Blog

Mountain Dew Label Design

Posted by on Mar 14, 2015 in Blog, Product Redesign | Comments Off on Mountain Dew Label Design

Redesign Process

This week I feel like I have finally made some progress I kept not liking my design and trying different things and still wasn’t liking it. I still have a lot of work to do to get this project done by next week, but here is my label. I’m still going to work on the back design a little bit more then I’m going to go get the label printed on Monday.

Screen Shot 2015-03-14 at 4.31.29 PM

Pitch Booklet Progress

I had my layout done for my booklet, but since I changed my design for my label I’m going to have to try and come up with something different for my design of the booklet. I am thinking I will use the bright green for a border or on one side of the book and then have the logo in the bottom of every corner.

 

Updated Timeline

March 11- Finish up design.
March 12- Get feedback create into label.
March 15- Finish all pages in booklet.
March 16- Print label
March 17- Product Photography
March 18- Finish all reguirements
March 20- Present Redesign Project and Video
Share

Redesign Plan and label

Posted by on Mar 6, 2015 in Blog, Product Redesign | Comments Off on Redesign Plan and label

Pitch Booklet Design

I feel like for every one step forward I make two steps back. I have been having a hard time making decisions and then sticking with them because I start to doubt my ideas. So I finally have followed through with something this week. I began working on my book for the end project I got my redesign page down and also my layout I will use throughout the booklet. Below is a screen shot of the design taken in InDesign. I might be changing the color on top a little to fit with what ever colors I choose to use on the labels.

Page Layout Design with Green top and stick mountains.

 

Label Design

Next I have been working on actually designing the label for the Mountain Dew bottle. It’s still a work on progress but this is what I have so far. It’s a very rough idea of what I would like to accomplish. Here is my up to date timeline. I was a little off from my original so I modified it.

Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 11.45.36 PM

Time Line

Feb. 23-25: Research color scheme and fonts begin sketching ideas.

Feb. 26: Feedback on sketches

Mar. 2: Work on turning sketches into vectors

Mar. 3: Work on label for product

Mar. 6: Finish up label.

March 10: Product photography

Mar. 13: Product Advertisement

Mar. 20: Finish Book and Present

Share

Mountain Dew Design

Posted by on Feb 27, 2015 in Blog, Product Redesign | Comments Off on Mountain Dew Design

Color Scheme

This week I have been working a lot on bringing all my ideas together. I picked a color scheme and then some possible font choices.But as I have been brainstorming a little more I might not even be using these color choices and fonts, but we will see.

Big Idea

Originally I wanted to do the mountain dew bottle with more of an appeal to women and make the label majority pink. But as I have been thinking more about Mountain Dew I want to take it back to one of its original forms by adding the mountains into the label.

Sketches

I sketched out some of my ideas and the one that I will probably start turning into a vector is the Mountain Dew with the mountains in the background and the cabin. I don’t know if I will go into as much detail like I did in the drawing with the trees and the stream, but I’m going to try it and see how it looks.

 

Sketches of mountains and cabins on paper

 

Time Line

Feb. 23-25: Research color scheme and fonts begin sketching ideas.

Feb. 26: Feedback on sketches

Mar. 2: Work on turning sketches into vectors

Mar. 3: Feedback on vectors finish up product design

Mar. 6: Product Photography

Mar. 13: Product Advertisement

Mar. 20: Finish Book and Present

Share

Re-design Plan

Posted by on Feb 21, 2015 in Blog, Product Redesign | Comments Off on Re-design Plan

Mountain Dew Re-Design

At the beginning of every project it’s important to start with research. The next project is a product redesign where I have to choose a product and improve its design. I am currently stuck between two products and that is Oreo and Mountain Dew. As I have conducted my research I have decided to go a head with Mountain Dew. I know this product redesign is going to be difficult because Mountain Dew’s design isn’t terrible it looks pretty good. I am up for the challenge and excited to see what I can come up with.

History

Mountain Dew is a product of Pepsi co. it originally started by two mountain men in the 1940’s that were bottling a lemon flavored drink. These two mountain men were known as the Hartman brothers. In 1948 they got a trademark put on the drink and in 1964 it became a Pepsi Product. Since the original Mountain Dew came out there has been more than 90 different flavors released as well.

Target Audience

The target group of Mountain Dew is typically young Caucasians between the ages of 18 and 24. Although Pepsi has been working on targeting the African Americans and Hispanics in their latest campaigns.

Original Old Mountain Dew Can

Slogan

Currently they have the slogan Dew the Dew, but I plan to find a better slogan that will increase sells. I will make the packaging stand out more to those who wouldn’t normally drink it. I want to portray it not as a caffeinated beverage, but as a way to sustain energy.

Designs

They have had many different can designs over the years so I am going to come up with a newer and better design. I want to stick with the green background for the product because when people think of Mountain Dew they generally think of green. Now that the research has been done its time to get to work.

Time Line

Feb. 23-25: Sketch ideas for label and do research

Feb. 26: Feedback on sketches

Mar. 2: Work on turning sketches into vectors

Mar. 3: Feedback on vectors finish up product design

Mar. 6: Product Photography

Mar. 13: Product Advertisement

Mar. 20: Finish Book and Present

Follow Tasha’s board Product Redesign on Pinterest.

Share

Infographic on 5 Tips for Taking Better Photos

Posted by on Feb 20, 2015 in Blog, Infographic | Comments Off on Infographic on 5 Tips for Taking Better Photos

The Assignment

As part of my Advanced Visual Media class I have had the opportunity to gather data and do research to create a visually informative infographic. This infographic had to be under 2mb and I had to include at least three vectored images that I created and a stylized graph.

The Topic

The topic I chose for my infographic was 5 tips to taking better photos. I chose this topic because I thought it would be a helpful infographic for beginner photographers. When I was first starting out as a photographer I wish I would’ve had simple infographics that could’ve helped me.

Problems/Solutions

Every project I start with sketching out ideas and then taking them into illustrator. A lot of the ideas I originally sketched and then created in Illustrator I didn’t end up using.As I was creating this infographic I came across many problems. The biggest of those problems was getting my layout to look good. I kept feeling like it was cluttered or too empty and had a hard time coming to a happy medium. To solve these problems I just did trial and error until I found what I liked which took a lot of time.

 Multiple Infographic sketches

 

infographic sketch for project

vector graphic sun

Vector Graphic Camera

 

Programs Used for Project

I used the Adobe programs with this infographic mainly just Illustrator and Photoshop. I used Illustrator to design my layout and all my vector images and then used Photoshop for the couple of pictures I used that I need to crop the background out.

  paper

 

Examples of Graphics I Created and Used

All the images in the Polaroid’s are my own images that I have taken over time. I created the Polaroid’s, the border for the bulletin board, the pushpins and the stylized graph. The images I borrowed were the ripped paper that I used beside the Polaroid’s and then the camera lens.

camera graph 
Polaroid Vector Graphic
push pin vector

 

Final Design

This project was really rewarding because I learned how to do different things in Illustrator that I didn’t know how to do before hand. For my overall info graphic I decided I wanted to give it the bulletin board affect because when I think of polaroids I think of them being on a board. I hope you enjoy my infographic.

FinalInfographic2

Follow Tasha’s board Infographics on Pinterest.

Share

Visualizing my Infographic

Posted by on Feb 13, 2015 in Blog, Infographic | Comments Off on Visualizing my Infographic

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Infographic in Illustrator

This week I feel like I have made a lot of progress. I’m still having some struggles though on how I should layout some of the items on the info graphic. This week I started working on my graph it’s not very good yet, but I have a start.

As I’ve been working on the info graphic I’ve been trying to decide if I should use half real pictures and half graphics or if I should stick with them all being graphics. I’m still playing around with that idea and we will see what I end up deciding.

Beginning of Stylized Graph

This is the start of my graph I’m going to do a pie chart inside of a camera lens.I thought this would look nice and apply to the topic I am doing the infographic on.

camera graph

Infographic beginnings

 

Timeline

Jan 23- Research ideas & choose a topic

Jan 26- Gather data or information for graphic

Jan 29- Plan out and sketch ideas of what the graphic should look like.

Jan 30- Get feed back on my sketches

Jan 31- Use the Infographic generators to get ideas

Feb 3- Start working on creating silhouettes, charts and graphs in Illustrator.

Feb 5- Create layout for the infographic and organize information.

Feb 9- Get feedback on the designs from illustrator

Feb 16- Revise and edit and make ready for presenting.

Feb 19- Have infographic finalized and ready to submit for presentation

Share

Illustrator and Infographic

Posted by on Feb 7, 2015 in Blog, Infographic | Comments Off on Illustrator and Infographic

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Beginnings

This week I started working in Illustrator it has been a little frustrating trying to get my ideas too look good. But I have been working the best I can it’s great that we have Google so when I can’t do something I can look it up.

Here is my infographic layout so far I’m still trying to figure out what I should do with the background because its sort of boring right now. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

Infographic with blue background and polaroids

 

Graphics

Here are also some of the graphics I’ve been working on to put into the info graphic. When you first start on a project sometimes it’s hard to get up and get going. So I haven’t made a whole lot of progress yet on this project.

 

Vector Graphic Sun
Vector Graphic Camera
Vector Graphic Polaroid

 

Time line:

Jan 23- Research ideas & choose a topic

Jan 26- Gather data or information for graphic

Jan 29- Plan out and sketch ideas of what the graphic should look like.

Jan 30- Get feed back on my sketches

Jan 31- Use the Infographic generators to get ideas

Feb 3- Start working on creating silhouettes, charts and graphs in Illustrator.

Feb 5- Create layout for the infographic and organize information.

Feb 9- Get feedback on the designs from illustrator

Feb 12- Revise and edit and make ready for presenting.

Feb 19- Have infographic finalized and ready to submit for presentation

Share

Creativity involved in the making of the Infographic

Posted by on Jan 31, 2015 in Blog, Infographic | Comments Off on Creativity involved in the making of the Infographic

Creativity

This week I made a lot of progress on creatively thinking about what I want my infographic to look like. From the class activity using words to describe the infographic to pictures people drew to go along with those words I was able to come up with a few graphics I want to create and include in the final infographic.

This past week I also decided on what five tips I want to include on the infographic.

 

Five steps to taking a better picture

  1. Use focus to your advantage. Depending on what you focus on can change the whole meaning of the picture.
  2. Use the light source to your advantage. Always have the subject facing the light source so you don’t get shadows.
  3. Use the rule of thirds. In your mind you will want to divide your image into thirds. Where the lines intersect is where you want to place you subject.
  4. Background. Work with the environment find the best background you can for each situation you are in. The location of a picture and angle can make a huge difference in a picture.
  5. Experiment. If you see something you like try it. Don’t be afraid to try something new if you don’t try then you will never become better.

If for what ever reason after I start designing the infographic in illustrator and I feel like its missing something I will probably add a couple of more tips.

Sketches

I also started sketching and have a few ideas for the overall layout and also some simple pictures I want to use as vectors. I will probably use my first idea for the layout and do polaroids down the page at different angles and each of the polaroids will have a different tip and then a graphic inside the polaroid.

sketches of possible info graphics
polaroid

 

Background Color

For the background of the infographic I am going to use this nice blue its not too light or too dark so I think it will look nice as a background.

light blue color swatch

 

Time line

Jan 23- Research ideas & choose a topic

Jan 26- Gather data or information for graphic

Jan 29- Plan out and sketch ideas of what the graphic should look like.

Jan 30- Get feed back on my sketches

Jan 31- Use the Infographic generators to get ideas

Feb 3- Start working on creating silhouettes, charts and graphs in Illustrator.

Feb 5- Create layout for the infographic and organize information.

Feb 9- Get feedback on the designs from illustrator

Feb 12- Revise and edit and make ready for presenting.

Feb 19- Have infographic finalized and ready to submit for presentation

Share

Final Identity

Posted by on Jan 31, 2015 in Blog, Identity, Portfolio | Comments Off on Final Identity

Personal Logos

There was a lot I discovered about myself while I was researching. People describe me with specific words because of what I have gone through in my life. I tried to incorporate those words into my designs. I have three logos that I have created to represent me. Some of them just words and others having vectors to go along with it. These logos I will be able to incorporate into my own photography business so that I can establish a brand for myself.

 

First Design

The first logo has a heart because I thought the heart was a good symbol for who I was. I am a very loving and compassionate person and I wanted to try and show that in one of my logos. I wanted my name to stand out and because there was already the camera graphic that was showing what I do but I want people to remember my name.

Tasha's Photography camera heart

Second Design

The second design is very simple and doesn’t have a lot of fluff. I like sticking to the point and getting stuff done and this logo can show you some of that. I love the color blue so I also wanted to incorporate that into my logos somewhere. I figured I could use the initial logo as a watermark on photos that could be tied to the bottom logo with the blue camera.

blue circle with TL

Third Design

The bottom logo was my favorite from the very beginning I knew exactly what I wanted and I got it done. I love this logo because I feel like it shows me as a person pretty well. I’m one who likes to have fun and go with the flow and take pictures what more would you need in a logo about photography.

Tasha Larsen with a camera between for photography.

Favorite Logo

As I continued to work on my logos I decided that the last one I did was actually my favorite. It was the one I started from scratch and threw together. I liked it the most out of all of them. I was able to add some last minute details to it like the heart to show more about myself. It was hard working on a new logo because I had set a timeline and once I decided to do the new one the timeline kind of almost had to be changed and revised to work with the little time I had.

Challenges

As I was working on my logos in illustrator I started to realize that I didn’t know the program as well as I would like to know it. I would get an idea in my head of something I would want to do, but then I would go to do it and it wouldn’t work for me. I would get really frustrated then just give up. In the future I need to stick with what I want to do and work on it. Although I struggle a bit I was able to overcome some of my challenges by asking for help and talking to my father-in-law about logos or looking up on Google how to do specific things.

 

Mockup

For my last part of the assignment I was able to use a Mockup to make my logo look like it was professionally done. I hope you enjoyed my logo designs and continue to check back for more projects that I will do for this semester.

letterpress Tasha's photography

 

Share

The beginnings of vectorizing

Posted by on Jan 31, 2015 in Blog, Identity | Comments Off on The beginnings of vectorizing

Working in Illustrator

Once I had my three ideas and had sketched them out it was time to turn them into professional looking logos I opened up Illustrator and went to work. I had to go through the process of editing them and revising them several times. I also had to work on color schemes and I decided on a blue that I really liked and tried to incorporate that into my logos in a way it would still represent me.

 
 
 

Change of Plans

Half way through the process I decided to change one of my logos completely. My L that was established in 2014 didn’t seem to fit my idea of what my logo should be. It didn’t really say anything about me or what I was trying to market.

Since I decided to change one of my logos I had to start scratching once again. Sketching out some more ideas and then working on it. It was a journey learning about myself as I worked on these logos.

Screen Shot 2015-01-16 at 10.51.47 PM
Share