Divatee

Vogue Cover

Betty Blakeman Memorial

1.
Name of your company, a short paragraph describing what your company manufactures/sells and the target audience for the product.
My company’s name is Duel. We sell both ipod related merchandise and records. Our store’s target audience is for young adults. Our store is filled with all a lot of musical items musical references.
2.
Review the processes that Jacob Cass went through in designing his logo and Logo Design Secrets (and any other links that you found especially helpful). What parts of these processes did you use in your work. Please explain and be specific.
I made my design simple and I feel that it portrays the essence of my company because the name is duel, which shows that we sell two things. The two things are shown in the word Duel, so I feel it’s simple yet very effective.
3.
Overall, what three important concepts have you learned about logo design? Explain why they are important to your future work?
I learned that your design should be original. A copyrighted design is not interesting and does not work as effective or memorable. I also learned the design should fit the audience the company is trying to target. Logo’s don’t work if they are for adults but have a kid like feel to them. And I also learned that logos are not effective if they can not work small or in black and white.
4.
Review the criteria and the process of designing a logo, please rate your final logo design, 1-4 (4 is the highest). Please explain why your work deserves the rating.
I feel that my design should be a 3.5. My design flows very well and I feel that it fits all the factors that I said above that makes a good design. This includes being original, fits small and black and white, and it fits the designed target audience.

1. What significant changes has your logo gone through? I have tried to design many different logo's. At first I had a logo that looked more along the lines of clip art so then I began on a new design. My first attempt was just the word Duel with the U as headphones then I messed around to make the E musical notes. I also tried making the L a different type of headphone but I didn't like that as much.
   
2. How much more work needs to go into the logo? What more do you need to do? (Please check criteria) A lot of work needs to go into a logo. It's best to have background research on the type of company you're designing a logo for. When designs a logo, the first design you make is probably not the best you can do so changing things up and editing the logo's results in a quality logo. I think I need to play around with my design, maybe make it not as boring.
   
3. What questions do you have? No.
   

Quarter 3 Self Assesment

What are you most proud of? What do you think are your strengths?
I am most proud of my tessellation designs. I feel like I did good on those because I really enjoyed the assignment, so I know that if I focus on something I can really do well. My strengths would be that I can take a hand drawn image and translate it to the computer. Starting projects by hand is easier for me because I like to draw.
What would you like to do better and/or focus upon for Quarter four?
I would really like to try to be more creative and use different skills. Photoshop is still a little difficult for me, so I think it would help my design skills if I understood it.
How will you make this happen?
Instead of being “safe” with my designs I will try new things and not always stick with my gut instinct. I also need to ask more questions when I don’t understand things because otherwise I won’t learn.

Logo Design Tips

1) The logo’s should be original. Having a logo that looks very similar to other logo’s not only hurt them but you. If people see your logo and think of another company or brand then it takes away from it. Make an original and interesting logo.

2)Make sure the designs are simple, having to confusing of designs takes away from it. Having a logo that is to complex is also very hard to remember. For example, the apple and the McDonalds logo are very simple and stick in everyones mind. You want to make sure that the logo you design is simple so you’re company won’t be forgotten about.

3) It’s best if the logo’s are still recognizable when at a small size. If you have a very complex logo it isn’t easy to see it from far away. If you’re driving on the highway and see a McDonald’s sign, you know exactly what it is, but if there is a sign that has a lot of words and isn’t recognizable since you’re so far away that sign is not effective. Make sure the logo you design not only looks good big, but also at a small size.

4) The design should fit the audience that it’s been made for. If the design is made for little kids the logo should be kid friendly and should make them attracted to it. For instance having a boring standard logo to lego’s would not be beneficial, but having a bright fun logo would. You have to make sure that the logo you have attracts the desired audience.

5) Make sure the design portrays the theme or the essence of the company. If you’re company is silly then a cartoon logo would fit best, but if your company is a serious law firm, a cartoon logo wouldn’t be beneficial. Make sure the logo and the company match up.

Pen Tool

Tessellation

1.
Which tessellation did you find more interesting to do? In what ways was it more interesting than the other? Please explain. I really enjoyed doing the second tessellation because it was a mirror image and it looked really interesting. It also allowed you to be really creative and each design you make, even it’s from the same picture, looks different. Also, the triangle designs allowed us to create different designs from our original triangles. What I mean by that is that is by putting the edges together they made another shape.
2.
Look at your peers' work on the ning . Which two designs do you find the most successful? What qualities make them so successful? I really like Adrian’s triangular tessellation because of the colors. She made it so unique that you can’t tell what the original triangle was. I also really like Mariah’s design because even though it’s not colorful, it has a really unique design to it. I liked the flower that her design made in the center and then the random lines else where, it made it really interesting.




Mariah






Adrian

3.
Looking at the Grading Criteria for each design, how would you rate BOTH designs on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the highest? Please explain each grade.
For my first design (rectangle) I think it’s a 4 because I put both time and effort into it. This design had no flaws (edge wise) and it’s not messy, the quality is very good. Also, I like the inside of my animal because I made it so the stars reflected the color opposite, which I thought was a different and unique approach.


















For my second (triangle) design I feel that I also got a 4. This design shows that I understand the assignment and also really paid attention to the triangle I used to make it look interesting. I also spent a lot of time on this assignment, I did many designs because I thought they looked really cool, but this one is my favorite.

What is a tessellation?
The word 'tessera' in latin means a small stone cube. Tessellations are pictures or tiles that are formed to make animals or other life files. These designs cover the entire surface using a symmetrical method.
2.
Write a couple of paragraphs describing the life and work of M.C. Escher. Pick out important facts that describe who he is, how he worked, and why he is famous.
He loved making tessellations and filling the entire page without overlapping the images. Escher was born in Leeuwarden in Holland on June 17th, 1898. He had four brothers and he was the youngest out of them. He spent his highschool years in Arnhem, which is where he was noticed by his art teacher. He then sent some of his work to Roland Holtz, a famous artist, who was impressed and told him to try wood. Escher soon became an architect.
Once at an architect school, his teacher advised him to change courses once she saw his linocuts. His first tessellation drawing was the 8 heads, which was a very interesting piece because you had to turn your head to see all the heads. In 1937, Escher got very helpful advise from his brother, who showed him helpful hints he had read about. By his death, he had created over 137 amazing tesselation designs

How did you improve your designs, based on the feedback that you received from your peers? Please be specific...
The feedback that I got were very similar so I knew exactly what I needed to change. I needed to make my design more richer and distinct, and to do that I just darkened my letters and made it neater.

What three important things did you learn from completing this assignment? Explain why they are important to your learning as a design student?
I learned how to take a different approach to different assignments. I began to do my design on the computer but I felt there were too many restrictions to it and I didn’t like it, so I moved to drawing on paper. I think this improved my design skills because it allowed me to expand my knowledge and try different things.
I also learned how to make a point without being blunt about it. I, myself didn’t do this, but while looking at others’ designs I noticed a lot of them had a meaning that wasn’t straight forward to being with. For example the carbon footprint one I really loved because the background behind google was a big green footprint. Before this I had always made my images so obvious, but this made me see that sometimes going outside the box works better.
One other thing I learned was how to transfer images. While doing my design I found multi images from the internet and printed them then used the light board to trace them therefore becoming my own. This became very helpful when I wanted to draw a perfect palm tree with little time. This is important because design students should know how to use their resources.

Listed below are the criteria for this assignment. Based on the criteria, how successful do you feel your designs are? Please assign each design a number between 1 & 4 (4 is the highest). Justify your decision for each of your designs.

My beach design I felt is a 3.5. I made all my letters noticeably say Google while having it be simple. Since my drawing is done free hand I easily avoided any copyright issues and this allowed it to be very different from my classmates. The only part that I feel I’m lacking is the theme part. I don’t feel like my designs differs from today’s world, but I was trying to get the point across that I wanted the entire world to be sunny and by the ocean indirectly. So I know I didn’t fully over exceed, but I really do like design and I feel that I was almost there.

My other design I also felt was a 3.5. Again, I feel I messed up on the theme. This design does not have a direct theme, it’s just overall what I want for the world: to recycle, allow gay marriages, stop destroying the rainforest, and to have school supplies provided for all children world wide. I couldn’t pick just one theme, so I mixed them all together. But I do feel my design fits the rest of the criteria therefore is right above the meets the standards category.

Type Design

Are you happy/satisfied with your design? What are some of the features that make it so successful? If you are not satisfied, what would you have done differently to make it more successful?
I am satisfied my my design because the color contrast is really nice. I used analogos colors (blue-purple, purple, and purple-red) as the background and tied the letters into that by using complimentary colors to each of the colors on the background.

List some of the tools that you learned and used in this assignment. Which ones did you find the most helpful and in what ways?
I really liked how you just click the apple key and then click on which ever layer you wanted to, that was very helpful for me. I also learned how to warp items, color items, change the texture of items, change the opicity of colors, and more.

With what areas/aspects of Photoshop do you have questions? What activities would help you better understand basic design concepts, along with more Photoshop tools, tips, and tricks?
I would really like to learn how to just do more stuff in general dealing with photoshop. At this point I only know very few things and I know I have a long ways to go. I would also really like to learn the shortcuts to more things.

Pop Art

What is Pop-Art?
Pop art is a form of art that uses visual commodities. This removes the material from it’s context and isolates the object, or combines it with other objects, for contemplation.

Stuart Davis was a famous American painter. He rearranged material into patterns and contrasted their colors- this is called Cubism, which he brought over from Paris. His work often reflected on his personal life and hobbies, including his love for jazz.


Edison Mazda
1924 (160 Kb); Oil on canvas, 24 1/2 x 18 5/8 in; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


This piece is my favorite because I love the colors in it. All the different uses of blue make the piece stand out from all the others. I also really like the setting of the picture because it’s not to complicated. I like simple art and art that is understanding.






Robert Indiana was an American sign painter who showed his strong view on the world through is artwork. He likes to paint about the past and the American Dream. In his painting there is usually a deeper meaning throughout it.


Robert Indiana, The Book of Love 8, 1996

I like this painting because the colors contrast really well. Love is a reoccurring theme in his artwork, but I find this piece to be one of the better ones. The format he has LOVE portrayed in is very eye-catchy.

Logo-Type Design

Positive and Negative Degisn