"Travel By Design" - Mock-Up Designs Set 1.

"Travel By Design" - Square 1.

This morning I started work on a new project; to design and build a website for the travel agency "Travel By Design".


The client has provided me with lots of fantastic photos, logos, editorials and testimonials so the website will be packed with rich content. 
It's really exciting to start a project where all the content is readily accessible, I've found it's really boosted my creativity and motivation towards the project because I've got everything I need in front of me and I can see exactly what I'm working with.


First things first. - Wireframes.

As with any project, the design starts in the sketchbook. Once ideas start forming I have to get them drawn on paper, otherwise I'll forget them!

Flicking through my sketchbook you wont find anything particularly exciting, it's full of pages like the one above where I've scribbled down a series of rough layouts or design concepts just to get my mind working.

The next stage is to create a slightly more considered wireframe on the computer. Adobe Illustrator is my preferred tool for this task. I find it's a lot easier to produce a considered layout in a short time, because you can easily resize each element to pixel-perfect proportions.

With the wireframe complete, I can now begin creating my first mock-up design in Photoshop.

Matching Hearts, Similar Parts

This is the final piece from a design project I completed on my university course. 

The brief was simple: select a current band or artist and design an album cover.

I chose the band Flashguns, a fairly unknown indie band, and designed a cover for their EP titled "Matching Hearts, Similar Parts"

(Band website: http://www.flashguns.com/)

The concept for my design originated from this design for Funeral For A Friend's - Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation album cover. I like how it portrays emotions and atmosphere between two people without facial expression. This concept was something I aimed to replicate.

In turn, the design for FFAF's album cover took inspiration from Rene Margritte's - The Lovers.

Development Stages:

Outline - This was a long process of drawing shapes and using Illustrator's Pen Tool to create curves.

Colour fill - Using Illustrator's Live Paint Bucket Tool I coloured each section with a mid tone.

Adding depth - I then brought the whole image into Photoshop and used gradients to create highlights and shadows.

We Were Hoping For Some Romance.

This was my work output this weekend. 

I was flicking through a magazine and saw a tutorial for using Photoshop's Repousse Tool to create 3D text, figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out Repousse is a new tool introduced in CS5, and I'm currently using CS4.

Though, I was not deterred.

I set out to create the desired effect using the tools available to me. I started by creating the text in Illustrator and applied an Extrude and Bevel 3D effect. I then brought the text into Photoshop and applied a series of Gradient Overlays, Colour Overlays, Inner Shadows and Drop Shadows.

I then introduced other elements around the text to build the composition.

Been there, got the T-Shirt.

The way the text was laid out in the tutorial's example instantly reminded me of this tee I bought when I saw Bloc Party a couple of years ago. This was the basis of my design.

(Photo: digitalproductionme.com)

The main image that stuck in my mind from that night was the last song, they played "Flux" and this impressive light show went with it. These green beams of light pierced through the expansive darkness of Kensington Olympia. (Olympia is a pretty big venue, shaped like a giant WW2 bunker.)

To re-create the beams of green light I used a really thin reflected gradient.

I live my life walking down the street, I meet the faces of the people I see.

(click to enlarge)

This is an illustration that I completed last week. I drafted the concept a long time ago and it's something I've been meaning to revisit for some time.

This is the original piece that I created a few years ago using Photoshop, although I was happy with the outcome at the time, I've always felt it doesn't quite look polished enough for a portfolio piece. Plus, since then, I've lost my references for the source photos so I can't really publish this on my website as original work.

This was a good excuse for me to revisit and rework the concept into an illustration (my preferred media format anyway).

The first step was to use Illustrator's Pen Tool and trace an outline for the suit, I always use red when creating outlines, it's nice and easy to see making it easy to work with.

Using the Live Paint Bucket Tool in Illustrator, I filled the sections of the outline.

Creating the railings was a long process, I drew an individual rail, then it was a lot of copy and paste work, re-sizing each rail to give perspective.

For the pavement I downloaded a free texture pack, and drew over the top of it.
(Texture pack can be found here: http://www.vector-eps.com/index.php/2009/11/concrete-texture-pack/)

This was my original completed design, I added a cloudy sky background and used a stock photo for the model.

(Stock photo can be found here: http://www.katibear-stock.deviantart.com/)

Although the design was finished, I wasn't happy. The outcome wasn't quite what I had originally envisioned. I left the design for a few weeks before coming back and re-working the background and using a different model.

Here's the final piece again.

(Model's website found here: www.AnneLysa.dk)

So I've stepped into the world of blogging...

Hi.


I started a blog today.


It's looking a bit bland and basic right now,  but a quick flick of my metaphorical paintbrush and hopefully it'll have developed into a visual feast in no time!


This will predominantly be a design blog; somewhere for me to record my design process, detailing through the stages from preliminary sketches to the finished pieces.


You wont find any "Dear Diary" posts on here, but I'll inevitably include the odd music plug and the occasional rant.


Eventually this will blog will run parallel with my developing portfolio site - keep an eye out for that.


Ta for now.