Typography

After doing some research on google, I managed to find this piece of typography and I thought that it would be relevant to my project since I was creating an advertisement on Nerds candies. This would be a good way to catch the attention of my audience as it is colourful. Once the audience is attracted to the colours, they will eventually take a closer look and start to realise that it is made up entirely of small sweets. For my project, I was thinking of doing something similar. I will be attempting to create a tagline for the candy and then creating it out of small pieces of Nerds sweets. This will help catch the attention of my audience as it is something different, colourful and interesting. 

EGD Project: Road and Nerds

Before

After

For my EGD project, I have decided to make an advertisement on Nerds Candy. I wanted to make the pieces of candy walk down an isle all the way to a castle. I also wanted the place that they were in to look like a candy wonderland. I then took a picture off of google and started editing it. By using illustrator, I was able to change the colour of the road. I made it pink to give it the cotton candy feel and then I also gave it a gradient effect so that it would look more 3D and less flat. After I  was happy with the colour, I went back to Photoshop and used a clipping mask to give road a brick texture. This helped bring it to life and made it look more realistic. Next, I started on creating the little Nerds candies. From referencing a picture of them, I created their shape with several circles in illustrator and then put the overlapping circles together to create one whole shape by using the pathfinder. I then coloured the shapes in and gave them some shadows to make them look less 2D. 

Next I will be concentrating on changing the colours, sizes and placements of the candies as not all the Nerd's sweets look the same. I will also be changing the things in the background to look more like a candy wonderland. 

Photoshop lesson 1

This week, during our 3 hour lesson of EGD, we learned the basics of photoshop. I learned how to use both the blemish removal tools and the liquify tools. By using the blemish removal tools, I was able to remove the lady's spots and wrinkles that were around her eyes and mouth. I was also able to remove a lot of the discolouration under her eyes by using the tool to pick up lighter skin tones and then going over the darker ones. Then, using the plumping tool I was able to give her fuller looking lips. Lastly, with the liquify tool I was able to reshape her face to give her a sharper chin, a wider smile and slightly higher cheekbones. I was also able to bring down her hairline and reshape her eyebrows. These skills are very useful as if I wanted to use a photo for my advertisement but it is not perfect or the way I wanted it, I could simple use Photoshop to change it and edit it to the way I want it.

Advertisements

This week in EGD we learned about how to properly place different elements of our advertisements. This is important as if you do not correct place the different parts of the advertisements at the right place, it will not leave a long lasting impression. For example, when looking at an advertisement, our eyes usually start from the top and then work our way down. So in the case of this Heinz Hot Ketchup advertisement, they started with a blank background to bring focus to the center of the advertisement. The designers then put in a picture that related to the product but they also kept in mind that it should not be too big so that it overpowers to logo at the bottom right of the advertisement. The bottom right of a page is where our eyes will usually end so by putting the logo there, it makes sure that that would be the last thing that the audience sees and thus it will be the thing that they remember the most.

Gradient Tool: Ant

The gradient tool was one of the harder tools to use as I found it hard to control the amount of blacks, greys and whites that were needed to make the ant look realistic. However, after many attempts of trial and error, I was able to successfully complete half on my ant. This is a useful tool and it will come in handy when creating my poster as if I need to draw something, I can use the pen tool (that I learned to use last week) to outline the drawing and then I can use the gradient tool to add dimension and bring the drawing to life. The gradient tool has definitely made a big difference in my drawing of the ant as if I were just to use solid colours, it would look flat and unrealistic. 

Controversial Advertisments

This week during our EGD lesson, we learned about controversial advertisements. In my opinion, some controversial advertisements such as those condoning child abuse were alright. I feel that even though they were a bit graphic, they managed to get the right message across and it is the fact that they are graphic that will leave an impression in the minds of the public so as to put a stop to child abuse. However, advertisements such as the one above are not alright to me. In this advertisement, the words say that "All Animals Have The Same Parts" and then it is followed by a picture of a woman. The fact that they are comparing women to animals shows just how degrading this advertisement is. When I first saw it, I was also not able to tell what the advertisement was even for until I read the small words at the left side of the poster that says,"Have A Heart, Go Vegetarian". This just proves how ineffective this advertisement is unlike that one on child abuse. There is a fine line between an advertisement being successful and controversial and when creating my poster for our individual assignment, I must remember to keep this in mind.

Child Abuse Advertisement

Pen Tool: Dog

In our second lesson of EGD this week, we learned how to outline and colour in pictures that we can trace off templates. This is a useful skill as now we no longer need to draw out our pictures free hand. Above, I have inserted a picture of the dog that I outlined and coloured using the pen tool. It took a bit of getting used to but I eventually was able to easily draw and manipulate the lines and curves to make my desired shape. However there are still some parts that were not outlined properly and they became even more obvious when I had to colour the picture in as there are some parts with the white background showing through. If I have to use this technique in my individual assignment, I will ensure that I am more careful will outlining the template. I will also constantly use the "zoom in" tool to ensure that my lines are all in the correct place. This will allow me to have a better end result as there will no longer be any white spaces with the background showing through.

Logos

This week in our essential of graphic design class, I learned about the importance of logos.

I also learned about how the principles of effective logo design helped to ensure the success of a logo. The five principles of logo design are:

1. Simple

2. Memorable

3. Timeless

4. Versatile

5. Appropriate

From the picture above, I understood just how successful these logos were as even though they were incomplete, I was still able to identify most of them. Most of the logos are basically just simple and colours are also used to make them memorable. The colours also help ensure that the logos stand out from one another. The principle of being timeless is also something that logos such as Carlsberg and Breitling use as the logos of these companies have not changed for as long as I can remember. This is good and important as if a company constantly changes it's logo, people will start to get confused and it will be less memorable. 

This shows how just much effort actually goes into one logo as it is the face of the company and a lot of thought needs to be put into it to ensure that it helps set the company apart from the rest.

The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spiderman artwork

Just yesterday I managed to catch the second installment of The Amazing Spiderman series and I absolutely loved it. The storyline was perfect and I would not think twice about watching it again. After the movie, I was scrolling through my twitter timeline and I saw this amazing piece of art. I'm not sure who exactly drew it but I must say that I was impressed at the layout and design of the drawing. In the movie, this was the scene when Spiderman failed to save his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, and in my opinion, the artist managed to capture perfectly every emotion that I felt when watching the movie. 

Firstly, the artist used white spaces to show how raw and plain the scene was. Even though the drawing is so simple, you can almost feel the emotions that the characters felt. How empty Spiderman must have felt seeing Gwen's lifeless body just hanging there. The white spaces also help make sure that all the attention is given to the characters instead of whatever that could have been in the background. Another thing that the artist did was to create a contrast between the words and the drawing. The drawings were coloured in which caused the black words to stand out. This would ensure that they would not be over- shadowed and that they would still be noticed. Lastly, a strange sense of balance was also installed into this art piece as since the drawing is not exactly in the middle of the paper, the words towards the side helped balance it out and sort of pull everything together making it beautiful even though there are only two elements to the drawing.

Nothing Personal

All Time Low "Nothing Personal" album cover

All Time Low is one of my all time favourite bands and one of my favourite albums from them is undoubtedly "Nothing Personal". The music in the album is great but I would be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit bias to it because of how great the album cover looks.

The first thing that I like about the album cover is the pattern in the background. This helps the cover seem less ordinary and plain as if you're not looking at the middle of the cover, there's still something else to look at as compared to just a plain solid coloured background. The next thing I like about the cover is that the designers put a lot of effort into emphasizing the band and album name. Instead of just putting the band and album name on the patterned background, they put it against a white background to help it stand out more and thus helping to capture the public's attention. The last thing that I like about the album cover is the fact that everything is balanced. If a line is drawn horizontally through the cover, you will be able to see that the album is perfectly balanced. From the images surrounding the band and album name to the birds at the top and the paint splatters at the bottom of the album.

Transcendence

Transcendence movie poster

The past week I managed to catch the latest Johnny Depp movie Transcendence. It was generally a good movie and I enjoyed the storyline a lot however the movie was undoubtedly too draggy. The only reason why I was actually drawn towards this movie was because I had first seen the poster a few weeks earlier. And in my opinion, if you want to watch a movie solely because the poster captured your attention, then I think the designers deserve a round of applause because they have managed to do their job. 

The first thing that I like about this poster is the fact that the entire picture is basically just a photo of Johnny Depp. This was a good move on the designer's part as he is a well known actor and it was almost as if the designers were trying to advertise him more than they were trying to advertise the movie. By doing this, they have managed to capture the attention of Johnny Depp fans and this will cause them to want to watch the movie in order to support their favourite actor. Another thing that I really like about this poster is that it is very balanced. The designers even drew a line down the middle of the poster to show you just how balanced it is. It gives the poster a very nice and clean feel. The last thing that I like about the poster is that it uses a pattern on one side of it. The pixel pattern that is used on the left side of the poster makes it look more interesting and thus causing it to be more attention grabbing. However, since it is only on one side of the poster, it is subtle enough to grab the attention of the viewers ever so slightly to cause them to have to take a closer look before they are able understand what exactly is going on in the poster.