Summary of Term 1

This course has been so interesting, relevant and practical. Interesting in the topics covered each week and practical given the need to immediately find the skills to complete the projects. If you don't have the skills, you're forced to go and learn them and that impacts on not just the Graphic Design area but on CM2 overall.

The course is relevant and practical in the sense of preparation for actually working in this area in the real world. The Professional Portfolio and Online Branding part of the course makes us organise our work so that it's all together in one place. That gives inspiration to do better the next time so that the portolio is as good as it can be. I find that I look at the work from the point of view of a potential employer rather than just from my point of view. The whole approach of selling ourselves and our skills online really concentrates the mind.

Selling Sensitive Product - Poopa Scoopa

If there's one thing dog owners dread, it's the whole routine of disposing of Fido's waste on the daily walk. What they dread more is the ire of the general public if they don't do a proper clean up. And what they probably dread most of all is the prospect of having to do it at all with leftover plastic bags.

I came across this product on the web and thought it seemed like a good idea although I suspect it's probably more trouble than it's worth and doesn't quite measure up to its promise........

Anyway, the design was done between Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and I decided to use a kind of retro/cartoonish feel, using garish reds on a cream background with the images of the paw and 'waste' and a 'lighthearted font called Hobo. I used Photoshop to remove the background from the 'Scoop' image, then Illustrator using the pen tool to trace the paw and also for the 'waste' - I'd like to improve my turd drawing technique but there are precious few tutorials on the topic on the web. I used the 3D - Extrude & Bevel effect on the paw, Type on a Path tool for the text around the paw and Symbols for the clouds and the grass. My favourite part of all is the title - Poop Happens - a cleaned up version of the real thing.

Smirnoff Ad Campaign - Travel theme

This project was a steep learning/revision curve, going back to Photoshop after a long time away. Blend Modes, Layer Masks, Refine Edge, Gradients, Smart Objects, Filter Masks .................and there's still so much more to learn and more importantly, remember. I found two great tutorials from Deke McClelland on Masking Glass and Chris Orwig on Blending a Photo onto a Vintage TV Screen which helped me create these images.

The project is based loosely on the Travel theme using the Smirnoff campaign's clever idea of seeing something unexpected through the bottle. The top image showing a setting sun landscape and spying a UFO landing through the bottle. The middle image juxtaposes flood with drought while the bottom one shows an idyllic Irish scene of a thatched cottage by the ocean contrasted with a metropolitan city view.

Corporate Identity 2 - Playwell - Quality Toys

Once again the keyword in the brief is 'Quality'. To some, that means toughness and the ability to not fall apart through use. To others, it harks back to more traditional toys which usually appeal to a certain kind of adult rather than a child! With nostalgia being such a powerful influence in advertising at present,  I thought of those wooden boxes of bricks from long ago, made from wood and in primary colours and shapes. The different brick shapes would fit snugly into the box if fitted back carefully like a jigsaw so that the sliding wooden lid would close smoothly. That was my inspiration for this project. The three primary shapes in primary colours. The text uses the Stencil font which also reflects old fashioned toys with the 'A' in PLAYWELL replaced by another primary shape in a primary colour..

The design was done in Illustrator drawing the simple shapes and using the built in 'kids' colour swatches. I then used the 3D - Extrude & Bevel effect on the shapes.

Mobile Phone Live Project

I love simple, classic design using lines, squares and colour. This colour combination is from Adobe Kuler and is coincidentally called 'Cell Phone'. I've included three variations of the design but the possibilities are endless, especially when using Kuler.

The design was done in Adobe Illustrator CS6 using the provided template and the rectangular grid tool.

Corporate Identity 1 - bagel bite logo

The line in the brief for this project which stood out for me was "The company aims its products at ‘busy professionals’ who may not see themselves as customers of the traditional fast food restaurant." I think the colour scheme is sophisticated and understated; the same applies to the shape of the coffee cup which incorporates the bagel shape in its handle. The leaves add complementary colour while conveying closeness to nature. This is intended to convey the message that the company's products are pure and wholesome. I added a honeycomb background pattern to give some texture using Illustrator CS6's new pattern making feature.

SPAR REUSABLE SHOPPING BAG DESIGN

SPAR REUSABLE SHOPPING BAG DESIGN

Here are two designs I came up with for this project.

My design was inspired by a blog I came across  about a South Korean Non-Profit group based in Seoul who are making bags from rescued street banners. The designs are striking and colourful. Some feature large letters of the alphabet which don’t appear in their entirety but are still recognisable. I took this idea to apply to the Spar bag using big, bold lettering with a drop shadow which is very recognisable as the Spar brand even though the letters are cut off on the right. The Spar tree logo also appears on the design which reinforces the brand recognition potential.  I’ve used red, white and green in two versions of the design. These colours are interchangeable between the designs according to preference.

 The design was done in Illustrator using the Pen Tool to recreate the letters and logo.

Poetry in Motion

In this Oscar Wilde quote - I love Oscar Wilde quotes - I wanted to convey restriction and rigidity through type. I used Arial Black and then Barbed Wire brushes on the letters in Photoshop to represent those two qualities. I kept the hyphenation on the words to represent the rigid and unimaginative approach of filling the page with centred text rather than developing the design.

Typographic Self Portrait

My face constructed from the letters in my name - done in Illustrator with the Type tool and the Pen Tool.

Light Bulb Typography

So here it is.Created in Illustrator CS5 with the Area Type Tool and Envelope Effect.

Shaping an Object with Words

I started this exercise intending to to use a 'cupcake' image shaped from evocative words describing its taste and ingredients. My intentions were good but my Illustrator skills left a lot to be desired.....

So I killed two birds with the one stone by using this image which we were working on in Digital Authoring. It was originally a photograph of a lightbulb and presented a good opportunity to learn in Illustrator. I would have liked to create the shape with words and without the background silhouette so that's my next goal.