Design ideas and design process

Podcast covers are a visual representation of what the talk is about. It connects the creator to the listener, so for my first podcast cover, I started off with an illustration of me.

First Image

The first podcast cover draft I did not like it because it was too busy. Each logo was not able to show, and it lacked space, so for the final design, I shrunk it. I decided to have blue and pink as the background colour because they are light colours and would work with the illustration rather than against it. This allows the viewers to see each logos without the illustration clashing with each other.

The second draft, I reduce the numbers of adobe app logo I should use and colour. I used a light shade of blue. However, the image looked boring to me, and the colours did not seem to blend, which resulted in me darkening the illustration complexion. I could not choose the right shade of blue I wanted to use, thus me combining them and doing a half and half background.

I wanted to show some of the most used creative cloud software for graphics design. However, I edited the logo colour to match the colour scheme of the podcast. I like the final image because I was able to use space to surround each element of my design. I darken her skin tones because I wanted her to stand out more from the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Image

The image gave me an indie aesthetic which is I like because it allows me to experiment with less professional fonts. I thought it was interesting to put different typeface on her hair, and it stood out more because the hair colour is black.

I decided to not use the first and second background because the colour was too bright. The reason I first started with a bright colour was that from my inspiration, it used bright colours; however, I felt the colourful pastel works best cause it calm and aesthetically pleasing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third Image

The third podcast cover I used a cutting tool to bring the sculpture about and show the flowers. This was the easiest to among the three and only involved me using the cutting tool and watching a simple tutorial on how to create a flower sculpture effect.

I wanted to show artwork that is typically done on photoshop.  I like it because the idea of flowers coming out of art sculpture is simple but aesthetically pleasing. It is also a different way of doing a podcast cover without having to have a self-illustration but yet still looking interesting and a showing skill.

The only problem I had with this podcast cover was what to do with the background without making the cover too busy.

I used the warp tool to create the yellow background behind the sculpture. I initially thought the colour yellow brought out the sculpture; however, after analysing it more, I realise it was pointless to have it on the podcast and decided to just keep it simple.

 

 

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Software tutorials

Youtube Tutorials Links: 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAzM_MRwN-U&t=10s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLqk1LrHlKc&t=884s

For this project, I did not use that much tutorials to guide me with my work as I am already familiar with the essential feature of photoshop. However, I did watch videos for how to draw using illustrator and that helped me for two of my podcasts covers.

My initial plan was to watch a tutorial on how to draw on Photoshop. Still, most of the tutorials were complicated and outdated, so I decided to use illustrator because it was more beneficial. I was not confident in my skill in illustrator, and this was my first time using it.

With the tutorial, I was able to get a basic understanding of the tools I was meant to use. I drew the illustration using my laptop pen, not realizing that I could have just used the pen tool which could have saved me a lot of time. I used the pen tool in my second illustration and the image came out neater

I designed my background with photoshop, the tools I used the most was the Image Adjustment: colour balance and hue/saturation tools. The goal was to change the colours of the adobe app to pink so that it can match the laptop and desk.

My third podcast, I watched a tutorial on how to design a flower portrait. The tutorial was simple and involve mainly using the cutting tool. The reason this tutorial was helpful was that I did not know how to place the flowers on the sculpture to show the effect of it emerging from the sculpture.

I do not believe I got the effect to its full potential. However, I do like how it stands out and people can easily identify what I am trying to illustrate.

The skills I need to improve are how to follow through with an idea. Doing this work, I have had so many ideas for what I would like to do with the podcast cover. However, I lack the skills to do them, and that leads to me abandoning the idea and getting frustrated.

This was my first time doing digital drawing and the result turning out nice. I am very proud of the works I produced, so I wanted to be included in my cover.

Through the tutorials, I was able to learn how to draw digitally. Although I am proud of what I have done with more knowledge and practice on photoshop, I feel like would have done better.

 

 

Resources for research and inspiration

When trying to think of ideas for a project, I always look through Pinterest an image-sharing app to look for inspirations for my work. When browsing what really caught my eyes were pastel colours for podcast cover, flower sculpture effect and the cartoon illustration of the podcast creator, I combined those element and used it to create my podcast illustrations.

When researching it was challenging to figure out what type of design, I wanted to have for my podcast cover. I decided to use fig 11 and fig 12 because of the simplicity and layout of the designs, I felt it would be the best inspiration for a podcast design.

I found the resources for my design interesting cause it has a soft look to it and the colours are calm. I like the style of the podcast cover and how the background seems to work with the illustration rather than against it, which is an aspect I implemented in my design.

The resources design was out my comfort zone and encourage me to learn a new skill and broaden my knowledge on photoshop, which has been very beneficial.

Inspiration for the name of my first podcast cover “Creative Talk” was the adobe software “Creative Cloud” I felt the name brought all the elements of my artwork together and connects gives a glimpse of what this podcast is about.

From an article by Price, I learnt that a podcast cover is what connects the listeners to the podcast.  “That it is very important how you design a podcast cover that why most of my podcast designs have illustration because I wanted to set the mood and build the world of your show before the audience even starts listening.” (M Price, 2017)

Podcast covers should not be too busy and chaotic with load colours because this is what connects the listeners to the creator.