We started just creating things using papers and cardstocks to see how paper behaves.  We also did a few assignments using a single sheet of paper to create containers and marketing tools.  Here’s a couple examples:

We also began developing designs and actual prototypes of tabletoppers.  We had a certain assigned restaurant to design for, which was “Grandma’s House” and it was to promote weeks of different desserts.  My design was a dessert spinner that not only housed the dessert menu but offered a fun and interactive tool for the customers to decide which desert they would like.

Thumbnail:

Rough:

Final:

The last assignment was another tabletopper to promote a cruise ship.  It also needed to double as a matchbox holder.

Thumbnails:

Rough 1:

Rough 2:

Final:

I love it, except I’m busy.  Really, really, really busy.  I haven’t got to update my posts in a while because of this.  I’ll try and catch up some!

I started a new class, corporate identity.  When I first registered, I groaned with a foreboding sense of boredom.  I’m a person who’s heavily stimulated by the creative aspect of graphic design, not so much the business part.  I was pleasantly surprised though, because I’m actually learning a lot of really useful info!  As a bonus, the professor helped make the class as un-boring as possible!  I got to focus a lot of my projects inwardly, and used my assignments to focus on working on a brand logo and potential plan for a brand standard for my future company.

Week 1- was mostly evaluating logos.  Let me tell you, I had no clue how to do this starting out.  I’ve always been the girl in art class who put everything I had into a logo, only to have it spurned in honor of the guy who spent 5 minutes on his.  A little jaded, I wasn’t looking forward to this.  I learned that thought and progressive reworking is required, but overworking and over loading a logo is just as bad if not worse.  Keep it simple and smart.

Week 2 - we delved more into evaluating other companies logos, and began thumbnailing for our own logos.  I decided to redo the logo for this site, www.foxesdin.com, because the original logo I came up with was less than impressive.

Original foxesdin logo:

New logo thumbnails:

Week 3 – This week we did some research on color and it’s effect on logos and how the company is perceived based on the colors of it’s logo.  Played around with color choices and logo designs some more in illustrator:

Week 4- Did some work on copyrighting, brand manuals, and final work on our logos.

]]> http://www.sherisart.com/2011/02/corporate-identity-and-a-loss-of-identity/feed/ 1 http://www.sherisart.com/2010/12/wk-5-digital-apple/ http://www.sherisart.com/2010/12/wk-5-digital-apple/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:18:44 +0000 Sheri http://www.sherisart.com/?p=750 Fifth and final apple for digital illustration class.  This week, I got out the dusty wacom tablet and just did a freestyle drawing of an apple with shadow.  This is the type of art I love to make and comes easiest to me.

I decided to do an extreme closeup of an apples inside.  I started by creating a rectangle shape and then changing it to have a sharp slope down towards the center of the art board.  I applied both an elliptical and liner opacity to the yellowish flesh of the apple to give it depth.  After this I copied and reflected this to the other side of the art board.  I then added seeds by using the elliptical tool and warp tool.  I added depth to them by using the gradient elliptical tool.  I changed to color slightly for each seed and also changed the size a little.  I then applied a large elliptical shape above this, and applied a red elliptical gradient to the edge as well as the inside.  I used the pucker tool and wrinkle tool to roughen up this edge of where the skin meets the flesh of the apple.  Finally, I used the blob tool with a really low opacity of 5 to add a highlight at the top of the apple.

Color Palette

Also, relisted my paintings on etsy!  Redid my banner, and was chosen for someone’s treasury in the first hour after listing.  Been a productive day!

This class was one of the most difficult for me, and I think the reason why is I didn’t get to spend any time on my projects.  Let’s just say that real life got in the way and it totally sucked!  I didn’t really want to post any of my assignments since I wasn’t happy with any of them (except the one of my hubby up there done entirely in illustrator using layers and the pen tool,) but I figured someone might get some use out of it.

Our main project of this class was designing a book cover in illustrator.  I had such high hopes for the assignment, but couldn’t seem to get anything how I wanted it.  Blah.

Book Design thumbnails:

wk4as3animationgruver

Also, we had a few different assignments using layers, brush tools, and different mesh tools in Illustrator:

Basic breakdown:

• My company is called Magnolia Acquisitions- I don’t really have any ideas for a logo but it can’t be too flowery/girly because of the nature of the work.
• And it’s an accounts receivable financing firm- if it could just say “Accounts Receivable Financing” under the company name that’d be great…
• I connect retailers and vendors with banks to establish lines of credit for purchasing goods. I manage those accounts so that the vendors can focus on selling products instead of getting paid.
• I’m going after the firearms industry because it’s something that they’ve never done before- It’d help if the logo was somewhat edgy.

I’ve been trying to balance the name “magnolia …” with the firearm market.  So far, the only thing I’m attached to in my design is the name.  I made it edgy, but it could still fit in with something magnolia.  Help! Leave me comments!