Paris poster

I threw this together this afternoon, trying to keep my design gears from getting rusty over Winter break. Thoughts? (It's not finished, I still need to add text). It's a poster for an event in Cleveland (that I made up). I used Photoshop effects to create the image of the Eiffel Tower and placed it into my InDesign document, where I designed the headline. (I don't speak French. I plugged it into Google translate).

Efficient design turns into good design

Just as a reflection...recently at work, I was given the project of redesigning a short catalog that would be distributed at a 2015 trade show. (I work for a packaging company now). I was quite excited about the project as it was really the first design assignment given to me outside of the college classroom. (I'm a rookie. College teaches many things...but it can never realistically prepare you to take your talents into the business world). But the problem was I had about a week to finish the entire thing, and since I don't work five days a week due to my school schedule, I pumped it out in about three six to seven hour shifts.

Anywho, not to ramble on, but I was very disappointed with the results and that's probably what caused me to reflect on this. Above I posted a design that I spent upwards of a month working and reworking until I finally had it exactly as I wanted it...but the problem is, I was given that time as a student and as an employee, at best that time has to be cut in half in order to prioritize efficiency. This is a learning curve for me. Do you sacrifice good design for time? Or in the real world, do you have to learn to change your idea of what good design is? Or does working under a time crunch become second nature to you? I tend to design by feel. I know that my work isn't right until it "feels" right to me. As a real-world designer, do you have to learn different methods in order to get the job done?

Wine bottle label comp-up

 As I said I would post earlier, here is an example of one my wine bottle labels comped up on an actual bottle. I bought a cheap bottle of wine, soaked it in hot soapy water to dissolve the old label, and adhered this one to the bottle with rubber cement (rubber cement, one of an artist's best friends). This is a copy of the original drawing, scaled in Adobe Illustrator to fit the bottle.

Kickstarter Project: Art in 95 Days (Fictional) and some wine bottle labels

It's been a busy couple of months and I haven't had the free time to do any updating....I ended up acquiring a new job, and this second to last semester of college has definitely been keeping my busy.

I've included some images that are part of a final for my packaging design project, where we were required to make four labels and a display case for a brand of wine. I have a comp of one of the labels on a real wine bottle, which I'll share later.  I drew the labels by hand with Micron pens and acrylic paint and scanned them into the computer.

But the main purpose of this post is to introduce a new idea for a Kickstarter Campaign project, called Art in 95 Days. (I thought of this idea a couple of years ago, and brought it back up to use for a media design project). In a digital world where so many great artist can turn to the internet to tell their story, it can become difficult, I noticed, to make yourself stand out in the crowd. I have to ask myself...what extra "little things" can I do that will push my work into the spotlight? I can spread the word over social media, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. But the idea of a Kickstarter Campaign allows the public the opportunity of deciding whether or not your artwork is good enough or interesting enough, or worthy enough, for them to invest their money in. It gives the public the chance to consider your work and pick you, from all the artists out there, to support.

That's why I'm considering this campaign. It's an opportunity for me (after all this college craziness ends in the Spring) to put my time next summer into creating as much artwork as possible and allowing the public to experience what I have to offer. It would allow someone the opportunity to look at something I created and think, "That's pretty cool, really. I think I want to see this person grow.".