It was nice seeing all of the things you can do with Illustrator to make a nice rendering. I learned pretty quick that you really get out of it what you put in. If you take the time and effort to put as much detail as possible, you can really come out with something presentable in the end, and the inverse of that as well. Depending on how finalized the visualization needs to be, you can create an appropriate level of detail for what you are trying to portray. Some specific things I learned about Illustrator were the Expand Appearance function, and the difference between effects and filters. I had already known about the Appearance palette and changing effects, but I really put that to use for this project. I'm hoping to do some more work in illustrator to improve these to a quality I can be happy with.
Okay, this was originally going to be a useless post about something fun I found on the internet. But I think I could make a pretty believable argument that this is good design.
So why is this good design? Many reasons.
1. It fits the target market to a T. Football fans can completely relate to this product. 2. It fills a need. You gotta eat, right? And if you're going to be eating all these completely unhealthy snacks, anyway, why not add in some fun interaction? I can totally see a couple of my friends acting out some play with their vienna sausage teams- which brings me to #3 3. Emotional draw. Why eat from a bag when you can eat from a miniature football field?
If you want to see their process book, here's the link:
Due to technical difficulties, the teaser is just now making it onto my blog. Luckily daapspace was not as finicky, so it was at least there on time. Also, I realized I didn't post any screenshots of my portfolio, so here they are...
And it begins with the blog. The portfolio has put me dreadfully far behind on every other thing in my life, so now that I at least have a partly finished portfolio, I'm using this weekend to stop being a slacker. Strangely enough writing a blog makes me feel like I'm wasting time, so I'm gonna make this quick.
One brand I have already expressed interest in, and would apply here as well, is Disney. Imagination at its finest. A Disney product represents an entire culture founded on dreams coming true. Of course, Disney Stores are simply trying to capitalize on that idea, but I, for one, am happy to contribute (see my Mickey Mouse keychain for more information). Prince Charming's and beautiful Princesses just never seem to get old. Every new generation is just as dazzled as the one before, and Disney is always evolving to keep up with the times. My favorite example of this is Ratatouille, which I was very excited about. First of all the 3D animation looks amazing, and the story is more reminiscent of the classic Disney stories with all of its charm. Shall I use this opportunity to knock out two blogs with one single post? Here's the preview, which had me anticipating this movie for months...
It uses innocent humor, a fun song, and excitement to get you interested, and it tells just enough of the story to make you curious. Kudos once again to Disney.
Sooo...I've been trying to find some inspiration by looking at the portfolios on coroflot.com, and seeing all of that talent in one place is really depressing. One of my favorites was this guy, Hugh Thomas.
I loved his renderings, and have asked him what rendering program he uses, because I have never seen such perfection. I really like the hand mixer (shown) and doorstop he did. They're just fun. I've finally made a coroflot account, so maybe once I turn in my portfolio I'll be happy enough with it to upload and get some criticism.
For those of you that don't know much about me, let me give you a quick summary:
I'm a 4th-year junior at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. It's tough, but I enjoy it. iDAAP will mostly pertain to that part of my life, so get ready for some design discussion!
I just returned from my 4th co-op quarter, working as a packaging designer for Evenflo and learning a lot about corrugate and CAD. I'm really glad I got exposure to that side of design, and would not be upset with another packaging job in the future. The co-op quarter before that, I was also at Evenflo, but in the Playtime & Feeding department, spending a lot of time making Alias models and Photoshop renders. That was a lot of fun.
My first two co-op quarters were spent at a small company in Irvine, California called Aspen Medical Products. It was a great place to start my design experiences, and the people there taught me to always look for new design and form opinions about it. The geographical location was an excellent bonus.
As far as design goes, I still feel I would likely be content designing anything if I was in the right environment with good, friendly people. My dream job, however, would be to work for Disney some day. I suppose I should start sketching Mickey ears- get prepared and all.
In fact I think that's a good way to start out my goals for the quarter...
1. Improve my sketching. One of the most depressing drawbacks of coming back to school currently is that I seem to have lost my sketching skills, which by the end of last quarter had been doing so well. My goal is to sketch more outside of class and really become more comfortable with a pencil. A good way to do that would be to draw Disney characters ;)
2. Amp up my portfolio. It's getting tougher out there, and currently my portfolio does not reflect my full potential. I have finally invested in a Wacom tablet, so I'm hoping that will help me go to that next level. I'm also hoping for a lot of good feedback Thursday.
3. Give an interesting and persuasive final presentation. Under this same goal should fall the sub-goal of anti-procrastination, which always seems to go by the wayside. It is because I always rush through the final presentation in a time crunch that I never give myself time to prepare and practice an organized presentation. "Winging it" never worked for me, so you'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. Well, this time, I'm gonna do it right. I hope.
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