Intermediate Computing for Design // How’d They Do That

First let me say WOW! I have 780 followers that are keeping up with my blog. I am astounded and humbled. Thank you for taking an interest in the artwork done by me and my students.

This class’s second project was called How’d They Do That.  Using Illustrator, they had to find a way to combine a typeface number with an animal in a creative way. All the shapes had to be pen-tooled, based on their original sketches.  Only two Pantone colors could be used, but were allowed to use the shades and tints of those Pantone colors. (What are Pantone colors? Watch a video HERE. Also see a delectable video of how ink is made HERE.) This project was good practice in demonstrating forced connections– taking two unrelated concepts and forging a relationship between them. This kind of conceptual thinking helps to broaden their skill in producing thoughtful, well-designed logos.

Below are some designs that were turned in. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was very pleased with their results!

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

6 by Bethany Smith

6 by Cameron Coleman

5 by Cara Moore

6 by Connor Booth

9 by Trent Furr

2 by Gerald Wicks

9 by Imani Smith

6 by Laura Leigh Hicks

7 by Ques Nevels

6 by Taylor Knight

Paper Art Gifts

Due to the number of art and graphic design classes I teach as a lecturer at Mississippi State University, I do not have a lot of time to produce paper art and freelance as I’d like to. When a gift-giving event comes up, I tend to take advantage of that time to practice my craft. I love doing to produce a natural look using plant inclusions– blending up flower petals, grass, and leaves in with the pulp. I also have been experimenting with ways to apply imagery to the paper. (Excuse my photography. I need to do better at documenting my gifted art.)

Laser-cut typography with black paper placed behind

Laser-cut typography with black paper placed behind

Spray-painted typography using self-produced stencils

Close-up

Spray-painted typography using self-produced stencils, and Sharpie dots

Hand-painted typography

Close-up

Hand-painted typography // Spanish for “You are Beautiful”

Hand-painted imagery

Booneville General Dentistry Logo

I have gone to Dr. Jeff Johnson’s dentist office for my dentist needs all my life. As Dr. Johnson is nearing retirement, Dr. Sam Hall joined as a partner. One summer day when I visited for my usual teeth cleaning, Dr. Hall learned I was a graphic designer. He explained he bought the business, was renaming it “Booneville General Dentistry”, and was looking for someone to design a new logo.

Dr. Hall really wanted his logo to incorporate a tree. I sent him two rounds of hand-drawn sketches, pulling the better ideas from the sheets below.

Dr. Hall narrowed the choices down to his favorites. Then I got to work on digital black-and-white mockups.

This one was the winner!

Over Christmas break I had my winter dentist checkup and got to see how the logo was applied to signage! It was a rare snowy day in Booneville, MS.

It’s really gratifying to do a logo for a business in my hometown and see it applied to signage!

–Branch MGR Logo

It has been a long time since I have featured something on this blog that I created!

Last summer my high school classmate, Andrew Branch, reached out to me about designing a logo for his songwriting ventures. Andrew is a smart, friendly guy with many talents and interests. While we were in school together, he was known as the guy everyone liked to be around. He also wasn’t shy to bust a move, especially when he was dressed up as our Blue Devil mascot! After high school Andrew studied Portuguese and Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy in West Point.

For nostalgia’s sake, here we are back in high school during homecoming week. (Look at those youngins’!)

Now he is based in Nashville and is crafting his songwriting skills that span an array of genres on the side. Give his awesome music a listen: https://soundcloud.com/branchmgr

In Andrew’s own words, he describes his primary musical inspirations to be….

The Beatles (genres they crossed in a short time), Stromae (his ability to make tough topics dance-able), Prince (for being an uncontrollable force as a musician and not giving a hot ham what people thought of him) and Otis Redding (for being the king of Soul and an electrifying performer)…..those four are the strongest influence on me, artistically.

With a mix of pop, rock, and even country music influences, Andrew needed a logo that could speak to it all and be true to who he is as a brand. Andrew wanted the logo to say “-branch mgr” (branch manager) as his way to sign off any music he wrote and produced with the concept that he will do what he wants creatively as far as genre is concerned. “Branch” is also his last name.

First, I researched design associated with his musical inspirations, general songwriting symbolism, and music label groups while listening to his songs on Soundcloud. Then I emailed him a series of sketches.

An icon I kept returning back to was a heart. Andrew has a big heart and his music is infused with heart, as well. He was surprised by that choice, and in his email response said…

Strangely, I hadn’t considered hearts…at all. hahaha. But, you may have me pegged better than I do.

Andrew picked his favorite 4 ideas for me to focus on with an explanation of why he liked each one:

Reasoning.

• 1, the treble cleft b should just be my personal emoji for all things in life. Haha

• The 27 represents, in my mind, a heart with walls, which is very symbolic to me as that’s how I approach songwriting.

• 23 is significant in that, my moniker is -branch mgr, representing my signature being on something means I’ve approved of it as quality

• 9, I just feel is reflective of life and a pulse…music is my pulse and as displayed there, it comes from the heart.

1

27

23

9

Then it was time to move on to digital black-and-white mockups.

This was the chosen grey scale logo:

Next was color. Andrew knew he wanted a blue scheme, but I threw in a couple other color variations for good measure.

This was the winner, shown with white and black backgrounds:

I also set the icon apart for social media purposes:

Andrew was a great client to work with! I wish him well with all his songwriting endeavors.

Be sure to also check out Andrew’s website and like his Facebook page!

Intro to Computing // Simple Logo & Resumé

Fall 2016: For Intro to Computing’s final project, they built simple personal logos (in Illustrator if necessary) and constructed resumes in InDesign. This project was meant to create an awareness of how much or how little they have accomplished during their first years of college, as well as give them a little experience with logo development and InDesign. Many of the students had not typed a resumé before, and they found this project useful as they prepare to apply for part-time jobs and post-graduate jobs.  The layout needed to be organized, easy to read, and fluid with a sense of style. Creating hierarchy with text was a new challenge for most of them, as they have not taken any typography courses.

As a new addition to the course project, we appreciated the resumé presentation and content critiques by Mississippi State University’s Career Center.

Below are some resume examples that were turned in. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was pleased with their results at this level of their education.

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website. Contact info is purposely fake for their protection.

3 sections

by Ashley Rude

by Austin Smith

by Carly Bond

by Hannah Livingston 1/2

by Hannah Livingston 2/2

by Kaitlyn Upton

by Kennedy Caldwell

by April Porter

by Bethany Smith

by Gerald Wicks

by Laura Leigh Hicks 1/2

by Laura Leigh Hicks 2/2

by Mary Emily Moore

by Parker Webb

by Allie Hanson 1/2

by Allie Hanson 2/2

by Meredith Morris

by Morgan Helton

by Ques Nevels

Intro to Computing // Impossible Reality

Fall 2016: For my students’ first Photoshop project, I wanted them to think outside the box and create an “Impossible Reality”. They had to gather their original photography and make new photos as needed to compose their surreal image. The main artist of inspiration was Eric Johansson. He is an incredible Photoshop artist, but also kind enough to post photos and videos to demonstrate his entire process, which is great for beginners to see. Like Eric, they needed to produce an image that tricks the eye to appear realistic.

Below are some examples that were turned in. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was very pleased with their results!

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

by Bryce Sheasby

by Hannah Livingston

by Kaitlyn Upton

by Brittany Riland

by Gerald Wicks

by Olivia Ketchum

by Allie Hanson

by Ann Gray Flowers

by Canaan Griffin

by Ques Nevels

Intro to Computing Art // OMG American Gods

Fall 2016: For students to refine their skills using Adobe Illustrator’s Pen Tool, my students accepted the challenge of the OMG project, as in “Oh my gosh, this is so challenging and time consuming!” But the effort is well worth the outcome.

In the past the theme has been to recreate a movie scene.  This semester to mix things up, the theme was to recreate a god or goddess in modern society. Students researched Greek, Roman, and Aztec mythological figures to learn about their core characteristics, and brainstormed how to apply them in our current culture.

They photographed themselves, friends, or family as their models. Then they used that photo as a template to make a vector illustration in Adobe Illustrator.  Tiny solid shapes make up the entirety of the photo to make a realistic representation.  They spent about three weeks on the project. The process is like creating a digital painting! Below are some examples that were turned in. I also included the outline imagery of a couple illustrations to show the number of shapes that were created to make up the compositions. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was very pleased with their results! These illustrations are sure to blow your mind!

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

Huitzilopochtli by Moesha Wright

(Outline of shapes)

Apollo by Allie Hanson

(Outline of shapes)

Poseidon by Kaitlyn Upton

Aeolus by April Porter

Aphrodite by Bethany Smith

Dionysus by Gerald Wicks

Karpo by Mary Emily Moore

Hephaestus by Parker Webb

Dionysus by Ryan Guillory

Hekate by Canaan Griffin

Hermes by Josie Goodman

Ninkasi by Meredith Morris

Demeter by Morgan Helton

Aphrodite by Taylor Knight

Intro to Computing Art // Creature Cartoon

Fall 2016: In Intro to Computing, students learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. In the past, their first project was creating an illustration based on an idiom in Illustrator. It was time to retire that project for awhile and try something new that challenged fresh ideas. This semester, I teach 3 sections of Intro to Computing for a total of about 40 students.

I am proud to admit that this new project was something I conceived on my own! For Creature Cartoon, each student pulled words out of separate bags– one for a physical trait, one for an action, and one for an emotion. Then they had to illustrate a unique creature that accompanied all those traits successfully in Illustrator.

After receiving their words, students brainstormed and submitted a series of thumbnails of their ideas, which were then narrowed down to their top three when I visited them in class one-on-one. Those three were turned into well-drawn comps that were drawn with Sharpies and Micron pens, and critiqued by their entire class. The best drawing was scanned into Illustrator, and vector shapes were placed on top. The focus of this Illustrator project was learning the Pen Tool and conducting organized layer management.

For even MORE fun, my students turned their illustrations into animated GIFs when we started the Photoshop segment. See how the GIFs turned out HERE.

Below are some illustrations that were turned in. All have aspects to be improved upon for their portfolio, but overall I was very pleased with their results!

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

by Andrea Osby: joyful, shell, smell flower

by Ashley Rude: curious, climb, short legs

by Austin Smith: bashful, antlers, upside down

by Hannah Livingston: bored, talking on the phone, sharp teeth

by Kaitlyn Upton: angry, fly, whiskers

by April Porter: webbed feet, anxious, float

by Bethany Smith: surprised, fly, beak

by Brittany Riland: mad, long arms, swing

by Chris Gates: sing, short legs, giggle

by Gerald Wicks: excited, climbing, long tail

by Laura Leigh Hicks: squishy cheeks, afraid, smell flower

by Mary Emily Moore: big eyes, broken-hearted, eat

by Olivia Ketchum: happy, sharp teeth, read

by Ryan Guillory: horns, exercise, lazy

by Allie Hanson: long arms, calm, unicycle

by Ann Gray Flowers: mane, bored, smell flowers

by Josie Goodman: squishy cheeks, joyful, upside down

by Meredith Morris: tentacles, mellow, float

by Morgan Helton: beak, sleepy, read

by Ques Nevels: grumpy, webbed feet, skate

by Sarah Ferguson: sad, jumping, shell

by Taylor Knight: big ears, bashful, eat

UPDATE: See GIFs created later during the semester here.

Self-Branding Studio // Spring 2016

I had the privilege to teach Self-Branding Studio again for Spring 2016. It was formerly called Advanced Computer Studio and was blogged about under this name in the past. However, I think Self-Branding Studio is more telling of what the class is about. These students are non-graphic design majors that want to focus on professional practice, and determine a “brand” for themselves to create personal designs for a logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. It is a helpful way to prepare upperclassmen for graduation.

This was by far the most diverse group of students I’ve ever taught in one class. They were all strong entrepreneur types! We had 9 students representing painting/computer science, landscape architecture, concept art, painting, photography, digital art, and business majors with a minor in art. Their career goals were even more diverse! More on that to come….

GUEST ARTISTS & BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS

Due to the number of differing majors and goals, there was not enough time to interview each guest as a class as done in semesters past. So this semester I assigned for the students to interview their chosen artist or business professional outside of the classroom in-person, by phone, and/or by email to get the answers they personally were curious about. They turned in their email conversation proof of determining an appointment time or plan to visit, their list of questions, and final notes from their time together. Then we took time to discuss as a class the high points of what they learned in their conversations.

FINAL STUDENT BRANDING DESIGNS

Students completed a personal assessment of writing exercises to determine how to brand themselves, and in turn designed their own logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. I am featuring the strongest work below.

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

Candace Moreau // Painting & Computer Science // http://candacemoreaux.com
Candace is a multi-talented girl with many interests. She’s working on her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with minors in Art, Piano, and French. She envisions herself to be a website coder by day, and freelance artist by night. For this class, she wanted to focus on her painting business. The watercolor turned out beautifully for her logo. To add a fun spin to her last name, she decided to add an X to turn Moreau into Moreaux.

DaVartay Miller // Landscape Architecture // http://glamourresidential.wixsite.com/homes
DaVartay is a big-hearted guy with a dream to flip houses and use them to build a positive community for families who are going through hard times. His Glamour Residential homes would provide quality, safe, cheaper housing to get them through their temporary tough season. The goal would be to provide other services to the families to help them rise above their situation and be able to comfortably move out and move on to even better things.

HuShawn Rambo // Concept Art // http://www.doperambo.com/
“Rambo” is a colorful guy that wants to pursue a career in Concept Art. To illustrate his many abilities, he developed the acronym DOPE to stand for Designing Objects and People for Entertainment.

Justin Gandy // Landscape Architecture
Justin wants to pursue a fashion design career, particularly in the contemporary urban clothing genre with his line Omni. He wants to offer quality goods at quality prices.

Ki’erre Dawkins // Painting & Digital Art // http://kd2767.wixsite.com/kierredawkinsart
Ki’erre is a skilled guy in painting and digital art. He wants to run his own artist studio one day!

Becca Chastain // Business major with minor in Art
Becca and her sister have the ambition of opening their own bakery together called Wells Bakery– a family name that is no stranger to being used for other family businesses. Becca is an experienced baker and has many creative ideas to set their bakery apart from potential competition with what they can offer. She envisions a family-friendly bakery by day, dessert and alcohol bar by night.

Sydney Van Leigh // Photography // http://sydneyarmer1.wixsite.com/mysite
Sydney is a gifted photographer that explores fashion, gender and style– particularly focusing on androgyny. She decided to go by her beautiful first name and two middle names to build her brand

Taylor McGhee // Fine Art // http://naughtpandachan.wixsite.com/naughtpandachan
Taylor is pursuing her dream of being a video game YouTuber under the name Naught Panda Chan, as well as an artist. She’s hoping to spread laughter and happiness to those who watch her videos.

Terrence Ewings // Digital Art
Terrence has a particular interest in producing digital art, and wants to run his own graphic studio one day.

I wish all of these students the absolute best of luck in all their endeavors!

* Special thanks to Professor Suzanne Powney for stepping in to teach this class at the start of the semester while I was on medical leave!

Self-Branding Studio // Fall 2015

I had the privilege to teach Self-Branding Studio again in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. It’s formerly called Advanced Computer Studio and was blogged about under this name in the past. However, I think Self-Branding Studio is more telling of what the class is about. These students are non-graphic design majors that want to focus on professional practice, and determine a “brand” for themselves to create personal designs for a logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. It is a helpful way to prepare upperclassmen for graduation. I taught 5 students during the Fall 2015 term for this class.

GUEST ARTISTS

We interviewed guest artists as a class who were chosen by the students. We communicated in person, by email, Skype, or conference call. This provides a great opportunity to learn tips from professionals to better prepare the students for a career in the arts.

First guest was MSU photography class of 2012 alum Blake McCollum. Blake gave advice for how to run a successful photography business in a small town, and how to network locally. At 26 years old, he is an encouragement to students that want to pursue a freelancing career directly after graduation.

Blake McCollum photography

Blake McCollum visits MSU students

Second guest was Vermont sculptor Chris Miller. Chris specializes in figurative and representational art carved from granite, wood, and marble. He tends to work at a large scale and had many interesting stories about his clients and projects. We Skyped and learned from his stories of trial, error, and success after many years working in the art business. We appreciated his transparency and honesty.

Chris Miller stone sculpture

Chris Miller Skype session

Third guest was British illustrator Yvonne Gilbert. Now living in Canada, Yvonne has experience illustrating children’s books, stamps, posters, and record sleeves with the most intricate colored pencil work. Upon research about her and her art, we felt pretty starstruck as we spoke to her by conference call. Celebrities own her original artwork as part of their private collections. She even has her own Wikipedia page! We loved her sweet humor and stories about how art shifted in relation to events throughout history, and played a part in her own style and business. She also described how she has made her living off her art without the help of a computer; everything she produces is hand drawn from start to finish. Like Chris, she shared the hardships and victories of a lifetime in art, and is proud to say she is an artist.

Yvonne Gilbert colored pencil illustation

Fourth guest was concept artist Jin Yung Kim. Jin makes art for video games, films, and animations in San Diego, CA. Most notably, Jin has done work for PlayStation! We emailed Jin our questions and received a thorough response about a career in conceptual art.

Jin Yung Kim concept art

Lastly, we emailed questions to California painter Michael Page. Michael’s work offers the viewer an optic alternative to the visual reality of life, as we know it. His imagery is rendered in a rich color palette of swirling and flowing shapes and line that create dynamic movement. He provided good advice for networking, and balancing family life with a home studio.

Michael Page painting

FINAL STUDENT BRANDING DESIGNS

Students completed a personal assessment of writing exercises to determine how to brand themselves, and in turn designed their own logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website.

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

Chelsey Johnson // Concept Art // http://chelseyjohnson.virb.com/

Haleigh Parker // Photography // http://www.haleighparkerphotography.com/

McKinnon Herring // Painting // http://mckinnonherring.weebly.com/

Megan Smith // Illustration // http://mes4209.wixsite.com/megansmith

Ronnie Thomas // Sculpture & Ceramics // http://rtworkshop.wixsite.com/ronniethomas

All of these students are now seniors or graduated! I wish them the absolute best of luck in all their endeavors!