Talent is the starting point.

Podcast: Rookie Designer

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:19:00 -0400

In my search to be more knowledgeable in the graphic design field I was looking up different podcast to help surround myself with more knowledgeable people that I could listen to as they share their finds and facts. Through my search I found a well known podcast called Rookie Designer. I love it and make sure to listen to it every day! I am way behind (on podcast 92) and am trying to get caught up (to podcast 137).

Adam Hay shares a lot of helpful and interesting tips ranging anywhere from client relations to the physical layout and design tips. Although his podcast are quiet lengthy he is not one of those people that has a really boring voice that puts you to sleep and I listen to them when walking to class and doing laundry and homework and other college like things.

I would recommend it to just about anyone, mostly designers but designer or not it has some good and interesting information. I plan on contacting Rookie Designer sometime when I get caught up and giving my own feedback but this is just me letting you know that you should check it out.

"Well, maybe designs a bit like rock and roll, and you shouldn’t go to school to learn to play..."

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:06:00 -0400

““Well, maybe designs a bit like rock and roll, and you shouldn’t go to school to learn to play rock and roll.””

- Luke Wood and Jonty Valentine Typeraido interview.

"Advertising is the price companies pay for being unoriginal."

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:09:00 -0400

“Advertising is the price companies pay for being unoriginal.”

- Yves Behar

We were assigned to design and create personal business cards...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:38:00 -0400

We were assigned to design and create personal business cards for my computers class with the warning that we would be using our design to help us with a similar resume in the near future. We were also encouraged to use our personal logo (from older assignment) on our card.

My first attempt at a self portrait for my drawing class....

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:24:00 -0500

My first attempt at a self portrait for my drawing class. Learned a lot about the human face and shading and all that good drawing stuff. I don’t think its a good portrait of me but a decent first portrait of some random person.

And another game..

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:10:24 -0500

I found this game “So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?” My score is almost perfect except for that stupid MATTEL logo that gets me every time. So try your best and see if you can guess which is Arial and which is Helvetica.

For my computers class we had to take at least five pictures and...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:50:00 -0500

For my computers class we had to take at least five pictures and with Photoshop combine them into a surrealist collage. Including the text there are ten images to make up this picture.

Just some of my pumpkin drawings (and other things) I did for my...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:32:00 -0500

Chiaroscuro

Graphic Translataion

Tenebrism

Just some of my pumpkin drawings (and other things) I did for my new drawing class. We had to show three different styles of shading. We had to show tenebrism (image 3), chiaroscuro (image 1), and a graphic translation (image 2).

"I’m gonna get a tattoo that says ‘Helvetica’, written in Arial. When a woman..."

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:20:36 -0500

“I’m gonna get a tattoo that says ‘Helvetica’, written in Arial. When a woman corrects me on it, I will marry her.”

This was a project for my Computers class. We had to pick a...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0500

This was a project for my Computers class. We had to pick a “Hand tool” and show instructions on how to use it without any words. This project was more about using images to convey a message and less about technique so a lot of the images were created with the help of the tool Live Trace.

This project focuses on outsourcing in order to make a design an...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:04:05 -0500

This project focuses on outsourcing in order to make a design an actual product. We were instructed to take our color theory assignments, and with help from the Copy Center, Internet, or any other place, make them into a marketable product. We had to deal with things like printing, shipping, packaging, and even coming up with a product.

I knew from the start that instead of using my designed color exploration projects, I wanted to use our simple color theory squares. I thought that something simple like that would be way easier to mass produce and still give variety to my product. I then decided that I wanted these color theory squares to help teach and entertain people with the little mind tricks that they do. Especially around the holidays cards are extremely useful. I did not want this project to be a dust collector, so I wanted to make sure that it could be used. Making cards was one of the most productive ideas that I thought of. They were simple, cheap to make, looked amazing when printed, and was an easy alternative to buying my family Christmas gifts.

I got extremely lucky with this project. I had very little to no problems. Printing went very smoothly and fast, packaging was easy on account that I had done similar things before, and the wonderful design was right at my fingertips. The only real issue that I had was wanting more time to improve the design. If I had started sooner I could have improved a lot more. I plan on doing this anyway because of how much I love how they turned out.

Roy Lichtenstein

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:04:05 -0500

We had to look up a famous artist for my class and I chose Roy Lichtenstein. I really did like his work before I knew that his work was due to being “Inspired” by other artists (taking their work and making slight differences to it). I understand that this was the style at the time but I guess I just have a personal problem with it. Each to his own…

Roy Lichtenstein was a huge pop artist during the 60’s in the US. Pop art, as described by him is “not ‘American’ painting but actually industrial painting”. Lichtenstein was born in Manhattan on October 27th, 1923 and attended school at Manhattan’s Franklin School for Boys where art was not in the curriculum. His introduction to art was more of a hobby for him, drawing sketches and portraits of musicians and performers. This passion pushed him to enroll in summer classes at Art Students League of New York and then to Ohio State University where he strived for a degree in fine arts. After a three year break for the army between 1943 and 1946 he then returned to Ohio for school to receive his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1949. He taught at Ohio state until 1951 then moved to work in Cleveland. After that he moved to Oswego State College in New York, then to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Not long after that he gave up teaching to paint full-time.

Lichtenstein was influenced by both Cubism and Expressionism but it wasnt until 1961 that he started his first pop style paintings featuring cartoon techniques from commercial printing with the occasional use of advertising. With the pressure from one of his sons saying “I bet you can’t paint as good as that, eh, Dad?” while pointing to a Mickey Mouse comic book, he created his first Ben-Day dot style work called Look Mickey. In that same year he produced six other works with recognizable characters. This caused many to challenge his originally in his work. “The closer my work is to the original, the more threatening and critical the content. However, my work is entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different. I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument” Said Lichtenstein in reference to his own work.

I look at design… I steal good design… These are all...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:11:02 -0500

Front

Back

I look at design… I steal good design… These are all images I have found (around my dorm room, school, and various other places) that I feel display good design. These things caught my eye and inspired me instantly. These are my two favorite things I have seen around my school.

This was my final project for my design 1 class. We were...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:44:31 -0500

Original Picture

Thickness

Final Image

This was my final project for my design 1 class. We were assigned to make a 3D cut paper project. I decided to go off of a picture that I took that was a mask (the face) and a chalk drawing (the hair). This was a really bad demonstration of my craft.

More Games!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:22:00 -0500

Got my hands on some other good games:

Deep Font Challenge: 52800 was my score. Not so great, but for knowing little to nothing about typefaces I think it was pretty awesome.

and

Color: I can’t seem to get my score above 8.8.

Quite amazing. avoidence: Jack Daniel’s Does Letterpress (by...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:19:59 -0500

Quite amazing.

avoidence:

Jack Daniel’s Does Letterpress (by Aggrodesign) |

Pretty awesome, I love that they added Jack to the ink.

HELLA LEGIT

"When you see a good design, it knocks you off your feet."

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:06 -0500

“When you see a good design, it knocks you off your feet.”

- Joseph M. Hogan

(GE Healthcare Technologies CEO)

@issue vol.10 no.1

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:39:00 -0500

Thanks to Sappi and their Sappi Samples, I have gotten a ton of free, very helpful graphic design related things, including frequent issues of @issue: The Journal of Business & Design.

Just finished reading @issue vol.10 no.1 and I learned crazy amounts of things. I thought the Jones Soda issue would be the most interesting but to my surprise the interview with GE’s Healthcare Technologies CEO, Joseph M. Hogan, was the most informational and interesting to read.

He talked a lot about how within GE the engineers and the designers have to work together and it just doesn’t bump from one to the other. He also talked a great deal about how designers have an “Out of the box” state of mind that is often needed.

Hands down, my favorite questions that were asked of him were,

“Why is design still important when your medical products often represent major breakthroughs in technology?”

as well as,

“How is design relevant to your corporate goals?”

I did not only like these because of the wonderful questions but because of his answer as well.

He responded well to the first question with,

“Cutting-edge technology is not enough…Design is what sets us apart.”

And to the second saying,

“It improves or corporate image. It helps us communicate more effectively with our customers. It helps us sell and break into new markets. It helps us increase profits.”

I strongly recommend this to anyone, even non-designers.

Experimenting with Photoshop ”Liquify” I put a few...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:50:00 -0500

Experimenting with Photoshop ”Liquify” I put a few pounds on a friend of mine. I have played around with this tool before but I learned how to use the “Freeze Mask Tool” which can be painted on and used to block off chosen area and prevent it from being… well, “Liquefied”. This will prevent things like walls moving when belly fat is being reduced and various other things. :)

Picture One: Edited

Picture Two: Original

This charcoal drawing was my first real attempt at drawing the...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:00:06 -0500

This charcoal drawing was my first real attempt at drawing the human figure. I have learned from this that there is much more I need to improve on and I’m actually eager to work on it and try it again.