Betty Blakeman T-shirt Designs

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Magazine Cover Design

Cover Using Photo One


Cover Using Photo 2

Travel Brochure

Logo Designs

Logo Design 1

Five important steps in creating a logo:
First, figure out what the company does and how you want to represent it in the logo.
Second, make a plan for the logo. This could include a description or sketches.
Third, transfer or remake the plan/sketch into an image editor.
Next, make sure that the logo is going in the direction the client wants it to.
Lastly, change anything the client is unhappy with and finalize the design.

Pen Tool Fiddling

Rectangle and Triangle Tessellations

1. Which tessellation did you find more interesting to do? In what ways was it more interesting than the other? Please explain.

I found the rectangular tessellation more interesting to do. It was more interesting because it was harder to make, as I started from scratch. The triangular tessellation was easier because I was able to use a premade picture. Being easy does not make it interesting, however the added detail from using a photograph raises the interest-level slightly.


Look at your peers' work on the ning . Which two designs do you find the most successful? What qualities make them so successful?

I feel that Devin’s triangle tessellation and Tom’s rectangle tessellation are the most successful tessellations. I really like how Devin used both in- and out-of-focus parts of the photograph and how it draws attention to the edges. I like how Tom’s clearly shows a fish, but I would definitely make the lines between the head and tail-fin bolder. The shape that he used is cool looking and different from all the other shapes I saw used.


Looking at the Grading Criteria for each design, how would you rate BOTH designs on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the highest? Please explain each grade.

I believe that I deserve a 3.5 on my rectangle tessellation because the shape is clearly that of a bear. I tried to stay away from using too much detail in each shape to keep it simple, but I am glad I used different colors of bears, symbolizing black bears, brown bears, and polar bears. I think that I deserve a 3 on the triangle tessellation. I was aiming for more detail with this one, but when I scaled it down to allow more tessellations to fit some of that detail was lost.

Introduction to Tesselations

What is a tessellation?
A tessellation is a picture made of the repetition of shapes or objects.


Write a couple of paragraphs describing the life and work of M.C. Escher. Pick out important facts that describe who he is, how he worked, and why he is famous.
M. C. Escher was born in 1898 in Holland. He had an interest in pen and ink drawing from a young age, and when his art teacher noticed he taught him how to make linocuts, a form of printing which uses carved linoleum. He was so good that he sent some of his works to Roland Holtz, the most prominent graphic designer at the time.
When Escher began failing his school assessments, Holtz told him to become an architect. He enrolled in Haarlem in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in 1918, where his talent was recognized and he was switched out of nature drawing class so he could spend more time wood cutting.
He became famous with his landscape work while he was living in Italy. His first real tessellation, Lions, did not impress most people. He kept playing with his designs and sketches and began purposely

Doodle for Google

Circuitry
I wish for all children in the world to have access to technology. Technology is growing rapidly, and it is clear that it plays, and will continue to play, a vital role in everyday life. Some feedback I received from my peers was to connect the E to the L and to make the yellow O stand out. As you can see, I didn’t connect my L to my E. I feel that the difference sets off the design. I learned how to use a stylized design (in this case, circuitry) in my design effectively. I also learned how to make the letters clear and readable easily. I feel that I deserve a four out of four because my design definitely complements the Google letters. It is also extremely simple, using only the letters and nothing else.



Alternative
I wish that people would switch to alternative energy sources to prevent pollution to our planet. I did not receive any feedback on this piece. I learned how to use the line (shape) tool effectively. I also learned to use feathering. I feel that I deserve a three because the colors work well and there is a definite theme. It is not very complicated, with only a few ideas.

I read about an interesting experiment done where two disposable cameras were left on a park bench with a note saying to just take pictures and have fun. I'm going to do some editing to photos using photoshop.
The post I read can be found here.

Sun stock is the work of Lish and the flower stock is the work of Sourcow

Text Design

Which one of the four of your Text Designs is the most successful? In what ways? Please be specific.
I think that my most successful text design is the baby one. I like it because I drew the baby myself, instead of just taking a pre-made image. The only thing I don’t like about it is the background. The deadline was too soon to make my own, so I used a rounder font (“Child’s Play”) and typed in the alphabet. I also cut out a crib from an online image and included it.

List some of the tools that you learned and used in this assignment. Which ones did you find the most helpful and in what ways?
For the lie detector design, I made a custom pattern for the background. I didn’t want to draw the entire grid manually. It would have taken forever to measure out the distance between each line to get them spaced perfectly. It saved me a ton of time which I put in to the other designs.

With regards to Design concepts and/or Photoshop tools, what do you think you need to know and what do you want to know?
I think that more time would have been helpful. I also think that I should know better color schemes instead of looking them up. I want to know how to use the pen tool more efficiently. I believe that it would also be beneficial if I knew how to use more image adjustments.

Text Type Design

Click for Full-Size


Are you happy/satisfied with your design? What are some of the features that make it so successful? If you are not satisfied, what would you have done differently to make it more successful?
I am very happy with my final product. I like the way that I use the blue to create high contrast from the reds. I also feel that the spacing between the letters feels “natural.” Lastly, the “see through” effect I created by painting over the spaces where the “e” and “T” intersect is, in my opinion, really cool.

List some of the tools that you learned and used in this assignment. Which ones did you find the most helpful and in what ways?
First I created a custom brush for the background. I also changed the opacity in layer properties for the “e.” The most helpful tool I used, however, was Hue and Saturation. It allows me to change the colors very easily in one step.

With what areas/aspects of Photoshop do you have questions? What activities would help you better understand basic design concepts, along with more Photoshop tools, tips, and tricks?
I think that we should spend some time on custom brushes. When used correctly, a custom brush can make lots of tasks easier. They can be used to create random patterns for backgrounds of pieces. I used a custom brush to create my logo-type design and it made it extremely easy.

Pop Art

What is pop-art?
Pop art is an artistic style using popular and easily recognizable items from everyday life. It originated in England during the 1950s and became popular in the United States during the '60s.

Who is Stuart Davis?
Stuart Davis was the son of the art director of a newspaper in Philadelphia. He worked for The Masses, a social publication. He did a lot with watercolors and Cubism. Later, he introduced text to his completely abstract patterns which he claimed were based on the reality of what he saw in America.
Percolator by Stuart Davis. 1927.
I chose to feature this painting of Davis' because it caught my eye. The first thing I noticed was the name as I was scrolling through a short gallery, just as I took the last sip left in my Starbucks mug. I was intrigued when I looked at the piece by the barely-recognizable shape of a percolator.

Who is Robert Indiana?
Robert Indiana's father, who worked at "Phillips 66 Gas" left him and his mom down Route 66. Signs became a big thing for Indiana. While living on the waterfront of New York, he presented his first paintings, which were vibrant reflections of common roadside signs.
Ahava by Robert Indiana. 1993.
I like Ahava because of the idea behind it. Ahava means love in Hebrew and Indiana used the color scheme of the Israeli flag. I also chose it because not very many people understand what it is, and it just looks like organic shapes.

Logo Type Design

Positive/Negative Notan

Using the idea of positive/negative circles, I was able to make this:

Feel free to use this, but please give credit.

To get the "meteor" shapes as I call them, there are only a few steps. After creating a new document (any size you like, I used 576x576):

1. Draw multiple circles on a new layer. A single layer makes it easier to apply the filters. I use a black background (on a different layer) with white circles for contrast, but any background color works. The color of the circles does not matter and they can be left as just a selection if wanted.

2. Select all of the circles and apply the "Clouds" filter (Filter>Render>Clouds) using black and white. Deselect the circles (Ctrl+D or Apple+D).

3. Use the "Radial Blur" filter (Filter>Blur>Radial Blur) with these settings (amount does not matter much, it is purely preference):


4. Apply the "Chrome" filter (Filter>Sketch>Chrome) with similar settings as these:


5. Colorize! The meteors can be left black/white or can be colored using the Hue and Saturation tool (Ctrl+U or Apple+U). If nothing pops up when you use the hotkeys, make sure your image is not Grayscale (Image>Mode>image type). I prefer to use RGB mode.
Be sure to check the colorize box.


6. Create a new layer and set it to "Hard Light" mode (found in the drop-down menu just left of "opacity" on the layers palette). We use the "Clouds" filter again. If you don't like the arrangement of the clouds, keep reapplying the filter (Ctrl+F or Apple+F) until you like how it looks.

That's all it takes!