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