Seed Packet :: Serenity "FIN 2"

An updated "finished" version of this seed packet.

I may not have to make many more adjustments to this. It seems to look good. The feedback I got from the teacher overlooking the class for today was very helpful.

Seed Packet :: Serenity - "FIN"

My finished "Serenity" seed packet.

There is possibly some corrections that need done that I can't identify, but for now I call this piece "finished".

Seed Packet Variations :: Serenity

I took screens while I was playing around with the design I was developing for my "Serenity" seed packet. Aside from the illustration that'll go in the big green space on the inside, I still feel something is missing even though I like and feel comfortable with the last variation in the series.

Color Palettes :: Frustration

My color palette choices for the packet "Frustration".

Color Palettes :: Anxiety

My selection of color palettes for the packet "Anxiety". 

Color Palettes :: Serenity

Going off the feedback from the critique last class, I went on a palette website called Colourlovers.com and looked up what other artists found as appropriate colors for my thematic packet called "Serenity". To my surprise, a lot of artists agreed with my muted approach, although many of their palettes were pastels, so I went in that range.

The gathered a couple of palettes that are most appealing to me and plan on testing out the colors on my packet. These are what I found:

I'm leaning heavily towards the middle three, Summer Serenity, Autumn Serenity and Afternoon Nap. We'll see what meshes best with my graphic idea for the packet and the feedback I get from my friends.

Burrr. The beginning of my seed packets.

Over the weekend I was forced to change my idea for my seed packet series due to time constraints with my other classes. The idea I had was far too complex and required more time then I feasibly had to give it, so I needed to think of something simpler while still conveying a depth of skills to satisfy the objective of the project.

I decided to change my idea to growing emotional supplements. We take supplements for a variety of reasons, but the main function of a supplement is to replace what we're not getting enough of naturally. Some people have issues with appropriate emotional responses and often wish they could react in the ways expected. This was the kicker for the idea.

I wanted something playful, because emotions are such a serious thing. The idea itself of supplementing emotions is both serious, but also ridiculous. So I wanted to give this serious thought and time in the presentation as a product, but keep the theme from getting far too serious fast.

My critique group couldn't identify to the colors used for my "serenity" packet, which is understandable I guess. Not everyone takes serenity in being surrounded by living, growing things like I do, so I need a new color scheme for it. Anything but blue (which coincidentally was thrown around a lot). While blue is used as a representative of calm, calm is not the only thing that makes up serenity. On top of which, my "anxiety" packet is going to be blue heavy as I associate anxiety with deep blues, purples and desaturated reds.

I need to think of the graphic that will go on the front of this. I'm not sure what to make yet. I'm going to doodle around and hope that it comes to me willingly.

I need to work on my border as it's apparently too heavy, and on my type. I'll look around at product labels in my house to see how they approach their name brands and product descriptions on their fronts.

Maybe serenity is like a soothing tea. Warm and light.

Seed Packet POV

Seed packets. How do I execute, or really how do I plan to execute my seed packets? Somehow, lol.

Speaking seriously,  I do have at least a starting idea of what I need to do in regards to these seed packets. My first order of business is conceptualizing the sketches for the Food Network characters I plan on parodying. In figured my best bets are Aarti Sequiera, Bobby Flay and Alton Brown. Respectfully the three represent Indian, South Western and traditional American cuisine and they have their own identifying factors physically. If I play off those I can hint to them and incorporate their archetypes as best I can.

Next order of business is finding a suitable replacement name for Food Network and identifying my own brand name for the seeds themselves. I don't want them to be produced by the parody Food Network company, but a third party type company that the parody Food Network clearly has some stock in. Kind of like how you see those delicious chocolate cream pies made specifically with Hershey's brand chocolate but not specifically made by Hershey.

I need to pick my typeface for the company name, as well as the parody Food Network header, although I might look for the actual Food Network font and use that for the parody Food Network just to reinforce the Food Network references. If I deviate too much people might not get I'm parodying Food Network.

I also need to look for paper. I already know I want to use a brown toned paper, and possibly one with a little tooth to it. I like the earthy vibe it gives, and I really loved how one of the example projects looked printed out on paper like that. And with the colors I plan on using for the packaging it will come out really nice looking in the end.

At least, it does in my head.

Mood Board

^ This is what happens when you have an empty stomach. ^

We were assigned a "Seed Packet" project where we design seed packets. We could have it be whatever we chose it to be, so I decided that my seeds would grow personal chefs. My inspiration came from the Food Network and all their TV personality chefs who tortured me with their delicious food. I tried to take from all the different cultural personalities. Some of the pictures are the hosts I plan to emulate, as well as dishes they've created. The fonts are cute things I liked font wise that would give my packets a playful feel in terms of heading fonts. And the color swatches are from the cultural inspirations and the food above.

Seed Packet Mind Map

My mind map for my Seed Packet project. There's lots of food on there.

Can you tell I'm hungry?

Mario Mushroom Remake

Illustrator CS6 Essential Training 2

Was assigned another set of videos to watch and write summaries about. Not very long, not very hard and some of it is just a recap of things that were answered in class:

• RBG vs. CMYK

CMYK is comprised of the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black and are used in documents that require printing. RBG is comprised of the colors red, green and blue which are primarily used for documents being displayed on the web or varied screened devices.

• Understanding Fills and Strokes

Fills and strokes make your paths fancy lookin'. The fill is the solid color inside of the path that creates the shape/letter/etc., while the strokes are selected colors that essentially outline the shape/letter/etc. and work with or without the fill much like the fill can work with or without the stroke. Multiple fills and strokes can be used in combination to give shapes/letters/etc. more depth and feel.

• Working with Paths

A path is essentially the line between two anchor points. It can be straight or manipulated to curve in any way the user desires. They are the skeletal structure in which fills and strokes are placed over top of. The anchor points that the path attaches two are basically the joints of the path. They hold it together and control how the path looks through the use of handles.

In the case of broken paths, they can be joined or averaged together through the join and average command. The join command will take two end points close together and join them together creating one path. The average command does something similar, but is used for paths not in close distance to one another. Using it, the command will determine in what way to combine and close the shape based upon the axis you choose.

The scissors and knife tools are used for splitting apart paths. Using the scissors tool, you can click on one anchor point along the path, then another and cut it along those anchor points with the scissors command. The knife tool is just that, a knife. It freely cuts through paths in any manner you choose, giving you more freedom to manipulate what paths are created when it is used. However, it also does not give you the same level of control and restrain as the scissors tool.

Recreated Logos

Illustrator CS6 Essential Training

I was given a text document with a list of videos to watch on Lynda.com pertaining to learning how to use Illustrator. There were 3 different chapters of videos for our class to watch, and overall there were 10 videos that were several minutes long that I ended up watching.

The first chapter was entitled:

• Getting Started

From the videos in this chapter, it talked about the differences between using programs like Illustrator versus that of programs like Photoshop. Not being entirely new to what Illustrator is ( I took a course that taught me how to use Illustrator from the CS3 series), I was already familiar with some of the differences and uses.

Where Photoshop is resolution dependent and works in pixels, Illustrator is resolution independent and works in vectors. To state it simply, vector images retain their ability to be modified through scaling, etc., without losing its crisp shape. Photoshop images can't do this. They can be modified within the parameters of their resolution and tend to lose their shape and properties along the way depending.

The videos also gave a tour of the programs interface or the bars, icons and tabs littering the program. Since I'm familiar with Photoshop the set-up isn't anything new to me and a few minutes of clicking around here and there get me settled into anything I didn't previously already know.

I did get a lot of new key combination shortcuts from these videos I didn't know previously.

The second chapter was:

• Working with Documents

Being very familiar with Photoshop helped me in regards to these videos again. Working with grids, rulers, guides, and the snap features are essentially the same in Illustrator as they are in Photoshop. However, I was surprised to find how exact you can be using the grids and rulers, placing things to exact pixels in order to avoid the nasty effects of anti-aliasing.

The snap feature when moving things is very helpful when you're trying to line one object or group of objects up with another on the grid of screen, but become a serious pain when you're simply trying to nudge something into looking right to you personally. Thankfully you can turn this option off.

While turning this option off, you can also modify how the grids, guides and snaps look to your through Illustrator's preferences. You're able to modify the colors of grids and guides there in order to make it easier to see on your document. This can be found under the Edit menu on the bar at the top of the program for Windows, or I believe they said under the program's name on a Mac. Either way, customization is very handy and helps keep strain off the eyes.

It also talked about how the hide artwork in the document. Another thing I was already aware of. It's a useful tool when you want to look through the individual layers or even test whether or not something looks better with or without that particular element attached to it. All you need to do it click the little eye icon in the Layers window and voila~, things can be hidden and seen. You're like a digital magician in a way when you're using it.

Locking and unlocking objects is just as easy and hiding and revealing them, the only difference being one function makes something disappear from sight while the other doesn't allow you to move that particular object and/or group of objects.

The only thing I wasn't versed in was the Artboards, which the presenter said is apparently a new thing to come out with CS6. I admittedly really like this feature. It's a nice way of having multiple documents in one space, especially when you're sitting there doing color variants of a particular logo or graphic of some sort.

That segment showed how to arrange artboards on a particular document when the document was created and how to resize the individual artboards in the document (which admittedly made grin ear to ear). It's somewhat akin to how Microsoft Excel added tabs to the bottom so you could do multiple spreadsheets at once without having a crap-ton of documents. Saves time, saves HD space.

The third chapter was:

• Selecting and Transforming Objects

Something I'm very practiced in once again because of my time spent using Photoshop.

Several of the videos essentially went over the ways in which someone can select an object, or a group of objects, turn those objects in a singular group of objects in which you can move around and transform them back into individual objects. This also included the different selections tools, their purposes and importance when using them to select and group objects.

Also touched on was how to resize images, rotate images and align images using the alignment tools inside the program. All of those are things I'm very familiar with because of using Photoshop so heavily.

Resizing allows you to scale down or blow up an image to whatever proportions to desire, or if you want a uniformed scaling, allows you to do a constrained resize which has things resize parallel to all parts and sides. Basically it means it gets bigger or smaller equally all over.

Rotating is just as it sounds, you rotate the object, groups of objects, and/or entire piece to your will. Upsided down, 35 degrees to the right, however you want to rotate it, it can be done. Pretty simple to do.

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Most of these videos were just re-hashes for me with the exception of what Artboards are and how they work. It's nice to get refreshers anyway, because without constant use the knowledge and memory of how something worked slowly begins to dissipate until you can no longer recall it. So hopefully I won't have too hard of a time re-acquainting myself with this program.

Also, I took tons of key combinations shortcut notes. Tons.