Its a Process (Progress Book)

It’s a

Pr

cess

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Senior Progress Book GMU By: Carson Burke

Dedication To my friends, Toddre, Alex, Wes, Nael, VA, Aya, and J. Thank you for being my friends throughout this whole college experience. You guys made it bearable! You guys love me and cheered me on as I went through NOVA, was accepted to VCU, and chose GMU. You guys believe in me when I do not. I am happy I could get through college without losing any of you as friends, and you know it never stopped our FUN! I cannot wait to see what you guys do in the future because i just know you guys are going to be GREAT! Thank you and love you.

Text, Design, and Photography by Carson Burke © 2022 School of Art and Design George Mason University

Table Of Contents Inspiration

1

In the Beginning

4

What I Found

10

Using my Minor

13

Find the Color

16

Conclusion

17

Inspiration

This image here is one of the primary inspirations for doing this project. It is a photo series of ad-like photos of different flavors of Fanta soda, and I related the flavors and their fruits to go along with it. Coincidently, I got noticed by the company and was sent a package with gifts and different flavors of their product. They also asked if they could use a graphic that I made.

1

Inspiration

This was the moment when I knew that my project had to deal with color and drinks. I went into the Giant by my house to see what could grab my attention and inspire me for this project. I walked past the drink aisle, and the array of color-coordinated drinks down the aisle immediately caught my attention.

2

Inspiration

The last big inspiration that gave me the premise of my project is based on the Pantone book. I was scrolling on my phone when an ad came up for a Pantone Color swatch book. Here is where I came up with the idea of what if I found these Pantone colors in real life? So, when narrowing down what real-life things I wanted to represent, I saw that drink aisle with different shades of different colors. It was at this moment that my whole project idea came together.

3

In the beginning

To begin putting my project together, I first wanted to figure out my text sizes and fonts. So, I chose four different fonts that I liked and were similar to the photo in the middle. The image in the middle is a picture of the actual formula guide. However, I did not even use any of the text sizes and had to readjust them. It was still valuable to see the fonts and sizes to visualize what I would create.

4

In the beginning

This step is similar to the page before. I did the top project text to see what text I would want to use on the front of my project book. Once again, I did not use any of the fonts represented and chose the text I have used throughout the project, “Segoe UI.” The texts below are examples I chose to use for my book text, and I used one of these texts.

5

In the beginning

Here is something I learned during my website design class using Adobe XD. I wanted to see how all my colors would look together for my book and project.

If some colors are changed or added, this step’s point is to visualize color in your head. These aspects can and probably will be changed as the process goes on.

6

In the beginning

I am a visual learner. Therefore, Before I digitally made my project layout, I wanted to see it physically.

I made several different sizes and variations of how many boxes I wanted and how much space I would need between them. This step helped me see my project before I finished. Just seeing things on the screen, sometimes it is hard to gauge the sizes of things before printing.

7

In the beginning

After I made my layouts physically, I transferred the designs digitally. Here I finalized the box sizes and the amount of them I wanted to use. It took about four variations to get to the final design I chose. I began with blank boxes to get the framework and then filled them with how I wanted my work to look.

8

In the beginning

Lastly, of course, you have to gather your subjects.

There are 22 different kinds of drinks in this picture.

However, I bought about 25 different kinds of drinks to make sure I could cover most of the values of the colors. I had to line them up and see the color values, whether that would be the drink’s color, the color of the bottle, or the color of the label paper.

9

What I found

Red portrays love, health, and power. It stimulates the appetite

Yellow leads to happiness.

It creates good feelings, creativity, and playfulness.

Green creates a healthy notion and environmentally clean feeling when looking at it.

Blue is unnatural, so sometimes it is used to deter people away from their appetite.

Purple shows luxury and class. On the other hand, it can also show flavors like sourness or tangy.

Orange has an “acidic” flavor to it. It also makes it fresh and seem affordable.

10

What I found White is used in packaging usually to show cleanliness and freshness. It is mostly shown with dairy products. It works well as background color and easy complimented.

Red is used in packaging to connect people with fresh and sweetness flavors. Red also replicates what happens in our brains when we are hungry, intensify our appetite.

Since blue in unnatural, it is viewed as the most unappetizing color for drinks and food. It is used for seafood, water and to show diet options.

Yellow is bright and engaging color, which reaches your brain first. Yellow and red tend to be used together because they do the same to increase appetite.

Orange is used to show affordable value and usually an orange or fruity flavor. Since it is a mix of red and yellow it invokes the same feelings and encourages purchase.

Green is used to show fresh, healthy, and organic options. It has become to associate products with a healthy living. Gives off environmental friendly feelings as well.

Black is used by brands to give a sense of luxury and high quality.

However, it was not used as much but now its shown to have a positive effect.

11

What I found

Color of The Year 2022

Very Peri PANTONE 17-3938

Very Peri is an intriguing color. Moreover, it was created the first time a color has been created for the Color of the Year. It is said to reflect the combination of the modern world and the digital world, and it is supposed to inspire people with new visions for their creative spirits.

12

Using my Minor

This is the set-up I created in my living room. I took pictures outside but was at the mercy of mother nature. Then I remembered that I had a speed light. In addition to the speed light, I had a reflector to increase the lighting in the room. However, I ran into a problem that needed solving. There were too many reflections from inside.

13

Using my Minor

Here is a solution to the problem I had while taking photos of the drinks. Outside, there was a glare and reflections inside, so I created my own light-box. I looked around the house for what I could use and found old cardboard and poster from previous projects. So, using tape, cardboard, and poster board, I had a light-box to use and had more control of the lighting.

14

Using my Minor

The photos above show the most strenuous part of the project, editing. I enjoy thinking of the project, taking pictures, and being creative. However, editing I find to be tedious and time-consuming. So to minimize that, I try to take the picture as “perfect” as possible. It took three renditions to get the final products. Some photos had to be retaken, and others needed re-editing to ensure the colors were as close to my eye as possible.

15

Find the color

The steps to finally get to this point were to color pick portions of the photo, write down their RGB and CMYK, and convert them into their closest Pantone solid coated Formula Guide color. I then wrote each color’s name and color data information onto the paper. All the colors used within the project are represented above, courtesy of the free Pantone trial I am on.

16

Conclusion In conclusion, this project stemmed from product photography and color theories. Using well-known brands and detailed photography causes viewers to use their brains and ask, “Have I seen this before?”.

I then put my major and minor to good use before leaving school and look forward to applying these skills in the workplace. My college career has been long and tedious. However, in the end, I have developed more than I could ever imagine had I never gone through this experience. Many of my professors have been helpful and have taught me a lot. Hopefully, this project can add color and light to someone looking at it because life has been so black and white lately. While I, along with millions of other students, dealt with a worldwide pandemic, home life, death and sickness of loved ones, and feeling mentally unstable at times, we were able to adjust to a new type of learning. We are thankful to come out on the other side in one piece. Now it is time to write this new chapter of life. Thanks again to all who have touched and influenced my life and improved my skills.

Carson Burke