2 page spreads

So here are the two page spreads that I did for my typo final. I love the Katy Perry one just for the vector. Min Wang was horrible and I redid it so many times just to appease the prof that I never wanted to look at anymore of Min Wang's work or biography.

The best vector i have ever done.

So for my last type project I decided to be an over achiever and VECTOR A HUMAN. I think I am totally crazy, but I am incredibly happy with the result.

Super 77

I never want to look at a super 77 can again. We had to do 24 different initial comps based off of the text of a super 77 can. After many late nights and one all nighter they are finished along with the box that I constructed to store them in. These are all printed out on transparency sheets so pretend that everything that is white is actually clear.

Fonts

So, I haven't posted on this in forever. Just haven't been as motivated to since it stopped being a class requirement. Anyway, taking a typography class (yay!). And what would a type class be without making fonts. These are my two fonts Zephyr and Showy. I spent about 2 weeks on Zephyr and 30 min on Showy, so of course Showy gets the higher grade and the most positive comments... I need to start half assing more I guess.

Best Marker Comp

I felt that this was my best display of a marker comp. This was my favorite piece to work on throughout the semester and I think that interest in the subject matter helped me to create this comp. I felt that the background could have been blended better, but other than that it was a successful marker comp that accurately portrayed the finished product.

Best Design Concept

So, this is the 3rd time I have uploaded this image (I really like it ) I felt that this showed the best use of the design elements of all my pieces. The larger picture on the left balances out the mass text to the right. The picture also leads the viewer to the large text body by using its organic shape that comes to a point, pointing at the text. Also, the warm colors of the dancers contrast with the cool colors of the background bringing in the attention of the viewer. The abstract shapes of the background add movement to the work and hold interest without overpowering the text. Finally, the use of text boxes point out attention grabbing quotes from the text that will intrigue the reader and make them want to know more.

Best Typography

This was a difficult choice for me, I did not quite know which method of typography was best for choosing this, so I just stuck with one that shows capability (I.E. text wrapping, using multiple texts) but still was simple enough to not distract from the message. I though that this also effectively unified the type with the photo by giving the whole poster an elegant feel without using that gaudy cursive type that many like to use in more "classy" ads.

Best Creative Concept

I thought that the car ad was one of my more creative, or at least interesting, concepts. I used an old Plymouth ad and replaced the original car with my vector art. I also adjusted the fonts to match the original ad. I felt that using this ad would draw attention to the car from multiple crowds that would have previously not been interested in the Prowler, by interesting groups that would look back on this ad and remember the original one, and the younger crowd who is going with the current fad of retro goods.

Best Tradtional Copyfitting

I felt that this was my best use of traditional copyfitting because it was my only example where the copyfitting matched up with the finished product. I really don't like traditional copyfitting, I prefer eyeballing and that has always worked for my type before.

Best Indesign

No matter how hard I try or how many times I post it, I can never get these two pages next to each other. But, I do feel that this best display of indesign since it shows that I can reproduce a real magazine spread and have both look identical to the original. I also feel that it was my best in terms of final production since all images are to the correct resolution and of the correct file type and all of the spread is in correct color mode. I do however think that I can improve upon this by making the shadow around the large cluster of hotwings more realistic and more fluid to conform with the wrap of the text. Overall however, I feel that this design was successful because of its accuracy to the original and the fact that by doing this it shows I am capable of doing professional design layouts.

Best Illustrator

I feel that this is not only my best illustrator piece, but my best piece in general for DSP. I have never done something that looked quite this professional when it was completed, even before I went back to fix some of the wonky nodes. I just in general loved everything about this finished product. I felt that I captured the reflection well as well as the changes of value in the lower portion of the car. I believe that I could improve upon this by using a gradient mesh tool to make the changes in value and reflection more seemless.

Best Photoshop

I feel that this was my best utilization of photoshop since this turned out so well that one of my mom's friends after seeing this wants to pay me to do retouching on her antique photos. I also think that this is the most practical use of photoshop that will most probably be used in our professional careers and that is most practical for general use of touching up our own photos. I beleive that I can improve upon this by repairing the fold that ran accross the tree more seamlessly and by eliminating more of the fadeing in the lower left corrner.

Best Thumbnails

I feel that the Social Dancing spreads were the best of my thumbnails since I went out of my comfort zone and started experimenting with complex backgrounds and making the tiny comps as detailed and as different as possible (I didn't use the same main picture in any two). As for my weaknesses on this, I feel that I should have tried one comp where one page was not totally dominated by a photo/picture. This is a stage however that I need to work on since hand skills are my weakest point in Viscom, but I am confident that I will improve upon them.

Dance Spread

This was our final (and my personal favorite) project. I enjoyed just about every aspect of working on this 2 page spread from the thumbnails to the final production on the computer. I do enjoy the subject matter also (I enjoy dancing and my mom was a ballet and theater dancer, so I sorta know the subject fairly well). I also enjoyed doing the vector and coloring of the illustration on the computer. I liked this image a lot and, although it was simple, it contrasted the background enough to pull in the viewer and was organic enough to maintain the feel of movement throughout the comp. I enjoyed this one a lot, and it shows since this is going to be the first Sunday night since the start of the semester that I actually get the 7 hours of sleep that doctors recommend.

So... I changed my mind; I was not fond of this one. The layout didn't work quite as well as it did on the marker comp and the type didn't fill the page quite how I expected. Also, the map printed out too small and you couldn't read the street names. The vector art and photos turned out well, however. And the orbs I made more 3d to ad depth and pull the viewer in. The type also did not print out as expected and somewhat merges into the background on the printed copy. Overall, I am happy to be finished with this one and just want to keep doing the ballroom dancing project...

I need to buy a new alarm clock

I seem to have stayed up too late working on these and slept in for class... HOWEVER, I did enjoy working on them albeit the time consumption. I actually combined three of my original thumbnail comps to make this 4 column final comp. I feel that I could have done a better job filling in the back ground with red but I wasnt wanting to use up all of my prismacolor marker, so I just did a light application. The copy fitting could also use some work. I believe that I did it correctly, but I was slightly unsure. I was pleased with the cover of the packet though, I liked the overlapping of Jimny Cricket ontop of the picture of Main Street that is framed within the Disney mouse head. I think I could have done more with the interior however, I was considering adding a map with the attractions pointed out on them, but that fell through due to size issues. Time to start vector art!

Dancing thumbnails

For this assignment I chose to do a single large picture of ballroom dancers with an elaborate background and the copy text wrapped around them. I was fairly pleased with this project seeing how I enjoy dancing, my mom was a theater/ballet/tap dancer, and I hate fishing, so I really wasn't getting any disadvantage in presenting this subject matter. I believe that I will go with the top left corner thumbnail because it has the best contrast in colors and the background is more fully developed and free flowing. I will probably move the dancing couple more to the left page and also possibly place the title on the left side to pull the two pages together better. The other options were not my favorites because of... well how easy they would be. The bottom left and top right would both just be copies of photos and the middle left the background almost upstages the dancers. I feel that the comp I chose better expresses the freedom and flow of ballroom dancing and ads to the articles theme.

Marcaline thumbnails

For the Marcaline thumbnails, I basically utilized the Disney aspect of the town, making most of them have a red base for the background and advertising them with classic Disney characters. For my final decision I chose to do the cover of the first thumbnail on the layout of the second thumbnail and replacing the back page with the inside first page of the first thumbnail and replacing the second Jiminy Cricket on the second inside thumbnail with another character that would match up with the color, or another picture of the town.

If that wasn't confusing enough, I was also considering using the map on the last thumbnail, however, I felt that this could be too repetative using the same mouse outline twice in one pamphlet.

Car Ad

This is the final for my car ad. I decided to change up the font on the title and ad a Plymouth symbol in the bottom left corner to fill up the large amount of negative space. Also, I made the color of the car more washed out than the original vector art to semi match the old ad that it was placed into, while still having the bright red color that makes the image jump from the page. I also changed the flavor text under the picture to be more modern and catch the viewers attention while making the font a somewhat retro style (desdemona). I enjoyed working on this project quite a bit since I love old ads from the 20s-40s and also using one of my favorite cars as the topic also made me enjoy working on the project.

ps. I wanted to upload this quickly to my blog to show that I would have had it done by the deadline if titanium had been working correctly.

Chili Cook Off final

For the final chili cook off poster, I made some adjustments that differed from the marker comp. I decided to give the chili a grey tone as t0 not bore the viewer or overpower the page with too much white. I also switched the "Chili Cook Off" text with the Greek lettering to make the focus of the work the event and not the frat that is holding it. I could have improved upon this more by making sure the stem of the chili was not chopped by the printer and by giving more of a margin to the text inside the black box, moving it from the edge of the graphic.

Car thumbnails

Out of these thumbnails, the consensus between my partner and I were one of the top left 2 comps. Both advertise the car as a celebration of a classic car but show how it has been modernized. One of them uses a classic Plymouth ad and replacing the classic car in the ad with the Prowler and using the color contrast to the sepia ad to show its modern qualities and also makes the car pop from the ad. However, the slogan may change to better fit the car and to make the ad more understandable to the everyday viewer. The other favorite shows the prowler outside of a Mel's drive in. The slogan at the top states that it is a tribute to the American Hot Rod, a slogan used by Plymouth when the Prowler was first released. The use of the drive in shows the nostalgic qualities of the car comparing it to the traditional hot rods that are stereotypically placed in front of classic 50's pictures of drive ins. To improve upon this design however I would omit the cars in the background to put more attention on the Prowler. Also, I may combine this comp with one of the bottom left two comps adding a mild classic pin up girl to the hood adding how the car is both classic and sexy.

Student Critique

I liked this tumbnail because it kept my attention the most out of the ones on the page. The two cows draw attention to the text box and the thought bubbles create a diagonal between the title of the event and the describing text box. There is also no bleed, and the placement of the cows behind the text creates depth, further drawing the attention of the viewer. The first problem I see with this comp is that it does not specifically mention in the title that it is a chili cook off, it just describes the week long event that the cook off is taking place during, which could draw some who know what AG week is away from the ad. Also, there is a large amount of negative space near the bottom of the page that takes the almost disects the poster between the illustration and the foot note text. Also, the comp needs more dark areas. This can be solved by darkening the text color of the title and date. And fiallly, making the text box larger than the title in the thought bubble would make the overall composition seem more balanced and also get rid of some of the negative space near the bottom.

original magazine pics

indesign

For this project I took an article on hotwings and recreated it in indesign. I chose this because it looked the most professional of my indesign projects, most proabaly because it was based of a real magazine. I changed some of the margins slightly and relinked a broken link that was in the file. I was considering consolidating the number of different fonts and font colors, but that was how the magazine realy was so I decided not to alter it.
[sorry for the wonky formatting of this post, I'm running off 2 hours of sleep :)]

Photoshop 2

I had fun with this piece mostly because I was able to use all my own photography to make it. I also enjoyed the message that I made with it combining the message on the billboard (made out of the magazine picture) saying "Do you inhale" with the smoky sky that is a combination of the pen and ink drawing and the posterized effect. I made one major change to the work by adding the posterized effect. Before the effect was added, the picture did not flow together well and looked somewhat like I had just pasted a color photo on top of a black and white photo (what I essentially did) but adding the filter unifed the work better and gave it the look of a finished composition.

Photoshop 1

I love doing photo retouches. I've taken 2 years of graphic design before this and it is always my favorite project of the year. I also get lots of practice at it since my mom is an antique dealer and has me fix lots of the photos she gets in. I also have been experimenting with various retouch techniques and like combining tools such as clone stamp, healing brush, and modifying the color modes. I was not really sure how to fix the parts of the photo that I did not already correct. I had lots of trouble with the fade in the bottom left corner and making it the same as the surrounding area without using a massive amount of clone stamp that would have made it obvious that I sampled the area next to it. I enjoyed this work alot and was happy that I was able to get rid of the crease lines.

illustrator 2

I was super excited about doing the Japanese prints in illustrator. I thought that the different shades and almost watercolor like gradients present in them would be interesting to try and recreate. I chose this one simply because I liked both of the prints for this assignment, I just liked this one more for both its accuracy and for its watercolor appearance. I also liked the way that this looked aesthetically. I would probably hang this on my wall whether or not I made it. I made very minor improvements on this before submitting it. I connected a few paths that I noticed were not originally connected and made some of the shapes more organic looking. Other than that, I was fairly happy with this work.

Illustrator 1

For my first illustrator piece I chose the car obviously because it was my strongest illustrator work. This project gave me a more intense look at how to create vector art and also using gradients on certain portions of the car next to solid colored parts of the car to give a glare, shinny effect. I went back and fixed some of the up close details that needed to be pulled in closer where white spots were still showing, and I also edited the shadow feathering under the car so that I was more accurate to the photo. I liked this one... it took forever, but I'm very happy with the results.

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