Blog Assignment 16 - Poem & Piece

I did this a good while ago but this blog assignment is exactly what this was meant  for.

My Poem:

Knowledge is your sword, sharpen it
Delivery is your technique, practice it
Work is your strength, increase it
Life is your foe, attack it
Balance is the key, find it

The poem is written around the sword. This is one of my favorite piece. It reminds me how I should approach life to improve. 

-KA

Blog Assignment 15 - I Collect...cartoons/movies/anime

This might be a stretch since I'm too cheap to actually buy and keep these things but I sort of collect them in my mind. I watch a lot of them and watch the ones I like over and over again periodically.

These stories really collect in my mind and inspire me. I also use those that I like as inspiration when needed. A lot of my "heroes" are fictional characters. I do own a few and if I had the money to give I would definitely have a large DVD collection...but for now I just remember where to go to see them and re watch my mental collection for inspiration.

-KA

Blog Assignment 14 - Fave Album Artwork

I must start by saying I am very biast to the music of the albums I choose. I haven't gone around searching for cool album artwork so I'm limited to those that I am a fan of. But I suppose that makes them special to me. there are a bunch of them so I'll be brief.

Illustration, color, concept

simplicity, concept, the fact that it is an actual painted sculpture that only looks flat from the front

Color, effects, content, typeface

Illustration and color

Black to grey color palette, composition and photography

Color, contrast, concept, type concept

Color, illustrations style, mixture of the two mediums

Illustration style, concept, color

Color mostly but also execution, layout and well organised design

Illustration, concept, typography, color, minimalism

Concept, minimalism, color

photo manipulation, typography, composition

collage illustration, concept, some what the color too

Mostly concept and the photo and how much action it captures and the abstract way the artist is described visually

Color, concept, composition

Definitely color and illustration. Composition too

Hard to describe. I guess I really like the composition, photography and photo manipulation. Interesting concept for this album.

I love how the Africa is hidden between the artists. Definitely concept and layout.

Color, typography, contrast and the achievement of a sort of modern vintage. Much like the music on the album.

-KA

Blog Assignment 13 - Unity Poster

Unity is probably the concept I'm most fond of that the world lacks so I went looking for poster I like that had to do with this topic:

 Color, illustration, simple, powerful.

 This is a creative and colorful way of illustrating unity in America from the black President. Nicely executed.

 I love the composition and illustration in this one. The facial expression and composition work well together.

 Once again, contrast and color always seem to catch my eye. This one is have a modern deconstructavist thing going on. I've never really tried deconstructivsm in my own work.

I chose this for the poster on the right. Once again, showing unity through illustration and composition; two of my favorite ways of communicating.

This one appeals to me not only because of its illustration style and contrast but also content. I thought it was funny. Humor is necessary in design.

And here is what I came up with having been inspired by these(in  a short period of time mind you)

-KA

Blog Assignment 12 - T-Shirt Designs

This is a great opportunity to share one of my favorite sites that I have yet to take advantage of. http://www.designbyhumans.com/

This is website that allows designers to upload illustrations and make t shirts our of them for sale. It really keeps the shirts very artistic and interesting. They are good quality too. Unfortunately I've never bought one even though I've always wanted to buy a few.

Here are a few that I really enjoy:

I find the colors, contrast, content, illustration styles and illusion of depth very interesting. 

-KA

Flickr

I started my flickr account. It seems to be something that will take time to build. I don't want to put any old thing up there. I started with one of my favorite successes, my illustrstive typeface "Battle Royale". There will be more to come. Both this flickr page and my Behance page need to be updated with reworked quality work.
Battle Royale

-KA

Blog Assignment 9 - Each week I feel as though I must check in at/with

Though I have not done this in a looooong time, I usually check  in with my Google Reader to see both a select few well known graphic design blogs as well as my class design blogs. The profesional blogs such as "abduzeedo" and "you the designer" have inspiration articles that usually has some amazing art for everyone to enjoy. I usually find work that I wish I could make or techniques that I would like to try and save them in some inspiration files I have. I also check in with my classes blogs to see what quality of work everyone is working with to see if I'm slacking or being too conservative. All those blog posts in one long list on my google reader really helps to keep my artistic side ticking and striving to improve.

-KA

Blog Assignment 7 - Typography Essentials

One book that was actually recommended on our syllabus is Type Essentials. Its a great book for creative typography inspiration. Especially for people like me that need a little push to step outside of the box to design with letters. It really reminds me of what basic design principles work well with type and how to see letter forms as shapes or illustration. It helped me get started on conceptualizing both my logo for my wine bottle and my type calender.

This book has many large examples of the principles listed on the outside cover. I can't say one single section influenced me. By flipping through entire sections of the book, my creative juices start flowing. I might mix  size, color and letter form to create something new. 

-KA

My Work Space

I know its messy at the moment, but its home. I spend a lot of hours at this desk. I use the Cintiq to speed up my workflow. My laptop's monitor is kind of muted so I use the other monitor to check colors or to work on two monitors at once. I have an Epson 1400 with the continuous ink system, a green screen I rarely use and I keep supplies in those drawers. I did not purchase all of this by the way, some of it is my brothers, who I live with.

-KA

Lunch with Type

My brother and I went to lunch downtown (which we rarely do) and I brought the camera to take pictures of all the interesting typography along the way. Here's what I found:

-KA