Final Portfolio: Final Word

Today is our last day in Digital Software and Processes (DSP), well unless you count Final's day in which we are having a breakfast/party.  I'd have to say despite the amount of projects and work we put in this class it still went by pretty fast.  I know, how cliched.  Unfortunately due to a number of factors I am no longer an art major.  I've dropped art to a minor and picked up Computer Science, my previous minor, as my new major.  I just think it fits me better.  DSP however has been the most influential and helpful art class that I've taken over the last year.  It will really help me even in a Computer Science environment in a number of ways as subtle as they may be.  

I was talking with my dad on the phone the other day and he was telling me that it was a very great exercises to be taking computer classes and art classes as they work both sides of the brain. My dad who works at the State Health Center works in a computer environment and has told me that some of the smartest people he knows are total slobs when it comes to being organized or creative in their work.  If you can be a creative programmer you have a lot more potential than some one who just follows along with everyone else.

My history teacher also commented on my major switch.  He gave me a very down to earth comment.  He said that my major/minor combination was very unique and that I should design computers.  I think he was taking a comical approach to the whole thing but it was a serious thought that I appreciated deeply.  I would like to work with art but I think I'd like to do it for myself instead of being pressured by someone else.  I'm OCD enough as it is so I'd be a rather hard client for myself.  I like to draw little comics and customize my personal space at home so I could definitely see myself as the guy with the coolest office in a computer business for what thats worth.  But seriously, learning how to use Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign has been very intriguing and will definitely be useful for business and social tasks alike.  

So before I sign out for the last time I'd like to thank Mr. Nelson, my professor, who despite having me go to class at 7:30 AM, was very helpful and friendly throughout the semester.  I won't be back in the art building next semester but after that I hope to continue my minor with a few more classes down the road.  I hope you all have enjoyed this intellectual trip through a semester's worth of DSP classes.  I thank you and present my final portfolio.

Final Portfolio: Photoshop Proficiency

My best example from Photoshop is my Mood Presentation project shown here.  I chose laziness as my mood and had a fun time coming up with the concept.  I used a lot of clipping paths in this project along with masks and transparencies to create the echoing effect you see on most of the objects. Everything was laid on this cool clock background that I found online. After piecing all of these together I added a blue gradient over the entire thing to create a hazy sleepy feel.  I like the infinity sign in the center quite a bit because it was orginally just an ordinary symbol but then I added a cool neon effect and some blurs to it and it came out looking quite original.  I just really like the look of this project.  All of the clocks and the infinity sign, wishing their was time for everything.  I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Final Portfolio: Illustrator Proficiency

This portfolio entry is from my Dream Ride project from first term.  I chose it because of the sheer amount of work that went into it.  While the overall look is quite nice, it's attention to the little details and shadows that most stood out to me when looking back on it.  Using Illustrator it was nice to be able to use the gradient mesh tool to simulate those rounded corners of the car.  Transparencies and shadows also played a large role in adding some realism to the windshield and floor.  This was my first completely regulated Illustrator project where I took care of all my nodes and their placement, making sure there were no incomplete paths or errors anywhere.  Looking at it now it looks a little dated as I have been working with the Illustrator frequently since then but I still enjoy seeing it and asking my friends and family if they can tell it apart from the real car at a distance. That's always fun.

Final Portfolio: Indesign Proficiency

    For my best Indesign project I chose the magazine spread rework.  We had to find a magazine spread and copy it down into Indesign as best as we could so we could see how much work goes into something like that.  I chose this interview from an art book that I have.  It's an interview with the level designer for the very illustrative Prince of Persia video game released last year.  I picked this spread for its content as well as its aesthetics.  I really liked the concept art that was presented as well.  While creating this spread I had quite a time figuring out the typesetting while keeping it all within the margins.  I wasn't sure what font or size they used so I did my best to duplicate it.  The pictures after being scanned in turned out quite nicely and I was pleased with their overall quality.  The page numbers, corner designs and logo were all made within Illustrator and ported over.  I spent a lot of time going over the specific files on this project.  Making sure all links were in CMYK and at proper resolutions.  All of this combined effort leads to a very solid presentation I'm glad I could share with you.

Final Portfolio: Most Creative Concept

Looking back on the multitude of projects we had to do it was a little hard to pick the most creative concept because I'd say that most of the projects we did involved quite a bit of creativity.  I chose my Mood Presentation because we were given basically nothing to go on.  No pictures were given to us, and we were basically told to just go and do it.   I picked laziness or procrastination as my mood.  I thought I would use clocks because when I'm procrastinating I tend to look at the clock a lot whether or not that is a good thing is hard to tell.   Also if it has to do with time what else can you really use to illustrate that besides a clock?  So I decided to use a lot of different clocks and arrange them in an effective manner.  One of the cooler things that I did while creating this composition is the reversal of the bottom left clock.  It says it is 80:01 well it really began as 10:08 and  I just flipped it which I thought was pretty creative and unique.  Also adding the infinity symbol added to the procrastination mood as I wish I had an infinite amount of time so I wouldn't have to procrastinate in the first place.

Final Portfolio: Typesetting

For my typesetting example I chose 

my redone Magazine Spread.  I had to type in the copy myself then I had to find a similar size and font to fit everything into the layout.  Setting margins and tabs while controlling leading made for a very interesting job. For some reason my tabs were acting oddly when I started the formatting but in the end they decided to cooperate with me.  I tried to get the paragraph

form and text to line up as close as I could with the original and in the end it didn't turn out too bad.  Luckily there wasn't too much in the lines of text wrapping around photographs.  There was a small issue with size though.  It took me a while to adjust the point size and leadding so that the text would fit but would also look similar in size and style.  

My favorite part of the typesetting was probably going in and adding the extra text throughout the layout.  Anything from the super easy page numbers to the picture caption and title heading, it was fun because it was fairly simple, usually just messing with colors and type faces, and it really helped add resemblance to the original piece.

This piece in my portfolio was a tough choice.  I had a few other projects to choose from that had a lot of text flow but because this one gave me the most trouble I decided to choose it because overall I was just as pleased with the result when I was finished and that means something to you when your finished.

Final Portfolio: Structure

I thought that my best example of structure came from the Chili Cook-Off poster.  The simplicity of black and white really helps you focus on the layout and structure because you aren't distracted by color and other details.  I really liked this layout because of its simplicity but also because of its not entirely symmetrical feel.  It looks very clean and organized but there is enough asymmetrical kinks thrown in to offset it and make it interesting.  Also I thought the chili pepper illustrations and the font went very well together.  When I look at this poster it just seems as good as it can get layout wise.  I can't really think of anyway to improve it in the slightest which is better than I can say about some of my other projects.  There's almost always some little thing I could tweak if given the chance but not on this one.