By the way, you guys are doing great work, I’m impressed…

The new Project:

First of all, pick an issue.  What do you feel passionately about?  What makes you mad?  Here is a list of controversial issues, what side do you stand on?  For my issue, I chose health care.  I feel that it is way to expensive and that everyone deserves medical help if they are sick.

Your challenge is, how do you convey your message without using words? I want you use symbols.  Symbols are all around us, and we understand what they mean.  Do you understand the messages of the symbols below?

1. Find a photo of a person who is screaming and erase the background.  I found this girl.

2. Delete the background, and put your screamer in a document where the dimentions add up to about 10 inches, you pick the shape.

3.  Find the symbols to convey your opinion, and arrange them so they seem to be coming out of your screamers mouth.  I chose medical symbols and dollar signs.  You have to be creative in this part, but make your message clear.

4.  Stylize your design in two other ways, and make a Snapshot of each version by right-clicking on the corresponding layer and selecting “New Snapshot.”  You are becoming more familiar with Photoshop, so you decide how to change the image, make it look cool!  Suggestions are: Desaturate, Posterize and change colors; Invert; Threshold; Hue/Saturation; and any of the Filters.

5. History Brush! Chose one of your snapshots to use as your base, and with the history brush draw lines to accent your piece.  Think Scream lines.  Remember, if your not happy with how your lines turn out, you can always click CTRL Z (undo).

6.  Create your own brush with a symbol that has to do with your cause.  Delete the background before you select the image to make it a brush.  You might have to resize it.  I chose a stethoscope.  Use your new brush as a history brush as a part of your design.

10.  Post it to your blog under Project 7 and write a little something about the experience of creating it.

Examples from last semester

Find a photo from the internet with a detailed background.

1. Invert the image by holding CTRL I

2. Locate the History palette on the right side of your screen.  Make a Snapshot of your current inverted image by right-clicking on the corresponding layer and selecting “New Snapshot.”

Create a Robot out of random objects!

Include:

Head

Body

Shoulders

Arms

Hands

Feet

Chest

Face

Eyes

Mouth

Nose

Hair

Be creative!  Have fun!

Add a background of your choice, post it onto your blog and write about it.

Here is some real world graphic design:

The Seward City of Commerce is looking for a logo for the 2012 Mount Marathon Race.

Here are the rules:

size 8 1/2 x 11 inches

Only 4 colors

Include: Mount Marathon Race, July 4 2012, 85th Running, Seward, Alaska, The word “finisher” or “survivor”, mountain theme.

We will actually enter these and the winner receives $200!  The chosen design will be made into T-shirts, hoodies, hats, patches, and posters.  Keep in mind that the patches will be round.

My Rules:

Include a mountain and something to represent running.  Remember, good logos are bold and get the point across clearly.  The point of this logo is a hardcore race up a mountain in Seward, Alaska.  How can you represent these things visually?  Remember, the text is a part of the art, incorporate it into the design, not just as an afterthought.  You know how to add effects, bend it, etc.

You can’t just steal some one else’s image from online, but you can take someone else’s photo, change is somehow in Photoshop, and call it your own.  Think of all the ways you know know how to change/simplify a photo.  You can posterize it, adjust the threshold, change it into a silhouette, etc.  If you want to draw something by hand and incorporate it into your design, we can scan it, and load it into Photoshop.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!  Use the knowledge you have learned from your other projects, you are becoming Photoshop masters…

Here are other logos for inspiration:

Hopefully by now you have given some thought to what you profession you might want to have when you are older.  Our next project is to create a poster advertising a profession that you are interested in.

1. Begin by finding a photo of someone in your future profession.  Make sure it is big enough, our poster will be 8.5 x 11 inches again.  Delete the background of the person and adjust it under Image -> Adjust -> Threshold.  Adjust it so that you can still see the features of your person.

Original Photo                                           Background Deleted and Threshold Adjusted

2. Next, Select all of the black in the image under Select -> Color Range.  Using the Gradient tool, make the black change to a gradient from one dark color to black.  Remember, the Foreground and Background colors are the colors that will appear in the gradient.  Save!

Black fading to Blue

3. Open a new document that is 8.5 x 11 inches.  Fill with black with the paint bucket.  Using the Rectangular Marquee tool, erase stripes.  Select the black stripes and apply a gradient that matches the gradient you applied to your figure.  Rotate the stripes to an angle.  Duplicate the stripe layer and rotate it to fill the whole poster shape.

Stripes                                                Stripes rotated with gradient              2 Stripes layers

This will be the background of your poster.  If you want something other than stripes, like waves or arches, I can help you with that.

4. Paste the person onto your background.  Adjust the size and position to your liking.

5. Search for a bulls-eye or another radial, linear shape to add to your background. Put a gradient with different colors than before.  I chose yellow and orange to stand out against the blue and black.  Paste it into your poster document, put it behind the person but in front of the stripes and adjust the opacity.

6. Erase

6. Erase the white in the stripes layers.  Put something else in the background as the last layer, I found old paper.  Wood, cardboard, bricks or metal would probably look cool too, just make sure its not too dark.  Select the white in the person and erase it.  You will see the stripes layers shining through.  Keep erasing this selection in the other layers until you can see your new background shining through.

7.  Find the silouette of an object associated with your profession.  Apply a gradient to it which fits the color scheme of you poster and then add it.  Adjust the opacity.

8. Find something painterly like an ink splatter.  Apply a gradient to it which fits the color scheme of you poster and then add it.  Adjust the opacity.

9. Add text in a Stencil-like font which advertises your future profession.  Make it a color that is not anywhere on your poster.  Rasterize/Render the text.  Make it fit into your composition by transforming it and rotating, skewing it etc.  Select the color and then apply a gradient which fits in with your color scheme.

10.  Breathe, you’ve finished and it looks awesome! (I hope).  Post it to your blog under Project 5 and write a little something about the experience of creating it.

Concert Posters are works of art.  Check out examples on Google Images.  You will create a poster for a band or artist advertising the event of a concert.

1. Pick your artist/band.  Find a good, dramatic photo of them and make sure its not too small.  Open it up in Photoshop and get rid of the background.   Make it black and white under Image–>Adjust–>Desaturate.  Blur it a little under Filter–>Blur–>Gaussian Blur.  Posterize it under Image–>Adjust–>Posterize (3-4 Levels).  SAVE!

From this                                                                                    To this

2. Find two large vector graphics to combine to make your background. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics.  Look at these links: vector wallpaper, vector backgrounds, geometric design, free vectors, vector ray or find your own.  I chose to use these two:

3.  Open a new document in Photoshop that is 8 1/2 inches wide by 11 inches tall.  Paste one of your vector backgrounds into this document and rotate, move it until you like the composition.  If your background has a lot of detail, posterize it under Image–>Adjust–>Posterize (3-4 Levels).  If you don’t like the colors, change them under  Image–>Adjust–>Hue/Saturation.

My 8 1/2 x 11″ posterized vector background

4. Paste the image of your artist/band onto your background.  You need a color scheme to tie the poster together.  I chose to make my poster in all warm shades like red, orange and yellow.  Click Select–>Color Range and then click on a black part of your artist/band.  Choose a dark color in your color scheme and then click Edit–>Fill–>Foreground Color.  The black should now be the new color.  Repeat this step with the shades of grey in your artist/band.  Your artist/band should now match your background.

5. Paste your second vector image into the document.  Make it the middle layer.  Posterize it, and change the colors to match the color scheme.  Adjust the opacity level so that you can see through it to the back layer.

6. Now you need to create the text for your poster.  The poster should include the name of the artist/group, the venue (place) they are playing at, the date and time and if you choose, the opening band.  Pick a cool font and colors to match your color scheme.  Next, distort your text in some way.  First – Photoshop 5.5: Render the type layers under Layer–> Type–> Render.   Photoshop 6.0 Rasterize the type layers by right clicking on it and selecting Rasterize.  Now you can change the text in different ways.  You could click Edit–>Transform–>Skew, Distort, or Perspective.  Another option is to click Filter–>Distort and try out the different options.  Make sure your text is somewhat legible!

7. Phew!  Once you are finished, flatten image and save as a jpeg.  Post your poster to your blog.  What new did you learn how to do on photoshop with this assignment?  What do you think of your product?

1. Drop Shadow – Manual