Packaging Research Task

Last week we were set a task to research for the next module coming up as we are now off for 2 weeks and then when we get back we have an experience of work week. I am going to look at different areas of packaging like food, clothing, alcohol, DIY, dvd etc. I will find all my examples and finalize them when I go back.

Weekly Progression/ Evaluation of Brief

This week has been a very long week. As well as my digital skills task, I have also completed development of the images for my final, completed my final visuals, printed everything out and handed in yesterday. I am quite happy with my outcomes for this project, I have learnt a lot. I think I need quite a bit more practice when it comes to type appearances on illustrator and tabs/ paragraph styles on InDesign. I tried to use some of things I learned in digital skills, so that people can see that I am using what I learn. I am extremely confident in Photoshop now, a lot more confident in InDesign and quite confident in Illustrator. I also think that my time management for this project has worked quite well. I organized myself so that I wouldn't over do one thing and under do another. 

This is my final for this project.

Skills Analysis For Instant Print/ Digital Skills

Skill:
Replacing the color on an image on Photoshop.

Why did you develop this skill?
It is an important part of editing images to make them look better or fit what you're creating better.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
It has helped me understand how to make my own photos a lot better than they originally were.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
It has helped me understand what to look for in professional work etc and therefore I can identify how to make my own work up to that standard.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing on my own images.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill: 
Changing the exposure over an image on photoshop so that it looks over exposed.

Why did you develop this skill?
In certain situations this skill will help your images look brighter and stand out more, to fit what you're creating more.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
It has helped me understand how to make my own photos a lot better than they originally were.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
It has helped me understand what to look for in professional work etc and therefore I can identify how to make my own work up to that standard.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing on my own images.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill: 
Applying a gradient overlay to an image.

Why did you develop this skill?
It can help make photos look better towards a background on a poster or a postcard or flyer etc. 

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
It has helped me understand how to make my own photos a lot better than they originally were.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
It has helped me understand better what to look for in professional work, so that I can apply the skills to my own work.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing on my own images.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
Changing the tone of an image (tonality)

Why did you develop this skill?
It can make an image look more realistic, or more unrealistic, depending on how you edit the image through its levels, hue and saturation, brightness, color of the teeth etc.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
It has helped me understand how to make my own photos a lot better than they originally were.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
It has helped me understand better what to look for in professional work, so that I can apply the skills to my own work.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing on my own images.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
How to create a scatter brush on photoshop.

Why did you develop this skill?
It gives a poster etc more to look at and I can also develop it for future poster designs. 

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
It has expanded my skill set, in which I can now apply this to future projects.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing designing posters which would need them.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
8

Skill:
Using blending modes and clipping masks correctly.

Why did you develop this skill?
So I have knowledge of what techniques and processes are possible when compiling imagery together in a professional manor.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
So I can apply this to my own work to make it look better.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing compiling imagery in exciting and creative ways.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
How to use an adjustment layer correctly and what it is.

Why did you develop this skill?
It allows me to change the color of a final poster without having to change the color of every layer etc.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
So I can save time on having to change the colors.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing changing colors of things on posters.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
10

Skill:
How to use a layer mask correctly.

Why did you develop this skill?
It allows me to get rid of unwanted things or add extra bits where needed.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
So that I can erase things on type etc or make things look crungey, but it still only applies it to that layer.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing with type and shapes and getting rid of things or adding. 

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
How to use a gradient map efficiently.

Why did you develop this skill?
It allows me to change a single image from color to black and white, without changing the rest of what you're working on black and white.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
I can easily change a color image into black and white.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing on an image that is on a poster etc to see whether I am doing it right.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
How to use the extrude and bevel tool in illustrator 

Why did you develop this skill?
It allows you to make type 3D and change the perspective on it/ how you see it.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
I can now apply this knowledge to my future work and also allow me to make things 3D when I put them in a situation. 

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing the effect on type and shapes to expand my knowledge.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
7

Skill:
How to use the pathfinder to make better looking shapes.

Why did you develop this skill?
To achieve different shapes, instead of just using generic shapes that you see everyday.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
I can now apply this knowledge to my future work.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing with the pathfinder, as it can do more than just make bigger shapes.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
9

Skill:
How to use tabs and paragraph styles correctly in InDesign.

Why did you develop this skill?
To understand better how to layout a menu to a professional standard.

How has developing this skill contributed to your personal practice?
I can now apply this knowledge to my future work.

How has developing this skill contributed to your professional development and employability?
I can now use this skill when on modules and freelance work, I have enhanced my skill set in which helps my employability.

How can you further develop this skill?
By practicing making my own menus, and applying these skills to that menu.

On a scale 1 - 10 how confident are you on this skill?
7

Digital Skills Task 5 - Starbucks Frappaccino Menu

This week we learned how to create a menu on InDesign, using some of the skills we have already learned in photoshop. The main thing we learned for this is how to use tabs/ paragraph styles. I found paragraph styles easier to use than I did the appearance palette on illustrator. I did find the tabs option quite easy to use, but I think I need more practice before I understand it fully. I still also need practice on the sun burst, as I am not very good at this.

Weekly Progression

This week has been a tough one to get my head around, on the digital skills half of things. I need to keep practicing with illustrator to understand these better.

I haven't just done that though, I have also completed my development for the live brief and started my final. As I've started the final I've decided that I am going to hand draw the pieces of food for the banners, as I think this will give a more quirky effect, and so that I am not using photography that I don't have copyright for.

Digital Skills Task 4 - Walls Ice Cream Ad

This week was a cross over between photoshop and illustrator. I put my photo editing skills to use on the image of the ice cream in photoshop before transferring it to illustrator. For the illustrator part we were taught how to create shapes using path finder to merge them, how to create a circle that looks like a sun burst which fades off, how to use the 3D effect to change the perspective on the parasol at the top of the page and how to use the appearance palette to change the type. I found this a bit harder to learn as I find it hard to understand illustrator. The appearance palette part was the hardest, but I think if I keep practicing I should be alright. 

Weekly Progression

This week I learnt a lot for the Adidas poster, I enjoyed learning all those things, although I need some practice as I am not 100% confident on putting it all into practice.

As well as this task I've also started initial ideas for my banners, taking into consideration what I researched into. I want my finals to be very simple, but bright and appealing (eye-catching).

I've also started developing my ideas, thinking about all the skills I have learned in digital skills so far.

Digital Skills Task 3 - Adidas Poster

This week we have learned how to create a poster using gradient maps, gradients, using layer masks, erasing using a gradient, overlaying images using blend modes, and importing text from illustrator which has been extruded and beveled to give it a 3D effect. I think I did well with this, although the image on the right of the woman with the tennis racket I found hard, as I couldn't get rid of the black background easy, and therefore had to make it extra bright, to hide this.

Weekly Progression

This week has been very bright! I enjoyed learning how to do the different effects in photoshop. 

That wasn't the only thing I did this week though. I also completed putting together my research for the live brief, and I also put it into a PDF presentation, ready to present what I'd be looking at to the client and my tutor. I think I did well with my time management this week, as I didn't have to rush anything to get it done on time.

Digital Skills Task 2 - Absolut Poster

This weeks digital skills task was to create a poster for Absolut vodka. The skills we learned for this was how to create and use a scatter brush in photoshop and how to use a clipping mask correctly to drop a colored box over the vodka bottle to make it seem like it was very bright, using the correct blending mode also helped this. After completing the poster we then learned how to use an adjustment layer to change the color of the whole poster without having to redo the whole thing.

Introduction to Contextual Studies

Today we were also given the module guide for Contextual Studies.

The question for this year that I have chosen is the same as last year, the only difference is that it is 3,000 words not 2,000.