Food and Wine Spread

In my second semester at DMACC we were assigned to create a magazine layout. We were to design the cover, TOC, and story spread.

There were many challenges in this assignment. I first started out by doing research on magazine covers just to get a feel of what is out there. We could do any magazine we wanted to. I choose the Food & Wine magazine because I am really into cooking also. When I decided on the magazine I wanted to do, I had to measure the exact size of the magazine and enter those dimensions into InDesign. The next challenge was to find a good picture for the cover. Wow! That was a challenge. Having to find a picture with good color, enough space to fit the type into and the food had to look delicious. I found this image on Istock.com. Yeah, I had to pay for it, but it was worth it.

Now begins the really challenging part. The Type. I may have changed it 20 times. I could not get the font, the color, and the placement right. You wouldnt think designing a cover would be so hard, but it is!

All in all I think I created a well balanced layout that would please the magazine writers. I really enjoyed this assignment because of all the challenges. We met in class a few times to get some feedback on our designs which really helped me.

Flying Moose Coffee

I was assigned to create packaging for a product of my choosing. We could make up any product we wanted. Some choose to do wine, tools, office supplies, and candy.

I choose to do a fictional coffee shop. When I was young I made up my nickname to be "The Flying Moose". I thought that would be a fitting name for a coffee shop.

The first step in this was to come up with a logo. I started sketching anything that came to mind. I also had to create a logo for the other products too. I choose to do simple lines and shapes to put these together. I wanted to stay with the outdoor theme so I choose a color pallet that had deep greens and browns in it.

Next was designing the boxes for the products. I wanted to challenge myself and do something out of the ordinary. We had to come up with three different products. I choose a coffee combo box, espresso chocolates, and creamers. My favorite part of design is coming up with packaging. I just like the way things can fold.

When designing the box for the espresso beans I came up with a slip type box with a cut out of mountains on the mouth of the box. For the creamer tops I wanted to come up with simple designs for each of them.

The next part of the assignment was to photograph our products in the photo studio we have at DMACC. That was a challenge in itself just trying to get scheduled for a time to shoot among all the other students. I wanted to create a real feel, so I went out and bought some coffee and espresso chocolates. I staged the products in a light box and shot them with a digital camera. I had never done this so it was a challenge of figuring out the best lighting for the photos. Thanks to My, she really helped me out with the camera. After I had all the shots I took them into Photoshop and edited the lighting to perfect them.

I feel I did a good job of obtaining the goals of this project. I did get a good grade on the project so I was happy. This was actually the project I liked the most since I have been at DMACC.

Illustrated Monster

Recently in my Illustrator class we were to create a creature designed in Adobe Illustrator. We could do anything we could think of. The purpose of the assignment was not really the actual monster design, but really just putting the Illustrator tools and your skill to work.I found it to be a challenging assignment because I have recently just started getting into the depths of Adobe Illustrator. Yeah... I knew how to draw simple shapes and you the Live Trace option (pardon my french) but really didn't know much further than that.

To create this little guy I started out with the good old paper and pencil. I found that if I first start by just drawing random shapes down and then shading them I would come up with better design.After I got my monster created on the paper it was time to take it to the computer. I started out by scanning the image in and then taking it in to Illustrator and placing it as a template. I traced over it using the almighty pen tool as my teacher Jamie would like to call it. To do the spots on his arms and legs I used a clipping mask. I also used this method to do the shading on the teeth and his eye.

I think it came out pretty well. I really learned a good way to put clipping masks to use. I think it met the needs of the assignment as it taught me that their is an actual process to illustrator and not just throwing things into the program and going.