Wednesday, October 14, 2009

*midterm portfolio* --vis com 2

so i completely forgot about this until today and did no revisions on my layouts, so at the end of each little section i will attempt to tell you what i might change if i were to edit these in any way. its kind of the lazy way to do it, but i think it works just as well. it also shows how i've progressed through the semester more clearly.

#1

the first piece i chose was one of very first posters we revised. it is for the kirksville art association art classes. it is an 8.5 x 11 black and white poster, no bleed. i think it took me about an hour and a half to complete the whole thing. i chose this one because it was the first time where i started to understand the whole idea of a concept. while the poster could use a lot of tweaking, it gets the message across. if i were to change anything it would be the graphic. i like the idea of the clay kind of falling down to create the coil pot, but it could be done in a cleaner, more attractive way. i think i might also change the size of the type because it is much too large on the page.

#2

this second piece is a re-do of a poster for the truman state rock climbing club. this one is 11 x 17, black and white, no bleed. it took me about 2 1/2 hours to finish. i chose it because i liked the concept behind it. i tried out something new with the watercolor mountains in the top. they were semi-successful. i need to go back in and add some highlights and shadows to make them more mountain-like. i also need to remove the things at the end of the paint "drips." i was trying to add some tools of mountain climbing, but the placement of them and the mixture of the vector work and the watercolor wasn't really effective. after removing those the type will also have to be done. i know it needs a lot of revision, but i think this piece demonstrates how willing i am to try new things because sticking to the old stuff isn't always a good thing.
#3

this is another poster re-do...this time for native american heritage month events. it is 11 x 17, black and one other color, no bleed. it probably took me at least 3 hours to complete this one. when i first did this poster, there was no concept at all, so i added the quote and went along with that. i don't feel like there has to be this massive eye catching clever headline on every poster...so i think the quote works. i would need to fix the direction of the drop shadow behind the text and probably make all the yellow bars a bit thinner. they are too heavy. overall, i think the simplicity of the poster works and keeps the viewer focused where they need to be focused. i like the big picture, i think that works well enough in drawing attention to the poster and i actually didn't mind the yellow-orange color. i kind of like it :)

#4

this is a magazine layout without very minimal text. the final size is 10 x 14, full color, full bleed. in the end, i probably spent 2 hours on each side. i chose this layout because i really like the left side. i think that compared to what i started out with its a vast improvement. my original idea was to use a fair amount of food c.o.b.s but a lot them looked kinda bad so i was told to focus just on the question mark. i think the integration between that and the headline works out quite nicely. the right side of the layout needs a bit of work with the body copy as well as the fresh concerns type. i like the picture on the right side that i ended up with, but something else needs to happen with it. while not the most awesome layout ever produced, i think it works out pretty well.

#5

yay for rapala! this is a magazine ad...11 x 17, full color, full bleed. this was a rough one to design. for one it was hard to think about it in terms of an ad because of the large text block. this took about 3 hours to finish. i started with something completely different and glad i changed it. again i think the right side of the page is working pretty well. i need to make the fishing lure on the bottom quite a bit smaller, but i like what i did with the headline. i think splitting it into two parts, separated by the beginning part of the text really gives it some good visual weight. i also like the top of the page with the sequence of the three photos. the right side could use some work. the rapala logo needs to be smaller (sidenote: i rebuilt it and am quite happy with how it turned out :)) and then i could adjust the letting on the text to give it some air. also, the fishing lure on the top needs to be either moved or removed completely. i think the drastic change between this layout and my initial one is pretty awesome. i am pretty pleased with this one overall.
#6

here is another magazine ad. it is 11 x 17, full color, full bleed. even though we aren't technically done with the project yet...i like how this one is turning out. for the start of the this project, we had to choose a professional photograph that we thought was a good one. we had to use it in 3 different layouts and out of the three i think this one is working best for me. i like the addition of the family...my initial layout did not include them. i think it makes the purpose of the ad more apparent and effective. i think that i'm trying new things...by that i mean something i've never done before. i'm a creature of habit and therefore, stick to things that work. but i'm trying to change and i am completely open to trying new things. i still need to work on getting the logo for the company more apparent. other than that i think this one is on the right track.

overall, the semester has been going ok. it has been a lot of work, but i think it is starting to pay off for me. i need to spend a bit more time working on each project, but i think the things i'm producing now are far superior to the stuff i was doing in the beginning. i hope i can keep the progress going in the right direction. i've learned a lot so far this semester. i've learned that the grid is my best friend. at the start of the semester, i only kind of used the grid...it was something there if i only absolutely out of ideas. now i know that it will guide me in the right direction almost every time. i've also learned a lot about type...how to lay it out and all the rules that go along with that. i haven't mastered all of them yet, but i'm still working at it. hoping for an even more successful second part of the semester.

No comments:

Post a Comment