December 2022 – March 2023
Introduction
Our projects for design this unit was jam-packed. We started off by creating our own logo for a fake brand on Adobe Illustrator and using a website to place it on fake mockups. Then, using our story from English, we created a movie poster and book jacket. I had a lot of fun during this unit although I always seemed to be short of time.
Product Logo
For this assignment, we were told to create our own company, with our own logo and products. We started off with a mood board, which consisted of other companies we got inspiration from along with a color palette we planned on using.
Creating this logo was not easy. I really liked what I came up with on paper, but had no idea how to create it digitally. My goal was to create “StarTea,” a tea company whose logo would be a star made from a spiral. I also wanted my company’s specialty to be caffeinated tea, so I tried to make the star bend its branches in a way that it would look like it was dancing or running.
Making this digitally was really difficult. I started off by creating an outline of all the star branches, only to realize how disproportional each one was. I had to then pick my favorite branch that I could repeat five times to make up my star. Then, I had to roughly draw each spiral using the brush tool to create the shape I wanted, and finally trace it with the pen tool to make a cleaner finished product.
There was definitely an easier way to do this, but once I figured out my system I sped through it. I am really happy with the gradient I created for my logo as well as the font I made. After I finished my logo, I started working on the designs that I would put on my products. This was relatively easy, but the trial and error for making sure everything looked placed correctly were time-consuming.
We also got to make a promotional video for our products using a template on placeit.com. I am really happy with how my products and video turned out.
Movie Poster
Going back to our English Narrative, we were told to make a movie poster about our story. Making this movie poster was really difficult for me because it was a style in Illustrator that I’d never worked with before. I also missed a lot of school days in January, which set me back a lot. Due to the big file, I was working with, I was unable to work on it at home. However, I am very proud of the finished product.
Movie Poster Artist Statement
My movie, Beyond Control, is about Bailey, a spy who hates working with others due to her past, being forced to join forces with three other spies, Logan, Hunter, and Grayson. This new group ventures out from their home island, and travels many miles away to investigate strange natural disasters that are beginning to occur. They are found constantly starting arguments, but eventually are able to find out that these natural disasters are too powerful to be natural. Kenji, the creator, is a thousand-year-old mystical being who is seeking revenge. On the movie poster is the scene when the four agents are about to be face to face with Kenji, looking anxiously into the dark ocean.
I took a big step outside of my comfort zone by making this poster. I had a vision in mind but was unsure how I would be able to pull it off without it looking too cartoony. Using my photo compositing skills from my Digital Media class, I took different pieces of images to make my movie poster. After editing the photos in Adobe Photoshop, I moved them to Illustrator, where I imaged traced the images to make them tie together nicely. My biggest challenge in making the movie poster was creating the boat. Finding an image of a boat from the angle I wished was difficult, and I had very few options to work with. Once I found a good boat, I had to create different pieces of the boat to complete my vision.
In the end, I am a bit disappointed with how my movie poster turned out. I wish I had given myself more time to design the people on the poster. Since we needed the poster for a project in English, I used the characters my partner designed and put them on the poster. The movie poster below is as finished as the poster will be and hopefully will give you a preview of what I wished it turned out to be.
Book Jacket
After the movie poster, we were told to create a book jacket that would be the book that inspired the movie. We started with a mood board, and I was heavily inspired by the Dune cover. I was nervous about starting this project because my mood board has a lot of warm-toned book covers, but I really like how the finished product looks.
