Latest from class

Here are two more assignments from my class. The still life was a further exploration I did of the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator just for my own edification and the Starbucks ad mock up is this week's project. I'm pretty pleased with my design--we had certain criteria we had to incorporate, including making our own snowflake and turning it into a brush tool. We also recreated the actual Starbucks logo piece by piece using the pen tool. Pretty neat, huh?

He's obviously never been to Baumholder...

I got the feedback from my instructor on my logo for the local hair salon, Jung. The professor had constructive criticism, but was mostly appalled at the use of Hobo as my font choice. I really see just what he means...I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, other than I was trying to use the built in curves of the letters in my design because we hadn't yet learned the tools that I would need to create such an effect on my own. Still, that's kind of a lame-o excuse for sacrificing design for an idea. It wasn't required, but I wanted to revisit the logo to try and make improvements. What do you guys think?

The logo:

Here's the rest of the identity system. Envelope:

Letterhead:

Business card:

And last post, I didn't include these for the old logo, so here's something for comparison.

I think I've made some real improvements. Although I agree with what the instructor had to say, he also said something I found really funny...he said the font felt "dated and unrefined" and not German at all. I get the German part, but dated and unrefined? He's obviously never been to Baumholder. ;)

Illustration Friday: Celebrate

For this week's topic I'm revisiting a drawing a did back in 2006. If you check my archives from...I think it was July 2006, you can find the original pencil sketch. I re-did it this time using Adobe Illustrator.

Actually, I just checked my archives and I had only posted a weird-o solarized version. Here's the original sketch:

A Sampling

I'm in the second week of my online class, "Digital Tools," and so far, I'm loving it. We're exploring the Adobe creative suite and the class is approached from a graphic design perspective, which I am pretty unfamiliar with but find I'm really enjoying. I think graphic design is something I've been noticing for a while now without consciously realizing it.

In this project, we were supposed to use the tools in Adobe Illustration to create a vase and daisies. That part of the assignment was pretty straight forward. We were then given room to create a background for the rest of the design, and this is what I came up with. I think I'm most pleased with the color scheme. I sometimes have a hard time with color, but I think I'm improving. It was a little difficult approaching this assignment because of the specifications for the vase and flowers. Were I to have full creative control, I would have come up with something different. It's really fun getting to better understand the program, though!

Illustration Friday: Climbing

I'm almost too late to get in for this week's Illustration Friday topic! I started a class online this week, so that's taken priority and Evelyn has been a bit cranky the past few days, requiring extra attention. Here I am, staying up WAY too late, though, because I really wanted to do this drawing.

This idea, originally featured two dwarves climbing up her hair. There was a mountain goat standing on her head as well. I ended up changing them to just a squirrel....because that makes more sense?

I wish I had more time to work on Mr. Squirrel. The lady I got more or less what I was aiming for. Squirrely could use some work, but not as much as I could use some sleep.

Evelyn and the strawberry

Today at the commissary there were fresh strawberries. I don't even know when strawberries are in season...I'm guessing now? I have no idea, but these looked delicious. As part of an assignment for my online class I was asked to explore different tools in Adobe Illustrator. Needing something to draw, I though of my berry beauties and pulled one out as reference. Evelyn was captivated. It's always amusing to me what REALLY gets her attention. She loves coke cans (by coke I mean all varieties of soda, pop, or whatever everybody else calls it), and Chokydar is quickly becoming highly interesting to her. This berry caught her attention for sure. Then she went back to mouthing her block.

Daily Doodle

'Vacant' Process

Illustration Friday: Vacant

After two weeks of not participating I'm early this week! Woo hoo! This week's IF topic is 'vacant' and it reminded me of a photo I'd taken back in Oklahoma. I was playing with our new camera and took this accidental picture that I ended up saving because my blank expression was priceless. I am REALLY enjoying playing with my new Bamboo Fun tablet and played around in Illustrator for this one. I saved along the way so you can see my progress in the next post.