02. branding

This project proved to be slightly more difficult than the first.  And by slightly more, I mean infinitely more.  difficult.  I wanted to continue with my idea of stage make-up.  Stage make-up is big and brash and bold and colorful.

I also thought about the texture of eyeshadow.  It's a light powder that is almost feathery -- which made me think of birds.  I consider the peacock to be one of the most colorful birds.  Just one of its feathers has a vast array of colors in it.  

I thought it would be cool if my ad consisted of a woman whose eye make-up was in the color palette of a peacock whose eye make-up slowly transformed into the bird itself.  

I played with various ideas, until finally settling on an idea:

I really like the idea of the half of the face and the peacock feathers spanning the page.  I wish I had done more with the slogan "FLY".  I feel that here it does not convey the same message that the rest of the image does.

What I really do like about my branding project is that I designed a case for the eyeshadow (shown in the bottom right hand corner) and an entire line of bird eyeshadows.  I included a Macaw, Tucan, and a Flamingo.

I hope that having created this general idea helps for our third project which is packaging design.  I hope I can find a creative way to properly package this product.

01. postcard

I have never had a more open-ended project than this before.  In our class we were given a category and told to chose an object from said category.  My category was "cosmetics".

"Great," I thought.  "I barely wear any make-up.  What could I possibly choose that I would have any knowledge about?"

It turns out I've danced since the age of three.  Because of this, I have performed on a stage since roughly five years of age.  And because of this, I have a basic knowledge of stage make-up.  The most expressive part of the body are the eyes which is why these are accentuated the most.  So, I chose eyeshadow as my product.

Once we had our object our instructions were to make a "4"x 6" postcard... expressing [our] reflection/analysis of the design/object using the written and graphic languages...."  What?! That's it?  Such an open-ended assignment!  

My original idea came out looking like this: 

I was trying to convey the idea of color and how the eyeshadow can become a palette.  I'm not sure why I couldn't immediately think to put the eyeshadow on an actual artist palette as this was my original thought, but through the creative process, I eventually wound up with my art palette postcard.

CRACK. Skull. bob.

Our instructions for this assignment from our professor was to review a few art design blogs and pick our favorite of the bunch and explain why it happens to be our favorite.  Knowing myself, I am not surprised I picked the one with the most absurd title: Crack Skull Bob.  The title alone made me smile, and once I began to read to the blog I was not disappointed.  Ruben Fletcher is pretty funny.  All of the comments on his drawings, pictures, sketches, etc. were witty and clever.  


I hope that my sense of humor carries into the critiques of my own artwork as Ruben's clearly does.  However, one could argue that I do not have a good sense of humor and should not aim to express that on a blog where I will be graded on what is written.  I think I might give it a shot anyways.


The thing that most appealed to me about Ruben's actual artwork is the humor that is portrayed in his drawings.  Perhaps I was attracted to this because I am jealous.  I find that my artwork is rarely comical and usually fairly straightforward.  I rarely cartoon and when I do I look at my final work and I typically decide that I shouldn't have bothered trying to cartoon in the first place.  Perhaps for one of our future projects I will try to do it entirely in a cartoony style.  Hopefully I won't get frustrated and throw it out...which is what normally happens.


The majority of Ruben's drawings are done in a cartoon fashion (mainly done on the computer, I believe).  I love this.  His sketch Reportage: Ferry shows this technique.  The humor in his stroke is apparent.  He does, however, have some sketches that are not as humorous in the drawing themselves.  His nudes, for one, have a formal and detailed feel to them, although his comments about the drawing themselves are filled with his voice.


My absolute favorite thing of Ruben's blog is his Sunday Morning Talking Heads.  These cartoons that he makes about politicians each Sunday are both clever and amusing.  They are brief sketches, but their existence each week really seem to tie the blog together.  I did not notice another blog we were told to look at that had something of this kind.  The closest thing was in Andrea Joseph's sketch blog where she drew a multitude of shoes.  But this did not have the same encompassing feeling that Ruben's Sunday cartoons have.


I hope to be able to allow for this same sort of expression of myself to come through in my blog -- not just in my artwork, but in my comments as well.  I would like my personality to come through.  And I'm not entirely sure I succeeded in doing so for this entry.  But, to be honest, I have all semester to work on it.  It'll turn up sooner or later.