A Journey To Design

Assessment Task 04 Newspaper Design

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:25:00 +0000

This last task, we were given a 4 page newspaper. The challenge is to recreate it using different images and exploring Adobe InDesign. This has been quite a difficult task for me but I'm really pleased that it's now finished.

I'm really looking forward to next year!!!

LEARNING ACTIVITY 08: Seafood Cookbook

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:56:00 +0000

After designing the magazine cover from the previous assessment, I found myself with this other task of designing a cookbook. All images and text are provided but we're allowed to use other photos which I've done for the cover. The image is from Stock.XCHNG. I have done this same task from my Cert 3 but I was happy to redesign my previous one and apply the new set of instructions.

In this task we had to sketch the imposition of work and turn and then create an interactive PDF or SWF using InDesign. There were 4 parts for this activity and it was quite challenging. I'm really pleased that I finally finished it :)

To view the interactive PDF -- click here --

For the interactive PDF tutorial -- click here --

ASSESSMENT TASK 03: Magazine Spread

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:36:00 +0000

I've always wanted to design a magazine cover, even as a mock-up but I never got the time to do this except now :) We have been given the task to design a magazine cover and a double page spread.

There were three Magazine choices that were provided for us: Byte Design, Life and style and Sports Inc. I chose Life and Style. The design had to incorporate travel features, fashion, interviews with celebrities, cooking, tips etc. And all images should be our own.

It was a challenging task but it was a dream come true. So here is my design:

It's pretty cool, if I may say so myself :)

Quick Project 18: Colour Postcard

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:59:00 +0000

Today, I managed to gather and complete the files required for this task. Really thankful to the great team work with: Melea, Carlee, Esther and Tim :o)

In this task, we are asked to use the photos we had from the Colour Puns Activity to design a front cover postcard called "Colour Your World". The twist is that we needed to send it to someone else in our course. Therefore each postcard will need to have 3 different people’s colour puns. There will be 12 different coloured squares. Below are my postcards yay!

Postcard 1

Postcard2

LEARNING ACTIVITY 04: Typeface Categories

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:11:00 +0000

With the many fonts installed in our computer these days, it has become critical and a challenging task to choose the correct typeface before starting any design job. The typeface must reflect what type of business it is and must be readable and enjoyable to the eye. For example the Comic Sans font would be inappropriate for a solicitor’s office or Brush Script font might be hard to read for a training manual.

That is why it’s important to categories these typefaces into a list which can save a lot of time for the Graphic Designer. Below is a list of categories:

In this task, we are asked to create a font/type and work with our group to produce a booklet. And everybody did a wonderful job and cooperated to complete this Learning Activity. I'm really proud to be part of such an amazing group :)

Anyway, here is what I came up with. Probably needs some polishing but I think it's pretty cool, if I may say so myself *wink*

I'll definitely do it again... it was fun!!!

Digital Imaging Module Assessment: Populating a web page wireframe

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:19:00 +0000

First of all, what is a Wireframe? A website wireframe, also known as a page schematic or screen blueprint, is a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website. The wireframe depicts the page layout or arrangement of the website’s content, including interface elements and navigational systems, and how they work together. The wireframe usually lacks typographic style, color, or graphics, since the main focus lies in functionality, behavior, and priority of content. In other words, it focuses on “what a screen does, not what it looks like.”

I prefer to create a wireframe using my ever dependable pen and paper. Just a basic layout to guide me through. In this task though, a PSD file of a website wireframe has been provided for us where we are required to do add our own hero shot, thumbnails, colour, copy and type. And below is what I created:

I chose a wedding website theme because it is quite close to my heart since I used to own Classique Memories Wedding Stationery. I kinda miss it :)

Digital Imaging Module Assessment: Hero Shots

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:57:00 +0000

Hero Shots... to be honest when I first heard it, I thought it was about super heroes. But it actually plays a very important part in designing a website.

A Hero Shot (according to Social Media Marketing) is a promotional, iconic image that captures what you and your business are really about. But you can’t just grab any old iconic image. It should be bold and attention grabbing. They should leave a powerful and positive impression on the viewer.

In this project, we will be assessed in our ability with Photoshop and our understanding of Design Fundamentals to produce (design & create) 5 "hero shots" to fit into the 5 web pages which are provided for us to use.

What's challenging is that all 5 websites are for different categories such as the Real Estate, Golf Course, Tourist (heritage walks), Product Promotional (chocolate retailer), Public Service (local council). And to decide on the appropriate image, type style, colour palette, etc is not so easy. But hey, I enjoyed doing this :o)

So here are my 5 sites:

LEARNING ACTIVITY 10 :Colour Puns

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:25:00 +0000

A Pun is usually a play-on-words. It can be a variation of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words. With colour-puns we can visualise an image to suit the word. And below are my colour puns:

Greens

In the Red

Paint the Town Red

True Blue

Yellow Streak

Quick Project 12: Photo Story

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:27:00 +0000

Every photo has a story and in this task, we were asked to take a photo of anything that basically tells a story and make the viewer question what is happening in the photo.

Here is what I have to share and the title of the photo is "A day at the park":

Quick Project 17: Hello Poster

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:18:00 +0000

Hellooooo!!!! What a beautiful word and it always comes with a smile when we say it, right? So when we were given this project, I was excited because I really love learning different languages.

In this project, we were asked to design an A3 size poster using theme of ‘hello’ translated into 10 different nationalities. The purpose of this is to assist school classroom learning about different cultures. The target audience is for this poster is Primary School level – Grades 4 to 6.

Some of the ones that I've chosen are from countries that I have lived and visited back then. Here's what I came up with :)

LA6: Making Selections & Combining Images

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:37:00 +0000

This task is fun! We were given a car to select and using the Quick Mask method, drag it into a new scene. This is what I came up with. The new scene I chose was taken at the City Park with my daughters.

LA5: Adjustment Levels

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:21:00 +0000

In this task we were asked to take a photo at dusk or low light and another during high-noon in full sunlight. Using our preferred technique (adjustment layers/curves/ levels) we had to enhance the copies so there is detail in the shadows and detail in the highlights. Here's my work:

Before

After

Before

After

Quick Project 07: Restaurant logo and flyer

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sat, 28 May 2011 10:37:00 +0000

In this quick project, we were asked to design a logo and a flyer for a soon to open Italian restaurant called Emilio's. They want to be seen as a ‘fresh’ business, accommodating for everyone’s needs – take-away or sit-down meals.

Here is what I have come up with applying a little bit of Ambigram. Also shown is the B&W version to be used for the flyer.

With the logo, I wanted to incorporate the italian flag colours that is why both "i"s are coloured green and red. I didn't use the white for the spoon because it doesn't have as much impact as the the black spoon.

The flyer design, I was drawn to the path of designing something that will complement the round effect of the letters in the logo as well as the spoon, hence the curve/round shape at the bottom of the flyer. I made it look a bit like a menu so that it will be easier for people to see what Emilio's has to offer.

Quick Project 06: Handyman flyer

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:02:00 +0000

This design task took me 45mins. At first, I wanted to put a handyman image and/or tools but then I thought I might give it a different twist with the title being the body of the house, representing a strong force around it.

Having Fun with Words

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:52:00 +0000

Found this cool site where you can put all the words you want and it will come up with different layouts such the one I created above :) Check it out! Wordle.net

Digital Imaging: LA4: Cropping an image

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:38:00 +0000

There are 4 ways to crop a photo and in this activity, here are my before and after images.

1. Emphasize part of the image to give it more importance

ORIGINAL PHOTO

I cropped the picture to emphasize the house

2. Change the composition and add dynamic movement by moving the subject out of dead center

ORIGINAL PHOTO

I cropped this to place the image off-center

3. Change the orientation by making a horizontal aspect image vertical aspect

ORIGINAL PHOTO

I cropped this to change the aspect to a vertical one.

4. Eliminate distracting parts of the photo

ORIGINAL PHOTO

I cropped this photo to remove the distracting images around it and show birds.

Digital Imaging: LA3: Tell a story with a flatbed scan

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:59:00 +0000

In this activity, we were asked to gather 9 objects that represent our story and scan them in using our flatbed scanner.

And here is my story.

Digital Imaging: LA2: resampling and resizing photos

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:11:00 +0000

The task was to resample the images from 300dpi to 72dpi and resize them.

What a logo needs to be...

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Sun, 22 May 2011 07:42:00 +0000

In a very competitive industry, a business should be able to come up with something that will make them stand out from the rest. A logo is what helps to establish your business identity.

Here is a very good article from Logo Design Love which basically just says that: A logo doesn’t need to say what a company does

To read more about it and other interesting ideas about your logo design, check out this link
http://www.logodesignlove.com/literal-vs-abstract

Make sure you read ALL the comments on it too!

Design Module Assessment: Promote your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:53:00 +0000

In this task, we were asked to design something to promote our blog. So for me, here is what I would like to use to promote A Journey to Design:

The heart represents my desire to explore and learn more about design. And the different circles means that designing a circle can be done in many different ways from a simple dot. The photograph skew is just to show that every design can be captured and treasured to become an inspiration for the future.

Quick Project 04: Hair flyer advertisement

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:42:00 +0000

This quick project is a flyer design for a hair salon using black and white only. And here is what I came up with.

I also did a test print to see what it will look like, and here it is:

This is best photocopied on white paper.

Quick Project 05: Invitation

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:35:00 +0000

I usually aim to finish an invitation design within an hour or two. With this design, it took me an hour and 5 mins.

TASK 03 Colours Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:27:00 +0000

TASK A

TASK B
Example from a magazine of both a warm colour scheme and a cool colour scheme.

TASK C
3 colour scheme for each business:

a Bricklayer - I will probably use some shades of orange to represent the brick and with black or grey to represent the cement.

a Florist - I will definitely use some purples and pinks with splashes of yellow and green

a Funeral Parlour - I would probably use black or grey but after my search online, I noticed that some of the business base their colours in the place where they are located or with a significant meaning to the community.

TASK D
Colour value exercise

TASK E
Difference between RGB colour mode and CMYK colour mode

RGB
Red, Green, and Blue are "additive colors". If we combine red, green and blue light you will get white light. This is the principal behind the T.V. set in our living room and the computer screens.
Additive color, or RGB mode, is optimized for display on computer screens and peripherals, most notably scanning devices.

CMYK
Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are "subtractive colors". If we print cyan, magenta and yellow inks on white paper, they absorb the light shining on the page. Since our eyes receive no reflected light from the paper, we perceive black... in a perfect world!
The printing world operates in subtractive color, or CMYK mode.
In practice, printing subtractive inks may contain impurities that prevent them from absorbing light perfectly. They do a pretty good job with light colors, but when we add them all together, they produce a murky brown rather than black. In order to get decent dark colors, black ink is added in increasing proportions, as the color gets darker and darker. This is the "K" component in CMYK printing. "K" is used to indicate black instead of a "B" to avoid possible confusion over Blue ink.

I also tried to scan a green colour from a magazine then changed it from RGB to CMYK. I noticed a slight difference in the colour. It was slightly darker than before.

TASK 02 Colours of Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:21:00 +0000

I know it's late, but here's what I came up with when I thought about the colours of Australia.

Design Lesson 7: LA13 Poster design using type

noreply@blogger.com (Cyle Philipson) — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:48:00 +0000

I chose this quote because it is really meaningful especially to what I am doing now. I look for lots of answers but it's all just in front of me :)

Anyway, I came up with this design to tease the reader's eyes and make my point. The very light grey colour gives a hint of some important secret. And I used pink just make the words stand out more.