I want to apologize for the delay in my new blog being launched. It's been designed for well over a month but unfortunately the developer I'm using has dropped the ball so it'll be a while longer, but will launch within January.
In the meantime as a way to say "Thank you." to those who read my blog. I'm going to do a FREE giveaway of my newest book called "Vector Basic Training." (VBT) I'm already doing another FREE book giveaway on the VBT Facebook page and this one is specifically for my blog readers, but don't let that stop you from participating in both if you wish.
I won't bother posting all the details about the book here, you can read about that on my web site. All you have to do to be included in this drawing for a FREE copy of the book is to comment on this post. I'll than draw three winners this coming Friday and will list them at the bottom of this post.
B Level Acting Skills.
When I came up with the idea for the video intros I didn't think the publisher would take me seriously. But they did, and we had a lot of fun with them as you'll see below in this promotional plug for the book. You can view another video posted on my web site here.
So what are you waiting for maggot!? Post a comment now!
Winners of the FREE VBT Book Giveaway!
My oldest daughter Savannah drew names out of a hat and the following three people were chosen.
- Jeff (No Last Name) This Jeff. - David Sizemore - Ronda Couch
Each of you have 24hrs to claim your FREE copy by emailing your snail mail to info@vonster.com.
FYI: I'll be doing a workshop at the HOW Conference in Chicago this summer on "Vector Basic Training" so if you're planning on going I'll be demonstrating the methods I cover in the book.
I'm happy to announce that I've finally produced my first collection of self-contained tutorials called "Volume 1 PDF Tutorials."
This first collection was derived from our top “25″ downloaded tutorials. Each tutorial comes in an easy to access multi-page PDF file format. Each PDF tutorial includes creative process images and exhaustive text embedded with links to referenced software, books, and resources. You’ll be able to view and read them on-screen or print them out for hands on reference purposes.
I just posted a new project at my primary design site regarding a coffee label design I did for Rahzo.com. I had shown this label to twitter users a while back after I got shipped some printed samples and was asked if I'd deconstruct how I went about creating it.
Well that is what this blog post is all about. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the post.
Source Photo: Paris, France.
1. Source Photo Because I named the roast "Noir French Blend" it goes without saying it needs to have a French flair to the approach. I sourced out this picture which has the Eiffel Tower in the background.
I also picked this image because the contrast was perfect for how I planned on using it too.
Compositing images via Photoshop.
2. Distorting Reality I wanted the the Eiffel Tower to be a focal point in my composition so if reality doesn't work you do what every fashion magazine does and manipulate reality so it looks better than real.
Converting photo to a halftone.
3. Halftone FX I converted the photo to a halftone. In a nutshell: Convert color photo to greyscale, convert to halftone by going to the menu image/mode/bitmap. From there you'll have to experiment in order to determine what size of halftone works best for you, it isn't a one size fits all process. Once you have the size nailed down you have to convert back from bitmap to greyscale then copy/paste it back into your PSD file.
If you're still scratching your head after reading the above try this link it might help you? Or my big dot tutorial might also explain this process better?
Halftoned photo integrated into layout.
4. Halftone Integrated I nest the halftoned photo into my over all layout. Mind you this is screen res so it doesn't do the halftone justice. Make sure to view the larger image at the end of this post to see how the halftones enhance the look and feel of the design.
European Beauty.
5. Romance I wanted drama in my design. It's Paris so it needed some beautiful romance so I sourced out this photo. Her eyes were captivating and that was what I was after.
Romantic dot gain.
6. Larger Halftone FX Once again I used the same halftone effect, just a larger size and composited the romantic gaze into my design.
A lot of what I do when I use Photoshop is experimentation. Playing with transparency, blend modes and arrangement of content and via layers to achieve the look and feel I'm after.
Laying a graphic foundation.
7. Graphic Foundation This historical ornament and banner dangler will serve as the foundation for critical content like type and iconography as you'll see in the following images.
...Like a big pizza pie that's moire.
8. Creating a Moire Effect The design over all felt too stark to me. I wanted to blend it all together more. So I just opened another color stock photo (Any will work) gaussian blurred it, went to filter/Pixelate/Color Halftone, converted it to greyscale, copy/pasted it back into my PSD file, messed with transparency and blend modes and there you have it.
...You're in love.
9. Moire Effect Applied Compare this image to step 7.
Adding more character.
10. Texurizing To add more depth and interest I used a variety of surface textures from my "Crumble.Crackle.Burn" book.
Interesting diagram art.
11. Diagram Illustration I wanted culture appropriate imagery to collage my design with so I did some research and found this great retro diagram illustration of a Vespa scooter.
The Vespa has been parked.
12. Diagram Illustration Integrated I'm building my design layer by layer taking the various graphic elements and collaging them together. After all that is essentially what graphic design means.
Information added to the layout.
13. Typography & Iconography It goes without saying that the type you choose need to work for the specific genre you are designing for. This design uses just two typefaces and I've added an iconic graphic of a coffee plant to lock up the design motif.
I also left room so we could work in Rahzo's logo stamp as well.
The label diecut.
14. Diecut On this project we had the luxury of doing a custom diecut so I created this unique shape to frame my design. Of course I knew I was doing this from the beginning so I kept that in mind as I collaged my graphic content too so as not to loose anything when it was trimmed.
Piping hot design ready to pour.
15. Final Product The final labels came out great and the product is now available.
If you'd like to deconstruct this project further just download the "Brewing Design Pack" below which contains a print resolution (150 dpi) layered PSD file. (CS4 file but will open in CS3 or CS2) You'll be able to click through the layers and see exactly how everything was set up.
1. Source Photo With this style my client provides the archive photo that their team has selected for me to draw from. For these types of portrait patches it helps to have a dramatically lit picture but sometimes that proves to be somewhat difficult since many players have long since been retired and the variety of source photos is very limited.
Thankfully this one was well suited for this style which has to be pulled off in three spot colors due to budget and reproduction methods overseas. So it's all about simplifying detail and baking down an image to not only work small but retain clarity and of course look like the person your illustrating of course.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Hockey was never a big thing in our parts. Sure we had professional teams but they were an hour north in Seattle.
There was one neighborhood kid who liked hockey, but we didn't have any ice rink locally. Every so often he'd pull out some goals he had built, gather a group of kids, and we'd have a game in his drive way using a tennis ball as the puck.
I had about as much success handling my hockey stick as I do chop sticks. It was fun because it was different but I felt something was being lost in our translation of the game.
Refined Pencil Sketch.
2. Refined Sketch Since this style lacks any use of gradients I draw out my artwork with shapes in mind. If you scrutinize the photo enough you'll see that his eyebrows aren't exactly shaped like that, or his inner ear really doesn't contain those forms. But that is OK, It's not about photo realism it's about iconifying his visual persona.
I look at a photo and the first thing I do is purposely blur my eyes and study it, this helps me see the facial features as contour shapes and this guides my drawing.
I do this not only because of the limited production specs but also because of my own budget constraints. I can't afford to spend 8 hours on a specific patch design when my budget allows me at the most two hours.
This process is expedient but still allows me to retain the level of quality I expect from myself. And thus is the difference between fine art and commercial art.
I still don't have a clue when it comes to hockey rules, or current players or teams. Every now and then I come across a game and I watch it, but I miss the laser puck days when it was on Fox Sports.
I do recognize the hall of famer players from hockey past like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe etc. but even in this blog post I'm only familiar with 4 of the 8 players shown, but thankfully I don't need to be in order to draw them. ;-P
Building Vector Artwork.
3. Building Vectors Because I spend the board time drawing my refined sketch I know exactly what I have to build when go from analog to digital. There is no guess work it's just a matter of creating what I've already determined I need.
Working like this also speeds up the production process because I'm not slowing down trying to figure out how something should look and noodling around trying to figure it out on the fly.
I still have never actually seen a hockey game in person. And I may never will? And unlike my childhood I don't know anyone now locally who is a hockey fan?
Base Artwork.
4. Base Artwork Once I have all my core base vector shapes built I flow in the basic colors and set up the outer stroke thickness. At this point I'm about 3/4 of the way done.
In the last three years I've done about 300 of these type of portraits. I've done so many that I've caught myself looking at peoples faces in public and in my mind I begin to simplify their features and think about how I could build the vector shapes. So I guess you could say I have an acute case of Vectoritis.
Drawing Shading.
5. Drawing Shading At this point in my creative process I print out my base artwork and referencing the photo I draw out the shading using the same modus operandi as I did with the rest of the portrait illustration.
My process is a mix of digital and analog going back and forth until I complete the project and unless clones become part of our everyday lives I don't see this methodology changing anytime soon.
6. Vector Detailing I scan in my shading drawing and build out the detail in vector form. Now the art is ready to integrate into the over all patch motif and the iconification of a hockey icon is now complete.
I usually do all of my portraits at the same time progressing from one stage to the next until I have all of them done. It just goes faster that way rather then doing one at a time from beginning to end.
This post is what I call a micro-tut, if you'd like to see a full on tutorial covering this same style in more depth just visit my tutorial site at IllustrationClass.com.
Final Gordie Howe Patch Design.
7. Final Patch Here is the portrait art nested in context of the final patch design. Along with each patch I have to use the specific team colors as well.
On very rare occasions I've managed to pull this same style off without drawing out my art first. OK, I've only done that once and it was for a very tight deadline and the photography was custom shot by my client. You can view that project here.
2008-2009 NHL Hockey Patches This Guy Lafleur patch is in reference to his hockey achievements.
NHL hall of famer Ray Bourque.
Legendary iceman Bobby Hull.
The dramatic goalie Robert Luongo.
Tony Esposito and the big hair days of hockey.
Player and now coach Patrick Roy.
The great Mario Lemieux.
Hockey may never hold a lot of interest for me personally but I have learned a lot about it through my various design projects and no matter what the sport it's always fun to illustrate in this fashion.
My client requested an illustration of a Mexican Bandito. Of course the first thing to pop into my mind was a favorite childhood cartoon mascot called Frito Bandito.
And as the rabbit trails of my mind work I had that theme song stuck in my head the whole week, humming it as I drew my art. But I digress.
Rough Sketch.
The client actually sent me one of the tools and like they do on American Chopper I had to create a custom die for the sticker based on the tools casing. My creative challenge was to provide the requested theme in a very restrictive format, so I drew out my art with the final shape of the sticker as my guide.
Refined Sketch.
Usually I draw and redraw until I get exactly what I want to build. I don't like leaving a lot of guess work in the build stage of my creative process. It just wastes time. Since this art is symmetrical I only have to draw half of it. Digital FTW.
Building Vectors.
Once I scan in my refined sketch I simply start building my vector shapes. For more about vector build methods and plugins that make it easier just visit my tutorial web site and you'll find all kinds of information on how to control your bezier curves like a pro.
I draw all my art out before I hit the computer. If you can get into a good creative habit of working this way you'll see a huge improvement in your work and it'll prevent you from becoming a Tooler.
Base Art.
With all my shapes built and fused together via the Pathfinder Palette I'm ready to work out how I'll model my art with more details.
Shading.
I'm a digital artist but my creative process goes back and forth between digital and analog. So when it comes to shading I print out my base art and grab a pencil. 2B or not 2B, that is the pencil!
Building the Shading.
Once I've drawn out how I want the shading and highlights to be handled. I scan it back in and use it as my guide to build the vector shapes.
Details of Illustration.
Once I have the shading resolved I visually study the art and determine other areas to drop in darker shades and highlights to create depth and focus attention within my design. I also start to balance my color palette and experiment with tonal values until it feels right.
It's not always a visual thing, sometimes it just has to feel right. Call it a creative intuition but I depend on it a lot. It's the one intangible aspect of my creative process that is hard to define.
Art in Context.
This is the actual tool the sticker will be applied too. It'll wrap the front of the casing. During the process I'm printing the art out and if time permits putting it aside and looking at it with fresh eyes later and making any necessary changes that improve the art.
Final Artwork.
This shows the final art for the Tool a little larger. You can see this art re-purposed for other usages here.
Blue eyes linear tape illustration. (Click for larger image)
Linear art (also called continuous line art or contour art) has seen a resurgence in the last five years or so in our industry. I've personally done linear illustrations for clients like a grocery store chain, magazine editorials, coffee companies, medical industry, Kleenex box packaging, and a Banks animated TV Ads.
I've had the idea of doing an illustration such as the one above for a few years now but just haven't found the time to do so. Well a couple weeks ago someone shared the art of iri5 with me (Cool art!) and I realized I better hurry up and do my linear take on the same genre before it becomes old hat.
Creating the Artwork Drawing linear art.
Growing up my parents had a nice size LP collection filled with big band and the classic crooners like Frank Sinatra. So naturally I still love his music and decided to base my tape illustration on "Blue Eyes" himself.
I drew out my art based off a classic reference, and I'll use it to help guide me as I build my artwork.
A sticky situation.
I used my xacto and scraped off small amounts of glue stick to affix the tape to the paper and keep it in place.
Inch by inch.
Placing small amounts of glue stick on the paper I then pressed the tape down. I did this on my light box so I could see my drawing underneath and follow it. I repeated this process for the next several hours until I completed the entire linear art.
Eyeing the details.
Tape is flat so I had to bent, fold and twist it to follow the form I wanted. I almost broke the tape a few times along the way and it got tangled on my desk since I was constantly rotating the paper too.
Antique audio = Art.
It was a slow process but it was fun. I almost did Elvis for the iconic aspects of his image but I decided to go with Sinatra instead since I actually listen to his music more often.
Another idea hit me as I was working on this though. I'd love to get my hands on a real Watergate tape and do a tape illustration of Nixon. Now that would be cool! (If someone at the Smithsonian is reading this lets talk.)
Serious though, I'd love to do a linear illustration of John Wayne using rope, just not sure when I'll get around to that?
"Stylized Portrait Illustration" for MacUser Magazine UK.
I ♥ Design I'm thankful for what I get to do for a living. I really enjoy it, and I have a lot of fun creating and working with my clients and other design firms. I have nothing to complain about in terms of my day to day job, I love.
That said, I've always been one to speak my mind be it good or bad and I'd like to think I'm fair more times than not. Over the last several months I've been thinking through a lot of issues related to the state of our industry in respect to both design and illustration and the end result is this post.
It's a good mix of hard truth, seasoned with just enough sarcasm to hopefully make it fun to read while staying informative. But I'm sure some with disagree with my assessment and that's what comments are for.
Preamble I a designer of the United States, in order to form a more perfect creative process, establish drawing, insure design tranquility, provide excellent art, promote conceptual welfare, and secure the blessings of creative liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this blog post for the designers of the United States of America.
Design Needs Drawing MacUser Magazine UK approached me about writing a tutorial for their publication that utilized the same creative methods I used to create my Billy Mays artwork. I was excited to do this because I'm a diehard MAC user myself and this type of project is just fun to work on so I said "Sure."
Before I got started the editor asked "Is there a way to replace the drawing part of the tutorial with some form of computer method instead?" He suggested the possibility of auto-tracing part of the photo. And there's the rub.
A seemingly nonchalant decision to purposely divorce drawing from the design process.
"Sure, no problem I'll remove drawing from my process. And what the hell, while I'm at it I'll remove breathing from my living process too! Because after all that makes about as much sense."
The dumbing down of creativity is a serious pet peeve for me. Those who want to bake it down so it's not too demanding of the individual and caters to the lowest common creative denominator are just facilitating pablum sucking design noobs who think the computer is the wellspring of their creativity.
"You can lead a designer to a computer, but you can't make them draw."
The Dynamic Duo!
Ebony and Ivory, Analog and Digital The fundamental problem with so many tutorials (creative processes) online today is they are merely geared for what I would call a "Tooler." Someone who doesn't necessarily want to improve their drawing skills, but thinks if they learn the latest software version, or some new pull-down menu effect, or run a filter in a certain way, or mimic some other type of convoluted Fibernachesque computer process they'll be able to skirt having to actually draw something.
Maybe it's just fear of failure? I'm sure that is part of it to some degree but any creative process that avoids risk is at best a flawed one. Approaching a creative solution from the mindset of "Playing it Safe" is just nothing more than choosing mere expediency. Too many designers look for the easy way out when it comes to a creative process and that is problematic to their creative growth. Instead of bolstering a core skill like drawing they pursue a path of least creative resistance and the end result is a Tooler.
I told the editor "Sorry but my process is both analog and digital. One is not independent of the other. I think that is a good thing to show." Nothing I do is fully digital, nor is it fully analog, I'm constantly going back and forth through out the creative process.
The editor eventually agreed to let me keep it the way I wanted (I wouldn't have done it otherwise) and I proceeded. Compared to my tutorials at IllustrationClass.com this one was going to be an abridged version that had to fit on a two page spread in the magazine.
Creativity via tools equals "iSuck."
The Dispensation of Toolers Early in my career (pre-computer) people would ask me what I did for a living and I'd say "I'm a graphic designer." and the usual response was something like "You get paid to draw? I can't draw a stick figure...." and they'd proceed to admire, recognize and clearly associate my core skill and craft with what I did for a living.
But now (post-computer) when I tell people what I do the normal response tends to be something like this "That's cool. I have a computer too. I printed some ink jet business cards for..." and they proceed to associate what they do on a hack PC in their spare time using Microsoft Paint, prefab templates, Comic Sans font, and clip-art with what I do as a professional for a living. Gone is the appreciation or even recognition of a skill or craft I possess to do my job. For the most part they don't view themselves as lacking any core ability because the computer in their mind has replaced the skill and craft they once associated with my ability.
Our industry is now inundated with Toolers, who reinforce this poor public perception for what we do. They don't take skill and craft seriously and in essence one could argue they are glorified amateurs who just know more about the software than the general public. Mom and Pop see what they produce and say to themselves "Hey, I can do that too." And thus the Tooler dispensation was born.
Compound this new dispensation with the fact so many designers whore themselves via sites like www.Crowdspring.com, and art schools are flooding the landscape with software savvy, marketing clueless, concept weak, drawing inept students at the tune of about 16,000 every six months (Stats from 2001) and you see the not so pretty big picture that is the future of the design industry.
As for me and my creative convictions I refuse to celebrate mediocrity. But I digress.
How to Recognize a Zombie Designer When ever I look at design there are "5" specific attributes I look for when I critique it.
1. Is there a core concept? Great designers should be great thinkers.
2. Is the style appropriate? It's commercial art, not fine art.
3. Is the art well executed and precise? Quality craftsmanship is a must.
4. Is it unique? Don't be a drop in the sea of marginal prefab design.
5. Is it inspiring? Does it contain a clever visual twist or metaphor?
How these attributes break down for me.
Great Design Contains all five attributes but is very rare.
Good Design Must contain 1, 2 and 3. Most often 4 too.
Marginal Design Only contains two attributes, fails the rest.
Bad Design Most manage to avoid all five attributes.
I realize not all clients need high-concept solutions so that much isn't ironclad in my critique, it needs to be balanced appropriately for each client and I go over all of that here.
A Tooler however dwells in the realm of "Marginally Bad" and only enters "Good" by accident or by deriving or copying another persons work. Because of this modus operandi and the current trend with prefab design methods, our industry has legions of zombie designers that choose to feed off the corpse of incurious creativity.
The Creative Industrial Complex Toolers are more than willing to do work for sweat shop pay grade sites like Crowdspring.com, iStockPhoto.com or logoworks.com? Their actions facilitate a growing problem being pimped by multi-national corporations like Getty and HP, who wish to turn the design industry into a mere fast-food commodity revenue stream, or as I like to call it "The Creative Industrial Complex." Makes me wonder if HP's new logo was done by their own logoworks.com for a mere $299, or if a big agency did it for a lot more? Either way it's still a piece of crap.
Mark my words, it's just a matter of time before you see a "LogoMaker" or "InstaLogo" kiosk in Office Depot stores that allows Joe Consumer to design their own logo or business cards etc. Think about it, they have the computer end covered being HP and the design side would be facilitated by the Toolers. So this business model is possible because of designers willing to create the low grade content this type of system depends and thrives on.
And to further complicate the matter and confuse the general publics perception of what we do you have so-called industry leaders like Paula Scher creating prefab design templates for the owners of Logoworks.com.
Which brings up the obvious question "Would Paula design a logo for $299?"
Toolers are to these sites, what a moth is to a bug zapper. But to see talented designers cater to this problematic formula albeit sincere, are sincerely wrong.
Fast Food Design.
McDesigners Big agencies like Pentagram, Landor, Wieden Kennedy, Leo Burnett and others for the most part don't care about these issues, they think it's below them. They're too busy working for million dollar multi-national clients like HP. But the vast majority of the design being done in our industry isn't by big agencies for multi-national corporations, it's being done by boutique firms and designers like you and me creating for small business owners.
So Toolers whoring their design through sites like Crowdspring.com, iStockPhoto.com and Logoworks.com effects everyone including the big agencies whether they want to admit it or not.
Most of the major design publications have avoided any in depth and honest debate on this topic. Sure there have been a few sidebar articles but never once has any publication done a full-blown expose on this topic. And no surprise, just look at thier advertising and you'll see why. It caters to Toolers. At least the AIGA has attempted to address it in a general sense but they never bother to get too specific and name names, that is what blogging is for I guess?
The fast food design generation is here. So, would you like fries with that design? How about super-sizing your logo perhaps?
Toolers are creative comrades.
Creative Communism As I thought about what the editor had asked me to do, I started to think to myself "This isn't like you're drawing from thin air? You're just drawing from reference, so why try to short cut it by auto-tracing? It'll just look like crap and you'll never get it to be as well thought out or precise as you do from drawing it. Besides what they liked wasn't created by avoiding drawing."
It's like someone enjoying a wonderful meal at a nice restaurant, appreciating the eloquent cuisine of a gifted chef and asking for the recipe. The chef writes it down and they look at it and ask him to replace ingredients because it'll be too hard for them to cook. Of course this is an absurd request and if granted it certainly won't taste like what they enjoyed to begin with. It's not just the change in ingredients, it's also the lack of skill and craft involved in cooking those ingredients. (All analogies fail at some point, but you get my drift)
Creativity is all about exploring. If you don't fail, that means you're not trying hard enough. Some however seem to think a process shouldn't involve any risk? When sharing a process like my tutorial there is a mindset that thinks it should enable everyone to do it via some method that doesn't require any learned skill, just the knowledge of what to click next. I'd call that creative communism, red art if you will.
"If you view my tutorial and you determine that you can't do the drawing part too well, than the tutorial has taught you something. You need to improve on your drawing skills. That is what growing as a designer is all about."
Download "Stylized Portrait Illustration" PDF below.
Anyone Can Improve Their Drawing I think drawing is very important as a designer. Whether or not you ever want to be a full-blown illustrator or not isn't the point. Improving your drawing skills will make you a better designer period the end. You'll be able to take the intangible idea in your head and flesh it out on paper, it's that simple.
In the following video Milton Glaser discusses the importance of drawing.
When I spoke at the HOW Design Conference in Boston (I've updated my presentation since HOW) I made the following statement concerning the creative process:
"Our industry may be digitally driven but ideas are still best developed in analog form."
That'll never change no matter how advanced our technology gets. So step away from your computer, grab a pencil (It's that yellow thing not tethered to a keyboard), start drawing, stop whining, take some creative risks and see where it leads you.
PS: If you'd like me to present my step by step creative process presentation called "Illustrative Design" at your design event, AIGA group, AdFed group, Design School or program just contact me and we'll talk. (See top right side bar)
