Magazine Advertisement
My design for the Sawdust Art Festival magazine advertisement represents the project’s details for many reasons. To begin, I drew inspiration from trees because they are an art form within nature. Like the different forms of art, they are always growing. Plus this festival is seems to be mostly, if not entirely, outdoors, where the beautiful trees are. The brown and faint green I chose came from using the eyedropper tool with a picture of trees. I gave the advertisement a radial gradient because I like the vignette-like effect of it better; I added a radial Gradient Feather to match it. And the tree picture I used works well as the graphic because it is simple but artistic. Since this is an arts festival, I felt the Harrington font for “The 46th Annual Sawdust Art Festival” was appropriate. But I found the Sylfaen font to be a nice contrast, as seen with the “text on a curve”. And I chose a third font, Vijaya, only to emphasize the “informative narrative” section of the ad. The most difficult part of this assignment was getting the “text on a curve” exactly how I wanted it, especially with the differences between the fonts. This was also a good learning experience because I took my time with the task, and now I feel I have better control with this. I also utilized Photoshop skills in reshaping the paintbrush image; I cut off its background, added it to the document and resize the paintbrushes for the poster.
Calendar
I am proud of my flexible design for this calendar project. I kept the same 50% gradient because I thought the colors were a good pair, and it challenged me to select pictures that would look nice with it. Another reason why I chose to create a gradient was because it turned out to be a complimentary “background” for the numbers and their rows/columns. I decided it would be too busy if I had given the numbers their own background color. In addition to how well the pictures matched the gradient, I also chose these pictures because their backgrounds provided a good area to place text (and they are three of my favorite kinds of animals). Of the four fonts I used, I really liked how the MV Boli font was playful for the “fun facts” and the Kalinga font looked professional and clean for the coupons. I did my best with trying the skills of the master page, but I had some difficulty. I made a single master page, which did reflect on all the pages. But I was unsure how to replace each month’s calendar; such as, if I made a new one in Excel, I didn’t think the master page would place them in the same area or use the same font. Instead, I typed in April and May’s correct dates, just to be safe. And the directions were a little confusing because the Art Director called for four coupons, but the Client called for three. I did four, just-in-case, and had fun with “making up” the businesses.
Menu
I am pleased with the layout I created for this menu project. I was especially happy to see how well it turned out when I printed it in black and white because this would be the client’s preferred method of printing. I think font selection was one of the most important decisions for this project, as both an artistic and practical choice. For this project, I challenged myself to try new fonts that I haven’t often used. I used Eras Demi ITC for the menu’s front page address, and kept strong continuity by using it for the header of each food section. Choosing MoolBoran with a 12-point leading helped me make each food item’s description compact but easy-to-read. I felt this restaurant would take a classic but slightly modern approach with the Hollywood theme based on its logo; this is why I decided on ATC Oak for each food item’s title, in addition to how its italic slant makes the famous names stand out nicely. The clean and simple color scheme works well since this client would print more in black and white. But my subtle design choices strengthen the menu’s classic theme, such as the 4-point stroke for the menu’s black borders and the diamond pattern to separate the menu sections. And I chose Frank Sinatra because his acting and singing career is one of my classic Hollywood favorites. The restaurant seems to serve fresh and wholesome meals, making my sandwich “creation” a nice addition to the menu.