images

I went for dramatic shots thats why there are similar photos, but I probably will use them all, it's just hard to find these photos on flickr, because I cant afford istock images at this time. Anyways let me know what you guys think.

SAMPLE layouts

This is a rough sample layout to see where things are placed, this is not a final draft. This sample has repeating photographs FPO - For position only. I have the ten images coming up, then I got to finish another FINAL project that is due today, thank God this is a sample layout. Anyways I know how to set up type, the type again is set FPO. Please provide any insights you have especially for the layout which is supposed to look like a net because I am trying to go for a basketball theme. The size of this layout is 5.5 by 8.5. and 11 by 17 as a spread, I plan on wire binding it, nothing fancy, maybe closing up the wire binding. 

Adobe template

Pantone DS 34-1 C for the color orange, required pantone color for project

adobe ad with revisions

Mock up covers

Updated Fronts

I changed my type to Myriad which is the traditional Adobe typeface, I changed the sizing of the paint splotches, and changed the color of the Adobe logos, I think the cover's are coming along.

Adobe fronts

I finally figured out what direction I want to go with my fronts, I really wasn't pleased with the beginning covers, I really like the splotches idea, I made the splotches from REAL PAINT!!!

Abobe Ad

Ignore the 5. Here's an idea of where I am trying to get at. Simple and with a lot of negative space. I don't know about the hierarchy though, I know I need more up, but there is so much due and so much going on in my personal life. I'll hopefully have more comps by the end of the week.

Guys, it looks like I haven't done much, but a lot has been going on with my life, please send any suggestions on how to improve on this project, my mind is just too tired with everything this year. Here are two ideas on concept #3.

Postponement of blog

Sorry guys for the late blog post because I got into a really bad accident, I thank God that I am alive, my car got totaled but it's a car, it's replaceable. I'm sorry Joe and everybody but I'll have two blog postings by the end of the week to catch up. I have otherwise been writing all my blogs on time, except for this one, so I hope that I will have one of the two weekly blogs up by early this week.

adobe comps 1.1

hey guys beneath adobe comp 2 is another batch of comps PLEASE COMMENT ON THEM.

Adobe comp 2

Adobe comps 1

British Poster Designer Abram Games

Most people would scoff at Abram Games's poster designs, but as a graphic designer I am amazed by the creativity that Abram Games shows through his World War II posters. Abram Games believes in his philosophy of "Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means". Abram Games used a lot of geometric shapes, but used them to an extent where they all had meaning. Abram Games believed that "[a] poster with a measure of intrigue engages the mind of the spectator and he looks again. You have to take him along with you as he follows your line of thought. The best way I can describe what happens is to say that as the designer you wind the spring, and it is released in the mind of the viewer" (Games). In my opinion Abram Games was genius in using memorable imagery within his artwork through combining multiple streams of thought into one poster.Games work is similar to surrealism, however he used it in a way to send a message to the people during WWII. Games is not only well known for his hundreds of posters but for his bbc logo, guiness artwork, and Emblem for the Festival of Britain. As designers we should all look to other artists in order to influence our own work through inspiration and awe. Graphic design wise, we all regurgutate and/or borrow our creativity one way or another with our own creative minds somehow, someway. Therefore, I feel that we should all look to artists from the past and present in order for our artwork to communicate better and to better our work as well.

Adobe Photoshop thumbnails

I chose Adobe Creative Suite 5ive particularly Adobe Photoshop. At first I chose Illustrator because I though we were developing a logo also, but besides the logo I felt that Photoshop had a lot more I can do with design wise as far as the packaging goes, so I chose Photoshop. From my own experience here is what I can tell you about Photoshop: Photoshop is a image editing tool for graphic designers and photographers particularly in order to retouch, touch up, crop, distort, add, and/or eliminate certain features of a photograph. Photoshop can also be used to develop patterns, textures, and gradients in order to add to a design or photo. Photoshop also is a great tool to put collages together as far as coming up with a design that speaks to the viewer, yet amazes even the most talented designers out there with precision in the different techniques used. Photoshop is a software application that designers use particularly in distorting "pixelated images" (I mean pixels within the image itself, not fuzzy pics), whereas illustrator is more developed with a grid system and mathematics. Therefore, I chose photoshop because it will not restrict me design wise. I just thank God Adobe has updated it's software because I don't know what we would do with photoshop 1 where you only have one layer to work with. :)

Graduation inching closer and closer

There is one more year left to graduate or should I say one more semester after this hectic spring semester that thousands of students including myself get out of the job world and become people looking for a career in graphic design. The more I think about the year winding down, the more I think that finding a place to work in graphic design is going to take a lot of creative intellect and perseverance. The thought of graduating with a less than stellar portfolio at this point is frightening (because I have only attempted and taken two graphic design classes the semesters before this one). In today's society there are several talented students and amateur designers who are jockeying for only a handful of jobs after graduation. The world today has so many tech savvy people that for graphic design students like myself trying to find a job in the career world will be difficult. As students we need to have a portfolio that will have our future employers wanting more. I hope that we all discipline ourselves to set up projects for ourselves that will challenge us daily into becoming better graphic designers and/or students. 

Web Design as a 'new language'

Graphic Designers today in general should be aware of the fact that web design has become a subset of graphic design. As a student graphic designer I feel I need to take action in learning web design because it will help you have something on the side when times are tough. I have been approached by several people (including myself through thought) that I should be cautioned in becoming a graphic designer. Graphic design has been a field that has become very popular and competitive to say the least. Also, know web design has become a field that is synonymous with graphic design. While job searching for reference I could not help but notice the requirement of proficiency in web design. So I took action and the advice of my friends to learn web design. I currently am taking web design, but have missed two class meetings due to health and personal reasons. It worries me that graphic design know has another branch that not only competes with print but has become a part of graphic design altogether. Web design is a beautiful thing, but it also is a challenge to learn a "new language" as noted by Steven Heller from the AIGA Journal "Web design as a foreign language". I am struggling as a graphic designer to think of my art moving on a different page with such fluidity and crispness required in making a website. The notion of graphic design moving from page to page such as links to get to the next page has become a bit of challenge for graphic designers a like because of the often ignored technical aspect of things rather than the static aesthetic qualities of the piece that speak to the people as one common language. Web design should be a subject or field in which we all as graphic designers should learn about. Web design should has and know should be a "real estate" degree of sorts because if you are not versatile in today's day and age it's going to be tough to find a job. Graphic designers now are looking over your shoulder constantly to see whether there is a more versatile version of themselves looking to snatch the job you have been so accustomed to all these years. Therefore I feel that I myself and others should look into learning the basics of web design in order to better ourselves as graphic designers. Great sports players such as Kobe Bryant strive to excel in what they do by constantly adding to their game, why not do the same.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/web-design-as-foreign-language

 

Bus ad

Also guys don't forget to check out my revised stationary two images below this comment. I do know that the gradient on the envelope and letterhead may need to be lighter. And a vertical envelope did not please me, so I'm gonna stick with the horizontal envelope. 

Billboard

As you can see the colors are off, the left side is supposed to be a darker green and the right is supposed to be red instead of blue. And the sky blue obviously and yes the document is rgb. Also, the bus wrap template did not load up successfully on my laptop. I started downloading and the file wouldn't download onto my computer. Anyways, here's an idea of what my billboard will look like.

PMS Logo just in case

I was looking through some graphic design news but I could not find anything that appealed to me. However, I am going to rant about the new pepsi logo. I think the new pepsi logo looks worse than the old pepsi logo. The first time I saw the new logo I thought that it was a generic form of pepsi. While I was trying to buy my sister some pepsi months back I was confused because of the change. I immediately started to look for the old pepsi bottles and I couldn't find them, only cans. I thought that it was a joke or something (not to be judgmental) because the new logo looks like a sailboat instead of a classic flowing pepsi logo. I know that pepsi was going for the modern look and feel with the new logo and typography, but I still do not like the new logo. The brand identity is off kilter now because of this change. Pepsi has been consistent with their logo designs almost every decade, now they totally changed their identity. I hope that they go back to the old logo, because sometimes a classic is better than the new thing.

Photoshop Stationary w/ Final Logo Comp

stationery comp with logo

Graphic Communication in Ads

I came across a website www.allgraphicdesign.com and was blown away by the skill that these graphic designers displayed through these funny advertisements. As we all know communication is equally important to the look and feel to a design more than ever before.  In advertisement design, the consumer will more often than not choose an ad that communicates a certain ideology rather than a design that looks aesthetically pleasing. After all, we are all not graphic designers or artists to see advertisements in a different light. The consumer will respond to the advertisements through the effectiveness of what the ad is communicating to them. Does the ad make them want to try the product because of the look and feel? or because the ad speaks to them?

There were several ads that caught my eye because there was a harmony between look and feel and effective communication. The first advertisement I came across was a pantyhose advertisement. The ad effectively showed how the product was transparent not only by the artistry displayed by the graphic designer, but through  graphic communication. Another ad that displayed effective harmony was the land rover ad. The ad displays more graphic communication through the contrast used between the size of the land rover itself and the action evoked from the product itself. The product (land rover) may not look intimidating in this ad, but what the artist is displaying is the power and torque manifest through the ad itself is truly magnificent. Although there are several ads displayed on this website worth analyzing; there is one ad that evoked a serious issue and that is the easy access of guns in countries like South Africa. This ad displays a man purchasing guns through a vending machine with the message "This is how easy it is to purchase a gun in South Africa". In my opinion, this ad speaks volumes, however it can do without the message. 

Therefore, the harmony in art and communication continually is paramount in the twenty first century. This website of advertisements is a effective study tool because it successfully inspires me as a graphic designer that is constantly trying to balance design and communication. After all communication in art is seen more through an underlying message rather than something that is put right in front of you.

Logo

Sorry guys for just showing one logo, I tried all night to load the others up, but they came up as corrupt even by changing the file from jpg to jpg 2000 to jpf to png for hours, didn't work. But I truly like this one, because the logo at the bottom of this comment is the one I'm pleased with. Thank you.

This is the logo I am pleased with

torino work in progress 2

Torino logo in progress

Not a finished logo, but here's an idea, please tell me what you think of this stylized logo of the monte antelleona in Turin, Italy.

Color theory

Since I have started my major in Graphic Design, I have always wondered (until today) about RGB = red, green, and blue, CMYK = cyan, magenta, yellow, and black and PMS = pantone colors. My question is when do we use them and what color setting do I use when I'm working on a specific project? I'm glad that this article gives some insight as to when RGB, CMYK, or Pantone colors are used because I wanted to know the correct setting for my work. The color setting is important for graphic designers because a slight shift in the color balance can change the artworks look and feel towards a different direction. The article "Color Models in Graphic Design" by Adrienne Turcotte sheds some literal and figurative light on the relationship between RGB and CMYK. 

Turcotte discusses a simple, yet complex theory as to when RGB and CMYK are used. RGB and CMYK are two color settings that coincide with each other yet react differently to the type of medium they are applied to or seen on. RGB is a color setting that is best used on web design work and computer work, whereas CMYK is best used on print. RGB is a collection of primary colors or hues that combine to make white in a dark setting, whereas CMYK is a color setting that makes black. 

Turcotte also discusses the Pantone color system. In my opinion, the Pantone color system is a detailed color setting particularly for a piece of art. For example, last semester I developed a styleguide using Pantone colors for a mock skateboarding company that I called "Defy". I needed to show PMS colors because it is the exact color setting needed to make my logo and company identity work smoothly. 

Therefore, I feel that learning about color is important because it makes you a better graphic designer or artist. Color reacts and is showcased in different ways. Also, color is a subject that is intriguing because each color has a complimentary color that can potentially make the difference between a good piece and a great piece of artwork. All in all, I feel that I can only learn more about color because there still is room for improvement as a graphic designer.

article from http://www.designertoday.com/Articles/5946/Color.Models.in.Graphic.Design.aspx

Typeface Study

My typefaces weren't able to upload, but here are the typeface names:

1) Matura Mt Script Capitals

2) Perpetua Tilting Mt

3) Times New Roman

4) Trajan Pro

5) Charlemagne Std Bold

6) Adobe Garamond Pro

7) Minion Pro

8) Palatino

Shant's Thumbnails of Torino (Turin), Italy Summer Olympics 2016