Visual Advocacy Poster

Well the first thing I had to do was to choose a topic, and when Ms. Silverman announced this project I already had a topic in mind. The topic I chose was on visible minorities who are incarcerated, specifically focusing on Native Canadians. I found some statistics on the topic while deciding if this topic was for me and the statistics I found were alarming. For example I found that 'Native youth are more likely to go to jail than to graduate high school' and I found that 'Black men are searched 6 times more on average compared to white men'. Once I seen those statistics I knew that this topic was for me and that I needed to find more statistics. I ended up finding many more alarming statistics and at that point I had enough to do a written statement of intent. Once I wrote my statement I found I had more feelings about this topic than I thought I did and I found that this topic needed more awareness. Moreover, my next step in my process was to do some thumbnails and brainstorming. That came fairly easy to me because I had a lot of ideas, I had a lot to say, and I found many thought provoking things on the internet. I ended up with over 30 thumbnails and three pages of words and paragraphs of brainstorming. Furthermore, the next step was to present our ideas in front of the class. I gave some feedback and I got some feedback, and I felt that it helped to get others' opinions on my work. After the meet up I went right into drawing my full scale poster ideas, and I ended up with about five. I decided on the one I felt was the most interesting, easily readable/re creatable, would create awareness, and most thought provoking. I consulted with Ms.Silverman and she agreed with my decision. I then recreated my idea on Adobe Illustrator, with two fists holding jail bars that are cut off with surrounding jail bars that are full length. The statistic went in-between the bars, and I only used two colours on the words.  I put my slogan in the bottom right corner. I then played around with the sizes and made sure that it was easily readable and was eye catching. Once I decided I did my best work I looked at it one last time and saved.

The program I chose was Adobe Illustrator because I was going to draw fists for the focal point of my poster and Illustrator is the best suited program for that. After I chose my program I looked for images of fists holding bars for inspiration. I looked at few, altered them to be more graphic and ended up drawing the fists from the inspiration I got. I used the pen tool and the direct selection tool to draw the fists. The next part I had to do was draw the surrounding bars and I use the rectangular premade shape for that. I then decided where the text was going to go and decided that between the bars would be the best place. I altered the colours and realized that the most effective colours would be black, white and red. I ended up having a minimalist feel to my poster to make it very effective.

I feel that I used images in combination with written word to create a very persuasive and effective message within poster format. I used fists holding jail bars to represent the struggle and pain these inmates go through. I used black fists to show that the people who face these inequalities are those of colour, and at the same time that creates effectiveness because of the minimal colour. I wrote the text in-between the bars to create balance within the photo and to show that this is what is going behind the bars (play on words).

Instead of having a poster to create awareness I found another way to effectively inform people. I found that since most people take public transit and public transit has a lot of advertisements this would be a perfect way to get my message across. What would happen is that my poster would be on one of those rectangular spaces for advertising on the TTC, and once a person would get closer a video would start playing showing all the ways my issue affects everyone and why they should care. From far away my poster would just be the advertisement but once someone came within 50 cm of my poster the video would start playing. This would be interactive and I feel would be a lot more effective since the video catches their attention right away.

Typographic Portrait

For the typographic portrait assignment I decided to do a self portrait. I tried not to outline anything but rather suggest an outline with the characters and space. What I felt that identifies me and is my sarcastic personality, my big curly hair, my glasses, and my general character being peculiar. I used a wide variety of characters from letters, number, arithmetic signs. I also used different fonts, sizes, and boldness. I placed my portrait off to the right and tilted because I feel that I am very off and peculiar. I felt that that placement of my photo would give that feeling of the specific character (me).  I made my mouth open, tilted, and look like it has attitude because I am constantly told that I always have something to say or that I always have a comment to add. I used two 7's to create my mouth. For my hair I used the letters c, g, s, and the number 9. The letters c, g and s stand for curly, great and soft because that's what my hair is! I used a variety of fonts, sizes, and boldness due to the differences in the areas of my hair (small, loose curls fall on my face compared to big, soft curls on the top of my head). I also tried to convey other identifying factors such as my small nose, my small eyes, my interestingly shaped eyebrows, and my cheekbones. Overall, I feel that this typographic portrait represents me well and identifies with both my personality and physical features. I also feel that its visually pleasing because it has a combination of characters, and because the viewer fills in the blanks themselves. 

Random Album Cover Assignment (Heindonk/Cele)

The name of the first band is Heindonk, and when I thought about that name, Western Europe came to mind. It turns out that Heindonk is a village in Belgium (so I was right). 'Hipster' type music also came to mind when I was thinking about Heindonk. The last few words of the random quote turned out to be part of life which I shortened to 'part life', and the picture I got from flickr was a peak of a mountain covered by clouds and an orange reflection from the sun. I thought the combination of all these elements Heindonk had to be an alternative/indie band like 'Two Door Cinema Club' or 'Phoenix'. I cropped out most of the photo and put the emphasis on the peak of the cloud. I made the album name 'Part Life' be on the outline of a cloud because some people say your life now is only part of your life (part life) and the rest is spent in an after life in heaven or hell. So since Heindonk seems angelic, smooth, calming I thought putting the album name on the clouds would be perfect which represents the 'part life' in heaven. Furthermore, I thought that the white colour and a simplistic sans serif font would be perfect for the name of the band because it stands out, it's elegant, and it fits well with the vision I had for the album. The lilac colour for the album name fit perfectly with the rest of the colours, and because I didn't want it to be the emphasis point, but I still wanted it to be visible.

The name of the second band is Cele and when I thought of it I thought of Africa. Once again I turned out to be right, Henry Cele (I shortened it to Cele) is a South African actor. The last few words of the random quote were 'the devil's dictionary', and the photo I got from flickr got was of an African savanna tree. So, it was obvious that Cele was a  South African hardcore punk band.  I thought they could be similar to 'The Misfits' or 'Black Flag'.  I cropped the photo so the emphasis would be on the savanna tree and I also put a filter on the photo so its pixelated and there is a green, red, blue undertone. I thought that doing that would add to the hardcore/punk feel of the album. I chose the font and colour for the band name because a thick black font gives off the feeling of hardcore and edgy, and it makes the album name an emphasis point. I chose a white serif font for the album name because its comes into contrast with all of the thick black lines. It makes the album have unity with the black and white. I chose the album name to have the effect of a staircase because it would be the perfect effect to make the album balanced. Otherwise the album would have too much writing on either side.

Vector (Screw Driver)

Sketch

Tracing

Final Product (Tracing w/ Colour)

1) The elements and principles of design used in my drawings are line, shape, form, color, texture, space, value, emphasis, contrast, and repetition. These elements and principles pertain to my drawings for many reasons. For example there is line in my drawings because the screwdriver is outlined (body,shank, etc) and there is shape (organic and geometric) because the entire drawing is a shape and there are many shapes inside the drawing (grips, ridges on the screw). There is form on my tracing and drawing because in between the shank and the upper body there is a dark grey circle that makes the drawing look 3D. There is color because on my colour version there is lots of greys, black, silver, and yellow. Texture pertains to my drawings because of the ridges on the screw, and the yellow grips. The ridges on the screw look like they would feel hard and rough compared to the yellow grips that would feel soft and squishy. Moreover, there is space on my drawings because in between all the shapes (parts of the screwdriver) there is space (positive space) and there is negative space as well because of the white background. In addition there is value on my colour drawing because of all the different shades of grey on my drawing (grey on the body, the upper side grips, and the lower side grips). There is emphasis on my drawing  because of the yellow grips on the body of the screwdriver. They are the emphasis point because they are in the center, the central one is fairly big, and they are the brightest colour (yellow). Likewise, the contrast in my drawing is the yellow compared to all the different shades of grey, silver, and black. Yellow is already a bright colour but with a grey background it makes it even brighter. Furthermore, the repetition on my drawings is all the grips on the side, and the repetition of the colour grey.

2) Well first I had to choose an image to trace. I first chose a concept bike but then that turned out horribly so I moved on to a screwdriver. The first drawing I did was the free hand sketch. I put the image on one layer, and moved it out of the way so I could see it but it didn't interfere with my sketch. I started sketching the image in sections and put those sections on different layers (so I could easily manipulate my sketch).  For example one layer was the shank of the screwdriver, one layer was the outline of the upper body, and one layer was the ridges on the actual screw. Then I accurately had to name my layers so I knew what was on each layer. So after, I finally finished my sketch and did the same process (i.e layers, etc.) with the tracing except I traced over the image instead of eyeballing it. Then when I was fulfilled with my tracing of the image I turned the tracing into a colour version based off of the actual image. To turn the tracing into a colored version I used the selection tool to select a certain part of the screwdriver then I chose a colour to fill that part and I chose a colour to outline that part. Moreover, the tools I used for this project were the pen tool (to trace/sketch the image and its parts), the selection tool (to move things around/select them), eye dropper tool (to ensure parts of the screwdriver were the same colour), direct selection tool (to alter the anchors), and I also used the zoom in button.

3) The drawing that I like/think looks the best/has the best design out of the three is the colored version. I feel that way because with the colored version the different shades of grays, yellow, silver, and black bring the drawing to life. It makes the drawing look three dimensional and its the one that looks the most similar to the image. I feel that the trace looks the worst, and the sketch needs color. I also feel that the sketch doesn't represent the image well. I feel that the other two drawings (tracing/sketch) look like a series of shapes and lines. They don't look like an image, they don't have unity and they don't have texture. Overall the colored one is the most appealing and has the most elements and principles of design. Which I feel makes it look better.

Logo for Young Company (Black/White and Colour Versions)

Black and White 

Colour Version

 1) The elements and principles of design that pertain to my logo are shape, line, value, colour, emphasis, space, and contrast. I chose to use these elements and principles of design for specific reasons. For example I used the colour blue because its a Lakeshore colour and also because blue is a colour that works very well with logos and attracts people (twitter/facebook logo). I used the other colours (black and grey) because they contrast and work well with the blue (and gradient). I used circles to represent unity and family because it is a drama 'family'. I used the star because actors are called stars and because they are usually in the middle of the stage. I used line to direct the spotlight on the star, and I used the gradient to put emphasis on the star. I used contrast to attract and make the logo enjoyable.

2) I am satisfied with the final product and it is what I envisioned it to be. The vision I had for my logo was to have 3D stage, with a white star in the middle, with a light (with gradient) shining down on it, and I feel that my logo conveys that image. It also is an appealing logo, fits what the client wanted, and its balanced. But, if I had time I would tweak the colours to see if I could have a better combination and try to incorporate the side stars better into the logo.


3) In the beginning I had trouble with the layers because some layers weren't in the spot I wanted. But then I fixed it with ordering the layers with the layer button. I also had trouble with the gradient and making look the way I wanted it to. But once again I figured it out with trial and error. I didn't find any new techniques while creating the logo, but I used some new tools on illustrator (gradient, live paint bucket, typography on a line, lasso).

The Audition Poster

1) The elements and principles of design that pertain to my poster are shape, line, colour, emphasis, space, and contrast. The shapes used in my poster are the hand and the chair. I used the hand to portray somebody reaching for the spotlight. 'The Audition' is about high school students auditioning to be in the 'spotlight' so the hand represents the students and the chair with the light on it represents the spotlight. I used the colour red for the dates and the title because red contrasts well with black and white and it puts emphasis on the most important things (dates and title). The space on the poster has meaning because everything on the poster is placed in those places for specific reasons. For example the hand is placed on the side because it looks like it is reaching and creates a balance with everything on the other side. The emphasis is on the dates, title, and the hand reaching for the stool. Likewise the contrast on the poster is the black stool with the white shadow, the white hand on a black background, and red typography compared to white typography and black background.


2) I am satisfied with the final product and it is what I pictured it to be. The vision I had for my poster is to have a black background with a white hand reaching out of a corner to grab a stool placed in the bottom half of the poster. My poster went above and beyond what I envisioned. I feel that its an appealing poster, it fits what the client wanted, it fits with what the play is about and that it attracts peoples attention. But if I did have more time I would play around with the fonts of the text, and I would play around with the colour of the title (to see if anything works better).

3) I had trouble with editing the stool image, because I wanted to make it look more graphic and fit better with the hand. I also had trouble with editing the hand because the magic wand tool wasn't working properly. In addition I had the fonts of the text because I felt that photoshop didn't have a great variety of fonts, but in the end I found fonts that I liked. Moreover, I didn't find any new techniques, but this was my first time using photoshop, and at first it was difficult to use because it isn't exactly the same as illustrator. But in the end I got the hang of it.

Leaf Guy (PNG vs JPG)

PNG

JPEG

The first image is a PNG and the second image is a JPG of my final leaf guy tracing. This leaf guy tracing was done in adobe illustrator and this was my first time using illustrator. I had some trouble with the anchors, making curved lines, and reflecting the image. But, once I got the hang of everything it was really easy to complete. This task got me familiar with the illustrator program and I learned the basics. Moreover, the difference between the two images is that the PNG is more clear and that the JPEG is more pixelated. The JPEG is also comes with a grey background whereas the PNG doesn't. Finally you can zoom more into the PNG.