Rock magazine

This is my official post for this week.

I design this just for layout practice. Because the article is about rock, so I want to make it strongly, firely and wildly. That why the color is really hot, typeface is destroyed and heavy and brush is quite messy.

Working procedure:
1. Fill the background with pure red. Then blend it with some yellow brushes, white brushes to make the "heat" (you can see from the middle to the top of the layout).
2. Place other elements in and change mode + opacity to make they look fit with the background behind.
3. Place the main text in. I make the border outsite the text in order to make it a little bit seperate from the background and image elements.
4. I place the typeface for the header in. I try to make a contrast between the Rock, Roll and the others in order to make them stand out and catch viewers eyes. Beside, they may add more "heat" to the poster because they are all destroyed fonts.

This is my entry for this week. Please feel free to comment. Thx :)
Minchu

Blending exercise

This is NOT an official post for this week. This is just an exercise in class in order to practice blending technique. Thx for enjoying. Feel free to leave comment here. :)

Minchu

[Typography] Quote "Creativity is ...." - Dr. Edwin Land

This is my official post for this week. I highly recommend that you should see it in a larger size at this link: http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee9/Achilliesin/quote-creativedesign-large.jpg

Note:Every week I will post an artwork which does not repeat the subjects of previous weeks. If it does, I will mark it "NOT official post".

This week I try to play a little bit with Typography. In this design, I use type to create theme and variation. However, this term is quite difficult to deal with and I actually have not enough skills + knowledge to make it look professional. So, I use haft unity, haft variety in this. :P

Working procedure:
I use Illustrator for this design.
_ I have a paper texture in my library, so I just use it.
_ I arrange the main text first: "an essential aspect of Creativity is not being afraid to fail". Then, make the 'focal point' of the whole artwork. As you can see, it's "Creativity". This may be called "unity".
_ However, after the second step, the artwork seems to be quite empty. So, I make a lot of text with various opacities to make a "theme" which supports the main text. This may be called "variety".
_ I export it as a JPEG file and then fix the color in photoshop. In fact, I make it more rough and dirty in order to show the "classical look".
_ Lastly, I save as two version: small one to post in this blog. Larger one to see clearer.

Please leave comments. I would love to hear your critical thinking. Thanks. :)

...P.S: We love you!

This is NOT official post for this week.

Once again, I make this version in order to raise the term I love: Earth Day - global warming... (as you can read in the 2 previous entries)

In contrast to the other entries, this time I make the meaning more cute, touchy, ... I mean more emotional. As you know, the Earth is usually called 'Mother Earth'. However, in this design, I 'turn' it into a "baby" and certainly, it is needed to be cared. 2 hands of the parents can represent 'human'. ...

In fact, I feel quite a bit sorry for myself when I can't post this design in previous week. Why didn't I think of this one earlier :((

Who eat this apple?

This is NOT the official post for this week. I design this just for relax and raise the term that I love: Earth Day - Global warming...

In this design, I use destroy font because I want to make it look like somebody shout at the viewers. For the word "Who", I make it more stronger than the other and make a light reapeated one behind in order to raise the question in the viewers' mind "...err, do I?". The word "Apple" I fill with the color of the image "apple" below. In my perspective, this just links the text and the image together.

To explain more to the point, the apple image I blend with the world map in order to imply the Earth. The whole meaning of this design is "the Earth is destroyed by whom?" Besides, I use question because I don't want to directly point out who destroy the Earth. I just want the viewers keep in their mind something.

Please leave comment. Thx. :)

Poster for the Earth Day

This is a official post for this week

We are getting near to the Earth Day, this 22th April. So, I make this poster to celebrate that day, one of the days I love in a year. This design is quite simple but it has a strong meaning, it tells you "harming the Earth is killing yourself".

Technical aspect:
1. I take picture of myself as usual (because I have no money to hire models :P ) . Then, removing the original background and make it black as you can see.

2. I find the heart and the Earth pictures through Google. Then, blending them together. The reason why I don't make it blue (color of the Earth) completely and leave red in some parts of the heart shape because I want to emphasize the idea that "people have hurt the Earth".

3. The blood I make is just for the purpose of making the design more horrible. I think beside 'sex', horrible things touch people's eyes and mind too. However, I don't want to make it too horrible because I still study in school. Something like that is enough, I may say.
Note: If you pay attention enough, you can see blood that dripping out the heart is flowing on the way to the text below (I want viewers to see my texts) :P

4. I don't want to leave too many texts in this design because the picture's meaning is strong enough to 'say' everything that I want to diliver to the viewers. The two lines "the Earth Day - April 22th" is to remind viewers about the day.

Consequently, this is my official design for this week. Please leave comments. I look forward to your ideas about this poster. Thx :)

3 fields that I would love to contribute my designing skills for

The question is that what things I will contribute myself for? (free - absolutely :D )

This is not the official post of this week. However, it's an exercise that my lecturer would like student to say about.

For the facts, those 3 fields that I would love to contribute are:
1. Global warming.
2. Charities for poor people.
3. Race-discrimination.

Reasons:
1. I put this idea on top of my list and promising that I would sacrifice myself for this. Why? The reason is because fresh air is running out, the global weather are getting worse and new diseases are appearing everyday. For the facts, if you take a second to look at people around you on the streets (particular in HCMC, I mean), you will see they are almost wearing masks and coats. Besides, everyday, the media says that new diseases appear and there have had no vaccines for them yet. In addition, via the media, we could see that the global weather is more terrible these years: flood, drought, earthquake and many more that people have to encounter every moment. Hence, I can help standing out and looking at those facts. I can help seeing people around me get sick and die everyday. I can't and I can't :((
Consequently, deep inside, I would love to do something to help people aware of those to make something better for the mother Earth....

2. I must confess that I have a better condition than many many people. Everytime I walk on the street, there have some beggars (esp. children) ask me for money. It's quite annoying but you stand back and raise a question: "What make those people to become like this?", you will feel more sympathetic to them. I really feel sorry when I look at them on the street and on the media. If I have a change to contribute my talent in any charity, I'm willing to do my best.

3. In my perspective, the people's right is equal. Although black and white are different between skins, and besides, the concepts of each might not equal, they are mammals, nothing more - nothing less! So, why there have discriminations? I watch TV and I see there still have a lot of discriminations around the world these days, in the 21st century, especially in Africa. Hence, this is a field that I would love to contribute my talent for.

Design is just a FISH

This is a design for my blog this week. Along this week, I have comprehended a lesson named 'gastalt'. A lot of examples about graphic design were there. Some are really really impressive and I love them so much. After class, I would like to design a poster like those (about the word "graphic design").

Technical aspects:
1. I searched for the fittest font that shaping the fish.
2. I used the font for word "idea" quite different (color and typeface). Just because I would have liked to emphasize the term that 'design' needs 'idea' a lot. In this way, it means 'creativity' also.
3. The Headline I just used to 'tell' the viewer my idea in this design and filled in the big blank above the fish.
4. I looked for some nice images about 'ocean'. Lastly, I chose the one that was 'good' for my layout. Then, make a blending as usual.
5. The reason why I leave whitespace quite 'big' because I want the viewers concentrate only on each lines that I typed. Besides, I think that it may make the viewers feel the immenseness of the ocean, which created by shape "Fish" I arranged.

Finally, here is my design for my Online Journal this week. Please feel free to comment. I would love to hear your critical 'voice'. Thanks.

Minchu

SunAndMoon

To complete this artwork, at first, I've searched over the Internet for the concept of the Sun and the Moon. In fact, they represent a lot of things to us. For example, War/Peace, Anger/Love, Intelligence/Wilderness and so on. In my case, I chose the concept of Good/Bad for myself. When my brain first had touched to that idea, I though over and over in order to figure out how to represent the Sun and the Moon that way in my design. Fortunately, I thought of a man.

The fact is that, a man always exists two characteristics deep inside his soul. Even though they may be different depend on that man, they are balance when he sleeps. So, I found this is the best way to give the meaning of the Sun and the Moon by showing the contrast between 2 halfs of a man face. The first bright half is represent for something good and the second one is vice versa.

Technical aspects:
1. I took the picture myself in front of a light green background. Then, cropped, retouched the image (shadow, light, etc.) and removed the background.
2. I searched over the Internet again to look for the elements I need (how to show the contrast)
3. I put all the elements together by using my blending technique.
4. The idea was nearly finished when I reached to step 3. However, the image was quite empty and had just 1/2 of meaning. That time, I tried to think of a sentence to fill in the design and make it more meaningful. Lastly, I wrote down the idea I had thought previously.

Finally, that's my design for SunAndMoon. Please enjoy and feel free to leave comments here. I would love to hear your critical thought. Thanks. :)

Reference:
_ NelMan, "Ms. Moon, meet Mr. Sun", May 2006
< http://www.flickr.com/>
_ TenOfSwords, "The Sun", May 2006
_ TenOfSwords, "The Moon", June 2006
<http://www.deviantart.com/>