reworking of old design

So I took GRD 3150 (Typography) last spring instead of this spring... it was my first Graphic Design class at GSU, and a lot of my work looks pretty weak compared to my newer stuff... I decided to draw some images for some of my posters, and I am still trying to rework the CNN poster we had to do as well... Here are 2 of the promotional posters we did last year.



Here are my new designs that I did today. I wanted to keep a similar look to it, but decided to draw some sketches rather than just do a live trace on a photo. I like them much better than the originals, but I'll probably rework them a little more. I have to redo one more poster for "More or Less" war as well.



Here's my original CNN poster from last spring. It has the dreaded GRADIENT which seems to be so abhorred by everyone nowadays.


Here's the new version with and without a reflection.

I want to show some depth on the casket, because I think it looks too flat when it's just floating there in space, but maybe I'm the only one that feels this way. I wanted to actually paint the casket rather than use illustrator brushes, but I may not have time to get that done anytime soon. Anyone have any suggestions?

plush.

I didn't really design much over this weekend... I just got stuff ready for my portfolio... I printed and cut about 13 boards, which seemed like it took forever... Gregg really instilled in me the importance of craft when making boards so it takes me forever to cut my stuff down even though I have a mat cutter... the cuts just have to be perfect I guess... I cut 4 boards for 3200 on matte paper  and 9 for my portfolio on semilgloss... however, I did do some other work as well... 

So I went into Petsmart today to look around for some inspiration for my specialty project... I decided it might be a good idea to do some chew toys, pillows, catnip sacks or whatever for the animal hospital.. I bought some of that "Ink Aid" stuff that Jared told our class about because it was like 60% off the last time I went to Sam Flax... so I decided to use it today...  I went to the store kinda late and since stuff closes early on Sundays, I could only get some fabric from Walmart... My local Walmart doesn't sell fabric anymore, so I just bought a bed sheet for like $3 and they happened to have some polyester stuffing for abnout $2.50 as well...

My grandma taught me how to sew years ago.. like when I was a small child... I wouldn't say that I know how to sew.. but I know how to stitch something together... so I made a catnip/pillow for a cats and it tured out pretty well.. I had to stitch it then turn it inside out, stuff it, then close the stitch.. which i didn't really know how to do correctly, but I was able to make it look half decent.  I'd rather get another fabric and this was just going to be a prototype, but it came out suprisingly nice... Here's my work over the weekend...

I also spent about 15 whole minutes making an old poster for 3150 look better.. I'm going to be redesigning my old 3150 work over the next week to get it ready for my portfolio... unlike most people, I took into to type last spring instead of this semester, so this stuff really looks dated and unappealing compared to my work from this year.. I wonder if this looks ok? I know gradients are like that anticrist for some reason, but I think it look halfway ok.. ha!

time for a break...

So I've been designing practically non-stop since last Sunday.... I fine tuned the Huntington Creek ads today and tweaked the colors a bit so that each ad would have a seperate color palette. I designed some of this on my home computer rather than the laptop I usually use and I have the colors at home set to be overly bright and loud. Therefore, when you actually see them on another computer they are usually more dull and bland. I really need to fix this.. but it looks so great for games.. which I never get to play anyway.. ha

Anyway, I added some copy to the 3x11 and the 5.5x5.5 ads to see what they would look like. It probably looks better on the 5.5x5.5 ad though... I'm not sure which one I want to use... I tried adding texture to these, but I decided they look better with the flat look... I guess... I think I'm going to remove that little nifty shadow on the 3x11 ad as well... because it totally doesn't make sense...

Lastly, I might do a box for a martini glass gift box for Andre's as my specialty project. I thought it'd be nifty to make a triangular box with the top looking like a martini glass, however I realized that because of the diameter of a martini glass, the sides of the box would have to be extremely long, like 5 inches or more.. so I may make a 4 or 5 sided box... or maybe I'll do something else. Anyway, here's my work...








I also got around to polishing up my stationery and doing a board layout. I hope this is good enough to print, but I'll wait for some input before I actually put it on a board. For the Andre's ad, I lightened that band of color that surrounds the logo on the envelope as suggested by people during the critique. And I lightened the orange block on the bottom of the animal hospital envelope. Furthermore, I changed the "Come, Dine, Enjoy" slogan on the back of the Andre's buisness card to the new slogan "Uptown Flavor with a Downtown Feel." That's a pretty catchy slogan if I say so myself... hehe.. Anyway, I hope this is good enough.

I'm taking a break tomorrow and hopefully I'll still be cranking out good design again on Sunday.

the zone...

I'm in the zone right now... My designs are just flowing out at the moment, so I gotta keep this momentum up. I'm going to start on my specialty project tomorrow. I've been up all night working on the other designs for the animal hospital print ads. I made a 5.5x5.5" ad that I think looks pretty good. I tried adding a blur to the car in the background, but I don't know if it's necessary... I resized and redrew the cat to make it look more stylistically similar to the other 2 ads in my 8.5x11... i also dabbled with adding some texture to make it look even more like cut out paper. Using illustrator's "texturizer" filter makes files HUGE! I think I might just use the texture on the background/negative space of the ads if I do use it. The texture is actually just a scan of the same paper I drew the animal sketches on yesterday... Anyway, check out these other 2 ads...

99%

So my Andre's ads are just about complete. If nobody noticed, I added "restaurant and martini bar" under the logo on the 3x11 and the 5.5x5.5 ads. I did this so people would know it's a restarant. I don't think I'd be neccessary on the ad with the plate... it might not even be necessary at all, but I added an 8.5x11 version with "restaurant and martini bar" underneath... the only way I could add it was by adding the often dreaded GRADIENT so you could read the type. I might have to just drop that all together.

Here's my Huntington Creek 3x11 ad as well. Funny right? Heheh... I tried one with a fancy, schmanshy shadow thingy just to see what'd it'd look like... probably won't use it.. anyway, here's till tomorrow.. or maybe late tonight...

I'm going to be tired tommorow....

I would usually be asleep right now... but I decided to work more on the Huntington Creek print ad... I think the colors are looking a lot better now.. I also added a few swirly thingy's to the Andre's ad... it might be too much though...

hrmmm... not so good...

Maybe I should just try and use my original sketches instead of the cutout vector art look... I dunno.. I tried using some photo textures here and there and also tried adding some color... I prefer the old look with the different shades of just one color. Hrmm... maybe I should just do that and ad more contrast.. or maybe use 2 colors... I'm not really liking these too much as they are. Oh well, back to work tomorrow I guess...

it's raining cats and dogs

I'm about to work for about the next two hours on the funny animal hospital ads. However, I decided I wanted to try drawing some animals with charcoal pencils today. I don't really have a tagline or anything for these but I liked the drawings... well, the cat's eyes are a little too close together and I hope he doesn't look dead.. oh well... I love the drawing of the dog though... it was somewhat cathartic picking up a pencil today... here's what I did...

nailed it. ...I think...

Now this is what I'm tombout (talking about). I think these are pretty successful and I'm glad I got some good comments about this direction in class today. The best part about this is that the red band behind the logo ties in great with my stationery. I hope I have enough type in the 5.5x5.5 ad, because I was able to get it to fit just right (I think at least). Photoshop owns and you'd know this if you saw my original photos... haha.. anyway, Time to work on the animal hospital tomorrow... I think I'm going to actually take a break when I get home from work tonight and watch a movie or something... I've been working these ads damn near non-stop since Sunday night.

Mondays...

I worked on all this stuff Monday night... I spent a little time trying to improve the ad for the "olive headed" guy, but I was unsuccessful in making it actually look good. Time is running out on this project, so I think I'm just going to have to let that idea die.

I never go around to reworking the "after work, after dinner, after dark" add either... damn deadlines... However, I did redo one of the ad's for the animal hospital. I tried to make it look like cutout shapes. I wanted to ad some texture, but didn't have time to do that last night. Hopefully I can have this polished by Thursday.