The best of the best: DSP Spring 09 -- the productions

Favorite Ride Promotional Piece Marker Comps
Marceline Booklet interior page 1 marker comp
Opposite Sex oriented 2 page Magazine spread
Marceline Booklet interior pages
Favorite Ride Promotional Piece

2 page magazine spread recreation

Japanese Illustrator recreation  

Mood Project

The Best of the Best for Spring 2009 DSP

This go `round of taking Design Software & Processing has reared much better results than when I took it 2 years ago. I have grasped the many techniques essential for making successful productions and am able to apply them to the various creative processes necessary. I will briefly go into detail on the different projects I chose to represent my semester of hard work in DSP Spring 09.

The first project is my best set of thumbnail marker comps in color-- a set of thumbnails done for the reproduction of the Favorite Ride. I chose this piece because the thumbnails had the most variety of having thumbnails that were all aesthetically pleasing enough to make it to the next stage of production, without any filler comps that were drawn to fill a required number quota. A few them had issues that would appear to cause a lack of readability but that is due to the fact that I didn't choose to represent the backgrounds of the comps as more transparent. In the future Ill utilize marker paper more to build the effect of opacity.

The next project is my best marker comp as well as the most traditional copyfitting-- The Marceline Booklet. I chose it as my best full size marker comp because I took a lot of time in making sure the comp was as close to how I wanted the final production to look as possible. In return the production process was simpler because I had worked out the majority of my problems before I touched a computer. I also chose this piece to represent my best example of traditional copy fitting because... it was my best to date. The text boxes were represenative of the supplied text and I chose not to color within the boxes to cut down on the issue of thinking readability would be a problem.

The next project is my best piece design wise-- The 2 page opposite sex oriented magazine spread. I chose this piece as the best design because it was built from the bottom up, piece by piece structured together to form a solid spread: from the initial image chosen to portray the subject matter to the fonts chosen to make the headline more identafiable to the reader. There were several elemental  layers that fused together create a great final product. The piece may have worked better in the future with more of an outline on the figures in the center to give them that extra oomph.

The next project is meant to represent the best typography and type setting in a final production file-- the Marceline booklet. This project was great typographicallly because the text interacted with other elements of the background to create different existing planes.  Also  the use of the Disney font added to the reader receiving the feeling of the Disney magic as they read the booklet-- a feeling of juvenile nostalgia.

The next project is meant to represent the project that had the most creative concept-- The Favorite Ride used reproduction. I think this project was the most creative because of its dignity of simplicity of getting the point across of the poster, making the product clearly viewable in a color variation that gives the feeling of an old Andy Warhol piece while having a subject of a car that is synonamous with future: thus agreeing with the call to action/slogan.

The next piece is meant to represent my proficiency in InDesign-- the original 2 page Magazine Spread recreation. I chose this project because I am still pleased with its outcome of being almost identical to the original, also it opened my eyes up to the initial amount of hard work that goes into creating spreads, ; even the simple ones

The next piece represents my proficiency in Illustrator-- the Japanese recreation of the samurai. I chose this piece because it initially introduced me to the various layers required in a project with foregrounds, backgrounds and various elements that are on different planes.

The next piece represents my proficiency in Photoshop-- the Mood piece. It still represent proficiency because mainly it showed how much my composition skills improved in adding to the message a piece is mean to portray with different layered elements. I also used the tool of color overlay to give off a 3-d glasses illusion

I upcoming classes I need to work and improve on meeting deadlines. There were a few times where I met problems in the printing process due to set up errors or paper mistakes which caused my printing to be pushed back a day or two-- pushing my turn in date back as well. I also need to learn to work a little quicker on projects and make sure I meet all minor technical  requirements of photo quality, color modes-- simple things that add up in the production stage, but overall the skills I learned this semester in DSP were the best building blocks I could have been offered to proceed in my journey of becoming a graphic designer... Im glad I came back and am determined to thrive to pump out high quality and finish   : )

2 page magazine spread final production

Opposite Sex 2 Page Magazine Spread

The day of completion has arrived, the final printed project due for this semester of exploration of DSP: The 2 page opposite sex oriented magazine spread. My final production was probably the closest to the marker comp than any other preceeding production/marker comp. But of course there were still some changes that occurred: the couple used was shifted slightly to the left to ensure no important areas of their bodies were cut off , the opacity of the olympic rings was dropped down signifigantly, the title of the spread was separated onto both of the two pages to fill up empty space on top of the pages, and I increased the saturation of the couple to make their colors more vivivd while giving them a slight silhouette appearance when viewed from a distance. Overall my production was executed well, but I had a minor problem in printing: I didn't center my document when i set it up for printing so subsequently a small part of the left side closest to the edge was cut off, pretty much just the "S" in the title was cut off but it's barely noticable... but still I noticed my mistake and in the future I will center my document in the print set up stage. I think overall the goal of making the spread aesthetically pleasing to the woman was achieved... but what do I know, Im just a man that periodically watches Dancing with the Stars.

Marceline booklet Finale'

Posted above is the final production completed for the Marceline booklet project. One of the main differences between the marker comp and the final product id the placement and opacity of Pinnochio on the inside spread of the book. Upon helpful suggestion he was scaled down a bit and incorporated more so to interact with the text as well as making him less of a benefactor of the background and allowing him to stand out from it.  Everything else pretty much stayed the same from pre to post computer production. I had a problem in actually assembling my printed product because my folding wasn't exactly precise so I had a few air bubbles and lack of spray mount, but other than that...its all good

2 page Dance Magazine Spread

Above is the marker comp I did 4 the 2 page magazine spread about dancing, targeted toward a female audience.In the final production I will have to make the olympic rings more transparent in order for the text to be readable. I will also rearrange the heading text so that it covers the blank space on the top of the second page. and finally I will scale the couple down a little bit to make their entire bodies fit in the space without touching the borders. Overall this comp took a couple of hours but as always its better to get as most problems out the way in the construction of the comp than in the final production. ; )