A round of applause ; )

The director loved the new image. It was what she was waiting for and it definitely made me smile when it got approved. The only problems after that were making sure that the typography was readable and that it remained true to the whole "Christmas" theme.

The director also wanted some extra information on the poster. The basics - such as the director, times, and dates - were fine, but she also wanted something to tell the audience that it was a musical based on the Luisa M. Alcott classic. So much information would crowd a poster and really not make it what it should be, so Nathan thought up a great way to display the extra information without making it seem so populated. He incorporated a "gift-wrap" image on the top right corner to display the new text. Not only would this provide the poster with more of the "Christmas" feel, but it would also make that information stand out in a visually appealing manner.

Here is the FINISHED product:

She didn't like it!

Nathan emailed the director with the sample of the poster for Little Women. It turns out that it was not what the director was looking for. She wanted the poster to reflect the family feel of the musical as well as emphasize the Christmas holiday. She ultimately wanted to have the girls around a Christmas tree or something similar. She did however like the colors of the sample.

This was just my luck though. Finally, I had made something that would go into production, get printed, and ultimately placed around town and then it gets rejected. Nathan did tell me that this is when you have to separate yourself as an artist and just know that it's a job that you're performing for someone else with different tastes and preferences. He had a great point, and it motivated me to start working on a new poster.

After a while of looking at images of the Victorian era, Victorian Christmas, and Victorian fashion, I came across a REALLY interesting picture:







It was a picture of a Victorian Christmas. I - being the creative genius that I am - thought that if I manipulated this picture enough, I could get the director what she wanted.








:::::DRUM ROLL PLEASE::::::: After some tweaking and masterful Photoshop Skills I came up with this:



Hopefully the director will like it. If she does then the finished product should have the typography and details.

Little Leo

Although there was a bit of a hiatus I'm back at work with Lorem Ipsum. Right now I'm tackling the poster and production pieces for "Little Women". Nathan suggested I gather some images and fonts that I thought would be great together for a nice poster. I went on istockphoto.com and google images to search for just the right one.
After my search, I ended up having two concepts. One concept I had was to take two different images and mesh them in order to have one really interesting blend.
My first attempt was this:


The doll I thought was interesting and gave a good reference to "Little Women". The country scene I cropped and filtered on Photoshop with a brush stroke filter.

The only problem with this particular poster idea was that the background took attention away from the doll and everything looked similarly toned. I played around again with another image:



This image to me was amazing. It showed the great Victorian style of the dresses of that period along with a semi-love story (like the one Jo and Laurie shared). It used brilliant color and just spoke "Little Women" all around. I took it to photoshop. First I used the marquee tool to wrap the entire image. Then I moved the image so that you could only see half of the girl's face and the guy's arm (adding some mystery). Then I copied and pasted parts of the wood, warped it, and made it longer. The result was this:



This is the sample that Nathan will be giving the Quincy Musical Theatre so they can give him the go-ahead and we'll be able to add more.

Nathan also let me grab of choices of fonts that I thought would be great for the poster. Out of a list of 12 that I compiled, we both really like the Riesling font that appears on the poster. It was classy and really fit the flow of the poster.

Nathan and I worked on manipulating the font on illustrator, adding the squiggle on to the "n" and changing the size of the capital "L" and "W" so as to add interest. Now all we would have to do - once we get the ok - is to add the dates and information onto the poster.

As always it was a pleasure working with Nathan and I'm glad he allowed me to have so much control over the poster.

Moving On...

The first project is complete. I worked on the concept of the poster but unfortunately became quite ill for about a week. With my health on a downward slope I had a bit of creativity block. I still wanted to deliver something to Nathan so I familiarized myself with Illustrator. I found a great font online called "Fashion Victim", which gave the poster a very mod feel to it. I also used an image - the famous one of Gene Kelley balanced on the light post - which I edited on Photoshop, added a sponge effect, and gave the poster a light blue background.

When I presented the poster to Nathan he gave me some very constructive criticism as well as some praise for the work I had done. He and I discussed the hesitation of using a very well known image on a poster that was going to be distributed around town. The Gene Kelley image - although sponged and not the exact image - was not the best choice to use because of possible copyright issues. Nathan found a great image on istock.com of a single bright yellow umbrella placed amongst a group of black umbrellas. Nathan did like the font idea I had. He said it was a direction he had not thought of but really enjoyed. Because "Fashion Victim" only really affected capital letters, Nathan found an almost exact font called "Juanita", which gave the mod-effect to all the letters used.

So now we had a great modern looking image paired with modern looking text. The poster looked great. A post card and a program cover was also made using variations on the information, but still using the same image. Now that poster one is done, I have to start thinking about the next show. Nathan told me it would be a good idea to start collecting possible pictures.

I am also going to be tackling the first goal on my list of DIS milestones, which is making my brand. I have to work on transferring images which I have manipulated on Photoshop, and transferring them to Illustrator so I can use them for print. I want to be able to make a letterhead and a business card. It's always good to have something that I can add onto several objects like cards, cups, t-shirts, etc.

CHECK OUT THE POSTERS AND POSTCARD:

First on my list is....

SINGING IN THE RAIN! That great musical made famous by Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds is the first poster I get to work on. So far I've come up with a concept for the whole season. it will focus on a specific filter on Photoshop named "sponge" which adds a great brush-like effect to a picture. I've already started playing around with some ideas including umbrellas, raincoats, and this very awesome picture of Gene Kelly on a light post with his umbrella.

I'm meeting with Nathan today to discuss whether or not my concept will work and also to obtain some more information about the musicals, their printing capabilities, and other concepts. I'm excited.

Lesson Number One

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of getting through my first mentoring session with Nathan Archer. I was very excited to sit down with a professional graphic designer and discuss the possibilities that come with graphics. The first piece of advice was that I needed to start learning Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a powerful tool that graphic designers use for things like print and is also one of the best pieces of software to use concerning typography. Nathan and I discussed topics such as bleeding, personalization of typography, and the importance of DPI (dots per inch) vs PPI (pixels per inch) when it comes to print. He also explained the importance of a transfer from RGB (red,green,blue) to CMYK (cyan,magenta,yellow,and black) because RGB is used to make color with light, while CMYK is used to make color with ink.

After a crash course with Illustrator Nathan gave me some great news. Every year Lorem Ipsum designs the posters for the Quincy Music Theatre musical season. This year I will be helping with the design and layout of the posters for the musicals! By next week I'm to have a concept that will work as a motif for the season. I hope that I can deliver a great product and that my concept turns out to be attractive.

Check out the current season from Quincy Music Theatre HERE.

A Journey Into Graphic Design

Here it is, my last semester at FSU. I've learned plenty so far and I hope that by the end I'll be prepared to enter the "real world". This semester I'm going to be expanding my knowledge in an aspect of IT that I have great interest in - Graphic Design. At the beginning of the semester I had to the pleasure of taking up a DIS (Directed Independent Study). Under the direction of my professor Melissa Raulston I'm undertaking this DIS with mentoring from Nathan Archer. Nathan Archer is co-owner of Lorem Ipsum, a design studio located here in Tallahassee.

So far there are a few goals I want to accomplish by the time the semester is done. Several of the goals are important in building my brand and getting that brand out into in the world. It wouldn't hurt if that brand looked really cool either. Well, here it is, one last semester, one last hoorah!

Click HERE to see the paperwork concerning the DIS.