Photoshop

For our last week in graphic design we had our photoshop unit. Photoshop deals with editing pictures. We edited four different pictures. 

This was the first photo. It started off as just a picture of Olathe North West, but I typed ONW into it and put the onw compass on it. I made the opacity low so that the picture beneath it could still be visible. This edit was very simple. 

This was the second picture that I edited in Photoshop. It started off as a monarch with orange wings. I selected the orange areas and changed the colors to make a nonexistent species of butterfly. A rainbow butterfly. This was very easy to do, and if I took my time it would look extremely realistic. This is why you sometimes can't trust a picture- because Photoshop can do a lot.

This picture was a little more difficult because I had to use a text mask. It started off as just a picture of NorthWest, and then I put the text mask over it and made the colors ONW colors.



The last picture I made was the most difficult. I had to first "trace" the raven out of a picture, and then layer a bunch of pictures on top of each other.  I personally think that the picture looks sloppy because of how many pictures are compiled onto one another.





On top of being our Photoshop unit this week, it is also the last week of graphic design. I enjoyed graphic design very much and am excited to take it next year as well.

Invasive Species Website

It's our Web design unit in graphic design which means we got to design our own website. We based our website on invasive species. To the left is my home page. I incorporated green and brown "earthy" colors because it has to do with nature. I made the headings bigger, bolder, and white so that it would stand out more. There are links to different websites and videos that also change colors when hovered on or clicked on.

Another one of my six pages was Africanized bees. I put pictures in of the bees, links, and continued the color theme. I did the same with my purple loosestrife page.

 Sadly my menu bar was not cooperating. In the design mode it looked like how it does to the right, but when viewed in safari, it looked all green with no white. I spent a while  trying to figure out what was wrong, but no one else, nor myself, could figure out why it wasn't working.

I like Web design. It is definitely challenging,
 but rewarding when everything is complete. Learning and remembering all of the CSS styles and phrases is very difficult, but I enjoy designing the website through the color and layout. Next year I am taking Web design as one of my two courses as a sophomore (along with graphic design).

Orthogonal cube

After creating our logos, we made orthogonal cubes. The root word "ortho" means straight and the root word "gon" means angle. My interpretation of the word orthogonal cube is: A cube with angles perfectly straight to make right angles. This makes sense, because when creating the cube in Adobe Illustrator, we had to move the lines to be exactly perpendicular to each other. If we did not do this, it would not have been a perfect ninety degree angle cube. But the cube actually doesn't have right angles. Each angle is one hundred twenty degrees. This is because it is an illusion. The cube is a 2D object on a screen appearing as a 3D object. Making it was quite simple, it was all copying and pasting lines. It was fun to see the lines turning into a 3D cube. The picture to the left is what my orthogonal cube looked like before I filled it in with color. It's amazing to see the cube "come to life" once color is added to it. If some shading was added, it would look even more real.

Link to tutorial to create the orthogonal cube:http://www.lynda.com/articles/draw-an-orthogonal-cube-in-illustrator-dekes-techniques

Personal logos

We have been studying logos, and how shape, color, and font play a role in them. So we were given the opportunity to make our very own logo! Logos can attract the eye of consumers, so it is important to have an appealing visual. Logos are supposed to be simplistic, have a story/ intention, and include reasoning behind color, shape, and font. To begin our brainstorming process, we were to draw out our ideas, refine them, and ask for the opinion of our peers. I had many ideas, but sadly I did not get to go through with all of them; so I chose my favorites.

My name is Ava. I have the amusing nickname of AVAcado because the name Ava is sort of in the word avocado. Incorporating an avocado in my logo, I thought, was a good idea. Avocados are round, and as learned in my recent blog, are welcoming. My logo having an avocado in it is, in my opinion, cute and creative. The round and un-curved avocado on the top in the picture to the left was my prototype in my avocado creations. Under it is the one I curved in at the middle to make the avocado resemblance more similar. I used this avocado in my final logos. Next, I typed out AVA-Cado using a friendly font. I made the Ava part bigger and bolded so that it would be more focused on than the "Cado". I also changed the colors in the words from the avocado. I used the darker green color in "Ava" because it is easier to read. I used the lighter green on the "Cado" to make it less recognizable. I couldn't decide between writing my name so that it was on top of each other or writing it side by side. These were my two final avocado logo creations. In addition to making logos, we also got to use them as a favicon. A favicon is the little website icon shown before the web address.

Not only is my name in a fruit, my initials spell out "AT". Someone gave me the idea to use the @ sign in my logo. I liked this idea because @ shows technology and social media. It is also round which is welcoming. I couldn't decide between three of my @ logos. For one I made the @ very big and brought the inside "a" up. Then I typed my name on the inside curve. I made the beginning letter in my first and last name the same color as @ to emphasize the correlation between my initials and the @. I chose the color teal because blue is often used to promote high-tech products, and the @ is known for being used in social media, which is a "techy program". It is also a very pretty and comforting color. The other at sign logos I made included my name written out straight (opposed to curved) and had the at sign at the beginning. In one I made the @ into the "A" in the beginning of my name. I continued the theme of coloring the at sign and my initials the same color.

I enjoyed making these logos in Adobe Illustrator. It was fun to be able to customize something specially for us. In the future I would like to construct another personal logo to see what else I could come up with.

Windows logo

In graphic design we are starting our logo unit, which means we got to study a logo of our choice. We looked at how color, type, and the shape play into the appeal aspect of advertisement. I chose the Microsoft Windows logo. To further our understanding of the logo, we also got to recreate the logo in Adobe Illustrator. First, I researched why the Windows logo looked the way it did.

-Microsoft Word is a computer operating system. The logo depicts a flag with four quadrants representing earth, fire, water, flora, and fauna. The blue in the logo could represent intelligence, communication,  efficiency, or logic- which makes sense because it is technological. The font could show how it is simplistic and clean. The square/ rectangular shape might show its stability, structure, or secureness as a software. The square is commonly used in technology advertisement.

The original logo was introduced in 1985, and has changed very much ever sense. The current windows 10 logo was designed by Paula Scher.



After educating myself on the Widows logo, I went to work recreating it in llustrator. I followed the step-by-step tutorial on how to make the logo. The YouTube video that I watched is linked below. My work is shown n the picture to the left.

This is my completed Windows 10 logo that I recreated. It was very simple to make which is why I wish I would have picked a more challenging logo. However, creating it did help me to explore what Illustrator has to offer.

Research Website: http://www.famouslogos.us/windows-logo/
YouTube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgd5JYOz5Wo

Shapes

Shapes play a big role in advertisement that many people may not recognize.


Circles are very popular and important. They serve as an enclosure or a central field. They are simplistic and perfect. A ring is a variation of the circle, and is used to show unity, eternity, wholeness, a cycle, and completion. The circle or sphere in the ATT logo is simple but appealing. It represents the globe and ATT's global presence. While its rings show unity and wholeness.


Squares are used as a filed for application. They show stability, structure, and secureness. They are very simple and welcoming- but not as welcoming as a circle. The Lego logo is very simplistic, but also shows complexity- because it is a product that is used to be put together. The square may also represent the lego blocks. It would not have made sense to make it a circle because there is no circular legos.


Triangles are less commonly used in logos because they symbolize danger due to their sharp, unfriendly points. In many triangle logos, the edges are rounded to became more friendly. Entrepreneurs don't want to scare their consumers away. A triangle pointing to the right shows moving forward, or the future. It is commonly used as a play button. A triangle pointing upward usually shows an upward motion. Companies like Delta use it to show a plane flying up. A triangle pointing downward is seldom used because it shows danger. Just like the yield sign, it is an upside down triangle, is Yellow which is dangerous and catches your eye, so it shows danger approaching.

Anatomy of Type

Just like people, type comes in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities. "Handglovery" shows the different anatomy of letters. This can change depending on what font is used or whether it is upper case or lower case. Vocabulary like Crossbar and Serif are shown in the picture. It is interesting to learn in depth what makes up letters.

After learning a little bit about the anatomy of type, we had the opportunity to identify the parts of each letter in our own name. I used the font Plantno Linotype, which was just a basic font offered in Adobe Illustrator. The font that is used affects type anatomy. For example: If I chose a sans-serif font, I would not have the little lines at the end of each letter or at the end of a line in the letter (which is what a serif is). We learned not only parts of letters, but also lines where the letters fall. Like the base line, descender line, and cap height line, which are all illustrated in the picture I constructed. 

I am becoming more familiar with Adobe Illustrator, but some concepts and buttons are still confusing to me. I am enjoying graphic design very much still, and I wonder what concepts we will learn next on top of color and type.