10.2 Sailboat Rogata

Sailboat Rogata

This project began with, what is a sailboat rogata. I wasn't sure so I looked it up. A sailboat rogata is a sailboat race. I had to make an illustration of the rogata and create a poster of it, using only the imagery as the only form of communication, graphic symbolism. So I used an image of a sailboat as reference then illustrated it using illustrator. Then I brought it into photoshop to add color. I decided to use different colors for the boats to represent that they were opposing teams. I added a orange sky background to set a mood of a day coming to end, then added the lake as a final touch to add to the realism of the poster. Over all a simple but rewarding illustration.

Week 10.1 Rock of the Decades Volume 1

Rock of the Decades Volume 1

This was a really fun project. I had to design book covers for a three book series all of the same subject. I chose the subject, Rock. So I thought to myself, "What do I need to do to create a three book series? So I came up with three topics. The last being Classic Rock. Then I put a time period to it, a type of rock genre, and an icon of that genre. In this piece I used Slash of Guns and Roses as the icon for classic rock, and 1980s for the decade of that particular genre. I used a slight mix between warm and cool colors, mostly purple to give a feel of royalty to the rockers of the 1980s. With this piece I completed my rock of the decades series and decided to call it a day.

Week 9.2 Rock of the Decades Volume 3

Rock of the Decades Volume 3

This was a really fun project. I had to design book covers for a three book series all of the same subject. I chose the subject, Rock. So I thought to myself, "What do I need to do to create a three book series? So I came up with three topics. This one being Metal. Then I put a time period to it, a type of rock genre, and an icon of that genre. In this piece I used a rockstar for the foreground and a concert for the background over laying the whole image. The 2000s were the decade of that particular genre. I used warm colors to give a high energy and exciting feel to the book cover.

Week 9.1 Rock of the Decades Volume 2

Rock of the Decades Volume 2

This was a really fun project. I had to design book covers for a three book series all of the same subject. I chose the subject, Rock. So I thought to myself, "What do I need to do to create a three book series?" So I came up with three topics. The first being Grunge. Then I put a time period to it, a type of rock genre, and an icon of that genre. In this piece I used Kurt Cubain as the icon for grunge, and 1990 for the decade of that particular genre. I used neutral colors in order to go with the grunge theme and over all set a 1990s feel to the whole image. Leaving this as one of my favorite pieces.

Week 8.2 Self Portrait

Self Portrait

This was in illustration I made of myself. This was one of the most time consuming projects I have ever made. I took a photograph of myself then spent an hour drawing it in pencil. After that I used my charcoal and nearly turned the table I was working on completely black from the chalky remains of my iniquitous drawing style. I spent a good eight hours straight consistently changing the shading and highlights to create a good image. Prior to this piece I have never made a self portrait before. In addition to this piece I also added a cooler facial hair look to myself, in my opinion. It almost makes me look like a rockstar. Overall I feel good about this piece.

Week 8.1 The Mask

The Mask

This piece of work was made as a fan reproduction of a mask worn by the band Slipknot. There was not to much difficulties I had with this work. I used an image I found of the mask, drew it, then vectorized it using illustrator. After creating a vector image, I then brought it into photoshop to color and give dimension to the mask. I used lighting effects and a filter to create the glare. Then voila! After three hours of hard work the piece was finished!

Week 7.2 The Marathon

The Marathon

In the brainstorming stage of this project I was debating how I was going to illustrate a marathon as a poster advertisement. I thought to myself, "What is a marathon?" In this context I felt that a marathon is a race. So one thought lead to another. Race, people, running, feet; then it hit me. I decided to illustrate someone running across a bridge, using the ground for the viewing angle and only showing the person's leg. This lead to a simple but effective illustration of a marathon.

Steven Snell-Graphic Designer

http://designm.ag/inspiration/smoke/

Week 7.1 Going Old School

Going Old School

This project began with the process of using a now-a-day item and putting it into a vintage style poster. To create this I had to determine what Item would be best for this poster to work easily, how I would create the poster and image, and what would I do to add emphasis to the product. I chose the Nintendo Wii as the product to be advertised by this poster. Using old style and western typefaces along with an airbrushed look on the Wii and the background I felt this gave the overall look I was going for. I used warm colors in order to attract attention to the product and used neutral colors to accent it without taking away the attention the product needs in order to successfully sell it.

Week 6.2 Have You Ever Seen a Flying Fish?

Have You Ever Seen a Flying Fish?

The beginning process of this piece of work was for this work was formulated by the idea of:

"How am I Going to Develop an Image for my Client"

This was a very simple task, or so I thought. May ideas can storm from a client, like my fictional client; "The Association of Zoos and Aquariums." So eventually I came across the concept,

"What if I were to put together a creature of land and sea and use the name of a known animal that closely represents the animal I created in a literal form."

In this case I chose Flying Fish. So what I did was a collaboration of photos, which were manipulated in order to create the realistic feel of the flying fish, created a depth of field to develop perspective, and added multiple types of flying fish to develop a habitat for them. Come to think of it, just to create a design such as this I had to develop an entire world just to satisfy the creation of realism in which leads to the over all concept of developing new life.

Week 6.1 Leterhead and Business Card

With this product I designed a letterhead, envelope, and business card for a fictional Eco-resort in Costa Rica, given the name Ancient Maya, in which I created. The idea I had behind the making of this was the use of the trademark, placement of the logo, and a clean flowing structure that held the design together. This allowed for ease of readability, a coherent and functional design, and a creative final touch to the overall final product. The colors are analogous to that of the logo and trademark and are all part of the resort's cooperate theme of a neutral and relaxed setting where all their guests can settle down and step away from the real life for a while. This was overall a simple design to create a flow and further develop the resort's cooperate branding.

Week 5.2 Fishin' Chips Fish Food

With this project I was given the task to design a label for a company that sells fish food, "Fishin Chips." I thought to myself, "How would I design a design a fish label?" After a few hours of deep thought and many different concepts, I came to a style I liked alot, using a cartoon fish as a hero for the label, using scales as a background texture, as well as contrasting colors between the foreground and background. The target audience I was appealing to was a younger, more child oriented crowd, whom I thought would be most likely to use the product. This is why I chose a playful typeface versus a more serious one and then made it a little more styled than the original was. Overall I fell very confident in the success in the final product and decided to call it a day.

Week 5.1 Crate Label

In this design I looked to make an undesirable product, in this case Industrial Sludge, appear appealing. At first I wanted to disguise the product with a more friendly name such as "Hair Gel" and add more to the overall appeal. I used a photograph I took a a local pond in order to create the illustrated background of the man fishing. Purposely of a bald man in order to portray the effects of the sludge and the hair loss it created. Originally his shirt said "co-exist", however I felt it would be humorous to throw in a context clue about what the product actually was, so I changed the words to "Industry Sludge." The choice of yellow in order to represent sludge, pollution, and industries. Then I threw in a tag line that I felt would attract customers, "All Natural," "Environmentally Friendly," and "Great for Attracting Women." I purposely chose for these to be contradictions to add to the over all humor the design was meant to have. Finally for the bottom line I put in product information, "Made in an Industrial Canal in Downtown Chicago, Ill." and "A Proud Product of the United States of America" with the USA flag to top it all off. None of this was intended to be insulting but overall to be funny as the design was made to be.

"To turn a terrible product into a seemingly beautiful one."

Week 4.2 Illustration or Photograph?

So what comes to mind as you gaze deep into this picture? What do you feel on the inside? What emotions are flourished upon the scenery? Is this piece an illustration or a photograph? The vibrant warm colors bring forth the mood and setting of the picture. The sunset falls on the long lasting day as the birds fly away from the sight of a predator. The tall looming grass flutters in the wind and the breeze cools the warm summer air as nightfall begins to spread. Using the rule of thirds to add interest to this piece, the birds and the sun became the center focus of my work. Leaving only one last key element for you to decide,

"Is this an Illustration or a Photograph?"

Week 4.1 Poster Design

My inspiration for the creation of this poster was the love I have for rock music and the band, "Shinedown." I created this poster in dedication to their work. I used a pop art style for the layout, used my own photographs from their show in Columbia, SC. Then I manipulated the photos changing their colors to black, blue, red, and green. Thus creating a pop art style Shinedown poster. I still listen to their music today and they always inspires me to do better, work harder, and stay not only creative artistically, but musically as well.

Week 3.2 Cd Design

What came to mind in the creation of this CD cover was based on my love for the band, "Shinedown." This CD cover was designed using my own personal photograph I took at one of their shows in Columbia, SC. Then using my knowledge of design I created what you see now. The red flame style is used for the CD cover and the blue is used for the DVD.

Week 3.1 The Park

The inspiration that was given to me to create this project was from a day at the park. I went there to develop ideas as well as clear my mind. Taking notice to the wooden benches and general environment of the park, I became inspired to draw the preliminary stage of this model. Then after carefully developing correct proportions and finding excellent textures I came up with what we see here above.

Week 2.2 Ad Design, "Have you ever seen a Sea Lion?"

In my Ad Design class we had to draw a client from a hat to simulate getting the job from an ad agency. while doing so I draw out the client "The Association of Zoos and Aquariums." Our assignment was to come up with a single page advertisement for our client. Something unique and original. After hours of deep thought and many, many concepts I finally developed an interesting idea. Why not take a real animal, such as a lion-fish, and put it together in a literal form; one half lion, one half fish; and that is exactly what I did. I put together a lion with the tail of a fish and developed my "Sea Lion." As this idea was further developing I took into mind, "What type of environment would it live in?", "Would it dwell in an aquarium or a zoo?", and "How can I show this in a way that any reader can understand the concept that I have developed?" After well over twenty hours of work, a lot of restarting, and the nearing deadline for the project, it was finished. What you see to the left of this text is the final product of my Ad for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Leaving the only thing left for my design is an appropriate name. I felt that the name would be best developed, and used as the tag-line for the Ad, should be a simple question,

"Have you ever seen a Sea Lion?"

Week 2.1 Love, Companionship, and Inspiration

Since the 23 of February 2010, a beautiful, talented, and very intelligent young woman, by the name of Diva, has entered my life. She has been a huge inspiration to me, even in the short amount of time I have known her. Ever since our first encounter, I knew that there was something very special about her that would bond us together to work as a team. She is on the path to becoming a professional writer and I am on the path to becoming a professional Graphic Designer. Every time I talk to her my imagination flows like a waterfall of brilliant ideas, new forms of art, and a world that manifests from from these new ideas. I have never been to sure on what it is about her that does this to me. Is it in her personality, her motivational demeanor, or is it simply that I am falling in love with her? What I do know is, that when I am around her I know there is nothing I cannot do. She is my inspiration to prevail, my will to succeed, and the determination to be the best I can be. So in dedication to her and the inspiration she has given me, I have created an illustration of her with the use of my own personal photography and my Photoshop and Illustrator skills, using the knowledge that I have gained from learning Graphic Design and the recent inspiration that I have developed from the newly developed companionship I have with her. After eight long hours of hard, but well worth it, work I have finished the illustration and added a few final tweaks to it and finally called it a day. This piece of art is in dedication to my beautiful new companion, Diva Jefferson.

Week 1.2 The 50

The 50 is a challenge brought to me by a classmate and close friend of mine. The challenge was to see if I could go with out any type of soda for fifty days. Prior to this challenge I drank around six or seven twelve ounce cans of soda a day. That is over half of the daily recommended calorie intake every day and over a hundred grams of sugar. At the beginning of the challenge I weighed two-hundred and twenty pounds. It was tough to instantly cut myself from the caffeine and sugar addiction. During the first two weeks of the challenge I was getting major headaches and became easily irritated. After the first month the headaches and withdraws began to vanish. I started to loose weight rapidly. Finally April 1st, 2010 the challenge was over. Fifty days without any soda. I felt so much better. My face began to clear up, I had more energy, and best of all I lost thirty pounds! It is wild to imagine what sodas do to you. I now have a more positive outlook on life and I am enjoying it to the fullest. I am Marlin Lee Carpenter III, and I have completed the 50.

Week 1.1 Introduction and Beginning

Let me introduce myself. I am Marlin Carpenter. I am a senior at South University Majoring with a Bachelors of Science in Graphic Design. My passion for the Digital Arts comes from a variety of different sources. This is developed from my love for art, the ever changing digital world, and new mediums to developing wonderful artwork. In the beginning I was not sure what exactly Graphic Design was nor did I know what to expect. Originally my initial thought was that design was more related to drawing and craft work with minimal computer use, more or less another form of fine arts. Soon after I discovered that I was in for a huge surprise. There was a lot more work to a design then there appeared to be. The thought processes it takes to create a successful design, the concept time, as well as the use of natural talent and creativity while working within set medians and limitations to the creative work. All of this as well as providing the best and most fantastic work we can produce. After being in the Design program for three years, I have learned so much, improved my skills, gained a higher confidence in myself, and developed a broader understanding of design and professionalism. Graphic Design is not only my career, but it is my passion, my life, and it is who I am.