The type treatment that you’re using too small, and setting it as all caps in Helvetica is about as boring as you can get. And you’re wasting a lot of time and effort taking so many photos. Just take one really good, well-lit photo against a clean white paper background, knock the bg out in Photoshop, and then save the pill composition, the bottle, and loose pills as different files. After that you can sit down with Indesign and comp up numerous possibilities in no time.
I'm really digging the top one more flay, however, the font in the second line is cut off, don't know if it's due to some sort of clipping or overlay but yeah, the bottom fourth is definitely cut off.
Not sure if I agree with supabeast completely - I don't think Perception itself is too small of a font size, but the line underneath it seems a bit small/lost to me. That's my 2.
So what exactly is the message as you interpret it? Because I think it is rather vague and doesn't really say anything to me. Are you trying to keep the drugs out of the reach of children or is it perception? or is it a play on the over reliance and use of medication or that we overly medicate kids specifically? I get the candy part of it relating to kids but I see a big disconnect in your message and the word; in fact with your current message and image I think reality would be a stronger choice over perception.
if you care to change the message with the imagery you're using I think something a little more subversive would have a stronger impact then your standard warning label. Something that might also reconcile the image and the message.
I could be reading too much into though if its just simply the way a kid sees medication as if it were candy. If that were the case I would separate Perception and the warning label.
Thanks for the comments everyone. Although I was intentionally making the text hard to read, I think I went a bit too far. In the final version I made the text easier to read.
So what exactly is the message as you interpret it?
...
I could be reading too much into though if its just simply the way a kid sees medication as if it were candy. If that were the case I would separate Perception and the warning label.
The way children see medication was a big part of my concept, but it wasn't the only one. It was also an observation regarding the warning labels placed on medication bottles. They're generally so small, boring and indistinct that many people fail to notice them, especially children. There is a good reason for that, and I'm not saying it must be changed. It's just an observation. Anyway, this was the reason I made the type so small, and set it in helvetica and all in caps - I was imitating a generic warning label.
I did eventually decide that the poster wasn't communicating its message strongly enough, however, and made the text larger.
After that you can sit down with Indesign and comp up numerous possibilities in no time.
...
To be honest, I have no idea what indesign is. I've only ever used photoshop and illustrator. I haven't been avoiding it or anything, I've just never known much (anything, really) about it.
But now that you mention it, I'm gonna look in to it.
Nice, yeah I had figured you made them small/hard to read on purpose, which is why I didn't think perception was too small. Didn't know you were imitating warning labels though (nice touch btw). But yeah, even with that idea in mind I think the line under perception is a tad small.
I don't think the tutors will get it though. I kicked the power cord out of the computer I was using at uni and lost an hour and a half of work, so I had to hand it in without annotations.
Finally got around to using the scanner at uni. And not the crappy scanner in the library either; the good one(s) in the design building. So here's a few drawings from the past few days.
'
The horse, statues and busts are referenced from the net, the mask is from life. I think I'll do a longer drawing of the mask some time soon. I don't have a scanner at home, so I expect there'll be a long break between sketchdumps.
I still can't really draw from imagination though.
That's probably a good thing. Most art students spend months trying to overcome the natural impulse to draw what they think they see rather than what they actually see.
I still can't really draw from imagination though. I forgotten a lot of my anatomy too.
I have the same problem. I look at reference, and i can draw, even alter the form a bit. But as soon as i try to draw a picture without a reference i dont know what im doing. Ive been drawing city scenes for about 5 weeks now. Before that i couldnt draw them, but now i can (kinda:)) get that shit out of my head and down on paper without reference. I think the best way is to just keep up the studies and practice the fundamentals occasionally. For anything professional that needs to look really accurate, reference is always needed. Drawing out of your head is good mainly for thumbnail stages. Plus working without references is good as it allows the imagination to run wild. Im blabbering on now.
Looking at the logo concepts on the first few pages, I get jealous. I've never been able to make my initials look at all interesting. D and A are just not letters that have any resemblance.
I still can't really draw from imagination though.
That's probably a good thing. Most art students spend months trying to overcome the natural impulse to draw what they think they see rather than what they actually see.
+1
Enter most high school art classes, and you'll see what Szech is talking about. There's a model up front during a portrait exercise, and nearly every student has their head down. They spend more time drawing "the eye" or "the mouth" then they do drawing this line in relation to that one, or creating this shape of negative space, etc...
Think of drawing from reference as 'filling your parts bag' The stuff you learn emulating real life gives you the foundation you need to take the pictures from your imagination and construct them on a page.
Creambun 007 on
Diggity.
0
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
+2 on that point, I don't know where this ref shame comes from. I don't recall anyone ever saying Da Vinci was cheating because he used a model for the Mona Lisa.
Maybe there's this idea that if you're "doing art" for a living, you won't always have a model, so it's better to learn without one? It's dumb, but people are dumb, so it's a possibility.
I wish I'd learned from references instead of artwork.
Really, thanks guys! I'm trying to push myself a bit harder to improve, and I'm spending more time on my drawings. If there's any criticism you guys have I'd love to hear it, it'd really help.
By the way, this is the reference I used for the last drawing. I did toy with the brightness, but there are still some inconsistencies.
I've been asked to design a poster(s) promoting a weekly event for a gaming club at my uni. Basically a heap of people show up to play console games and socialise. The event's called 'consoles on the concourse'. There's no brief so I'm basically just going to throw together a few basic ideas, see which one they like and then refine it. These are very preliminary, so I'll probably revise them.
Here's one idea. The text is basically a placeholder until I know what I'm going to write.
EDIT: I don't know what happened to the cropping for this one, but it's supposed to be A4.
Okay, back to designing. I need some criticism for a typography layout. I'll probably be uploading a few of these.
The text I'm going to use is the first page of 'All Tomorrow's Parties' by William Gibson.
The project presents the opportunity to explore composition, typographic hierarchy and the image making capacity of hand and technologically generated type and its potential application as an illustration to a typographic statement comprising of type, headings and text columns. The primary aim is to introduce typographic detailing to headlines (alignment, kerning, etc) and text setting (type size, column widths, leading, indents, line breaks, etc) and the combination of a handwritten illustration with set text, using Photoshop and Illustrator to achieve a well processed, refined and presented typographic statement.
Selecting one of the texts provided, produce a typographic composition that combines illustration
(consisting of hand and/or technologically hand-generated type) and computer generated text
using Photoshop and Illustrator to achieve a well resolved typographic composition The final
presentation should be:
A3 with print concessions (trimmed to the limitations of the print area)
portrait
include headline, text, credits and a hand/technologically generated typographic illustration
should be a produced as a digital laser print using the 4 colour print process (CMYK)
Having read and selected one of the ‘first pages’ provided, the text needs to be typed and copy and
detail checked prior to design. Please be aware that ʻtyposʼ (spelling and punctuation mistakes) are
unacceptable. Please copy check very, very, very carefully.
Your final aim is to:
reinforce your experience of working at a larger scale than your computer screen,
as well as your ability to process and refine ideas before working on the computer
as well as your hand skills and graphic presentation
and to learn to explore and refine typographic detailing
Oh god that sounds like my first and second year visual communication assignments. I can see what you're trying to do with the two columns of text, from a visual sense, but is it practical? Itd definately be hard to read from a viewers sense. Would lining it up with the T be better? Or is this a specific direction you must take?
spoilered is minor edits. Again, im shite at graphic design
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Not sure if I agree with supabeast completely - I don't think Perception itself is too small of a font size, but the line underneath it seems a bit small/lost to me. That's my 2.
My Portfolio Site
if you care to change the message with the imagery you're using I think something a little more subversive would have a stronger impact then your standard warning label. Something that might also reconcile the image and the message.
I could be reading too much into though if its just simply the way a kid sees medication as if it were candy. If that were the case I would separate Perception and the warning label.
Tumblr Behance Carbonmade PAAC on FB
BFBC2
Both of these factors were intentional, I'll explain in a sec...
The way children see medication was a big part of my concept, but it wasn't the only one. It was also an observation regarding the warning labels placed on medication bottles. They're generally so small, boring and indistinct that many people fail to notice them, especially children. There is a good reason for that, and I'm not saying it must be changed. It's just an observation. Anyway, this was the reason I made the type so small, and set it in helvetica and all in caps - I was imitating a generic warning label.
I did eventually decide that the poster wasn't communicating its message strongly enough, however, and made the text larger.
...
To be honest, I have no idea what indesign is. I've only ever used photoshop and illustrator. I haven't been avoiding it or anything, I've just never known much (anything, really) about it.
But now that you mention it, I'm gonna look in to it.
My Portfolio Site
:x
This is an exercise for uni. Objective was to transform a given object (a mobile) in to an object that was chosen by our partner (I got a toothbrush).
This was actually a lot of fun to do. Too bad I never got around to shading it.
EDIT: Here's a WIP for a task I'm just finishing off. It's a bit hard to see, but any crits?
(Note that the image will be contained within a smaller frame, so chances are some of it will be cut out.)
INSTAGRAM
Gah! I have work to do but now I have to do it.
I might get around to doing a better version if I can be bothered
The horse, statues and busts are referenced from the net, the mask is from life. I think I'll do a longer drawing of the mask some time soon. I don't have a scanner at home, so I expect there'll be a long break between sketchdumps.
I still can't really draw from imagination though. I forgotten a lot of my anatomy too.
That's probably a good thing. Most art students spend months trying to overcome the natural impulse to draw what they think they see rather than what they actually see.
I have the same problem. I look at reference, and i can draw, even alter the form a bit. But as soon as i try to draw a picture without a reference i dont know what im doing. Ive been drawing city scenes for about 5 weeks now. Before that i couldnt draw them, but now i can (kinda:)) get that shit out of my head and down on paper without reference. I think the best way is to just keep up the studies and practice the fundamentals occasionally. For anything professional that needs to look really accurate, reference is always needed. Drawing out of your head is good mainly for thumbnail stages. Plus working without references is good as it allows the imagination to run wild. Im blabbering on now.
+1
Enter most high school art classes, and you'll see what Szech is talking about. There's a model up front during a portrait exercise, and nearly every student has their head down. They spend more time drawing "the eye" or "the mouth" then they do drawing this line in relation to that one, or creating this shape of negative space, etc...
Think of drawing from reference as 'filling your parts bag' The stuff you learn emulating real life gives you the foundation you need to take the pictures from your imagination and construct them on a page.
I wish I'd learned from references instead of artwork.
EDIT: Bah! Shading's completely off in places. Have to go back and fix it.
there is a reason for this:
it is because you are awesome
Really, thanks guys! I'm trying to push myself a bit harder to improve, and I'm spending more time on my drawings. If there's any criticism you guys have I'd love to hear it, it'd really help.
By the way, this is the reference I used for the last drawing. I did toy with the brightness, but there are still some inconsistencies.
(There's a running joke behind it, don't question it.)
(Perspective on the planes is fucked, I know...)
(Man I need a scanner.)
you be getting gooder and gooder indeed
I've been asked to design a poster(s) promoting a weekly event for a gaming club at my uni. Basically a heap of people show up to play console games and socialise. The event's called 'consoles on the concourse'. There's no brief so I'm basically just going to throw together a few basic ideas, see which one they like and then refine it. These are very preliminary, so I'll probably revise them.
Here's one idea. The text is basically a placeholder until I know what I'm going to write.
EDIT: I don't know what happened to the cropping for this one, but it's supposed to be A4.
Here's a second idea I'm working on.
Any tips?
Not quite finished yet. Still gotta work on the text and the distant landscape.
This is actually the first landscape I've ever done from imagination.
EDIT: Whoops, I forgot to colour the reflections on the horizon.
Illustrator usually crops to artwork rather than artboard when you export to jpeg etc.
The Links poster is cool, although I think the perspective might be sort of off on the shore line?
Do you mean relative to the original tileset (what's in the foreground)?
The text I'm going to use is the first page of 'All Tomorrow's Parties' by William Gibson.
spoilered is minor edits. Again, im shite at graphic design