10.01.15 | Teach a Martian to Tie a Shoe

Original

Revision (Click to Expand)

After showing the original draft (pictured right) to a classmate, they illustrated a couple of concerns: first off - which was a concern I had myself, as well - was that the project was too busy overall, especially with the dotted lines thrown in. Second, the blocky style of the person in the tutorial was at odds with the picturesque nature of the cats, making it seem too abstract by comparison. The design of the person was meant to be evocative of those IKEA instruction manual avatars, though those have more of a curvature / organic feel to them. The third major concern was that the penultimate row of steps were a little too similar and just served to make the tutorial busier overall.

I adjusted the final tutorial (pictured left) by removing the arrows in favor of a more visible progression and lining the individual steps up a little more accurately, using the Brush tool to manually draw heads / hands for the person (which also made it line up with the costumes, stylistically speaking), and while I didn't want to completely scrap the second-to-last set of steps because they were more or less the punchline of the whole thing, I did consolidate them into a single large step that was a lot easier to interpret.

09.29.15 | Graphic Design Definitions

Identity Design
The process of compounding a series of concepts or practices into visual and/or thematic elements to shape the imagery of a brand, product or service into something clearly reflective of its values or practices. Most commonly found as brand identity design.
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Branding
Establishing consistent design elements (particularly name and iconography) for a brand so as to make it clearly applicable and desired by its target audience(s).
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Collateral Design
The printed material associated with your brand designed to give it an image.
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Environmental Design
Predominantly corporeal schools of design used to strengthen more abstract concepts as a means of producing an effective advertising atmosphere; e.g. using signage and industrial / architectural design relative to its adjacent cultural landscape, etc.
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Iconography
The reception, interpretation and study of graphics or images associated with something.
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Information Design
The act of going beyond purely aesthetically-pleasing forms of graphic design to convey data in favor of opting for a style in equal parts practical and effective, ultimately resulting in clean visual representations conveying knowledge in a straightforward format. Frequently appear in modern graphic design in the form of infographics.
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Editorial Design
A study tasked with the definition and refinement of graphic arts within some form of printed media.
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Poster Design
Subset of graphic design specifically associated with the production and imaging works involved in producing posters for use in advertisements.
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Packaging
The design and ultimate appearance of a container, designed to further illustrate the purpose or qualities of its product.
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Interactive Design
The communication of information and ideas through graphic elements with which the audience can modify in varying degrees. Typically encourages the audience to participate.

09.18.15 | Project 1 - Icon Set (Revision)

09.15.15 | Project 1. Icon Set

Cover which served as the basis for the layout of the project; album art itself was also made into an icon (top-left).


 


Kinda cheated with this one. The album cover on the right uses Clarendon, but was a spiritual successor of sorts to the album art on the left when a music label had a resurgence and began to re-distribute albums. However, I thought the composition on the left was a little less cramped and worked better as an icon, so it served as the base (bottom-right).


 Final composition: