Final Course Summary

So, the semester is officially over, and so is this course. Looking back, I'd have to say that this has been one of the most valuable classes I've taken so far. Prior to this semester, I knew nothing about proper file preparation, and I barely had any experience with Adobe products. Now, I can proudly say I feel so much more confident with both the software and putting together files for output. The checklists we used in each project have already stuck with me. I find myself doing all of the same things for my projects in other courses.

I've liked each of the projects we've done over the course of the semester. As far as a favorite goes, I'm stuck between the billboard/magazine project and the final project. I liked the freedom we got in each of those, and I very proud my final products for each of them. Both are definitely portfolio pieces for me that I will gladly show off to friends, family, and future employers to come.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog, however boring it may have gotten at times.

And with that, I sign off for the summer!

Adobe Tutorial #5

For my final tutorial for this class, I decided to do something a bit more in depth. About a month ago, I did a tutorial on WeGraphics to make a Transformers logo. I was watching Transformers 2 at the time, so I was pretty inspired. It turned out really well. You can see that full tutorial here.

That being said, when I got the email update from their blog about a tutorial to make a Batman logo that was pretty similar, I got pretty excited. You can follow along with the detailed steps of the tutorial here, as I'm just going to write a very basic summary as I show you my work.

Making the Bat

To start off, I went ahead and downloaded the vector bat symbol he provided on the tutorial, just to save some time. Plus, I get really finicky when I'm drawing these sorts of things, and I just didn't want to deal with my own stress.

Then, I brought the vector into Photoshop. I used a document size of 1280x800, so I could use this for a background on my laptop. After putting in a background color set to #2e3943 and pasting the vector into it's own layer, I was ready to get into the fun stuff.

Adding Texture & Lighting on the Bat

I applied the setting outlined in the tutorial to add an Outer Glow, Bevel & Emboss, and a Gradient Overlay. He didn't specify what colors to use on the Gradient, so I guessed based on the screen grab of the window he posted. I used #2e3943 and #a6b3bf, and it came out pretty close to what his was.

Next up is adding the texture overlays. I already had a scratched metal texture (see the free download on the Transformers tutorial that replaced the same ones this one calls for), and I downloaded the second one linked in this tutorial. I placed, scaled, desaturated, and deleted the unwanted areas of the texture around the bat symbol. Then, I set the blending mode to Overlay and repeated the whole process for the second texture too.

Now, I added the highlights and shadows with the Brush tool according to the image he posted. I turned the Flow down to around 40%, because the highlights were coming in too strongly. Also, the tutorial didn't say to, but I decided to set my highlights/shadows layer to Overlay, which seemed to make it look a bit better.

Adding Texture & Lighting to the Background

For the background, instead of the paid texture they suggested, I used another one I had downloaded before. It was in the Free Grunge Paper pack. Also, he says to set the blending mode to Opacity, but I'm fairly sure he meant Overlay.

When I went to paint in the highlight on the background, I wasn't liking the way the low-opacity white looked. So, I switched it to full Opacity and Flow on the Brush tool. Then, I set that layer blending mode to Overlay and turned the layer opacity down to 50%. This gave me more what I was looking for.

Here's my final image! 

                                                                                                                  

Sources:
http://wegraphics.net/blog/tutorials/create-a-dark-knight-rises-style-wallpaper-in-3-easy-steps/

Job Search Analysis 2

 A brand identity designer is one of the many job options for those in the graphics field. Basically, what a brand identity designer does is coordinating all of the visual (and implied) aspects of the identity of a company to make the desired outcome. Every company has a certain identity they have and want to portray. Proper use of logos, signage, advertising, social media, etc. helps to convey that effectively, while at the same time, promoting the company.

Having education (usually a Bachelor's degree) and skills experience in the graphic design field is a must for this position. Even if you are managing, it is still important to have a background and understanding of the basic concepts of design and communication. Without that knowledge, you cannot effectively convey the proper messages with the branding of the company. Most positions will require a working knowledge of software in the Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.

Salary for this position varies a great deal, as there are several different levels of the job. There may be multiple employees working with brand identity, or one person in charge of it all. Salaries can range from around $30,000 per year up into $60,000-$70,000. The average is around $54,000 per year.

                                                                                                                  

Sources:
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/brand-identity-designer.htm
http://www.freelancer.com/work/brand-identity-design-average-salary/
http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Brand-Identity-Design-Manager-l-Cincinnati,-OH.html
http://www.studydiscussions.com/advance-your-career-as-brand-identity-designer/

Adobe Tutorial #4

Today, I did a tutorial over cropping with the perspective function in Photoshop. Check out the video here. It discussed how quickly and easily you can crop an image of a subject taken from an angle to appear to have been taken from straight ahead.






Here is the before image from the sample files provided by the tutorial: 

After you open the image, simply click on the crop tool and make a rough selection of the painting. Then, go up to the control panel and click the box labelled Perspective.












With this function active, you can now move each corner of the crop selection independently to make it fit the trapezoidal shape of the distorted image.











 Now, all that's left is to confirm the crop by either clicking the check mark or hitting Enter on the keyboard. That's it! Here's what you'll get!

                                                                                                                  

Sources:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/visual-design-cs5/gs03-correcting-perspective-with-the-crop-tool/

Job Search Analysis 1

I discussed Preflighting in my first blog post. For this job analysis, I'll provide a few more details about Preflight Technicians.

A preflight technician would be in charge of reviewing files prior to printing/output. He/she would thoroughly check the file(s) and compare them to a preflight checklist to ensure the pieces would be printed/output without issues.

The education level, skills, and experience for this position varies somewhat from company to company. For the most part, an associate's or bachelor's degree in graphic design and/or a vocational certificate in prepress technology would be the minimum requirements. Familiarity with graphic design, page layout, and composition are extremely useful in this job. Also, preflight technicians will need to be trained and familiar with whatever software the company in question is using (i.e. Adobe Creative Suite, etc). Experience of 1-2 years in the industry is preferred for many companies. The salary range for this position ranges between $30,000 and $50,000, depending on the company and area. On average, technicians receive $17.21/hour.

                                                                                                                  

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-flight_%28printing%29
http://www.jobsonamap.com/surrey-jobs-pre-flight-operator-printing-position-minuteman-press-surrey-job-Z1292496-zELueY
http://www.careerbliss.com/salary/alphagraphics-printing-graphic-designer-and-preflight-specialist-salaries-189592/?q=Graphic+Designer+And+Preflight+Specialist
http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Prepress_Technician_Career_Overview.html
http://www.campusexplorer.com/careers/B19C7DE5/prepress-technicians-and-workers/

Final Project

The final project is....dun dun dun!....designer's choice! While it's nice to have (mostly) free reign over what to do for this one, I was overwhelmed by my options. After quite a big of debating, I decided to do something business card related, so that I might be able to use it for myself.

As you would guess, the purpose of this business card, like all others, would be to supply my contact information for others. In my case, a business card would be used when meeting possible future employers and/or clients for business (if I were to do freelance design work). Thus, the call to action would be to contact me via phone, email, postal mail, or to visit my blog or Facebook page.

I decided to do something a little different from an average business card, and not just because we were required to design a project with a fold in it. I wanted to try and balance make something interesting and different, but quite simple and striking.

Here are my (super quick) thumbnails:

And here are my rough sketches of two of my designs:

I'm still unsure if I'll do a bi-fold or tri-fold design at this point. I need to get some things on screen and see how they look before I make my decision.

Update!

Here are some quick pictures of my folding dummy:

My final piece unfolded will measure 2" x 9.875". This also includes the die-cut, which I changed to a "}" like shape. I also can make a version of the piece without the die-cut, since it's more of an additional element and isn't essential to the piece. I used a 1/8" bleed and 1/4" margins. I considered using smaller margins since it's such a small piece, but the 1/4" worked because I didn't have a lot of content to fit on there.

It would be a full color, dual-sided tri-fold. I chose to print my proofs on what I think was around 70-pound book weight paper. I wanted a bit thicker weight since it is a business card and needed to be a fairly sturdy.

I talked to PittCraft to get my price quote for 1,000 of these with the die-cut. The printing cost for 4 color on cover stock is $119.00. The pricing for the die-cut and score is $254.00. I forgot to ask what the cost would be to fold without the die-cut, but that was just something extra on top of our requirements for the project.

Here's a screen grab of my final PDF and some photos I took of my final mock-up.

There it is! All finished. I'm super happy with how it turned out, and I'm actually considering getting these made (without the die-cut, of course).

                                                                                                                   

Master Image List Elements: The last Master Image List requirement I needed was a screen tint, which was fulfilled by the inside color block.

Copyright statement:

The hand and grunge element (front -- behind logo) were both vectors taken from the course syllabus.

The two paint blocks were from a free grunge paint block vector download on WeGraphics.

Both instances of the logo were created by me.

The brackets on the inside were also created by me.

The textures on the outside of the piece were both free downloads from WeGraphics.

Adobe Tutorial #3

When I was going through trying to find a tutorial to do, I decided to check out one on using the Vibrance slider.


I've recently become a pretty big fan of bright, saturated colors in photos, so I thought this would be an interesting video to watch. It's less of a tutorial and more of an explanation of what the Vibrance adjustment does (as opposed to the Saturation adjustment) and when to use it.

Here's a link to the video: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-photoshop-cs5/saturating-selectively-with-vibrance/

This is my example photo with no adjustments added:

The photo doesn't look bad as is, but it would be nice to brighten up the purple of the sweatshirt and the orange of the kitten to emphasize the contrast of the colors.

The first thing showed in the video is the effect of the Saturation adjustment. Here's what a photo looks like with the Saturation level all the way up (100):

This is obviously a very dramatic look, but I've done that to show how harshly the saturation change appears. Even at low levels, the skin tones of the subject appear too orange/red. The purple looks pretty good here. We could go in and mask out the skin areas, leaving the purple saturated, but the contrast between the old image and the new adjustment would look a bit odd.

Instead, we can adjust the vibrance on the image. Here's what the photo looks like with the Saturation at 0 and the Vibrance at 100. I've also shown the original (top right) and the saturated (bottom right), so you can easily compare the different settings to one another.

The brightening of colors here is much more appealing. We can still see the purple sweatshirt is close to that of the overly saturated image, and we have warmer colors in the skin and the kitten, without over-doing it.

So, the Vibrance adjustment, used in place of the Saturation adjustment, or alongside it, can provide nice, bright colors in an image, without the harsh effects on skin tones. Try it for yourself!