Final Design Time!!!

Well, it's that time of year to start up your final exams. You are going to be using your software skills you have been developing over the semester to design and produce a unique object. The object or "package" should meet a series of goals.
1) It should represent YOU.
2) It presents information about you to a client - in words, colors and in pictures.
3) It involves the client in discovering the information - they must do something to get the message - keeping them involved is important.
4) It should be able to hold a CD of your work from the semester.
5) Everything about it works with the overall theme.

Begin by Brainstorming. What possible designs, objects, packages would you like to make? Possible ideas are: Pop-up Card or Book, Accordion Book, Puzzle, Mystery Box, Organic Shape, Geometric Shape, CD case, Unfolding Poster, Unfolding Shape, Origami, Wearable Object, ETC.

Make sure to follow your handout and to stay on task. There are many important steps and requirements to fill so look at the checklist provided.

Link to check out for creative ideas are:

Drexel University Student Portfolio

www.aiga.org
www.commarts.com
www.jenstark.com
Colin Huggard
Smashing Magazine
Paper Objects search

Image from Hajime Himeno.

CD's Rock! So Design the look of one!

Designers have the power to transform the listening experience into a visual form that best represents what you hear. CD and Record design is a great form of expression where you can listen to song lyrics, bass lines and compositions and develop a package that will hold this information.
Your job is to design the CD's artwork from start to finish. Check out Storm Thorgerson, Rune Mortensen, Tappin Gofton and Jacob Escobedo. Also the sites Inspiredology.com and Smashingmagazine.com have some great examples.

Check out the Handout below.

Creepy Self-Portraits

The Weird and Wild side of Photoshop

45 Strange and Funny Photoshop Manipulations – A weird combination!!

Check out this link for some more inspiration in your designs. Photoshop can give you the opportunity to make technically sound designs as well as visually appealing artwork. Think of different ways to manipulate photographs into new and creative ways. Go HERE!

Image by: Christophe Huet Check out the link to his work HERE.

Surrealist Designs

Surreal:

1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of surrealism; surrealistic.

2.having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic
Surrealism:

A movement in art and literature that flourished in the early twentieth century. Surrealism aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control.

Working in a Surrealist style is a great and fun way to learn new techniques in Photoshop. Surrealist artists create artworks that "propose to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation."
The work that was being produced by these artists had characteristics of dreams and as if the work was held in a dreamlike state. The artists were strongly influenced by Freud's dream analysis and the hidden unconscious.

Photoshop allows the designer to juxtapose images in a way that challenge the perceptions of reality. Let your mind wonder through a series of images and create a surrealist dreamlike scene.

Check out the site Graphic Mania for some inspirtation. You can get to cool Surrealist Photoshop works HERE.

Take a look at the Handout for Guidelines: