I took my first graphic design course spring semester 2003. I really enjoyed the many projects, especially Type Face. I also redesigned a menu, so that will be coming soon. Everything on this page was made using Adobe Illustrator 10, Photoshop 7, and InDesign 2.
Musical Circles
[January 2003 / 8" x 8.75"]
Using only eight solid black circles, I was to make a design that expresses my feelings of a piece of music.
Pictograph
[February 2003 / 10" x 10"]
The next eight panels represent an "icon-ified" object (pictograph). This means reducing an object down to only black and white, usually for easy recognition for informational purposes.
Cell phone
In relation to a geometric shape
Pattern unit
Pattern
Stretched...
Abstracted
Falling, with lines creating grayscale
With type
Type Face
[February 2003 / 9" x 11.5"]
Here I was to use only seven characters from one of a list of fonts, to create a face. This font is Baskerville.
When I realized the Communication department had many courses relating to advertising, I decided to adopt a Com minor. I am so thankful for this, because if it weren't for COM 200, I would not have learned Photoshop the way I did!
Collage of a Photo
[April 2003]
This was an exercise in COM 200 Creative Message Construction I using Photoshop's layer masking capabilities to combine two things into one image. I used a photograph I took and a collage I made of it for 2-D Design class.
Logo Redesign
[May 2003]
For the final project in COM 200, I teamed up with a classmate to redesign a logo and create a brochure for a company's products. Since I work in the sign business, I was acquainted with the main supplier of vinyl sign lettering material: Gerber Scientific Products.
I designed the logo; Bunny Recchia and I worked together on the brochure.
In this course, I learned more about prioritizing copy and elements of "thinking outside the box," including trying to avoid center alignment.
Celtic Praise
[October 2003 / CD size]
This was supposed to be both a collage about myself and a CD of my favorite kind of music. This was very fun to work on. The background draperies behind the drum (bodhrán) and guitar were entirely made in Photoshop, and I took all the photos with my digital camera. Click here to see the back of the CD.
Take A Stand
[October 2003 / 8.5" x 11"]
I was to make a flyer using the slogan "take a stand," and the need to defend the American Pledge of Allegiance came to mind. This was not created in affiliation with the American Center for Law and Justice, but I did add my name to their brief. Thanks to Noah, Joshua, and Julia for letting me photograph them! I learned some techniques in cleaning up the photo, too.
Yellow Pages Ad Layout
[December 2003 / 5" x 4.75"]
This was an advertisement re-design project.
Go Against the Crowd—Choose Christ
[December 2003 / 20" x 30"]
Though I never printed this final project at it's intended size, this was my favorite project from this class. The fact that the crowd is headed toward the gutted Engleman Hall (for renovations) makes it look like they are headed for destruction. Actually, I was not in the photo of the crowd; I had a lot of fun editing it in Photoshop. Thanks to James for his graffiti-style "Crowd."
This was a very fun course for me. It involved formatting text and making a website. In fact, I bought my books for the class a few weeks early and read halfway through one book before the class began!
Design and Casting of Metal Type
[October 2003 / 9" x 6"]
For this project diagramming the age-old process of making fonts, I had to do some research at the library to learn the history. Making the pictures from scratch was a great learning experiece.
Non-profit Organization Website: Virtual Construction
[December 2003]
My final project for Information Graphics was to create a web site for a ficticious non-profit organization. I chose Virtual Construction, my own concept of an LDraw.org-like organization for other construction toys on the computer.
It is in not official yet…the concept needs much more work and development, but it will eventually replace my Virtual Construction page!
An interesting class, this exposed me to the world of video. While the few projects I did were enjoyable, I definitely prefer still art.
Get Yourself Organized
[September 2003 / 500px x 500px]
This simple, ten-second animation was created using Macromedia Flash. The requirements were to have ten shapes in the animation, and the title had to appear for at least three seconds.
It's only 3 kb, so you don't have to worry about download time!
Dream Train
[December 2003 / 320px x 240px]
The movie Dream Train is, like a dream, a collection of memories assembled into a story. The movie is composed of photographs I shot in the previous semester—fun memories of mine. In the story, we board a train in my home town and travel to an inn in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Inside the Inn we talk to a World War II veteran and see a young lady reading to a child. The inn grows a courtyard off it, which turns into a field where another young lady is flying a kite.
This 30-second movie is 10.5 MB, and you need QuickTime version 6.4 (11 MB), available through Apple.
Music by Chuck Brown, from "The Empty Swing" on the album Unadorned. Visit his website at www.healingpiano.com.
"It is Finished!"
[April 2004 / 320px x 240px]
This and the next two movies were actually from my typography course. An exercise for adding motion to typography, this silent, 15-second movie features some of my earlier 2D art.
This movie is in Quicktime format and is 1.2 MB.
Infinite Pianos
[May 2004 / 320px x 240px]
This and "Plovers" were projects for matching typographic treatment, audio, and video to the subject matter. I selected the exerpts of poems from a list of six supplied to me.
This 15-second movie is in Quicktime format and is 2.0 MB.
Plovers
[May 2004 / 320px x 240px]
This 15-second movie is in Quicktime format and is 1.4 MB.
Since graphic design involves the melding of visual art and words, I thought this course would be a great one to take. Interestingly, the first criterion on which we students would critique each other's work was how good it looked, then how the text (called "copy") read.
Courageous Manhood
[February 2004 / Half-page magazine ad]
I was given the picture of the main character from the movie Master and Commander and I made an ad for Vision Forum, a Christian family resources organization.
Yeah, it's that light
[February 2004 / Full-page magazine ad]
Supplied only with the picture, I had to choose a product and write all the copy. NOTE: The discount offered in the advertisement is not real or valid.
This course consisted of one project: to create a magazine.
How Great Thou ART
[Spring 2004 / 8.5" x 11" Magazine]
I combined my interests of fine art and my Christian faith and created this 16-page Christian fine-arts magazine. I wrote all the articles and made some of the art featured in it. The cover painting is by Rembrandt van Rijn. You can read a more refined version of the Passion article on www.PeaceAndPurpose.com.
The magazine is in Adobe PDF format and is 3.6 MB.
