VAGD 245 Final (2012)

So I just finished up the final project in my VAGD 245 class. I was overly excited about the project and now that it is done I am very pleased with the way it turned out. One of the department wide projects is to create a functional CD packaging that reflects the artist's style and sound. Since I was loving the Lana del Rey CD 'Born to Die' I decided to choose her as my artist and create a vintage, yet expensive, and slightly dangerous feeling package. I worked with the image for the front (an image I found on the internet) and then some images my brother took in South Africa. I used a geometric sanserif typeface, something modern i guess. I researched the 60's and 70's and tried to make the photos look older. I was convinced I would make some type of vinyl record and base my design around that. Through class critique and the views shared by me teacher I decided to just do an EP or 7in vinyl record, which would only hold 4 songs. The rest was just refining the images and placement to help it all work together. I considered many different ways to add the lyrics for each song, but in the end decided that 4 separate lyric cards would be something people could also use and take out and have separate. I used images from 2 Polaroids I took a few years back and 2 old photos my Dad took from Hawaii. I also created 4 images in Illustrator (the diamond, the shell, the radio, and the rose) and used those throughout my design. I did 2 test prints and a final print, cut folded, and glued it all together and DONE!

Happy Birthday My Friends

Happy Birthday my friends. 
Facebook is a beautiful thing. One of its finer parts is the Birthday Adviser that tells you each day who's birthday it is. Since this has been happening for a while people know can easily post on your timeline to wish you a happy birthday. For example on my birthday this past April 107 people wrote on my timeline. 

But then again, since it is so easy it is also easy to look like you just typed 'Happy Birthday' thanks to the reminder and that is it. I try to post a picture on their timeline or make something quick to add. I thought I would post them here just because I want to post more stuff more frequently. 

 

 

Pinatas

I said I would post more, so here is something new. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone, and in honor of that I am posting some pictures of Pinatas. The first is from my mission in Mexico. I had made pinatas before and when the branch was putting together a Christmas party I offered to make the pinata. It took some work, but each night and on P-days I would work on it a little. The next is a pinata of me. In my last area the members wanted to throw me a going away party, so I offered to make a pinata. I had planned to have a little balloon head, but it popped, and so did the backup I had, so the family ripped off the head of an old doll and we put it on. Good times. This year I wanted to throw a Cinco de Mayo party, but my friends were going to be gone, so we decided to have a Cinco de Abril party. It was loads of fun, but I, like i had before, offered to make and bring a pinata. I tried to do something simple and traditional; un burrito, but its hard to make something really great on a poor college student budget. Pinatas are a lot of fun to make and design, but I have to admit, it is sad to see little children so eager to beat your art to pieces. *sigh*

Lana del Rey

I have recently been obsessed with Lana del Rey. She is a up and coming singer-song writer with a very unique style. I listened to her album 'Born to Die" on Spotify and then I just had to buy it. I had wanted to paint her for a while, just because of her unique look, but my first sketches and trials did not look anything like her, just pointy nosed girls with flowers in their hair. These however got much closer to her look. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEwDCPv0GVU

Thank You

 I decided that I will try to post more, even if it is something little, or a sketch, or whatever. Here are some Thank You cards I made for some people I stayed with. They are very similar to the Birthday card I made a couple years ago. (http://haydendavis.blogspot.com/2009/05/card.html). I made some gnome ones, but it didn't really make sense on a thank you card....so I changed them to this.

Spaceman

One of my very few Personal Projects. I was looking online and thought the vintage spacesuits were so cool . I did some sketches and got into this one pretty quick. I started out with watercolor, but it soon turned into a mixed media project. The spaceman and suit are watercolor, the sky ink, the stars acrylic, and the face/screen acrylic guash. It it only 5.5"x 8.5", but I like it, and you all do too. 

Here are the pictures I used as reference for the spacesuit. And, as I was looking on Pinterest for nothing in particular I ran across this Vintage Japanese picture, which reminded me a lot of this piece I had just done. Other people have said it reminds them of Daft Punk, which isn't bad either. 

Recently in my Typography class we had an assignment to make a business card, but we had to use the "old school" printing presses. We were assigned to design the business card, and then hand pick each letter, group them, and manually print each of them. It was a lot of work, preparation and then 4 hours of just printing and cleaning up. I learned a lot and I think they came out OK. 

Here is just a picture of my email part. I handpicked each letter and in the end found it was too long. I had then put them all back and find another font and then take all those characters and put them into my composition. End of the day, it helped me appreciate computers.