Week 16: Shipping Images Off!

Craft: The card, game box, and game board designs were made using a combination of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.
Composition: The various elements had to be fit perfectly within the templates provide by Print and Play board games to make cutting and folding easy.

Week 17: Printed Game board, Box, and Mini Playing Cards!

Designs were printed successfully! The images of the objects are below.

Box Re-design

Craft: The re-design of the box, like the first game box design, was created using Adobe Illustrator.
Concept: Because printing companies had to be switched to save money, I had to deal with a new set of dimensions for my game box. Luckily, all I had to do was copy and paste parts of the old game box into the new box design.

Composition: The composition follows the same logic as the last box design, only the space is more compact being that it changed from a square to a rectangle.

Old Design

New Design

Special Edition-Senior Shows 1 and 2

After attending both Senior shows this semester, both exhibitions had completely different atmospheres. Because the first exhibition seemed to veer towards multimedia, video, and photography, there were some projects that seemed out of place. One project being the gold figurines in the corner of the gallery. The focal point of the gallery in the first show was Adewumi's project "Homo Sapiens", which experimented with scale and transformation of that particular space. I think because the projection was so large and because it was centered in the middle wall of the gallery, a lot of projects were overshadowed. The project I found to be the weakest was the Tom's project featuring insects such as a tarantula and a cockroach. Aside from the creepy factor of watching bugs crawl from on part of the bug house to another, I found the concept of the project to be unclear in comparison to other projects.

The second exhibition seemed to welcome the most visitors due to the atmosphere being brighter and livelier. I think this is due to Lindsey's drawings. The level of form and delicate intricacies definitely raised the bar for skill level. My second favorite was Emma's photographs of water on objects. The focus and detail reminded me of watercolor paintings instead of photographs. I thought the weakest piece in the second exhibition were the infographics about diabetes. I think that because there was more text than illustration, the piece did not feel as artistic as the pieces surrounding it. Like the imbalance between multimedia and 3D sculpture in the first exhibition, there was an imbalance between 2D design and video, which one projected video being the only digital piece in the room. It made me question why the sculptures were not swapped with the video projection so that the first show featured only digital design and the second exhibition featured traditional art forms.

2nd Card Set

Week 12: Playing Card Categories

Week11- Game box Re-Design

Craft:The game box designs were made using Adobe Illustrator.The box was very simple in that I transferred aspects of the game board design to the box, such as the superhero, the planet, villain, and the text. I focused mostly on the base of the box, using the star template create constellations in an outer space atmosphere.
Concept: The goal was to use the constructive criticism from the critique to make the game box better.
Composition: The changes that were suggested were incorporating some the theme onto the bottom of the box, Making the logo and company more legible, and changing the cape on the character to clearly identify it. I decided that instead of having the villain behind the title that I would have it on the bottom of the box in a form of a constellation.

My Game Board Box and Game Board Box Critique

This post discusses both the game box I designed for my board game and also 10 game box designs I think does a great job with the use of color, text, theme, illustration, or any combination thereof.

Craft: The game box designs were made using Adobe Illustrator.The box was very simple in that I transferred aspects of the game board design to the box, such as the superhero, the planet, villain, and the text.
Concept: The goal of the project was to create a box design that conveyed what the game is about and what audience the game is created for.
Composition: The composition was the most important in designing the game's box. We discussed that key components such as the number of players, title, age, and illustrations were key in making a box for a game. I included the most important aspects of my game on the box to convey the outer space setting with the hero being the main character as the theme of the game.

The reason I picked this game box is because I like how the color scheme works together in an appealing way. The complementary colors help both the background and text stand out in a dynamic way.

I like how the image demonstrates how the games is played. The side-ways arrangement of the text also conveys that the game will be hectic.

Both the design of the title and the image convey the chaos of war like the title suggests.

This Star Trek board game box design gives me an idea of how I might want to design my game since both have outer space themes.

The uniform color scheme is appealing.

This box is well constructed in that it shows each character in the game while also capturing the attention of the consumer by the action-packed illustration centered on the box.

The color scheme is the most appealing which includes a lot of vibrant, playful colors like pinks and blues. I also like how the  image portrays a candy kingdom where the setting where the game takes place.

I like how the text is big and bold enough to draw the viewer's eye. I also like how the illustration gives a CLUE (no pun intended :)) concerning what the game will be about. Definitely has this old-timey, "who dun nit?" movie feel where the butler is always found guilty.

I think the text gives the consumer the theme of the game which conveys an eerie, horror feeling. The illustration is also eye-catching being that there is action between the characters.

What I liked about this gameboard is that it displays the actual gameplay, giving the consumer something to look forward to when purchasing.

Week 9: Game Board Box

Craft: The game box designs were made using Adobe Illustrator.The box was very simple in that I transferred aspects of the gameboard design to the box, such as the superhero, the planet, villain, and the text.
Concept: The goal of the project was to create a box design that conveyed what the game is about and what audience the game is created for.
Composition: The composition was the most important in designing the game's box. We discussed that key components such as the number of players, title, age, and illustrations were key in making a box for a game. I included the most important aspects of my game on the box to convey the outer space setting with the hero being the main character as the theme of the game.

Week 8: Game Board Pieces

Craft: Both the game piece designs were made using Adobe Illustrator. I first decided what type of symbols would be good to represent the game as game pieces. Since the setting takes place in outer space, I though space related pieces would be the most logical.  For my three game pieces, I chose a planet, star, and a piece shaped like the hero of the game, I started out with the planet. I researched online to see if there were existing game pieces in this design. After finding one, I traced it in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool, then colored each aspect of the design such as the globe, ring, and the base of the design. The other pieces were made by simply copying and pasting other tracings I previously made.
Concept: The goal of the project was to create game pieces that related to the game created in a logical way.
Composition: The composition was quite simple being that the figure or symbol had to be centered on the base of the game piece. using the Shape Builder Tool was useful in merging separate components together, such as the star, post, and base of the piece.

Special Edition Blog: Edyta Stepien's "Non-Phenomena"

This exhibition consisted of large-scale video projections on the walls of SXU's Art Gallery. When I first stepped in, there was a striking impact as if I had been transported to an entirely different environment, Stepien opened her presentation  by allowing the viewers to ask her questions about her piece. The first topic of concern was how the piece was made. She stated that the video clips were taken by pointing a micro-lens camera at a fish tank filled with water, with natural substances such as plants and sand while also including man-made objects such as wire, glitter, and bits of paper. To create a tumultuous atmosphere in this small setting, she created ripples in the water with a blow dryer and moving the water physically to created a disturbance into the items in the tank. The sound was also a component in this multimedia exhibit. Stepien stated that the sounds came from field recordings of pitches from hurricanes and storms.

Another topic was what she wanted to communicate with this piece. Stepien's inspiration for this piece came from the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina. Stepien stated that she wanted to explore the relationship between the natural and mechanical by making this simulation of a violent storm that transported us as the viewers to the center of the chaos. She explored how even natural objects have man-made components.I believe that this was successful in the way the entire gallery space was transformed to envelop the viewer in constant motion and dimness. 

This exhibition is different from any other exhibition I have attended in that it made me pay attention to both space and sound. I enjoyed how more than one sense was required to interpret  what was happening in the composition. Even though I knew I was inside of a building, the walls no longer felt like walls because of the depth and scale of the projection. While my eyes were visually interested, my ears were audibly interested in the ominous sounds of wind whistling and high pitched, resonating bells that provoked a certain emptiness or muffled sound as if I really was underwater, immersed in chaos.

Week 5:Game Board Draft

Craft:  I created this game board using Adobe Illustrator. The overall construction of the board consisted of copying and pasting multiple rectangles and arranging them in a snake-like pattern. The structure consisted of several layers with a rectangular blue fill for the background, a dark blue background with stars to emulate outer space. Most of the illustrated images were made by tracing images found on the internet, ordering the components of the image into different layers, and coloring each separate layer. These different components were then grouped together to fit onto the squares.
Concept: The object of the game is to guide the hero "Super Fatty" through a location in space to safety. On his road to safety, there are both power-ups to guide him along and  traps set by an evil villain.

Composition: I chose colors that would work well together based off of early, 8-bit style or game graphics. The color yellow played an important role in straightforwardly letting the player know when a power-up or trap has been landed on.

Week 4: Goose/Game Board Illustrations

Craft: The images were made using the Pen Tool, Direct Selection, and Curve Tool in Adobe Illustrator. I chose images off of the Internet to trace, ordering different components of the image into different layers. This enabled me to change certain colors in a particular area of the image, such as changes different colors of the goose's feathers.

Concept: While the goose was practice for getting used to using the Pen Tool, Direct Selection, and Curve Tool, the other symbols were images I could use in my game board, such as the main character who is the hero of the game.

Week 6 : Game Board: Space Adventure

Craft:  I created this game board using Adobe Illustrator. The overall construction of the board consisted of copying and pasting multiple rectangles and arranging them in a snake-like pattern. The structure consisted of several layers with a rectangular blue fill for the background, a dark blue background with stars to emulate outer space. Most of the illustrated images were made by tracing images found on the internet, ordering the components of the image into different layers, and coloring each separate layer. These different components were then grouped together to fit onto the squares.

Concept: The gameplay is based off a video game where the object of the game is to guide the hero to the exit while surpassing the traps set by the evil villain, Dr. Bones. The game board consists both traps that send the hero a specific amount of squares or power-ups that advance him a certain amount of spaces. The blackhole sends the hero back to the beginning of the board. Once the hero reaches the flag, he can be transported to safety.

Composition: I chose colors that would work well together based off of early, 8-bit style or game graphics. The color yellow played an important role in straightforwardly letting the player know when a power-up or trap has been landed on. In the next revision, I hope to add more space- like qualities by adding a safe planet in the middle of the composition and making the board larger.

Week 3: New ABC Set

Last week's set

New set of letters

Concept: The assignment for this week was to transform the previous letter- set into an entirely new style. This required the use of different tools found in Adobe Illustrator, such as the Delete Anchor Point Tool and the Curvature Tool.

Craft: The letters were made using Adobe Illustrator. I first made a copy of the previous set of letters made last week. After that, I began playing with different angles that the letters could have using the Direct Selection tool to change the direction of the anchor points. After trying to remember what tool was suggested for the project, I stumbled upon the Curvature Tool which made my letters more organic and playful. I decided to use it on the focal angles unique to the particular letter I was working on. For example, the anchor points on the letter A only had to be modified at the bottom or (legs as I call them) to create a bubbly effect. Once I finished bubbling-out the letters, they reminded me of a font that I would find from the 60's. I decided to choose colors that could possibly represent this, using a teal blue for the letter fill and an orange for the stroke. The complements also work to give off a glowing sense.

Composition: It was very important that the letters looked uniform so it would look like all the letters belonged to one font and not multiple different ones. Using a combination of guidelines and eyeballing, I resized each letter to match the height and with of each other, also taking into account how much space they used on the page. Using the same two colors also helped to achieve this goal.

Week 2: Letter Set

Craft: To make each letter, I used the pen tool. I divided the method into two categories based on how the letters looked. Drawing letters with hard edges first, I used the pen tool to draw each vector, making a point each time the angle in the letter changed directions. Hard-edged letters that are more symmetrical such as the letters E, M, and W were easier to make using the ruler tool, smart guides, and guidelines. I then tackled letters that involved curves. These were more challenging as I had to experiment with which direction to angle the line to make a curve in the appropriate direction with  the pen tool. Fortunately, I could correct sloppy curves with the white selection tool to correct the anchor points. This tool also helped my to stylize the look of the letters, creating a jagged look. I then experimented with the pattern in the letters which I found in the color fill menu and styles. To differentiate from each letter, I adjusted the stroke to a heavier point.

Week 1: Intro Post

Hello!

My name is Kyeara Aikens. I am a junior at Saint Xavier University majoring in Studio Art and most recently minoring in Graphic Design.Some of my interests include fashion design, culinary, interior design, and playing flute.