A Designer Dossier

Well another semester of school is over. I feel good about it and I'm ready to take a break over the summer and go back refreshed in the Fall. In the mean time I still have some designs to post.

I realized that through out the semester I've posted several of the project that we did in Typography but nothing from my InDesign class. So today I'm going to post one of my 3 InDesign projects. Over the summer I'll try to get them all up here but for now I'm going to start at the end. Our final InDesign project was to do a Dossier for one of our fellow students. We were assigned a client (the student we were working for) at random and we needed to get to know them and put there work and the qualifications into a document that represented them. So it would basically be a resume but it would very visual representation of their skills.

This was hard at first because there is a very conventional format for a resume but for this kind of dossier just about anything goes. It is all about representing the client and their work the way they want to be represented. So Linh Ly was my client and that worked out really well. We didn't really know each other when we started but she was very easy to work with, she was open to my ideas, and she had a wide variety of really good work for me to use. The first big thing Linh told me about herself is that people usually think she's shy and she wanted me to do something that would show her fun side. I drew up a lot of ideas for her with that in mind but the one I really liked was the idea of making it look as if her she had set her images out on a sheet of notebook paper and then written some notes.

I was thrilled that Linh seemed to really like this idea as well. As soon as I pitched it to her she decided it was what she wanted to go with. From there it was just a mater of bring together the right elements to create that illusion. I started by creating the 'notebook paper' in Adobe Illustrator. It worked out pretty well although as both Bryan and Tom (my instructor) pointed out the 'holes' are a bit large. I meant to go back and fix that I just ran out of time. I placed the Illustrator document on the InDesign master page so it would appear on both pages of the dossier. Then I placed Linh's images in the InDesign document. I had them overlap each other and run off the page as if they had just been set down on the page. Also I made her two favorite pieces quite large to emphasize them. Then I added the text to the gaps between the pictures trying to make it look as if notes had been written in where they would fit. Part of creating this illusion was wrapping the text around the 'holes' and never letting the text run over a picture, although it does sometimes run into the shadows that I added later.

I rearrange the pictures and text a couple of times to give Linh some choices about how she wanted thing laid out. After she picked one I added some finishing details. I created an arrow in Illustrator to point from her Myspace address to the picture of her Myspace page. I scanned a paper clip and adjusted it's image in Photoshop. Then I imported that and made it look as if it was clipping the picture of Linh to the paper. Then finally I added a small drop shadow to each of the pictures to make it appear as if the pictures were sitting on the lined paper and not printed on the lined paper.

My biggest struggle with the whole process was sticking with just what was called for to create the impression that both Lihn and I were looking for. It was tempting to use a lot of fancy InDesign functions just to show that I could. However doing that would have detracted from the design rather that adding to it. I was extremely pleased with how it turned out and Linh and Tom both seemed to be as well. If I can brag just a little (not some thing I usually do) I think this was a great concept and it really highlighted Linh and her work. In his review of the project Tom said "The design is just so unified. I think it is your best piece in terms of design." I agree and I hope I can keep doing work that I feel this good about.

Linh Ly has given me her permission to use her work on this site. It is her copyrighted work and can not be reproduced for any other purpose with out her permission. If you are interested in Linh's work you can visit her Myspace Page @ www.myspace.com/linhypoo

Creating a Book

Yesterday we turned in our final projects for Typography. It was a challenging project but it was also very interesting. We were given text for a book about Giambattista Bodoni (a famous typographer) and we needed to layout the text into a 6 page book. We had to add pictures (some of which were provided), chose our fonts and use all the typographic conversions that we had learned through out the semester to make an interesting layout. We also needed to keep in mind the audience. A book about Bodoni is most likely to be read by designers and designers are more likely to be open to non-standard page layouts. This allowed us to be a little more bold in our designs then we might be other wise.

When I read the text one of the biggest things I got out of it was that Bodoni was more interested in the beauty of his pages than the readability of his type. Well I definitely wanted my type to be readable but with his philosophy in mind I set out to create pages that were attractive but modern. I also wanted to make use of at least a few of the ornaments Bodoni created. I used one very large on the front cover and then repeated it through out the pages. I also used one to separate the images. What I'm showing you are the front cover, the first page (which would start on the right), and a spread of the second and third page. The pages that followed were set up the same as pages 2 & 3, including page 6 which ended alone on the left.

We had to present it in the form of a book and getting the construction down was tricky. Over all it was a great project though. We got to show off a lot of the things we had learned over the course of the semester. I was pretty happy with the way my design turned out. I thought from the very beginning that this class was going to be hard and it was. I learned a ton of stuff though and I'm really glad to have taken it. I'm sure it will help me improve my work a immensely.

The Art Show

Well we are up to the end of the semester so things are completely crazy around here. That's why it's been weeks since my last post. I want to stop and take a minute to finally let you know what happened with the big art show.

I submitted the 4 pieces that I mentioned in my last post (the two 5 words designs mounted together, the Ocean Picture , the Halloween Poster, and my final photoshop project). I was hoping that if I submitted a bunch at least one would get in. I didn't need to worry the only one that didn't get in was the Halloween Poster. I was absolutely thrilled!! My instructors had a stack of stuff that didn't get in and I got in 3 it was totally amazing!!

On April 17th Bryan and I went to the reception at the show. It was an fantastic feeling to see my work displayed on the wall. It is one thing to have it hanging up on my wall and show it off to friends and family but it is totally different to see it displayed for everyone to see. I know I do that here. I put my work on the blog and anyone can look at it and people all over the world have but that's different too. In the gallery I guess I just felt more connected to it. Plus there is the added knowledge that your work was judge against your peers and chosen as some of the best. It was just really encouraging that people who don't know me think my work is good.

The designs from the continuing students are only half of the show. The other half is the graduating students showing there portfolios. That was really great to see. There work was far superior to mine and that was great because it really inspired me to want to learn more. I still have a lot of classes to take and although what I've already learned is very exciting the portfolios of my fellow students showed that the best stuff is yet to come. So now I'm really looking forward to some of those upper level classes even if they are a semester or two away!!

Over all the whole show was very inspiring and I was glad to be a part of it.

My Design on a Postcard!

This is a post card for the Arapahoe Community College Graphic Design art exhibit. I didn't design the postcard. If you look down the right side you can see the designers copyright info. If you read my blog regularly and you look closely the top puzzle piece should look familiar though. It's my 5 words typography project. It turns out that when the postcard was being designed someone came down and took pictures in the Graphic Design Department. My 5 words project was - and still is- hanging on the wall. It seems that it was in one of the pictures and made it to the postcard.

I didn't know anything about this until I told my instructor that I was thinking about mounting the black and the white note side-by-side and entering them. He said that would be cool since the one was on the postcard. I had no idea what he was talking about so we went down to his office and he gave me one. As a designer I suppose I should be upset that some one used my work without my permission. I have to say though that I am so thrilled that it spoke to someone enough that they want to use it this way that I just can't get upset. I think it is totally amazing !!! Plus since it's being used to promote the school that's totally cool.

I am also going to enter some of my work in the show. I'm going to enter the two 5 words designs mounted together ( 5 words 3/8/08), the Ocean Picture ( Colorizing the Ocean 1/29/08), the Halloween Poster (In Honor of The King of Horror 1/22/08), and my final photoshop project (Contest Entry 1/8/08). Hopefully at least one will get in. I don't think I'll know for a while what made the cut and what didn't. The entry deadline is April 14th and the show starts April 17th. Even if none of my pieces make it in I am over the moon about the postcard. I'll keep you posted (LOL).

Giant Vic

The other day my Mom was telling me that she really likes this image, so I'm posting it for her. It's the first project I ever did in Photoshop. I was for my Introduction to Computer Graphics class, I hadn't even made it to Photoshop 1 yet. Still it's a fun image and I was able to accomplish what I set out to do, which was to

make Victor look like a giant. However if you compare this to the some of the other Photoshop projects I've posted you can see that this was only the beginning.

As always I owe part of the success of this project to my husband and my son. They are both very supportive. Victor is always willing to be my subject. In this project I

used a picture of him that I already had but for others he has posed in very weird positions. When I know I'm going to use it for a project I take my own photos but Bryan is largely responsible for the huge number of older photos that I have to choose from. He also works very hard to make sure I have plenty of time to fuss over every project so It will turn out as good as I can make it.

My Mac

Today I posted a comment on my husband Bryan's blog http://bryus.vox.com and as he pointed out I didn't have an Avatar. Instead of a picture my comments just had the silhouette of a person with a ? in it's head. That's pretty lame. I've been wanting to get some thing else up there but I didn't know what. I knew I didn't want a photo of myself but that's as far as I had gotten. So today I revisited some of my older work and I found this simple picture of my Mac.

Creating the Mac picture was the second assignment I did when I started learning Adobe Illustrator. I actually still think it's pretty good. I also thought the mac would make a great Avatar for me it represents part of who I am, what I enjoy, and the new career I'm building. The picture did need a little tweaking because the width to height proportion was off and since the Mac is white I figured it would show up better on a black background particularly since it was going to be very small. So I used this slightly altered version as my new Avatar.

I'm pretty happy with it. I think it along with my comments will give people a sense of who I am. I'm also pleased to put up an image that I created myself since that is also part of who I am. I the future when I start thinking about doing freelance work I'll create a logo for myself and I'll use that to represent myself everywhere. For now though I think my little Mac will do just fine.

Losing Control

Well recently my relationship with JuJu Stx came to an end. Now that my internship has been over for awhile it seems the owner and I just couldn't agree on how to proceed with our business relationship. We seem to have parted on good terms though, with both of us agreeing that this just wasn't the right time for us to continue. I'm proud of the work I did for JuJu Stx. I think I developed a web site for that better represented there products and there brand identity. I'm glad I had the experience.

Tonight I visited the JuJu Stx site for the first time in several weeks. Quite frankly I wanted to see what changes had been made. I was particularly interested since I have the site listed on this blog as one I designed. I really wish I hadn't looked. I found that my design hadn't been changed (that might be easier on me) but that the work we did isn't being maintained.

One of the huge changes I made to the JuJu Stx site was to give it a cohesive color palette based on there product packaging. Already more colors are being added that just don't work. I know more and more changes will come with time. I also know it isn't really my concern anymore whether those changes are for the better or not. I just can't help cringing when I see it. My point is this, as a new designer it is so hard to let go. It is hard to let some one else take your creation and do whatever they want with it. After working so hard on something and painstakingly working out every detail it is hard to know that you no longer have any control, or even influence, over it.

I guess this is yet another thing we have to learn to deal with as designers. At some point our designs will be altered by others or we will be asked to alter them in ways we don't particularly agree with. I guess it pays to learn no to get so attached your work. However that's much easier said than done. I haven't found a way to detach yet. I hope in the future I'll be able to have passion for my work and still be able to let it go. I'll let you know.

5 words

This is our latest Typography assignment. We had to take 5 words (of our choice) and choose fonts and a layout that conveyed the meaning of those words. I had an idea for this one right away. Music was the first thing that popped into my head. I brainstormed some other ideas but the music theme seemed to work the best. I pick 5 types of music (jazz, rock, metal, country, and classical) to be my words because they all had very different emotions connected to them. It was easy to use fonts to make Metal seem intense, Jazz seem smooth and County feel down home. Then I laid them out like a note to show they where very different but they were all still music.

The black text on the white back ground was my first version of the project. I has pretty happy with it but got to playing around and came up with the white text on the black background. I really liked that one. It was more dramatic and it appealed to me. Bryan liked that one too but I was hesitant about doing it because I didn't think I could reproduce it by hand. So I did a couple drawings of the black on white version and I had some that would be totally acceptable to turn in. Then I figured I might as well try to do the white on black one. I'm happy to say it turned out really well and it's the one I mounted for grading.

During our class I showed both versions of my design. Then Tom (our instructor) took a pole of which one the class liked better. One student and Tom liked the black on white version best and the rest of us preferred the white on black version. It was really interesting to hear people's preferences. I'd love to hear what you think.

Emotional Type

Well the new semester is in full swing and I just got back the first project that I had in my typography class. We had to write our name using our font choice and the layout of the text to express ideas. The rules were :

• we had to use an existing font
• we couldn't alter the fonts structure (warp it, twist it, etc.)
• we couldn't add any graphics
• we had to use the rectangle size provided
  
• we could only use black & white
  
• what we turned in had to be hand drawn.

What I'm showing you are the designs I created using Adobe Illustrator. After this step I traced all of these onto drawing paper with black pen. It was a very challenging but I think I did pretty well. This class is going to be tricky though. It is my toughest one yet. Doing the drawing by hand is one of my weaknesses. That's one of the reasons I have loved learning to create things on the computer. I Keep plugging away at it though and my skills are improving, which is really the point of taking a class.

Our next project takes this idea a step further using 5 words that we chose. I'm still working on that one but I'll post it when I'm done.

Contest Results

Well unfortunately I didn't win the photoshop contest. I'm glad I entered though and I'm sure I'll try again. I thought It would bother me if I didn't win but actually it just made me want to learn more. The winners were really amazing and I would love to be able to create things like that. If you want to see the winners check out http://www.photoshopuserawards.com/winners.php

Colorizing the Ocean

Well things are finally picking up steam for our new semester. I just started 2 projects ( one in each class) so I hope to have some new stuff to post soon. For now though I thought I would post another one of the projects I did last semester.

I'm particularly fond of this image because my husband, Bryan, and I contributed to it. In 1990 on a family vacation to California Bryan took this gorgeous picture of the California coast. Then last semester I needed a picture to for a Photoshop project. The project was colorization and I wanted to use my colorization to make a bold impression on the viewer. When I found this photo I knew it was the one I needed to use.

I took Bryan's original color print, scanned it into the computer and adjusted it to the size and resolution required for the project. Then I used Channel Mixer to convert the color image to gray scale. From there I colorized the ocean with various shades of blue and green that mimic the original photograph. I chose to leave everything that was blue (or green) water Black and white, including the white heads on the waves. I felt this gave the image the drama I was looking for. We were also asked to find a piece of poetry or a quote of some kind that showed the statement that we were making with the image. I wanted to show that sense of drama so this is what I chose:

"The shattered water made a misty din
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore,
That water never did to land before."
-ONCE BY THE PACIFIC Robert Frost

Thanks Bryan for the amazing photograph to work with and for all of you support!!

In Honor of The King of Horror

Today a new book is coming out by my favorite author. Those of you who know me also know that A) that author is Stephen King and B) that I will likely have the book in my hand by days end. In honor of the new novel, Duma Key, I thought I would show a piece of King inspired art which I created. I designed this poster in my Adobe Illustrator class last semester.

The assignment was to use Adobe Illustrator to create a poster of a fictional Halloween event (a haunted house or haunted graveyard). The event had to have a cooperate sponsor whose name and logo appeared on the poster . Also the poster had to include the important event information, date, place, cost, etc. From there it was up to us to come up with something that was believable, eye catching , and would make people want to come to our event.

Being a King fan my brain went straight to him and his work. After all any King fan knows a Pet Cemetery is much more frightening then your standard haunted graveyard. Mostly it gave me an opportunity to tip my hat to a man whose work I have enjoyed so much over the last 20 years.

For a number of reasons I did take a little liberty with the title, spelling cemetery as it appears in the dictionary instead of semetery as it appears in the title of Mr. Kings book. This was noticed first by one of my best friends. The poster was out in my living room because I wanted to show it to some friends who where coming over. Before I got a chance to do that I heard one of my friends asking my husband if he thought the person who created the poster had spelled cemetery with a "c" to avoid being sued. He didn't realize I had created it until I told him that I spelled cemetery with a "c" so my instructor wouldn't think I spelled it wrong. I was very pleased when he told me he thought it had been done by a professional. There is no better compliment that having some one think my class projects is the real thing.

Okay so here is the part where I do cover myself to avoid being sued, so pay attention. This poster was intended as a school project only, the event described on the poster is fiction. The poster was not endorsed by Mr. King or Scribner publishing.

First Day Of School - Spring Semester '08

Well today is the first day of the new semester. I decided this time I would only take two classes to make things a little easier on myself and my family. The 2 classes I picked seem like they're going to be good ones though. My first class is Typography & Layout and my second class is Adobe InDesign so there kind of on the same theme. Text and Layout are the big things that my work is missing. I have hardly any idea how to pick the right font or where to put it. So far I have done fairly well going on instinct and picking what looks good to me. Up to this point that's been okay but it isn't going to cut it for higher level classes or for a job. So I'm glad to spend this semester getting a getter idea of how to make those choices.

I think this is the last big gaping whole in my graphic design skills. Don't get me wrong I certainly won't be an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I think I will have tried a little of everything. That's good because then I can give some serious thought to what I really want to do with all of it. It seems weird that less than 2 years ago I wanted to work toward a career but I had no idea what I was even interested in anymore. Now I've found something I love and there are so many possibilities that I'm not sure how to narrow it down. Boy, when things change around here they change big time.

I'll keep you posted (no pun intended) on how the classes are going and I'll post some of my projects so you can see what I'm up to. Hopefully this semester will be a lot calmer than the last one.

Your Comments

I didn't realize when I originally set up the blog that I had it only allowing comments from people with G-mail accounts. When I realized that I wanted to change it so that anyone could leave a comment because I would really love the feed back, however there are problems with opening comments up to users how are able to remain anonymous. So here's what I've decided to do, I am going to make comments open to everyone as long as it isn't abused. By that I mean stick to the topic and don't don't post links to to sites that aren't of a PG nature. If it stays like that I'll keep it open if not I'll close it back up again and that would be ashame because I'd love to hear what you think.

Grampy Doughty's Train Room

So far a lot of the things I have worked on for other people are web sites. Actually when I started working on my graphic design degree I was sure I wanted to be a web designer. Now I am interested in so many of the things I'm learning at school all I really know is that I want to be a designer. I did start with web pages though and I continue to work on them for people.

After reading that I said I wasn't doing much work right now, my Dad thought it might be a good time to get me to add text to his Home page (a very smart idea). We started the site awhile ago but all we had gotten was a very basic shell of a site. We had two pictures posted, a header, and colors we wanted to work with and that was it.

Today I decided to put the text he sent me for the home page up but I hadn't looked at the page in at least 6 months. Since then I have taken a Web Design class, and an Adobe Illustrator class so as soon as I saw it my mind started racing with improvements that I should make. It is amazing to me how much I have learned in such a short time. When I set up the shell of the site for my Dad I thought it was great and I used almost all the skills I had. Now I still think it is a good start but I'm looking forward to all that we can do with it. Today I made some minor alterations but for the most part I stuck to entering the text. You can see it at http://www.stevestrainsite.com

When I work on it next I would like to improve the header. The current oval just doesn't fit with a train site and with my new Illustrator skills I can do much better. I would also like to change the template to would also like to change the layout. It would flow so much nicer if I was using CSS for the layout instead of tables but I probably won't change that until I upgrade from CS 2 to CS 3. One of the things I like best about design is that my mind is always swimming with ideas and that is certainly true today.

Right now Dad and I have a good start to the web site. You should check it out when you get a chance. The text I put up today is a really interesting narrative about why trains are in his blood. When we are done it is going to be a great site full of stories and photos. We hope you'll check it out then too.

If you would like to see another site I've designed check out http://www.jujustx.com. This is a site I worked on this past semester as part of an internship. The site is for a small company in Highlands Ranch, CO and they make flavored toothpicks that people use to stop smoking.

Contest Entry

Well right now I'm between semesters at school so I'm not doing a whole lot of Graphic Design work right now. However, I did recently enter a Photoshop contest. One of the categories was Student work and I thought this project was good enough to enter.

This is my final project from the Photoshop one class that I completed this Fall. Our assignment was to do a collage that used at least two photos and a number of the techniques we learned during the term to tell a story from literature or depict a current event. I chose to make a statement about the war in Iraq.

I used two copies of the Hummer picture, a picture of the art board, and a picture of the hand holding the pen to create this image. It is hard to see in the small image but the text on the left side of the picture (the color portion) is an excerpt from the Patriot Act and the text on the right (the black & white side) is the preamble to the Constitution. I also used a number of masks and adjustments to achieve this effect.

The winners of the contest won't be announced until February 1st. Whatever the out come of the contest is I'm just glad that I put the picture out there. It is hard to put a lot of effort into something and then let it be judge by others. Right now most of my work is only seen by my friends and family (who are more than a little biased) and my instructors and classmates. Although my instructors and classmates do give there opinions and there is constructive criticism it still feels like a very safe environment. If I want to be a designer I need to see if I can handle my work being seen by people who may not like and feel free to say so.