GRAPHIC Articles
Bamboo Creates Abstract Photoshop
Graphic Designers Carlos Segura David Arey
CONTENT
04Carlos Segura
Graphic Designer
06 Bamboo Creates Article
08 Abstract Collage
Photoshop Tutorials
14 David Arey
Graphic Designer
Carlos Segura
4
Founder of the Chicagobased design firm Segura Inc., came to the United States from Cuba at the age of nine. He began his career in graphic design as a production artist but soon gained more interesting challenges. He moved to Chicago in 1980 and worked for many prestigious ad agencies, including BBDO, Marsteller, Foote Cone & Belding, Young & Rubicam, Ketchum, and DDB Needham. In 1991 he founded Segura Inc. to pursue design more creatively with the goal of blending as much "fine art" into "commercial art" as he could.
Segura Inc. Segura Inc was the beginning of a series of commercial ventures that expanded Carlos Segura's creative efforts. In 1994, the T26 Digital Type Foundry was born to explore the typographical side of the business. T26 fonts are now distributed throughout the world. Segura Inc. and T26 have received numerous awards from organizations around the world, including the Tokyo Type Directors Club, The Society of Typographic Arts, both the New York Art Directors Club and the New York Type Directors Club, and the American Center for Design. Segura's work has been shown in many journals including Graphis, Print magazine, HOW, and publications by PIE Books, North Light Books, Duncan Baird Publishing, F&W Publications, Rockport Publishers, Die Gestalten Verlag Publishing and others. His work has been shown in exhibits from the Denver Art Museum to Tokyo Japan. In 2001, He again ven-
In 2004, Segura was
tured into a new category
named 1 of the 21st
by starting 5inch, and in
Century's 100 best
2004, launched Cartype
designers. Design
with further expansions of the typographical segment with Biketype, Mototype and Trucktype.
For The 21st Century (100 of the World's Best Graphic Designers) 2003 annual. Taschen Publishers. 4 projects published).
Bamboo Creates
C
reate your world. Here’s a Bamboo that is just right for those with artistic interests! With its larger digital canvas, Bamboo Create is great for all types of digital art projects, including sketching, illustrating and digital painting. Inspire. Create. Imagine. Bamboo Create opens up a new world for digital art and photo projects. With twice the workspace of other Bamboo tablets, Bamboo Create gives you plenty of space to express yourself, enabling broad brushstrokes or arm movements. Let your imagination soar as you freely and naturally draw, paint, doodle and sketch in your favorite software.
Inspire. Create. Imagine.
6
Bamboo Create is perfect for art projects that require a larger digital canvas. Turn digital images into special moments. Use the pen to add hand-drawn embellishments or journaling to your projects and photos.
Testimonies Create unique, personal invitations, greeting cards and photo books to print and share digitally with friends and family.
Al Jollimore
Keegan Phillips I love my Create tablet.
Had mine for almost a year. Twice I had to reboot my pc to get it going an+d I am half way through my second nib. I use it almost daily. I thought the connection at the tablet end looked a bit dodgy so I added a little foam and tape around it. The tablet and pen have both survived a couple drops. It works perfectly. Out of the bundled software I like Autodesk's Sketchbook the best, bought the $29 upgrade to Sketchbook Pro. Even better. Thank you Wacom and Autodesk, good stuff, I'd buy another in a second.
I got it a year ago, set it aside for awhile, but then started testing it out...and I was extremely satisfied! It is very user-friendly, in
my
opinion,
everything
is
and
working
properly. I really appreciate being able to adjust the pressure
sensitivity,
and I was very satisfied with
the
accompanying
programs considering the considerably
low
price
of the complete package. I highly recommend this product to others looking to purchase a drawing tablet at an affordable price!
Create an abstract collage effect
In this tutorial I’ll explain how to create a stunning piece of artwork using found natural elements and hidden shapes within objects. By creating a story within your work, you can really bring your artwork to life – the theme for this piece is ‘be free’.
8
When you get yourself out into a natural environment and photograph found objects, you’ll discover inspirational shapes and textures everywhere. I’ll talk you through how to warp and abstract these images to bring your artwork to life.
Steps 01 The first step is to source images from your local surroundings. Hunt out textures and interesting visuals – in this particular design I’ve included natural elements. These will form the key focal point in the final collage. Look out for unusual and abstract shapes that you think will work well in your design.
02 Take your images and cut them out in Photoshop using the Pen tool, with feather settings at 0. My cut-outs can be found in the support files if you prefer to use them.
03 Add a coloured circle (mine is yellow): this will act as a guide for the core shape of your artwork. You can now begin adding in elements to your collage by selecting the clouds and dancers from your disc and placing them on your art board. Use the Transform tool to play about with the size of your images.
04
Start selecting interesting shapes and contours to use in your collage. Look for contrasting textures I’ve used sharp edges as well as the soft curve highlighted in sections 2 and 4 of my bin bag image.
10
05 Cut out your chosen sections and position them on your art board. I’ve also added sections of purple cloth, which can be found on your disc, to build up my design. At this stage, experiment with the shapes in your collage and try out different arrangements to create the effect you want
within your image. 06 Now sharpen the colour contrasts of the dancer figures. Firstly adjust the saturation to -83 and then change the levels to 25 black, 0.48 grey and 223 white. The white output levels need to be set at 213. 07 Select the tree stump from the support files and place it onto your art board. Use the Warp Transform function on this image and adjust its levels to help the
object blend into the collage effectively. You can duplicate as many of these as you want. 08 Place the purple vectors from the support files onto your design, and use the Transform tool to decide how big you want them to be. Keep in mind that you want the focus to be on the natural elements, so don’t overuse these vector shapes.
09
Next, begin to cut the tree stump out. Adjust the levels of this to 40 black, 0.50 grey and 225 white. The white output level needs to be at 124. Once this is done, place the stump onto the back layer of your image. When you’ve added in these various elements, you can begin to bring the piece to life. You want to create the impression of movement and organic life by wrapping the warped tree stumps around the arms and faces of the dancers
12
10 Continue to build up your design with different items – I’ve included doves, a large warped log, gold fabric and spots on your disc. At this stage, you also want to consider your background. I changed the background colour to a light grey and darkened it in areas by applying a deeper shade of grey with a soft brush tool.
11
Now to add a sense of dimension to the piece by adding a shadow effect. Begin by mapping out the areas where you think a shadow would naturally fall. I tend to look out for curves and sharp edges as indications of where the shadows should go. You can insert red circles to act as a guide to where you will be placing your shadows. I set the opacity to 78% so that I could still see through to the artwork underneath. 12 Once you’ve mapped out where they should go, you can begin to cast your shadows. To create the shadows, select the soft brush tool and set the master diameter to 90px, the hardness to 0%, the blend mode to Multiply and the opacity to 69%. 14 Add the finishing touches to your artwork by bringing in more natural imagery – I’ve chosen some leaves. Use the Duplicate command to place these throughout the design. Feel free to adjust the sizes and colours to help blend these into your image. I’ve also put in some white highlights behind the doves to create a soft glow and really accentuate the sense of movement.
David Arey Graphic designer and occasional author who specializes in designing brand identities. People hire me because I help make their businesses more profitable. Companies I’ve worked with include: Yellow Pages (Canada), Giacom (England), Asian Development Bank (Philippines), and Berthier Associates (Japan).
S
elf-employed since 2005, my business is successful because it’s less about me, and more about my clients; about the direction
their
companies
are heading and about the success they will achieve. The ideas I create don’t just ensure my clients stand-out, they also provide timeless visual expressions that enable clients to engage and connect with their own customers more effectively than ever before.
14
The people I work with are often kind enough to offer testimonials. I’ve gained experience in both the United Kingdom and the United States and you’ll now find me in my home studio in Northern Ireland where I work with great people all over the world. A selection of previous identity projects are in my design portfolio. “We have been very much impressed by David’s ability to literally read our minds and deliver a corporate identity which perfectly symbolizes our vision and conveys the stylish, elegant and modern image we needed to sustain the international development of our company.” — DAVID SADIGH, FOUNDER & CEO, DLG My first book, Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities, has been translated into Chinese, Portuguese, Czech, German, Polish, Korean, Russian, and Japanese (publisher links)
My second book, Work for Money, Design for Love, went on sale in November 2012.
I’ve featured in publications including Creative Review, Computer Arts, HOW Magazine, Digital Arts, LogoLounge, and others
My graphic design blogs Logo Design Love, davidairey.com and brand identity showcase Identity Designed are visited by more than 600,000 designers each month.