Pachyderm Postage

During the entire first half of 2013 I've designed virtually nothing. And I call myself a graphic designer? I had an excuse, though. Working 24-32 hours per week, mostly in the late nights/early mornings really swiped all of my design time. Plus, wouldn't you rather play in Disney World than sit in a room and design something? Yeah, me too!

I've worked out a remedy to this situation, though. Over the Summer I will take on design challenges. For each challenge I'll have two days (give or take). The challenges I'm used to have typically come from my classes, with the teacher of the class assigning the project and giving specific details. This blog post and this blog post are examples of the projects I've been assigned for my graphic design classes. Rather than a teacher giving the challenge, I've decided to give it a random spin. I made a numbered list of things to design (i.e. a postcard, a book cover, a brochure, etc.) and a numbered list of themes (triangles, museum, coffee shop, train, etc.). For each challenge I'll pick out, via random number generator, an item from the "things to design" list and an item from the "themes" list. Then I'll design something based on those items!

The first challenge is "postage stamp" and "elephant". I made some sketches - probably not enough, that's something I need to work on - then picked one and created it in Illustrator.

Elephant sketch. Aww, aren't they cute?

Finished design.

It was great to stretch my design muscles a bit! Overall I like how it turned out - I think the top elephant's ear could use a little tweaking, but I can't pin down how to tweak it. Maybe the right edge needs to not be so straight. I did "cheat" and grab a pre-designed postage stamp border from the Internet. It would have taken forever to make from scratch!

Want to join in the fun? I'd love to see what you can come up with keeping within the "postage stamp" "elephant" parameters. If you have a blog let me know if you post your design challenge response! If you don't have a blog, why not post a picture of your creation on the Designed to Create Facebook page? Design on, friends!

Love at First Byte

Being away for so long, I forgot what I missed: the beautiful curves, the wondrous mystery, the infinite opportunities for exploration. Her dainty lines, marvelous colors, and fabulous shapes. Don't worry, it's not what you're thinking! I'm praising the attributes of a computer program, known as Adobe Illustrator.

My relationship with Illustrator began last year when I started college, and its interface came naturally to me. It is similar to other programs I'd used before, so that helped a lot in the learning process. I went through the summer saving up for a laptop to run the program on, and then for the program itself. Finally, just last week, I made the big purchase and downloaded the Adobe Creative Suite, featuring both Illustrator and Photoshop, among other programs. My mind is now aboggle (a word I just made up; kind of like aflame or anew) with the opportunities I now have at my fingertips. From clever photo editing to business card design, the projects are now an endless flow. Currently I'm working on a logo for the blog - I think it's going to be great!

I want to show you something I designed using Illustrator. In computer illustration class, we were assigned to produce a poster for a big band dance event, entitled "Spring Swing". Part of the challenge was to incorporate at least five images - as you can see I used a guitar, saxaphone, trumpet, trombone, and piano (the middle circle could also be interpreted as a drum for a sixth image!).

I really enjoyed this project! It fell together surprisingly smoothly, and while there are a few rough areas that could be smoothed out a little, I like the way it turned out.