February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 by Prof. Miller

“Glowing” textures

Patricio was asking about how to add texture.. Lots of great ways to add texture to your flat vector work:

Some great videos

Grain effect:

https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-different-vector-textures-using-adobe-illustrator–cms-31061

Clipping Masks with inserted Textures/Brushes, etc.

Making a Clipping Mask with a transparent texture from Photoshop is a great idea too. This way you can apply the texture to the interior of block text, a closed path or a shape.

https://ncoughlin.com/posts/illustrator-apply-texture-to-vector/

Vintage Halftones

Adding halftones can be fun!

Glowing – Inner and Outer Glow:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/drop-shadows-glows-feathering.

Glow TEXT

My #1 advice regarding texture is not to discount the power of OPACITY. Layer, layer, layer, layer!

February 16, 2022February 22, 2022 by Prof. Miller

Wednesday, Feb. 23 : Lab day for Infographics

Today will be a lab day for Infographics – we will meet at 8 a.m. for a tutorial and then work from home to gather information and plan your project

Here is a link to a Pinterest board of great infographic examples

These are the steps I would recommend for this project:

Research / Data Gathering
Compositional Layout – How are you going to present all this info?
Title Design
Typography + Color
Design Icons/Elements

I’ll also do a technical demo on how to use the “Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork” feature in Illustrator so you can be sure you are certain about your color decisions.

Color support:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/adjusting-colors.html

Recolor Artwork

https://visual.ly/product/infographic-design

Next week – required email check in.

Use this above graphic as inspiration for planning! It shows typography, icon design, color palette, etc.

February 9, 2022February 16, 2022 by Prof. Miller

Project 2: Infographics: Chart it.. graph it.. and map it

Infographics Design Project: Charts, graphs and maps:

Continuing our studies of visual communication, our next assignment is to produce an infographic on a subject matter of your choice. You can approach this from anything to a scientific manner to a humorous/witty manner. Charts, graphs and maps are all part of graphic design – we see them as accompaniment to magazine articles, newspaper spreads and web graphics. Publications from anything such as the NYTimes, to National Geographic, to Maxim use infographics, not to mention countless information based and news websites. Try using a mind map for brainstorming to develop your design approach for this assignment.

Anything from bar graphs, to pie charts, to Venn diagrams, to “pinned maps” to an original idea is acceptable.

You may use hand drawn elements, vector graphics, simple lines and shapes or a combination of several.

See these links for visual research: See Pinterest “Infographics” or “Graphs” Also take a look at Cool Infographics for inspiration.

This site Pop Chart Lab has a bunch of beautiful vector based charts and infographics

Also check out this artist, Chad Hagen for his “Nonsensical Infographics” which I personally love.

First things first: Scour the internet or newspaper or a magazine for an article you think would be appropriate for illustration through an infographic. The best articles include statistics, literal communication devices and images as well as a sense of “measuring”.

Ideas to consider: 1. Monetary worth 2. Usage Statistics 3. Compare/Contrast (Something vs. something else) 4. A “How to” 5. Dissecting an object/idea/concept 6. Top 10 ____ 7. Percentage of _____ 8. Demographics.

Element your design must have: 1. Chart or Graph or Map – or combination of the three. Design must combine images and numbers to balance a sense of measuring.

Second step: Technical: Be sure to watch the following Adobe videos on

Illustrator Charts/Graphs tutorial

Illustrator chart graph video

Final design: 11″ x 17″ (or longer) vector graphic design.