This term was all about focusing on developing and learning new technical skills within the different Adobe softwares. I undertook 3 different tasks one using Photoshop one on InDesign and one with Illustrator. In this post I will be discussing the ‘Podcast Sticker’ task, which was created using Adobe Illustrator. This was my favourite task out of the three and surprisingly the one that I found most challenging.
Design Ideas and Design Process
For this task I began researching for different shapes that I wanted my sticker to be. I decided to go for a classic circle, simply because every time I said the word ‘sticker’ in my head I immediately thought of a circle.
Within this task I created three different final sticker outcomes. Starting with my first design, I watched a sticker tutorial on youtube to get some inspiration and a better understanding on the design process and skills needed to create a sticker.
I took screen shots of my work at different stages throughout my design process so that I could really capture my development.
Final sticker outcome 1:
This was my First sticker design. Not my favourite however, definitely the most challenging out of the three, this was because the outline of the sticker was a lot more complex than my second and third designs where I used circle shapes. Before this design I watched a sticker tutorial on youtube to get some inspiration and a better understanding on the design process and skills needed to create a sticker (as I had never made one before).
To create this design I started by placing an ellipse (with the ellipse tool) in the centre of the page, I then duplicated this and made the outside eclipse slightly bigger and changed it to a different colour, I then duplicated it for a third time and made this one smaller.
I then used the ‘live shape options’ on the outer ellipse and dragged both widgets to create a sort of pie shape, this was where the words ‘graphic design where going to be placed.
Next I learned how to use the ‘type on a path’ tool, I used it twice one for the word ‘typography’, which is placed in the centre ellipse, and one for the words ‘graphic design’ which sits in the pie shape at the bottom. This took a few trial and errors as I couldn’t work out how to make the word sit at the bottom facing the right way rather than it being upside down.
I also added a microphone silhouette as a podcast logo.
The Final step was to create the die-cut lines for the sticker. This was the trickiest part. First I made sure that I was working in a new layer, then I selected everything and used the pathfinder window to unite it into a single shape, after this I changed the offset to the desired measurements of the border I would like around my sticker shape. Once I had my offset I selected everything in the cutline layer and united again to make it one single shape, I then removed the ‘fill’ from this shape and gave it a 0.5pt stroke. I then repeated these steps on a separate layer named ‘Cutcontourkiss’.
Final sticker outcome: 2
For my second design I decided to switch the shape for a circle, simply because every time I said the word ‘sticker’ in my head I immediately thought of a circle.
I used the same design process as sticker 1, by doing so I got to develop and practice all the new skills learnt when creating my first design.
I made sure that I used different layers throughout my design, one layer for the base of my artwork, one layer for the text, and two separate layers for each die-cut.
Final sticker outcome 3:
For my Final sticker design I kept the same theme as my second design, I thought that the yellow and black worked well together. In the design I experimented with, and learned a bit more about the ‘path tool’
Once I had my ellipse and had my text added, I created a straight line using the line tool, when this had lined up to the points I wanted I then selected the path tool and created a path in the centre of the line, this allowed me to be able to move my line from the centre point and create a curved line to go along the circumference of the sticker. I then duplicated this line and made it 1pt instead of 3pt. I created this to fill the gap between the text. 
I also added two smaller ellipses at both ends of the line. This was to separate the line from the text.
The last step of my design was to create the die-cut lines for my sticker, using the same process that I mentioned when describing sticker 1. However, this time the lines were to outline a circle.
Software tutorials
Before starting this task I watched some of the ‘getting started’ tutorials to help me develop a basic understanding of the software as a whole. I watched https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/how-to/ai-layers-basics.html to also give me a basic understanding on the importance of layering, which led me to be mindful on what layer I placed things.
The tutorial attached below, helped me understand the process of how to create die-cuts, as I was able to follow step by step and recreate the lines on my own design. I found the process quite long and challenging and it’s definitely a skill that I need to develop further, and would like to master, so that I will be able to use this skill confidently in any future projects.
My first sticker design was actually based from the tutorial below. In this video I also learned about the ‘type on a path’ tool. I thought that incorporating this new tool into my design would work really well since I wanted to use a circle as the shape. I also learned how to move the eclipse with the ‘live shape tool’ and this allowed me to create that pie shape where I wanted the words ‘graphic design’ to sit.
Design resources and articles
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/using/drawing-pen-curvature-or-pencil.html
This article helped me understand the draw with pen tool, which gave me the skill to create my curved line.
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/how-to/ai-layers-basics.html
I also found a page that went into a lot more detail about layers and how to organise content. This taught me how to move content from one layer to another, how to locate objects in the Layers panel, and how to hide layers.
After struggling with how to flip my text when using the ‘type on a path tool’ I wanted to get to grips and learn how to do it without having to trial an error. I actually found this article after I had finished my designs but I thought I would include it as I believe it helped me develop the skill to a higher level.
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/using/creating-type-path.html