Week 1: Learning Adobe Products + First Design Concepts

 Learning Editing Software + First Designs 


After learning some basics in adobe illustrator, I was able to create my first product after sketching a banner and some candles along with fitting one into the text design. I was able to play with the color gradients as well to mix colors. I had some prior experience with photoshop and sniping things onto other images, but as far as creating original designs in illustrator, I was not as familiar. I began with the outline pen tool to trace some images. It was important to learn the difference between a vector file and a raster file. A vector file is essentially a bunch of small shapes that make up an image and it can be stretched as big or as small as you want without losing digital quality. A raster image is like the one you snip off google and when you stretch it gets distorted. It is best to work with vector files when composing pieces in photoshop and illustrator. In my first few mock ups of design sketches I really liked the Allen and Ginter vintage design that I highlighted in my previous blog post. The water color stain and vintage photo on top is a design that has some cool detail yet is simple. In my first mock up, I attempted to combine this with a more modern golden card design and look. The colors dont go great together, but it is just a start. The color swatch in the background flows nicely with the motion of the picture. The hawken logo is set on a golden banner to help it stand out. The name is written in a signature type font to make it seem more like an autograph. All of these took some playing around and trail and error mixing and matching different fonts with colors etc. For my first mock up, I am fairly proud of what I was able to do. 

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