Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Rainbow


(http://www.paxrodentia.com/images/id/evanston_ethnic_arts_festival_poster_rainbow.jpg)

This poster shows an art festival advertisement! I can tell they use many different colours to symbolize the excitement and fun everyone will have at the festival. The dominance of this design would be the huge colourful typography "Ethnic" at the top. This is to catch everyone's attention as ethnic consists of many different cultures, religion and so on. The balance is symmetrical as the weight is equally distributed on both sides. I can also see the proportion of the size of the elements. The word "ethnic" is bigger than the rest of the words. The typography also shows proximity. All the typography are close together as they are telling information about the art festival. It makes it neater and easier to understand. The use of white space makes the whole design stand out better as the fun rainbow colours are the main point of this design. 

From what I can see, the designer used both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. He used the pen tool to create the funky rainbow "pathway". The tree is definitely an image he used and dragged it on to the poster. The type tool is what created the typography. He also a mixture of pen tool and type tool to create the "ethnic" typography which is pretty awesome. I hope my own design will look as great and colourful like his! :)

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Lesson 2: Adobe Illustrator

In the second lesson, I learnt the basics of Adobe Illustrator. Here's a few examples that I found on the internet.

            

(http://creativeroots.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Margate-illustration-Poster.jpg)
(http://illusion.scene360.com/wp-content/themes/sahara-10/submissions/ibm_poster_04.jpg)

(http://payload8.cargocollective.com/1/5/179741/2474922/Poster_Design-History-Saul-Bass_DonnaGee_00.jpg)

Firstly, I understood what's the difference between raster and vector. Raster uses pixels and vector is a geometry which uses points. The picture below is an example.


(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs24/i/2008/031/7/0/Bashka_the_Vectorized_by_Leuthile.jpg)

Then, I learnt that opening a new file is one of the most important action in the designing process. This is because many can get the size of the poster wrong and that is really bad. I will take note to carefully choose my options before clicking "OK". Afterwards, we moved on to the different tools for drawing, creation, typing, selection and many more. The difficult part of the lesson was using the pen tool. It can get tricky but I learnt that all a person need is practice. I will keep practicing using the pen tool! After using other tools such as selection, direct, shape and text, we moved on to the layering in Illustrator. Layering is very important as it makes everything neat and I can find everything easier. I also learnt how to drag an image on the file!
At the end of the lesson, I learned how to create PDF and export files to jpg. It was an easy process. I also learnt the difference of quality and size of PDF, tif, and jpg.

Here's what I created for the lesson! I mainly used the shape, text and pen tool! I also dragged a picture of balloons to the poster and changed the effect to "Multiply". It was such an exciting lesson! :)

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

First lesson of Graphic Design

On my first tutorial of graphic design, I have learnt the various meanings and different principles of graphic design. Firstly, I learnt that one of the definitions of graphic design is the process and art of combining text and graphic. This allows to communicate an effective message in the design of logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs and any other type of visual communication.



                                     

(http://bashooka.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cool-poster-designs-34.jpg)
(http://webneel.com/sites/default/files/images/manual/global/global-warming-awarness-poster-design%20(29).jpg)

(http://www.estetica-design-forum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10633&d=1356101344)

I understand that graphic design doesn't only look pleasant to the eye but must also have a purpose. For example, if the menu looks fantastic but no one can find the price of the meal easily, then it's considered a useless and unreliable menu. Therefore, I need to make sure I take note of this.

Afterwards, I found out there were basic principles of graphic design. If I remember correctly, there were balance, proximity, alignment, contrast, white space, rhythm, proportion and dominance. These are the basic principles that professional graphic designers look out for.




(http://webneel.com/sites/default/files/images/manual/global/global-warming-awarness-poster-design%20(16).jpg)

Above is a poster about global warming that I've found on the internet. The balance is definitely asymmetrical as the weight is not evenly distributed. The bird is indisputably the dominance of this poster. The big emphasis of it shows it's the most important part and will absolutely catch anyone's eye first when looking at the design. The small elements of the typography shows proportion. There's not much contrast in this except the huge blue bird versus the white background. It definitely pops out and makes it more obvious to someone's eye. From there, the white background also means white space. The design needs nothing else but just the bird and the water. It is less confusing and overwhelming as the message of this design is already loud enough. Overall, the design is definitely powerful as it shows so much emphasis on the drowning bird in the water. It definitely carries the meaningful message of "Help stop global warming" at just one glance.

At the end of the tutorial, I have learnt many meanings and principles of graphic design. I will be sure to use all of my knowledge and create a unique graphic design!