Unit 2 Evaluation

Final Piece - Colour experiments

To further push the idea of having sets and to experiment with colour schemes, I decided to alter my final design into complimentary colours, monotone, and pastel colour schemes.
My personal favourites are the pastel themes as they are the least saturated. To achieve this I altered the hue and saturation so that the colours became muted. I then increased the lightness of the poster. This made the colours into soft pastels.

I think when it comes to displaying them, I will pick out a set of three that compliment each other.
Upon comparison I feel that the original red and green colour scheme is too saturated, and takes away from the poster meaning.

Final Piece - Text

When it came to adding text to the poster, I originally wanted to create contrast with the typeface.
To achieve this, I started off with a Serif type, and a Script type. I liked the contrast of type that looked hand written and machine-like. 

It was upon adding more text that I felt like the Script type may not be the most  suitable, as it wasn't clear and legible from a distance. I then altered it to another hand written type called "chalk board". Initially, I really liked this type as it physically looked like it was hand written and gave my poster more of a human touch, but as I went through developing my poster, it was brought to my attention that the vast amount of type conflicted with each other, as opposed to working harmoniously.

I then also had issues with the overlapping of the heart and the title "gender". At first I thought it could be solved with an alteration of colour (as seen below), however when I changed the hue of the text, it just conflicted with the green and the red and made the piece look over crowded.

To try and confront the over crowded issue, I tried to layer the text and the heart so that it was almost woven. This created layers and added depth into the piece.

After layering the text and the heart, I still wasn't satisfied with how the piece looked.
I then tried to layer it so that the heart over lapped the text completely.

I was much more satisfied with how this looked, as it made the poster seem less crowded, and also gave it a more efficient look. Due to this, I then changed the colour of the text back to the same red as the banners so that I could create a sense of uniformity.

To further improve the aesthetic theme, I changed all the type to the same font and removed all drop shadows. This made the text sit flatter, and also worked nicely with the vector theme.

So that the text wrapped nicely around the heart, I used the pen tool to create a shape, and instead of using the text tool on the line, I used it inside the shape and set it to the correct alignment. As this was for the right side of my poster, I set it to a right alignment. That way the heart would be the focal point of the poster.

This is how the poster looked after I had finished the text and all the alignments. I really like how it turned out as I feel that it meets all the objectives of the brief.
If I were to do this again, I think I would try out a different layout and experiment a bit more with colour schemes. I think I'd even attempt a series of posters with linking themes and ideas but different subject matters.

Over all I am pretty proud of how this poster turned out. I think it looks successful and would work efficiently in a public place such as schools or libraries. It has the right balance of eye catching and informative without being over the top.

Final Piece - Vectoring

I started off using the drawing software Manga Studio, as the vectoring tool has many editorial options, and is in my opinion much nicer to use than the Photoshop vector pen tool.
All my vectoring was done on a single layer.

I lowered the opacity of the sketch design, and worked over it using the vector tool.










































Using the line width correction tool on the vector platform, I layered strokes on the details of the heart over lap so that I could create transition in the otherwise monowidth lines.

After I had added the flat colours of the poster, I then used a clipping layer over my line art so that I could colour them to match the shapes. This gives them more of a clean-edge look and in my opinion makes it look more professional.
I chose the colour scheme of green and red as they are complimentary colours that contrast nicely with each other, and so would draw the eye to my poster.
I wanted to achieve a balance of eye catching and aesthetically pleasing. I think I have achieved this through the use of complimentary colours.

To give the poster more depth, I added details onto the heart. This makes it look more three dimensional, and serves to be more appealing.
So that the heart isn't over saturated, I decided to use more mute-red tones for the highlights and shading. This way I can retain the saturated colour of the heart, but also maintain definition without it burning one's retinas.

As a n experiment, I then proceeded to add gradients to the vector art. I wanted o see whether a fade into warmer colour would add depth to the piece, but I feel it just makes the colours too bright and saturated. I will continue with it to see how it looks with text, but I am unsure on the design.
I think the design without the gradient is much more successful, as the block colours really add to the vector design.

Final Piece - Altering the design.

This is the design that I started off with. Though I like some elements of it, such as how the heart is the centre piece of the design, I also feel like it was lacking in certain aesthetics that would make my poster more affective.
To over come this, I switched the style up a bit, incorporating a centre alignment on a diagonal, and added in a more exciting back ground.

This was the design that I settled on. I really like having the main titles on a diagonal, as I feel it makes the poster not only more interesting to look at, but it leaves greater room to have informative text. I also decided that it would look better with some repeated features, so I used the ribbon/banner idea for both the 'Love' and 'Human'. I felt like this would give my design a more professionally designed look, and make it look more high end.

Final scamps

These are my two final scamp designs. I feel like out of all the designs I produced, these are the most successful. I wanted to look at alignment and how it impacts design. I feel that the centre alignment has a more of an informal feeling to it, and so makes it appear more approachable.
I will probably change the text so that the type is less curved, as I feel it might look a little too childish, and so might not gain the attention of the older audience.
I want to try out several colour schemes as I am unsure on whether I want a monochromatic colour theme, or a complimentary theme. I feel that the monochrome colour scheme may not be eye-catching enough, but I also feel that using too many complimentary colours will make the poster seem over crowded and messy.

Typeface brainstorm

This is my brainstorm for the typeface that I wanted to use for my product design. I think that a designer type would look cool and unique, however I also want my poster to have a bold statement, and to be clearly legible from a distance. To achieve this, I need to avoid modern types as they can be difficult to read from further away, especially for someone of a younger age,
I think for my final design I will settle on a Sans Serif typeface, however I will be avoiding the over used examples I have included on my brain storm, as they are over used and might bring down the visual stimulation/excitement of my poster.

Ideas Scamps

These are my quick ideas for my poster. I experimented with a range of composition ideas and played around with my idea of a skeleton for the poster 'mascot'.
I feel the most successful designs are the simpler ones, as they get to the point of the message in an aesthetically pleasing way, and do not crowd the poster with information.
I think I will refine and combine a few of these ideas to create my final drafts

Emulation

To start with, I used the same method which I used to do the copy. I started off by traditionally drawing my ideas.

Using the pen tool I inked round the lines I had drew, and using a compound path setting I 'inked' in the gaps between the two separate lines.

I then put the base colour on and arranged it so that it sat below the line layer.

After arranging the base colour, I then added some shading and did some colour alteration.

 After adding a back ground colour I thought that the eye sockets looked a little bare, and would be improved with something in the middle.

These are the final emulations. I really like how they turned out as they combine cute and gory, and with the use of vectoring have a really nice smooth finish. I definitely think I will be doing my final piece in this medium.

 I really like the red heart on the green background. As red and green are complimentary colours, I feel that the contrast creates a cool edge to the image.

Artist Copy

The artist I decided to copy is Cronobreaker. After discovering their work on Pinterest, I have had interest in emulating their style with vectors/the pen tool. This is the original image.

To start off the process of my artist copy, I drew the image from observation. This was done using a mechanical pencil to achieve clean thin lines which I could work from.
I scanned the image in and opened it in Adobe Illustrator. 

After opening the traditionally drawn image, I used a pen tool to trace around the lines I had drawn with my pencil. This created a frame to which I could apply a compound path ([select lines with pointer tool]> [toolbar]Object > compound path > make ) and fill in the gaps.

This is what it looked liked after I had applied a compound path. I like this technique of creating line art as opposed to inking it traditionally as this allows for an alterable transition within the line.

To fill a block colour, I drew a rough shape over the lines, but keeping inside them so that I could lower the arrangement so that it fell behind the lines.

This is what it looked like after I altered the arrangement and the yellow colour fell behind the dark purple lines.

Using the same process I created the cell-shaded parts of the shape. To help make the process faster, I saved certain pen settings into graphics styles so that with the use of a single click I can transform vectored lines.

I repeated this process for each section of the burger and used colours that were on a premade swatch. I found however that the colours were not completely accurate. To alter this, I used the colour wheel.

To get the same shaped on both sides of the glasses, I made the shapes and then grouped them using the Pathfinder. After grouping them, I then duplicated them and transformer them horizontally so that it was reversed.

This is what the glasses looked like afterwards. I really like how this turned out as it gave the illustration a nice smooth feel.

This is what the whole head looked like before I added the eyes.
To achieve the same uniform affect of the  glasses, I decided that I'd use the same process of duplicating the same shape.

I really like how the head came out, and I think that the use of the same shapes for the eyes really adds to overall affect. It seems to add a balance and order to the otherwise chaotic feeling illustration.

This is the colour wheel that I used. I kept the image open next to my copy so that I could get the colours as accurate as I was able. To help further refine the colour, I used the colour sliders. This allowed me to alter saturation, hue, and colour balance. This was very useful as I found I had to make minor adjustments which otherwise would have proven very difficult on a colour wheel. 

 

 This is the transition of minor colour and line alteration. Though the differences are small, I feel that they do make a difference to improve the copy and make it more accurate.

This is my complete copy of a section of Cronobreaker's "Burger bits". I am really pleased with how this turned out as I have never done any vector art before, and I had to learn how to use all the tools and shortcuts. However I now feel confident in my ability to produce work in the digital medium of vectoring.
I think if I were to redo this piece I would use a colour swatch taken from the original piece so that I could get the colours absolutely perfect. On the other hand, I also feel that it would be taking away from producing a 'copy', as I'd be taking directly from the original and not pushing myself to improve my own colour knowledge.