I would like to start off by saying that I learned so much this semester. It taught me something valuable.
When I get frustrated or stressed I normally want to give up. It normally isn't really that important to me, but Viscom is different. I don't want to give up because I really care about the artwork and as much as we all complain on a regular basis, I really do enjoy graphic design. I also learned that I have a high tolerance of rejection, minimum sleep, and starting over- all which play a pretty important part in the art world. I really enjoyed this class not only because I learned a lot, but because I am really proud of the work I accomplished and I am satisfied knowing that I worked my hardest to meet the demands given to us. Below I have attached the final pieces of artwork and I will talk about my process, method, problems, concept and execution
Rapala
This first piece was fun for me to do. I liked the copy and the idea of it which made it a lot easier to accomplish. I came up with the title composition pretty quickly, but struggled at first with really pushing the lures as the main focus of the piece. After shooting some photography, I was able to use large images of the lures I had photographed which made the point of this piece a lot clearer. The color scheme just fell into place with the atmosphere of the water background and the rest was just technical logistics. Time Spent: 5 hours
Rapala POP
This next piece is my Rapala POP. It is two sided and stands up like a card would. On the outside it just says RAPALA in big letter. When thinking of what to put on the inside I thought about the audience. Who is the audience? What do they want from a lure? Affordable and good quality came to mind. They also want something that will work- something that will attract fish. I went with the idea that people were attracted to Rapala because it is affordable and great quality and that fish are physically attracted to the lure. I also added that the lure was effective, referring to it hooking the fish. I think the concept is pretty strong. I wanted to keep the design clean cut so the concept would come through, maybe even a but humorous or ironic.Time spent: 1 hour
Beverage Label
This is my beverage label for Little Moja, an orange soda drink. I wanted it to be a fun design and I accomplished that. It is clean and organized but also has enough presence to hold the audiences interest. I like the logo I made and the slogan to go with it. The crush bottles I used had a very distinct shape to them. The glass was out farther in the front where their sticker was originally and it made it difficult to attach the labels evenly. The orange colors matched well and the product looked clean and put together well. Time spent: 4 hours
Beverage Container- Four Pack
This is my beverage container. When I spotted the template at HyVee it was like a dream come true. I had previous purchased a different container template and it was not put together in a very good way and it was just way too much trouble. I went to the store to look for some different bottles and ended up finding that AND a great template. I was really excited about this project once I got the materials I wanted to use. Time Spent: 6 hours
Dust Jacket
This is my dust jacket for Pride and Prejudice. I think this project turned out very well. I like the use of my own personal photography. I also liked doing this project in Photoshop. I normally try to avoid using photoshop at all costs, but I knew I needed to use it if I wanted to accomplish my idea. I extended the sky and grass of my original image so that it would be continuous across the book. It ended up looking flawless as if the image was originally shot that way. I was particularly intersted in this project because I have interest in the book. Being familiar with the story really helps get an idea of what to do. I wonder if I will have to read certain books, watch movies and listen to music before design if I get a job in one of those fields? Time Spent: 5 hours
Audio CD Case
This is my audio 2 disc CD case for Pride and Prejudice. This was pretty simple to do. I repeat the same concept I had from the dust jacket on the book and the rest fell into place. I added a photography on grass and dandelions which is kind of like zooming in on the front page of the tree and grass from a distance. This was a great template to use and everything went very smoothly with this project. Time spent: 6 hours
Society of Illustrators
One thing I have learned is that the piece I dread doing the very most normally ends up being my favorite. I DID NOT want to do the herpetology poster or the native american series or this self-mailer, but I think those three pieces are some of my best work. I absolutely love how my self mailer turned out. I am really proud of it and I want to hang it on my wall! Everything is perfectly laid out but it is especially exciting because of the size! Mark Rothco said he likes to make his painting so big because he wants his audience to feel like they are inside the painting, not just on the outside looking at it. I think that is applicable to this self-mailer. It really brings the illustration to life. I spent 4 hours on this self-mailer.
Wick Fowler Chili Label
Here is my chili label for Wick Fowler. This was more difficult for me to design. i originally had a large bar at the to that grabbed the attention of the entire label- in a bad way. Then I messed around for a long time with adding in a texas looking start to support where Wick Fowler is founded but it ended up looking awkward and out of place. I finally came to this conclusion- a very light bar with two darker bars horizontally. This looks great wrapped around the can and it really unifies the entire piece. I spent about 4 hours on this label.
Wick Fowler Poster
This poster was the easiest thing I did all semester. I got the idea, the imagery and everything just fell into place. It was really simple. It has a great presence when printed and it really just looks good. It gets the point across as well and it has that bold look I wanted. I spent about 30 minutes on this poster.
Total Time spent: about 38.5 hours
