More Color…

Rainbows!

Poof

Favorite Kitty

Water droplets

Mia’s Color Project

Sex, lust, embrace, dominate, swoon, kiss, tackle, play, fornicate, hug,  snuggle, seize, blow, peck, endear, care, smooch, cuddle, caress, endear, fondle, pet, stroke, love.

Mia took a risk when she made her boxes and took a snapshot of an intimate moment between a and g. Let’s take a look at the before, without color.

When Mia adjusted her g, she slightly tilted it to give an off-center feeling
in the moment of embrace; I think that this was a wise visual choice. She also played with transparencies and object placement so that the viewer could visually trace how, specifically, g and a intertwine. A wise decision, in my opinion.

I love that Mia mixes color symbolism and makes a the dominant in its bold bright pink as it stands up tall, and g the submissive despite its pop green. The yellow background makes the two letter forms strike the viewer, suggesting action or significance. In other words, the viewer can really tell that the letter forms are getting busy by letter placement, but the color makes this square stand out amongst the rest.

Brilliant Bold Primary Colors

5 panel layout

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.
— Alex Haley

Rastersizeme Logo

RastersizeME

The problem with logos on wordpress is that they have to be square. I hate the borders.

F and J in Color

In this newest draft I am simply having a grandchild-grandparent relationship (as in, gender neutral). I also finally figured out how to save in .ai for CS3 instead of CS5!

Holding Newborn

Family Resemblance

Playing on grandparent

Grandchild on grandparent's mind

Carrying grandbaby to bed

On Color Theory

Already having played with color for my F&J project, I decided that I wanted to choose root colors and then tweak what I have already picked. Though I did something similar while making my first draft, I think that these changes solidify what I was already thinking about. I plan on making a few color changes, particularly to the last panel, after playing with these boxes.

I am also worried about playing with the background. Two colors create a dynamic color combination.

But what about three?

I worry that there are too many choices! I’ll figure it out though… I’m glad I have a head start.

The o and g reflection

O and G proved to be an exploration in different ways for different people. Many took it as purely an art project, like Casey, who made the beautiful Kama Sutra of Typography. Others, like Victoria, focused on the story of the letter-forms’ relationship. I decided to use the project to explore the variety of available fonts and use them to tell a specific story that can be seen without explanation in viewing the five-panel composition.

In looking back on the work, I wish that I had spent more time focusing on the beauty of a mother-child relationship rather than snapshots of the moments themselves. That’s what I am focusing on the grandfather-grandchild relationship in the color version of this project. Nevertheless, I learned a lot.

Firstly, I learned that there’s a font for everything. I know that I have an advantage because I have CS5 on my laptop and have owned an additional 1001 fonts since high school. In addition to that, I tapped into dafont‘s library to make the composition read as a I wanted it to. Nell even mentioned that I could have drawn in my second “o.” I didn’t, but the “o” does look quite similar to my original sketches, which brings me to my second point.

In graphic design, it is essential to first play with your ideas on paper.  It’s kind of like organizing a paper. The ideas are all out in front of you and you can pick and choose the best compositions.

In terms of new skills, I learned how to group, use pathfinder, provide even spacing between objects, and use the limitations of the artboard to my advantage. There are many similarities between Illustrator and Photoshop, so I didn’t have too many difficulties figuring out layering and the layout of the tools panel.

More than anything I did on my own, however, was the education I got from looking at other people’s work. It has inspired my color design and pushed me closer to the beauty (as opposed to function) of graphic design. Hopefully I will learn how to combine the two.

Meet F and J, a Color Story

As I have graduated from the O and G project, I have moved on to F and J, the story of a grandfather and his grandson. I chose this relationship because it was different from what everyone is doing, and there is a lot to tell from just one day of their interaction.

Holding j for the first time

Since we didn’t have class today, I decided to take these three hours to work on my color project. I, stupidly, didn’t read the directions first so didn’t make my thumbnails. However, I am not yet satisfied with the colors I have chosen, so I am just going to stick with the positioning of the f and j.

Like grandfather like grandchild

However, I did play with the color quite a bit, and especially with the overlays I will likely keep the same style.

j climbs all over f

Also, in not reading the instructions (stupid stupid stupid), I found that I could change the background color. That’s something to think about when I revisit it later this week.

j is on F's mind

In terms of positioning, however, I’m pleased with what I have come up with. I likely will not change it.

j is tired and f carries him to bed

Oddly enough, I couldn’t help but thinking about Casey’s project while I was making this familial relationship. I wanted NO SEX to be involved, or even implied between the two letterforms. I hope that this sentiment came through!

O and g, revisited

There were a number of beautiful presentations on Wednesday, which made me re-examine my work. Because another classmate, AJ, took the same approach as I did, I paid special attention to our professor’s critique of her work. Specifically, I pushed the pregnancy more and focused more on the art of the project rather than the story. This is what I came up with.

o loves g again

This is due on Wednesday. In the meantime, we’re supposed to start playing with color. That will be the next post!