art
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introduction to graphic design eric
oum
table of content about me
Hey everyone! My name is Eric Oum and I am a student majoring in graphic design here at Castate Dominguez Hills. The reason I chose this route in art is because I love the idea of turning rough ideas and illustrations into a design that is clean clear, and organized. Drawing and sketching is a great passion of mine, but I develop drawings further by transitioning these concept arts digitally. There is a sense of freedom with ease as I am able to scale my art larger or smaller; being able to quickly change the color pallette of a design has its advantages, and being able to learn computer programs and applications to tackle these concepts efficiently and effectively is just rewarding overall. When it comes down to it, the reason I became a graphic designer is because I believe I have the ability to evoke emotions through my designs. Not only can I evoke emotions, I am able to persuade, influence, affect, communicate, and connect my ideas to a world that grasps information visually. This is why I love the world of graphic design.
01 the elements of design the elements of design part two 02 invent, design, advertise 03 04 chair & text 05 eco-friendly, ecocleen 06 grid part one 07 grid part two
01
design problem the elements of design This assignment allow students to develop their sense of design elements visually. By venturing out into the world, we needed to capture, with our cameras, visual examples of the design elements: line, shape, texture, space, size, and value. Personally, what made this assignment challenging is that Professor Romero asked us to capture specific qualities within each of the elements. For example, under the element of line, we needed to find examples of a straight, curving, angular, horizontal, and vertical line. Though it may sound like an easy task, it required a good sense of understanding the composition of a shot taken. As a graphic designer, being able to show skills and understanding of the composition in photography, it translates to how effective and efficient your compositions are in the digital world of design. I believe I showed a great understanding of the assignment because within each example, I included an assortment of images that met the criteria, but also showed my knowledge and understanding of design from the collection of diverse compositions, color, angles, and texture within each element of design.
Line was the easiest of the elements to photograph. The hard part was actually narrowing down all of the images of line to five very distinct and obvious examples of line.
I had a lot of fun with shapes. Showing examples of geometric and organic shapes opened my eyes to how beautiful the world can be.
When I took photographs of texture, I really wanted to portray the “texture” aspect of the images. In doing so, I chose images that when people see them, they can also feel them, so to speak.
The element of space was a bit tricky in the aspect of showing space in advertisement. Overall, I believe I showed clear concepts of space through the contrast of visual elements versus the typographic elements, like in the first two examples from the left.
The element of size was a no brainer, however, showing size creatively made it challenging.
My favorite element of art was the most challenging overall. I did not just want to show value, but I also wanted to express how vividly beautiful it can be to see the same objects monochromatically.
02
design problem the elements of design
part 2
The purpose for this assignment was for us to explore the basic graphic design concepts that we learned during lecture. By introducing the elements: balance, emphasis, rhythm, unity, and contrast, we are to use 5-inch squared newspaper cutouts to accompany the texts given to us by our instructor. In a visual way, we are to create an imagery that encompasses the text given, and empowering it with ten newspaper cutouts that we provided. This assignment was very fun and interesting because the instructor did not give any limitations as to how I can produce the outcome. I am only conformed to the 5-inch squared radius, but that was more than enough real estate for a graphic designer to work in their creativity and imagination.
the beginning process Cutting out 5-inch squares of the newspaper was the fun part. After that, rearranging these images took time and patience; I really had to look at the elements of design and control what I see. For instance, paying attention to the gutters between bodies of texts and understanding that it is a shape really helped develop my understanding of the assignment. Overall, it was just a matter of flipping the squares up-side down and paying attention to geometric shapes and patterns that would reveal to me the hard-to-see potential design elements.
Using the typographic knowledge that I have learned this semester, I worked with the space that was given to me within each square. Some images were easier to work with compared to others, but overall I managed to use typography in a powerful way that related to the images from the newspaper cutouts. My favorite cutout from the series would have to be the image of the pope with texts, “I need never get old.” Fading the text from top to bottom represented life, or rebirth if you will. that instead of deterioration, theres preservation. Instead of decay, theres growth. Instead of death, there is life.
consistency is key Staying consistent within a design is absolutely fundamental. This project needed to show consistency, and most importantly, cohesiveness as well. To do so, I converted all ten images to grayscale. In doing so, I had much more freedom to do as I please with the textual aspect of this project. It was a matter of balancing information, emphasizing key words or phrases, creating rhythm from one image to the other, unifying ideas and concepts between the squares, and creating enough contrast to tie in the concept.
balance emphasis rhythm
unity contrast
typography
concept drawings
03
design problem invent, design, advertise For this assignment, we are given the chance to use our graphic design abilities in an engineering approach. We have been given the opportunity to design an advertisement for a product that we have invented. This invention must solve a common, everyday problem. Along with inventing the product, and designing the advertisement, we also needed to build a prototype. This assignment tested our abilities to think critically, design carefully, and helped us brush up on our argumentative and persuasive skills.
Right from the beginning, I already knew what idea I wanted to develop; being the owner of a smartwatch, Moto 360, I wanted to solve the problems that many consumers are facing with in this type of market. The main issues with smartwatches are that they do not have a long battery life, gimmicky, and not as convenient as one may believe it to be. Smartwatches are really nice to have, but I wanted to develop the idea that they can become an everyday essential for society. My product, “smarterwatch”, will solve the current issues within the market by working off of a memory chip; This memory chip is the life of my product. It comes in 4 different storage capacities, it is the life of the watch unit, and they are priced conveniently for different lifestyles. Each memory chip will be useful to the most basic of users, to the technical enthusiasts; The Smarterwatch is for everyone.
an everyday essential
I initially started with a rough sketch based on the smartwatch I wore; I wanted my product to be simple but elegant. With that in mind, I borrowed the circle shape seen on traditional watches instead of going the squared route that is seen on most of the smartwatches in the market today. What distinguishes my design from the competition, is that consumers are able to purchase the watch unit alone, and purchase separate memory chips to fit their needs. These memory chips are priced based on the size of the storage and the battery life of the chip. Within my sketches, I included the pricing and a detailed listing for important aspects of the watch and the components attached to the unit.
Overall, this assignment was fun for me personally because I get to pretend that my product is really out in the consumeristic world, and that my ideas and concepts are brought to life from my designs and advertisements.
the Smarterwatch concept • interchangeable memory chips • charging dock • four chips, four lifestyles
Moving onto the digital drafts, I stuck with exactly what I sketched for the element of grouping. To distinguish the different memory chips, I used color and for the watch, I gave it a reflection to instill a sort of sophistication. The font I chose for the composition was Bodoni because this serif font looked beautiful and classy.
Once I received the okay from the professor, I needed to design detailed sketches for what the advertisement would look like. In one composition, I decided to show off the specifics of my product; by using the element of grouping; the consumer is able to see the watch unit, the memory chips, and discreet detailed information regarding the components and accesories.
In this composition, I used emphasis to sell my product; I placed the watch unit dead center with it being the largest design on the advertisement. This design boasted uniqueness, luxury, and elegance. Towards the bottom of the composition. Also, I added notes to how the lightning of the composition would set up to really push the design aspect of emphasis.
Working with the element of emphasis, I chose to really exaggerate this aspect by only showing the watch unit and upscaled it to be the only object on the page. I also included the logo, and incorporated a tag line for the product. I understood that the advertisement really isn’t showing much information about the product, but I wanted to follow the design aspects seen in many other traditional watch advertisements.
concept ads
digital drafts
Working more in depth on the advertisement aspect of this assignment, I narrowed it down to two final compositions. This design focuses on envy and what the user may look and feel like when wearing this product. Though it was one of my better designs, it does not attract the essential purpose of my product which is to incorporate the four types of lifestyles.
It all came down to this design. Originally, it was on a white background but something about the black really intensifies the product being displayed. The black backdrop also made the text pop extremely well, and with a little work with global lightning on the watch unit, I was able to exaggerate the aspect of emphasis by controlling the harsh light to capture a sense of sophistication of the watch.
04
design problem chair & text This assignment challenged me as a designer by limiting me to only one image to work with. To make things a little more complicated, we need to include a specific body of text given to us by our professor. Although it may seem that I am limited in the items that I have to work with, in the end, there is a great sense of cohesiveness and connection between each design. Working with an image of a chair, we had to distinguish specific elements of designs. They are; symmetrical balance, Asymmetrical balance, contrast, focal point, unity, and rhythm.
“A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs often have the seat raised above floor level, supported by four legs. However, a chair can have three legs (in a triangle shape) or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications.”
This composition reflects symmetrical balance. This is a very simple design and my interpretation of symmetry is clearly shown by the separation of a vertical guide straight down the center of the composition.
To show an asymmetrical composition, I worked with a horizontal line dividing the body of text from the image. I believe I succeeded in showing an assymetrical balance because the heaviness of the word “chair” balances out the weight of the image.
For the element, contrast, I decided to invert the color of text on top of a black backdrop. There is no contrast greater than black and white, especially in a design such as this. Furthermore, to show another type of contrast, I divided the image into an upper and lower segment. With the text separating the images, viewers can clearly see the contrast between the images.
I needed to show emphasis within this composition, and what better way to show emphasis than to spell out chair in big black and bold letters. However, I also needed to fit in the body of text, so I masked the body of texts behind the word chair creating a higher demonstration of emphasis.
Out of the six composition, this was my favorite. The element I needed to convey was rhythm and I believe I achieved rhythm by duplicating and scaling the chairs in a snake fashion. I also decrease opacity of the chairs to show a bit of depth.
Lastly, this composition showed unity. I divided both the image and the body of text in horizontal panels. I believe this is a clever way to show unity because veiwers can easily distinguish which elements of the design belongs with which.
05
design problem eco-friendly, ecocleen For this assignment, I was given a logo and a color palette. With these in mind, I was given the task to design an eco-friendly packaging for the laundry product, “ecocleen”. I was limited to only the logo and color palette, but as far as packaging goes, I get to choose the size and also choose whether my product will come in powder, liquid, or pods. I needed to provide research for the laundry market, and focus in on visual elements to attract potential buyers within this eco-friendly market.
First and foremost, I needed to conduct research about marketing detergent as well as knowing a little about marketing within the eco-friendly sphere of detergent products. To do so, I went into a Rite Aid store and took photographs of many different detergents. Keeping the design aspect in mind, I focused in on what sets other detergent apart from one another. When it comes down to it, color and typography are emphasized considerably. For example, Oxi-Clean, Tide, and Purex have type that is the largest element on the packaging. Everything else is almost non-existent unless you physically pick up the detergent to read the the fine smaller print. Color sells the products all on its own; while taking photographs I witnessed people grabbing what the need and leave all in a matter of seconds, which causes me to believe that color is one of the only real element people depend on. With this in mind, I knew what I wanted to do with my packaging; make my product unique and bold.
This first concept sketch of the packaging for this assignment was really a test to see how I can play with the color palette I was given. Overall, I already knew that I wanted to use a packaging that uses recycled paper for the structure. Here I showed information that would usually be seen on other laundry detergents.
Here is another composition for this assignment. I showed a little more color in the type and played with color within the logo as well.
For this project, the detergent will be incased within a box the box measures approximately 5 x 3 x 2 1/2. the detergent will be a powder based pod, 18 individually wrapped. Front top flap on package
sides for information
EcoCleen
CAUTION: May irritate eyes. Do not get in eyes, Do not reuse this package for dispensing beverages or other liquids.
sides for information
10 Pods
KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN
CAUTION: EYE IRRITANT, HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED. SEE SIDE LABEL.
Front for package design
Bottom of package
ART 344-31
2158 - 41071
Safe with white Safe with color 5x Concentrated
Sun Purex ecocleen
Back of package
Back top flap of package Rough Sketch and placement for Design This is a digital rough showing the sides of the packaging and an initial layout for my product.
On the left, is the final digital composition for the packaging. I needed to see if the colors would look good together and I believe I achieved a sense of balance within the design. The final design to the right contains a recycled paper texture with the package design overlay. The vibrancy of the color looks amazing and I am quiet proud of the overall look and feel of this assignment.
06
design problem grid part one To end the semester, I was given a two-part assignment dealing with grids. This assignment focuses on the organization of elements within a design or composition. With the knowledge I have from a typography course that has dealt with grids more in depth, I was able to show my understanding of the underlying structures and guides we needed to use to organize information efficiently and creatively.
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The professor provided bodies of texts for us to use for this grid assignment. The instructions were very clear and very exact, so there was no room to show creativity. I do believe that although being creative and showing your understanding of an assignment is important, it is just as important and crucial to follow directions.
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07
At Globe Bank International,
design problem grid part two
we truly believe there’s no place like home. So why settle on a house, or rush into the wrong mortgage that won’t meet your needs? Our experienced mortgage bankers will help you find the mortgage that works for you, while you focus on finding the house you can happily call home. Banking with us is like having the world in your hands…
Our Mission:
Provide the most extraordinary banking experience that inspires sound investment, balanced by healthy savings, for a more secure and empowering financial future.
Part one of this assignment asked me to follow strict directions, but part two tested me to see if I knew how to organize information in a professional sense. Using the attached files given to by the professor, I needed to create a simple layout in InDesign for a one-sided, three panel brochure.
Globe Bank International 38889 19th Street NW Washington D.C., 20006 202.992.0000 mortgage@globebank.net
The front panel was the easiest to lay out. The only issue I had with this panel was deciding if I wanted to include the address on the front cover or not. Originally, it was on the second panel to fill in the empty space near the bottom of the composition, but I believe it was convenient and accessible having this information on the front panel. Plus it looks professional.
The second panel is the informative part of the brochure. However, I decided to turn it up a notch and spread the information across the second and third panel. In doing so, it builds a relationship between the textual element with the visual image of an accountant ready to help. I think that the way I laid out the information is easy on the eyes, as well as professionally structured and easy to understand.