Post 15 - 05/01/08

Well For this post I found a really neat illustration that was actually made several years ago with older software.

IF you want to think about this, it could use 2 programs to make this piece. First you have the Earth, Hand, Stars, etc. that can be made and edited in Photoshop to make them appear lifelike and 3D-ish. For the curved line that spirals around the entire hand, you could make that in illustrator as well as the bone like thing in the hand. Having the crispness of the lines with the great images produced by Photoshop, you would get a nice piece like this.

Just to think, what would this piece look like today with better stock photography, better graphics, and our new software? 100 times better!!!!! OH, the monitor would need to be updated to a LCD monitor, since CRTs are not really in use too much anymore.

Post 14 - 04/24/08

Well in this post I found a simple advertisement that put a smile on my face. Yes, this does seem like a simple image, and someone might actually be foolish enough to go out there and take a picture of someone holding a bun to a cow. Not me! I enjoy the fact that you know that it has to be photoshoped and has the product at the bottom in very simple terms.

For a big eat, like a cow burger, you need that sauce to make it seem that much bigger and better. Adding in the paper towel makes me think that that sauce is good and messy, which means mmmmmmmm in my lingo. If you also look closly at the image, you can see that there is a blur around the hands part on the bun and it stays sharp where the cow is to make our eye go right toward the cow.

Hmm...I think its time to go to Just Hamburgers in Paxton... Good, Cheap, and filling.

E.C. Post 4

Well for this extra credit post, I found a picture while ripping off the front covers of magazines where I work at.

Unfortunatly I had already ripped it in half so I had to Photoshop it back together rather quickly. You can still see that it came from a magazine and that I took a quick photo of it. This image can go one of two directions if you think about it.

1) You are like me, a little crazy, and you would take your nice shiny new Ford F150 out storm chasing and find the perfect shot of a tornado coming right at you. Get out of the truck, set up the tripod, mount the camera, snap a few pictures where you like them, trow the equiptment back in the truck and get out of there as quickly as possible.

2) You find a good picture of a tornado and make it look really aggressive, then you photoshop in the nice new truck and adjust the glow of it to make it seem as if it is really there.

In my opinion, either way would be fun!

Post 13 - 04/17/08

Well for this post I went to Dynamic Graphics website and did some cruising around. They do have alot of interesting art there to look at. The one that found for this weeks post is of an avertisement.

What first of all caught my eye was of the layout of the ad. Instead of just being a 90 degree straight picture they tilted it a bit to make it seem as if it is sitting on this paper. Along with the drop shadow, it really gives a neat effect of bing a picture on a document instead of just one total work of art.

I really like how elegant, but simple the total layout is of this ad. All the text is justified and easy to read with plenty of leading. They do not go on with all the nit picky features of the plane, but instead sum it up and give you a small picture of the interior. If you want to really know more about it, you have to call them up. I am a fisherman, and even though I have never flown yet, it would be alot of fun to take a plane like this up to Canada and go fishing for some large mouth pike, walleye, and northern bass. Having a plane like this, you would think you are flying first class for a business meeting, but you are instead flying away from the business part of life...you are enjoying life with your new plane! Great Ad!

Post 12 - 04/10/08

Well in this post I was surfing through the communication arts mag. website for some inspiration on the CD project. I can accross an ad for helmets that seemed to fit in to what I like in graphic design.

From what I could understand from the caption that was with it, it was a combination of photography and illustration. I can see how you can get such sharp lines in the helmet that the guy is riding the ATV accross. If you were to just use the picture it would be so pixelized that no one would know what it really is. Since the helmet was turned into an illustration, you get the nice vector lines that really set it up nice and make it look tought. When I look at the helmet on his head, I see that it has a good since of style as well as durability. I know that adding the dirt flying up from the ATV tires gives it a neat effect, however it is not logical. When I think of an ATV on a smooth surface, even if it is a made up image, I think more along the lines of smoke or just spinning wheels. Where does the dirt play in? Overall I like this type of work. It is so nice and crisp and really pleasing to look at...for those of us who like ATVs.

E.C. Post 3

For this extra credit post I found a neat gift bag in the store that I work at. I like the overall design of it because it is so simple but yet you know that it took some time to get the design just right.

Just looking at the image I can see many different designs from the diamond plate background, to the rivots on the red circle and the gradient found in the GARAGE part of the label. There is just so much graphic design everywhere you look.

Besides graphic design, I like the underlined saying "Repair and Despair under one roof" That means so much, beings as I know some stuff about mechanics. There are things that you know how to do, like change the oil, the fuel filter, a hose, a belt...even a radiator, alternator, water pump and so much more. However, if you do not attach it correctly or that is not the problem and you spent all that time and money for something that did not fix the vehicle, I get is a pit of despair. By the way...depending on the vehicle, you will usually bust your knuckle somewhere trying to fix something.

Post 11 04/03/08

On this post, I believe that I found one of the best billboards to show graphic design (that came out of the billboard book).

I really enjoy the amount of work that had to go into making this image. I have seen things like this before in magazines, but I can not believe that this would have been a real billboard! For the graphic design principle, when you start off with the man on the left, I can see the great amount of lighting that is shining down on his head and shoulders. I can really get a feel for what that person would look like in real life. With out the lighting in this image, I do not think that it would be as successful, because the guy would not look 3D. He would be a flat looking cartoon style character. Moving on into the next image, you can see that he is transforming into a timber wolf, by the description of the billboard. This would have been the step that would have taken the most time. Can you imagine getting the right effects from both the actual picture or design of the wolf and from the man and applying them together? That would take some time. Again in the last two images of the animal/human, you can really get a since of figure from the amount of lighting there. This was a good billboard in my opinion.

E.C. Post 2

For this set of images, I thought about having them as one of my regular posts, however they seemed more like an advertising campaign that genuine artwork. Don't get me wrong, it is still good design, but I need some extra credit.

Again, these designs are very simple and if you can't already tell this is a campaign for Foster's beer, with the spokesperson from the Crocodile Dundee Movies. Looking at the billboard first, you can see simplicity...big words, big can, spokes man...Now you want a beer.

The second image from the same book, is more of a magazine advertisement that gives all the specs about that tasty beverage. You can see the repetition of the big beer can, and spokesperson so it will catch your attention again when you drive to work.

To me that last image looks more like something that you could see either on TV or even in another magazine. Just to think, you are reading the horoscopes in the morning, you see the second ad above and think "hmmmm." You take off for work and see the billboard, and think "hmmmm." You get off work and pick up a newspaper and find this third image as an ad in there and think "hmmmm....thats it time for a beer!"

Nice simple advertising campaign.






hmmmm....

Post 10 - for 03/25/08

Well in this billboard design that I found, it is simple but to the point. At first I was not going to put this on online, however I looked deeper into the picture and found out that graphic design was a great part of this image. For one thing, it looks like it could be done by a child, just roughly painted edges of billboard material, but no. If you can zoom in on this image, you can see that on the edges of the black areas, there are still areas that seem to be on fire. Someone, a graphic designer, had to add those little touches in there. Besides the rough edges, take a look at ol' smoky. It seems like he has a shadow from under his hat to shade out his eyes, a highlight on top of his hat to show the sunlight coming down on him, and the overall texture of his fur. All those elements lead to graphic design--but it is so simple!

Post 9 - 03/11/08

I found this billboard ad in that nifty book again.

I liked this one because I am a Pepsi fan and it has some truth to it about recycling and makeing new products out of the old. I know that there is not too much graphic design in it the overall images, but you can see that this billboard ad is an older one since they had the old Pepsi logo on it and design on it. Since I am on the subject, has anyone really looked at the newer pepsi designs with all the crazy lines and shapes on it. To me it is almost getting to hard to really understand that it is really pepsi, except for the fact that Pepsi has the blue cans. I work in retail, and we get alot of customers who accidently pick up Diet Pepsi instead of regular Pepsi because the designs are so alike now. They really need to go back to something more simple. On the other hand, you look at the Coke products, they seem to still have the simplistic designs on their cans and bottles. No matter where you go to, you can recognize a coke product.

Post 8 - 03/06/08

Well for this post I found a neat Billboard that I believe has to do with adoption and helping out the pet population.

I liked this billboard due to the underlined problems that the world is facing with both pets and people. If you haven't noticed, they are all dogs and cats that are standing upright as if they are real people. For me, I understand that they are all strays trying to stay alive, but to get the point across they are all upright like humans.

The other part of the image that I can see; being that are all upright like humans poses the fact that they are all humans, but portrayed as animals out on the streets. If you think of the homeless population across the world, especially in the big cities, there are hundreds of them. When someone encounters them, the treat them as skum of the earth, or as filthy animals. Well they can not help being the way they are. The world just goes on with its life and leaves them behind.

I really do like the overall attention to detail and the dedication to all the other figures in the background as well. That must have taken alot of time and work to get something that well to come out.

Post 7 - 02/28/08

I found this group of ads in the billboard book that gives a meaning to a picture even though they are in another language...I think German, but you still get the point of the product...

I think that it is overall kind of funny...especially garlic lady!

E.C. Post

I found this image in my e-mail the other day for a promotion for Buick. It really got my attention becuase it just has that look. It is kind of funny that they took the presidential seal and made the buick logo really seem as if it suppost to be there. Most of the time when I see something like this, where they use the presidential seal for jokes, it does not look well done. This one did a good job of it. If you look close enough, you can almost tell what effects they used on it in Photoshop.

Post 6 - for 02/21/08

Going along with all the billboards that I have scanned into the computer, I found this series in the book that are something that really gets your face in a knot just looking at them.

I believe that the goal of the advertising in this image is to sell the product and they did a great job at it. It is both funny and to the point. What really got me is that instead of just one billboard they did multiples of it! Probably different ones posted all around the cities where they were assigned to. I like to think of how fun it must have been to do something like that and have it posted all over.

If you also look at all of these, there is different packaging for each billboard to advertise a different flavor of their product.

Another thing that is very prominit is the people that they chose for the images. A young girl, what looks to be a piolet, a musician, comedian, and candidates for an election. They all like the product!

Isn't this guy off of a movie?

Moneys?

Post 5 02/14/08

Well today I went back to the library to find some more fresh images for the blog and I came across a Billboards book. For the next few posts there will be a lot of art that came from this one book. It is called Gotcha! The art of Billboard.

For this one, I found a pretty birdy staring at you. Overall, after seeing this image, and knowing that it was along a road somewhere makes mew want to see that bird and other animals there as well. I really like how they used the word CHEEP to get your attention as well. Although cheep does not portray what that particular bird would sound like. To me I think that bird would be more like a SWUAK...but cheep work because it is cheap to go to the zoo.

The graphic design element of this image is quite good. I really enjoy how the feathers of the wings are uniform and all seem to stand out quite well in the background, while the head with the eyes and beak seem to protrude in the foreground. The beak does a good job at focusing my attention down to the lettering and what they billboard is wanting to tell us. This billboard is very creative, but simple. That is what makes some of the best bilboardds

Post 4 - for 02/07/08

In that poster book again...I found a funny poster that relates to the way life is in many ways today.

"Save the products of the Land" is still true today for many respects, but now we have to also Save the products of the Sea as well. The poster says to eat more fish because they feed them selves but the way this world is going now in days, more and more of the Sea's natural resources seem to be depleting alot and fish are not able to spaun as well as they once were. People today are eating more fish that ever, as well as more fish eggs for the richer people. This simply means that we need to start controling how much we decided to catch so that way there are still some fish left in the sea for the future generation to eat and for the other animals in the sea to eat as well.

The overall graphic elements of this image are pretty neat. I like the way the color of the fish blends with the background but still is enough for the fish to stich out for us to see it. You can really get a small sence of what the fish acutally looks like due to its texture and the representation of the scales. The background itself could use a little work to it, but the is not the main focus of the image, the fish is. The gren that they used was an appropriate color, especially when you think of wildlife and a fish in its natural habitat.

Post 3 - for 01/31/08

For this posting, I found out of the same book that I found the previous image a poster about the war again. I liked this one due to the use of imagry within an image.

From what I can get from this image, it is the Nazi, the enemy of the United States during the war, with the guy in the neuce refelecting in his glasses which could be refering to me that he wanted to see the same thing happen to us as we actually did to them. Death.

I like to see the detail that is in the facial features of 'The Enemy.' You can see the shadows and the highlights depicting that it really could be a real face even though it still has a cartoon touch to it. One blemish that I found when looking at it was the lips. His lips just do not look like they should go with his face...as if they are just sitting there not really attached to his face what so ever.

Post 2 - 01/24/08

With the image that I found below, I thought that it was an image that reflects America in general even after the war is over. Made in 1942 this image shows the answer to the needs of the US for the war. I thought that it was ironic that still today we produce many of the items we use here in the United States in order to meet the demands of many manufactures. One problem that still exhists is that America is outsourcing all of its manufacturing and slowly letting other countries take our technology to use it for their well being.

The overall graphic design principle is very well thought out . The hand with the leather glove turning the wrench is just a icon for what most of the factory workers still do "wrench turners". I really do enjoy the lighting of glove as if the worker is working on something that is hot and does not want to get his hands burned. The type is original by todays standards and would have been really good.

Post 1 - 01/17/08

Unfortunatly this week was a little busy getting my schedule organized to get to the library. Every Tuesday and Thursday I get to class by 11am and do not get out of Parkland until 8:45pm. There is not a whole lot of time to get up to the library in those two days. This upcoming week, I will make it in to Parkland to get some scans for this blog.

This week however, being that it is 10:20pm after class, and I have to work tomm. I went online to howdesign.com (how magazine) and found a neat item that I will post here instead.

The image is entitled Hurricane Poster and it attraced me because it is just so simple but it does send out a strong message. HOPE...for those who lost everything due to a hurricane, there is always hope watching over you. The tree in the water is a symbol of how it still stands strong even though its surroundings are gone. After the water resides, it will still be there...bringing hope to those who wish to return and start over with a new life.