Yoga history poster version 6

Yoga history poster version5

Yoga History poster version4

History poster version 3

History poster version 2

Comprehensive

Styles

Commemorative Stamp

Stamp Design: Creative process: Photoshop iterations, continued

I began experimenting with balancing the composition with more magenta. I used the hand-rendered traffic light circles superimposed on a Photoshop 'shape' of a contrasting color. I then utilized drop shadows to emphasize informational elements, and introduced a longer tagline at the bottom of the stamp. This creates an L-shaped border along this side of the design. Along the way I learned what 'use global light' means while applying drop shadows, particularly when attempting to orient them in different directions.

Creative process: Photoshop iterations

Voila the progression, thus far, of proposed my stamp designs. I am using a limited palette of bright colors and simplified shapes, taking cues from Matisse. The blocky font style 'Nova' was downloaded from fontspace.com and used to write positive, forward-thinking messages within the stamp. This font style was inspired by those used in Milton Glaser's work. I began experimenting with repeated shapes for a Matisse effect.

Thumbnails

These are twelve thumbnail sketches I hav done. I am interested in pursuing the idea of the #12 sketch, portraying a traffic light, person on a bike, and stylized flowers.

Stamps: historical examples

I am taking a modernist approach to the stamp design. These images speak to my vision.

Clockwise, from top left:
Le Bateau, Henri Matisse, gauche on paper, 1954
This uses line to suggest of movement and atmosphere. It is simple in its construction but intriguing in how the audience must draw from abstraction to see what the image conveys.

Moyra, unknown artist, ink on paper, contemporary
This is suggestive of a figure, and uses only one line.

Le Lanceur de Couteaux, Henri Matisse, paper cut-out, 1947.
This is a study on shape and color. The repeating patterns add unity to the piece, while the figures are suggestive of human forms in motion. Negative space is boldly manipulated.

Sketch for a building, Frank Gehry, ink on paper, 2005.
This line drawing is evocative of built forms in a landscape. The line at the bottom suggests dimension to the landscape, as it comes toward the viewer.

Diagrams for Lovejoy Fountain, Portland, OR, Lawrence Halprin, ink on paper, 1990s.
This is a whimsical diagram which uses strong colors and loose lines to make very specific suggestions about the place and to label what things are. The arrows evoke movement, and the difference between a section view and a perspective, along with their differing scales, allow the viewer to understand the space in multiple dimensions.

Stamps: archive

My three favorite designs among these are:
-The pink butterfly stamp
    The central image is of a pink butterfly, with a factory below it in grayscale.
Its denomination is 50 cents. It is from Israel. It references the environment. I am not sure what year it is from, because the date is written in Hebrew.

-The wheelbarrow stamp
The central image is of a wheelbarrow, silhouetted against an agrarian landscape. Its denomination is 44 cents. It is from the Netherlands. It references inventions, in this case a 'bugaboo'. It is from 2007.

-The cycling stamp
The central image is of several people riding bikes. Its denomination is 50 cents. It is from Italy. It references a cycling race. It is from the year 1967.

version 3.0

This is my final rendition of the design. I made 'contrast' larger and lighter in order to fill up more of the negative space surrounding the world and to create more negative space within the text itself. I made the text lighter than it was because the surrounding text is in a lower key. I also reversed the backwards 'f' of 'flow' to its alphabetically correct position; this invites the eye into the composition.

field2

I updated portions of the design after peer review.

Now, alignment is on the 'horizon'; the letters of 'repetition' fade in opacity from foreground to background; contrast hangs on its own.

Field

I have selected this image becauseI think that it makes most creative use of the concepts, and evokes the most emotion from the audience. I think that the rule of thirds is used well in this composition, and that each concept is acting as its implied meaning.

Write-up: Creative Process

 My first sketches of the concepts themselves were most successful when they were easily understood, at a glance. I tried to play with the idea of how these concepts are seen in nature; thus, ‘repetition’ became written many times over in the shape of blades of grass, ‘flow’ as flowing waterfalls or streams, and ‘balance’ as a sin curve, with ‘a’ at the fulcrum. These would inspire how I used the concepts within the composition.

Next, I started investigating the problem of illustrating the concepts within a picture plane. I started with very simple shapes to illustrate emphasis, contrast, and balance. I experimented with what portions of the page would be taken up by different shapes. The most important elements were always at one of the four apexes of the rule of thirds grid. This helped me to understand the importance of placement within the picture plane. I began labeling shapes with what concept they were illustrating, but I only did this after drawing the shapes themselves. I drew inspiration for designs from imagining different scenes, some of which were images of real things.

My next two trial pages of sketches further pushed the idea of illustrating the three core concepts. I couldn’t shake the idea of drawing something literal, or at least an image abstracted from a literal scene. Thus I drew things that looked like a moon over a textured field, a shape hovering over a dark hill. I wasn’t entirely happy with these things yet, so I kept abstracting things further. I started to play with the idea of words themselves being images.

This new thinking helped advance my designs. I tried hard not to make compositions that were too busy, as I felt the concepts piling up on each other. I didn’t want to just write the word “balance” and have it not balancing anything; I didn’t want to create anything arbitrary.

My final thumbnails are all different from each other, but the ones I like the most come together as a whole.

The two that I have been experimenting with on Photoshop are different from each other, with some similarities.

The first image locates ‘balance’ like a field that disappears into the horizon, taking up the bottom third of the page. The letters spelling ‘balance’ have each been manipulated to create a sloping effect. ‘Emphasis’ is a heavy round object hovering above, like a sun or moon. This is located on one of the four apexes of the ‘rule of thirds’ grid. ‘Contrast’ is a vertical column on the same level as ‘emphasis’, but is more rectilinear than anything else portrayed. ‘Flow’ is deconstructed, and serves to frame the ‘field’ with a leaning backwards ‘f’ on the left hand side, a horizontal ‘l’, a stretched-out ‘o’, and a slanted ‘w’ that looks like mountains on the horizons. Some have said that this composition has a ‘landscape’ feel. I enjoy the idea of some things being emphasized, balancing, and contrasting each other in a natural setting. I am happy with this composition, and will continue to play with the elements and see if I can enhance it. Perhaps it will inspire another design similar to itself.

The other composition that I am experimenting with (second image) is more abstract. A giant letter ‘A’ is at the top right hand apex of the rule of thirds grid, with ‘emph’ and ‘sis’ written in small letters on either side. ‘Balance’ has been deconstructed into a triangular shape at the bottom left hand side of the grid, ‘balancing’ the emphasized object. ‘Contr’ and ‘st’ are written backwards below and above the emphasizes letter A, with ‘align’ and ‘ment’ just below and flush with the outer edges of backwards ‘contr’. There are ‘A’s all over the page, in varying proportion to each other and some at odd angles. These are repeated images of the emphasizes object, and look like abstracted birds. The letters spelling ‘repetition’ are within the triangle of the letter “A”.  These ‘birds’ are my favorite part of the composition, as they add a playful element to the piece. I also like how abstract this composition is- how singular ‘A’ is, and how ‘balance’ works as a shape, versus a word.

Two thumbnails, post-sketching

           First image

Second image