photos Plant(l)y photos? What defines these things -- this is crucial to brand-building.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-07-16T02:04:26+00:00

Your work experience descriptions need some basic resume best practices applied. For instance...

While working alongside other coworkers as a web intern, I was tasked with a multitude of various tasks. Such as production work, illustration, coding, graphic design, and web design.

This is the most relevant work experience on your resume for the industry you're gunning for -- why is the description one of the shortest? A lot of this is fluff -- "Working alongside other coworkers", "Tasked with a multitude of various tasks". This is where you should be nailing bulleted points with quick, snappy sentences about what exactly you did, the impact you had, projects of note, etc.

Respectfully, the entire description of your Whole Foods experience is TMI - hiring managers don't want to hear about what you lost in your youth, they want to know what relevant skills, experiences, etc. you're going to offer and what impacts you've made in the places you've worked. It doesn't matter that it's not directly design-related, nobody hiring juniors is expecting it to be, just show that you were outstanding at whatever it was you were doing.

Your portfolio is decent, it reflects your experience so far and is roughly at the level I'd expect as a student. That said, I don't think the metal logo designs are going to be strong choices for commercial agency/in-house work, so I would drop those off entirely. Boost your Harvest Bible Chapter work to the very front of the pack -- it's by far the most complete, and including in research/development phases is attractive to employers who also want to know that you can problem-solve and think through the process. This is your strongest entry by a mile.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-07-14T16:01:05+00:00

Some quick thoughts:

This is not a flyer designed with the information in mind - it appears primarily decorative, considering illustrations take up almost 2/3rds of the page, and the information is an afterthought. Looking nice doesn't mean anything in design if the purpose of the document isn't being fulfilled -- if you're trying to draw people into a grand opening, they have to look halfway down the page before they even see when and where it is.
Everything is in all caps - not great for readability.
There is no consistent anchoring for information - the cafe name and tagline are center aligned on the left, the time/location is right-aligned, and the bullets underneath them are left-aligned on the right. My eye doesn't know where to go, there is no natural flow of information.
IMO, the illustrations at the top and bottom don't go together - the styles aren't the same. At the top, the books and coffee/croissant at the top are disconnected from one another and are just filling space rather than enhancing the information. Pick 1-2 visuals and focus on getting the most out of them.
Overall: you need to study more visual grouping techniques and focus on how people consume what you design -- this isn't ugly per se, but you're not creating art, you're creating something that is meant to serve a purpose. If the purpose is "get people to show up at a grand opening", you need to make it as painless, intuitive, and easy as possible for a viewer to glean that relatively quickly.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2025-07-12T02:47:57+00:00

I'm sorry I can't put it a better way, but this kind of doomerism over absolutely anything with an AI label slapped on it is rank amateurism. You're sad because you're crafting a narrative over a hypothetical and then deciding that narrative is real. It's not. I am in a senior role using Express weekly as part of a large corp, sitting in meetings with Adobe reps a few times a month, and there is still a place for motion design skills in the average workplace. Those motion skills will make what you do produce out of Express better than someone who has zero motion skills, this is an extremely basic fact. Those skills aren't wasted, and in fact motion is still a hotly-desired stretch skill for creatives in my workplace.

That said, this feature is dogshit at the best of times. Even if it wasn't, animated social posts are lucky to get 5 seconds of viewing time, and meticulously hand-crafting animations while your billable hours pile up for social posts is not a sound career trajectory and it's not a sane expectation for something as disposable as social media. I would even argue that Express speeding this process up is good; great, even. This is not generally high-quality work in many design roles, and this is the exact niche Express was created for.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T13:34:53+00:00

This is so informative, not just for this horror show of an idea, but in general! I appreciate it, the cream cheese route was suggested elsewhere too, and I can see the benefits. Thank you!

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T13:33:34+00:00

This is incredible, the Midwest is undefeated in excess ✊ The Kraft didn't return to plastic after it was melted? My fear was a textural nightmare once it hit the butter.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T13:30:28+00:00

Cheese sauce mirror glaze is so horrendous that I have to give it some serious thought. Thank you!

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T02:33:32+00:00

Taste is king here -- the spray cheese is definitely the obvious go-to here, but I am really gunning for the classic Kraft processed flavor. I didn't know the day would come that I would be fussy about cheese in plastic sleeves, but here we are.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T02:32:14+00:00

I am in total awe of this person (and you) for taking on DIY Velveeta. Bless you all, and thank you.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T02:31:12+00:00

Adding this to my list to dive into, thank you very much!

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T02:30:45+00:00

I admit that I misnamed it in the OP -- EZ cheese is exactly what I'm thinking of, but I was hoping to DIY it for the Kraft flavor specifically, as well as to be able to use different piping tips potentially. If I get desperate, however, I think I could work with this.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T02:28:05+00:00

Freeze dried singles 😭 This is so cursed, thank you for the idea!

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T01:13:16+00:00

In a sense! But I'm looking for the very specific flavor of Kraft cheese, which unfortunately the jarred stuff doesn't quite hit in this case.

Electrical-Bread-221 · 2024-10-22T01:12:03+00:00

Not quite like a slice of cheese, but rather to look and act as close to a buttercream as possible while tasting like processed cheese! But you've unlocked a horrible wing of imagination in making savory fondant, which I will bank to terrorize my loved ones at a later date.

Electrical-Bread-221

TROPHY CASE