Getting it.

Article Spread.

I decided to go with standard 11x8.5. It'll prevent one potential nervous breakdown at the printers.

Currently waiting on the rest of the responses on a survey I sent out via Facebook in regards to graduation. I got some really good responses so far, in which I think I could make another entire spread out of one of the responses I got on advice for underclassmen.

Coming to a place in which I'm editing the content a little bit. I have articles that I've written and articles that I've gotten from other places just to make sure I have a TON of content to pick from. Some of it seems a little gimmicky, like I'm trying to be cool instead of actually being cool. I'm cutting out some of the "How-to-nonsense" because my original audience aim was for people who were leading the crowd not being told what to do. It's meant to be a lifestyle magazine, not a "here, let me hold your hand and mother you around Boston" magazine. Somehow that got a little lost in the shuffle when I took far too long on gathering content and not being discriminatory about the KIND of content. So far though I'm happy with what I've got. It's sleek, smart, honest and fun.

Started work on my process book today.

Hoping to get this finished by Thursday so I can drop it off at the printers and have a relaxing long weekend at home.

So I am really excited about getting this done! I ordered a huge thing of eyeshadows to put in my own palettes. The colors are perfect. Right now I am just putting together the final touches on the pamphlet and adding in the customized colors for each sign. I actually took a good picture of the colors i ordered online and am taking swatches from that to put on my pamphlet. After my colors come in and I put the tins of color in each palette its time to start printing......here is just a screen shot i took straight on my comp

This week..

just realized it's 10:30 Fri night and haven't posted yet this week. Sadly, it's 10:30 on a Friday night and I'm stuck in working... And will not likely see daylight for the next few days:/

Anyway my process has progressed these past couple weeks. I worked on the interactive coding of my Flash piece today and now just working on the different sections.. I like where it's going, but I'm just going to keep going till it's done since it still has a little ways to go.

Almost there

So I am almost done with my website, thank goodness too. I have some ads to put up and a shop page that's incomplete at the moment. I still have to finish up some t-shirts, about 6 more, and 1/5 there with my process book. Other than thattt.... good luck everybody! We're almost there!

Um, Colorful Progress and Stuff

As always, it's been forever since I posted.  Either way, I'm on my way to getting things done. My progress as of this second:
#1 - 60% done
#2 - started... 10% done
#3 - 40% done
#4 - 80% done
#5 - brainstorming
Process book - I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I realize that we're getting to crunch time, but I'm taking all of next week off from work so I can get this shit done. As I come to the end of the semester, my only regret with my thesis is that I just didn't have enough time to truly express what I wanted to in my posters. But as always, I get too overambitious with a serious time constraint.

Early Rock n Roll (poster 1)

I completely reworked this design. I was really happy with the punk poster's layout, so I'm reworking my designs for the other pieces so they fit more as a series. Each poster will have its own distinct color scheme though.

Blues/Psychedelic/Folk (poster #3)

This design will look totally different in a few days (as per revisions stated above), but I figured I'd post it anyway to show the colors and general ideas.

Punk (poster #4)

I literally did the general layout in about an hour, and though it's going to change a bit (I'm not sold on those flowery borders, I'm thinkin' lighting bolts) I think it's pretty solid. If anyone's got a better phrase for the back of Joe's jacket, let me know.

So yeah. Colors.

table of contents

let me know what you all think about my table of contents. thanks!

lux AD

Here's an ad I made for my mag....let me know what you think!

OLDdesign

REdesign

hey yo,

I went design crazy for some stuff one of my job interviewers told me they wanted to see....including stationary. SO, I figured why not work on my cosmetic line identity? Here is the business card...(address and my photographer are fillers)

Let me know what you all think!!

some new things

Hey everyone!
I th1nk i forgot to blog last week so I am gonna make up for it now. Last friday I had a few lovely volunteers come over so i could tke picture of them for my clothing website. I got some great things. Here is the screen shot of the opening page of my website. The girl moves to mix and match her top and bottom clothing. I also posted the quicktime exported file, but it looks a lot better in flash so ignore the distortion. I also took some video for an "tv ad" that I am also doing It isn't edited. I guess that is all that is new from last weeks. Let me know what you all think! Thanks!!

REACT: Collection Sneak Peek

Here are some shirt designs for my company! I plan on screenprinting them myself, woo.
REVIVE is a special edition shirt for Japan; REACT is my signature shirt (obviously), REFRESH is for water/food charities, and RELEAF is for environmental charities. Still working on REPLAY (for youth charity- will have handprints on it for design) and REBUILD (for natural disaster charities). Having a difficult time coming up with a simple design for REBUILD, any ideas? Give me feedback, please!

Updates

Hello- just wanted to update you on what I will be having to show for this week. I finally got my palettes in and they are way perfect. I cant wait to see the designs on them! So what I am doing now is creating like a small pamphlet to have in every box describing your sign with a picture and a beauty quote for each sign, describing what type of beauty you are. Also it will have a description and picture of colors and why they were chosen. Everything is coming together nicely..the only major thing is picking out colors! I have basic colors for some...but still need to do specify. Time is running out..ahh I'm freaking. But I know I'm not alone. I'm so excited to create the final result.

Beast Mode

So I have the basic magazine layout, I'm still working on where to put the text. But filled in a couple things so far. Tomorrow I will be working on the infographic maps that will serve as the visual for my article on apartment hunting in Boston. My articles are done for the most part just some editing and such, and this weekend will be spent taking pictures for the magazine.

I'm still not exactly quite sure what I would like to put on the front cover, I'd like to stay away from a picture and headlines like Vogue and most other magazines. It's too cluttered for the style of magazine I would like to do, I'd like to keep it more clean and straight to the point. I'm thinking of creating some sort of graphic to put on there.

creative tees thesis update

So far I have complete all 20 tshirt designs, on photoshop. I have made most of my website, the home, gallery and thankyou pages are complete (the thank you page is viewed instead of the sign in, buy, cart and newsletter sign up pages) (will make more sence when looking at the website). All I have left to complete is the customize part of the website, which im scared about, seems difficult, but never the less will try my best. I dont know about making a commercial, which i wanted to make, but not sure of the time since i still have to make the process book. I should make screen shots too show you guys the web site, i can try for the next blog.

hi...

Hey everyone..

so playing in Flash this week breaking my mind piece into 4 separate parts that will be roughly 30 seconds each.

There will be a little coding in it to make it interactive. I'm having a lot of fun with it and wish I could just work on it and not have to take tests or write papers for classes. I've also ditched buying trashy magazines and started reading up on computer arts which is just helpful in general. As much fun as it is to keep up to date with Charlie Sheen I can say Computer Arts is extremely helpful and sources a bunch of links and tutorials.

ok, hope everyone has a fun weekend playing in the snow!!

-Kristen

MORE INDY!

So I have a few screen shots of my process here, I cant really attach part of my thesis because the file is too big even if I only render about 30 seconds worth, I've already tried over and over..so everyone will have to wait a little bit to see the end result which is coming in at around 3.30 minutes! yikes! still awesome though...heres a few screen shots!

I've been photoshoping a lot of images because I had a string pull indie's "whip/headphones" around and so I have edited about 40 images of string out of it. A very long tedious process to say the least but it looks sweet because it makes the illusion that the headphone is just shooting through the air. A thankfully very successful part of the beginning film. =) So far I am really happy with what I have, I have also been working on my process book, trying to incorporate some design that I didn't get a chance to do for my actual thesis. I am comparing the map that The indian jones original posters use as well as recreate in my own way my own movie poster for this piece. I have added on a lot to my original idea and can't wait for the turnout!!

-LD

Newest Layout!

Blog 5?

I have all my tshirts finished on the computer and updated two of them. The website is coming along, will update as soon as I finish it all.

Here are a few of the updated tshirts. I'm not sure between the first two and the third tshirt is the updated one to the older one (forgot save it as another document so I don't have the first draft of it). Then the last one is to support Japan. The Japanese text says gambatte (do your best).

home stretch

Can't believe we don't have that much more time for thesis and just senior year in general! My thesis is moving along quickly and now that I have established this penguin beach theme my work seems to be easy to produce since its just the same thing but adding different elements each time. I changed the design slightly of my letter head and business cards. Now my main focus is the cup design, the flavor board, and merchandise (tee shirts and bowls). I've started my process book and thats sort of scary. I'll post what I have completed later this week, but for now I want suggestions on the Tee shirt design. As of now I am doing iron on instead of screen printing and the shirt leaves white around the font. I don't mind the back having white around the foot prints but the front it looks weird. Erich suggested making ice drip from the text so the white doesn't look strange but I wanted other suggestions. Cutting it out each letter will take forever and ill lose the crispness of the text. (ps the tee shirt is going to be either white, light blue or cerulean blue)

Hey Everybody...

Been working hard on the thesis lately. Finished taking all modeling pictures for my magazine last weekend. I have them all cut out and ready to be placed into scenes and put into the layout. I've been trying to come up with some names and have been working on a ton of cover ideas so far. I hope to have the scenes done this week so I can start the layout by next week.

basic site layout

The top image is what my home page is going to look like. The REACT is actually going to be a flash piece, where the 'ACT' changes colors.

The second image is my 'about' - pretty simple. I'm going for mimimalist for my whole site, I've just been playing with layout ideas. If you have any more suggestions, please let me know!

For the 'donate' page, customers can make free form donations, even if they decide to not purchase anything. I will have links to all the charities I support along with a 'donate' button.

'events' will have links to charitable athletic local events, as well as REACT-sponsored events. One event I will be promoting is "RECREATE", where anyone can submit an entry on why they think their community deserves to be "recreated", or beautified based on the actual doings of the community (aka how they give back to each other).

Also, just started my process book....YIKES. Still can't believe I'm actually graduating.
Stay tuned for the collection, etc. Will be posting later in the week.
PLEASE let me know any thoughts or ideas you may have!!!

thoughts?!

what are your thoughts on colors and font choice?

Post II

Okay, so here's a screen cap of my digital build for my first poster. I still have to choose a color palate, and add in my guitar/people illustrations.

Makin' Strides, Takin' Names

I've been meaning to blog since we got back from spring break, but as always life gets in the way. So I'm blogging now.

I sketched a LOT over spring break, and I finally feel like I have some ideas to work with. My biggest problem until recently has been the task of getting out what I want my posters to look like on paper - whenever I sat down I got really overwhelmed, couldn't process anything, and whenever I tried to sit down and draw some elaborate idea my hands felt as though they'd been smashed with hammers. So I would chain smoke and play Sudoku. Then I just decided that instead of over-complicating these posters, I should just sit and then draw down my gut instincts. So I did, and I like 'em. There's still a lot of developing I have to do - maybe rework a few things, pick out a color palette, and draw in the figures (performers/bg references/guitars), but I'm on my way I guess. Here's the layout sketches for 01 (early rock n' roll), 03 (blues/psychedelic... folk might be combined as well but I haven't decided), and 04 (punk), respectively:






















Yeah, something like that. Sorry for the shitty quality of the sketches. I had to use Photo Booth because I don't have access to a scanner where I am.

















So I also started building the digital layout for poster 1 in Illustrator - I plan on combining traditional and digital building methods for all the posters. So here's a quick preview (a lot cleaner than the sketch): I've still got some details to work out - and I'm also working on the people sketches. I should have those cleaned up and ready to go at some point this coming week.

Okay so for some reason the thing won't let me upload another image. Prepare for blog #2!

long stretch.... need help!!

Hey Everyone,

So I accomplished a lot this week. I took advantage of my time off this week from my internship due to my ankle so I did a lot for thesis. So far I've completed most of the branding for the identity aspect of Little Blue Creaming including the following: Logo, Business Card, Letterhead, Envelop, Gift Cards (everyday/summer *note- i figured since my everyday looks like it could be summer id call it both*, winter, spring, valentines day) and frequent buyer punch cards I have done as well.I have also completed a tee-shirt design and have posted the diff color shirts on this blog post.

Things I need to complete next are the following:
Figure out if I am going to purchase tee-shirts and screen print myself or just buy them (which will need to be ASAP!) or print on the iron on sheets and do it that way. Depends on time and cost. Also I have a white bowl that I need to figure out if i want to paint it with the logo or stick on the logo. (any suggestions, screen printing on the bowl seems to be too much of an investment since I don't know what I am doing. I gathered the cups to measure as well as a cone sleeve from ice cream places and I am starting to work on that design aspect.

My big dilemma is now what to do for the flavor board. My idea was to get printed a design of 3 panels and hang them from the ceiling. Another idea I had was to build it out of wood and paint on it or again print it out and staple gun or nail it into the board and then put polyurethane to coat the paper onto the wood to seal it into place. (that idea seems like a big project but thought I would ask what people thought.

HELP!

Can anyone think of any ideas for the name of my magazine?! It is a feminist magazine friendly for both males and females and I want it to have a very strong/bold name. And ideas?!

Creative tees web and shirt designs

This week and last week i have been making my t shirt designs, i have 10 so far, and this weekend i plan to be in the mac lab to begin my website! i think i want to go with the background below!

my tshirt ideas are:

The Creative Mind Animated

Hey everyone,

hope the break was good to you all.

Over the past couple weeks my original idea of a Flash self portrait dramatically developed into what I'm now calling a flash piece about the 'creative mind' with regard to design and the mind of a graphic designer. The piece is interactive where you are initially introduced to a brain and will be able to navigate by clicking on 4 different sections of the brain.

These 4 sections are: Analytical, Curious, Expressive, and Sensual.

The Analytical section for example will animate the structure and organization that goes into design. This will animate concepts such as research, HTML, Action Script, CSS, grid systems, etc. This idea came to me when a friend of mine gave me an article about practicing mindfulness for a solution to a lot of anxiety I've been having these past weeks. The article was talking about how sucking on a raisin is somehow a technique in which you're supposed to focus on stuff like the taste and texture of the raisin while "letting your other stressful thoughts float by". I was ready to crumple this up and chuck it when on the other side of the page was a really cool illustration of a brain and explained each section, which inspired me to restructure my idea.

I think as graphic designers we often get stereotyped as people who just sit around and doodle (maybe it's just me) but I think this will be a cool way to show how much goes into design and how the entire brain is used when creating our work.

Attached is the directory of my Flash piece. The yellow section is 'Curious', red is Analytical, blue is Expressive, and green is Sensual.

I hope this all makes sense just reply if I'm not being clear.

Thanks and let me know what you think.

-Kristen

Indie Jones Stop Motion

So I have a rough rough definitely to be changed in places put together video of my thesis, which at this point is going to be about 3 minutes long. I need to cut the song differently but I really like the ending. I need to work on the timing because its choppy in some places and I am re-shooting this weekend with all the fight scenes with the bros and I will film the beginning sequence as well. I'm thinking of adding kinetic typography to this as well as a "how its made" video separately. Again this is a rough put together of some scenes for my stop motion. I tried to Post what I have but I had to condense to maybe 2 scenes because it wont upload the 2 minutes I have. This Scene is of Indie and Short Round playing cards and Indie catches him "cheating" then the fight scene I am re-making. This isnt all I have this is only 2 scenes out of the 4 or 5 I have. I need help with a name, i want it to sound like "Indie Jones and the _____ ____ ____ ____ of the bros"?

new creations and need advice....

hey everyone!
Hope everyone had a great spring break. I had an amazing time in Arizona despite finding out I sprained my ankle and re-injuring a previous fracture in my ankle that I don't remember doing. But anyways I did not have time to sketch or design but I had visions in my head going on how I can execute my everyday gift card, letterhead and envelop design. I took into consideration what Erich said at the last thesis meeting about making the everyday gift card be a variation from the business card. So below you will find the variation between the two. Also the updated letterhead and envelop designs.

Over break I gathered a ice cream cone sleeve to measure and start designing and this week I plan to go to either coldstone or berryline and ask them for cups so i can measure the different sizes and start designing those.

Also you will find my spring giftcard mock up designs.

Within the next week I plan to meet w Brian about screen printing my logo onto a tee shirt. I spoke with megumi about screen printing on a bowl and it seems like its a lot work and with the little time that I have I may just go with plan B for my screen printing on bowls and either paint it on or get a clear sticker and print my logo on that and place it on the bowl.

My next project is to figure out how I want to approach the flavors board. Does anyone have any ideas for that. My idea was to take 2 or 3 poster boards and design a sheet and get it printed and put it on the boards of the flavors. Anyone have any other ideas. I am kinda stuck