Skull Wallpaper

Photo Restoration

Well recently my Dad who was adopted at a young age managed to track down a few of his brothers, this was a big moment for my Dad as he had never really considered searching for his family before. After keeping in touch for a fair while, they began discussing their family history and talked about their Dad (my Grandad).

He died a long time ago so unfortunately so my dad never really got the chance to meet him. All that is left is some photographs which my Dad asked me to touch up. His dad is second from the right of the bottom row. It is quite strange seeing pictures of someone I have no connection to apart from biological and wanting to find out so much more about them.

Loving Memories

Loving memories | Make Your Own Book

This is a book that my mum asked me to make as a birthday present for her sister. This was fun for me to do as I got to look at lots of pictures of my family which I had never seen before, scan them and edit them. Many of the pictures were very small or damaged in some way. This meant that I had to enhance and retouch them in Photoshop. Some were creased or torn, others has large watermark stamps over the top which I managed to remove using clone stamp and the healing brush tool. Doing this has made me want to look retouching as a job and I have applied for a few positions already. You can view a few examples of the images before editing here.

Day of the Dead Woman

Well here I am bored on a Friday night so thought I would have another go at using my graphics tablet. Spent quite a bit of time on this and I'm actually quite happy with it! Although wasn't quite sure what to do with the background but might come back to that.

Day of the Dead Skull

With some money from my birthday, I bought myself a Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet (which is awesome). Just practicing with it and decided to make a design based on the Day of the Dead Skulls. I traced around the basic shape of a skull design I found then began adding patterns and shapes inside. The design is taken from a few different ones I found but it was all just to get used to using a graphics tablet. So next thing I do will be completely my own.

Another attempt at a cinemagraph, pretty happy with this one. This is from a music video titled 'MIRACLE' by Vanessa Bruno which you can view here.

Cinemagraph

Decided to experiment with some new techniques, this is making a still image have a moving aspect using video. The video is not my own but as I have now learnt how to make them, I can use my own video to make more interesting ones, hopefully to a better standard than this first attempt.

This style of work is called Cinemagraphs and if you haven't seen these already, I urge you to check them out: cinemagraphs

Recently asked to take some photos for my friends band and they also wanted an EP cover designing, I chose to use some of my own photography and then experiment with different effects and type.

I recommend you check out their facebook and give them a listen and look out for their EP coming soon:

Scott Adams & Carl Jenkins

Few basic designs which I was experimenting with, not 100% happy with so currently left to one side.

First attempt for a different post, wanted the image to have a blue and red 3D effect but after finishing it, I realised the image was too busy so striped it down to its bare aspects and made it simpler. 

Flyer Design

Been working on a few flyer designs for my friends Rock Society at DMU so thought I would pop them on here. Since I have finished Uni, I have had the chance to work on a few designs and will post them on here soon.

I chose to make a brief which incorporated both my graphic design and photography skills; I did this by creating a book which includes my photography work based around my Grandads experiences during World War Two, this is a photo book but which I have designed myself. I feel the composition is well thought out and flows well, the introduction sums up what the ideas behind it without over complicating things.

Once the book arrieved, i then did a photoshoot in the studio, this is where I have an advantage over single honours design students as I can professionally document my work.

These are some promotional posters which I have designed to go along side my book, I imagined that my book was being published and tried to image what kind of promotions or advertising, this is why I wanted to make bookmarks as they advertise the book but can also be used when they have purchased the book for its actual purpose. I copied an image of a letter which my Grandad had written to his parents whilst in the RAF during World War Two, by editing the image so that it only displayed the writing, I could overlay that onto another photograph of mine. Then for the last two images, I added a block coloured layer with the title of the book cut from it to show part of the image underneath. I feel the last poster is the most successful as you get to see a lot of the photograph and the text is clearly read.

To further my promotion to people outside the university, I decided to make sets of free giveaways which would have my work on and contact details. As I plan to make a book, I chose that making bookmarks was the best method as these would be a good keepsake for anyone who enjoys reading books; also as you constantly have it in front of you whilst reading it is a good way to get your work noticed to make it memorable. I chose to use the photography from within the book, producing multiple pieces would make them a set which people could try and collect. I also did the same with a set of business cards as these can be handed out and then made a set to be looked after.

To further my promotion to people outside the university, I decided to make sets of free giveaways which would have my work on and contact details. As I plan to make a book, I chose that making bookmarks was the best method as these would be a good keepsake for anyone who enjoys reading books; also as you constantly have it in front of you whilst reading it is a good way to get your work noticed to make it memorable. I chose to use the photography from within the book, producing multiple pieces would make them a set which people could try and collect. I also did the same with a set of business cards as these can be handed out and then made a set to be looked after.

This is just a quick design which could be used as a background of a website. It could cover the whole of the background or just sit in a corner, it was made by typing out the font I wanted in white on a black background, blurring it and then creating a 3px x 3px pattern which had red, blue and green lines which when applied to the larger image created a screen effect and made the text have a greenish glow. This is quite an interesting effect as it is not seen now due to modern screens not looking the same.

Trying to experiment with banners for a website, I began using different type to form a headline which would be easily read but also graphically impressive at the same time. I used a cursive font as this gave a sense of elegance and class, I didn’t want the rest of the work to look too classy as it may give a sense of being old fashioned, I used bright colours and made the text look like it had a clean shine to it. Then adding the flick on the end of the writing to finish it off nicely. I did this by lightening areas of the text and painting a slightly brighter blue over one half of the text. This creates the illusion that the text is glistening in the light. I also made the text appear 3D by duplicating the layer and moving the text down slightly and then darkening it to create shading. Finally adding a gradient to prevent the background from looking plain.

Trying to experiment with banners for a website, I began using different type to form a headline which would be easily read but also graphically impressive at the same time. I used a cursive font as this gave a sense of elegance and class, I didn’t want the rest of the work to look too classy as it may give a sense of being old fashioned, I used bright colours and made the text look like it had a clean shine to it. Then adding the flick on the end of the writing to finish it off nicely. I did this by lightening areas of the text and painting a slightly brighter blue over one half of the text. This creates the illusion that the text is glistening in the light. I also made the text appear 3D by duplicating the layer and moving the text down slightly and then darkening it to create shading. Finally adding a gradient to prevent the background from looking plain.

I then wanted to try and promote myself and get my name out into the industry, if I have some form of presence, whether that be online or physical then at least I am one step closer to my goal. I decided to make a flyer which would have my contact details on but shows a bit of my designer flair. Instead of having a flat poster, I chose to have something which stood out from the page, by using a photograph of a wooden floor, which I edited slightly to give a grunge feel. I then added a flat rectangular shape on a new layer with a drop shadow to give it the impression of being slightly off the floor. Then adding my text in a list style with line breaks to split it up slightly which gave the whole page a nice look.