The Art of Simplicity

Today as some of you may know is my birthday. I am now 22 years old, so that means all of the fun birthdays are over and now I get to look forward to lower insurance rates as I move forward in life. That is okay though, I have already been dedicating my time into a new kind of fun, Graphic Design! This may come off as completely nerdy, but I'm okay with that, I found something I love to do!

Since I began learning graphic design in 2011 I have been constantly hearing, reading, and seeing a key concept of design. This key concept is simplicity. I use to think that simplicity was for the lazy designers that didn't want to make an effort in creating a worthwhile design. Boy was I ever wrong about that. The use of minimalism can be one of the most time consuming forms of design. Designers (for branding) create sketch after sketch of different designs attempting to make the most visual appealing, easy to recognize, unique, and relate-able design concept to fit the company. 

Any design can take weeks of research depending on the company or product for it to be an effective design that a consumer can relate to. Some of the more recent books that I've read which all view simplistic designs similarly are 

Logo Design Love (pictured above), Recycling & Redesigning Logos, and How to become a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul.

If you look at any of the "big name" companies out there you will notice that they all have simple and iconic designs. The reason main reason is that it can be easily identifiable for the consumer even when the consumer is whizzing by in a vehicle. I use to try to cram everything I could into a design because I wanted to show off my creativity. In many cases its okay to allow yourself to go creatively wild like I did on My Twitter background, but in other cases keeping it clean and simple can create the most effect outcome. 

I recently joined a new website called Behance which allows an designer, photographer, animator, advertiser, and basically any creative person to create a portfolio for free! I have been looking at so many portfolios and getting some great ideas from all of the professionals out there!

Also, if you are a design professional, a couple of the groups I have been involved with since October may interest you as well. I am part of the West Michigan AIGA  and the MMCA (Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance). If you aren't from Michigan, there are AIGA chapters all throughout the U.S. so you can find your local chapter at AIGA . 

All of these websites provide great portfolios to view, creative events, job listings, forums, etc. The design world is growing and is becoming more and more connected as we progress in the future.

Digital SLR Camera

Its required for me to take a photography class in order to obtain my Graphic Design degree, so I decided to do some research on digital slr cameras (a camera is required for the course). I sent an email to my future professor and she gave me these two options for entry level photography.

Nikon D3100

Canon EOS T3

So I did some research and  realized that those definitely are the best options and would be perfect for my degree program. I ran across a very useful guide on amazon.com that gives tips on what type of digital slr is useful for a graphic designer. 

Check it out:

Buying a Digital SLR

Basic Drafting in Art Class

Today I had my basic Art class and we're learning drafting. I haven't done drafting since my junior year of high school (four years ago). Drafting is basically creating three dimensional objects from eye level creating a horizon line and drawing lines at all different perspectives. The project that I was assigned to do was create a two point perspective view of something inside. So I'll probably end up drawing my room from my bed. I'll take a picture of the final product and post it when I'm finished.

The crazy thing about this project is that I was actually watching a video about creating images using different perspectives in Adobe Illustrator.

Take a look:

It is Time to Begin

I finally made the move on purchasing a package from Adobe. I purchased Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 and   in the process I found out the students and faculty members get a whopping 80% discount! All I had to do was submit a photo i.d. from CMU and explain my purpose for how the product would benefit my education. I was originally going to only purchase Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver, but with the discount the entire package was cheaper than buying the two software programs separately. The software contents that came with this package were Adobe Bridge, Adobe Device Central, Dreamweaver, ExtendScript Toolkit, Extension Manager, Fireworks, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Illustrator, InDesign, Media Encoder, Photoshop, Pixel Blender Toolkit, and Adobe Content Viewer.

When I saw all of the programs that came with this package I was a bit overwhelmed. I have only had minimal experience with Photoshop and Dreamweaver, so I decided to start with one program at a time to learn the fundamentals of each before I start learning new techniques and combinations between the programs. I started earlier this week by re-acclimating myself with Photoshop by taking some photos from the past and Halloween photos of my friends working with layering and other tools.

Here are the originals:

Here are the transformations:

I had so much fun with these photos and I provided a good laugh for my friends when I uploaded them to Facebook.

I also have been watching tutorials on Youtube. Today I focused mostly on learning about Adobe Bridge which is, in a very broad perspective, a photo organizer. This will come in great use for next semester since I will be taking Art 140 (Introduction to Digital Photography). I'll have to purchase a Digital SLR camera for that class. Any suggestions on what to buy? I'll have to do some research and snag up a deal on Black Friday.

Here is the link that I found very helpful for learning about Adobe Bridge: All You Need To Know: Adobe Bridge CS5

I'll be looking into Photoshop tutorials as the week progresses because I know I have much to learn in that program. Well Its pushing towards 1:00 a.m. here and I have class at 9:00 so that will be all for today.

Learning From Scratch

Hello everyone my name is Andrew Russo and I aspire to become a Graphic Designer. I decided to change my major last year from Marketing to Graphic Design last year because I realized my passion lies within Art. I am in my third year of college, but I am behind in school partly due to my change in career focus, but I also  participated in an internship through the Disney College Program during the spring semester of 2011. When coming back to Central Michigan University this year I had to make the decision of pursuing my marketing degree or make a drastic change by pursuing graphic design.

Ultimately I decided, with the help of family and friends, to put aside marketing and pursue what I knew I would really enjoy. The reason why I knew graphic design would be the perfect degree to acquire was because I had always loved art, I spend the majority of my free time on the computer, editing pictures, creating advertisements on ebay, learning a little bit of code and embedding files, and creating my own website my senior year of high school.

Not only do I plan to work for a company someday, but I plan to create and manage my own social network. As far-fetched of an idea as it is right now, I am aspiring to learn all of the necessary tools in creating my own unique social network. I have had the basic fundamentals of it written out and drawn up since 2009, but I had brushed it off to the side for the past couple years because I had no idea where to start. Now that I am pursuing a degree that will help me with this in the long run I have found my motivation once again.  I will have the basic skills necessary to begin the project once again. I will use tutorials from Youtube.com, other webpages to learn to create it, and if you have any supportive tips then I would greatly appreciate it as well.

As for school, I am working on building a portfolio to get into the Graphic Design Program through Central Michigan University. They only select a limited number of applicants into the program, so I am in great need of assistance on what kind of work I should put together for my portfolio. I am currently in the basic art classes, but intend to start posting my work onto my blog for all of you to see. Next semester I will finally be in Intro to Graphic Design so I am very excited to show all of you my work progress throughout the semester. I will try to post videos and tips as I pursue my journey to becoming a Graphic Designer.