Moving...

I'm sorry for not having posted recently. I haven't had a lot of time to post and I have less time to create this project, so I can't upload the entire process, and will likely just post the final piece, which I will do soon. However, it will be on a different site.

Yesterday in class, Stephen told us that we all need to start a blog with wordpress that we will post our work and assignments on, so that said, I'm moving this blog to wordpress. I already posted the last two projects. I decided to just put everything there because keeping up with two blogs will be a little too intense and take more time than I have to maintain them both. But, don't be a stranger! Check out my new (or continued, depends on how you see it) blog at http://browniebydesign.wordpress.com. For any one that may have this address saved in their computer, be sure to change it to wordpress, at least I kept the name the same. :)

And, I might be brave and actually include the new blog site on Facebook. I know, it's been four months in the program and I still haven't done it, but I guess there's no time like the present to put it out there. And any self-consciousness I feel will have to be eliminated sooner or later in this field, so here we go.

Don't be a stranger, see you at Wordpress!

Frustration Pays Off: Finished Posters

After a lot of work, a fair amount of frustration, and lots and lots of use of the pen tool, I finished my posters! I'll be honest, this was an interesting project. I won't keep you waiting, here they are:

I really liked the way they turned out, but they did come about after a good deal of frustration. It seemed throughout the whole process that my teacher wasn't a fan of my ideas, some comments were direct, "this can be better," and others were perceived. Towards the end, it seemed like the majority of my classmates were receiving praising comments, while my projects still weren't good enough. However, not to be deterred, I kept working and really liked the ways these turned out. Ironically, while I wasn't really excited about the "Chess" piece, it ended up looking really cool. When I finished, Stephen said that he really liked the way they turned out and I said that I was happy about that since I felt that he didn't like what I was doing. He said that he was really rough on me, but likes the way they turned out.

Lesson gleaned from this project: it might very well be that he is so tough on me because he sees a potential that I don't see or knows that I am capable of doing more and being better. In the end, and even during the process, I appreciate his comments, feedback, and, yes, even his being tough on me because they help me create things that are much cooler or more interesting than what I originally thought.

Will I win the contest or have any of these posters chosen by the theater (it has happened before)? Probably not, but I can take satisfaction in knowing that my hard work paid off and if nothing else, Stephen and I like them. Plus, I learned a lot of new skills, including the gradient tool (which is awesome) that helped elements of "I Am My Own Wife" and "Chess" pop and look much better.

My next project is to design album art for an artist whose album is found on a website called Jamendo. I've started listening to some music that I like in general, and we'll see what inspires me and what I create. Stay tuned. :)

Recognize the Model?

For my final poster, "Walter Cronkite is Dead," I had to approach it a little differently. From the beginning this poster has been golden for me. The original sketch was good and pleasing to all and I really liked it; I had a really cool vision of this from the beginning. And, maybe, since the idea was a keeper from the start, I haven't felt a lot of pressure concerning it's creation. I wasn't worried about what the design would look like since I'd already had a good sketch, unlike the other two.

The trick to this one was to find pictures of women standing in the poses I needed them to be in, easier said than done. I looked--a lot--on the internet, but nothing was quite right. In an effort to solve the problem, I took a bunch of pictures from the internet and cut the body parts and taped them the way I wanted, it wasn't quite like "Frankenstein's Monster," but it wasn't a far stretch. Unfortunately, "Angie's Monster" still wasn't right and, as a perfectionist, it needed to be, well, perfect. So, I went home, grabbed my suitcase and a duffel bag and had my roommate take my picture in at least 10 different poses. Since I knew how I wanted it to look, I felt it easier to just be my own model than trying to pose people how I wanted them to stand. I did feel really self-conscious though as she took my picture over and over again.

Once I finished my photo shoot, I printed out the pictures as large as I could and started to choose the ones that I liked best. I did have to go a little Frankenstein because I liked my legs in one and my arm for that pose in another, thank goodness for scissors and tape! After choosing, and creating my pictures, I traced them again (did I mention how much more I appreciate/need tracing paper now?), copied them, and scanned them into the computer.

Then, using the pen tool (new BFF), I started to outline myself, and with Stephen's help, we tweaked the lines to make them cleaner and more like an illustration more than just a tracing. But it was funny whenever he would mention something about the women, I would look at him and think, "You realize that's me, right?" I guess you had to be there. Okay, so using the pen tool and doing some clean-up, here's what we've got: I should mention that the width of this piece is pretty narrow and I wanted the legs stretched out, so this is how it will look, spatially, on the poster. So, what are your thoughts? Good, bad, indifferent?

Now, we need to visit the typography. Have you ever seen the opening title to the classic show "My Three Sons"? Well, for those who haven't, it shows three sets of legs with a specialty font that was created just for the show. Since my image was only from the legs down, Stephen reminded me that it had a "My Three Sons" feel to it, so I looked up an image of the opening title and drew from it for inspiration. And, as I mentioned that font was specifically created for the show. As Stephen and I discussed it, he thought it was be good to custom-make my font using, you guessed it, the pen tool. Thus, I'm more or less creating the font. I found a font that was similar to the one from "My Three Sons," but is more feminine (it's called "Funny Bone"). I traced it a couple of times, then started to manipulate it a little, extending some curves, changing the spacing between the letters, etc. to make it my own. (Note: the top font is completely different, it was in the running for ones to use, but I liked the second one more.)

Then, I scanned it in and started tracing it with the pen tool. You'll see what the tracing looks like clean on the top and how it looks as I'm going over the letters on the bottom.

And there you have it, the latest step in this process. After I make the letters, I'll play around with how to place them on the page. This is my favorite poster of the three, I don't really know why, but it is, maybe because I liked the idea from the beginning. I like the other ones, too, but this one is my baby. I hope it turns out as good on paper as it looks in my head.

"I Am My Own Wife," Take Two

As I mentioned before, Stephen wasn't super thrilled with my ideas for this project, but I took some time during class a couple of weeks ago to start sketching out more ideas. I really liked the idea of a mirror and how that can convey perception and how we see ourselves and Stephen liked the idea of it as a reflection, since the play is about a person reflecting on his/her life. However, I wanted the mirror to be more feminine and thought about doing some kind of antique/vintage inspired mirror, but really felt drawn to the idea of using a compact. Few things are more feminine than a compact mirror. To help give it the extra touch, I decided to bring in some antique elements and found an "antique compact" on the internet. Then, using tracing paper, I traced it, copied it, and scanned it into the computer (the compact is in the bottom right-hand corner; the picture on top was what got my idea rolling).

My original thought was to have a man's face reflecting in the mirror, but it never really felt right to me, so I decided to leave his face out of it and just do the mirror, with a font that had totalitarian government understones and gave a solemn tone to the piece (the play is anything but a comedy, so I've been told). When I decided to do this, Stephen's words to me were that if I'm going to do this, I have to do it well so that it actually looks like a compact, and I have been dedicating myself to the task since. Below, it what I've got so far:

It was really hard to do the finer curves as an illustration, so I've modified the image a little to make the curves cleaner and prettier. The different colors are to help me see the depth so that my eyes don't play tricks on me when I go to clean this up later. It's starting to look like a compact, right?

Since I decided not to have a reflection, I needed something that would help this look like a compact mirror, so I decided to include a powder puff, so I did a google search for antique powder puffs or powder puffs from the 1940s and found one that was perfect, but, of course, hard to trace in Illustrator. However, not be deterred, I took on the task to make it and kept a prayer in my heart that it turned out to be somewhat realistic looking, while also recognizing that this was an illustration, not a Photoshop project. So, I put it in the computer and went to work, and this is what I've got (you'll also noticed that I cleaned up the mirror and included a reflection of the compact):Again, the different colors are to help me keep all my lines straight. It's getting there, what do you think? If I didn't tell you it was a compact, would you be able to tell?

Meanwhile, we can't ignore the typography. Typography can either make or break a design and I needed it to be perfect for this piece. So I researched, then I researched some more, and kept looking until I found something good. If anyone saw my internet searches without knowing I was doing this project, they might be concerned on why I have searched for "Nazi or Russian propognada posters" or "Nazi or Russian fonts from the 1930s." I love everyone, promise! After at least of week of searching, I found my font, "Deluxe Gothic" and started to play around with how to use it. For the "i"s, I deicded to dot them with the Nazi symbol and the hammer and sickle as the play was during that time frame. Below, are some ideas I had, my favorite is the one on the right, with the type blocked off to the side. You'll also see the original compact I traced and re-drew.

And that's where I'm at so far. It's taking a while to create the compact in Illustrator. Thankfully, I like the pen tool and am good at it, so it doesn't take me as long as it maybe could. I don't despair at the thought of using it, so I think that helps me get a lot of work done, and since all my posters are being created through Illustrator, I'm getting a lot of practice with it.

I still need to figure out my color scheme, but that will wait until I polish up the compact a little more. Honestly, I wasn't really excited about this poster in the beginning, but since I got the idea and have seen it come together, I'm really liking it and it's cool to see what you can create with the computer. More to come on this one, too.

Chess: Back to the Drawing Board

As I mentioned in my last post, I hit a major creative block with "Chess." No matter what I tried, nothing was really coming to me. But, with some feedback from Stephen and some friends, I was able to push through and develop some ideas. I was up very late one night, just sketching. I chose a font, Coffee Black (the only time I'll ever use coffee in my life) and traced it over and over; tracing paper has since become one of my necessities in life and best friends. ;)

When I took my ideas into Stephen, we found a winner (the one in the upper left-hand corner)and things are progressing nicely from there. After I polished it up a little (I got rid of the part that separates the "C" from the "H"), I scanned it into the computer and using the pen tool (my new best friend) I started to outline it.

While there is still come work to be done around the edges (especially with the "S"s), I'm making progress. Ultimately, this will be flipped on a 45-degree (ish) angle to go diagonally across the page and I'll give a shadow or 3-D type of effect to help it look more like an actual pawn piece. It's hard to see the pawn shapre from this angle, but it was easier to trace if I made it horizontal. As a side note, I'll try to be better about posting during the process and not just at the beginning of the process and the end of it. As for "Chess," it's getting there. More details to come with this one.

Creative Blocks are Lame

I presented my ideas to Stephen and he liked one of them, which meant that it was back to the drawing board for "I Am My Own Wife" and "Chess." I worked on new concepts during class on Monday and came up with a new one that Stephen really liked for "I Am My Own Wife," but I am still creatively blocked on "Chess." I have some ideas, but I don't know how I feel about them or if they're worth pursuing. Therefore, any ideas you have would be welcome! I can do something with a graphic image or only using typography.

It's been a couple of days and I still haven't come up with anything that stands out. Mental blocks are a nuisance, especially in this field. But, all I can do is keeping going forward and see if something comes to me. I hope it comes soon!

Let me know if you have any ideas...

Opinions, please!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have to create three posters. I did my "mind map" (or brainstorming web), which was an intense writing session, where we just wrote words associated with the subject or word of our choice and highlighted the ones that struck us the most. It was a really interesting exercise because you never know where ideas/word associations will come from or where they will lead you. Plus, I get inspired as I write things down (one of the reasons I'm such an avid journal writer). From there, we started sketching and I developed six ideas, but am having trouble narrowing them down to one design to do. We did a group review and everyone expressed their opinions on which they liked best for each person. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you view "you have a lot of good ideas," I did not get a resounding "that's the one" on a couple of ideas, just "that's cool and it will be interesting to see how it develops." Therefore, I'd appreciate your opinion on which ones to do, I have to select one of the six.

Below you will see the name of the play, a brief description about it (mostly what I could find out about it), the original poster, my brainstorming session, and my sketches along with some explanations.

1. "I Am My Own Wife"

This is the one we've been "encouraged" to do. It's a one-man show about this person that was a cross-dresser (man to woman) in the 1940s in East Berlin, who survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes of the time. He/She owned an antique shop and would hide other outcasts, but later became an informant for the Stasi.

My brainstorming web went off in the direction of identity and how others see us and how we see ourselves, then the element of secrecy came into play.

Ideas: 1) A man's head looking into a mirror and a woman's face looking back, showing that he/she's got a secret. 2) A man's head with the pearls (pearls are prevalent in every other poster for the play), again with the secret reference.

3) I don't think I'll use this one, I was just playing around, but it's s/he looking forward against a background of the Nazi and Communist symbol. 4) Just the lips and the hand over them, the lips would be made of the Nazi and the Communist symbols.

5) There is a really cool image of an eye on the internet with a transparent image over it, which I duplicated on the eyes here: one for the Nazis, the other for the Communists. 6) I just wanted to fill the last box, it's supposed to show the omnipresence of the regimes, but he/she is holding to her pearls and the perception with which she identifies herself.

2. "Chess"

This is about a chess tournament between an American and a Russian during the Cold War. From what I understood, there was a lot of manipulation, mind games, and propaganda. There's a love triangle with the American, Russian, and the woman manager from the American team, she and the Russian player fall in love somewhere around Act 2. Since it was during the Cold War, there was tension on and off the board.

My brainstorming web: As I did it, I got the thought of pawns on a chessboard and then thought about how the Russian and the woman were pawns and being played with. That, with the tension of the Cold War gave me an idea about using pawns and "games." I also thought about checkmates and stalemates, so I sought to incorporate the two.

Ideas: 1) A red pawn versus a blue pawn. 2) A more masculine-shaped pawn and a feminine-shaped pawn that are being put into a stalemate by two hands showing the manipulation that was going on behind the scenes.

3) A male pawn and a female pawn to show that tension, also seen are the hands that control them. 4) This is an aerial view of the board. You can see the two players arms--tense--waiting for the other one to move with the pawns in front of each other.

5) All the pieces are pawns, with two in front for the stalemate. It references the politics of the Cold War. 6) The four main characters (The American, Russian, Woman, and Russian Manager) in the play are all reaching for the pawn to take control of the game.

3. "Walter Cronkite is Dead"

Two women, one from a liberal state and the other from a conservative state, are forced to share a table in a crowded airport. At first there is tension as the two only see the surface of each other and their respective political and lifestyle views. As the play progresses, they begin to see that they have more in common than they originally saw.

I liked the idea of the two coming to know each other and overcoming their perceived differences, depicted as red and blue. But, I mostly played around with the two, one red and one blue, until I got something I liked.

Ideas: 1) The red woman and the blue woman shake hands and the handshake is purple to represent coming together. 2) The two women at the table with body language playing a bigger role--more open vs. more closed-off.

3) The left wall is red, the right wall is blue, and the floor is purple. The two women are shown in white. 4) The same concept as the other one, but the women are more abstract.

5) The two women are looking up at the "Departures" screen, which says the title of the play (I thought it was funny: departures-death, get it?). 6) It only shows the bottom half of the women with more stereotypical luggage: a backpack and duffel bag for the liberal and a briefcase or a designer bag and a roll-on suitcase for the conservative. The luggage contains the name of the play, one of my classmates liked this because of the idea of bringing their baggage along.

For the last one, my friend Peter also just gave me the suggestion of doing one woman (probably the abstract one) with a red and blue paint stripe across her.

Well, what are your thoughts? I have a couple that I like more than others, but would appreciate your feedback. Or, if you have a whole different idea, please feel free to share! The best designs are a collaborative effort, and I would appreciate any help or advice you have to offer.

Second Project: Theater Signage

We've been assigned our second project. For this project, we have to take three theater posters from the Signature Theater 2010/11 season and redesign them. We've been given our choice of many, including "Chess," "Wheatley's Folly," "Art," "Sunset Boulevard," "Walter Cronkite is Dead," "Side by Side by Sondheim," and "I Am My Own Wife." The last one, "I Am My Own Wife" is also associated with a contest and if we submit our pieces and at least become a finalist, it's a big deal. We've all been "encouraged" to do the contest entry and then we can choose the other two posters.

We have six weeks, more or less, to complete them. While I liked my last project fine, I hope this one is better. :)

My First Project: Done!

About a month after I started, I finished my first project! Exciting, right?! You'll notice that the final project is different from my initial sketches and design. As cheesy as this sounds, the original idea just didn't "speak" to me when I started to work with it in the computer. I liked the thoughts and concepts, but something was lacking, so I just scrapped it and started over, a bold move for my first project when I had a deadline, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. So I redesigned it and I like it a lot better.

Stephen, my fabulous teacher, helped me with the layout (I'm still struggling with that a little) and guided me in the right direction to give the design that extra push in the right direction. I'm grateful for his help! He offered me some really good feedback, too; again, I'm grateful.

I ended up making a series of posters for the project, each a little different, but consistent and I like it. I learned a lot of skills and since I did the same type of thing, I was able to reinforce some skill sets. To appease your excitement, below are the series in my project:

It was an interesting process. To make the objects look more well-used, I found images online and blew them up large on the copier and played around to make them lighter or darker until I found the right contrast; I wanted there to be some contrast in the piece, especially since it's a monochromatic template. After finding the right version, I crumbled up the paper (literally) and scraped the peaks of the paper off with an exacto knife so it looked more used. Then, I re-copied it, scanned it into photoshop, made a mask for it (which was easy since it was black and white originally), and imorted it into InDesign.

The typography came from rapid prototype. I kept doing versions of it until I found one I liked. I started using the grungy "Dirtyhouse" font, but as I played with it, I realized that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, so I used a font called "Whitney," which has a lot of different weights to it, so it gave me flexibility and consistency all at once, and it's clean and sharp to give the message that extra boost. For the logo in the bottom right hand corner, I used the same font, but hand wrote the "s affects" and scanned it into illustrator, did a live trace, and made it into the logo you see here.

After making our designs, we had to apply them in different ways by using Photshop. We put them on billboards or other signage and on t-shirts. I chose this billboard picture because it had two posters and since my design was a series, I thought it was a good way to showcase more elements of it. Stephen taught me how to make the effects look realistic, instead of like a bad photoshop job like it would have been had I been left to my own devices.

We all had to make t-shirts. For the t-shirts, we used the pen tool (which I love, much to many people's surprise) and I re-colored it to match the theme of my posters.

And that's my first project, what do you think? I still have a long way to go, but at least I'm one step closer now than I was before. One of the main lessons I learned from this project is that sometimes you have to be brave and start over if it's just not working for you. Thankfully, I still retained some elements of my original concept, but kept re-working them because it was never quite right, but I'm grateful to have perservered and had Stephen help me so I could get a far better deisgn and concept out of it.

We've also been assigned our second project (more details to come), which I am excited about, but not really sure where to begin with it. I will be soliciting more feedback with this one, so let me know what you think!

Oklahoma, Part Two

I finished the poster for Bill's party! I was pretty excited about it. :) Unfortuantely, the colors don't reflect truly here, the purple is more of a true purple and less of a plum and the blue is lighter, but it still looks okay digitally (better in print). I found a cool kind of bluegrass-inspired font and learned how to manipulate it a little to fall around the bottom of the state. So, that's one decoration done, now to focus on the rest. :)

It's been a fun side project. It gave me a lot of practice and helped me fine-tune my skills. Now, I'll just need to find more projects to help me grow and learn. And it's helped me keep my mind distracted from some things that are less than pleasant and this was really fun for me to do.

Happy (early) birthday Bill! Thanks for giving me the chance to practice some skills and plan a party!

Black History Month Project, Part One

My first "real" school project is in honor of Black History Month. It is an open topic but should send a message about why we should concern ourselves with studying black history, why it matters to us, etc. I've always appreciated black history; I remember my 4th grade project about black history, we had to research a famous African-American, past or present, and if s/he was alive, we wrote letters to them. I'm still waiting for my letter from Whitney Houston, but it's been 16 years, so I can probably let that one go.

In all seriousness, I've always found it interesting: maybe because I love history or because I love people or a combination of both. I remember growing up and studying this and being totally surprised at how things used to be, I guess I'm just naive because my mom taught my sister and I to respect and appreciate people for who they are regardless of their race and I thought everyone did that. Sometimes it's good to be naive.

When I first started thinking about my project, the words and feelings that came to my head were of progress, moving forward, endurance, overcoming, etc. I liked the idea of reflecting on all that's been accomplished and drawing strength from that to go forward. Then as I talked to Stephen, he helped me fine tune a little to get my idea to be more powerful, to send a message that made people think or remember, something along those lines. Then he told me that in some places, black history isn't being taught or not taught in its fullness and that made me concerned because there's so much to know and learn from it and I started thinking that if we don't talk about it, our children won't know about it and could be ignorant to some really important things.

Then, my ideas shifted into more of an innovative attitude, I started researching some inventions or innovations that came from black Americans that affect each of us; things like the gas mask, stoplight, open heart surgery, etc. In researching I also found out the fire escape, fire extinguisher, the thing that keeps train cars separated (the Jenny Coupler), the carbon filament for light bulbs, and many other things were invented by black Americans. Cool, huh? From there, I got the idea of "to know is to live" since a lot of the research I found was that they invented a lot of life-sustaining things that we take for granted or go unnoticed, and I started to sketch some ideas.

The left side of the page is my list of notes on inventions/innovations I found from my research. The right side includes my sketches. The top are my original ideas. The bottom are my refined ones, they show one advancement, the name of the person associated with it, and a caption to go with each one ("saving our soldiers," "saving our children,", etc.). I wanted my designs to have an emotional appeal to them.

Once I had a concept, I had to start researching designers or design periods and draw from them to create my idea, since I was going for an emotional reaction, Stephen pointed me in a direction towards people like Neville Brody, Saul Bass, and others of that period who went more for emotional messaging. I had to find some of their works from which to draw inspiration.

This is a piece by Neville Brody. I like that it's simple but has elements of contrast to it. I decided that to make my design the most effective, I'd want it to have a strong contrast between the image and the words. I looked at other works by Brody, many of which I liked, but decided that this best fit what was in my head. In addition to the contrast, I like that while this is a clean design, if you look closely, it's a little rough around the edges. I thought it would be a good effect to make the gas mask (the sketch I chose to pursue) a little rougher so it looks well used. I also liked the use of the monochromatic color palette.

Then I sketched out my idea. As part of the project, we had to hand draw (or trace) everything including the font. I chose a font I liked ("Dirtyhouse" by Neville Brody because it's a little rough around the edges and fits nicely with the design), traced it and copied it onto the image. I traced the gas mask too, I'm not that good of a freehand drawer.

You'll notice in Brody's work above that he put a type of textured background in his work, I was encouraged by Stephen to do the same. I decide to use semi-open circles. I like circles, if it's not too weird to have a favorite geometric shape, mine is the circle. The cool thing about circles here is that they can look like smoke, gas, or explosives if shaded and designed correctly and I thought it was a powerful image to have a gas mask with smoke surrounding it. The type is a little rough but it works with the rest of the piece, especially since I want the gas mask a little rough around the edges. I made the inventor's name a simple, clean sans serif font to provide some contrast within the typography too.

And because I'm an over-achiever, I started to work on my color board early. I tried to re-create the monochromatic theme and appearance. The words in the corners indicate the Pantone color so I could find it for easy reference later (but I've changed it a little bit now).

Like I said, this is a rough draft and I've already changed it a little, but I think this will turn out to be a cool project. The more I work on it and the more I learn, the better I think it will look. Rough form that it is, it's a start and it's all about learning the skills and I have to start somewhere.

I'll update as the project continues. The next couple of weeks will mostly be devoted to working on the project.

On another note, I am really enjoying the program. I feel satisfied and happy when I leave class. In class I feel like I'm good at something: like I have potential, that my ideas matter, are heard, and are appreciated. It also provides a good distraction from the hard things I've been facing in life recently. This was definitely the right decision for me and I look forward to learning more as I continue.

Oklahoma, Part One

My class has been going really well! It's so nice to go to class, feel good there, and feel like I'm a competent individual; it's been a hard week at work and in life, so a little reassurance that I have talent at something is encouraging!

I'm hard at work on my Black History Month project (updates in a later post), but I also have a fun little side project. One of my close friends, Bill, is turning 30 this month, and we are of course welcoming him into his 30s in style with a big shindig! Yours truly is planning the party (and enjoying it a lot; I may be more excited about the party than he is)! Bill is from Oklahoma and loves Bluegrass, so in honor of him, we're having a Bluegrass/state fair theme party. Here is where I confess that I've never actually been to a state fair, fun fair or carnival most definitely, but never an actual state fair. Rather than letting that deter me, I have been doing a lot of Internet research to make sure my colors, decorations, and food go with a state fair, and I made sure to look into the Oklahoma state fair (I'm a little too detail-oriented sometimes). In googling the Oklahoma State Fair, I found a sign for it that I liked and felt I could incorporate into the party, but there was a problem: it says 2010 and this is 2011 (see below). I talked to my mom (also a very creative person) and we figured that I could change it using Photoshop or something.


Luckily, I'm in graphic design school and have access to Photoshop and other cool programs. The next day I had class, I took the picture in and showed it to my teacher Stephen and he told me that I could change it using Adobe Illustrator, the program we just learned. This was a win-win because not only could I change the sign to reflect the correct date, it gave me excellent practice on the computer and I learned some new tricks in the process. We had some lab days to work on our projects and I'm lucky to be a little ahead so I could work on both my school project and this, so I took a couple of hours each day I had class this week to work on it.

I figured the best/coolest way to describe the process was to show it, so I included pictures of it from beginning to end (mostly).

Step 1: Enlarging and Tracing. We enlarged the image so it was large enough to trace (another flashback to elementary school). It was a little pixelated so it made for interesting tracing, but that's okay. After the tracing, we made a copy and I went over it in pen to clean up the lines a little, change the year, and darken them so that I would have an easier time when I put it into the computer.

Step 2: Scanning the outline into the computer. We scanned the outline into the computer so I could use it in Illustrator.

Step 3: Creating the background. I actually did this as the last step, but for visual purposes it looks better to put it here. Because the shadows on the letters don't cover the paper, there are blank spaces for the background, but it can't be white as that's the color of the shadows, and the original background is this beige kind of color.

Step 4: Creating the shadows. Since the letters will go over the shadows, they didn't need to exactly follow the letters, just enough to create the right shadow/3D effect. That explains why they look ugly here, but doing it this way saved me so much time.

Step 5: Tracing the letters. Finally, I traced the letters and the state and tried to match the colors, except for the "a." I don't like that in the original it was the same color as the border because it all blended together, so I re-colored it to give it the extra pop.

Step 6: Put it all together and voila! I put all the layers back together and had a finished project. This is a before and after, you'll notice a few small changes from the original to mine: some colors, cleaner lines, and of course the 2011.

So, why call this part one? I figured that if I did this much and if I was going to make it large enough for a poster anyway, that I might as well add a finishing touch to it and put "Bill's Bluegrass Birthday" (yes, I named the party) on it to make it an entrance poster. What do you think? I think it turned out pretty good for my first real project in Illustrator. I really enjoyed using Illustrator for this, I think it may be a new favorite program, there's so much cool stuff to do with it. Stephen said that I have a talent for it and that it turned out well, I thought that was nice of him to say.

The rest of it (part 2) will be fun because I get to play around with typography. :) I haven't figured out exactly what type of typography I want to use, so it will be a surprise for all of us; hopefully it turns out well.

The party's in two weeks, so I'll be sure to post part two soon.

Flashback to the First Grade

Our first in class exercises involved construction paper and handwriting, reminds you of the first grade a little bit, doesn't it? You may be thinking, "You're paying a lot of money to play with construction paper, really?" Technically, that's true. The first few weeks of the program involve teaching us to recognize how we think/create and get ideas flowing. The construction paper teaches us design concepts (some of which are listed below) and the handwriting exercise teaches us about typography.

I've also started working on my first real design project that is supposed to be in honor of Black History Month. I've got some ideas running through my head, but I need to do some research on past design styles so I can plan it out better. I'll keep you updated as I progress. In the meantime, here are the exercises for your viewing pleasure. :)

Exercise 1: Symmetry

Create one symmetrical composition that is composed of three lines, two circles, and two rectangles.

Since I only had black and white construction paper to use, I put the composition on a blue background so they could be seen easier.

Exercise 2: Asymmetry

Create one asymmetrical composition that is composed of three lines, two circles, and two rectangles.

Exercise 3: Positive/Negative Space
Create one composition that uses the negative space as an active design component. Use a subject pair to communicate--birth/death, love/hate, etc.

I decided to use light and dark as my pair.

Exercise 4: Handwriting, Typography, and the 27th Letter
We got this printout with a serif and a sans serif font and we had to draw the letters of our name by hand, like they did before computers; that's why it was an exercise in handwriting. The second part of the exercise was to create a "27th letter" that followed the serif and sans serif format.

Here's the handout

This is what my letters looked like.

My 27th letter combined the k, g, and p. I included the "p" aspect because it started to look too much like a rabbit before.

My First Week

I started my first week of classes this week and so far it's great!

Outside the school on my first day

My first week of classes has been really good and really interesting, I'm really enjoying it! We began the class by talking a little bit about the creative process and the history of design. One of the very first things we talked about was to not be embarrassed or self-conscious about our work. There will be people who don't like it, but we shouldn't paralyze ourselves with fear or anxiety because it may not be perfect or loved by all; rather, we should just do our best and be consistent. Paul Rand said, "Don't try to be original, just be good," because in the end consistency is the key to a good designer. And Elizabeth Gilbert said that we shouldn't be afraid, shouldn't be daunted, but just show up and do our job.

On the first day, we also talked a little about the creative process and where ideas come from. Ideas can come from research, what we glean from our surroundings, divine inspiration, dreams, collaboration, etc. There are so many things that can influence a good idea, but the key is to not be a complete isolationist about it and the best designers are those who can learn from and collaborate with other people; sometimes it takes a village. It got me thinking about my own creative process and while I'm not exactly sure how my ideas generate, I can see how I've been influenced by each of the above-mentioned ways, except for dreams, I've never been much of a dreamer. I have however woken up with ideas in mind, so maybe I am influenced by my sub-conscious after all.

We spent the rest of the first day talking about the history of design, which I found really interesting. It was cool to see how graphic design has developed and evolved over the decades, from shortly before 1920 to today, just the evolution is awesome. We looked at some posters, magazine spreads, logos, and other designs to fully understand the history while we talked about designers who influenced the field in the various media of design. It was really interesting.

My second day was a special situation because I won't be in class on Saturday, my teacher let me come in a different day with the full time class so I could learn what he'll be teaching on Saturday so that I don't fall behind. We talked about color--I had no idea how involved it was--and the differences between print color and web color (CMYK vs. RGB) and were introduced to the Pantone colors.

After the color introduction, we started working on the computer with Adobe Illustrator, a program with which I am unfamiliar, so that was exciting. We learned about the pen tool and traced a picture to learn how to use it to create curves and straight lines. I still need some practice, but it was only the first day, so I'll learn the more I do it.

And class was canceled last night because of weather.

I've also been assigned my first two projects. One involves construction paper and creating a symmetrical, asymmetrical, and positive/negative space using black and white construction paper. The other is to draw on a design movement or designer's style of the past and create a project for Black History Month. I'm looking forward to both and have gotten my wheels turning a little on them already. I'll post the projects (and processes as needed) as I go, so look for more posts soon.

So, my first week has been really good and it will be fun to see what more I learn along the way!

The Beginning

I always said that I wouldn't start a blog until I was married, I don't know why I chose that as a landmark, but I did. Maybe because my life pretty much consists of work, church, and sleep. Doesn't sound too exciting, does it? And between my journal and Facebook, I keep a pretty good history of my life. But then I decided to pursue a certification in graphic and web design, and thought that for my token readers who want to know/see what I'll be creating and producing during my program (not just at the end), this would be the best way to showcase my work, especially the printed work.

Thus, the "Brownie by Design" blog was created. I'm grateful for my last name as it opens so many naming conventions! As I said, this blog will not be so much of a personal, "here's what's going on in my life" blog--though personal things may filter through--as it will be a way to display my work during the next 18 months and beyond.

Some may wonder how I decided to do this, so here's a brief background. I think scrapbooking is a family trait, as the majority of women in my family seem to be interested and talented at it, and I was blessed with the same trait. I've enjoyed scrapbooking for as long as I can remember and a good friend of mine and I recently decided that if my life were to be an artistic medium, it would be a scrapbook. That being said, I appreciate how pictures can convey meaning and how one can use a combination of pictures and words to present a message. As a sophomore in high school, I took a multimedia class where we learned the basics of graphic and web design, created projects, learned PowerPoint, etc. It was one of my favorite classes in high school and I decided that I would major in Multimedia Design in college (since I'd ruled out becoming a marine biologist after taking a biology class). When I went off to college, they no longer offered Multimedia Design as a major (it happens at small schools) so I pursued a degree in Business Marketing, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and did my creative scrapbooking, posters, etc. in my free time.

After graduating in 2006, I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for 18 months and it was one of the best things I've ever done. Upon returning from my mission, I felt it was time to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I had some of ideas of things I'd like my job to be, but wasn't sure exactly what job that was. I started working for a law firm and began thinking about a Masters' degree, but was undecided on the subject and didn't want to start a program only to realize half-way through that it wasn't what I wanted to do. So I waited and I prayed about it (a lot) to figure out what to do. After working in the law firm for 18 months, I got a new job as an administrative assistant, which is fine, pays the bills, and has great benefits, but isn't what I want to do forever. So, I kept praying and pondering, seeking to figure out what to do. I even took the GRE, but ultimately I received the answer that a Masters' wasn't the right move for me, at least not at the moment.

About six months after receiving the answer, I had a mission reunion that took me to Salt Lake City. The reunion was wonderful as was seeing some old friends, but perhaps the greatest blessing was that I got away from my circumstances for the better part of a week and my mind was clear and more open to direction. On the way home from Utah, as I was writing in my journal (often a revelatory experience for me) I had the thought come that while pursuing a Masters' wasn't right, maybe I should consider a certification (something the career counselor at work advised me of) in graphic design. As I thought about it, I felt really good about it, as I've had an interest in graphic design since I was 16. When I got home, I looked into programs and schools, went on a couple of visits, prayed about it, and decided to pursue my certification in graphic and web design at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University in Georgetown, part-time while I continue to work my full-time job.

Thus, the decision wasn't a difficult one, it was just a long time coming. Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned from this is that truly our prayers are answered, it's just in the Lord's timing. I'm grateful to be starting the program and know that this is the right time for me to do it. Had I tried to do it earlier, it wouldn't have worked out and I can see how things came together in my life recently to prepare me for this. (For an excellent talk on timing from a modern-day Apostle, I recommend "Timing" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks.)

I'm really excited about this! The more I think about it and prepare for it, the better I feel about it. And, I can see myself in this career and enjoying it.

I also want to thank all my friends and family for their support during this, it really means a lot!

So, here I go! Classes start January 24, wish me luck (my two token readers!)!

As a starting point, kind of a "before" picture, here is a poster I did recently for my good friend's birthday. I'm looking forward to learning new things, concepts, and programs to make this year's better.