Ideas sketched for my awareness poster:

O'Pen: A Photomontage Album Cover

O'Pen

Irish Rock Band

O'Pen is an extremely unique band.  They bring old classic Irish music and Rock-n-Roll together as one.  It is beautiful, yet edgy.  This photo montage shows how normal, classic elements, can come together in a very unique, beautiful and imaginative way.

( Used well over 6 photos, all photos are mine or are from pixbay.com of which a I am a member)

These are some of my preliminary sketches for my photomontage:

Elements and Principles

       Mesopotamia was the birthplace of what we consider writing.  Mesopotamia is our oldest known civilization.  The writing system, we call cuneiform, was invented around 3500BC by the Sumerians.  The writings started out pictorial, and then became more complex.  We know this because luckily they used a lot of stone to carve and store their writings.

      Though much of what we learn from history had been documented on stone slabs or walls, things have changed tremendously.  Technology allows us to create and store whatever we could possibly imagine and dream up.  We now have hard drives, hard copies, thumb drives, disks.  I personally enjoy time capsules, and I create slides of my best works.

       Bitmap images are built with pixels.  Having pixels makes it easier for us to fix, restore, or alter images.  Vector images do not contain pixels, and can be resized larger or smaller without destroying the integrity of the object, it stays just as clean as it was.  When choosing the pictures that I use for my projects, I go for the largest images possible.  So, if anything, all I will ever have to do to an image is reduce it.  I will never use an image if I would have to make it larger, unless I am going for a pixelated look. 

       Almost always, I sketch out my ideas before I even look at a computer.  Many ideas, once sketched out, you can see automatically see whether they will work or not.  Honestly, after all of my sketching, I still pick two or three options and make them on the computer.  That way I can try different colors or texts, experiment a little to get the effect I want.  Sketching allows me to get the idea I want out, instead of staring at a screen waiting for something to come out.

Digital Art and Design: Tahamtan Aminian and James Victore

Posters are a great way of expressing oneself and getting the word out to people.  The poster 'And Our World is Still Alive' is one such poster.  Tahamtan used great techniques to capture the attention of smokers and the friends and families of smokers.

       This poster is very simple yet powerful, starting with the black background, the cigarette, the main graphic on the poster, pops out to you.  The work communicates the devastation that can be entangled with smoking cigarettes.  The words in the ash are one with the cigarette, bringing you into the ciggarete, its dirtyness.  Reading down the cigarette, such sadness and horror.  Starting at the top with agony, and eventually dwindling to the bottom with the word fatal.  "The progression begins at the top (the reason for being a smoker) and consequently burns down to the filter (the result of being a smoker),"  the Graphic Imperative.

       It is simple yet beautiful and straight forward.  The powerful use of colors and words give the point a more direct and stronger purpose.  It's not just saying quit smoking, it makes you feel it.

        Another great designer is James Victore.  His pieces are also straight forward.  I greatly enjoy Victore, he worked with some of the gaffers from my place of employment.  Watching the videos and seeing the pictures were great.  He designed 'Drunken Vessels,' they were fantastic.  He's so creative and a little out there.  I love and completely understand where James is coming from.  I am constantly writing, sketching, and drawing up my ideas throughout the day.  Whatever comes to me.  Honest, open and real.

       Many things have contributed to making me a better designer.  The fact that I am always jotting and sketching random ideas that come to me.  I also now take pictures of just about everything.  I like using my own pictures in my designs.  And just taking everything in from my surroundings, that has contributed to making me a better designer.

      

Image from CMOG

 My name is Nichole Lynn Cotter and I reside in the wonderful Crystal City.  I currently work for the Corning Museum of Glass, and am greatful to be surrounded by art on an everyday basis.  My goal is to eventually be a graphic designer here at CMOG, and to also have my own side business with graphic design.  For hobbies, I enjoy creating art using all mediums, visiting museums, strolling through nature, and sometimes I like to just sit on the couch cuddling with my daughter and watch tv.  I have 2 Associate degrees and am working on receiving my Bachelors, I have been a teachers assistant, soccer coach, and dance instructor.  My goals for this coarse are to become fluid and more advanced with Photoshop and the other Adobe apps.  Learning new things, experimenting, and growing.  My experiences in the digital art world include, but are not limited to, banners, posters, business cards and editing photos.  As far as my familiarity with photoshop, mostly I use it to adjust and perfect photos, in some cases, completely altering the photo for fun affects.  I know Mac is popular for use with graphic designers, but I prefer pc, as long as it at least has an i7 processor.  I am very excited for this class and look forward to learning more and working with my classmates.