Extra Credit-- English Symbols

I had to come up with slide for a slideshow for my final in english class, and instead of using google images, I decided to design each one of my slides with a symbol that represented what i was going to be talking about. The process is simple, but I am learning more and more about filling objects as well as hand-drawn objects, which has been a good experience thus far.

Custom Text

I used the tutorial that was distributed to us to create a custom text project using my name. I had to warp and distort the text and make the certain areas of the letters such as the stems connect. This was pretty simple to figure out and I didn't have any major problems with figuring it out. Overall, this wasn't my favorite project but I thought it was a valuable lesson learned in manipulating text.

Packaging Palooza

Package Layout:

This is my packaging design project. I chose to create a project called Veggie Bytes. Veggie Bytes are a vegetable supplement which act basically as a vitamin. The designing process has been the most enjoyable thing we've done all year in graphic design. Through this project I got a detailed look at some new features I discovered in Adobe Illustrator. The overall project was detail oriented which is perfect for me. The tutorials were easy to follow and I got everything I needed to done in an orderly fashion.

Label:

For the label, I was confused as to what it's purpose was at first. I later realized it was for the 3-D Revolve bottle we were making. I applied the same aspects that I used to create my package layout and panels. I used multiple shapes and opacities to create a more modern and clean look. I see packaging these days that seem outdated and unappealing and I think that stems from the overuse of organic shapes. I am hoping that packing design industry will take a step towards 2-D designs rather than old-fashioned 3-D designs. I used the shape tool to create the triangles and adjusted their colors to my color scheme. I also used the shape tool to create a rounded rectangle and then changed the opacity for a more professional look. Then finally I applied my logo design onto the label.

Color Scheme:

My color scheme consists of orange, black, white, off-white, and eight different shades of green. I chose these colors based on the colors of vegetables that I researched. I used the main colors I found in pictures of my favorite vegetables. Green represents peace, freshness, and health which are some of the key messages I was trying to convey with my product and packaging. Although green and orange are not my favorite colors, that's something you have to learn to work with if you want to go into the graphic design industry. Overall, I believe the colors I chose work well together and provide a message of nature and health that would be my main push towards the consumers buying my product.

Logo:

For my logo, I wanted to balance the modern, 2-D look I went with for my package panels. So I used the drawing tablet and drew out an entire page of different logos for Veggie Bytes. I ended up loving this organic, script-y font that I made free-handed. My original inspiration for this project was a yogurt package I saw with what seemed like organic, hand-drawn pictures of fruit. With that idea in mind, I hand drew a carrot and then "filled" it with a rough pen outline so it would have the look I was going for. I then added a rounded rectangle behind the logo thinking that it would add some contrast to the dark objects in the logo, and it did! Out of everything I had to design for this project, this was definitely the work I was most proud of. My favorite thing about of graphic designing is creating logos, so this portion of the project got me really excited.

3-D Revolve:

For the 3-D Revolve portion of this product, I struggled with figuring out how to create the pen strokes in a way that would create a complete bottle. After watching a tutorial and getting help from Ms. Lofquist, I figured out that I didn't have a stroke on the pen tool. This part of the project made me excited mainly because it gave me a look at what my product would really look like if it were sold in stores. Although sometimes the process seemed repetitive with the adding symbols into the art map over and over again, I ended up being really pleased with what came from the rigorous work.

Overview:

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed completing this project. It gave me a look at what graphic designing is like outside of school, and I loved it. Graphic design is something I plan on pursuing as a career and I'm really fortunate to be given the opportunity to be a part of the e-Communication program where I can learn and develop new skills and concepts. I look forward to projects similar to this one in the future and can't wait to apply all the new things I learned from this to the next project.

Movie Poster

I chose the movie musical "Into The Woods". I think I did pretty well at retaining Saul Bass's style in my poster, the only thing that does not represent his style is the font I chose, it I chose that font because it's sort of my staple font. It represents my aesthetic and I think it accurately plays off the fun- comic movie I chose to do. I used the colors navy blue, gray and white with accents of black, green, and brown. My objects I chose to represent the movie was the tree in the middle representing the woods in the movie, and the small little accent "thorns" poking out of some of the letters in the title and descriptive text to represent the struggles that the characters in the movie must overcome. The movie is about finding trust within the people you surround yourself with among many many other valuable life lessons. This is the second poster I created for this project, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending project so I redid it to make it more simple. Overall, I am very happy with my ending result. I was inspired by Saul Bass's 2-D art style and i decided to take a modern take on retro style. While still applying his style of solid colors and outlining, I added some fun type with a custom made stroke. I used the pen style to apply a chunky effect to my tree and the lines on the side to create a frame to represent Saul Bass's style.

Top 10 Things Poster

My values reflect my work and products in the way that everything I do is positive and fun. Who else would put doughnuts on their top 10 poster? I enjoy being positive and I believe that is reflected in my work. This drives consumption because nobody wants to indulge and spend their time and money on negative, dull things. I believe these qualities will help me in the future because I want to be a successful graphic designer. My values reflect the fun-loving person I am and hopefully clients will appreciate that when choosing who to hire. I chose my fonts based on my personality and what I liked. My headers and sub headers are a Sans Serif font and my body font is a Serif font. A huge tip regarding typography is opposites attract, and I took that seriously when deciding on what fonts to use. My type pallet looks fun and interesting just like my personality and that's why I think my top 10 poster accurately and professionally describes me.

Postcards Galore

This first postwar I created with Photoshop. I started by downloading a font off of dafont.com that I liked. I liked it because it was simple but also modern, much like my personality. I then created a new layer for each letter in my name. I added a clipping mask to each letter after I had chosen the five images I thought best represented me. I chose images of times Square because that's my favorite place in the world and I want to live in New York someday. Then I chose some sheet music because music has been the greatest influence on my life thus far. I chose an empty auditorium because I live my life through theatre and I spend more time performing than I do at my house. Then I chose a picture of a beach in Hawaii because I aspire to have a vacation home on a beach in Maui when I get older. And last, I chose a picture of watermelon because it's my favorite food in the world and some of my greatest memories from childhood stem from indulging in the glorious fruit. After that, I went into the Blending Options and added a stroke and drop shadow to make it have more depth. I decided it needed even more depth and I added a Bevel & Emboss Effect.

The second postcard I created was my Christmas card and this one is my favorite. I downloaded a wonderful font from dafont.com because I wanted something that looked Holiday-inclined. I then looked up images that translated what I wanted to Photoshop. I used a blur on the background image to make the text more acknowledgeable. I found images on poinsettias and gold bows and used what I've learned to make it look good. I added a gradient to the text so that it looks better than just a plain color. I enjoyed this postcard the most of all

Floating Mountain

This project I completed was all about Photoshop; using layers, de-fringing methods, and blending modes. My idea was to create a floating mountain and put different layers of clouds around it and to add a moon. I wasn't sure what else to add to this project, but then I thought it would be enlightening and slightly less serious if I added a man falling off the mountain. All it took was some resizing of the image I traced out, and some de- fringing to make the man look more realistic. I am very unpleased with my moon. The de-fringing methods were not co-operating with me at the time, and I tried to reach out for help but nothing was working. Normally, I would never turn in something I wasn't 150% proud of, but this project was not at the top of my priorities. This was more for me to mess around and experiment with the different tools that were accessible through Photoshop. Next time I might try something that isn't so outlandish and do something more realistic, as fantastical images are not my forte. Overall, I found that this project helped a lot with learning things about Adobe Photoshop.