mix/match designs

Final Magazine Cover

2010-07-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

For the final magazine cover design, I chose to do a hybrid of a poster cover and "pictures married to type." My magazine is a mimic of Smithsonian which is one of the few magazines with minimal text on its covers. It caters to a well educated, affluent audience, and the confidence in its cover design reflects that.

The cover picture is a photo I took at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's one of the best photos I've taken, so I knew I didn't want it cluttered with any other graphics. I wanted to keep the bottom right-hand corner bare because that space is typically used for the name and address of the subscriber. Still, I added a banner as an alternate version so it lures your eye diagonally from the top left-hand corner with the jelly fish to the bottom (and hopefully into the magazine).

Selecting the appropriate text was the most difficult. I wanted the text to differentiate from the title, but still compliment the overall look. I wanted the main story to pop, so I added an ocean ripple effect and gradient overlay. Simple, clean, yet enticing was my goal, and I think I achieved just that.

Text as a Clipping Mask

2010-07-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

This image is derived from a photo I took at the Coca-Cola shop in Las Vegas. I wanted to emphasize the brightness of colors from the variety of sodas, which resulted in a very 1980s motif.

Pop Dots

2010-07-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

I desaturated a photo I took of Big Ben and used the Pop Dots technique against a purplish-blue background.

Color Range & Quick Mask

2010-07-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Photoshop Plug-Ins

2010-07-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

I downloaded the Auto FX Dreamy Photo Plug-In. I did not find the process of finding a quality plug-in very rewarding. In the time it takes to a useful plug-in and to install it properly, I probably could have found some other way within Photoshop to create the same effect. Even so, I still liked the results of this particular plug-in with a photo I took at Vasona Lake Park. The plug-in creates a dream-like haze, but I felt it gave this particular photo a vintage feel, so I aimed for an old postcard look by adding the gray boarders. Overall, the photo has a more ethereal quality that makes it more interesting an appealing.

Surrealist Image

2010-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

To be quite honest, I am not a fan of Surrealist artwork. As simple as it appears, I worked a lot on this image. I used the Pen Tool to create the outline of a plastic coffee cup and straw along with the free-form shape above it. I used Vectors for the heart, spade, club, and diamond. Take from it what you will :)

Midterm Collage

2010-07-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Millions of people around the world are familiar with the classic animated films of the Walt Disney Company. They have become embedded in the fabric of American culture and in the childhood memories of generations of families, including mine. For my midterm project, I want to focus on the movie that is the foundation of Disney animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). Based on Grimm’s Fairy Tale, Disney’s adaptation combined innovative technology and timeless storytelling to create a formula that appeals to audiences of all ages.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a pioneering project for the motion picture industry on many fronts. Not only was it the first feature-length animated film, it was also the first animated film completed in color. Taking on such an innovative endeavor was met by skepticism amongst some critics, calling it “Disney’s Folly.” Producing and implementing the new technologies required to bring the film to fruition was only one challenge. Another element to consider was how to effectively translate an animated story and create characters audiences will care about. One technique used to accomplish this was the decision to produce the film similarly to an operetta, using musical themes and songs throughout the movie. The risk paid off in monumental way with Snow White becoming the largest grossing film of its time and garnered Disney a special Oscar as well as seven miniature Oscars. The elements used in Snow White would set the foundation for Disney films for years to come.

With my montage I hope to provide a sense of nostalgia while demonstrating the rigor of the animation process. What was revolutionary process a mere seventy years ago, is now thought of as a traditional means of animation compared to modern computer generated characters, therefore I want the montage to have a vintage appeal. Being that Snow White was the first full-color animated film, color will also be a large component in creating that classic Disney appeal. The main message I want to convey is the importance of storytelling and the whimsy of fairytales that captivates audiences.

Thanks to the number of Disney fans, there are an abundance of online resources to draw from for this project. To incorporate the animation process, I found sketches of a particular scene with the Seven Dwarves.

Written Sources:
Disney: The Ultimate Visual Guide, A Dorling Kindserley Book
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,758747,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film)

Graphic Sources:
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?m=200701
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1775
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=934
http://www.vegalleries.com/disopc.html#sno
http://magicalscreencaps.com/images/snowwhite/gallery.php?page=1

Retouching & Correcting

2010-07-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Typography

2010-07-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of a sunrise in Iran. I brightened up the photo a bit to see more of the details. The words are taken from the song "Meet Me on the Equinox" by Death Cab for Cutie.

Creating Masks

2010-07-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

After many attempts at creating a mask from scratch with multiple photos, this was the best I could do. My brother took this photo of the Eiffel Tower on a trip to France and the cloudy backdrop is a photo taken on a plane flying over Amsterdam. To make it more interesting, I employed the Gradient Map tool and faded it a bit.

Experiments in Color

2010-07-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Colorizing a Grayscale Image

I used a photo I took of the London Eye several years ago to experiment with coloring a grayscale image. I converted the image to grayscale in Camera Raw rather than simply desaturating it, which I think produced better results. I used the Gradient Map tool as reviewed in the book which has a similar effect as a Duotone, but much simpler to accomplish. Also, for some reason I felt it was easier to control the Levels using this method to get the desired balance of shadows, midtones, and highlights.

Color Scheme Graphic

I used a muted analogous (ranging from violets to reds) color scheme for this image of chocolate madeleines (which I made) on a Japanese-inspired square plate alongside a pink flower (from the ImageSource stock photos provided). I attempted to evoke an delicate and elegant feeling using low-saturation values. The original photo of the madeleine was set against a dark brown background, so I eliminated it entirely and replaced it with a low-saturation, grayish-red hue. I worked with Levels and Hue/Saturation to subdue the darker tones in the photo. The pink flower enhances the softness in the graphic as well as adding a pop of high-saturation red. I added the swirls using the text tool to mimic the curvatures on the plate and a border to compliment the square shape of the plate. I'm happy with the result, although the flower could appear more integrated into the photo.

Duotone

2010-07-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

I composited a photo of a rose from my front yard in front of a photo of a school in Iran that my mom took during a visit. I originally used another type of flower from my yard, but working the brightness/contrast proved too tedious to work with the background. I like the softer highlights and shadows the rose offered. Overall, the duotone technique really fits the kind of classic aesthetic I like.