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.