And my first tutorial!

Live Trace tool in Adobe Illustrator

http://www.fanhow.com/knowhow:Live_trace_from_images_in_Adobe_Illustrator_CS4_75988514

Tips from the Master

I had an AWESOME conversation this afternoon with one of my best friends in the ever ever, the stupendous KTG.  Conveniently, KTG is a design wizard and is currently getting her Master's degree in Graphic Design at the Savannah School of Design (baahh!), and she got super excited about helping me learn design basics!  Woohoo!

One of my first set of questions was around design software, and how to get a little more high-tech with my design stuff!

• Photoshop: pixel-based (those tiny little squares of color that make up pictures). Used for image manipulation and digital painting
• Illustrator - vector based (meaning mathematically created so anything you create in there can become any size without losing integrity). Used for illustrating - logos, typography, vector illustrations (posters etc can be made here too)
• InDesign - the publishing side of this. It handles things with lots of text, great for multiple-page spreads etc... sort of a compiling software where you combine images and text into longer documents. Also vector-based.
  

Some of these cross over a bit, like there are some things, like flyers, that could be done in either InDesign or Illustrator, and in times like that it's really mostly your preference. I would say that Photoshop is the most "user-friendly" and Illustrator is the least, but it's just a matter of knowing A. What it can do and B. how to actually do it.

That effect you're looking for is in Illustrator -> "live-trace" and also in Photoshop under "Filters". I can't remember which one exactly, but it's one of those.

I'm off at 1:30 Monday, so back by 2! (Which is 1pm your time, right?). SKYPE SHALL OCCUR!

I'll compile a list of areas we can cover, with the ideal being that perhaps you get a general intro into a lot of areas very briefly, we choose one to focus on together, and then you work on your program skills to get them up to snuff. The tricky thing about design, is that it is fast becoming a very fluid field. It literally is about "visual communication", by whatever means are needed, so it's not by any stretch of the imagination confined to those programs, but at the same time, if you want to progress, you need to know those programs first.

(That is why undergraduate graphic design is all project based, so we learn the programs, then in grad school they're like "design is anything!!!! design is everything!!! and we all run out screaming like celts to change the world)

Ahh yay now I have my very own graphic design professor!!  Here's my very first reading assignment:

http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm

I absolutely love this quote, and I do my best to live it out as well as I can.  It is one of the things that inspired me to get rolling on this whole blog deal, so I wanted to get it up on here pretty early in the game.  So, my next topic will be "quotes."  We've certainly all seen neat examples of a quote or phrase paired with a well-selected picture or background, and I used this opportunity to think about the fundamental principles of how to frame an interesting quote.  

The first challenge is picking a background.  The background or image you use can have a big effect not only on whether a quote “pops” for the reader, but on the tone of a quote itself.  For example, the serene, skyward-looking image of wheatgrass used above gives the quote a very spiritual feeling, which may make it resonate with more ethereal types of people, whereas a whimsical image, like the bicycle one used here, will give it a lighter (dare I say it), “Y.O.L.O” sort of feeling.

First and foremost, though, the image has to be simple and subtle enough that your quote is A. clear and easy to read, and B. “pops” for the viewer.  I tend to gravitate toward natural and outdoorsy images, hence the wheatgrass silhouette featured above.  You can use micro or macro pictures, as you please, but for thoughtful quotes like these, I find that I like a macro-focus (looking at something small and up-close) with an open, broader background, like looking up at the sky or out over a horizon.  I like the balance this strikes between the here and now, the details and the bigger picture.

Next, I start to think about the placement of the words.  Usually, I find that this is pretty much controlled by the space available in the photograph, so having a photo with a big open chunk of “wasted” space, like the one below, can be helpful.  In this case, the text is close to the subject, creating an intimate sense that this is a thought to hold close to your heart as you move through life.  Placing the text boldly out in the center of the photo, like in the bike image above, poses it as more of a bold, cheerful life philosophy that might be shared on a Facebook wall or t-shirt.  You can also place the text up in the sky to create a reflective tone of personal growth toward an ideal.

The font and color used for the text can also do a great deal in shaping the viewer’s response to your quote.  A whimsical font such as MV Boli gives a very different feeling than the serene Papyrus used in this image.  Regardless of what font I use, I always find that you have to maintain a certain level of simplicity, or cleanness, to have the best and strongest effect.   

To return, for a moment, to the discussion about background, this often makes it challenging to find a good photograph or image to use for your quote without losing the words.  Sometimes, I bleach photos to make the text stand out, but even then I’m often left feeling like I, and therefore the viewer, will be torn between the photo and the quote.  As a result, I worry that the beauty of each is lessened, and the quote would have been stronger standing alone on a blank or empty canvas.