vuvaarts102-01

[vuvaarts102-01]

COURSE REFLECTION

Hey everyone. This is my final blog post for my ARTS 102 class, I am so sad! This course has turned into my favorite course out of all the classes I have taken this semester. I have grown do much academically and personally through this course. Starting this class, I had absolutely no experience with any of the Adobe programs, or anything to do with digital design. I was terrified that it would be difficult for me. I also had to be very self disciplined to adhere to all of the project guidelines and due dates for this class. With each project completed, I slowly learned more about Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. I became more confident and learned to step out of my comfort zone a little more with each project. I really looked up to my professor during this course, not only was she the most helpful, organized and professional professor I had out of all of my classes, she always made me feel comfortable with asking questions and was always encouraging to students that they could do whatever they set their mind to. She is also an amazing designer and I really look up to the work she creates. I learned to be disciplined and to keep my cool even if I was not understanding something right away. We also had monthly meetups for this course. Although I was only able to go to one because I had class that time each month, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about other designers and the work they do. They were so helpful with answering all students questions of any times, and it helped me to see all of the different kinds of jobs you can do in this field. Overall, I am very proud with how much I learned throughout this course, and all of the projects I created and I learned to work through all different kinds of challenges along the way. I still have a lot more to learn, but I can not wait to continue to learn more about the field of design and see where it will take me in my life. Im so thankful for ARTS 102!!

[vuvaarts102-01]

11/19

Hey everyone! I have gotten so much done in the past few weeks! For starters, I started and finished project 4, Syntax and Semantics! This was a very fun project that helped get me more familiar with indesign. I had to find 4 related pictures and describe the syntax and semantics of each. Learning to type in this way was difficult, but rewarding! I also enjoyed learning how to format this, and getting a refresher on editing images in photo shop and linking them into indesign. Overall I reslly enjoyed this project, and it has helped me with the project we are now working on, project 5. This is our final project in this class, I am so sad. This is a process book based on all of our work and process in this class through this semester. I started by collecting all images and text that corelate with every project I have done so far. This project is also in indesign, so it is a bit challenging for me, but I am starting to get the hang of things. Trying to design and format this book and been very hard for me, but I am up for the challenge. I have included some progress images on my book so far. I have already changed some things around from when I first made it, and I will continue to do so. I plan to try to finish page by page as a strategy to help me get this done in a timley mannor. I look forward to the progress I make on this project, and how much I grow with this program! I can not wait to see the end result of my hard work!

[vuvaarts102-01]

10/29

Hey everyone! These past few weeks I was able to finish up my logo project for Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz! My Beetlejuice project came together pretty easily, and I made few adjustments from my last post. I changed the type around to suit it better and brightened up the colors a bit. I also made a greyscale version of the logo. I am proud with the way it turned out! As for my Lydia Deetz mark, I had a little bit if a harder time trying to bring it all together. I refined the camera lens a LOT. I am very proud of how it turned out and am happy with the product. However, I changed around my Lydia design in the middle a few times. I completely deleted the first design and created a hat and lips. I wasn't too happy with how it turned out and after peer review, I decided to take out the lips and just leave Lydias hat. I also changed the typeface for the Lydia mark as well to help fit her goth and young personality better. This logo was also made in greyscale. Overall, I am pretty proud with how these turned out. The color, typeface and refinement are very suiting for each character. This was my first time using illustrator, and it was not the easiest for me. I am excited to improve my skills moving forward to hopefully make my work even better. I got to write concept statements in the final layout for each design and I really enjoyed getting to talk about why I made the choices I did, and what Gestalt principles I used in my project. Overall, this project was challenging but in a great way, and I can not wait to learn more about all of the adobe programs and the world of graphic design!

[vuvaarts102-01]

10/15

Hey everyone! Project three is coming along! For this project, we had to make logo designs for two character from the same movie. We were given three movies to pick from with various characters from each. I went with the movie Beetlejuice, and I chose Beetlejuice himself and Lydia Deetz for my two logo character designs. I started off this project by creating 15 thumb nail sketches for each character. After limiting down to a few designs I liked for each, I made sketches of greater detail as well as picked out color swatches, typography inspiration as well as image inspiration for both logos. Once that was finalized I went ahead and brought them into illustrator. I made a draft copy for each and then continued to edit from there. Illustrator has been VERY challenging for me to try to get the hang of. Once again, I have never used this program before, so it has taken hours of watching videos and lectures to figure out how to do what I want. The lens for the Lydia logo took me about 2 hours to figure out how to create correctly and symmetrically. My logos are not done for either of the marks, but I am close to getting where I would like. For the Beetlejuice logo, I want to find a font that better suits it. For Lydia, as to my awesome professors advice, I am going to try to re-illustrate Lydia herself to see if I can make it work better with the image as a whole. Also, I want to look into different type options, as I am not pleased with how this looks. This has been very difficult, but rewarding as well. I feel accomplished learning this new program that once was foreign to me!

[vuvaarts102-01]

10/1

Hey everyone! So there are going to be two weeks worth of coverage in this post! In the first week, I got to finish my great ideas poster, and let me just say I had so much fun making this and I am so proud of how it turned out. I had to learn so many new skills through this project and even though I wanted to give up, I kept going and I am so glad I did. I really wanted to include a hand drawn element into my poster. I learned how to scan it in and I learned how to multiply and flip the faces I drew to create more of them. I also learned how to change the sizes. I created a new diverse background that differs from my last post, and added the text and author to it. I tired a few different text styles until I found one I liked. The only thing looking back I might change about this is to bring the text down. When my poster was peer reviewed, this is one comments I got back. I am planning to try to get this printed out and put it in my room! Also, I learned how to use a mock up and that was pretty awesome. It was really interesting to see my design come to life. For this second week, we just started a logo design project for a movie character! I chose the movie Beetlejuice, and the two characters I chose are Beetlejuice himself and Lydia Deetz. I completed my thumbnail sketches for this project (15 per character) and I am really excited to get into the next stages. I will learn how to use illustrator for this project, and I am really looking forward to that! I am curious to learn how to edit a drawing once it is scanned into the computer, and I know I will be learning a lot of that using illustrator. Being new to all of these programs, it is very challenging for me, but I really enjoy these projects and this class! I can not wait to see the things I can continue to create!

[vuvaarts102-01]

9/17

Hey everyone! The past few weeks working on my poster project have been challenging for me, but I am proud of what I have accomplished so far. We started off by coming up with 15 thumbnail sketches to go along with a quote of our choice off a list. I originally started this project with a completely different design using photography, but I changed to this design because I wanted to use more of a hand drawn approach. Once I figured this out, I sketched out my design and colored it in how I wanted. I then had to learn how to scan my drawing into my computer which was way easier to do than I thought. Once I did this, I was able to upload it to photoshop and play around with the layout. I learned how to use the magnetic lasso tool to move around the faces I had drawn. I played around with this until I found a layout I liked. I also added a concrete textured background and played with the opacity of my drawing. I am excited to add the quote to my poster using Indesign. I have never used this program so I am curious to see what typography I can create. I am looking forward to seeing the end result of my poster especially in a mock up, as this is also new to me. Even though learning all of these new concepts are hard for me, I have the drive and desire to keep pushing through to learn about what interests me the most!

[vuvaarts102-01]

9/4

Hey everyone! This week, I really enjoyed learning how to use photoshop. I have never used any of the adobe programs before. The snippets project was quite challenging for me, but I enjoyed pushing past the problems that occurred. This is my snippet called “Donut Wrld”. It is my favorite out of the three I did. I was inspired by hearing these two kids at our on campus dining talk about their favorite donut shops. My favorite donut is Strawberry frosted, so that is why I picked this for my work. I chose the space theme because I liked how with this image it brings your focus point straight up to the donut.  I had to do a little research to figure out how to get some effects on photo shop, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing so. I spent a total of about 3 hours on each of my snippets. I want to take the next few days to spend some time on illustrator and see if I can figure it out! I Look forward to continuing to figure out adobe programs better, and expanding my knowledge so I can create the best work on my ability!