My Art Show Ad

My main idea for this logo was to create a simple, pattern-like ad. I didn’t want to clutter the space with too much text or information. I started off my design ideas by actually looking up art show ads online and the ones I was drawn to had elements of repetition in the images they used so I wanted to move more in that direction. I took the same image of a cavalier in fighting stance that I used for the school logo and a way to tie them together. However, looking back on it I wish I’d used a different image. Maybe one that isn’t so aggressive looking, or at least that translated better into a pattern and didn’t leave so much awkward space. As far as the text goes, I wanted to create a clear distinction between the “ArtFair” information and the technical details such as date, time and place. I wanted the text for the ArtFair to look very interesting and different, and not so formal or traditional. I’m really pleased with the way it works and how it looks with the larger cavalier image in the background. In earlier layouts that I created, I actually just created a type of border with the little cavaliers that ran along only one side of the add. Then for the text, I incorporated black boxes and interchanging black and white text for the information. Looking back on it now that this version is posted, I really wish I had gone forward with my initial ideas. However, I really do like the idea of a repetitious pattern breaking up the space as is shown in an ad I found online that I posted in a previous post.

Awesome Ad

Sketches for logo

School Logo

I decided to create a new logo for my high school. Their mascot is a cavalier, so I really wanted to incorporate that idea more into the logo design. In their original logo, they only had the rapier to represent a cavalier which actually doesn't look all that bad in my opinion. However, since we had to change it I wanted to go into a different direction. I looked online for an image of a cavalier and I liked the ones I saw of them in a fighting stance, so I took one of those and created a path around it which I filled with solid black. Then I added the text in the school colors and did the shadow for each word in the inverted color. I played around with other design ideas and most of my other ones didn't incorporate images. I liked the ones with just text, but I felt that first of all they were too close to what the original logo design was and secondly I felt that the full figure cavalier was a powerful image. I realized that the multiple colors in it would create a problem and be too complex so that's why I decided on a sillouhette-type image to simplify it and hopefully create a stronger image. I stuck with a simple text because, again, I wanted to keep things simple and bold. Our school song is "The Fighting Cavaliers," so I wanted to embody that image of strength. Also, our school logo has always been simple no matter what it was, and so I wanted to stay with that idea. Hopefully this new logo turned out well.

Original School Logo

Illustrator image

Edited Self Portrait

I wasn't able to do much to my original image. It looks like I forgot to save a copy as a psd. file, so I only had the jpeg. version to work with. The first thing I did was to try and take away the black outline around the wedding photo. I used the smudge tool for this, which seemed to work pretty well. Then I used the magic wand tool to select the area between my husband and I in the wedding photo, where someone had mentioned a lamp post that was out of place. I played around with the brightness and contrast until I got an image that resembled the lighting of the background. Then I used the smudge tool again to soften the edges of my husband and I, and also to smudge the altered section so that you couldn't tell there was a lamp post in the background. I tried to do something about the blurred trees in the background, but that didn't work out so I cropped it, but I've also uploaded the before image since I'm not sure which one I like better. I also went back in both of them and made the whole image darker. I like the darker effect, and now that someone had mentioned it, I'm really glad that the lamp post is gone. I really wish I could have changed a lot more things, but for what I could do I definitely thinks it looks a little bit stronger.