Final Project: An Artistic Perspective

Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/268593998         Password: final

For my final project, I decided that the best way to reflect who I am and what I do was to focus entirely on my work.  Even so, the work I chose to focus on was not my biggest, as my main pieces are usually much larger window installations, (I work now as a visual display artist) BUT I wanted to focus on these small works of art because I believe you can really see someones talent most of all in the smallest details. (plus if I don’t make something about my smaller works now, I’m afraid I never will) So this video is doing just that. I know we had previously discussed adding my voice over the music answering some questions about myself, but after adding the voice audio into the video I was entirely dissatisfied because it messed up all the timing with the music, sounded poor quality (I don’t have anything good for audio recording), and I genuinely didn’t feel like what I had to say was adding any depth to the video. It felt inauthentic, so I left the sound as it was with the music alone. I know there is more potential for ME, but I think even without much of literal me it’s still a strong video in terms of showcasing who I am- plus I’m naturally a very quiet and relaxed person and I think that’s the exact vibe of this video. I’d love to one day expand on this and get the larger works in it too, but for now I’m very happy with what I’ve created!

“Create your own film” – The Lonely Book

VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/263978268  PASSWORD: book

I made a short little film about a book who is left back on the shelf after a brief moment of attention, so it decides to take it’s fate into it’s own hands. For my film I wanted to try  simple animating with basic shapes and the animation feature in Premiere Pro. While it was quick to learn, it took a lot of patience. Unless I slowly moved the individual shapes with each frame, they would float around in odd places when the video played. In some cases this is noticeable in the video, but in others I think I did very well, such as when the book is flipped around on the floor. Besides the animation feature, I already feel very comfortable with Premieres text and audio tools, as well as arranging and editing clips, so those aspects were done with ease.

Oblivion: Typography Video Edit

My video edit is kind of a music video for the song “Oblivion” by the artist Grimes. I’m able to use this song because it is for my own educational purposes and not to be shared publicly. I took a bunch of grainy, poor quality home videos I’ve taken over the last few years and edited them together to create this odd little video. It’s a strange song with bizarre lyrics and I think I subtly captured that, while also bringing some comfort to it. I’m most proud of how I used blend/multiply to create words out of some of the videos. The most difficult part was definitely timing some of the words right, especially because she talks SO FAST.

3D Experimental Narrative

My 3D experimental narrative is most obviously based on life and death. When I first approached this assignment I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. However, upon finding such a beautiful model of a bed I started thinking about how we spend our lives trying to attain ultimate comfort- whether that be through things like a large house, nice clothes, the best electronics, a fast car, or vacationing spots. We spend all this time focused on attaining these material goals only to be a few years from death by the time it’s all achieved. When that time comes, everyone ends up in the exact same place anyway. For this reason, I played on the concept of comfort continuing into death, and how it looks so silly and pointless. You realize when you see that a comfortable bed and a beautiful view don’t even make a difference after death, that the whole idea of chasing after it in life shouldn’t be so important. Yes, people definitely have a right to chase smaller dreams and find comfort in their lives, but they should make sure that they don’t spend all of their precious time on earth focused on only material and possession. Because one day all of that isn’t what is going to matter, it’s the impact you left on the world that will matter.

Cheers

This assignment felt pretty easy for the most part. The only thing I found difficult was the texture options available. I feel like Photoshop’s “gold” option isn’t very accurate to a reflective object even with it’s properties tweaked. Otherwise, matching the font itself was simply a matter of mixing a couple different fonts together and then manually making subtle changes to the “source” object in “edit source” with a paintbrush. It was definitely enjoyable to try and match the custom font as close as possible.

Starbucks Advertisement

When researching The New Yorker, I noticed it’s content was often very artistic but never took itself too seriously. Therefore, I tried to do the same with my Starbucks advertisement. It’s definitely more on the playful side than The New Yorker, but would’nt that make it more noticeable? For my theme, I took advantage of the nearest upcoming holiday and I’m actually very proud of the tagline I ended up with! (Because coffee is brewed in pots, ha.) I’m realizing with each assignment I do for this class that I’m really taking a liking to the font Futura. It’s so crisp and clean and looks really great in any variation.

Sunflower Seed Package Design

As soon as I saw that sunflower seeds was one of our package design options I was set on it because sunflowers are my favorite flower! I came across a beautiful texture found here for the background pattern.  I cut it into a basic seed envelope template on Illustrator and then messed around until I was happy with the design of the label. I added a free vintage botanical illustration that framed the center nicely. In the center, I used a sunflower vector I edited so that it looked as if it was stamped onto the package. For the text, I used the font Didot but varied the “brand” text from the label text with italics and all caps to create more interest. The name “Summer’s End” came to mind because that’s when sunflowers are typically in full bloom and I thought it had a nice ring to it.

[Business] Landing Page

For my landing page I started out with a photograph I took. My first idea when I picked it was to use the picture frame as a base for the subscription entry, a feature I noted on many of the landing pages I saw when researching. I loved the idea of writing on the wall so I drew one of my favorite original characters and tied that into the sub-title. I think that while I don’t have any other work visible on the page, she is a perfect example of what I love to do: Cute and silly character designs. Plus, my theater design minor, while not advertised, often has to do with furniture and visual displays, which ties into the painting. I think this landing page leaves the visitor with just the right amount of information to peak their curiosity and want to see more, thus prompting them to enter their information. I included some social media icons to allow easy access to my other pages and hopefully prompts people to follow those platforms as well.

Jon Roman Layout Design

I interviewed Jon Roman for my InDesign layout assignment. He said he had total faith in my artistic judgment but that the one thing he wanted was lots of pink. I decided to use one of his self portraits as a backdrop on the left page and let the text slightly overlap it. Considering the image depicts him submerged in water, i thought having the text partially covering him wasn’t taking away from the picture. On the right page, I used three of his pieces that fit the color scheme and framed them with more text. I liked the look of letting certain aspects run off the main area into the white of the page, such as the pink frame. In order to create a subtle balance to this I made the dot on the J in Jon run off the main area on the left page as well. I chose to use a photo of palm trees behind the text on the right page because I felt this sort of neon-Miami vibe from the color scheme and thought it fit nicely.

Logos

 

 

My logos I designed for class. I designed this logo so that depending on it’s orientation the image changes. It can be the letters “BC” or a pair of windows with curtains. I prefer darker color combinations but the design allows for any triadic combination to work.