Project 3 – Empty Book, pt 1

For this project, we’re creating an empty or blank book built around the concept of something that doesn’t exist. You know the kind, you’ve probably seen them in the novelty racks in Target or in friends’ bathrooms. Something like “Ugly Bunnies” or “Dragons on Public Transport.” (Heck, that last one is pretty good–almost wish I’d gone with that.) And sometime before the end of the term, we’re to get it printed via Lulu.com.

Anyway, here are the thumbnails I came up with for the book cover. Very many silly ideas. The last four are specific to certain fandoms, Game of Thrones and Supernatural. In a perfect world, I would have done one of those because they were my very favorite ideas. But I didn’t feel comfortable creating (and printing!) something derived from copyrighted work. And the cat and dinosaur concepts were both in close second, so it wasn’t hard to make a decision.

What idea did I ultimately choose to develop? Find out next time…

Project 2 – Vodka Label, pt 1

With this project, we worked on designing a product label for a pecan pie-flavored vodka by Seventy Eight °C Spirits in Raleigh. Pecan Dream almost immediately presented itself as an option for the product name, though considered others too. But finding something intriguing and also suitable for the client was harder for me this time than for the last project. But here are the thumbnail sketches and the 3 roughs that I generated for this project.

I sketched around two or three different styles for this, in terms of the graphic elements. Regarding fonts, in this stage, I kept it pretty simple for the sketching process, because I actually had a pretty clear idea of the kinds of fonts that would be best suited to it. We also submitted a file of font ideas, as well as some color palette ideas.

Project 1 – Real Problems, Real Solutions, pt 1

This project is about creating a campaign for an issue we feel strongly about that needs to get out there on folks’ radar. Out of three of my top issues, I chose planting native plants/trees. At the risk of getting soapboxy (I’m always at risk of getting soapboxy), I’ll just mention that I feel it is super-duper important to kick the exotic plant habit and plant your garden/lawn/5+ acres with wildflowers and trees that support the wildlife and the ecosystems native to your area.

When I found out that NCSU has a program just to encourage this, called “Go Native,” I thought, “Gee, I know a lot of people who have the same understanding about this, but none of them have ever heard of this program. Why the heck not?!”

Here is a page of thumbnails for potential campaign pieces. At this point, I’m pretty solid on going with a print ad, a brochure, and a mailer packet with a few neat things in, and the sketches reflect attempts at capturing all of those pieces.

Then I took one idea for each piece that I was at least 80% good with, and roughed it out.

As I said in my last post, I often to throw in lots of little detaily things that probably will have no place in the final layout, since my tendency there is to streamline and simplify–as much as I love detail in my illustrations, I tend equally to pull toward minimalism in design.