I published my
original logo designs for a class assignment on February 20th. To proceed with my web design project, I knew I wanted to give my logos one final touch to get it perfect for what I wanted. I really liked the outline of the lioness head from my previous design logo 2 and knew I wanted to use it! I also determined that I would change the name of the company to give my audience a better understanding of the chosen icon. In the end, I basically changed the crown color and company name and here is my updated design. For a detailed process of the original logos, please refer back to this post: https://runlittlejo.wordpress.com/category/design/logos/
Project 6: Stationery
Letterhead:
Business Card (8.5×11 Layout):
Business Card (Large Layout):
Description:
Personalized custom logo made to fit corresponding letterhead and business card.
Process (Programs, Tools, Skills):
I created my logos using simple shapes and the pathfinder tool in Adobe Illustrator. After the logos were created, I opened a new document in Adobe InDesign and placed my yarn logo .AI file into this document. I noticed some flaws in that logo. I went back into Illustrator to fix them and saved. When I went back into InDesign I updated my graphic easily by clicking on the triangular caution sign. I found this to be very useful!
I decided to make my business card first. I used the rectangle tool to make a box on the top half of the card and put my logo intersecting and on top of that box on the grid line. Next I chose fonts that could carry the message and idea of my design. I determined I needed a script font as to help me use lines with the pen tool to create flowing yarn from front to back of card to create a nice rhythm. I found it really important to match my stroke point size to the size of the tail of the s in knits. My overall goal was to be sure that a viewer would be able to determine what the business was about and a contact item on both sides of the card. I added a fiber background and put it at 10% opacity to give a textured appearance (I played around with this number a lot). Finally, I wanted to use a powerful slogan that would be able to encompass the style of the company and appeal to the proper audience. I was very satisfied with the results and carried it over onto the bottom of my letterhead.
On my second page imported my knitting needles I used on the back of my business card, but this time placed them separately and horizontal on both top and bottom of page to create a border. I purposely placed the contact information by the top of the knitting needle so the focus would go to the point and then down to the bottom need and off to the end point again, as if it was a sort of arrow. I used the same color scheme, contact information, and slogan. I brought in the same fiber background at 10% opacity. Finally, I placed my yarn image on the bottom right hand corner on the bottom 1/4 of paper and put it at 10% opacity. I debated on whether to use the company name on the top of the letterhead or the owners name. I decided on using the owner name and put the website underneath in the contact information.
Programs/Tools Used: Adobe Illustrator & InDesign
Message: Char Knits is a company created to produce quality hand stitched designs. Michelle Babcock is the owner and founder of Char Knits, she represents the face behind the name. The yarn balls are modern with clean lines yet warm toned to create the impression of what a customer could expect from Char Knits: modern, comfortable, and crafted with superiority. Michelle’s favorite colors are navy and orange, which were easy to fit into a complimentary color scheme.
Audience: Anyone that is interested in quality hand-knitted items.
Top things learned: How to effectively work in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign to create branding for company stationery.
Color scheme: Complementary and color names: Blue and Orange
Title Font Name & Category: Sweet Pea – Script
Copy Font Name & Category: Big Caslon – Modern
Project 5: Logos
Description: Three different logo designs for the same company.
Process: I really enjoyed this project and coming up with different design options and then figuring out how to use Illustrator to make these ideas come to life. My company icon was a lioness, so I looked online for ways I could implement it. I found a lioness face shaped necklace using different shapes and knew this could turn into a unique and cool icon. I played around with the tracing features and used the pen tool and eraser both to come up with the finished result. The crown was added to give a touch of femininity. In the middle design, after typing a monogram I turned those letters into outlines and manipulated the J to fit my design needs. Another exciting thing I discovered was how to type text on an outline for a badge feel. With my typography I used two different fonts to create contrast as well as using color schemes. I also found a lioness running that I placed into illustrator and then used the pen tool to outline the shape of a running lioness.
Programs/Tools Used: Adobe Illustrator
Message: “Running” to communicate strong, courageous, & powerful messages.
Audience: Runlittlejo Communications is a grassroots company instituted and devoted to communicating wholesome and uplifting messages for anyone around the world that will listen.
Top Thing Learned: How to draw using the pen tool
Color scheme: Top Logo: Split Complementary; Middle Logo: Complementary; Bottom Logo: Anagolous
Color Names: Top Logo: Red, Orange, & Teal; Middle Logo: Blue and Orange; Bottom Logo: Brick
Top Logo – Font #1 Name & Category: PT Sans (Sans Serif)
Top Logo – Font #2 Name & Category: Bank Gothic (Serif)
Middle Logo – Font #1 Name & Category: PT Sans Caption (Sans Serif)
Middle Logo – Font #2 Name & Category: PT Sans (Sans Serif)
Bottom Logo – Font #1 Name & Category: Onyx (Modern)
Bottom Logo – Font #2 Name & Category: PT Sans Narrow (Sans Serif)
Votes on favorite logo:
Top Logo = 9; Middle Logo = 9; Bottom Logo =13
My favorite logo: Top Logo
Project 4: Montage
Description:
A spiritual poster montage using images and type.
Process:
- I cropped the mountain image to 8.5×11.
- I placed the mountain climber image on top of mountain image, then I added a mask.
- With black paint and a 100% opacity, soft-edged brush, I painted away the hard image edges.
- With a larger black brush at different opacity levels, I blended the image into the background, so it produced a subtle contrast.
- I then changed images to Black and White 1 and added Photo Filter 2 (a warming filter) to give a sepia tone. I also played around with levels, vibrance, channel mixer, and selective color until I was pleased with the results.
- I also layered background images found at www.cgtextures.com/. I chose Metal Scratches0036 as well as MarbleBeige0052 to create more of a rugged feel. I put an overlay filter on both of these images and also a mask so that I could erase the background off of important features of the images beneath.
- I ultimately flipped the mountain image horizontally, after Bro. Pingel’s suggestion, so that I could have better flow from text to the mountain climber image. I’m glad I did it! I have found that the critique sessions from classmates, teacher, family, and friends are very valuable and I appreciate the opportunity it gives to perfect my designs.
- I added some type with two contrasting fonts and put them on top of a rectangle with overlay filter so as to allow more legibility with the words. I wanted to emphasize each line of my text so I chose different effects, colors, and sizes to showcase that. The words “we conquer” were the most important to me so I used a drop shadow and high value in color to bring it out.
- Programs/Tools Used: Adobe Photoshop
Message: I wanted to send a message that we all have the capacity in ourselves to conquer anything we set our minds to. I wanted to visualize to my audience how empowering it is to overcome any “mountain” that comes our way (metaphorically speaking).
Audience: Anyone inspired by nature.
Colorized/Filter applied and where: I decided to add a Gaussian Blur filter on the mountain climber image.
Color scheme : Monochromatic Color Name: Black and White with Warming Filter (81)
Top thing learned: How to gradually blend two images by applying masks to images.
Font #1 Name & Category: PT Serif Caption Regular & PT Serif Regular– Serif
Font #2 Name & Category: PT Sans Caption Bold – Sans Serif
Thumbnails of Images used:
Sources (Links to images on original websites):
http://tetonclimbing.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html
http://www.conversionidigitali.it/analytics/seo-con-analytics-e-webmaster-tools.html
Project 3: Photodesign
Description: Demonstrate useful photography skills, including editing. Incorporate those skills to showcase a quality image, a consistent color scheme based on that image, some text, and a few design elements.
Process (Programs, Tools, Skills): I began by sketching out an idea and then selected a color scheme that would best suit the plan from the Visual FOCUS book, I decided on Split Complementary. I took a photo with appropriate light, sharp focus, and nice composition. I used my Nikon D60 camera to accomplish this, and then imported the photo into Photoshop and used editing techniques: levels, sharpness, saturation, and color balance. I learned a lot using color balance & selection tool and how I could fine tune a few details of my photo to help support the color scheme by making the buttons on the yellow coat indigo, and adding a touch of violet to the lining of the coat sleeve. Then I designed an 8.5×11 layout that included my photo, text, and repeating design elements. I incorporated my color scheme title, color swatches, and color names into my design. I used the eye dropper tool and adjusted the color in the color picker to match a little more accurately. I loved the contrast that these bold colors demanded. After going through this process it was fun to see the vision I started out with come to fruition.
Message: I wanted to create a vibrant poster for a social media campaign that I recently read about in the Deseret News. I wanted to show a contemporary, yet playful understanding of the color wheel that would be memorable when seen.
Audience: Any person who has read/discovered the Book of Mormon and has an account on any social media platform.
Top Thing Learned: I learned a lot about the composition of photography. I also learned how to edit the image to keep quality and enhance the overall appeal by using Photoshop.
Color Scheme: Split Complimentary Color Names: Indigo, Violet, and Yellow
Title Font Name & Category: Mona Lisa Solid ITC TT: Serif
Copy Font Name & Category: Abadi MT Condensed: Sans Serif
Thumbnail of original, unedited image inserted
I took this photo on February 4th inside of my home, with my daughter as the model.
P3 Activity: Photography
Light 1: Outside
Light 2: Inside
Focus 1: Foreground
Focus 2: Background
Composition 1: Thirds
Composition 2: Lead Room
This photography activity was a good challenge for me. I have never really picked up a camera with the intent to shoot professional quality photographs. I liked having tutorials and learning about how to produce images to use in my designs. For my outside shot I metered the sky to be sure it didn’t get blown out. The weather was overcast, so I found that using the edits in Photoshop helped provide the contrast between the snow and sky. I used natural light inside of my dining room to capture the map with the Eiffel Tower – I had fun with this one! The options through using selective color really helped me get the vibrant and bright colors I was looking for.
At first, I was extremely intimidated to do the foreground and background photographs, but quickly realized it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed. I found my brother-in-law, who knows a lot about photography and he helped me understand how to use my camera to get the results I needed. I think that the foreground picture turned out very interesting and I would like to continue playing around with this new way of focusing. In the Composition category I settled on a photograph of the playground in my backyard which lent itself naturally to the rule of thirds. Finally, for my lead room shot I took a picture of my daughter facing into the frame and placing her eyes and the Book or Mormon on the grid line.
Project 2 – Event Ad
Description:
A color full-bleed fundraising and promotional event ad using only Microsoft Word and a scanner.
Process:
I scanned the bike image, and imported it into Microsoft Word then deleted the background I didn’t want. This feature wasn’t perfect and left a few bare parts that were difficult to get back into graphic. To remedy the said situation, as well as the fact that I planned a specific color scheme, I decided to recolor the image with accent color 6 and used a dark gradient base background underneath to fill in the wholes from the previous process. By using these effects I wanted it to appear as if the bikers were riding out of a ripped page. After altering the image to my satisfaction, I added an angled green rectangle with a white font to draw attention to the title of my event and other pertinent information. Three gradient lines with contrasting color and graduating weights were added underneath to add more emphasis & repetition. The three bikers in the image naturally added rhythm and followed the rule of thirds. I chose two different fonts for visual interest, and in the body copy chose to use bold and all caps for specific words to bring out their importance to the event. I was pleasantly surprised at how much can be done in the page layout setting and hidden design features of Microsoft Word. I really enjoyed playing with image recoloring and filters. I now feel confident that I could produce professional looking fliers & ads using these techniques. Programs used were: Microsoft Word, Dell Home Scanner, Adobe Acrobat XI version 11.0.0 to convert PDF to JPEG.
Message:
I have been commissioned by the American Diabetes Foundation to help raise money for the cure of Diabetes as a satellite bike ride of the Tour de Cure where I live. I wanted my audience to be excited about doing something they love to do while donating money to a good cause.
Audience:
Anyone who enjoys biking and feeling good about raising money & awareness for the Cure of Diabetes.
Top things learned:
I learned how to scan properly, and found that designing in Microsoft Word is possible.
Color scheme and color names:
Analogous
Lime, Yellow, & Gold
Title Font Name & Category: Birch Std – Serif
Copy Font Name & Category: Bangla MN regular & bold– Sans Serif
Scanned images used, sources, original sizes:
This image was scanned from January/February 2015 Road Bike Magazine. I used a Dell, 2155cdn home scanner to scan my image. The original image scanned, in inches, was 7.66″x10.4″. I scanned it at 300 dpi resolution. Image final scan, in pixels, was 2,343 x 2,471.
Project 1 Flier
Description:
This flier, in black and white, is meant to publicize an upcoming Graduate Leadership Conference.
Process:
The first process in designing this project consisted of sketching 4 different layouts options. After selecting which sketch portrayed the focused message and appealed to the audience I began creating the design in Adobe InDesign. I used square and rectangular boxes which were specifically organized and colored to create good flow and contrast. I chose to insert the image inside of a circle to create a spontaneous, yet memorable focal point. In the focal point text my professor suggested using a drop shadow, which I did, and I was happy with the result of how it entered into the image while keeping the line proximity in check with other letters in the word. The typography, varied in weight and size, helped create interest and dimension. I was careful to use good alignment. My overall objective was to create an obvious contrasting focal point with supporting flow into the important details such as Date, Time, Place and website.
Message:
My message is that a Graduate Leadership Conference is happening. My target audience are graduates: why they should consider coming, how to register, and most importantly how the conference can make them more marketable.
Audience:
Graduating Seniors, the majority in their twenties.
Top thing learned:
I learned the importance of tracking, kerning, leading, and how it plays into alignment.
Title Font Name & Category:
Avenir Next Demi Bold, and Avenir Next Condensed– Sans Serif
Copy Font Name & Category:
Avenir Next regular, medium, italicized– Sans Serif
Links to all images I used in this project:
Flier Video Critique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LttHbRyPcwA&h=315%5D
Thank you Sarah!
Reclaimed
Tonight we picked up my latest project, a wrecked 2004 Toyota Prius. It is in need of some major front end work. I plan on purchasing another prius for parts to make 1 out of the 2. Good times.