Fun Car Commercials
By Jacob on July 10, 2008
Everyday as we watch television we get bombarded by commercials trying to sell products or ideas. Normally I just either change the channel when this happens or mind-numbingly sit through them and wait until my program is back on. However, I have gained great respect for the marketing geniuses and artists behind a few of the commercial campaigns that I have seen recently. If you would have asked me a few months ago if I could get inspired by a car commercial I would have definitely said no. This all changed after a certain Saturn commercial caught my eye.
The little flourishes that pop up all throughout the video really caught my eye. I love the how the city unfolds as the car drives by different objects. Here is another video with the same type of design.
I wish I could find the company or artist that was responsible for these commercials. I’m sure I would love their other work. If you know who it is or a similar artist please let me know! While I was searching for the commercial yesterday I was unsure of which car company it was for and I started searching for Nissan commercials. It turns out that they have a few nice ones as well.This one seems to be inspired by the Transformers.
Do you know of any more interesting commercials that are worth mentioning?
Topics: Art | No Comments »
Six Questions on Being (or becoming?) a Graphic Designer
By Jacob on June 11, 2008
Lauren over at Creative Curio wrote a nice post recently with several different questions for any graphic designer. Her answers were great and she encouraged others to give their answers to the six questions. Even though I am not officially “in the biz” I decided to tweak the questions if only a little and give my reply, as a student. To see the original questions go read the post over at Creative Curio. Some of my questions have been altered just a bit.
Just for reference, when and how did you get your start learning about the industry?
Well, I would have to say that I really became interested in the industry after my first semester of college. I had always been interested in design elements and even took a few college courses on the subject while in high school, but it never really hit me that I could make a career out of it. Once I figured out that I loved web technologies and design, I was excited to marry the two and do web design.
How do you define graphic design?
This question I think I’ll leave the same. Even though I am only a student and don’t have much experience in the “real world” with design, I feel that I still have a solid grasp on the meaning of graphic design.
To me graphic design is all about merging the aspects of every day communication with classic design elements that have been around for centuries. I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I believe graphic artists have to knowingly or unknowingly understand and be able to apply certain methods from the field of psychology.
I should note, however, that I am a student and much of my opinion of graphic design has been influenced by the articles that I have read on different blogs such as Jacob Cass’s.
What was the hardest thing to learn about the industry?
So for the hardest thing for me to learn about the industry is how in the world you break into it! In class rooms they teach us students all about the basics and all about design, but I never heard anything about the business side of the industry. This is why I have relied heavily on information gathered from people already in the industry who have some great blogs focused on design. They have taught me so much over the years and I know that if I keep reading I will learn even more.
What is the best part about being a design student?
Learning, of course! As a student I am constantly forced to take on multiple projects and dig for inspiration. This forces me to keep learning and pushing myself as a designer and as a person. Instead of allowing myself to get stuck into a certain niche or a certain look, I am shoved into different ideas and have to find my way through. I’m hoping that this feeling continues even after I finish being an “official” student.
What is the number one thing you would like to tell new students of graphic design?
Don’t give up! When I first started I was in awe of what other graphic designers could achieve and I figured that I could never reach that level. It took me a lot of time struggling and growing in order to figure out that I could and will reach my own potential. It’s a big journey from beginning to end, but I know that it is worth it and every other student coming into graphic design should think the same.
What is something you wish other students would understand?
I would want other students, like myself, to understand how important the basics of design are to any project. This may sound odd, but I am a firm believer in the simplicity of things and that anything an be torn apart into basic, fundamental steps. I believe we have all been at that point where we look at a piece of work and wonder how someone could even have conceived or made such a look. Learn the basics well and anything is possible. This is something that I had to figure out the hard way.
Well, those are my answers and my modified questions. What do you think? Do you have your own answers to these questions? I would love to hear what others have to say!
Topics: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Composition, muy importante
By Jacob on June 6, 2008
Ah, composition. What a beautiful word. Let’s say it a few times out loud.
Composition
Composition
Composition.
Now it’s your turn.
Okay…not that we have that out of our system, let’s move on to talking about composition instead of just saying it. Composition is the arrangement of objects or elements in the overall design. Think of it as the layout of the design. By the sound of it you may think that composition is just a small part of the look and feel, but in reality it’s one of the most important aspects of design.
Poor composition can turn a piece of work from moving to boring. On the other hand, wise composition can make a piece interesting and exciting. It is all about what needs to be conveyed in the overall message.
One thing that I have learned over the years is that humans have a tendency to center most objects in respect to one another. Take for example the image that I created below. The ball is centered, or somewhat centered, in the frame of the image. This look is pleasing to the eye, it makes sense in our mind, and is easy to notice as it is front-and-center.
The centered image is great and all, but doesn’t it seem just a bit boring? I mean, it is pretty expect, right? How about we start throwing a curve ball.
This next image moves the ball from the center to the corner of the image. However, it sets itself down on the corner and refuses to go any further (stubborn little thing) . Just as I said the human mind has a tendency to center objects, the tendency to line them up is just as strong. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’m not a fan of objects being perfectly aligned or in a row. It’s just that although this isn’t as expected or normal as the ball being in the center of the image, it still isn’t a great improvement. There is nothing exciting happening visually. We could have guessed this would happen just as easily as we could have guessed that the ball would be in the middle. NEXT!
Okay, so we’re done with aligning objects and center them, right? Well, take a look at the picture below. Finally we broke past the edge of the paper and it even looks like this created a new, interesting shape! What a great side-effect. The only problem with this is that we’ve let our mind control us and have centered the ball with the corner of the paper. *Yawn* Boring! I want something unexpected, not more and more of the same re-hashed tricks.
Okay, so now for the final example. Ta-da! This is much better. Look at the beautiful shape that was made just by breaking the boundaries of the paper and ignoring the center for just a second. This is much more visually interesting and even demands focus.
The moral of the story…
Composition is key to a great and interesting design. Understanding the use and importance of composition will help any artist when creating their masterpiece. If you ever find yourself stuck within a certain box and can’t break free here is a little tip. Try cutting out a few shapes or objects and placing them on a white sheet of paper. Move them around and find interesting points of view along with new and fun ways to layer them and let them interact with one another. If you do this long enough you are bound to come up with some fresh ideas.
I hope this post was helpful! Aside from my lack-luster blue circle examples, do you know of any great designs that display refreshing composition techniques? How about some of your own work? Do you have any other tips for those that are having trouble understanding or finding new perspectives on composition?
Topics: design | No Comments »
Designing for Print vs. Desiging for Web
By Jacob on June 6, 2008
This week I was faced with the task of making several posters for the company that I work with. This is what has inspired this post. After designing the posters and preparing them to print, I realized that I had never really worked designed for print before. I had heard of the differences of designing for the web versus designing for a printed medium before, but had never really studied it with much interest. Before wasting the company’s paper and ink, I decided it was time for me to do a little research.
Colors Aren’t Always the Same
To clarify, it’s important to know the difference between RGB and CMYK. No, I didn’t just pick some random letters.
RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue. It’s the colors that are emitted from computer monitors. With these three colors you can create all of the other colors that you see. It’s important to note that these colors are emitted from monitors and other light sources.
CMYK on the other hand stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These are the ink colors that are used in order to create the colors on printed materials. Since paper doesn’t directly emit light, these colors work by reflecting specific wavelengths.
If you are designing a project that you know is going to end up printed in some form or fashion, be sure to change the mode from RGB, which is usually the default, to CMYK. This is easy to do in most programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
Since the color that you see on your monitor may not look as bright or have as much impact as you would want on paper, it is important to have some kind of chart or book that shows cmyk/rgb comparisons. It is suggested by many people that you buy a book that showcases the cmyk and rgb values of colors. I have dug around a little bit to find a nice chart with several different colors and their values in both color spaces. I suggest that you print this out on a decent printer and keep it as a reference (I know I am).
What’s All the Hype about DPI and Resolution?
Before jumping into printing I had heard of resolution, dpi, and of course pixels but never really understood how they tied into a printed project.
DPI and Resolution are terms that get thrown around alot, but they are almost weightless without knowing the measurements of the project. Let me slap down a little math in order to explain how they are all related.
Let’s take a project that has a pixel size of 1000 by 700.
Pixel Size: 1000 x 700
Now what would this project print out to be at 300 dpi? Some simple math will let us know.
1000 x 700 at 300 dpi
The formula to find the size is Pixel divided by dpi. This gives the measurement in inches.
1000/300 = 3.33 in.
700/300 = 2.33 in.
The 1000 x 700 px document at 300 dpi will print to be 3.33 x 2.33 inches. Now we can say that the resolution of this image is 3.33 x 2.33 inches at 300 dpi. Does that clear some things up?
But everything looks the same, right?
Well, not always. There are plenty of elements that come across as bold and exciting on a computer screen but when these designs become print they lose their impact. For example, look at the use of placing two words together while varying their weight (example below).
If you dig around the web long enough you are bound to find multiple examples of this. Where as this effect can have a decent impact on the screen it gets lost whenever converted to print. Go ahead, try printing out the image above or creating your own to see for yourself. This is why it takes a different ‘eye’ when thinking about designing for print.
Conclusion
Although these are just a few examples of the differences between designing for the web and designing for print they are ones that I fell face down into when tackling my project. I’ve sense spent more time researching and experimenting the differences between the two and hope to post a few further examples in the near future.
What do you think? Do you know of anything that you wish I would have touched on? What problems have you ran into when designing for a major printing project? Have any hints for my future project?
On a different note…
This blog will be undergoing a re-design in the next couple of weeks. I just tested my wordpress skills on a website for my fraternity (www.ualrkappasigma.com) and want to keep up that momentum and focus on this site. I’ve been digging around the internet for some inspiration and plan on posting a few ideas in the next couple of days to get your input, so please stay tuned!
Topics: design | No Comments »
Photoshop Fun
By Jacob on May 15, 2008
I work for a company that has computer labs in a lot of difference high schools all throughout the United States. Part of my job is to provide technical support for these high schools either over the phone, through a ticketing system, or on the online forums. Another part of my job is to design tutorials in order to help guide and teach the students how to learn a wide variety of software. Of course, most of my tutorials focus around web design, photoshop, Softimage XSI, and other graphics oriented topics.
My most recent endeavor, tutorial wise, has been to teach a few new techniques using Photoshop. In order to teach these techniques I needed a project. I figured that a project that almost any student could get involved in would be a desktop background. I’ve made two backgrounds so far while trying to determine which specific steps and topics to cover.
The first design was basically the result of me playing around with Photoshop brushes and different effects. It took me a while to figure out the direction that I wanted to take the students, but I thought that I would focus on creating and editing brushes. Alot of people, myself included until not too long ago, either underestimate or just plain don’t know about Photoshop’s ability to customize brushes.
I still have to go back and remake the backgrounds in order to document the proper steps and tools used. Hopefully the students will learn enough and be inspired to make their own!
The two final backgrounds are posted below in 1280×1024 and 1600×1200.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »