Into Illustrator! But first lets sketch our plan out.

Before diving into Adobe illustrator we made a sketch of something surrounding shapes. I decided to draw "Rowlet" because of his simple design and he was very easy to draw because of his circular body and circular body features. I have been practicing drawing out side of school and I really feel as if I'm making progress. I really like the style of pencil only on paper but it just feel unnatural on computer. I cannot show this sketch unfortunately since it is web-locked and I can't add it to this blog.
One of the sketches key features is that it focuses on how round and bold some of the borders are to emphasis the shape aspect.

Recreating my sketch in illustrator.

When I recreated my sketch in illustrator I found that color would be more appropriate then just black and white because on the computer I lack the control I have while drawing on paper for he time being. Illustrator also has a few hidden tricks that people such as myself can really use to the fullest. See illustrator is a bit like learning how to play a competitive video game such as "Smash Bros. Melee". On the surface the program might seem simple at first and people will get the hang of the most basic features first like the pencil tool or selector, then people will start to discover some hidden tricks within the program to find a easier or faster way to accomplish the same task but even better. For me this was the shapper tool and the smoothness of the pencil tool. The pencil tool seems like a very simple one on the surface but it can adapt to virtually anything you need to be done. Say you want a smaller print, you can do that, you want your lines smoother, you can do that, you want to have the most precise tracking of where your pen tool goes to really have an exact experience, you can do that. I mainly used this to tackle small features such as his wings or his feet.

The Shaper Tool

One of the main focuses of this project was to become familiar with the shaper tool. The shaper tool is like the pencil and shape tool all in one convenient bundle. Basically the shaper tool is just a variant of the pencil tool that if you draw a circle the drawing will automatically make a circle that symmetrical and everything. The thing that separates this from the shaper tool from the shape tool is that the shaper tool is much more versatile. You can do anything with the shape you just created like make it bigger or smaller, attach another shape to it and connect it with no lines in the middle, or just cut out parts of the circle. Referring back to my competitive gaming example, you might have a very basic grasp of the game (The normal shape tool), but once you do a little bit of research and practice you are able to play the game in a much deeper way (The Shaper tool). 

A Taste of Graphic Design

My First Experience With Graphic Design 

Im back from winter break and enjoy the holidays but its time to get beck to e-Comm! When we came back from break we transitioned classes once more for the final rotation and in this branch I will be studying graphic design. We have just finished our first project in graphic design and it has really given me inside as to what graphic design is.

Creating my Vision of Graphic Design 

Graphic design means many things in all forms of media, it could range from a logo seen on a shirt to a logo how you organize your thoughts in an ad; However one thing in graphic design holds true for all forms of media it is used for, the job of a designer is to create something that will draw someones eye and make the person obtain interest in what you are advertising. For our first project we had to create a sketch of what graphic design means to us. This could be anything in media today such as a logo or character. With my sketch I focused more towards highlighting logos because I believe that logos are the biggest example of graphic design in life today and I had to feature my favorite games and social media outlets of course. The logos I chose were for a purpose however and hold a lot of meaning. The rust Logo is my favorite in the sketch. It's simple yet invokes a lot of thought making you wonder "Whats with the radiation symbol next to "RUST"?" or "Why is it called rust in the first place?". Another one of my favorite logos I had drawn is the instagram logo. The logo highlights one of the best features of instagram, the community is carried and you will find lots of different people and channels. This might not be so obvious but the rainbow represents the variety within the app. Another thing in my sketch is the color, I added color because I really wanted to highlight everything about my logos and designs that I thought represented graphic design.

The 7 Key Elements of Graphic Design 

In graphic design there are many tools and techniques used by the designers to grab the students eye. For this project we learned and used the 7 most essential elements every designer uses in every piece. The first is Line, lines are used to emphasize certain parts of the piece and make a certain part really pop out. The next is color and this is one of the most important. Color generates a certain emotion in people like red being fierce or love and blue being calming. Texture is also an element designers use to create variety within the design that they are creating. The 4th technique used is size, size is used to convey importance or stress a great example of this is the header and titles of this blog! Shape is next and is used to create visually appealing pieces and have eye catching features. Space within graphic design makes anything easier to look at, say for instance this blog. If the space was no in between the headings and paragraphs it would just look like a mess! The last element that graphic designers put to use is value and this is how bold or colorful one part is.

 The Sketching Process 

The sketching process is a very relaxing part of graphic design and it needs to be that way. When I was sketching my piece I wanted to be relaxed so I could be able to think clearly without worrying about something else so that my design could be more appealing. Another aspect of the designing process that I really enjoyed is personal impact on your own piece and how others may have drawn it. This piece was a personal one for everyone because your not strictly making one thing like the other classes. With this project we were able to truly express what we were wanting to convey through graphic design and that was what the lesson was about. The lesson was not about the techniques used but how to use them to convey our own message in your own way.