Architectural Illustration Project in Illustrator

Reversible Destiny Lofts-Mitaka

The building I chose to interpret for the architectural illustration is the “Reversible Destiny Lofts-Mitaka.” The building was built in memory of Helen Keller in Tokyo, Japan in October 2005. The building was designed by Arakawa and Madeline Gins with the idea of prolonging life by the design of the house.

I chose to stick mostly to the colors in the photo by using the pen and eyedropper tool. Some parts were more of my own interpretation, such as making the tree into a black silhouette. I also slightly simplified some of the windowpanes. I chose this building because it had tons of fun and colorful shapes to recreate. I enjoyed this project though it was very challenging for me. I feel like I learned a great deal through this process.

Type Portraits

Though tedious, I really had a great time doing the text portraits. I think out of all the projects we did in this course, this came out the best. I think the photos I chose of myself were really fun expressions to capture. Both the shape and the value portraits were very playful, while the line portrait had a more serious expression. Since I am a fine art student, I really used what I learned about shape, value, and line in my past studio classes. I used my knowledge that less is sometimes more when trying to portray facial features. I went with the idea that sometimes it is better to make marks where the shadows are rather than trying to outline everything. I think this principle really helped me create a great project.

Starbucks Logo Design-Group Project

The Starbucks logo design was done as a group project. Fortunately, our group got along very well. We started out with several ideas, but came to the decision to do a retro look. After doing research on the history of Starbucks and their past logos, we decided to take inspiration from the original logo with the two tiered siren. We did not use that exact image, but instead found a similar image online, where the siren was not topless. We thought this was more appropriate for today's society. We used the image by live-tracing and then doing a great deal of editing to create a sharper image. We stuck to just using "Starbucks" in the logo instead of "Starbucks Coffee" to stick with the philosophy they have about their current logo-that they sell more than just coffee and have created a brand.

Experience New Orleans Project

For this project we were required to do a redesign for the "Experience New Orleans" website. I put a lot of thought into the colors, fonts, and photos I used. I chose bold photos to get the viewer's attention. I chose to use colors selected from the photos I used for the background, navigation buttons, and font colors. I think this gave the homepage a feeling of unity. Since the photos I chose were very bright and bold, I think the website has a very fun feel, which is what New Orleans is all about.

Dreamscape

Project Two: Dreamscape

When I began creating my dreamscape, I began with the intention of symbolizing wisdom. I started out by scanning in some of my own drawings, one of a bearded man and one of a monster, and went from there. The bearded man to me symbolized wisdom, because with old age comes more knowledge and experience. I did some research on imagery and symbolism and realized I could use my eye to represent the “all-seeing eye”, which represents higher knowledge. The owl represents vision and insight. The fact that I have two birds in my piece represents the sense of freedom that comes with age. The apple reminds me of school and therefore knowledge. The earth fits to me because as we get older we become well travelled and care more about our planet. The background was mostly chosen based on color and design preferences. I thought it set a more serious mood and went well with the images I chose. To get my pictures to blend well with my background I did several image adjustments. I enjoyed this project and went for a very surreal feel.

Sketch Magazine Cover Project

For this project, we had to design a magazine cover in Photoshop. I chose to create a magazine using my own artwork instead of a photograph. I built the magazine around my drawing after I scanned it in. I downloaded the fonts and used a shape to put "Fresh Work" on. I also added in the spiral notebook bounding from an image I found online. I also found the dripping barcode online. I really loved this project and was glad I could incorporate my own hand-drawn work into a computer-generated project.