Final Portfolio Design Pages

I moved my reviews to a different page and played around with some spacing that differs from my original sketches.  I'm not thrilled with the In the News page or really the home page since it looks kind of bare but I really like how the rest turned out.  Let me know what you think!


Home page:

Posters page:

Book Covers page:

E-cards page:

About Me pages:

Contact page:

In the News page:

Portfolio Web Design Sketches

Above are the sketches for my web design.  I have chosen to design a hypothetical portfolio for myself.  I created a home page with links across the header for the different varieties of project we've put together which include posters, e-cards, and book covers.  While I will post my original works under those headings, I will likely have to borrow place holders for the other grid blocks shown above as I honestly only have one example for each at the moment.  Additionally, I have a sidebar containing links to an "About Me" tab, an "Contact" tab, and an "In the News" tab.  The "About Me" is fairly plan with just a picture of me along with some text.  The "Contact Me" page will have the usual fields for an email template, but next to it will be a list of "reviews" from people who have viewed or used my work before to help promote me.  The "In The News" tab will direct viewers to links where I've been mentioned in the news or in magazines along with thumbnails from the articles to showcase my professional network and acclaim.  All of the content-based pages that show the images I have created will be set up the same way, with a grid along the top and, when an image is clicked, a larger version of it will appear below the grid line.  Arrow keys on both sides of the larger image will allow viewers to scan through the enlarged images from that view.  I haven't really decided what colors or themes I will have the background images be yet, but I have a general idea of where I want everything.  I want it to be fairly straight-laced and easy to get through, but with a little flourish to the designs.  Based off of this module's Lynda.com tutorial, I have some ideas for things like the buttons and presentation of the images, however I plan to basically use trial and error to decide what I like the look of for my site.

Final E-Card

I had to move the front cover around a little bit from my original sketch due to the picture I found.  The font is a bit hard to read, but with the parameters so small it was hard to make it bigger because it would throw off all the spacing I decided on.  Let me know what you think!

Back of E-Card

I, like some others, didn't quite understand the 3-sectioned e-card so I have added a sketch of what will now be my back cover here:

Since my card is about ways to help heal our Earth, my back cover will have a title of "Ways to Help" or "Ways to Heal" (haven't decided which one yet.)  There will be individual squares that will show pictures of ways people can help cut down on air pollution with text above them explaining what each image is representing.  I think it would make the most sense to have a pale green background with maybe a tinge of brown in a gradient effect behind the text and boxes as the color scheme.

Environmental E-Card Sketch

Here is my e-card sketch:

  The point of the card is to have the Earth appear as a sick child to "Mother Nature" which is the female figure holding the planet on in the first sketch.  If I can find a sufficient image, I would like the Earth to appear to be swaddled like a baby.  They may be a bit hard to see, but I put a couple of small cars and smoke stacks on the Earth's surface that are all producing smoke.  Color wise, I would like the Earth to appear as very dull and darkened as if it were ill.  The background of the image I would like to be space with other planets operating as they typically do behind the mother while the mother tries to tend to her sickest "child."  I would like the other colors of the background to be brighter and graphic so as to accentuate the contrast between the Earth's status and their's.  The message, "Mother Nature shouldn't be the only one nurturing the Earth," is meant to convey that we all have to play a part in preventing pollution from harming our planet.  We can't just rely on nature to regulate itself anymore. On the inside, I have a statistic that I found here:  http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/why-clean-cars/global-warming/ that pertains to air pollution caused by vehicle emissions to tie in the smoke-making items on the Earth.  And finally, a call to action with, "What Can You Do to Help Heal Our Sick Planet" on the other side.  I also want to have a fairly non-opaque image of a bike, maybe on a lawn in the background implying that biking may be something people could do to help cut down on air pollution. I haven't yet decided on font, but I know that I don't want it to be as typewriter-ly as my awareness poster text was this time.  Nothing too terribly bold either as I don't want to scare viewers too much..  Let me know what you think!

Clapton Book Cover

I highly recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge it and get a better look!

Clapton Book Cover Sketch

So, I don't really know of any folk, jazz, or classical musicians well enough to create art about them, so I went a more bluesy route and went with a musician I've been back into listening to a lot lately: Eric Clapton.  My book cover design so far is:

 The front cover will be the right side.  What I'd like to do is take a straight on photo of Clapton playing the guitar.  I'd like to crop it so just enough of his face is showing so people can kinda of tell it's him, but not show his whole face.  I really want the focus to be more on the guitar because that's what he's known for.  The title of the book will be curved along the inside of the bottom of the guitar.  I'm hoping to find a slightly psychedelic/curvy font that will still look fancy and not too childish. The background will be littered with mostly transparent words that are actually some of his most popular song titles.  Not all of them will be showing completely as I want it to look like I layered Clapton's image over-top of them, not that I'm bordering his image with the words afterward (if that makes any sense).  My name (/author's name) will be towards the bottom left corner, though I'm not certain on the type of font or size of it yet.

The bookend will simply be the title in the font I find for the title on the guitar and my last name towards the bottom as most books tend to be designed.

At the top of the back cover, (ideally) I'd like to try to re-create this image without the woman and her dog:

I may end up using this image itself though because I want it to look like a snapshot of his "fandom" in action and I think this image does that.  I'd like to try doing it myself though for some more Photoshop experience.
 Below that I'd do a little write up on him: awards he's won, bands he's been in, the sorts of things authors try to entice people with on the backs of books.  Again, the song titles will be along the background.

As for a color scheme, I think I see the front being a warm, dark beige and some red.  Kind of muted/hazy, but a little funky.  Given that, the "Clapton Is God" sign will have to become more sepia toned to fit in with the rest of the cover.  Those colors are certainly subject to change, however.  Let me know what you think!

Proj. 2 - Eating Disorder Awareness Poster

Here is the final version of my eating disorder awareness poster.  Basically, I kept most everything to my original sketch except that I added some statistics/contact info per the advice of one of our classmates.  I also was unable to work in the zipper that I wanted to have on the daughter's mouth.  The background image of the family eating was just not oriented to make that doable.  I tried and, after resizing the zipper to fit her mouth, you couldn't even tell what it was on her face.  Honestly I think it turned out better than I thought it would!  Let me know what you think!

Awareness Poster Sketches - Eating Disorder Awareness

Though National Eating Disorder Awareness Week actually ends today, it made me think about making an eating disorder awareness poster.  Originally, I was planning to do my poster on animal rights and rescues, but after looking over some other awareness posters, I got this new idea.  Eating disorders, unfortunately, hit very close to home in my life and I think that's why I thought I'd have some insight to share in portraying it through a poster.

Some of the writing may be a little hard to read, but I'll explain it here.

The image is meant to be of a family at dinner with a father, mother, son and daughter.  On the table are plates in front of everyone and multiple bowls of food to be served like salad, mashed potatoes, peas, meat and whatnot.  Everyone has food on their plate except the daughter.  Additionally, there are thought bubbles above everyone's heads.  For everyone but the daughter, I wanted to have foods they like in the shape of a heart (like the image below) in the thought bubble to show how they are all thinking about how much they enjoy the food they are about to eat: 

In the daughter's thought bubble, I want the image to be of a scale.  It's hard to see in my sketch, but I'd like to put something like a closed zipper over where her mouth would be.  I'd also like her dressed in a big, baggy sweatshirt like she's trying to hide her body.  This is meant to show that she's trying to stop herself from partaking in the meal everyone else is enjoying because all she can think about are the pounds she could gain from eating it.

The caption I have now, but may play with reads, "Because the only weight on your mind should be what course to start with."  This is meant to be the main message but also a play on "weight."  She has the physical pounds kind of weight on her mind already, but I'd also be using a different meaning of "weight" as in having something "weigh on your mind."  The purpose of the message is that we should all be able to love and enjoy food responsibly without being burdened by thoughts of getting "fat."  At the bottom of the image, I'd like the NEDA name and information.

Brand New - "Placebo Effect" Album Poster

Hello again, everyone.  Below is my submission for Project One.  In my previous blog post I explained the reasons why I picked the items that I did.  I decided against including some things like the oxygen tank or the X in the face's eyes simply because the tank would have added one thing too many and the X just didn't look right.  This was quite an experience to try to get through!  I can't wait to compare trials and errors with the rest of the class.

PhotoMontage Sketch

So this is my first foray into sketching and I thought it actually didn't go as badly as I anticipated.  I worked on trying to come up with a good band name but, despite so many times when I've thought, "Man, that would be a great band name," none came to mind.  For now, I chose the band I was going to base my fictional one off of, Brand New.  I came up with a fake album name which is "Placebo Effect," although that's a little hard to read in my sketch.  So here's the image of it and I'll try to explain the elements below it:

Ok, so I sort of took the idea of a placebo effect being your brains way of tricking you into believing a medicine is working even if it isn't actually the real medicine to tie into the effect that prescription pills can have on a person's mind.  First of all, the little X marks are meant to be stars signifying that the background is supposed to look like outer space ("spaced out.")  In the top left corner is a clock face with the hands winding around it and looping around themselves to signify a loss of sense of time.  I drew a larger circle around my original one because I'd like it to be a bit bigger. Towards the bottom of that side, I have an electric clock showing infinity signs instead of numbers to drive home the loss of control of time yet again. 

In the right corner is the sun.  I put little squiggles coming out of it to represent that I would like it to have a glow coming from it.  In the middle of sun is what's supposed to be like an oven with iron bars across the front and flames inside it.  This is meant to represent a warped understanding of basic knowledge caused by psychosis because the sun is not powered by an internal oven like that, but the person can't grasp that idea.

I have an oxygen tank floating around in the background.  I'm not sure if I want to keep that or not.  That's supposed to be a reminder of a hospital-like atmosphere.  Like the person may be in his own mental world, but there are still random reminders of where he really is. Below the tank and the electric clock is supposed to be a swan with a black face, but a white body.  If I can't make that work, I'll just let it be a black swan.  I tend to think of white swans as being symbolic of innocence and grace, so a black swan tends to offset that ideal.  Just look at Swan Lake!  Next to that are traditional looking pills floating through the space toward a figure's mouth.  The figure I have is the face in the background.  I have envisioned it as being the profile of a male statue's face that will cover about half of the poster, but other things will be layered over it and it will be on the more transparent side in terms of opacity.  Right now, I have an X in the one visible eye, but again I'm not sure if I'll keep that.

As for the text, I would like the band name to be in big, black block letters and be pretty imposing a little bit above center and diagonal.  The album name will be on the same diagonal but way down in the bottom right corner.  I would like that font to be kind of shaky or squiggly-looking to represent being out-of-sorts as a result of a medication.

Right now, the whole thing appears rather busy, but with the size requirements we were given, I should be able to space things out a little more; I just forgot to honor the dimensions of the poster in my sketch.  That's certainly something I'll try to remember to do next time.  I'm also not sure how much of this I'll actually be able to do , but I'll give it my best shot!