Job Search Analysis 1

The first job I found was a graphic designer job in Bloomington, Indiana. The job description is the designer is responsible for creating book covers and designs for marketability. They will need a knowledge of current design trends that relate to fiction and non-fiction genres. Continual critiques will provide high quality work and designing of other projects will be assigned as they are needed. The education they require is a college degree that is preferably in Fine-Arts or Graphic Design. The perferred skills are to know the aspects of offset and digital prepress and print production processes and technology. Also a current knowledge of new technologies and current trends is also required, and expanding the company brand. Need excellent organizational, verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills. As well as 3-5 years experience in an ad agency or design studio. And the prefer superior skills in the programs MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook e-mail, Internet use, and typing skills at 50 WPM. The salary was not specified but the average graphic designer makes about a 30- 50,000 dollar salary range.

Source: I got my information from careerbuilder.com

Adobe Tutorial 3

before image

STEP 1: Open a new document in Photoshop
Make sure the Background contents is Transparent. I used 800×600 px size. You can use any size for this tutorial, but if you plan to make a printed poster I would recommend that you would use a much larger size.

STEP 2: Create your shade background
Fill your canvas with a dark gray, I used #383838. Then select the brush tool and use a large blurry (hardness=0%) and use a slightly brighter color, I used #6b6b6b, to brush at random spots in the canvas. You can also use the gradient tool to achieve this.


STEP 3: Insert your image into the canvas
…Either by dragging or pasting. It is better to use an image with a very simple background and where to main person or subject sticks out. I used this image:

STEP 4: Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast…
Use the following settings: Brightness: -30, Contrast: +40. These number do not have to be exact because your original image might already have a high contrast. So if these numbers are too high, use my example difference to come up with a good number.

STEP 5: Change Blending mode
Select the layer of your image and change the Blending mode from Normal to Darken (this option can be found in the top of the layers window).

STEP 6: Select the Custom Shape tool from the Tools window
Select the layer of your image and change the Blending mode from Normal to Darken (this option can be found in the top of the layers window). Then select the ‘Registration Target 2′ shape from your default custom shapes. This is the shape which resembles sun rays. Make sure the shape color is White.

While holding Shift, create the shape on the canvas in a way that the main subject of your design is around the center oThen Right click on the shape layer you have just created and select ‘Rasterize Layer,’ and move this layer right under your image layer in the layers window.

STEP 7: Erase the rays from under your image subject
Since you want the rays to go AROUND the subject and not ON them, select the Eraser tool and use a small blurry brush (hardness=0%) to get rid of the rays that show on the subject of your image. Then select a grungy or dirty brush for your eraser, and erase a little here and there around the rays.

STEP 8: Add more Grunge
Create a new layer (on top of all layers). In this new layer use a different grunge or dirty brush and select the color black to add some grunge on the sides of the image or wherever you find it fit.

STEP 9: Add Hue/Saturation Layer
Select the ‘Create a new fill or adjustment layer’ button which is the little half black half white circle button in the bottom of the layers window, and choose ‘Hue/Saturation

STEP 10: Add Gradient Map Layer
Once again select the ‘Create a new fill or adjustment layer’ button (half black half white circle button in the bottom of the layers window) but this time choose ‘Gradient Map…’ Then click on the gradient to edit the colors. In this step you can choose any variation of colors to determine the gradient map of your design.

STEP 11: Add Border Shadow
Create a new layer. Then Select All (ctrl+A) and go to Edit>Stroke and use the following settings and make sure the color is Black:

Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 42.0 pixels. Change the Opacity of this layer to 56%.

Final Image

Sources: I used my own image, and here is the tutorial I followed.

National Logo Redesign

The logo I chose was Walmart's Logo. It has changed a lot over the years and has recently changed again. I looked on the Walmart website about their logo and the only reason they gave for changing it was to freshen up their design. Here is the timeline of their logos that they provided on their website:

The new logo is very clean and modern. The new design is a lighter color which is more appealing to the eye, its not all caps which makes it look less bulky, and its all one word now instead of broken up which makes it look cleaner, and then they added the yellow star burst thing on the end that looks modern or futuristic and goes very well with the logo. My suspicion of the new design is that it is suppose to help advertise their "going green" initiative. To me it looks a sun, or something in nature. But the new font is not as bulky and just makes it more appealing, even though I loved getting the smiley face stickers when I was a kid, but since I'm not anymore, I really do love this new logo.

Sources: All the information I got(even though they didn't provide very much) was off of the Walmart website in the history section.

Everyday Design Inspiration

This is my first example and it is a convenient store chain, but I do not like their design. I find it too simple and plain and boring. The colors are weird because they are two primary colors and lighter than the actual colors. The typography is not inventive at all and has a generic feel to it. I'm pretty sure this is their logo and its all just cramped together with random shapes thrown in, and as I said I don't like this design. The target audience is obviously the people getting gas but they are gearing it towards people who are out at all hours of the day and their purpose or call to action is let people know that they will be open when other stores won't be and to make them come in. I think that they had a designer create the image in a program and had it printed up on a sign and started a chain for this type of convenient store. But I think they could of done a little better.



  This is a cool advertising bit Long John Silver's did when we stopped to eat there. They were advertising their new fish meal that they had come up with. They colors were very unique and used well with their contrasting colors. The typography was very well incorporated in the design and added to the appeal of the design to look at it. The logo for Long John Silver's wasn't actually on the product but since it was inside the store, I guess it doesn't have to be. Their target audience is people who like fish and also targeting the people who eat at Long John Silver's a lot. Their call to action was this number on one of the back fins that you could text if you liked their fish. I also thought just the actual product itself was awesome. How it looks like a fish. They would of had to create a layout for the design and probably create a folding dummy for it to show where all the text would end up, then get the product printed, and had to do some cutting on the edges of the product where the tail fits together, and they would have shipped it back to the companies and had them distributed to all of the restaurants and the employees would of had to put them together themselves and set them up.

This is another cool little design I found in a hotel with a bunch of other brochures. Again I really like the color scheme they used. I feel it really works well with the design. The typography was well used and creative. I love how they put text on either side of the stick and on the lollipop to make it look like there is wrapping on it or something. And then having the logo design at the bottom just really brings the whole piece together I think. I like the logo. Its simple but bold, and I really like how they did that. Their target audience is I think kids who love candy. And its appealing to the adults because its free and you get to see the factory and make your own candy. It is just appealing to everyone who would like to see how candy is made and to anyone who likes candy. The call to action is their website, phone number, and address that are on the card to inform people how to get a hold of them, they also have a little map on the back of the card to show people how to get there. For this card, they would of designed it in a program like InDesign and make the graphics in Illustrator or some program like it, and have it printed up and then it would of had to had a die cut on the top to cut out the lollipop, and then packaged and send out to wherever they wanted to advertise around Colorado.

I took this picture as we were passing this little cafe on a street. I didn't like logo so I took a picture. The color is plain. Its white and even the overhang thing is a weird color so its all out of wack. The typography is script but its still boring and has no meaning for the cafe. So overall the logo design is not too good. All they have is a little graphic of a basket with a roll in it I think and not a good one at that. I guess their target audience is the local community, and people who like small little cafe's on the corner. And the only call to action I can think of is the logo itself on the side of the overhand thing. Someone just would of had to design the logo and give someone the file to have it printed or pained onto the overhang material.

So for my inspiration I  found two bad designs and two really good designs that I like. It does inspire me to try to be more creative in my designs and I hope I can get there.

Billboard Advertisement Project

 
These are my thumbnails and roughs for my billboard advertisement.



The content on the billboard differs from all of our other projects because there can't be much of it. You only have a few seconds to get your point across when someone is driving down the road. Therefore, you need to have minimal content that extends a message to the viewer.

Again, the purpose of my billboard is the same as my magazine ad because it is a campaign. I am fighting for all those kids out there who don't get to enjoy their summer break and be a kid. Most kids these days either have to go to summer school, or go to all these different sports camps, or they have to work because they think money is the only way to happiness. My target audience is to the parents, teachers, and coaches or these kids. My call to action will be a link to a website informing them about this movement.

Sources: all images and fonts came from server.

Here is my final image:

Magazine Ad Project

 

These are my thumbnails, and my two Roughs that I drew for my magazine project.

The magazine that I chose to advertise in is Reader's Digest. The specifications for the magazine ad are as follows:
          file format: PDF/X-1A
          size: 5.187" x 7.25"
          bleed: 5.437" x 7.5" or .25 all the way around
          live area: 4.687" . 6.75" or .5 margins all the way on the inside
          budget: For a full page black + 1 color is $165,900 or Cost Per Thousand(impressions) = $30.16
          how to submit: submit my PDF to the Reader's Digest Ad portal at: http://rda.adventcheck.com

The main people reading this magazine are parents or the older generation and some single individuals. More women read it than men, but still a fair amount of a male readers. I am aiming towards this generation, because they are the ones who are having kids or already have kids, or possibly coaches. I am more pleading with them, to let their kids be kids and have fun in summer instead of working, or taking up their summers practicing sports at various camps that is taking up their summer completely. They still need to have a childhood and play. My call to action will my a Microsoft Tag that I will incorporate into my design.

Here is my final image:

Adobe Tutorial 2

Start Image

For my second Adobe Tutorial, I decided to make a film strip. I used Photoshop for tutorial, and for my start image I just used a gradient background to put behind my filmstrip.

Here are the steps for the filmstrip tutorial:

1. Need a blank empty layer.
2. With custom shape tool selected, load in the new shape called film. Push append button and double click the last one twice and draw it on your layer.
3. To add pictures to the filmstrip you need to click on your background layer, open mini bridge and click on the images you need for the filmstrip. Then drag them onto the screen.
4. Place the images one at a time into the boxes of the filmstrip where you want them and click the check mark to place the next image.
5. Select all layers that make up film strip and merge them into one.
6. Duplicate the layer.
7. Drag top picture underneath the other one and do edit > Transform > Flip Vertically. 
8. Take your opacity down to 50% for that layer.
9. With eraser tool, take off the base of that image on that layer.
10. Flatten these two layers together again.
11. Go to Edit > Warp and change from custom to flag and click the check mark to apply the change
12. ALL DONE

I know have my filmstrip.

The tutorial I used was: http://vimeo.com/14250097  and it came from this website: http://creativefan.com/30-best-adobe-photoshop-cs5-video-tutorials/
All the images I used were ones that I have taken myself.
Overall I think my ending image turned out pretty good.