I am now discontinuing this blog, starting over fresh with a new one for this semester.
I'm retaking GrD3200, so it will include my process of corporate identity from start to finish. Any feedback on the new blog would be greatly appreciated. I'm also taking Wheelthrowing (Ceramics), so there should be some interesting photographs/sketches from that class as well.
Anywho, I appreciate everyone's help this semester and enjoyed seeing everyone's progress. I am thankful that I got to be in the class with you all and I thank Stan for allowing me to do so. Good luck this semester and have a great new year!
So my mom brought home some Diet Pepsi Caffeine Free sodas today, and when she pulled one out for a drink I immediately thought, "Obama logo". So I went online to read up about it and found out that I'm definitely not the only person who has noticed this, and from looking at the post on BrandNew, some people have actually transposed the Obama logo onto the bottles for comparison. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there because it really surprised me at first sight. I'm a Coca-Cola guy anyway. Better taste and WAY better design.
I do like the fact that there's more negative space on the product, but shame on the designer who looked at this new logo and thought, "This is the one..."
I must admit that my love for doing detailed drawings outweighs most other artistic/graphic endeavours. However, I'm attempting to put that aside, quit focusing on drawing every little fine detail-and focus on becoming a better digital illustrator. I usually try and create as much of my illustration by hand as possible, and I think this stems from my lack of knowledge on how to achieve a specific look or style in photoshop. So, I am henceforth going to try and step away from my old school foolish self and work on enhancing my digital skills. I believe that once I can bridge the best of both worlds-the physical and the digital-I can create something marvelous and interesting.
Sooooo............. Following a tutorial in Computer Arts Projects magazine's November Issue, I attempted to create an illustration starting with an inked cartoonish drawing. After scanning my drawing in, I added color, texture, light and shadows in photoshop. The first image shows a few of the steps of my process. The second image is where I'm at so far. I don't feel as though this composition is done, but it's a start. I'll probably move on and work on another one because at this point, I'm sortof tired of staring at that goofy-faced dancer standing in the clouds...
Personal Observations: 1. Perhaps I could push the textures a bit further? 2. Varying the weights of the black lines of the base drawing might add beneficial contrast? 3. Add some more prominent typography? 4. Mix elements of realism into the composition? 5. Create a more direct narrative?
On Thanksgiving night, my brother and me shot off a bunch of fireworks and also had some giant sparklers, so I got out the camera and we started experimenting with the trails of light the sparklers would leave. The photographs came out quite interesting, I only wish I had thought of sparklers before we did the Illustrative Alphabet. I found that you are able to move them significantly quicker than a flashlight and they also leave a trail of sparks as opposed to just a trail of pure light. Guess it depends on what you're going for. I think next time I may let my brother hold the camera and let me do the sparkling.
During thanksgiving, I visited my grandparents who live on a farm way out in the heart of Mississippi. Like many southern folk, they have a big shed full of ancient things they will never use but can't bare get rid of. These are some pictures I took of some of the typography/logos/industrial design I came across when I was exploring.
This random tool interested me, and when I asked my grandfather what purpose it served, he told me that it is used for deshelling (?) corn. You put the corn cob in the top part and drop it down into the middle and turn the levers and somehow it takes the shell/leafage off.
It seems like a large number of bloggers have been talking about Arby's logo and its resemblance to a penis after Arby's produced a commercial which displays a man lying in bed awaiting his girlfriend/wife/mistress/whatever who soon appears from the BATHROOM (??) decked out in full Arby's attire carrying a tray of the new Arby's Chicken Cordon Bleu saying "You know I only do this for your birthday?" The man, displaying quite the animated face, replies, "W o w.....Me likey," just as the Arby's logo erects just above his head with a "Boioing".
I've read several of the back-and-forth blogging about this subject, and it seems that many people reply something like this.. "Well that's your problem if you stare at a hat or a restaurant logo and see a penis..you must have too much time on your hands to sit around and think about it."
I'm not going to say that I know 100% that the mastermind behind this commercial originally intended for the Arby's logo to be perceived as a phallus (Greek for 'erected penis'), but as a graphic designer I find it very difficult to believe that at some point not very far into the making, perhaps even at the very beginning, the makers knew that a vast number of viewers would pick up on the sexual connotation. It seems as though this could have been the very point, and I am very inclined to think so myself. I've got mixed feelings on blatan sexual messages in advertising, especially if we're talking about an Arby's Chicken Cordon Bleu giving a grown man a hard on, but I can say that the fact that it sparks controversy and conversation means that the advertisers are, perhaps, getting exactly what they're aiming for: Attention. No doubt this commercials has achieved this, but I truly wish they would leave this sort of thing to a clothing company like Levi (who has no doubt shot out plenty of sexually oriented commercials lately) or an alcohol company (FAR too many to name)...
I know that sex sells but do they really have to use it to sell a SANDWICH? Is it effective, and in what way?
Speaking of sandwiches, I also find Subway's recent commercials with the extremely annoying "5 dollar footlong" song to be somewhat sexual:
1. The flight attendant displays how big you've got to be to join the mile high club on today's flight. It's just part of the Emergency Procedure speech. 2. The cop stopping the attractive, smiling female on her innocent skooter, holding his hands out to show her just how long a foot is. So if you want to get out of that ticket...you know what to do 3. The Asian woman with her mouth wide open and her hands measuring out the 12 inches, in utter disbelief that it's "THAT HUGE!"...Oh wait a minute, she's just referring to Godzilla...HA
Here's the Levi commercial I referred to earlier...
I will admit that I never saw the Arby's logo as resembling a penis until I saw that commercial. There it was, all that time, erect and staring me in the face as I drove down every other road. I will say that I won't be able to look at it without analyzing it's 'penisness' from now on after noticing this uncanny likeness.
Here are a couple of photographs I took up at Farren's studio.
Here's a segment on how I created the interior suede lining in my package design. 1. Glue medium weight paper (Measured to fit snuggly inside the cylinder) to suede 2. Cut and wrap around suede around the edges of paper as you would when making a cover wrap for a photo-album style book cover (don't really feel like going into details on how to do it. Sure you could find it online) 3. Load a pile of heavy books over the top while it dries...maybe one heavy book would do, but I've got obsessive-compulsive disorder so I use about 10. 4. Apply an unspecified amount of glue into the tube and carefully wrap suede lining around the edges. Hold into place until drying occurs. 5. Give yourself a pat on the back..or, if you're like me, this is when you think, "Okay, now I deserve to go smoke a cigarette"
The Final Product/Thoughts
So I'm not particularly happy with this layout/photograph or even the fact that I used the suede for the backdrop. I think just plain white would work better. I need to make a lightbox....
After spending a few days doing other things and not thinking about the project-coming back to it, I feel like the white tube of the package design is sort of boring...So I got an idea-what if I carried the cloud idea from the bottle onto the back of the package and had lines descending down from the cloud which turned into the barcode, just like I carried the info text on the back of the bottle out of the cloud...? Right now (I know u can't see it...) but I've got just a plain barcode on the back and the logo on the front....
I'm still tempted to make the tube like the top (Textured and painted black), I was just worried for the purposes of my grade on this project that my transfer wouldn't stick to the tube if I applied a texture. I just seem to be more excited about the top and when it comes to the tube...eh, I need to experiment a bit more before I'll be satisfied.
