Grace E Design
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Therese Harburg-Petrich Article
These interviews/photoshoots/layouts were really fun. I want to add a small 1-3 panel comic for each artist, but its been hard to get this comics sent to me. If I ever get them I will add them to the article. I made these using Photoshop and Indesign. I had issues getting the text wrap to work. Finally I found the answer online. To do this type of text wrap you have to make sure you choose the text and the image with the direct selection tool, not the selection tool. Then you change the channel to an Alpha Channel. Sounds easy enough now, but it took me forever! It's funny how little things can trip you up. Click on the image it make bigger/read it.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Website!
My website is finally done! Well mostly,I still need to figure out a way to add a back button on my pages. But for now check it out!
http://academic.evergreen.edu/d/dudgra22/
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Week 6
Week 5 project (personal website) is on hold right now because of some technical difficulties. So instead of holding off I'm going to keep posting as I work out the bugs of my website.
For week 6 I'm posting the work I've been doing at the Career Development Center over this quarter. I build all of the following in Microsoft Publisher. Yeah, you heard me right, publisher! It's been quite a challenge using this program that is not intuitive if you've any other graphic design software. But, I suppose you never know what knowledge you might need down the road.
For week 6 I'm posting the work I've been doing at the Career Development Center over this quarter. I build all of the following in Microsoft Publisher. Yeah, you heard me right, publisher! It's been quite a challenge using this program that is not intuitive if you've any other graphic design software. But, I suppose you never know what knowledge you might need down the road.
Lynda Barry
I decided my next graphic artist profile should be on Lynda Barry because she came to Evergreen a week ago. (which was sold out, grr) I had seen a little bit of her work in my Sequential Narrative class, but thats about all I knew about her.
Well it turns out that she actually went to Evergreen, along with Matt Groening. Apparently Groening published her comic "Ernie Pook's Comeek" in the CPJ. This was exciting to me, because I've had some stuff in the CPJ. (not like it was hard). So after Evergreen she moved to Seattle and was picked up by the Chicago Reader.
Barry has published over five books, one of which, "The Good Times are Killing me" was turned into an off-Broadway musical. Barry often does writing workshops. Barry used to draw her comics with a pen, but began using a paint brush on account of her wrists hurting. I think the brush gives Barry's work a beautifully strange style that reads as more real and emotional.
From her book "What It Is", Barry writes "Paper and Ink have a conjuring abilities of their own. Arrangements of lines and shapes of letters and words on a series of pages make a world we can dwell and travel in." This quote really stuck out to me; I think its because Barry said what I knew was true and had felt before, but never been able to articulate that well.
I really enjoyed reading Lynda Barry's comics and learning about her. The
most important thing that Lynda Barry illuminated for me is to have fun and develop your own style/voice, which is something that I'm working on, though I feel I still need work in that area.
Well it turns out that she actually went to Evergreen, along with Matt Groening. Apparently Groening published her comic "Ernie Pook's Comeek" in the CPJ. This was exciting to me, because I've had some stuff in the CPJ. (not like it was hard). So after Evergreen she moved to Seattle and was picked up by the Chicago Reader.
Barry has published over five books, one of which, "The Good Times are Killing me" was turned into an off-Broadway musical. Barry often does writing workshops. Barry used to draw her comics with a pen, but began using a paint brush on account of her wrists hurting. I think the brush gives Barry's work a beautifully strange style that reads as more real and emotional.
From her book "What It Is", Barry writes "Paper and Ink have a conjuring abilities of their own. Arrangements of lines and shapes of letters and words on a series of pages make a world we can dwell and travel in." This quote really stuck out to me; I think its because Barry said what I knew was true and had felt before, but never been able to articulate that well.
I really enjoyed reading Lynda Barry's comics and learning about her. The
most important thing that Lynda Barry illuminated for me is to have fun and develop your own style/voice, which is something that I'm working on, though I feel I still need work in that area.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Invitation
Week 4
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Chip Kidd
If you asked Chip Kidd what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would have told you, Chris Partridge. But instead he grew up to be a graphic design rock star.
Chip Kidd grew up in Pennsylvania and was presented with the tough decision at a young age, to pick art or music. According to Kidd because he didn't take drugs, art was the clear choice. In high school he was an AV geek but enjoyed doing the graphics for the school's news show. He went to Penn State and was accepted into the obscure new program of Graphic Design. Kidd learned graphic design before the field became dominated by the computers. He said this about his experience:
"As part of the last generation of pre-computer graphic design students, I am deeply grateful I was educated during this time. Not that I don't use the computer now- of course I do, and I give thanks to Apple on a daily basis. But I was schooled to solve problems with my hands as well as my head, and one influenced the other constantly, back and forth."
On that same subject I exclusively used a computer in my first graphic design class. We mostly used photoshop in that class, and I wish we had implemented some more hands on design aspects.
Kidd made some good friends in college, one of which is Barbara deWilde, who later became his colleague at Knopf. After college Kidd moved to the big city of New York to make a name for himself. He had a harder start then he had anticipated but one day met a women named Judith Loeser, an art director at Vintage Books. Kidd was given a freelance job for a self help book called "How to Work for a Jerk". His editors hated his sketches and he was ultimately rejected. But Judith liked them, showed them to Sara Eiseman, an art director at Knopf, and Eiseman offered Kidd a job as her assistant. The rest is history. Kidd has been designing book covers for Knopf for over 20 years.
All my information was taken from the book "Chip Kidd: Book One". I have to say that I loved reading and looking at this book. Kidd's work is smart, creative, and well executed. There were a few things that stuck with me, one of which is how much Kidd encouraged graphic designers to learn type setting. I plan do that in one of my projects this quarter. Another little thing I've been thinking about is how much our canvas influences our design. Kidd said that when he's stuck on a book cover, he sticks with this formula: Photo on top, text on the bottom. I wonder if his formula would change if books were shaped another way? I wonder how I would approach something different if I wasn't using an 8.5 x 11; what if it was a 20x 20?
The last thing that really stuck with me was that Chip Kidd said he doesn't want to have a style. He wants to really dive into the book he's designing and come up with ideas based on the book. Now obviously we will put ourselves into things we design, but I think its really important to have a balance of your own style and what the client wants. Even if you have to use 30 drop shadows and the font papyrus.
Find out more about Chip Kidd here.
Chip Kidd grew up in Pennsylvania and was presented with the tough decision at a young age, to pick art or music. According to Kidd because he didn't take drugs, art was the clear choice. In high school he was an AV geek but enjoyed doing the graphics for the school's news show. He went to Penn State and was accepted into the obscure new program of Graphic Design. Kidd learned graphic design before the field became dominated by the computers. He said this about his experience:
"As part of the last generation of pre-computer graphic design students, I am deeply grateful I was educated during this time. Not that I don't use the computer now- of course I do, and I give thanks to Apple on a daily basis. But I was schooled to solve problems with my hands as well as my head, and one influenced the other constantly, back and forth."
On that same subject I exclusively used a computer in my first graphic design class. We mostly used photoshop in that class, and I wish we had implemented some more hands on design aspects.
Kidd made some good friends in college, one of which is Barbara deWilde, who later became his colleague at Knopf. After college Kidd moved to the big city of New York to make a name for himself. He had a harder start then he had anticipated but one day met a women named Judith Loeser, an art director at Vintage Books. Kidd was given a freelance job for a self help book called "How to Work for a Jerk". His editors hated his sketches and he was ultimately rejected. But Judith liked them, showed them to Sara Eiseman, an art director at Knopf, and Eiseman offered Kidd a job as her assistant. The rest is history. Kidd has been designing book covers for Knopf for over 20 years.
All my information was taken from the book "Chip Kidd: Book One". I have to say that I loved reading and looking at this book. Kidd's work is smart, creative, and well executed. There were a few things that stuck with me, one of which is how much Kidd encouraged graphic designers to learn type setting. I plan do that in one of my projects this quarter. Another little thing I've been thinking about is how much our canvas influences our design. Kidd said that when he's stuck on a book cover, he sticks with this formula: Photo on top, text on the bottom. I wonder if his formula would change if books were shaped another way? I wonder how I would approach something different if I wasn't using an 8.5 x 11; what if it was a 20x 20?
The last thing that really stuck with me was that Chip Kidd said he doesn't want to have a style. He wants to really dive into the book he's designing and come up with ideas based on the book. Now obviously we will put ourselves into things we design, but I think its really important to have a balance of your own style and what the client wants. Even if you have to use 30 drop shadows and the font papyrus.
Find out more about Chip Kidd here.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Auto Pages Flier #4 UPDATE
Ok, here is an updated version of #4. I think I like the green one better, but honestly, Im not happy about either of them. This ad was so tricky, because my boss Ryan wanted the logos be to big and look like there's a lot of them, but also have the text bubbles prominent. 8.5 x11 just is not enough room for all the info he wants. Oh well, there will probably be another update.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Auto Pages Flier #4
This one was a bitch to do. So many logos, so much information for an 8.5 x 11. I used Indesign and Photoshop for all these, and a little illustrator for the text bubble. The entire time designing this ad I hated it. It was so cluttered and gross, but then I added the faded picture of the mountain and it made it a lot better. Strange that adding a big photo to a cluttered ad helped it. I still don't love it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Week 2
It's week two and I still have not finished my illustrations. I want to do two more. One for Bob and one for Yes please. I'll finish these throughout the quarter. For week two I'm doing some advertising fliers for one of my jobs, The Auto Pages. I'm working on two more. I did these in Indesign. Click to make bigger.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Polka Dot Dot Dot- Cherry Blossoms
I've now heard this song at least 20 times, and I still love it. Check out Polka Dot Dot Dot here!
June Madrona- An Early Spring
I really loved doing this one. Click the image to see larger version. Find out more about June Madrona here!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Week 1 Project
For my first week I will do some illustrations using Adobe Illustrator, that were inspired by songs from the bicycle records compilation vol 2. I haven't used Illustrator in years, so this assignment will be to re-familiarize myself with the program, loosen up, and connect with music I love.
Contract Description
For this contract entitled Graphic Arts, Grace will use the text Classroom in a Book: Adobe Photoshop, Classroom in a Book: Adobe Illustrator, and Classroom in a Book: Adobe Indesign, in addition to Creative Sparks: An index of 150+ concepts, images, and exercises to ignite your design ingenuity, by Jim Krause. The student will complete weekly graphic designs or illustrations. Every two weeks she will write a 1-2 page paper on an influential graphic artist. For her midterm she will complete a website for her personal portfolio using HTML and CSS. For her final she will learn flash and use it in her existing website.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Day One
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