Photoshop & Illustrator Collage
Our first project in Design was a collage that represented a memory from our summer. I chose to focus on Newport, Rhode Island, which is a lovely city on the East Coast that I visited this summer with my family. It’s a city on the coast with lots of lovely beachfront properties. It’s often associated with old money, as it was a fashionable location for summer homes of names like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt in the Golden Age. When I visited, we walked the Cliff Walk, which takes you along the coast with the beach on one side and these historic mansions on the other. I drew inspiration from the beach and old money vibes to create my collage.
I used a combination of my own photos and photos from the Internet to piece together this collage. After creating the original in Photoshop, we transferred it into Illustrator and traced it to make a matching illustrated collage.
PSA Design
Our next project was to create a PSA of a topic of our choosing. I am a person that really values face-to-face connection and while I am also guilty of this, it’s a pet peeve when someone is in the same room as you but not truly present because of their phone. I created this PSA in Adobe Illustrator.
My PSA is a phone screen with the words “Wish You Were Here” on it. Above this, three people are absorbed in their phones while a fourth person without a phone looks on sadly, obviously lonely. A text message at the bottom of the screen, left on delivered, reads “get off your phone.” The idea behind this PSA is how phone addiction harms relationships when people can’t be mentally present. Ironically, phones are supposed to connect people, and yet studies have shown that the presence of a phone at the dinner table or during a conversation causes a strong disconnect. The main tagline, Wish You Were Here, points out how people are emotionally and mentally absent when their attention is on their device, even if they are physically present. This PSA is a reminder for us all to put down our phones and be present with our friends and loved ones.
To create this PSA, I used Adobe Illustrator to illustrate each of my elements. I wanted a clean, impactful look, so I used more geometric shapes and repeating elements. I used the image of a screen because we are trained to pay attention to it. I added a noise effect on the screen to communicate the idea of pixels, and an outer glow to the phones in the hands of the people to show blue light and how they are mesmerized by their device.
Aboriginal Art
Our last project in this unit was an aborigine. We studied this art style and then recreated it with elements of ourself, including our sign and spirit animal, as part of the reflection unit. I illustrated the many dots and lines that make up my aboriginal art in Photoshop.
Sloths are usually known for being lazy and sleeping a lot. However, they can actually move pretty fast when they want to—instead, they just conserve energy most of the time. They are also smiley, pleasant, and snuggly. I chose the sloth as my spirit animal for this project because of these characteristics (although I do like sleeping, too). We also incorporated our astrological signs into this project. I am a Taurus, so the constellation and bull symbol are subtly visible in the tree and fur patterns. Since it is an earth sign, there are a lot of earth tones and themes to the piece. I also took inspiration from aboriginal art for other symbols I used, including the rain symbol in the background and the stars in the bottom left corner.
I began this project by sketching out where I wanted each shape to be, color blocking the shapes in Photoshop, then adding the patterns for each shape. This project was very meticulous but very satisfying, as I drew countless dots and lines. Illustrating in Photoshop was a challenge, but it was very rewarding and I am proud of my final product.