Final Portfolio

I was a little disappointed in my organizational skills when I went to put this together. I had difficulty finding the files I wanted and the thumbnail, and marker comps i intended. That is a definite goal for me next spring. I will not allow myself to spread out my files and papers. If I am to improve I need to stay organized. I am looking forward to my next classes in viscom so that I can branch out and try my hand outside of posters and magazine articles. I feel as though I have already gotten myself into a rut with my design style and I intend to spend time picking apart advertisements and magazines and other items during my time off this summer and fall so that I can come back with new ideas and maybe a unique style of some kind. I feel like I have a grasp on the technical aspects of the programs, though I can't make them jump through hoops, i can generally get them to do what I want. I am looking forward to spending more time with them and improving in this area. There were days when I felt as though I was just treading water and not making any progress what so ever. Thank you for you patience as I plowed my way though this class. 

Continuing my final portfolio, I chose a set of color thumbnail comps from an advertisement we created in class fora car. These follow a "Green" theme as the car was a hybrid. I also created a leaf logo to accompany the ad and that could be used on subsequent ads or other promotional items related to the car.  

I chose a marker comp for a fishing magazine spread to fulfill both my best marker comp and my best traditional copyfitting. I intended to use my chili poster as an example of my best marker comp but the poster was too large to fit on the scanner. I chose the fishing to fulfill my best copyfitting because it was the most accurate when translated onto the computer for final production. The only reason it does not look exactly the same is because I chose to wrap the text around the fish instead of stopping above them. Otherwise it would have been exactly the same as in the marker comp. 

The example I chose as my best use of typography and typesetting is of a magazine article I created in the beginning of the semester regarding stress. Our parameters for the article were specific on our use of images, call outs, and number of pages. I feel the project was successful in each of these areas.   

The last three categories for the final portfolio I chose my fishing spread to fulfill. I believe it is an example of my best design. It follows the rules of structure, hierarchy, and other principles and elements and is my best example of Final art production. There were no lingering technical problems. I also feel this is my best creative concept, many of my others had obvious flaws, or small hiccups that at the time I wasn't sure how to remedy. This project represents much of my work this semester. The images were edited in photoshop and/or illustrator and many technical hurdles had to be overcome to align everything with so much overlapping and clipping paths. I was very attentive to the small details. 

This is the beginning of my posts for my final portfolio. To fulfill the requirements of the portfolio I must show proficiency in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I must also give examples of my best thumbnail color comps, marker comp, traditional copyfitting, best design, typesetting, creative concept, and InDesign Final Art production. 

To show proficiency in InDesign I chose a magazine spread from Better Homes and Gardens that I re-created. This was challenging because I had to match their type font, size, import images, etc. This project was successful because I matched their typefitting exactly, and placed side by side there is no way to tell which one is which.    

To demonstrate my proficiency in Illustrator, I chose a recreation of a Japanese print I completed in the beginning of the semester. This was a complicated project that required exact detail in matching form and color. (The one on the left is the original.) 

To demonstrate my proficiency in Photoshop I chose an old damaged photo I retouched. The original had something corrosive spilled over it. I had to recreate large sections of the photo including parts of the children. Specifically on the of the boy's legs and both hands. 

Our last project was a fishing magazine spread (for the girls) this went smoother for me than the Marceline comp, maybe because I was less stressed because I knew that this was the last one and that I didn't have to worry about any more deadlines. I did the production art a little backwards because i designed the comp then went looking for art. This is what caused me the most trouble but it turned out ok. All the art I found was very low resolution and ended up being only 1-2 inches after I increased the ppi to 300. What I ended up doing was enlarging it and applying a filter in photoshop or posturizing it again in photoshop. The only thing I was disappointed with was the prominence of the three fish in the foreground. They don't seem to actually be in the water but in front of the water. I would have liked to spend more time on them to make them seem to be a part of the water art. I still like the overall appearance of the spread. Here it is:

    

My Marceline pamphlet went without major hiccup throughout most of the process, which should have raised some red flags, but in my arrogance i thought I was just getting better at this. oh well, printing was a little frightening but all in all it ended out fine. everything comes down to money right? Oh well, so about my pamphlet.... fitting all the copy on it was the hardest. I felt really limited in what I could do because of how much space had to be relegated to copy. I ended up putting an image behind the text on the inside to add interest without losing copy area. so here you go...  

This is the final chili poster. I was disappointed with the way the chili printed for my in class poster but hopefully you will be able to tell the details here. I think the size font for the info text was a little too big. At the time I was worried that there would be too much negative space.  I would also have had the chili spilling out of the bowl instead of it just sitting there. I think it needs more action. Overall I am pleased with it though. 

ok so today we discussed our ten marker comps of our dream cars with a partner. She liked the leaf logo and Green theme I used in each of the comps, but the second one stood out to her as the best. It features the car centered on the page with the name of the car above it. She suggested that the name be in two rows instead of one and have the last line slightly overlap the image of the car. the original comp featured a single spot color over the page with a lighter block of color at the bottom, containing the logo and headline. She suggested creating a gradient instead of the blocks of color; the gradient could be either vertical or a rotating horizontal like I used in the third comp.  

The background is like a gingham tablecloth and suggests country or home cooking without being overtly cowboy. The headline gets progressively larger which is simple but keeps attention. The large bold font and below center organization grabs the viewers attention as well. Depending on what weight the actual text brings to the "info" boxes- the larger box may need to be moved below the headline and the smaller bow above. Overall a very nice poster.  

Helvetica. ok so I never thought that there would be such strong opinions on a type face, let alone one that has become so universal. One woman actually felt that it was connected with both the Vietnam war and the Iraq war. That it was some sort of governmental tool of control. Generally I think if someone doesn't like it is because it is so universal and mass produced. They see creating type an art form and when that art becomes so "used" so utterly mass produced, but not in an Andy Worhol sort of way, they become indignant. So I don't think that that irritation is because of the type itself but more of society's treatment and usage of that type. Those that still appreciate it do so because they see the benefits of a nearly universally applicable type. They enjoy a font that can bend itself into whatever mood or purpose it needs without being phoney or hokey. They see Helvetica as a chamelion they can direct and manipulate. I have not been around type face debate long enough to have established a fondness or loathing of any particular one, but I'm sure the day will come so I will not be too judgemental with those who have.  

Midterm portfolio

This is the second page of the two page magazine spread I posted below. Same comments apply.


Ok these are the larger photos that I said I would post. Same comments apply as earlier.

Midterm portfolio

This is the first page of a two page spread I recreated from a magazine, the second page will follow in another post. I chose this for my InDesign document because it is the most recent file and I used nearly everything I have learned in InDesign to create it. Also I am pretty proud because it turned out exactly like the magazine article even down to were the text ended in the columns.  

This is the indie poster we redid but had to find our own images and come up with our own theme. This image uses a clipping path to edit out the background, this was one of my most successful clipping paths. 
This is one of my choices for Illustrator. I couldn't help but be very detailed with this seal. I tried to take some short cuts by only creating one wing and leg then mirroring them over to the other side. I also tried to make the colors as close to the original seal as possible. Overall I am satisfied with the result. 
This is my second choice for a photoshop assignment. I chose the damaged photo retouch. This is an important photo to my in-laws and I wanted to be very exact. I am a little disappointed in the way the floor turned out and I would like to redo that part. I had to completely recreate the hands and feet of the boy on the far left because the damage to the photo had utterly erased them. I think they turned out fairly well. I will try to repost this image in a larger format in the next post. 
I chose this recreated print for my second Illustrator assignment. I am very proud of this one.  focused on every detail and everything matches the original perfectly. This is one of my favorites. 

Friday Feb 20th

So I feel like I am the slowest person in the world. Is it really possible to have all of these assignments completed on time?! But I won't complain, I brought this on myself....