- Design Ideas and Design Process:
1st Design:
For my 1st design, I wanted to incorporate different styles of letterforms to build up a word, much like a ransom note. I experimented with the different letterforms by making them up equal in size as well as creating huge variations between them. I later came to the conclusion that having different variations between them was more in keeping to the style of a ransom note. To further develop my skills, I wanted to create a paper-like texture as the background in order to keep in theme with the ransom note. This has consequently enabled my software skills to develop to include the use filters from the filter gallery. Here I discovered how to use the texturiser to create a paper-like effect.
Experimenting with different letter sizing and which I found most effective
Experimenting the scaling and relief options on the texturiser, creating minimal and intense textural backgrounds
2nd Design:
For my 2nd design idea, I took inspiration from the tutorial Rachel offered on Blackboard, experimenting with the hue and saturation of an image. I started by generating a combination of different images, which I then played with under the hue and saturation tool bar. I chose a purple/pink/green colour combination as I thought they were more eye-catching and powerful. I decided not to write anything onto the cover as I wanted to take it into the other design software’s to experiment with an image of my own.
Below is an illustration I made for my collage:
Examples below of the different stages and experiments using the hue and saturation tool:
3rd Design:
For my final design I followed an online tutorial on creating pop art. After experimenting with a range of different colours I decided to go with blue and pink as this is a very well-known colour combination. To develop my skills further, I followed a tutorial on how to warp text as well as make a customise warp. For my design, I needed to customise it in order to make it more legible.
Examples below of different colour combinations i experimented with:
Examples below of different warped text features I experimented with, along with looking at different placements for the text:
Below shows a before and after I my customised warp to make it more legible:
- Software Tutorials:
I got the majority of my software skills from watching YouTube videos. Many of the ideas or tools I looked at were inspired by quick viral videos I had seen through social media platforms such as TikTok. For my first design I followed a YouTube tutorial on how to create a paper texture effect. This tutorial helped to give me better understanding of the different effect available of the software, and how using a different scaler can create a drastic change whilst still using the same effect. On my second design, I experimented with the hue and saturation tool after following the tutorial available on blackboard. As well as finding my own online tutorials, I wanted to follow one suggested by Rachel from Blackboard. The tutorial offered by Rachel helped to broaden my understanding towards the smaller, unnamed icons available not found in the menu bar. Finally, the tools I used on my last design included learning more about different effects available for images, but also different text effects. I enjoyed creating this design the most as I felt I learnt a lot more about Photoshop from it. For this I first followed a tutorial on how to convert an image into a Pop art effect with a combination of different colours. Later I learnt how to distort text by warping it into different shapes and sizes. This is a software skill I would like to develop further, especially as the warp is customisable. Although I customised my text to make it more legible, I think this tool is a really creative way to create your own distorted font.
Tutorial link for warped text:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLiLwRjAeho
- Design Resources and Articles:
After deciding that I wanted to do a Pop Art design for one of my podcasts covers, I found a website that included a range of different styles of Pop Art. This was really helpful in terms of being able to see the different styles side-by-side and really helped to influence my design choice. Although the website offered a range of different styles, I decided to go for the vectorised version of Pop Art, often used by Andy Warhol. Further to this design I wanted to come up with my own podcast name instead of constantly using ‘Typography and Graphic Communication’. This led me to start reading different articles about how to create the perfect podcast name as well as create a mind map. After reading an article I realised it need to be something short and sweet but also a play on words. As the podcast was for designers, I knew it need to include either the word ‘design’ or something similar. So why ‘The Design Pod’ you may ask? Well, a pod refers to an enclosed space much like a capsule. Therefore, would have no background noise and very much be in the moment, helping to give off the look as an easy listen but also educational which is something a podcast should be.
Web link for additional resources:
https://castos.com/podcast-name/