Final Portfolio

 

    The project was to create a portfolio of all the major assignments and projects over the course of FMX-210. The portfolio was to be created in the Adobe Indesign program. The idea was to bring together our work, but it was to also represent ourselves in the process. The option to use a template or layout was available; however, due to my experience I made the portfolio without one. The element within my design were selected purposely.
    For starters, my color pallet for the layout was black and white. The majority of my work, outside of the class, has black and white or simplistic backgrounds. A major part of my work included my OCD. I typically need to make my work look clean, even if the design is more abstract. For that reason, I gravitate towards simplicity. The font of choice was "Impact." I absolutely love this font. Out of all fonts on the adobe cloud and program, I always go for this font. I wanted to use "Impact" because it seems to be me as a font. As for the major repeating parts, I choose to overlay the typography to create depth, use my clean OCD style, and make headers stand out. With out these overlaying texts, I felt as though the basic paragraphs would blend into the headers.
    Overall, I am really pleased with the class. Every time I make a portfolio at the end of the course; I discover how much I have learned throughout the course. As for me, I learned so much in Photoshop. As someone who is a Design double major, I work often with the Adobe programs; however, I still avoided Photoshop at all costs. I can confidently say that is what I will take away from this class. I'm currently a Photography and Social Media Intern for Hadenreid in Tampa / St.Petersburg. There have been moments that I wanted to remove a spot or add elements to my pictures; however, I usually just use Lightroom and call it a quits. The class gave me knowledge and experience to further my outside of the class work. I think that is probably my favorite part of taking any course; I feel like I've grown as an artist.
    As for the portfolio, I am extremely satisfied to see it all come together. I think it shows off my growth in the class. It shows off my skills in Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and the other programs. It made me realize that I have a lot to still learn and grow, as a designer. The portfolio represents myself, as well. Overall, I loved that the course ended in a Portfolio. For not just myself, it is a reminder to all the students how far we've come. I would say that this project was maybe my favorite, because it reminds us of all the work we've done put together.

BUSINESS CARD

 

BUSINESS CARDS

        The assignment was to use our logos to create business cards. The cards are to be for ourselves, not a business or company. My idea was to use the colors of my logos to make different styled business cards; however, I had a key concept in mind. I wanted to use the backgrounds of the logos ( the fill ) to be part of the design.
        I was successful in creating the business cards. I worked with my concept to create three different business card variations. I tried different placements, colors, and strokes/fills. I based each business card by the color them found on the logo. The must successful business card is the bright pink and black logo.
        After the critique, I decided to go back and make the revisions on the designs the professor said could use word. The main concern was the legibility and overuse of color for two of the cards. Based on the feedback, I went back and simplified some of the designs. I changed some of the colors to black and white, but I still kept the original logo color. I felt satisfied with all of my designs, after the editing. 
        I am a very independent kind of artist/designer. Which means at times, I have struggled with having any other vision but my own. The critique reminded me of the importance of feedback. To be honest, I hadn't been all to satisfied with my original work. It something that I took away from the project. As well, I came to another realization. For being fair skilled at the Adobe Software, I can be rusty and still have a lot to learn. I'm grateful for this project to have reminded me of this. 
        I believe this one works the best that it includes the negative and positive space of the logo. It is easily legible and stands out well. The card reads easily to see the purpose of the card and the easily can see the logo. I think the front and back of the card connect well to one another as well. Overall, I believe this assignment came out well!

AUTOSCOPY

 

AUTOSCOPY

                 Autoscopy is the combination of our experience in Photoshop coming together. The project allowed us to really play off of our creativity. The guidelines of the assignment was to use a picture of yourself and at least outside photos edited into one art piece. The design was inspired by manifestation and the universe. The concept felt very close to home; however, I did notice a previous student did something similar.

                 I choose to make mine sorted around manifesting into your higher-self. The understanding that the more knowledge you have and practice mind control/manifesting the closer you are to your higher-self. I employed elements that would contribute to the aesthetic I was looking to achieve. The elements included is fire, the universe, the pyramids, mathematics, bubbles, and magic glitter.

                 The combination together creates a euphoric aesthetic. I used color changes, luminosity, clipping masks, opacity, and sizing to create the perfect look. In the background, I included my tag logo. I wanted to include things like numbers, cards, and repeating numbers to represent manifestation. The duplicated picture of myself with light changes is representing my higher-self. All together, this look really comes together. 

                  Overall, I am so pleased with how this project turned out. It really showed me how much I learned in Photoshop of the time period we've been working with it. The manifesting higher-self concept is represented well in my design. I'm proud of how this came together. It's important that this connects to something I value in my own personal life. 

BW to Color

 

BW TO COLOR

                     The project was to add color back into a black and white photo. The twist to this assignment was to utilize the adobe color wheel in different manners to create a unique look. The picture had to be an original of yourself and converted into black and white. The assignment utilized the tools we've learned throughout the class.

                      The color options I chose was complimentary, triad, and analogous. I choose one of my favorite colors for each; the adobe color wheel makes this process very easy. We screen-shotted the colors that would be used to add color back into the photo. First, we had to add some space into the canvas to do that. I added around two inches to place the screenshot. 

                      I used the magic tool, selection tool, quick select tool, etc. I reduced the size of the pen to get nearly perfect selections. After, I started to fill those sections in with color by mask. That made it really easy to see what was being selected. To make it look more realistic, I reduced the opacity of the selections to make it see-through. This made it really looked filled in but also realistic. Per palette, I just reused the same selections but changed the color. It made it very easy to do so by the picker tool. I simply just used the picker tool to change the colors already in the sections. 

                      Overall, I loved how this put all my recent knowledge to work. It really came together and looked cohesive. Out of all of the images, I would say the analogous one was my favorite. I think they all came out great. My second favorite would be the complementary image. As for the project as a whole, I actually really enjoyed how this all turned out. Prior to this , I thought photoshop was really complicated and confusing. I've had a lot of experience in the adobe suite, but I never caught a grip for photoshop. I think this project taught me a lot. 

Tag Brush

 

Tag Brush

                The assignment started by creating a brush and then using that brush to create a design. The brush was given to us by the professor. However, we had to make the brush ourselves from the images. It allowed us to make our own devotions of the brush. We were able to blend the images together in a unique way.

                The first step was to place the sketch. Then, we made masks and selections from the following images. We embedded the images in order to make the edit. Eventually, the brush image came together. We then had to make the image into a brush. After following the steps provided, the brush was now able to be used in other documents.

                We used the brush to create a unique design. I wanted to make my design look glitchy. The idea to make my design have this look came from the spray paint look. I thought the best way to make this come to life was by use of color. I used different color schemes on top of each other with slight position changes. I attempted to use opacity to make this monochromatic; however, I didn't like the way it was turning out. It was then I decided that the multi-color look would be best.

                Overall, I thought this was such a great tool. It sparked the idea that making my logo into a brush would be useful for my artwork. It would make stamping my images so much easier. I love when I learn new tools and easier ways to use the Adobe Suite. I would say that Photoshop, in comparison to the other programs, is my least utilized program. I didn't prior have the same experience and knowledge that I have had in the other programs. I found this assignment to be harder then other ones. One thing I did take away was how easy it is to work with the images when using masks. I actually really enjoyed this assignment. Furthermore, I am satisfied with how it all came together in the end. 

Propoganda Poster // Self Portrait

        The project was a "Propaganda Poster" using our "Self Portrait." The objective was to pick a topic, examples include anything political, humanitarian, etc., that would be the basis of the poster's meaning. I choose to make a politically based poster. It was mainly inspired by the Obama campaign posters. I choose to not make the poster support a single political party, but I wanted it to be more of a reminder to have young people like ourselves just go vote. I thought this message made sense to have more self portrait included in the poster, separately from the guidelines of the project.
        The first task was to create a a self portrait on Adobe Illustrator. I choose to make mine by using highlight/color changes to create shapes that would come together to make my photo come to life. We used a selfie to be our base of the self portrait. The tools mainly used was the pen tool and the paint brush tool. I did use other tools like pathfinder or the eraser, but you can visibly see the other tools at work more. I chose to pick colors that would like realistic to the shade range found within my original selfie. Black was the darkest color used; white was the lightest highlight color. The picture came together to make a more realistic replication of the selfie. From there, I choose to make the background a light green shade. The reasoning for making the background green was due to my eye color. Any shades of green typically on my body makes my eyes pop out. I choose to use this idea to create the background. I added blocks of colors ranging in greens to connect the style of the selfie to the background. All together, I found the selfie to be a strong representation of the selfie/myself and the colors made the perspective more realistic. 
        From the self portrait, we used our original work an converted them into propaganda posters. I choose to only use shades of red and blue to focus on the political meaning of my poster. I choose to use blue to focus on the darker parts of my selfie like my shirt and face. The hair converted into shades of red, due to the colors being lighter. I choose to make any of the darker spots in the blue section to be the darkest shade of blue; the highlights of the area are either the lightest shade of blue or white. I used the same idea to create the hair. I found it important to properly choose the color changes to make sure the self portrait stayed realistic, even though the colors are not. 
        As for the background, I choose to keep message simple. The word "VOTE" has a commonly understood message. Especially after the most recent election, I found that the topic was strategic and important to today's society. To keep the poster neutral, not affiliated to a political party, I choose the background colors to be the brightest red used and the darkest blue used. The word "VOTE" needed to stand out in the back; I choose to put it on-top of a color that would make the word pop. The font chose to use "Impact" was strategic to make the word really stand out. I did not want the message to get lost in the background. 
        All together, I was extremely proud of how the poster turned out. It conveyed the message while still clearly representing my self portrait in a realistic manner. The convincing message to go out and vote became clear in the color and font choice. It represent my own views that people showed be pushed to vote not bullied into voting for any specific party. I thought the use of myself as a young voter used my message even further. The inspiration for the poster from the selfie to the Obama champaign posters carried through. It was a successful use of the portrait and theme to relay my message to go vote. 

The Self Portrait

Personal Logo

LOGO

        The assignment was to create a personal logo that represents yourself or a passion. I have done an assignment very similar to this in my past, so I wanted to do something different. Furthermore, I wanted to actually recreate a logo that could be used on my artwork. For those reasons, I thought to create a logo out of my signature. It could be used to place on my artwork or represent myself.

        In order to bring my logo to life, I had to first draw out my signature. Obviously this is my signature, but I wanted to make sure that it was a perfect representation. I drew it out a few times and then picked the best one. Following, I took a picture of the signature and embedded the image into Adobe Illustrator. The next step was to decide the best way to go about making sure the lines were all perfect. I decided the pen tool would be the best way to make the line precise. The simplicity of the logo wasn't actual so simple to make. It took many attempts, rearranging points, line weight, etc. I went back and forth on the ends of the lines. Finally, I created the logo in black and white.

        The logo was presented in our first critique. I got good reviews; however, there was a concern on the line weight. It seemed to be to thin if reduced in size. It was decided that the line thickness needed to go up. After playing around with the line weight, I decided that the thickness needed to be around 13. I then reduced the logo in size. I loved the way it looked and then moved onto color.

        I came up with many color options. I wanted to see what it would look like with a mixture of colors with black, color schemes, monochromatic, etc. After playing with the line colors, I decided that it might be interesting to see the fill colors. From there, I played around with those same ideas but including fill. It turned out really great. I went as far as to remove the line to see what that would look like. 

        In the critique, I got a mixed review. Everyone enjoyed the logo in color, but everyone had a different favorite. My professor actually saw the potential of the logo in different formats and how that could be applied in the future; meaning, it could be used in different ways. The logo with no lines but fill could be used for background work. The one that is monochromatic could be used to represent something by color. The multi-color one could be used for other situations. However, it was agreed that the black line with a bright fill color stood out the most. 

        From that critique, I gained a great insight to how to use my logo. I wouldn't ever change the line weight or the placement of the fill, but I did see how much could be used with the logo. The simplicity of line work turned into a full piece of art. I love that the logo is so unique to myself. Furthermore, I enjoy that no one will replicate my logo (it is literally my name). Overall, I would say that the logo was extremely successful. I will definitely use my logo in the future.