*These pieces start with my first assignment, and end with my most recent one! (So you can see how I have improved, of course.) Have a laugh, drink some tea, read on, and enjoy!
Assignment one: Vector Graphic Icons!
Oh! Hello, vector graphics! :) When did you all get here? How lovely you three look. For using just the shape tool and the line/arc tool, I would say that you all look absolutely ravishing! I learned so much by creating Flash (le camera), SallyOn (the beautiful sleeping gal), and Whippedney (le fancy pants cooking supplies). You're a bit plain, Flash, and though I would probably spice things up a bit in your design, I love you the way you are; fancy or not. SallyOn, guurl! You have some rockin' eyelashes! You must be related to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (but, between you and me, his name is Lord Voldemort), because where--oh where!-- is your nose? ...I'm not quite sure, either. But you're fabulous just the way you are! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And Whippedney, you are cool, too. All of you lovely designs might be a little plain, and have a bit too much white in some areas, and a tad too much black in others, but hey--For being my first time using Adobe Illustrator, y'all look HOT. :)
Assignment two: Texture Grids!
September 30th. 2011:
Hello again! This lovely project dictated that we create a 3 x 3 texture grid and create vector graphics by manipulating the pen tool to trace over patterns that were found on google. The top three squares represent texture, the middle three show space, and the bottom three are examples of value. Overall, I am rather pleased with how this assignment turned out, as I can definitely see how I improved through all the practice with the pen tool. I am almost tempted to go back and smooth out some lines, but I feel too happy to. I was up until 4 AM on Wednesday night completing all but one square so I would have it done by the Thursday deadline (yet the deadline was changed), and I would, if given the chance, brag about most of these (he he he). Happy October!
Assignment three: Color Wheel!
November 11th, 2011:
In this lovely project, our objective was to use the pen tool to create a color wheel consisting of an inner and outer circle (generally of related silhouettes). I decided upon the use of a feather for the inner circle being enclosed by eagles/hawks/any-large-wingspanned-birds. I honestly like how this assignment turned out, though my cool colors are a little iffy and almost blend together... :-( Sad face. Overall, though, I find this a-okay!
Assignment four: Pop Art!
November 16th, 2011:
Oh now this assignment realllllly irked me! But before I complain about the things I dislike about this, let me explain what the assignment was about: we were to create pieces of pop art using the color schemes that we learned! So I used complementary, split-complementary, triadic, and monochromatic color schemes and two photos (of which were two different contrasts, so one of the blacks looks grey!). We used the brush tool and painted underneath the main image, which we used the magic wand tool, I believe, to get rid of the white so that only the black image was left. I felt super rushed during the duration of this (because I could not take a good picture in time), so I didn't finish this with much of any detail at all. That is definitely what I would add to fix this. Plus, of the shading I did add, not a lot of it shows up!! Oh well... Better luck next time!
Assignment five: Photo Mosaics!
November 16th, 2011: I enjoy this.
Bye!
I'm just joking around. The objective of this assignment was to use various photos to create a large image! (It's a lot easier than it sounds.) To create this, layer one was our main image with large dimensions, while each individual image was lined up at the top of the large space with a height of .25 inches. Once the first line was complete, the layers were merged (minus layer 1), and they were copied and scattered throughout the whole image. The main image was placed on top and the opacity was fooled with and.....voila! I really love this because of the colors, but my small pictures absolutely sucked eggs. They did not go well together so the main image was very obviously not created by these pictures. But at least I can still tell what the image is, and I am happy with that. And happiness is all that matters, right? Oh, wait... I'm in school; grades matter, too. Eek! ;-)
Assignment six: If I Crossed the Road...
November 25, 2011:
...I would visit Mr. Tumnus, Beaver and others in Narnia! In this assignment, we were supposed to mimic the style of Stephen Kroninger, an illustrator that takes magazine cutouts with various textures to create a new image. Since this is a graphic design course, we used images (google searched, taken, etc.) and layer masks (and at some points the magic wand tool) to create this! I found a snowy scene, and added a lamppost, then a kool kat--er, faun-- Mr. Tumnus, carrying his parcel and umbrella, of course, Justin Beaver (like Mr. Beaver in the story), the white queen's evil gnome/elf/small person thing in the little corner, and a girl (possibly Lucy Pevensie, or maybe me with blonde hair..)!! I am not very proud of this assignment, because it is so plain and all the characters are lined up in a row and I could not manage to create depth. Sad life, I know. But there are definitely elements of this that make me happy. Justin Beaver's waffle tail is the perfect beaver-tail shape for me, and he turned out pretty well in general, the girl's large coat is nice, as well as how I got the paper-doll look, kind of, Mr.Tumnus' horns MAKE MY LIFE, as does his Aslan shirt. :-) So maybe it's not all that bad... Hm.
Assignment seven: Blend Yourself!
November 16,2011:
In this assignment we were to blend ourselves, as the title may infer, into a photo of celebrities! I had a very difficult time finding a picture that I liked, and though this was not my first choice, sometimes you just have to call it a day and take what you can. So I decided to blend myself into this black and white photo of Yono Oko and John Lennon. (I don't actually know much about them, but the picture is nice, eh?) I was in incorrect attire, though I did try to pose similarly. I could simply not get the correct color, unfortunately, which was a big let down! But that's quite alright. I would definitely try to improve upon the coloration of myself, if I could (the coloration in the photo, though; my physical self is just fine ;P). But in the meantime, I will just imagine ALLLLL the good projects [people]! :-)
Assignment eight: See what I'm saying?
November 16, 2011:
Oh this hash got deh shvaggah! Oh jesh. This lovely dying swan, created in Illustrator, was my first assignment with typography, and I approve of this message. (Oh-ho-ho; did you notice the pun?) We utilized the type tool to create value and line over a preexisting photo (mine being ballerina Anna Pavlova). This took me way longer than planned, as I just shoot for the moon and fly into the next galaxy rather than landing among the stars. Ohp. Well, there are a couple of things I would rather change, like how there is a lack of value on the whole right side, and the angle of the 'beauty's creating the top of the tutu. But my oh my, there is quite a bit already going on that I almost don't even mind. And that, right there, is some awesome sauce.
Assignment nine: Design by type!
November 16, 2011:
In this assignment, we were to use a capital letter, lowercase letter, and a number of different types (for six boxes) to create designs! Now, mine may be simple, but they still bear special meanings (most of them, at least). In illustrator, Dayton kindly made a template for us to follow, and we just designed right over it! :-) Also, using dafont.com, which we used for the first typography assignment, we all found some pretty fantastic fonts~ Like, how cool is the bottom left design with the Barbie-esque 'B'?! Yeah, pretty cool, I know. B-) <--(He has sunglasses on!) The top left design was mainly inspired by one of my older sisters' name, Stephanie. I also love the letter. And there are seven people in my nuclear family, so hooray for that as well! The design to the left includes the letter 'D', which is the first letter of my dad's name, and the number one going through it represents how he's the first one in the family! O0o0o0 connections~ The third design was definitely designed on purpose. I used the number eight to create an infinity symbol (my favorite!) and the letters 'u' and 'M' on either side, for 'you' and 'me'! How fancy are those pants~ The bottom designs bear less significance, but the 'Ba2' could stand for BA squared (he he he). Or Barbie! I used to play with those dolls all the time. The last design in the bottom right corner includes a five, and an 'f', which definitely may or may not mean five children and a family. Maybe. It's a stretch. BUT I would like to add some more contrast, and my figure/ground designs are plain and similar, but I don't even care~ End of the semester, bro. We've come a long way. Just look at my first illustrator document, and look at me now. I'm getting paper. :')
Assignment eleven: Photo manipulation with type!
January 13, 2012:
This assignment is basically just what the title says. To complete this assignment in Adobe Photoshop, we had to first take our own photo (mine being a lemon), and find a paper background and blend them together using layer blends (such as lighten, darken, color dodge, etc.). Once that was blended, we searched for relevant poems to manipulate into the photo in however we liked. I decided to make my poem background text while placing another layer of text over it, mocking the phrase "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," by saying "when life gives you lemons, put them in the refrigerator so they don't go bad." But of course I spelled "refrigerator" wrong. Naturally. But anyways, I would have loved to have gotten a more intense photo, or at least gotten a balanced contrast between the black and white. And I also would like to have spelled refrigerator correctly, but I'll changed that, finally~ At least I know that I'll never spell refrigerator wrong again...! :-)
Assignment twelve: Alphabetography!
January 23, 2012:
We began the semester by finding the 26 letters of the alphabet in every day, natural objects, and then created a compilation of the letters in order, as you see above! (I do hope they are recognizable!) This assignment was a pain in the butt, but very cool, and so diverse. I had a hard time finding a document size that would fit my letters well, but I think that is just a-okay. I like some of these quite a bit, too! My favorites would definitely be my a, b, e, h, j (cursive), k, p, r (you'll see a capital 'R' if you look closely!), x, and z (the first one I found!)! I would definitely have liked to have gotten some better photos, as some of these are weak, but I am overall pleased with how it turned out. :-)
Assignment thirteen:Exquisite Corpse!
February 9, 2012: This assignment was completed in groups! Each person in the group created one part of the body (mine being the head), using photoshop. Each part was created in a 8x3.5 inch document so that they would all fit onto one document page and to one anothers' part! The head that I created really looks silly compared to the other parts since I did not do a Stephen Kroninger or even cut-out style... But I DID use photoshop! I really love the torso and the legs, though. They look super fantastic and I was lucky enough to be working with two super sweet girls!
Assignment fourteen: Career Posters!
March 11, 2012:
For this assignment, I used Adobe Illustrator to create a career poster for the career of an illustrator (pretty nifty coincidence, eh?)! I used a background image already made, and manipulated the brush and pencil/pen tools to make a design. We had to include a website (seen at the bottom), a design, "Z pattern", "Emphasis/formal balance", and some information about the career. I hoped that the viewer would come in at the tip of the pencil, or the girl, and work his/her way up the design and follow the pencil down to the text. From the vocal students in my class, it seems to have worked! So hooray! :-) I am proud of this, considering I spent forever on it, but still managed to turn it in and package it on time. In a smaller size, the messy "little kid drew this" drawing, the girl's eyes look kind of creepy... Oops. But I kept various themes of variation/repetition with the waves and the suns. Yeeee! :-)
Assignment fifteen: Illuminated Manuscript!
March 13, 2012:
In this assignment, we tried to imitate illuminated manuscript from religious texts, drawn and detailed. Mine was just terrible, to be honest, and I did not do half of the things I had planned on doing, which is sad. I do like how the letter turned out, but it's not very creative and I did not use many brushes. We had to create a background paper using brushes in photoshop, illumination using more brushes, and an initial cap in photoshop as well. We then combined it all in InDesign. I think I must have run out of time or something, because this is just not very well done. Oh well. I would definitely have liked to improve more on the illumination (seeing as there is almost none present) and the creativity of my initial cap. At least I have some cool brushes in photoshop now..
Assignment sixteen: History Timeline!
April 9, 2012:
Using Adobe Illustrator, I attempted to create a very simple and clean modern design that was basically just black and white. I wanted to have a "value battle", essentially. I also decided to use sign language, kind of mimicking the idea of using visuals (hands) to communicate! I used to pen tool to trace each hand (except for the doubles) and colored based on the original picture. I decided to use a very simple text for the fact, simply because I thought there was already quite a bit going on with other fonts, and because I liked how it was a modern font. I would have liked to fooled around with the size of the body text and the opacity of the white rectangles, which I hadn't even thought of doing beforehand. But I really do love my "Visual Communications" heading. I mean, I think it's pretty darn witty. Sign language is for cool cats. I am THE cool cat.
Assignment seventeen: Combimark!
May 1, 2012:
This assignment was so hard, and it took me forever to figure out what to design for a combination mark. I spent forever trying to decide how to go through with the Three Tree Landscaping without making it too cliche, and came up with this strange thing. I like the pear incorporated designs much more. I would definitely try to improve upon the quality of all of these; the pear shaped ones are too blocky and funny looking, but they're okay.
Assignment eighteen: Wordmark!
May1,2012:
I really enjoyed making these wordmarks in illustrator (my favorite Adobe product thus far). I had this insane idea that I could probably make flowers using circles, and so I looked some rose cut-outs up, and tried my best to work with it in illustrator! Now, I would have like to improve on that more (it looks kind of funky), but I think it goes well with the themes. With the InFocus Photography, I really wanted something that made Focus stand out, and since this was a workmark (no extra artwork), I figured my best bet was to make some of the other words blurry or faded or something. I really do like how they turned out. Not really the last Mimi's, but it's okay, too. :-)
Assignment nineteen PART ONE: Business card!
May 1, 2012:
PART ONE YEAH! This is part of a Stationary Package assignment that we are doing, while using only two pantone colors, also. So this is the first part; my business card! It includes a logo (to the left), as well as a name, title, address, phone, fax, web address, and email address. I really like how this turned out; it has simple fonts that are easy to read, but is still rather soothing to the eye with the simple cursive. I'm pretty thrilled that it turned out decent, because all week I was so lost on what to make. I would have liked to make a nice little design in the background, but I didn't have timmmmmmee! Well, I have the letterhead and envelope for improvement :-)
Assignment nineteen PART TWO: Letterhead!
May 4, 2012:
For this one, I wanted to use a watermark, definitely. So on 4-7 opacity, I did it! And because the logo is inside a circle, I really wanted to keep that theme up with the circles that are framing the Azul logo in the corner. And Because I wanted to keep it simple up top, I put all of the phone and address information lined along the bottom, which I thought was a very clean look. I can't figure out what I like and don't like about about this, so I'm just going to leave it at this...
Assignment nineteen PART THREE: Envelope!
May 4, 2012:
I have a similar style under my A19 research and inspiration post, where there is color going ALMOST to the edges of the envelope, but allows the color to be printed after the envelope has been folded, which is cheaper and easier. I thought it would be nice to keep up this theme of color blocking-ish stuff. So this is okay~ :-)
Assignment twenty: Social Issue Poster!
May 18, 2012:
I chose my social issue to be the obesity of America. McDonald's is a huge deal in the U.S., and it seems to be taking a toll on American health. It kind of, sort of, disgusts me, so I decided to make a poster about it. I tried to slur the words "Lovin' it", because it was such a good phrase, so hopefully that's okay. I would have liked to use deeper values of the red, and more values of the yellow, and I would have liked the pear logo to have been green, but...such is life. LAST ASSIGNMENT OF INTRO WOOT WOOT.
