Individual Focus

For my individual project, I chose to make a face out of text. I found a tutorial online and made different artists. For my process, you start off tracing the image and putting it on a new layer. I then copy and paste text, and create 20-30 different layers and made them all into a smart object. Then you make another layer of the original image, and selecting a linear burn, and turning the smart object back on and it looks like this.

eMagine

Carton Skills

For my carton design project, I was partnered with Julia and we created MelaTAN, which is a pill you can take to make yourself tanner.

Movie Poster

For my poster, I chose to do The Intern because it's a newly released movie and I feel like there's a lot of different elements I could use to create the effect I wanted. I feel like the font, the tie, and the briefcase really sums up the movie well without knowing what it's about.

Magazine Cover

This is my magazine cover, I chose to do dog fancy because I'm obsessed with my dog and I liked that pictures that turned out. My process included resizing the text and changing the colors in Illustrator and moving them over to inDesign to put all of the text and images together.

Business & Post Cards

Here is my inspiration for my final. I really liked how in this design, they use different fonts and put them together. I added a couple snow flakes as my own design.

UPDATE:
Here's the printed version of my business card.

Water Bottle Shadow

Recreation of a Famous Logo

Personal Project

This is a project I did on my own in Illustrator and Photoshop. I created my type design in Illustrator using the Blend Options tool to create the lines coming down from the lines. I also used the arc tool to create the outer type. I really liked this project because I got to experiment with different fonts and how to make it look natural. I created the background by using Photoshop and putting a dark green layer above the picture and changing the opacity to give it a darker vibe, and to also make the text stand out more. To blend the picture and the green layer, I used a black and white gradient and multiple the green layer.

My Logos

This is the personal logo I made. I made different shapes and designs with this pattern until I came up with something that represented me. Some problems that occurred when making this was the overlay of the letters and how they can fit while having a normal amount of space between the letters. I really like how well the letters fit together and how the Y flows smoothly into the A.

Moving Mountains

With this project, I used photoshop to make the mountain appear as it's floating, and added in a couple other objects to appear as they're floating too. I also made it seem like all the objects have shadows. Some difficulties I had with this project was blending the cloud into the sky as well as cutting off the bottom of the mountain and pasting another piece of the mountain as the bottom.

Clipping Mask

I used the Clipping Mask in photoshop to create this design, and I got my favorite books and put them behind my text to give it an illusion that the letters themselves are books. This is defiantly one of my favorite projects because I like how you can put pictures behind the letters and make it have a natural, homey feel about it.

10 Questions and 10 Words

1. Do you like something simple or more complex?
2. Is there any specific colors you have in mind?
3. Do you want it to be something big and noticeable or small and subtle?
4. What's your vision for your logo?
5. What is your deadline?
6. What do you want the logo to say about you and your company?
7. What's your business about?
8. Are you going for something more serious or silly?
9. How do you want to make it something to remember?
10. What audience are you trying to appeal?

Professional Blog Review - Breaking Rules

So what are the rules of graphic design? The answer is simple, there are none. As a graphic designer, your job isn't to just create a product for someone. It's about pushing your own boundaries and expectations as well as your clients. It may have to do with testing your creativity limits and challenging your self to strengthen you weakness. Why create rules, when they're just going to be broken? When dealing with clients, it's almost necessary to make rules. It's good to have a general design decision and to make certain rules to avoid things with the clients. Denise Bosler, the author of the article Creativity Anarchy at Its Very Best, stated that "Never stop learning, never stop exploring, never stop doing what you love, and always create the best design you can".

My Motif & Repeat Pattern

During this project, I learned how to use the pattern tool, the rotate tool, and some new techniques on the stroke tool. Some troubles I had with this project was that I wanted to make a unique stroke but not something you couldn't understand. I put together a couple different designs and I put them together to make something unique and fun. For my motif, I got inspiration from looking at different designs on the internet as well as around the school. To put the rotate tool to good use, I made a simple design first and rotated it to make something like a flower.

Pattern Tutorial

Hey guys! Today I'll be showing you how to make a basic pattern on Adobe Illustrator.

1. Create an art board, and it's usually a good idea to make your width and height a square 

2. Just for this tutorial I'll make a basic shape and show you how to give it a paper effect. When making the star, press the ~ button in the top left hand corner of your keyboard, if you're on a mac. When you start to drag out, it should start to look like this.

3. Since this specific short cut is creating individual stars, select the whole pattern and group it all together, now we're time for the pattern making.

4. Select the shape and go up to Object > Pattern > Make

5. Illustrator will now take you to pattern mode and you can do a couple different things from here. As you can see on the picture to the right, this panel should come up when you go into pattern mode and first, of course, name your pattern so you can tell them apart.

6. Go to the drop down box in the tile type box and select brick by row, in the future you can choose any of these but for this tutorial I'll just be showing you this one. 

7. In the upper left hand corner of the pattern options box, you'll see a little button that looks like two boxes going away from each other. Click that and now a blue box should show up around your original pattern and you can change the size of that to determine how close or far you want your shapes to be from one another. In the overlap section, feel free to choose which one you would like to be on top of each other or behind each other.

8. You can then press done at the top of the page and the pattern should go away and the original pattern will be there. Select it, and move it out of the way so your able to show your new pattern. Create a normal rectangle on top of the art board and choose a fill color.

9. Over in the swatches panel, you should now see a little version of your pattern. Make another rectangle over the other one and click your pattern in the swatches panel and it should show up over the rectangle! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial! Happy pattern making!

My Creative Objects

In my creative pencil, I made a couple different pencils before deciding what parts I liked best and put them together to make a pencil I really liked. My favorite tool was the pen tool because you can draw anything and then you can modify it any way you wish. In my honey and honeycomb design, I got inspiration from Winnie the Pooh and how much he loves honey, and it inspired me to make this honey jar. I used the paint brush tool to get the honey drip on the jar, as well as on the comb.

What Is Graphic Design?

Graphic design. What is it? Why do people do it? How is it a part of our everyday lives? The great thing about graphic design is that it isn't just a job or something we like to admire. Graphic design is designing your imagination. Graphic design is making our thoughts become visible.

So why do people pursue it? What makes someone wake up one day and go to work as a graphic designer? I read a few blogs and watched a few videos, and I came up with a few answers for you. Graphic design, to me, is creating a moment people can understand and making people see past the product and seeing what's behind the design, and thinking about the product like it was going to be your own. It's about understanding the consumer and what they like or dislike and creating something that defines who they are, and maybe along the way we discover who we are in terms of graphic design and where we belong.

One of my favorite forms of graphic design is typography. I love the concept and the process and how it always looks different and means something else every time you look at it. Like the picture on the right, I love making and seeing things that are more than what they show, and showing a sentence hidden in the same words.



Psychology for Photographers

Like graphic design, photography is one of my many hobbies, and it can also be tied in or I can use my photos to influence my designs. The cool thing about graphic design is that it can be anything you want, it can be interior design, art, or even marketing. Any profession you do is probably going to have graphic design, and that's the joy of it. Even doing graphic design in high school really influences my thoughts and how I look at things, and I suppose that's what graphic design is. Creating, shaping, and changing the world.