Final project: Graduation cap 

For my final project, I am going to design my sister’s graduation cap. She really liked everything I did with my own graduation cap, so I decided to create one for her inspired by the design and style I used on mine. This was the one I created when I graduated: 

So she asked me to create an Outer Banks-themed graduation cap for her. I plan to use colors, images, and design elements inspired by the show while still making it personal to her and her graduation.

Sketch

I started by creating a sketch to plan where everything would go on the graduation cap. This helped me organize the layout and figure out the placement of all the design elements before I started making the final version. Here is the sketch I started with:

I know the sketch looks very messy, but it made sense to me while I was planning everything and reviewing the design ideas. It was mainly meant to help me visualize where each part of the graduation cap should go before creating the final version.

 Adobe fresco 

After finishing my sketch, I moved to the Adobe Fresco app to start creating the actual design. I took a real picture of my sister’s graduation cap first so I could better visualize the layout and make sure the design would fit correctly on the cap. This is the picture I took of her graduation cap:

Using my phone, I blacked out the background of the photo so I could see the graduation cap more clearly and focus on the full shape and layout while working on the design.

I was originally planning on drawing the background myself, but my sister ended up finding an Outer Banks picture that matched the exact idea I had in mind. While looking on Pinterest, she found an image that perfectly fit the vibe and style I was thinking about for the graduation cap design. This is the picture she found: 

I then went back into Adobe Fresco to crop the photo so it would fit correctly on the graduation cap and match the layout I planned in my sketch.

After struggling for about an hour, I finally got the photo in the right spot and positioned it the way I wanted on the graduation cap design. This is what it looks like: 

The next step I took was having my sister choose the photos she wanted to use for Rafe Cameron and JJ Maybank. These were the photos she ended up picking for the design:

This is Rafe Comron 

This is JJ Maybank.

I used ChatGPT to enhance both of these photos and make them higher-quality in 4K so they would look clearer and more detailed on the final graduation cap design.

I then used ChatGPT to blur the background in JJ Maybank’s photo so the focus would stay more on him and match the overall look of the graduation cap design.

I used real photos so I could print them out at CVS Pharmacy, which was about 25 minutes away from my great-grandpa’s house. I chose CVS because they have a photo printer, which made it easier to get high-quality prints for the graduation cap design.

I had my sister choose the quotes she wanted to include on the graduation cap so the design would feel more personal to her. These are the quotes she picked to go on the cap:

I used the Lasso tool in Adobe Fresco to cut out the pictures. I forgot to take a picture of that step, but I later used Adobe Photoshop to erase the other design elements so you could see what the cap looked like with only the cutout pictures of Rafe Cameron and JJ Maybank. Since I removed the other parts of the design, the shape of the cap looks a little weird in the image.

My sister wanted seashells placed around the edge of her graduation cap to create a border around the design. Those seashells were some of the elements I erased in Adobe Photoshop so you could clearly see just the cutout pictures of Rafe Cameron and JJ Maybank by themselves. Since we are going to use real seashells around the border of the graduation cap, I picked a photo of seashells and used the Lasso tool in Adobe Fresco to cut them out and see how they would look as part of the design. This is the design with the cutout seashells: 

When I was cutting out JJ Maybank’s full photo, the image became blurry. Later on, I used ChatGPT to improve the quality and make the picture look clearer again for the final design.

The next step I took was trying to add and position the quotes on the graduation cap. I wanted to see how the wording would look with the rest of the design and make sure everything fit together correctly. This is what it looked like after I added the quotes:

This is what the graduation cap design looks like up close, so you can better see the details, quotes, cutout images, and the seashell border I added around the cap: 

I then used ChatGPT to improve the quality of the design so the images and details would look clearer and sharper. When I make the graduation cap in person, I am also going to add a large white ribbon at the bottom of the cap to finish the design. Here is what ChatGPT created after enhancing the quality:

This is what the graduation cap design looks like up close, so you can better see the details, quotes, cutout images, and the seashell border I added around the cap: 

This is going to be the final design I use when I make it in person. 

Designing this graduation cap taught me a lot about planning, creativity, and digital editing. At the beginning of the project, I only had a rough sketch and an idea in my head, but throughout the process I learned how important it is to organize a design before creating the final product. Using Adobe Fresco helped me experiment with layouts, cropping, and placement so I could make sure everything fit correctly on the cap. I also learned how much time and patience digital design can take, especially when I spent over an hour trying to correctly position the background image.

Another thing I learned during this project was how important image quality is when creating something that will be printed. I used ChatGPT several times to improve the quality of the photos and blur backgrounds so the main subjects would stand out more clearly. I also used Adobe Photoshop to remove extra design elements and focus on specific parts of the cap. Even though some steps were frustrating, especially when images became blurry or difficult to cut out, I learned how to problem solve and find ways to improve the design.

Overall, I am very proud of how the graduation cap turned out. I think the sunset background, seashell border, quotes, and pictures of Rafe Cameron and JJ Maybank all work together to match the Outer Banks theme my sister wanted. This project also felt meaningful because I was creating something personal for my sister’s graduation instead of just making a design for myself.