Graphic Design
All things graphic design related.
Without getting into specifics, I went to Disney for a creative rollout meeting. It was only me and the junior designer that went for our company, my art director couldn’t make it. Look at me doing grown up stuff!
Not my portfolio, I’ve been out of school for a while but from time to time I get to go back to my old university to mentor/review/guide fellow graphic design students. Today was one of those days.
Today I got to go back and do a portfolio midterm review for a portfolio class of a fellow friend/mentor of mine. The class had about 15 students and all with high potential. Some were ahead of others but didn’t mean they couldn’t be at that level. I went through every single student’s portfolio one by one giving individual and group tips and feedback. They were asking me questions throughout the day and I was more than happy to answer.
I had so much fun doing so and I thankful for my creative director for letting me have the day off for doing such things. He actually encourages it. It amazes me the kind of work our youth is able to produce these days and for me to come out and help these kids refine their work for a better outcome was a reward in itself.
They really appreciated all the feedback I was able to give them. You could just see it in their eyes, both the passion and frustration they have for design. Which reminds me of myself when I was in their position which is why I love doing this. I know with today’s feedback that I gave them, the end result will be that much better.
Who knows? I could see myself teaching because I could get use to this view.
As always, been trying to keep the creative juices flowing by doing little projects here and there. Here’s one that I just finished. Still learning After Effects and it’s capabilities.
If you’re in or around the Greater Los Angeles Area, visit Little Tokyo in Los Angeles for it’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Click here for more info.
In this tutorial you will be able to take your flat package designs and mock them up in 3-D view using Adobe Illustrator. This is a pretty easy tutorial. This is something I learned at work since we always create mock-up images for our clients to view. It’s useful because it gives the client an idea of how the actual package will look like instead of sending them a flat file from Illustrator. Our clients don’t physically come in to see the designs so we email them images like this. This is good for people who want to show their package designs in their portfolio or mock them up in 3-D to show to your clients and what not. There are a number of uses for this. Of course, there is always the option of printing your design out and physically mock up the package design.
NOTE: I know, Toilette is spelled incorrectly. Too lazy to go back and recreate the tutorial.
STEP 1
First off design your package. Here you can see I have a simple 6-sided rectangular box.
STEP 2
Pull up your Symbols window (Window>Symbol). Now select the top panel and drag it into the Symbols window. A dialogue will pop up. Name it as “TOP” and click on “Graphic” as the type.
STEP 3
Do the same for the side panel. But before dragging it into the Symbol window, rotate it 90 degrees. Drag it to the Symbols window like the step before and name it, “Side” and make sure the type is “Graphic”.
STEP 4
Next, make a rectangle with the same dimensions (or same aspect ratio) to the front panel of your package design.
STEP 5
Now pull up the Extrude & Bevel window by going to 3D>Effect>Extrude & Bevel.
STEP 6
Click on “Map Art” and a window will pop up. You will see that the front panel is now highlighted with a red line/stroke.
STEP 7
From the Symbols drop down panel, select your Front symbol. It should be towards the bottom. If necessary, click Scale to Fit.
STEP 8
Click the “next” arrow in the Map Art dialogue till you see the side panel get highlighted in red and do the same thing you did for the front except use the “Side” symbol.
STEP 9
Do the same for the top.
STEP 10
You are now done. If the panels aren’t to the right proportions you can modify the Extrude Depth settings. After you do that you have to go through the Map Art again and redo “Scale to fit” on the respective panels. It takes some tweaking and tinkering with to get it good or even perfect. Here you can rotate it to your liking and add perspective if you want. Just keep playing around with it.
Note: If you designed a package in Photoshop you are not out of luck. Simply create PNGs of the respective panels and bring them into Illustrator and drag those PNGs into the symbols window.
Again, if you designed a complex design in Illustrator where you couldn’t simply drag the panels to the Symbols window just export the entire file as a psd, jpg or png. Then open it up in Photoshop and create PNGs of the panels there.
I haven’t updated at all lately because I started a new job a little more than a month ago as an in house graphic designer at a local outdoor equipment manufacturing company. It was pretty hectic at one point because I had two interviews at different places and one place wanted to hire me and the other one called me back for a second interview. The second interview seemed promising but I couldn’t wait any longer as the local company needed someone as soon as possible.
I’m still doing freelance on the side like I am right now. But I’m keeping it to a minimum. If it gets to be too much I have a few friends who are more then willing to take on the jobs. Besides, they need the experience and exposure. I don’t want work to get in the way of life. It has definetely put a dent in it but I’m not going to let it get in the way. I still go out and see my friends after work or on the weekends. I’m still messing with my car as much as I was before the job. I’m still eating as much as I was before the job and I’m pushing myself to work out every other day when I get home from work, even if I’m tired. I’ll try to write more, till next time.
I recently added the new Tron Legacy (unofficial) movie poster design to my website. I created this all from scratch, no images whatsoever. All vector images that were brought into photoshop. I saw a few people making their own variations of this upcoming movie, so I decided what the hell, I’ll make one too. If Disney sees this, please hire me! Or at least buy this design from me =)
Currently working on a new freelance job I picked up. It’s for a home remodeling service. They need the whole nine yards. Logo, business cards, various identity related items and a website. It’s going good. I almost got the logo finalized. The client is being pretty laid back and letting me take the driver’s wheel on this one. I love it.
