FMX210_Blog1_03/06_SMiller

 Sophie Miller

Weekly Blog Post 1 - 3/3 - 3/7


This week, I continued working on my calligram project and attended office hours for extra help on my project. Last Tuesday, we had to bring a printed draft to class and review our peers' work to see how far along everyone was. This was helpful because it gave me a better understanding of how my project compared to others and what I still needed to improve. We also started a new project, designing a logo, which will be our next major assignment. I had trouble using the traced version to create my calligram, but after meeting with Professor Brennan, I decided to start fresh and work directly from my headshot instead of the traced version. This new approach worked much better for me. I broke my face into sections and used the knife tool to divide larger areas into smaller, more manageable shapes. This helped me organize the layout and ensured all the pieces fit together in a way that made sense. Once I had my sections, I laid out text over each part to make sure I could include all the words I wanted to. After placing the text, I had to adjust the length of sentences, spacing, font size, and text box dimensions using add and delete anchor points to ensure everything was legible. This was one of the most time-consuming parts, but it was important to make the text look balanced and fill in the entire shape while still being able to read it. I also had to figure out how to change the color of my text, which was different depending on whether the text was made using make with top object or mesh. For some areas, like my nose and lips, I used make with mesh because it was easier to get the text to conform to the shape. Learning how to decide which shape should be made with mesh and which should be made with a top object are just some of the lessons I learned while completing this project. One tool that became useful was the option-command-C shortcut. As I became more comfortable with Illustrator, I worked faster and used shortcuts to speed up my workflow. I felt like I was getting it, and I'm happy with my final project. I think I am progressing well, but this project was harder than anything I’ve worked on before. However, after meeting with Professor Brennan, I was able to figure things out on my own, which gave me more confidence. The trial and error process was frustrating at times, but I learned a lot from it. Overall, this week was challenging but rewarding. I learned how to use the knife tool effectively, the delete and add anchor points, adjust text layout and spacing, and apply different color-changing methods depending on the tool used. I also gained a better understanding of make with mesh and how to use it for more complex shapes. Even though this project was more difficult than previous ones, I am proud of the outcome. I’m looking forward to applying what I’ve learned to the logo project and continuing to improve my Illustrator skills.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FMX210_Blog1_03/27_SMiller

  Weekly Blog Post 1 - 3/24 - 3/28 This week, we focused on gathering pictures for our logo project and working on our first deliverable. The goal was to find pictures that represent the five words we chose to describe ourselves and then narrow them down to three words that we connect with the most. This process helped give me a clearer direction for my designs. In addition to selecting images for our words, we also had to find materials for four other stylescapes—audience, typography, colors, and different logo marks and symbols. To find our images, we used a mix of online sources like Unsplash and the Adobe Stock Library, along with photos we took ourselves. This made the project more personal and fun because I got to look through my camera roll and find pictures that didn’t seem important before but now connect to my words like creative, loyal, and thoughtful. It was interesting to see how old photos could inspire my design. Looking for the right images also made me think more a...
Read more

FMX210_Blog1_02/27_SMiller

This week, I kept working on my calligram project in Adobe Illustrator. I focused on tracing different sections where I wanted to place words and learned how to use Envelope Distort – Make with Top Object to shape the text. By Tuesday, I had a black-and-white draft, but there is still a lot I need to improve before the final version is due next Tuesday. Adobe Illustrator is a program used to create illustrations and designs. This week, I used it to manipulate text and fit it into specific areas of my calligram. This process required a lot of precision and adjusting, which made it more challenging than other projects I’ve worked on. One of the main tools I learned was Envelope Distort – Made with Top Object. This tool allows text to take the shape of the object I created using the pen tool, which is the main part of my calligram design. My biggest struggle has been getting the text to fit exactly right within the shapes I created with the pen tool. It takes a lot of trial and error, and...
Read more

FMX210_Blog1_04/03_SMiller

  This past week, we worked on creating our stylescapes, first on paper and then using a digital template in Adobe Illustrator. The goal was to gather and organize our best and favorite images that represent different aspects of what we want our logo to represent. We focused on five areas: colors, fonts, audience, typography, and my chosen descriptive words; loyal, thoughtful, and creative. Putting together the stylescape was a fun process because I got to see my logo really coming together for the first time. For colors, I picked my top 4 favorite colors, and for descriptive words, I picked my top 2 or 3 from each word. I was drawn to really similar fonts like STARDOM so a lot of my fonts have the same visual design. For the audience, I pulled stock images of celebrities, clients, and people interviewing me, all people who would potentially see my logo. Seeing everything come together on the digital template gave my vision life and gave me a better understanding of the overall dir...
Read more