Self-Insertion: King Kong

For this assignment, I knew I wanted to put myself in a movie scene, I just had to narrow it down to one frame. I thought it would be awesome to put myself into a scene of the 2005 version of King Kong.  First, I looked at other shots of the movie, such as the girl in-between Kong and a T-Rex. However, when I found the image of Kong with Anne in his hand, I knew it would be perfect. I asked my friend to take a picture of me leaning over my computer chair, so it looked like I was grabbing onto something. Then, I used the clone stamp tool to erase Anne from the picture. After using the magnetic lasso tool to cut me out, I put myself over some remains of Anne. Then, I touched up part of Kong's finger using the patch tool, since it looked a little weird after erasing so much of Anne's arm with the cloning tool. For finishing touches, I used the burn tool around my hand and around some parts of my arm. The final product is hilarious and I can't wait to show my friends and family!

Darth Maul- "Darkness"

I named this piece "Darkness" because to me, it looks like Darth Maul is emerging out of complete black. I love the way this turned out, I have always thought Darth Maul had really cool facial features and design and am glad I finally got to do something with it on Illustrator. I used the mesh tool a lot to give the look that light is coming from one direction as well as being blocked out by his hood. It came out just how I wanted and am currently using it as my phone background! Below is the original image I used mostly for Darth Maul's face. I changed the look of it slightly by going with an all black background and by just showing some of his hood.

Illustrator Sketch: Exquisite Corpse

This is my version of one of the sketches we could choose to vectorize in Illustrator. At first I was just sticking to the sketch but then I was getting bored of his plain stomach, so I decided to throw a tuxedo on him. I also turned the clown shoes he was wearing into converse. I felt it was necessary to put the cat under a spotlight since he is so dressed up. I used a gradient for the spotlight and then made it appear for there to be a shadow on the floor.

Final Cerberus Logo

I came up with this concept for my logo after I had sketched the drawings for class. I incorporated the ideas of a silhouette as well as using a hot dog. I thought that the three headed dog would be a recognizable logo for the restaurant and to clarify what the product is, the hotdog in the background avoids confusion. I think the gray in the background works nicely with the colors of the hotdog and dogs. It doesn't overshadow it and they don't clash. I liked the class' idea to use a Greek font and loved the font Basileus on DaFont.com so I made sure I used it for the name. I think this file would be able to be saved as a PNG so the white would be removed and could be used on anything from t-shirts to napkins.

-Logo Sketches previously posted.

Guitar Calligram

I decided to do a guitar for my calligram because I love playing guitar. I also love the Beatles which is why I chose the lyrics to their song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" to make the shape of the entire guitar as well as the details inside. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out and I would definitely make another calligram sometime, I thought it was a lot of fun to make.

Logo Sketches

I decided to go with Cerberus Hot Dogs for my company and here are some of my sketches of ideas I have for my logo!

Logo Critiques

1. This logo is just a simple silhouette but it is still very memorable. Kids will recognize it as a Disney symbol and know that the movie is meant for them when the logo shows up before the film. Even without Walt Disney's signature, the logo is just as recognizable as a Disney figure. Recently, before films they have been using a really detailed CGI version of the castle instead of just the silhouette. They are trying to keep the logo as timeless as possible. 

2. I like this logo because it is extremely simple, on consisting of words with a simple font, yet it is still recognizable and memorable. The simplicity of the colors makes it stick out more than if it was just the words FedEx. I really like that an arrow forms between the E and X, giving the impression to the customers that their product is always moving forward. Even though the company stands for Federal Express, the abbreviation, FedEx, is catchier and more unique. This logo has great usability, it could be on anything at any size, from their planes and buses to a small package. It is very durable as well, I do not think they have ever changed their logo and since it is so simple, their logo design is timeless.

3. This company Quiksilver/Roxy was smart enough to release two separate brands, surfing gear/clothes for men and women. I really love how they simply used the Quiksilver logo, rotated and doubled it, to make the Roxy logo, which happens to form the shape of a heart. I think they used this for the girls to make it seem "girlier" and more appealing to girls for a surfing brand. The company has great durability, they have not changed either logo since they have released the company. Sometimes on t-shirts they will add textures and different colors, but never drastically altering with the logo.

4. This is the logo for the popular social media website Twitter. The website revolves around "tweets" which is why the creators chose a bird for the logo. I like this logo because it doesn't need any words to get it's purpose across. Which also makes it very universal. People from all over the world of different nationalities and cultures use this website, and all it takes is a bird and a recognizable blue color to be recognized. This logo is seen as small as an app on a phone or it could be on a huge billboard, it has great usability. They have only modified the bird slightly since releasing the website to keep it as up to date as possible.

5. Before XBOX was released, I had never heard the term before. It's name is so unique that you could never confuse the name with another company. When the gaming system first came out, their logo was slightly different. Now they have changed it to seem more futuristic and new. In this day and age, the words "XBOX 360" do not need to be there in order to be recognized. People from around the world use this system and clearly know the XBOX sign when they see one.