Final Thoughts

I thought it'd be nice to dedicate my last blog post to what I got out of this class over the course of the semester. I got a lot more out of this class than I expected to. I knew absolutely nothing about Photoshop or InDesign before this class and now I feel like I have some good basic skills to improve upon. This semester, I took another class that used these programs along with Illustrator and it just didn't click. I was able to follow along with most of the skills that we learned. Aside from technical things, I learned more about myself creatively. I always felt like I had a good eye and was sort of aware of design, I just never saw myself as a designer. I really surprised myself with some of the work I accomplished throughout the semester. If I ever improve my technical skills and consider changing careers I'd possibly look into graphic design. It's nice to know that I can create things visually. I've always been a fan of do it yourself projects and now I can add onto it. For example in the future in a perfect world where things go my way  I make it as a writer, I'd totally be hands on and possibly try to create my own book cover. Perhaps this is because I'm a writer and enjoy reading but I've also discovered that I really admire typefaces. Weird right? I've always been slightly aware of design and its importance but I feel more aware of it now. It really is all around us and is incredibly vital to communication. Life would be less exciting without art. Overall I had a pretty good experience!

I even follow some graphic design-y related stuff on Tumblr now so I'll leave you with this.

 (P.S. Hope you all have a fantastic summer!)

Final Brochure!

 

At last! It's finally complete! This brochure separates me from summer vacation! Since it was our last project and we had more creative freedom, I wanted to do something fun. I figured I'd take some of the misery out of one of my finals. I ended up doing a fashion related tutorial. I learned this from one of my favorite fashion bloggers, Keiko Lynn. I changed maybe one or two steps to my liking. I took all the photos myself, thank goodness for self timer apps on the iphone. The idea is that this is part of a series of brochures (maybe I'll get bored and continue this idea over the summer) 

When I first started out, I just had a plain pink background. It just looked dull and a little corny with all of my other girly color choices and designs. I fixed this by picking out a wallpaper from the internet and using that as my background. I thought it complemented my color scheme and went along with the theme I was going for. I also originally planned to have 3 tutorials instead of one. I didn't go through with this because I realized the pictures would be difficult to see and wouldn't look as nice. The typefaces I used were Cooper Black and Futura. I can't remember the exact names I used for the script fonts. 

There were a few differences between how it looked on screen and how it looked on paper. I'm not sure if it was just the printer I used but the yellow font I used in part of my directions text box didn't come out. Luckily, I had the more important text in black which was readable. There were also some spacing issues that I had and this weird white border appeared out of no where when I printed a copy. Overall, I'm super happy with how my final project turned out! :)

Deliciously Dressed Needs a Makeover

After tomorrow it's summertime! Which means I'll be able to work on fun projects again, like focus more on my blog. (just wait until I finally buy my DSLR!)

The final thing I need for my blog to look more professional is a brand spankin' new fancy layout! I'm currently using one of the free ones offered on Wordpress. I was really diggin' it until I browsed around and found at least 5 other blogs in my category with the same one. If I want to be taken seriously, I need something a little more unique and personal in order to stand out. There are a couple things I need to factor in before choosing one. 

Issue 1: Money. The nicer the layout the more they cost of course. If I have to spend any money (which I probably will) I'd rather not spend over $40. 

Issue 2: Needs to complement both text and photos. My written content is just as important as my photos. While researching some layouts I realized that most layouts compliment one or the other. 

Issue 3: Mobile layout. A lot of layouts look much nicer on computer screens than mobile devices. I also update and check my stats from my phone pretty often. 

and most all look pretty, organized, and complement my personal style! :) 

Luckily for me, Amy sent me a few sites a few that had some awesome layouts that I like so far and seem to go along with 

 

 

Exercise 5

I don't know why but I went into this thinking that it'd be super difficult and that I'd be sitting in the library for hours and hours. It actually wasn't too bad! Out of most of the skills we learned so far I think I might find myself using this one again.

I'll admit, it's not perfect. I messed up at the very end (like I always do). I was following along pretty well and didn't get lost. I over did it when I was correcting the shading on her skin tone. Ugh Amelia Earhart why can't you just accept the fact that I'm trying to give you a make over?! But anyways - even though I said I'd use this skill again, I'm going to need a little more practice.

I realized you have to pay close attention to detail to perfect it. One little mistake and it'll pop out. This exercise made me realize how incredibly easy it is to doctor and manipulate photographs. I'm sure if I did this a little better it'd look more realistic. Everyone would be all "OMG we like totally found Amelia Earhart. Apparently she's immortal and has been assembling teams of lady pilots while we thought she was missing for the past century." On a slightly unrelated note, it helped me understand some photography terms, such as "burning" and "dodging". This will help me be able to edit photos in the future and make me sound like I know what I'm doing.

Practice makes perfect!

Gemma Correll

Gemma Correll is an illustrator, writer, and cartoonist. She went to art school in Norwich (England) and got a BA in graphic design, specializing in illustration. So far, she has designed greeting cards for Pickle Parade and illustrates a monthly cartoon for Open Skies magazine which is owned by Emirates Airlines. Correll's other past clients are Hallmark, The New York times, Oxford University Press, Knock Knock, Chronicle Books, and The Observer. In 2012, her book "A Cat's Life" was published. The following year her books "A Dog's Life", "A Pug's Guide to Etiquette", and "A Pug's Guide to Dating" were also published. Correll has also designed a few typefaces and some of her illustrations can be found on graphic t-shirts sold at stores like Urban Outfitters.

I've only seen some of her work on tumblr. I always thought her posts were humorous but didn't know the extent of her career until I did some research. I really love her work because it's very fun, cute, whimsical, and minimalistic which compliments her sense of humor. Her personality shines through her work. I think that's an important quality to have in graphic design. It's easy to get lost in the work you have to do for a client, so to be able to maintain your personality makes your work stand out and allows you to be true to yourself.

Go check out her portfolio, www.gemmacorrell.com! Brighten up your dashboard and follow her on Tumblr too.

Cosmetic Product Designs

Is anyone even surprised I'm making a post about make up? Probably not. As a consumer, packaging really does mean a lot to me. Cosmetics are intended to bring out your natural beauty. So of course I want my products to look as pretty as my face is going to be. I use these products everyday so I want something cute sitting in my make up bag or purse since I have to look at it all the time (and spend a pretty penny on). These are some of the products I love and use and some that I wish I could find and afford.


Kitty lipstick. I was obsessed the second I saw it on tumblr. I'm not sure if this is still sold at Urban Outfitters. Not only are the tubes decorated in quirky dainty wallpaper like designs, but the lipstick itself is shaped as a kitty face! The only downfall to this design is that the kitty face is obviously not going to last forever. If I ever bought this it'd probably end up being one of those purchases that just sit there because I don't want to ruin how pretty it looks. I'd feel a little guilty smooshing the kitty face onto my lips everyday until it becomes a regular looking lipstick.

Not only does this brand of perfume smell incredible, it looks adorable. This is an Anthropologie product favorite. I bought this bottle for my mother because she's a perfume fanatic. It's definitely the most unique looking bottle in her collection. The top is a pin cushion that comes with a few pins, more pins are sold separately. I believe the mini-solid version also comes as a push pin. I love this design because it's very vintage and even a little function-able. Don't tell my mom but I totally still borrow this fragrance every now and then.

Fairydrops is one of my favorite mascaras I've ever used (which reminds me I totally need to re-stock). The design is just as whimsical and unique as the product. It's shiny, who can resist shiny things? The cartoon-ish designs kind of poke fun at the ridiculous result you get from this mascara if you over do it.


Topshop takes a more minimal approach to their packaging designs. Everything is packaged in white and the typeface and graphic design they use look like everything was drawn on with make up. I think it's cute and doesn't distract consumers from the product themselves.

Creative Ad Awards

This site, www.creativeadawards.com, is an archive full of you guessed it - creative ads. Here are a couple that stood out to me.


From my guess, I'd have to say this ad deals with depression and how to get help. It's interesting because the copy is the smallest part of the ad when usually copy is just as large or emphasized as the visual part. What I like about the image is that it takes on a dark concept of depression, which is that most people who suffer from it have to go through life with a happy disguise on. I think this is very effective.


This is one of my favorite fashion ad campaigns of all time. I remember seeing this ad in an issue of NYLON a few years ago and thought it was brilliant. The typeface is bright, bold, and in your face paired with equally interesting, bright, and bold images. I think these ads really reach their target audience, which are young people, to remind them to live life to the fullest and be carefree. It's difficult to simply flip past an ad like this.


Overall I find this ad humorous, clever, and visually pleasing. They're obviously reaching out to photographers or photo lovers in this case by creating surreal images of fingers and DSLRs as romantic couples. Technically, replacing real people's heads with these objects is doable but these almost look too real. I love photography too but I don't know how I'd feel about people walking around with DSLRs and fingers for heads, getting married and making little DSLR/finger headed babies. There is little copy in this ad but I still think it's effective and gets its point across.