Assignment Nine: Gestalt Podcast Cover Art
Assignment: Using either Photoshop or Illustrator (or both), become more familiar with the laws of Gestalt by integrating at least one of the following Gestalt principles into a podcast cover design: figure/ground, proximity, similarity, continuation or closure.
For this assignment, I utilized the Gestalt principles of similarity and closure. I started by downloading a fun font that fit the vibe of the podcast well. I then used AI to generate a hanging lightbulb, which I then turned black to make a silhouette. I used the shape and brush tools to create the white part of the lightbulb (the actual bulb and wiring), which allowed me to create the illusion of the lightbulb cutting into the letters, serving as this design's "closure" principle. I then used the shape tool to make the light behind the bulb, using fading yellow ellipses to imitate the "light" coming from the bulb. Using the same shape repeatedly to create the "light" background serves as the "similarity" principle. Although "yard" is a part of the podcast name, I chose not to incorporate design elements related to “yard” because upon further exploration of the podcast name origin, "basement yard" is the name that these two lifelong best friends coined for one of their grandmother's basements that they hung out in often.
Project Two: Illustrator Infographic
Directions: Create an in-depth infographic pertaining to one theme. Start by finding a current news story, press release or marketing report that does not already contain an infographic but would benefit from one (you can use more than one source for the project, just be sure to attribute all of them). Plan out the theme and create at least three separate graphs/charts that relate to the title and provide additional insight.
My goal with this infographic was to display the latest Formula One race results and the context of the 2024 season standings, a crucial aspect that shows how the podium winners of this race (both the individual drivers and the constructors) have been dominating the season.
I started with the “Race Results” section of the infographic. First, I downloaded multiple different sports-esque and racing-esque fonts from DaFont.com. I then vectorized a PNG image of a Formula One car and created “trails” from the back of the car using the rectangle shape tool. I then used the rectangle shape tool to create the main part of the graphic that showcases the podium winners with their standings, final times, and earned points. I then used the pen tool to connect these rectangles to the Formula One car graphics. I used vector images from Pixabay and other Creative Commons PNGs to add the constructor logos and wreaths. The color scheme (red, orange, and blue) is based on the constructors’ main brand colors.
I then created the bottom-most graphic showcasing the updated constructor standings after the Miami Grand Prix. I used the rectangle tool to create a bar graph and the text tool to write the constructors’ 2024 season statistics. Again, I used Creative Commons PNGs for the logos and chose the color scheme based on the constructors’ primary brand colors.
My third graphic, which is the middle-most graphic, is another bar graph but with a twist. I didn’t just want to create a bar graph similar to the second, so I turned it 90 degrees and added stylized ellipses on the end of the bar to display the total number of points each driver has earned this season. Again, I used Creative Commons PNGs for the flags to show each driver’s nationality.
I used the curved rectangle tool to create headlines for each graphic so the audience would understand its context. Lastly, I made the title for the graph using one of my downloaded fonts. I chose to decrease the spacing between the lines for a more cohesive title and a gradient so that it would catch the eye of the audience. Finally, I put the title in a black-and-white circle to mimic a Formula One tire and tie the whole design together.
Assignment 12: Negative Space
Description: Using Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, create three designs that incorporate a familiar shape using negative space.
For this assignment, I knew I wanted to use a word and put its literal image into the text. I chose “dino” for this because I felt that the lowercase “d” and “o” had perfect negative space options to input an image. For this word, I began by filling in the “d” and “o” so that whatever image I put inside acted as the interior of the letter. I found vectors of dinosaur silhouettes on Pixabay, resized them, and placed them within the letters to create the final graphic.
I knew I wanted to create a scene for the second word, which was the most work-intensive of the three. I chose the word “mountain” pretty quickly because I could think of multiple avenues to go when it came to creating a landscape. From exploring Pixabay for different graphics, I found a lot of vectors that would help create the scenery of a snowy winter mountain with skiers and snowboarders. This process was similar to the first, except I needed to reshape and redraw some ski lifts. I separated the ski lift vectors from the original image and placed them on a line to emulate the cord.
The third word was very fun to create. I downloaded this typeface family for a prior project and thought I could tweak it in many creative ways. The word “speed” not only looked the best with the horizontal negative lines in the typeface but also acted as an adjective that would help describe the literal image used in the word. I, again, used car vectors and lined them up accordingly so that they were located in areas of the letters with the most positive space. I chose to put one car in front of the other to emulate the feeling of the cars racing and added additional lines so that the line was representative of the cars’ “trails.”