Q.

I had came across your page for more referencing on Parasignals. And love your

ideas. My question is how to create them in Illustrator? I have a “Dummies Guide

to Illustrator” that has helped in my weak areas, but I’m always looking for

more answers. Is there any way you can assist me in an area I’m clueless to?

Thanks.

A.

I’m brand new to illustrator myself, I’m actually in digital illustration right now getting the basics of it.

Honestly, the thing that is helping me is just getting in there and messing around for hours.

Do you have any of the classroom in a book textbooks? They have them in Barnes and noble.

It’s a step by step guide to all the basic how to’s in illustrator. It is a bit difficult though; unlike photoshop,

illustrator requires some things that aren’t self explanatory.

For example, gradients are easily edited if you click the icon on the left, and then double click on the area you want to apply the gradient to.

After that, a little bar pops up where you can add or delete colors, adjust opacity, and even change the type of gradient.

Q.

Right now the professor is asking for “quotes” like..”the grass is always greener on the other side” type deal. In thumbnail style.

Still working on the quote idea.

A.

Ahhh.. I see. I was actually in that same exact class!!! I did the “pushing up daisies” quote. If you go to this thread, http://www.sherisart.com/category/art-institute-online-graphic-design/typography/, and go to the bottom, you will see my rough draft and the final version of my assignment. If you are in the thumbnail stage, I would just pick a quote you like and sit for an hour and doodle. The most important thing is to really pick a quote you like and motivates you. After that, think about what you can physically do to the quote to make it fit (like font, color, or adding extra symbols) that would be your parasignal. The alphasignal is the quote itself. Did you pick a quote you like yet? Here’s some famous quotes you can check out: http://www.toomanyquotes.com/categories/famous. For example, “Live the life you’ve dreamed.” by Henry David Thoreau. The quote itself is the alphasignal. Then for your parasignals, think of Que’s that would fit when you read that quote. Like, light and fluffy, that makes me think of dreaming. It’s a happy quote so something happy. With those ideas I would pick colors and a font that relate. Maybe light blues and whites and a swirly cursive quote. Something that makes you think of inspiration and hope. You can also maybe have a few kites coming off the letters, in a bright red, to draw attention to the quote, and even give more of that carefree feeling. Almost like when you were a kid and dreaming of what you wanted to do, and being happy about it.

I would start by finding a font you think fits. http://www.1001freefonts.com/ always seems to have one that I love. If you have a PC like me, all you do is click the “windows download” icon next to the font you like. That will let you download the zip file to your computer. I usually download it to my desktop, just so it’s easy to find. haha! After that you want to extract the zip file so you can get the folder of the font itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZdfBOcXt9M Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do that, if you aren’t sure. After you have your folder of your unzipped font, you want to open up your fonts folder that your programs pull from. Do this by going to start>my computer>control panel>Fonts. Now you want to drag that new lovely folder of the font you just unzipped and drop it into your fonts folder that is in the control panel. Your computer will do the rest. You will have to reopen illustrator or photoshop or whatever your program you are using for it to be in there though.

Q.

Thanks for your help! It has pointed me in the right direction!Still toying with some quotes for my thumbnail assignment due Tuesday.And no I don’t mind you posting my question on your website. Go for it! God Bless!

it’s really more or less a quick rough, but i like the idea of it.

i’m so super exhausted.  after 4 or 5 weeks of overtime (don’t even know how long) and not having a weekend off during that time has really just worn me down.  i was super excited about the checks… but taxes took out about $300+ of it, so it’s not that exciting.

i’m just so darn sleepy!

on the good side, i have my christmas tree setup, most of my presents wrapped, and some lights on the front of my house (even thought they don’t work.)

looking forward to the holiday season.  Christmas will be here, at the new house, and I want to make amazing food!  Anyone know of any AMAZING recipes?

So I made TWO CUBES!

Amazing article!

Revisions and Your Final Version

Review your work to make sure it is clear and free of any interference. Again, remember to double check for mistakes before submission. The version you submit will be treated as if it were an approved proof version.

The professor brought up the fact that my first draft was very happy and didn’t really convery the reason for the phrase, “pushing up daisies.”  I couldn’t agree more!  I love it when people tell me things in such a nice way that I learn but don’t feel stupid. Haha!  I guess that’s why I love being in school, I’m always learning to think in different ways.

Here’s the final draft.  I tried to make it more morbid.  I’ve been learning a lot in illustrator just from messing around on these assignment, and my wonderful husband has saved me hours of researching how to do things.  I don’t know why he doesn’t do this stuff, he’s so good at it.  I guess that’s why we are a good team.

In the previous lecture, you discovered that a good piece of design work would contain a personality or mood. You found that the designer creates the mood of the piece by adding parasignals that support and magnify the primary message of the design. Then you used this knowledge as the basis for a new approach to critiquing work. For Project 4, you will use your knowledge of parasignals to consciously create a personality for a design piece.

You will use a quote or maxim as the copy for your design. From the copy, you will analyze the images and associations that the copy evokes. Then you will use thumbnails to explore ways that the type can suggest these images.

• Finding Quotes: You may use a quote or maxim of your own choice. Quotes or maxims may be found easily over the Internet, or you may refer to one of the many books or almanacs that contain such sayings. You probably even know a few favorites. However, not all quotes will lend themselves well to this treatment. Select at least two or three to start with, limiting the length of your copy to one sentence. As a general rule, the more brief the copy, the more powerful the message.
  
• Finding Images and Associations: Next, examine each quote individually. Say it to yourself, and notice any images or associations that come to mind. For example, “The grass is greener on the other side” may evoke images of being conflicted, having two sides, and of course the color green as well as the image of grass. Write down your discoveries, and repeat the process for each quote that you have collected. Parasignal options may include; typefaces, colors, size and positions.
  
• Creating Images with Type: Now is the time to begin using thumbnails to record and explore your ideas. You may work on the computer, by hand or use a combination of both techniques. A good technique is to explore several design solutions for each quote. Your thumbnails should contain enough detail to capture the essence of the idea and how your type choices enhance the meaning. Although you may include some element of graphics, they must be incorporated into your quote and the type selections. Do not rely on the graphic to send the parasignal. Create a minimum of six thumbnails. They may be any size and shape but no larger than 8 ½ by 11.

Honestly, I didn’t spend enough time on any of these and I don’t like a single one.  I love the quotes though, so I just need to spend a bit more time on concept and execution:

Scan and post your full-sized rough by Tuesday, August 4, 2009, so that your facilitator and classmates can view your work in progress.

Using the suggestions given in the lecture, create a full-sized rough of your concept. Remember that the overall size must be at least 8½” x 11″ but no larger than 11″ x 14.” You may use a vertical or horizontal format. This is to be a one-color ink job, printed full black. Write your name on your rough version, then scan and post it to this Discussion Area by Tuesday, August 4, 2009.

Here is my rough draft. I decided to go with thumbnail #2. I edited to sentences a bit so that they made a little more sense and ended when they are supposed to. Let me know what you think, thanks!

Research Piet Mondrian

In your third project, you will use a grid to organize a layout in which you will use various “colors” of the same typeface as design elements. You will need to research the artwork of the famous Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. This may be done easily over the Internet. Be sure that you look at his later, neoplastic works. Some examples are shown at the right.

Piet Mondrian used a grid to organize these paintings, and his art has been a source of inspiration for many successful designs. You will use his paintings as inspiration for the grid in your next project.

Research a Type designer

Another piece of this week’s assignment is to research a famous type designer. Please select someone not already written about in our text. The best way to go about doing this is to select the typeface that you would like to use for this project, find out who created it, and research the creator. You should be able to do this research fairly easily over the Internet as well as from books and magazine articles. From your research, generate copy about your type designer and the typeface(s) he or she created. A paragraph or two should be sufficient.

This assignment turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Look up Mondrian’s work, pick a typography designer, and then just go with it. I included the font blocks with and without Mondrian’s work in the background. The designer I chose to go over is Jos Buivenga. He is a contemporary type designer. Here’s the info you will find in my font blocks:

Jos Buivenga lives in Arnhem (the Netherlands) and began studying typography at the Academy of Arts Arnhem. His first typeface, “Delicious,” was finished in 1996. After that, his fonts were listed on Vitaly Friedman’s 25 Best Free Quality Fonts. Now he is a type designer with a blog at http://exljbris.wordpress.com/ and a twitter at http://twitter.com/exljbris. The font I chose, Diavlo, contains 5 weights: Light, Book, SemiBold Medium, Bold and Black. The font supports these languages: Latin / Central European / Croatian / Romanian / Icelandic / Turkish / Esperanto.

The font used in all of the designs is his Diavlo. You can find more about this specific font as well as a free d/l at http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/diavlo.html.

THUMBNAILS:

Which ones are the most successful?