Final Booklet

For our final we had to make a booklet of all our past projects. It also included the poster we made. Here is what mine ended up looking like.

I decided to use the ocean as a background because I felt like I had multiple projects dealing with the ocean, as well as water in general. 

Poster Design

For this project we were asked to choose one of the four topics provided and then create an unique poster for the cause. The topic I chose was "Don't kill the world, use a _______." I did totally change the second phrase for my idea to work. I felt like the most challenging part of this project was finding the images that I wanted to use with my idea. It seemed like no pre-existing image matched the idea that was in my head. However, I kept searching and compromised on a few images including: two Photoshop images and three vector/ Illustrator images. The final product is shown below.

My idea behind the poster was that we, as a community, could come together to save the Earth's fresh water supply. By sharing a shower more water is saved on a daily basis. I went with a minimalistic approach because I felt it better suit the purpose. I am not a fan of posters that have too much going on, I find them distracting. I used Indesign to ultimately put this poster together with surprising ease. All in all, even thought the product is different than I imagined, I still consider it a success. It is humorous with a touch of seriousness that keeps it in a perfect balance. 

Photoshop Project

For this project we were asked to use a stock photo and a minimum of five other images to create our own unique image in photoshop. The stock photo we were to use is shown below.

The picture did not really match what I had been planning on creating for the project, so I decided to cut out the hands and part of the frames. The other pictures I chose were from Shutterstock and Google. 

We were not allowed to use the eraser tool for this exercise which made me nervous at first because it is so easy to use. However, it destroys the images that are used. In order to keep the original image pristine we used the masking tool. Thankfully, this tool is also very simple to use. With parts and pieces of these images I was able to create this original image. 

I created this image to show the unrealistic and drastic ideas of beauty and how ordinary woman feel pressured to conform to these ideas. I wanted to show the drastic methods of conforming with regards to brainwashing. I feel that the world is brainwashing women to feel that everyone needs to be a size 2 have full lips and perfect cheek bones. However, it is truly our differences that are beautiful. 

Logo Tag Brush

I was very grateful for being able to create this one in class with instruction. I think I would have had a difficult time figuring out the easiest way to go about creating the brush. The task ended up being fairly simple and gave me greater confidence to begin creating my own brushes in Photoshop. The final product ended up looking like this.

I wish that the white circle around my logo was a bit smaller, but that can always be fixed in the future. I like the idea of having a brush that is my logo so I can easily stamp my signature onto my photographs. I feel like this will add to the uniqueness of my brand. 

Intro to Photoshop

I have been working with Photoshop for sometime now, but I am always finding new techniques and ways of doing things that are further simplified and make life easier. For all those who were like me and wanted to learn how to get that model thin look in your photos here is the perfect video. This video shows some of the features of the liquify tool. Used in the correct amounts the liquify tool can be very handy in post processing.

Another great tutorial video I found goes through a lot of the features on the tool bar. I find this video helpful as an overall "what can I do in photoshop" tutorial. I really like the image being used to show how to tools work, which made watching the video a little more interesting. The link is posted below (I could not find it in the upload link)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TvgOR5Tb38

Intro To Illustrator

When first being introduced to Illustrator learning the software seemed like such a daunting task. The first major emphasis was on the pen tool. The way it was presented made the tool seem super easy to use; boy, was I wrong. I had so much trouble with the pen tool in my first few attempts of using it. The way the curves were made was beyond me. I kept getting tangled messes of path line and thought I was hopeless. I did check out some tutorials that helped better explain how to use the tool. One of these tutorials that I became fond of was made by Adobe. I have added the link below.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-illustrator-cs6/essentials-of-the-pen-and-pencil-tools/

Another tool I had a problem grasping was the gradient mesh. I wanted to be able to create a somewhat three dimensional effect and all I was creating was splotches of random color. I was able to find this tutorial that helped me out greatly.

Logo Design

When we were initially asked to come up with a logo I had no idea where to even begin. How do I know what is appropriate, should it just be my initials, what represents me? All these questions were running through my head. Eventually I just sat down and started doodling. I used my initials to create different shapes and tried to even make images out of them. I didn't really like any of the options I came up with when doing this. I ended up just drawing a circle and figuring out different ways to in cooperate my initials inside. This is what I came up with.

I was happy with the design to the right, it just needed to be smoothed out. I scanned it onto my computer and began working with it in illustrator. In my final design I decided to go with a red palate because I feel one of my most striking features is my red hair. In this way I in cooperated something that set me apart from the crowd within my logo. 

All in all I am pretty happy with the final design. I do wish I had been able to create a mesh gradient throughout the circle to give it a stone-like feel.