Comic Post

 Hello! This time my fellow classmates and I were tasked with making a short comic. Similar to the ones we would see in newspapers and such, nothing extremely fancy like action comic books (that would have taken way too long). 

The idea behind mine was a depiction of the feeling you get where you feel things missing in places they should have been. Like when you are at work and you look for your phone and it's not in your pocket and that rush of fear strikes you. 

I have never illustrated a comic before so this was fun to make. Time was pretty short so it didn't come out as great as I would have liked for it to be but it think it looks decent.

The most challenging part of the comic was finding the time to finish coloring and drawing it. I actually streamed it on twitch and you can see the whole process via video. It took 3+ hours and it was fun!

I do feel I was successful but only in fitting the needed criteria. I feel I could have done waaaaaay better if I took out more time for myself to work on it.

Here is the comic...

Pantone Project

 Hello once again! Today my classmates and I were once again tasked with making another piece involving pantone coloring, a truly interesting process.

I didn't really find anything new about using pantones colors with the image, rather I was reminded of how beautiful and vibrant the colors are. Whether or not It's important to use Pantone colors as an artist is completely up to what the artist Is doing. If the artist is selling one color screen print clothing then yes it would be important. The use of Pantone's would add a boost in assurance of color and quality.

The most difficult part of the project was actually just separating the different pieces of the subject to highlight certain objects. It was pretty easy! I definitely feel successful, the piece is very nice to look at and the colors fit in nice. The text, in my opinion, is also really cool.

Here is the piece...

Photo Restoration

 Hello! Today my classmates and I were assigned to restore an old photo. It was a really fun process actually. I removed all the destroying folding marks on the image and repaired essentially all the missing pieces of the photo.

Honestly, I think I succeeded but I definitely agree that the job wasn't perfect. I wasn't able to save the photo from being super pixelated. I tried doing multiple things and It wouldn't really work but I tried.

The creative process I went through a roller coaster one. I used a majority of the healing tools and sometimes one would work for one area and so I had to switch multiple times through the whole pice for each separate area. Then the coloring, the picture seemed like it was from the old west and for some reason, I thought of blond hair so that's Why she now has blond hair. The clothes were a simple job, just a light color since the color on the original picture was so bright.

The color I feel was way more successful. although it is a bit rough and, once again, pixelated. 

Here was the transformation...

CD Packaging

Hello once again! Today, my fellow classmates and I were tasked with creating a CD Packaging design for a group we very much enjoy while focusing on the use of custom/preset brushes. I chose to make one for Everglow a Korean pop band whose music I really enjoy and listen to daily.

Their whole mail appeal or "concept" as a group is "girl crush" but as a bonus for every album, they add a fun/cutesy song to their albums to show their versatility. That was the main aspect that I wanted to focus on for this album cover. I used a pink background to ensure a cute/artistic vibe and used The paintbrush to further develop it.

The challenges I faced when creating the CD Design was more so on my part. Before even starting the project I had ideas that weren't in line with the assignment (The ideas didn't utilize the brush tool). So I had made another version I deemed to be a "personal ver". I am now realizing I got too caught up in using the brush tool that I could have combined the two ideas instead of making two separate ones *facepalm*. I still have some more adjustments to make to the assignment so I'll test that out as soon as possible.

Here are the results...

Final Promotional Poster

This was a super interesting assignment. My classmates and I were tasked with creating a promotional poster for "The International Printing Museum". The poster was promoting its new online event. This was to be part of a bigger project which was a logo presentation package. That's a whole other beast so I'll tackle just the poster right now. We were supposed to detail everything we can expect from the event and all the details like a website. All the normal things for promotional posters but this time I was aware of the Gestalt Principles of design and was supposed to use them in my piece.

Honestly, I don't think I did extremely well in using them initially. But after talking with my professor and fixing some things I felt was really able to really do a lot better. I had an initial vision and it was fairly solid, all it needed was to be sharpened.

The most challenging part of this project was actually coming up with ideas this time around. Usually, I have ideas right away but, in this instance, that aspect of myself was failing. Also, for me it's usually a snowball effect, once I get an idea it just creates others. That was failing as well. I eventually did get an idea though and that was the hard part, breaking through the rut and being a trooper!

Here is the piece...

Working With Pantones

 This time, I and my classmates were tasked with working with Pantone colors and I've learned a lot about them. The first thing I have to say is that they are amazing, They allow for great color and quality consistency for printing and look sleek and pretty. The colors stay the same and you get exactly what you want.

When designing with Process and Pantone colors the best formats to send to a printer would be a Tiff/PDF/EPS.

I think I was pretty successful with designing with the Pantones and will definitely use them again. I've had a great experience with them. The piece I did looked great and it's cool to know that it will look exactly like how it was when I worked on it when I go and print it.

Here is the original and then the piece I did...

Campaign Ad

 This week me and my class were tasked with making an campain Ad for a preestablshied brand. Nothing official but, "Finally!" I thought as we recieved the assignment. we had done an ad for our own company before but to be honest I was not confident in it at all. So this time I wanted to redeem Myself! And so I made these new ads with the emphasis on the rule of thirds and grids. This is what I came up with...

The color scheme we were asked to use was a fall one. When I think of fall I think of orange-red colors and thats what I decided to use. Macy's (from the ads I've seen) always has a simple and nice format for their ads and branding. I kept focusing on those things by trying not to add to many elements to the pieces. I definetly felt the color scheme I used fit the fall theme we had. 

With the colors I used I definetly feel I expressed the message of class and beauty. If the colors were different then depending on the color it could still work but I would definetly have to change the message I'm going for through the slogan. 

Color adds a lot to ones design and image manipulation. It's one of the key aspects. If the color doesn't match the message youa re trying to potray through your design/image manipulation then you're in big trouble in a sense. It can totaly alter what a person feels and thinks about a piece, it can even confuse many if not put together carefully. That's the last thing you want to do as a graphic designer. 

The hardest part honestly of making this piece was the color change of the models. There were some sections where the original lighting of the image or the hair interesected where the clothes were going be color changed and It was hard deciding what I was going to do with those areas. Other than that I had a blast making these piece. Once I was given the assignment I already had a couple of models I thought about using and the colors. I could see it all come together as my instructor was talking. All I had to do was fine-tune and bring it to a reality.

I feel like there are some things I can fix, but nothing major. I definely feel I was successful.  

Logo Reproduction

 For this assignment, we were instructed to reproduce a logo. This would be in the case where our client doesn't have a high-quality/electronic version of their own logo. I learned how to take that logo and recreate it for the digital world. 

There are a couple ways to save a final logo. One would be able to do it in either adobe illustrator or a combinations with that and photoshop. You must make sure that the quality of the image comes out good enough for each platform you wish for it to appear on. Keeping in mind it's color mode is also a huge part of this sequence. Every platform has a different color mode that is needed to bring the piece exactly like you made it. 

The format I would send to a client would be a pdf or png since they are not the ones actually printing the actual piece but rather just need to take a look at it. For a pinter, on the other hand, I would send files like the actual "working file" for the program I used such as an .ai or .psd along with pdf's and tiffs which are printable type files that work best.

Here is my work (The second one is pink because I wanted to show the white one version better)

Color and Application

The focus in the cut-out design was the flower and art behind it. I wanted to give a happy/funny message to the card. Roses are usually associated with love and so I added it to give a little flirty vibe which is magnified by the text. The message could be read in different ways depending on who you sent it to. For a significant other it can be "flirty" but if it's a friend or loved one then it can be read as a loving message. For the funny element, I added a play on words to the card. Roses aren't blue usually and neither are violets but on the card, the main color is blue so I changed the usual rhyme. I added the character to the background because she was happy! It's supposed to signify the joy the person sending the card has for the person receiving the card 

I was thinking of using red for the piece initially but I decided to change it to blue. I feel that was a good choice and it expressed the message perfectly. Blue is a color that calms and shows loyalty/trust and that right now is what people need the most amongst all the trouble we are dealing with currently. 

Now that I really look at the piece it really instills in me how much color has impacted the design. If it were red then it would seem more passionate and aggressive and that wasn't what I was aiming for.

The process of creating this piece was very simple. I usually can come up with ideas for design fairly quickly so when we were being instructed and I saw there was a rose shape I knew what I was going to do instantly and it came out exactly as I intended. After I layed out the basic design of the piece I looked at the picture I placed and really thought about what would elevate the piece the best. to be honest, I always resort to red first since it's my favorite, but like mentioned before after thinking about it I decided against the idea.

I feel I was definitely successful in my piece

New introduction!

 Hello! It's been a while since I've done my initial introduction and a great number of things have changed so I'd like to make a new one! Once again, Hello. My name is Aiden Avila and I am still currently attending Los Angeles Trade-Tech College under the "Visual Communications" program. I'm am a young artist/graphic designer who loves to create interesting pieces of art. I try my best to be proffienct at different things even if they are difficult and I never stop/give up learning about things I love. You can expect to read about my thoughts behind the new pieces I make in class and beyond!

Honestly, I think blogging is very interesting. To some, it may seem outdated and Initially, that's how I felt as well but I was introduced to how robust and invested people and companies are in these blogs. I will do my best to make the best use of it.

I've never blogged before creating this specific one but I have been on social media for a while.

 I make gaming youtube videos with my friends on this channel...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4zJbxCnAFdD3Mi7pKEmncw

I plan to make videos very different from the ones on my other channel on this channel here...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYz0eB6CST2WfIGgl6uhdzg

I also stream on twitch here...

https://www.twitch.tv/cringe_sama

I also have a twitter account 

https://twitter.com/cringe_sama

And Instagram to blog my art journey specifically 

https://www.instagram.com/cringe_sama_art/

My goals with this class blog other than writing my project critiques is to show people my journey through school and see the hard work I put into my works so it may help me get a job. I also want for people to see my works and give their own critiques as well

Interactive PDF

The goal of this assignment was to create an interactive pdf that would advertise yourself or some company that you are aware of. I decided to do one for myself. An interactive PDF links all important websites that the person wants to be shown to the public kind of like an online business card except this can actually take you to the shown websites.

The most challenging part of doing this assignment was the timing of the pictures coming in and the animation I wanted when things were having the mouse hovering over them. I wanted to add something to happen when one would hover their mouse over the "button" which would take one to the specific link. I kinda had trouble placing it so it would look like it moved and then I placed the movement in the wrong "layer" so I had to fix that. The other issue of the timing of the images coming in after a couple seconds was actually a product of keeping an oversized version of the image file. Without the advice from my teacher, I would have never known that my file was too big and that was the reason why It took way too on for the images to load in. I definitely learned something very valuable and will implement it into every one of my pieces. All I had to do was cut the original image size and everything was fixed. It took a little time but it was super fun.

I feel like I was definitely successful but one thing that was definitely on my mind was the fact that I wished I could have made a more advanced piece. Personally, lately, I've been feeling like my pieces are too simple and I play it too safe when I could be trying something more visually interesting. I'll do my best to improve and try some more interesting techniques.

AD Design

The most important aspects of creating an AD that an AD Designer should keep in mind is two things, audience, and message. You have to know what you want to say and who you are saying it to. if you are missing that then your AD Almost has no purpose and loses all it's "punch".

I did try to keep my audience in mind when making my ad. I tried to keep it simple and interesting while also being as loud and unique as possible. When you have a target audience then things become ever so easier.

I also forgot to apply a grid this time as well. I just used the ruler tools when in hindsight I could have made my poster earlier and more efficiently if I used a grid.

I tried to keep in mind all the elements and principles of design when I was making this piece. the colors I felt were the strongest suit. I definitely saw how I could improve by going over the piece.

Applying Principles of Design

The most challenging part of designing a flyer with no image is that now you must make what the image is usually used for and have the type do it. It was a really interesting process to go through, now that there is no image the hierarchy needs to be eve more surefire and precise. Finding that balance between keeping the importance of the shapes and type different was a challenge but in a good way.

In the end, it was the great and fair points of my teacher and peers that helped me overcoming applying design principles and applying flow and movement throughout the composition. I had come up with a simple design and it wasn't hard for me to think about it and create it. The tips I got helped me to more fully understand what Principles I lacked and which ones needed more work on. My hierarchy was off, my colors were off and even my call of action was not properly placed. I thought about how to fix those problems in-depth and eventually found a way.

Honestly, I forgot to apply a grid to help with my project but I did do my best to use all the ruler type tools I could. In the end, I don't think it made a GIANT difference but I would have certainly made things easier and less time costly.

Elements And Principle Of Design

The elements and principles of design are EXTREMELY important in the field of graphic design and even art. They make up the basics, the building blocks of the professions. Sticking by these fundamentals will essentially always lead you to success. Thankfully I was able to get a good grasp of what they are and can be used for. I of course still have a long way to go in terms of following them but I'm making progress for sure.

Like mentioned before they are the building blocks to graphic design and so if I keep to them I know I can be successful in my pieces. I can use them as guidelines or suggestions. Thankfully they aren't strict rules you have to follow to the T which allows others and myself to try our best to get creative with what we make.

In-Person to Online Instruction Shift

Honestly, I haven't had any trouble with the transitions from the previous In-person to the now currently online instruction format. Personally, I do enjoy being home for everything. If anything I find many positives for in the current situation in general. The only negative thing I can think of is not getting to see my friends face to face and paying for that bus pass that I didn't and probably won't even get to use lol.

Currently, I can actually have an actual good night's sleep which I haven't had in months because I'm at home and I don't have to worry about transportation time and about getting to class on time. I have more time for myself to complete and completely immerse myself into the assignment I have been given and i"m having tons of fun with my work. Also, I've been able to save a lot of money on food since I've been eating what we have at home and I honestly feel physically better due to actually having time to exercise. 

Here is a piece that I'm very proud that I completed during the transition.

AD Design

The goal of this project to create an effective, eye-catching ad for any program, company or organization of our choosing. I chose to do my in-progress clothing line. We had to essentially use everything about design that we were taught into this project. I did my best to use such knowledge.

The Most Challenging thing about the project I would say is finding the right image to try and portray exactly what I was trying to showcase. In my case it was clothing and so I needed people wearing blank clothing but they needed to show some form of joy, something I want my customers to experience when wearing said merchandise.

I personally think I succeeded, I used colors that worked with my brand and image and did my best to display a message I wanted those who find this piece of work to find. While also seeing clearly what I want them to see and go act on.

Social Issue Poster

The topic for my poster was that of racism towards Asians during the coronavirus outbreak, due to the cause being from China.

I found my research by going through google and finding articles from trusted websites who documented several occurrences of racism towards Asians and the reason as to why it is happening besides the virus.

The font I used was " TitlingGothicFB". The reason I chose it was due to it's serious and professional looking type. The topic was very serious and I did not want to discredit it by using overly friendly or aggressive fonts. I wanted it plain and simple. The plan was to let the image and words themselves make the most impact and the font I chose proved to be a great ally in establishing the previously said goal.

I applied all the principles of design that I could use in such an instance. I wanted it more plain and simple to add to the power of the poster.m I would say the greatest challenge was also the main focus and strength of my poster and choosing how to deal with that, simplicity. Although I got what I wanted the poster does, to me, look a little simplistic but I hoped to aid that by adding the powerful image. Also, I'm not comfortable with social issues at all so this will definitely be the last time, whether it's for school or not, I will be addressing such topics due to the fact that my end goal is not to deal with such issues whatsoever and so the conflict of those thoughts also plagued me during the design.

The one on the left was the first design and with revisions, the one on the right is the final version.

 

Elements and Principles Of Design

The Elements and Principles of design are extremely important. They make up the basis for essentially every piece of art work. Artist wether professional or not do best to always keep them in mind in order to create something actually good. They are the rules of the art world and reign true to this day. Thankfully I was really able to get a good grasp of what they are and you can see that be "personified" through my poster down below.

By always keep these elements and principles I too can create great pieces of art/design. Keeping them in mind will always guide me in the right direction and allow me to make the best pieces I can make. They will also allow for my pieces to be professional looking and objectively interesting.

Font Poster

Apparently creating a font poster is like a right of passage into the world of design. Every graphic designer has created one, and so that it why I have made my own today. It's the one you seen on screen. A little while ago it looks very different but that was due to it being a rough draft/outline of what I wanted the poster to look like. With some colleague critic and hard work I was able to adjust what was needed, things such as balance and concept consistency were brought up not only from my peers but even I was able to notice the problems as I was reviewing my work. Thankfully, though, I was able to easily fix the problems and create the new or final version (The one you see on the bottom of the text). I used the Adobe InDesign application to do so.

The Text I used for the poster was Tekton Pro. I found it while searching fonts on the adobe website and just randomly scrolled by it and also discovered an interest in it and so it became the focal point of my Font Poster. Through my research of said font I found that it's actually a very popular font known for It's distinct factor of being extremely legible. It was made by David Siegel which based said font on the hand lettering of author and architect Francis D.K. Ching. It was at first frequently used by architects but later made it's ay into the mainstream as the vast majority of people found out about it.

When I was generating the piece I tried my best to keep all the principles of design in mind but the most prominent ones were most definitely balance and in a sense repetition. Another idea I wanted to keep was that of a building type design since it was not only used by but also based on an architect writing. I felt I portrayed that feeling well making good use of box shape letters and implementing it into my design.

Welcome To My Blog!

Heyo! It has come to my attention that I have never really introduced myself until now. So let's just start all from the beginning. The names Aiden Avila and this is my blog. I'm a current student at Los Angeles Trade technical Collage under the visual communications program. The program aims to help their students learn and turn into a profession different forms of communication through visual means. They Cover things like tradition/digital art, graphic design and advertising. My passions had always aligned within those subjects and so I decided to pursue learning to the best of my abilities under that program.

Ever since I was a child it has been my dream to create and sell my own art and I'm on my way to achieving that dream. This blog is a part of that journey. Here you will see my progress as I learn and make mistakes but most importantly continue to improve. Prior to this blog I had never started a blog. This blog I had created when I first started my collage classes and I don't intent on ever deleting it. Not only are blogs an interesting concept to begin with and equally interesting to run they can also be very effective for business purposes and I intent to make proper use of that aspect of my blogs.

I actually have some other platforms that I "blog" on such as an Instagram and twitter. My Instagram is where I am most active and I post art that I am really proud of. I will make sure to make better use of my twitter as soon as possible. In addition to those platforms I also have an art station and portfolium account. I'm doing my best to put myself out there and run straight towards my goals without stopping!

I hope to utilize this blog and my other "blogs" to the best of my power and to start a community of my own and have fun with everything! I hope people will see my ambition/passion and follow me, my progress and journey to share in the ups and down and celebrate the grind together!

Links to my accounts:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/red_avila_art/
Art station: https://www.artstation.com/cringe_sama
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cringe_sama
Portfolium: https://portfolium.com/RedAvila/portfolio

Here is some art I have done!