Package Design - Meow Snacks

Finished Illustration of information graphics

This is my final version of the Christoph Hitz piece done for class. (on the left) and the original ( on the right).

I decided to do one more by piece but this time by the illustrator Janusz Kapusta.  I did this piece very quickly and loosely to try to imitate the hand drawn aspect of the original picture. I only used the paintbrush tool and the mouse to hand draw the whole thing.

Information Graphic Assignment

The picture on the left is my progress so far on this assignment and will eventually look like the picture on the right. To create the cell phones i used simple shape tools to make the basic outline and used the pen tool to make some of the more curvy lines. My next step is to recreate the woman in the cell phone screens. I have not decided yet what method i will use to do this but it will more than likely be a combination of the pen tool and blob brush.

The Original artist for this piece is Christoph Hitz. His website is http://hitz-illustration.com/  ans features his portfolio and other work. Hitz is primarily an illustrator with a very distinctive cartoony style. Hitz's website also features his work in typography and webdesign using Adobe Flash.

Finished Wordplay project

This is my final version for the wordplay assignment. Since my last post i have made a few changes to improve the piece. The first thing i did was remove the red lines on the bottom of the letter forms as to create a more believable feeling of sinking. Next, i slightly increased the width of the letters and added in the circling seagulls. My last addition was to add the sun into the background to add a sense of depth to the piece. The majority of the poster was made with the pen tool and blob brush but i also used the pathfinder tool, text tool, gradient tool and the shape tool and draw inside option.

Close up of seagulls

Wordplay

This is my first draft of the wordplay assignment that i made in class on tuesday. I plan to play with the type's size and color to make the word seem heavier. I also want to experiment the orientation of the individual letters and add in birds circling above.

Word Play Assignment

The word I pulled from the bowl was "sink". My first thought was something that sinks would usually be in water so i sketched out ideas that have a water aspect or environment. I really like the idea of having a lower case "i" sinking because it resembles a person bobbing at the surface and gives the sketch a sense of personification. I still want to play around with the remaining letters to see if capital or lower case is more effective. I drew the shark infested waters around the word sink because if you were in that situation you would be sinking literally and your stomach would "sink" from fear. 

Tulsa Project

This is our final version of the citiplex towers for our Tulsa landmark assignment. As said in an earlier post, Jessica made the background and clouds and i made the buildings and then we brought it all together when we were done. To make the buildings i used the pen tool to create the outlines and then used the draw inside feature and blob brush to give it the organic, flowing appearance. We decided to use Futura as the typeface for the word Tulsa because it closely resembled the type for John Van Hammersveld's piece. After playing with the word "Tulsa"'s positioning we decided to put it at the top to help fill some open space.

CitiPlex Update

Since our last presentation I have gone in and added more detail to the building and began to play with type to use over the image. After sorting through some typefaces we decided to use Futura because it resembled the original font from John Van Hamersveld's poster the most. We haven't decided on a final place for the word "Tulsa" to be since we have yet to combine our work together, but think it will probably end up on the bottom half of the piece.

Citi Plex Towers

This is our progress so far on the Tulsa landmark project. Jessica and I decided that i would work on the buildings in the foreground and she would make the background and clouds that will surround the towers. When making the buildings i used the pen tool to make the basic outline and then went in with the blob brush and the "draw inside" option in order to keep clean outer lines. My next step will be to go in and fine tune the the buildings by adding details and anything else that is needed for the success of the piece.

For our Tulsa landmark project Jessica Medina and I choose to illustrate the Citiplex towers on 81st and lewis. These skyscrapers can been seen from almost anywhere in Tulsa and are known for their golden color. We decided to use John Van Hamersveld's poster from an Eric Clapton concert to use as our reference for the piece. The two pictures have a similar subject matter shape which will help to finalized piece to be comparable.

Portrait of Marshall Mathers

This is the final version of my portrait of Eminem. I choose to depict him on a pill bottle because in recent years Eminem was addicting to prescription sleeping medication which nearly cost him his life. Since then he has had a full recovery and continues to make music and run his record label. For my approach, i wanted to it to look as real as possible and also have a sad and lonely feeling to represent the darkness of addiction. I decided to make a simple background in order to place the emphasis on the pill bottle in the foreground and keep the attention on Eminem. To make the pill bottle i used a combination of the pen tool and the line segment tool to create the the outline and then filled it in with the appropriate colors. To make Eminem's face i created a full page of text and placed it over and art board with a gray scale picture of his face and used a clipping mask to trim the text. After that i went in and manually changed the boldness of select areas to create a more realistic look. My original idea was to make the words in his face a variety of keywords that represent his attitude, music and past. After making multiple versions of his face i decided to go with the more simple version that only has the word "Eminem" because its clarity was much better than the other and i wanted the viewer to know right away what they were looking at.
 

The version on the left is the one i decided on for multiple reasons. First, the one on the right is much lighter even though i used the exact same technique for both. In addition, the left face better holds its structure when you look at it up close compared to the one on the right.

Above is my reference photo.

John Van Hamersveld-Jimi Hendrix

After looking at John Van Hamersveld's website I decided that I would review his portrait of Jimi Hendrix. As a fan of Hendrix, I think this picture really encompasses his musical style as well as the culture of the time. Hamersveld gives Hendrix a very organic look that is very pleasing to the eye and keeps your eye moving through the piece. The wavy lines lines used give the picture a feel of the counter culture design style of the seventies.

In his Video "Finding America", John Van Hamersveld says that his ideas and reference for his artwork come from his mind as an abstract idea rather than using a physical model or picture. I found this interesting because i often do the same thing when creating my art. Below is a link to "Finding America".

http://www.johnvanhamersveld.com/coolhous/videos.html

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN

For my illustrator tutorial i chose to make the Batman symbol. This was a rather easy tutorial but i choose it because it showed me how to make a form by subtracting away from the original ellipse. i have never made anything this way as i am used to just building on top of what i already have.

Portrait Background

This is my background for the our portrait assignment in Illustrator class. My original idea was way different but the more i thought about it the more i liked this idea. My plan is to make Eminem's face out of type using words related to him and his music and place it onto the label of the bottle. Eminem's face made of words will serve as the "prescription" that would normally be printed on the label. I have never made a face using type before so it will probably be a long process of trial and error, but i look forward to the challenge!

I dont always listen to rap, but when i do i prefer Eminem. Throughout his life and career Marshall Mathers has had to overcome many obstacles to get where he is today. As a child his father left and he was raised by his mother who used drugs on a regular basis. After years of struggling to get his career off of the ground, he was finally discovered by Dr. Dre who signed Marshall to his record label. Around this time Marshall's marriage was failing and his daughter hailee was just a baby. After almost instant success, Eminem became a recognized name all over the world. In recent years Eminem tragically lost his best friend and slipped into a depression that almost cost him his life. While trying to deal with his depression he turned to drugs for an answer. He became addicted to sleeping pills and would take them multiple times a day to induce sleep. One day he overdosed and was found unconscious on his bathroom floor and was rushed to the hospital where he barely survived. After this incident Marshal decided to turn his life around and get clean. To this day Eminem is still putting out albums and is very active in the rap industry.

1. Slim Shady
2. Marshall Mathers
3. Eminem
4. D-12
5. relapse
6. Sleeping pills
7. Detroit
8. Rap
9. music
10. crazy
11. Hailee 
12. Kim
13. Proof
14. 8-mile
15. Dr-dre
16. Rap Olympics
17. Freestyle
18. Controversial
19. his mom
20. addiction
21. rap battle
22. please stand up
23. Berzerk
24. chainsaw
25. Chicka chicka
26. lose yourself
27. bleach blonde hait
28. white rapper
29. Curtain call
30. Friday 13th
31. lyricist

This is my completed signage project. I enjoyed making this piece and learned a few new tools in the process. I had never used the perspective grid tool before and found that it was very useful and will definitely be used in the future!

Kaleidoscope Exploration.

After our last class in Illustrator i used the 4Square and 8Square technique to make this kaleidoscope exploration piece. I began with the 4x4 art board and made the corner segment first and then moved it over to the 8x8 and copied the segment to create the circle. I posted the bottom picture to show how utilizing the space off of your art board can be just as important as the content inside of it.

4Square

These are my pictures from the 4-square composition project. I started with a picture of a leaf and traced over the veins to make my linework for the piece. After that I filled the spaces in with alternating shades of color. I chose these colors simply because blue and orange are complimentary and so are yellow and purple. The majority of the piece was done with the pen tool to make the organic curves from the leaf.

Monogram process

These are pictures of my monogram progress. I really wanted to combine the elements of the letters together to make them into single graphic, but still reads as three individual units. After making the "J" it gave me the idea to add similar arrows to achieve an effect that leads your eye in a circular motion around the compostion.

Lesson 3

My completed Home Sale project. While doing this project i learned a few techniques that i have never used before such as the width tool. Although this is not my favorite type of assignment, i thoroughly enjoy learning how to use new tools and expand my Adobe Illustrator abilities!

MONOGRAM!

Monogram edit

Monogram edit in Adobe Illustrator.

Monogram Sketches

These are my monogram sketches for my illustrator class. I made these sketches using variations of my initials JWY and originally didn't know what direction i wanted to take the project in. After some thinking i decided that i liked my circular designs the most and will be using those as a reference for my final design in Adobe Illustrator.

Monogram!

I chose this Basin logo because i really liked how it has the letter B slightly submerged into water and how it has a wavy reflection. This company makes bath and shower products so the water aspect really brings it all together.

school bus

This project was an assignment from Classroom in a Book and was one of the very first projects in my Illustrator class.

First Post!

My name is Jason Young and this is my first blog! I am a Junior Graphic Design major attending the University of Tulsa. I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and have lived here for the majority of my life. Before transferring to TU i attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater for two years studying design.