Graphic Design Portfolio-Builder: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Projects By Sessions.edu ............................................... Publisher: Peachpit Press Pub Date: August 12, 2005 ISBN: 0-321-33658-5 Pages: 384Table of Contents | Index Self-paced, self-guided instruction is all well and good, but at the end of the day, most people could use a little feedback--especially when theyre ready to build a design portfolio and hit the job market. Not to worry, this book provides actual instructor feedback along with the self-paced, individualized instruction in Photoshop and Illustrator that designers need. Written by the faculty of New York-based, accredited online design school Sessions.edu, the book uses the schools trademark project-based curriculum to teach essential design concepts with Photoshop and Illustrator. After a brief intro to the world of graphic design, Sessions instructors provide quick "refresher course" chapters on the two programs. Then, armed with Photoshop and Illustrator basics, readers tackle a series of projects that stretch their imagination and creative muscles involving logo design, magazine layouts, illustrations, poster design, digital imaging, book cover design, packaging design, and more. Best of all, readers are encouraged to post their work for expert feedback from Session.edu faculty on "Studio Sessions," the custom Web site created for this book.
Graphic Design Portfolio-Builder: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Projects By Sessions.edu ............................................... Publisher: Peachpit Press Pub Date: August 12, 2005 ISBN: 0-321-33658-5 Pages: 384Table of Contents | Index Copyright Art Credits and Contributions How to Use This Book How This Book Works Whats in It for You How This Book is Structured How to Post Your Work Building a Portfolio About Sessions About the Faculty Chapter 1. Intro to Graphic Design What Is Graphic Design? Defining Graphic Design Elements of Design Critique the Design Chapter 2. Photoshop Essentials Photoshop and Graphic Design Editing and Organizing Images Photo Compositing Project Chapter 3. Illustrator Essentials Illustrator and Graphic Design Creating Vector Art Outdoor Advertising Project Chapter 4. Digital Imaging Communicating with Digital Imaging Image Retouching Image Correction Abstract Imaging Brushes Photo-Realistic Imaging Project Chapter 5. Digital Illustration Illustration Fundamentals Watching the Clock
The Pen Tool Two Objects Interacting Illustrating with DimensionChapter 6. Poster Design Poster Design Fundamentals Achieving Unity Achieving Balance Creating Rhythm Using Proportion Using Typography Poster Design ProjectChapter 7. Logo Design Logo Design Fundamentals A Short History Early Logos Three Logo Categories Inside the Design Process Tips for Your Design Process Typographic Techniques Record Label ProjectChapter 8. Advertising Design Advertising Design Fundamentals Short History of Advertising Design Basics of Effective Ads Organizing Your Message Connotations and Context Tone in Advertising Reality Show AdvertisingChapter 9. Magazine Design Magazine Design Fundamentals Using the Grid The Art of the Layout Designing a Cover and SpreadChapter 10. Packaging Design Entering the Third Dimension Types of 3D Packages Product, Audience, and Placement Package Composition Mass vs. Prestige Design Mass to Prestige Carton DesignIndex
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimedas trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of atrademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All otherproduct names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and forthe benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or theuse of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.987654321Printed and bound in the United States of America
Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival posterFelix Sockwell, illustratorwww.felixsockwell.comLava Life poster adsMarcos Chin, designerwww.marcoshin.comCar wash logo and Green Tea packageDesigner: Patricio Sarzosawww.psarzosa.comOutdoor adTarget Corporation1000 Nicollet MallMinneapolis, MN 55403www.target.comOne Step Contact SolutionWilliams Murray Hammwww.creatingdifference.comGabriela MonroyYWEML coverwww.m-o-s-t-r-a.comAzure Magazine "New Directions in Portugal"Concrete Mediahttp://concrete.caConsumer Explorers logoNin Glaister, designerwww.98pt6.comChampion Athletic Apparel adBilly Hackley,/Kris Hendershott, art directorsBilly Hackley, designer, Hayes Henderson, creative directorLee Reunion, photographerHenderson/BromsteadArtCo.http://hendersonbromsteadart.com"A Delicate Balance,"Developed for Seattle Repertory TheaterDesigner/Illustrator: Dennis ClouseDesign firm: Cyclone Designwww.cyclone-design.comCascade Festival of Music Postertbd advertising, Bend, Oregonwww.tbdadvertising.comCHAPTER 2Photoshop User cover
Designer: Felix Nelsonwww.photoshopuser.comCHAPTER photographsDonald GambinoRoom makeover projectsAdam BenefieldMelinda LangevinJohn MessingerCHAPTER 3Spacehogboy illustrationJohn Schwegelwww.email@example.comCHAPTER artMichael Hamm, illustratorwww.pointsandpaths.comEditorial illustrationsSonoma JoeHeidi Schmidtwww.heidischmidt.comRose and Bubble Self portraitRose Nuñezwww.lifeinvector.com"New" billboardLeo Espinosawww.leoespinosa.comBus ad projectsJeff WeinerPatricia BaumbergerStephanie AdamsCHAPTER 4Spengers and Late Afternoon imagesArtist: Bert Monroywww.bertmonroy.comCar compositePhotographer: Ken Milburnwww.kenmilburn.comGuitar and 3D imagesDesigner: Colin Smithwww.photoshopcafe.comGolf ball projects
Design firm: Cyclone Designwww.cyclone-design.comChampion Athletic Apparel posterBilly Hackley,/Kris Hendershott, art directorsBilly Hackley, designer, Hayes Henderson, creative directorLee Reunion, photographerHenderson/BromsteadArtCo.http://hendersonbromsteadart.comTrackstar Motorsports posterAnn Taylor, art director, Tom Kelly creative directorMartin/Williamswww.martinwilliams.comVitra PosterDesigner: Patricio Sarzosawww.psarzosa.comCub Scouts event posterDesign: Hunt Adkinswww.huntadkins.comSteve Madden posterChameleon-USAwww.chameleon-usa.comTurnaround and Cul-De-Sac postersDesign and Illustration: David Plunkert/Spurwww.spurdesign.comProfessional Bull Riders posterCourtesy R + R Partnerswww.rrpartners.comNYC2012 logo and outdoor postersImages courtesy NYC2012www.nyc2012.comCascade Festival of Music Postertbd advertising, Bend, Oregonwww.tbdadvertising.comConcert series projectsHammad IqbalWilbert RedditUlf FinndahlCHAPTER 7Menu Pages identitySlick City Media, Inc.Designer: Thomas McKenna, Flatiron Industrieswww.flatironworks.com
Fat Pipe, Inc.Salt Lake City, Utahwww.fatpipeinc.comFlatiron Industries logosDesigner: Thomas McKennawww.flatironworks.comCadbury Schweppes Americas BeveragesPlano, TXwww.dpsu.comPackiderm logoDesignKitchen, Inc.www.designkitchen.comANGEL LMS logoANGEL Learning, Inc.Indianapolis, INwww.angellearning.comMultiMed SolutionsCourtesy of Yigal RonDesigner: Thomas McKennawww.multimedsolutions.comCareText logoCourtesy of Steven Merahnwww.caretext.comWorldWide Studios logoDesigner: Thomas McKennai-silver logoCourtesy of Nathan Scott ChappellDesigner: Thomas McKennaShawnimals logoShawn Smith, designerwww.shawnimals.comSewing StarsTeresa Levy, designerwww.sewingstars.comBretford furniture logoPlanet Propagandawww.planetpropaganda.comDinny Bin Records logoCourtesy of Eddie ElliottDesigner: Thomas McKennaLogo projectsSean Lynde
Asa IversenJeff Jenkins, www.quirkdesign.comCHAPTER 8The Diamond Trading Company adDesigned by JWT U.S.A, IncOregon Chai adtbd advertising, Bend, Oregonwww.tbdadvertising.comMuseum of Latin American Art and City Place Farmers Market adsDesign by Nostrum, Inc.www.nostruminc.comGot Milk adPhotography by Jack AndersenDesign by Goodby, Silverstein, and Partnerswww.goodbysilverstein.comSteve Madden and Gelati postersChameleon-USAwww.chameleon-usa.comPlayland posterDDB CanadaCreative Director: Chris StaplesCopywriter: Ian Grais, Andy LinardatosArt Director: Ian GraisPhotographer: Hans SipmaPrint Producer: Betty Anne YuillWick Fowlers 2-Alarm Chili poster seriesBrock Davis art director, Tom Kelly creative directorMartin/Williamswww.martinwilliams.comShelti Pool Table adAgency: MOVE advertisingCopywriter: Richard VerneArt Director: Marco MoralesClient: Shelti Inc.www.moveadv.comSyngenta adMartin/Williamswww.martinwilliams.comArt director: Bryan MichurskiCopywriter: Linda BirkenstockPhotographer/illustrator: Chris SheehanPrint Production: Sandra StishSeparator: VertisRetoucher: Chris Sheehan
How to Use This BookSo you want to learn graphic design. Its a natural choice. If you love design, its a great time to bealive. If the 1920s were the Jazz Age, today is the Age of Design. Visual communication has ussurrounded. You cannot walk around New York or L.A., London or Tokyoany urban space,reallywithout encountering a welter of ingenuity and inspiration for your eyeballs. Head out of town,and even in the middle of the prairie, billboards scream for your attention. Figure 0.1. This book was developed by the faculty of Sessions.edu, a New Yorkbased online school of design. Figure 0.2. The appliance of signs. Graphic design is everywhere in the urban environment.
Who creates all this great design work? Thanks to the digital revolution, theres a new breed of artistin town. The advent of the personal computer, the spread of desktop publishing, and the increasingsophistication and relative affordability of design software applications have created a new generationof designers.The graphic designeralso known as the art director, brand manager, graphics coordinator, digitalartist, illustrator, Web designer, multimedia developer, and new media designeris responsible for thebrands you covet, the products you flaunt, the ads you eye, the magazines you devour, the sites youcrawl. Every visual communicationeverything you pay attention towas created by a designer.
How This Book WorksThis book is for designers, students, teachers, and other creative types who have a basic experienceof Photoshop and Illustrator and are looking for a new way to learn graphic design. Each chaptercontains a topic and a project based on an online lesson developed by a faculty member at Sessions,online school of design. Each chapter explores a specific design discipline, ranging from digitalimaging to logo design and packaging design.Figure 0.3. Each chapter in this book is created by a Sessions.edu faculty member. The Sessions.edu faculty is a team of industry-leading artists, designers, and educators.In each chapter, youll learn design principles and techniques, gaining insights into the professionaldesign process. Throughout, the text features artwork generously provided by award-winning artists,designers, publications, and agencies. In fact, some of the best graphic design created in the UnitedStates today is contained in this little book. We hope you like the pieces, because we lovedresearching them. Figure 0.4. Gloves offall projects in this book are hands-on! Digital illustration project by student Greg Hawthorne.
In the last portion of each chapter, youll find a step-by-step design project that challenges you toapply the skills and concepts youve learned. As in a real-world design job, youll be asked to workcreatively within constraints: for creative direction.What you do with that information (as in a real-world design job) will determine whether you too willproduce excellent design work. Working through each project in this book will expose you to a rangeof concepts and challenges that any professional graphic designer should be able to tackle. Take eachproject to its creative limit, and youll have a collection of design work to put in your portfolio andshow potential employers. note Projects in this book mirror the challenges encountered by graphic designers in the professional arena.And heres whats really new and different: Youre not doing this alone. Some how-to books comewith CDs inside; this one comes with instructors. Each project in this book can be posted in an onlinelearning environment for critique. Just complete each project to the best of your ability, and log in toa Sessions discussion forum to post your work for a critique from a Sessions instructor. Figure 0.5. Dont just read this booktry out the projects using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and then log in to the Sessions.edu Web site to post your work for an instructor critique.
In the online forum, all readers also can post work and comment on each others work, so you canshare feedback and perspectives with other students and readers. This is an important feature of anygraphic arts program: the ability to learn from and discuss how other students approached anassignment youre working on. Constructive criticism is the rule; please show the same respect forother artists work that you would expect them to show yours.
Whats in It for YouYou could just read through this book the way youd consume any coffee-table design book, picking itup from time to time to gaze at the pretty graphics. You could do that, but you would be missing thepoint. To experience the full benefit of the book, we really recommend you set aside a few hours foreach project, do the work, and then get online and post your work for feedback.Here are three good reasons to do this: 1. You learn best by doing. At Sessions (the school that created this book), we believe that design is not learned on the sidelines. Futzing around in Photoshop or Illustrator can teach you important skills. But ultimately, the ability to create design is best acquired on the job: by trying to put together a piece of work that communicates a specific message to a specific audience. note Want to learn whats involved in designing posters, logos, outdoor and magazine ads, magazine layouts, and product packages? Use this book to find out. 2. Every good graphic artist needs feedback. You may think your work is brilliant (and it may well be), but unless youre designing for an audience of one, its important to get feedback from peers and senior designers. Critical feedback helps you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your work and see it as others see itits essential to your development as an artist. tip Having your work critiqued helps you develop a thick skin and prepares you for the experience of working with a clients feedback. 3. Start building your portfolio now. Every designer who wants work needs a portfolio of high- quality pieces to show prospective clients or employers. Many design students wait until theyre about to graduate to start thinking about career preparation. But why wait? Any design project, including school assignments, can be approached with a view of enhancing or expanding your portfolio of work. Pushed to the limit, school projects can be the launching pad for your careerthey show prospective employers or clients what you can do.
noteA portfolio piece looks like a finished, professional design project. If its not donefor an actual client, it should look like it could have been.
How This Book is StructuredEach chapter in this book explores a topic and then leads you through a project that will challengeyour design skills. The design projects are open-ended, so you can take them in many differentcreative directions. Carry them out with extreme flair, and youll have at least nine professional-caliber design pieces to pack in your portfolio.The book has three main sections: Chapter 1 begins with an exploration of the principles and elements of graphic design, and gives you a project that focuses on building your critiquing skills. If youre new to graphic design, this chapter will help you get your footing by providing an introduction to design principles. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a workout in some essential Photoshop and Illustrator techniques that any design student should know. Two practical projects will flex your technical skills. If youre relatively new to Photoshop and Illustrator, these chapters are a must. Chapters 4 through 10 focus on specific kinds of graphic design projects: digital imaging, digital illustration, poster design, logo design, advertising design, magazine design, and packaging design. Each topic and project will introduce you to important design principles for the medium.
How to Post Your WorkTo get feedback on your work, you can post your projects in an online learning environment forcritique. All work posted will receive a brief critique from a Sessions instructor. Readers can postcomments on each others work in this moderated forum too. 1. Create your user account. The first step is to go to www.sessions.edu/nextstep/PBnewuser.asp and create your user account. Only one account can be created per book. You will be asked to enter your first and last name and your email address, and then to create a user name and password. A reminder of your user name and password will be sent to your email address. Once youve created your account, you can log in right away; you can return to www.sessions.edu at any time to log back in. 2. Log in and create your user profile. When youre ready to log in, go to www.sessions.edu and click the Login tab. Once youve logged in, you will arrive at your course home page: Figure 0.6. Your course home page. [View full size image]
In the User Profile, you can upload your photo and enter your biographical data, your learninggoals and inspirations, a personal statement, and a quote. You can also include a link to youronline portfolio site so that other students and readers can view your portfolio and give youinput. Entering your profile information isnt mandatory, but its highly recommended to helpyou get the most out of your learning experience. Figure 0.7. Create an online user profile to interact with other students and readers. [View full size image]
3. Post your work. The online learning environment is very similar to other online forums you may have visited. When you post a project, you will start a new discussion thread, in which other students and instructors will be able to post comments and questions about your work. Check back to the forum to interact with other students and comment on their project threads in each chapter. Figure 0.8. Post your work to the discussion board for instructor feedback. You can view and critique work by other students and readers too. [View full size image]
Sessions faculty members monitor the boards and post feedback to student projects. A mailsystem and a logged chat room lets you communicate with other students and readers enrolledin this course. If you encounter a technical problem related to one of the book projects, you canalso use the mail system to request technical help.
Building a PortfolioOne of the goals of this book is to help you build a portfolio. Its an essential step for a designer, butit can seem a little daunting. Here are some quick tips to help you get started.The goal is of a portfolio is to compile your best work into a presentation that will land you a job orclient. A portfolio must be representative of the type of work youre seekingno sense in compiling anad portfolio if youre looking for visual identity work, for example.Figure 0.9. Approach the projects in this book with the goal of building a portfolio of work.The pieces you select for your portfolio must make an impact and be easily understood with little orno explanation. If presented on the Web (as opposed to in person) its important to accompany thepieces with a brief description of the client, the project goal, and your design approach. Figure 0.10. Many professional designers have an online portfolio too. This site was created by student Sean Lynde.
How do you decide what belongs in a portfolio? For most designers, selecting the right pieces is acontinual process of expansion and contraction. You put up the best pieces you have, and you replacethem with better pieces when they become available.Questions to determine whether a piece is portfolio-ready: Is it representative of specific design skills? (For example, logo design, digital imaging, illustration, or poster design.) Is it the category of work you would hope to get hired for in the future? Will it make a client say "Wow!" and will it stick in his memory? Are you proud to say you did the work and discuss how you created it?The projects throughout this book contain design briefs, art specifications, and step-by-stepdirections that mirror those of real-world design jobs. If you approach them with the sameseriousness you would an actual client project, we think youll be very proud to include some of theseprojects in your portfolio.
About SessionsThis book was created by Sessions, the first online school of design. Every chapter is adapted from acourse lesson and a project that a Sessions faculty member developed. The book features samples ofstudent work too.Sessions was founded in New York City in 1997 by a team of educators and design professionals fromthree continents. The objective was to create a design school that could offer a flexible, student-focused, and (above all) high-quality online education to students from all over the world.Like many dot-coms, Sessions was launched out of a small New York City apartment. Over the nextsix years the school grew and grew, attracting a distinguished faculty of experts and thought leadersfrom the design industry to develop courses and teach. The goal was to create a network of designprofessionals that could rival any serious art schoolteachers who were immersed in current methodsand techniques, pros who could give students critiques based on real-world experience. Figure 0.11. The virtual campus of the Sessions.edu online school of design. [View full size image]The Sessions educational model blends Internet technology with the signature attributes of atraditional art school education. All courses are asynchronous, project-based, and instructor-led: Students can log in at any time to study, complete exercises, and interact with an online community of design students and instructors. Projects simulate the challenge of a professional project, giving students the opportunity to learn and apply software and design skills on the job. A faculty of industry-leading designers and educators offer critique and feedback in an online
learning environment.Sessions went live in 1998 with just three courses. Today Sessions offers more than 60 courses andprograms in graphic design, Web design, multimedia, digitals arts, and business marketing design. Ithas delivered 25,000 courses to students from 90-plus countries. In 2001, Sessions was nationallyaccredited by the DETC (Distance Education and Training Council) and licensed by the New YorkState Education Department, the first online school in its category.
About the FacultyEach chapter in this book is adapted from a lesson developed by a Sessions faculty member. TheSessions faculty is a team of industry-leading artists, educators, and designers who combine anexpertise in design with a passion for teaching. COURSE DEVELOPER: GORDON DRUMMOND Gordon Drummond is the chief learning officer at Sessions.edu. Gordon is an editor and instructional designer with more than 15 years of experience in developing print and online courses. Prior to joining Sessions.edu, Gordon served as a curriculum director at Kaplan, designing courses for K12, precollege, and graduate students, and coauthoring two test preparation books. As knowledge architect at Boston-based learningbrands.com, he created interactive, adaptive Web-based courses for corporate clients. COURSE DEVELOPER: DONALD GAMBINO Donald Gambino is a computer artist, consultant, educator, and trainer who has taught students of all levels and abilities since 1983. Donald was the chairman of the computer art department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he taught innovative computer art courses for more than 12 years and created
the BFA Computer Art program. Since then, Donald has trained thousands ofstudents in the corporate, design, educational, and private sectors. An aviddigital photographer, he has presented seminars on creativity, productivity, andthe computer as an artistic tool.COURSE DEVELOPER: MICHAEL HAMMMichael Hamm is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator with more than nineyears of experience. He is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts(AIGA), and his work has been featured in various magazines and booksincluding The Adobe Illustrator CS2 WOW! Book. Michael is an Adobe CertifiedInstructor in Adobe Illustrator. He is founder of PointsandPaths.com, a Web sitethat grew from his passion for the illustration software and all things vector. Hehas served as technical editor on two books published by Friends of Ed(Illustrator CS Most Wanted Effects and Extreme Photoshop CS) and recentlywrote Web Design Using Macromedia Dreamweaver for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.COURSE DEVELOPER: MATT KLOSKOWSKIMatt Kloskowski is an education and curriculum developer for the NationalAssociation of Photoshop Professionals (www.photoshopuser.com). He has authoredand coauthored several books on Photoshop and Illustrator. Matt is an instructorat the Photoshop World and Mac Design conferences and is featured on variousDVDs from www.photoshopvideos.com. Matt also writes regular columns formagazines such as Photoshop User, Layers Magazine, and Create Magazine, and for thePhotoshop Elements Techniques newsletter.
COURSE DEVELOPER: YOUNG MO YOONYoung Mo Yoon is a digital illustrator who hails from San Francisco and lives inNew York and South Korea. Young has worked on all kinds of design projectsfrom illustration to new media for clients such as JP Morgan, BowmanInternational, and Samsung Electronics. He has received an award from theSociety of Illustrators in L.A. and plans on producing animations in the future.Young holds a BFA in illustration from California College of the Arts and an MFAfrom School of Visual Arts.COURSE DEVELOPER: PIPER NILSSONPiper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect. In her four-yearcareer for a leading Web design agency, she blueprinted sites for such globalclients as MetLife, Pepsi, ETS, and Citibank. Her current projects include buildingan e-learning prototype for children with learning disabilities and teachingtechnology in New York City public schools. She received her degree in graphicdesign from Pratt Institute in New York.COURSE DEVELOPER: THOMAS MCKENNA
Thomas McKenna is the owner and senior creative director of Flatiron IndustriesLLC, a graphics and multimedia design firm based in New York City. Thomas hasmore than 15 years of experience in the graphic design industry, includingmultimedia and broadcast work within the advertising, design, and publishingworlds. His clients include American Express, AIG, Berlitz International, CCHIncorporated, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, National City,Sports Illustrated, Thomson Financial, Thomson Publishing, Tower Air,TowerData, and the United Nations. As art director of Emerging Markets, amagazine covering the major IMF/World Bank and Regional Bank meetings,Thomas published editions on-site in 16 countries.COURSE DEVELOPER: CAROLINE ZARLENGO SPOSTOCaroline Zarlengo Sposto founded Sposto Interactive, LLC, with her husbandJames Sposto in 1996. Though it began as a cottage industry, Sposto Interactive(www.sposto.com) has become an award-winning interactive development studioemploying an outstanding team of media professionals. The firm providesstrategic interactive communications solutions to a wide spectrum of nationallyand internationally known businesses. Caroline holds an M.S. in Electronic Media.COURSE DEVELOPER: TARA MACKAY
Tara MacKay is the director of curriculum at Sessions, responsible for coursedevelopment and production. Prior to Sessions, Tara was a Web and multimediadesigner who has designed award-winning exhibit sites for the AmericanMuseum of Natural History and the Rose Center for Earth and Space. She hasworked with design teams at AOL, Yahoo, and other major online companies onproduct integrations with Sage Online and iClips.com, as well as building severalpopular e-commerce sites.COURSE DEVELOPER: LAURA SCHWAMBLaura Schwamb is the cofounder of the Steam Design Group (www.steam-design.com) and founder of Sign Off, a press-check quality control company.Before starting STEAM, she worked as senior art director for LOreals Europeandesigner fragrance division, running brands such as Giorgio Armani, Guy Laroche,and Lanvin. Laura has been responsible for the creative direction of severalfragrance launches, including all related packaging, print, point-of-purchase,promotions, parties, and events. With Steam she launched the Surface line ofmens skin care by Aramis for Estée Lauder and Maxwells Apothecary line ofmens skin care. Since 2000, when STEAM began, her client list has continued togrow and includes work for new clients such as Carolina Herrera, Davidoff,Georgette Klinger, Kenneth Cole, La Mer, Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Lauren andShania Twain.
Chapter 1. Intro to Graphic DesignIt was in 1922 that book designer William A. Dwiggins first used the words graphic design to describethe emerging field of visual communication. Students at the Bauhaus art school in Germany werecreating daring poster designs through the collage of photographic images and typography.Fast-forward to today, and graphic design is over 80 years old but still lookin good. Always a field influx, graphic design has undergone a revolution in the last 20 years as production methods havemoved from the pasteboard to the PC.Has design itself changed? Yes and no. New media have emerged, but the basic principles of art anddesign are still required to create good work. In this first chapter, we will explore what graphic designis and discuss the important roles of imagery, color, typography, and composition. COURSE DEVELOPER: GORDON DRUMMOND Gordon Drummond is the Chief Learning Officer at Sessions. Gordon is an editor and educator with more than 15 years of experience in developing print and online curriculum. Figure 1.1. Detail from a creative ad campaign by Viva Dolan Communications.
In this chapter you will: Learn some of the defining characteristics of graphic design. Get an overview of the professional graphic design process. Learn how design conveys a visual message. Explore how design can support a company brand. Learn how design communicates to an audience. Investigate the roles of imagery, color, typography, and composition in design. Critique two outstanding examples of visual design.
What Is Graphic Design?Graphic design is often associated with images. Billboards and magazine ads show us that designerscan speak volumes without using the written word. And yet, graphic design is not just about creatingpowerful picturesthats what artists, photographers, and illustrators do. Its about communication. Infact, "visual communication" is the most accurate way to describe the purpose of graphic design.Clients and employers approach the designer with some information that must be communicated to awide audience. The designers mission (should he or she choose to accept it) is to bring order andclarity to this information so that others may understand it. You might think of a designer as a specialkind of translator who turns dreary old words into an inviting, accessible visual message.In todays vast information jungle, this is no small challenge. Amid the neon blaze of Times Square ordowntown Tokyo, or in the luxurious, glossy expanse of a fashion magazine, simply organizinginformation is no longer enough. Designers must discover clever metaphors and creative solutions tomake their work stand out and grab the attention they are asked to grab. Figure 1.2. New Yorks Times Square. In a world saturated with visual messages, designers must create messages that stand out and are memorable.
As you begin to study graphic design, you will find that inventive ideas are as important as artisticskill. Award-winning designs are never merely decorative. The best work commands your attentionthrough the clever, artful visual communication of a concept. Visual design is just part of theequation; creative strategy and copywriting must work in concert with a mastery of graphic elementsto carry the message.
Defining Graphic DesignWhat are some of the defining characteristics of graphic design? Theres a lot more to design than thecreative process. Lets begin by exploring its role in the world of business.The Design ProcessMessage to all art school types: Graphic design is rarely created in a vacuum or through bursts ofrandom creativity. Most graphic design jobs begin with a commercial objective established through atime-tested process.A design firm or agency is typically hired by a client to create something: a logo, for example, or aCD cover, a magazine layout, or a Web site. Designers and project managers meet with the clientand work collaboratively to define the purpose of the project: What is its message? Who is its targetaudience? The initial meeting generates a document that provides the client and design team with awritten statement of the projects goals, often called a project brief or design brief. Figure 1.3. Visual identity developed for Bond Bath and Home Gallery, a Soho-based home furniture and accessory emporium. Designer Patricio Sarzosa was asked to create a visual identity that conveyed a luxury retail brand that was friendly and accessible.The project brief may contain abstract goals or statements that may not even be remotely visual. Ifyoure hired to redesign the Coke can, for example, your objectives may include increasing aperception of quality, making the product seem to taste better, or attracting a specific group ofconsumers. The brief will also include all-important information on the projects budget, deadlines,and production requirements. note The project brief is a formal document that is used as a benchmarking tool and often updated as a project unfolds.
The design team uses the project brief as a guide through the creative phase. Depending on the sizeand requirements of the project, a team of creativesdesigners, illustrators, photographers,copywritersmay be assembled to brainstorm ideas and develop a range of solutions for presentationto the client. In smaller agencies, a single designer may be asked to handle multiple facets of thecreative task.As a project evolves over weeks and months, critique of the work within the design agency andmultiple rounds of feedback from the client will refine and polish the message. No designer ever getsit right the first time. Client meetings help make sure that the client (the design customer) is satisfiedwith the art direction and that the work is addressing his or her business needs.Figure 1.4. Logo, colors, and icons were applied consistently to business collateral and the store frontage.
Once every detail in the project is finalizeda decision that rests with the clientthe design team isgenerally responsible for managing the printing and production of the work. This may involve workingwith the printer to finalize all specifications of the job, preparing digital files for printing, andmonitoring print quality. A working knowledge of production techniques and a good relationship witha printer is important to getting the best results.The Visual MessageHang around designers long enough, and youll get to hear the phrase "less is more," oftenaccompanied by sage nodding of heads. That is because economy of expression is an essentialcharacteristic of graphic design. Design must convey a visual message with minimum fuss andmaximum clarity.Consider the job of the outdoor ad designer. Her work must attract attention, be understoodquicklyoften literally at a glanceand communicate without any risk of ambiguity. This can be achievedonly if every element of the design is harnessed to support the message, and all unnecessary,potentially distracting elements are removed. Figure 1.5. This anti-war poster created by master designer Marty Neumeier conveys a complex idea through a deceptively simple visual message. Pure graphic design!Nothing in a design is arbitrary nor should it be. From image treatment to color swatches to papertexture, every element in a well-executed design has a motive. A shrewd designer is continuallyasking himself how the various elements and techniques at his disposal, such as color, cropping,contrastin fact, anythingcan be better used in service of the message.
Designers spend an inordinate amount of time stripping out extraneous details and simplifying adesign. Why does nearly every product photo in advertising have a white background? Its becauseany background detail would distract attention from the product, where the attention belongs. Whydo designers mutter the words "busy layout" or "text heavy" with such disdain? Because theyunderstand that removing clutter adds clarity. note "Less is more" is a principle that all graphic designers learn to embrace, sooner or later. Simplicity and clarity are essential in any visual communication.A great design looks effortless, like it was just meant to be that way. But as with many things in life,achieving simplicity in your graphic design work is harder than it looks, and sometimes requires yearsof experience. Almost any piece of content can be too much informationthe amount of text, thenumber of colors, the freckles on the models nose. If it doesnt contribute to your message, considerediting it out.Supporting the BrandHeres a reality check: Even if youre a freelance designer, youre rarely working for yourself. Letshope not, anyway. The vast majority of design jobs are commercial in nature; a designer is hired bya company or organization to produce items that will enhance its marketing, advertising, publishing,or promotional efforts. To put it another way, one major function of design is to support a brand.When you work with clients as a designer, you are not working with a blank slate. Quite the opposite:The more important the job, the more likely youll need to work creatively within constraints. Youmay be hired for your unmistakable artistic style, but ultimately youre working for the client, andyour design work needs to support his brand, not yours. Figure 1.6. Most design projects begin with a specific audience in mind. Magazine designers, for example, cater to the interests of well- established groups of readers.
Every large company has a visual identity system: a set of standards that dictate exactly how itslogo, colors, and typography will appear in all its communications to customers. To build a brand,consistency in these elements is vital. Repeated exposure to a consistent message makes customersmore and more familiar with a brand, because a brand that is easy to recognize is easy to remember.For companies that also deliver excellent products and services, repetition of a message leads to thatmagic phenomenon called brand recognition. tip Repetition doesnt always mean boredom for designers: Consistency in design is essential to creating product lines and establishing brand recognition.That brings us to the dilemma every designer faces: Be a genius, but do it in our house style.Packaging designers grapple with this constantly. Imagine you are hired to design a brand extensionfor a shampoo line. You may need to use that companys logo, signature colors, and cartondimensions to create a design that dovetails nicely with other company product packages on thestore shelf. At the same time, however, youll need to create some original, distinctive graphicfeature that attracts shoppers attention and says "This is new". Figure 1.7. A range of product packages developed for MaxwellsApothecary. Consistency in typography and graphic elements makes each package part of the product line.
Thats branding, and designers play a huge role in making it happen. Brands are always evolving, ascompanies perpetually redefine their values, refresh tired products, and reach out to new audiences.If you want to connect to the next generation, youve got to have designers on board.Communicating to an AudienceAre you talking to me? Youd better be if youre a designer; its your job to communicate. A skilleddesigner knows how to create messages that are understood by everyone but also appeal verydirectly to a specific target audience.The concept of designing for a target audience is a product of scientific marketing methods thatemerged in the 1960s. Recognizing that they could profit by marketing directly to specific segmentsof the populationas opposed to the mass marketcompanies began to classify customers into groupsbased on geographic location, gender, age, income, and so on, and advertise accordingly.Figure 1.8. The Wicks Fowler Chili ad series packs a punchand speaks to a very specific audience.
Today, a design firm hired for a project is often supplied with a marketing brief on the companystarget customers. Good designers zero in on this information and do their own research to getfamiliar with the customers tastes: What brands do they buy? What fashions do they wear? What aretheir lifestyles? Understanding the customers helps you find a visual language to reach them.Of course, many companies want their message to reach everyone, not just the nice folks who arecurrently their customers. And so designers also look for ways to make a niche messageunderstandable to the general public. A designer must be a scholar of how people read, how theyconsume images, and what they respond to. tip Create a mood board for every design project. Do some research and gather some design pieces that will give you a sense of how to address the unique tastes of your target audience.One key consideration is the context in which the message will appear. Where will people see it?What will they be doing at the time? What other messages will appear alongside yours? A magazinecover needs to pop out on a crowded newsstand. An ad inside it needs to catch the attention of areader casually flipping through. A billboard for the magazine may be viewed at a distance ofhundreds of yards, by drivers idling at an intersection or flying past in a hurry.
Elements of DesignEvery design weve looked at so far exhibits a skill in handling four elements: imagery, color,typography, and composition. Now well explore some basic principles for each area.The Role of ImageryThe use of imageryphotographic images or illustrationsis the most direct way to communicate to awide audience. Theres a scientific reason for this: Our mind processes any kind of picturea shape, arepresentation, even an outline of a figuremuch more quickly than it does a word or sentence.Theres a commercial reason, too. Design must speak to a wide audience and speak quickly. This ispartly because we are inundated with visual messageswe see graphic design everywhere. How muchtime do you devote to scanning a magazine ad, evaluating cereal boxes, or checking out someonescool new sneakers? Not a lot. A design often has a fraction of a second to command attention andcommunicate. If the message is not compelling or clear, the opportunity is lost. Figure 1.9. In this promotional leaflet design, Canadian designer Janine Vangool uses a visual analogy to communicate what typography is all about. [View full size image]
Read these words, then try to visualize them: Bowler hat. SUV. Convenient online services. Imageryis important in design because a picture (a cliché, but true) often conveys far more than mere wordscan. Almost any concept that you can imagine: a car, a refreshing taste, trust, fresh produce,retirementis more quickly (and better) expressed through an image than the written word. tip If a professional photographer is not available (or affordable) designers often use stock photography for high profile jobs. The quality of the source image is a paramount consideration.Simply showing a picture is not enough, however. Whether its a photograph or an illustration,imagery must be expertly handledcropped, edited, or simplified to bring out the essence of themessage. The more economical the message, the better it communicates. A simple approach withoutdistracting or irrelevant detail will determine whether the viewer grasps the concept or jumps to thewrong conclusion.At a psychological level, the imagery in an ad or layout does much more than simply conveying aconcept. It also communicates a general feeling, emotion, or mood that a viewer will associate withthe product or publication. Tapping this intangible quality of imagery is essential to brand marketing.It is why designers, some of them, get paid the big bucks.Photographic Images
To excel at design, it helps to immerse yourself in photography. The best designers understand thepowerful qualities in the photographic image. A photograph catches the eye because it is understoodby the viewer as capturing reality. The eye is immediately drawn to it, prompting questions of who,what, where, and why. It begs for interpretation.Show me a photo of a person, and I will try to identify who it is. (Two people? I will try to figure outtheir relationship.) A photo of a product? I will wonder what it does or who made it. If I see a photoof a place: I will want to know where it is or what type of place it is. Or if its a photo of an action orevent, I will ask why it is happening. Figure 1.10. Fashion ad, right? Wrongcloser inspection reveals that Viva Dolan Communications created this ad to showcase ArjoWiggins paper. The model is wearing clothing fabricated from high-end paper stock marketed to the fashion industry.What makes a photographic image successful in a design context? The subject of each photograph isimmediately clear and quite simple, and yet the image is rich in color or detail. The image is powerfulenough that it attracts the eye and explains itself almost without the need for accompanying text.The designer has integrated the image with the other elements into a pleasing composition.The designer has made sure the emotive qualities of the image that are most important to themessage stand out: a smile, the eyes, the reflective surface of the car, the play of light on adiamond. The scaling and cropping of the image and its treatment (color, black and white, orduotone), together with its framing, help direct the viewer to the salient parts.Of course, another compelling aspect of photographic imagery is that it can be altered, doctored,enhanced, or (to put it another way) Photoshopped. The digital image is so wonderfully malleable.Today, 90 percent of the photographic images we see in the media have been retouched: digitallyaltered, corrected for color, or otherwise made more appealing. This may include removingextraneous details, replacing backgrounds, and even creating whole new scenes with multipleimages.
Figure 1.11. This background image for the Sessions.edu Web site wascomposited from a series of New York City photos. The result is a larger- than-life background that evokes the excitement of the big city. [View full size image]
And boy, do we love it. Such digital imagery is superbly evocative precisely because we interpret it asrealistic, even when we realize that an image has been digitally altered. Many eye-catching adsintroduce subtle, unnatural elements to an image, playing on the tension between artifice and reality.And were fascinated. Our attention is drawn because we realize that something is not real and wewant to figure out what it is.IllustrationWhat role does the traditional art of illustration play today? One might think that as more peopledesign on computers, drawing itself would begin to die out.Not so. Digital photography is so prevalent now that anything drawn or otherwise crafted, sculpted,stitched, or fashioned by hand has a higher value. Line art and drawings suggest individuality, style,humanity, and a point of view. Illustrations are often used in fashion and publishing to create anostalgic association with the past, when everything was made by hand.Furthermore, you can draw on the computer. Digital illustrationscreated in vector art programs suchas Illustratorevoke many of the same feelings traditional illustrations do. They look hand-drawn, butthey fit neatly into any design context because they can be edited, replicated, and mass-produced atwill. Figure 1.12. Illustration is inherently creative, and so this wonderfully free Felix Sockwell illustration is a great choice for the Ford Detroit Inter-national Jazz Festival poster.
Digital illustrations have an inherent association with creativity. Illustrations are used when adesigner must communicate artistic, editorial, or business flair. The creative spark of the illustrator,his or her skill in handling the art of representation, can be associated in the viewers mind with thecompany or organization that is delivering the message.Digital illustration also is a crucial component of visual identity design. Since the first companiesbegan, illustrators have created symbols or marks that worked along with typography to convey theidentity of a company or organization. And further back in time, artists created flags and crests forkings and nobles. Unlike photographswhich we interpret as slices of realityan illustrators drawingsare understood as symbolic representations of a person, company, or concept. Figure 1.13. Logo design is a natural application for illustration. This playful Ecuadorean car wash logo was designed for a woman-owned business.Zoinks! Lets not forget that illustration can impart a tone that is playful, imaginative, or downright
fun. Illustrations and sketches resonate with the universal experience of our childhood attempts torepresent the world through pictures. They remind us of newspaper cartoon strips and animatedmovies. They are often associated with products or messages that evoke a playful experience orprovide a relief from the ennui of adult life.Figure 1.14. Designer Marcos Chins marvelous ads for online dating site Lava Life create an appealing image that refreshes the sometimes uncertain realm of dating. Stylish young singles are depicted in the process of becoming attracted to each other.As you can see, the choice of imageryphoto or illustrationis important for a designer. Who would wanta photo of a scaly fish on their can of tuna? Conversely, who would want to see a fun illustration usedin a serious context like an insurance ad? Its a choice between realism and representation. Onecompromise is to use photos and illustrations together in a project; one is usually the focus while theothers play a supporting role.ColorColor is the graphic designers best friend and most powerful weapon. In the digital era, color ischosen and deployed with a few clicks or keystrokes. The use of color can bring an immediate,emotive quality to visual communication. Color can help establish the overall genre and mood of apiece as well as the relative importance of the different elements within it.Good designers understand how to tap our universal associations with color. When we see green, wethink "healthy" or "natural"; when we see red, we think "dangerous" or "important." Blue is often
used to evoke calm, purple to convey luxury. While these underlying qualities of color vary fromcountry to country, they are surprisingly consistent in the West.Figure 1.15. Color is particularly important in food packaging. This GreenTea package design uses colors that are very appropriate for a Japanese audience.In addition to inspiring moods, colors are associated with brand identitiespolitical parties,nationalities, sports teams, and companies, to name just a few. Subtle variations of red could bringto mind associations as diverse as the Republican party, the country of China, the San Francisco49ers, or Coca-Cola. Being aware of existing color associations will help you avoid sending the wrongmessage.Based on how they reach the eye, colors, also known as hues, can be perceived as warm or cool,light or dark, active or calm. Some colors pop out, others recede. Designers can adjust the tone andintensity of a color (its brightness and saturation) to tailor how it is perceived.
Figure 1.16. Notice the use of color to both excite the eye and reinforce a brand in these billboard ads for fashionable retailer Target. The companys visual identity is both vivid and unmistakable.Complicating the issue further is the fact that color is relative. The perception of any color variesdepending on what other colors it is combined with. Designers must use great care to select colorschemes, or sets of colors, that are appropriate for a project and convey the right message. A toolcalled a color wheel is used to select harmonious color schemes. Designers must also consider thelighting and environment in which the piece will be displayed.Every designer should take some time to learn color theory: the principles that explain how and whycolor interactions produce pleasing effects and desired emotions. Deploying color appropriatelyoftenby using it sparinglyis key to the success of visual communication. tip Colors in design are never purely decorative; they are chosen for a reason. Its good practice for a designer to explain his or her color choices to clients.Typography
Typographybroadly defined as the art of type design and text layoutis essential to graphic design.Text and image must work together to create a message. Most design projects actually begin withsome poor, bare information that needs a designers touch. And without text, if you think about it, adesign project would simply be art, photography, or illustration.Like every other element in a design project, the written component, often called the copy, must behoned to capture the viewers attention. No use in creating a razor-sharp image to accompany someflabby prose! The field of advertising illustrates just how intelligently and creatively text and imagecan be combined. In ad agencies, copywriters work with visual designers to make sure that bothvisuals and copy work in perfect sync. Figure 1.17. Beautiful design concepts can emerge from the imaginative use of typography, as witnessed in this packaging design for a lens cleaner.To tap the power of type, a designer must understand how letterforms and typefaces areconstructed. The fonts that we so casually access from our drop-down menus are the product ofcenturies of evolution in printing, having been originally hammered out in hot metal (and before that,chiseled into stone). A typeface is still defined by certain distinct visual components.
One fundamental is the vertical proportion of the typeface: the distance between the baseline, uponwhich a row of letters sits, and the x-height, ascender line, and descender line. These points ofreferencethe height of lowercase letters, and the length of their upstrokes and downstrokesaregenerally consistent within a typeface. Figure 1.18. The heights and proportions of x-heights, ascenders, and descenders are among the major features that distinguish typefaces.Why should a designer care about such minutiae? The more you get to know typography, the moreyou realize that a typeface is just like a colorit has a very specific language and the ability to conveyspecific emotions or moods. In high-level design projects, typography is handled with as much careas imagery or color.Any graphic design begins with the important choice of typeface or font. Unless the typeface isalready dictated by the client or publisher, a designer must choose between serif and sans-serif fonts(with and without ledges on the ends of letters, respectively) and drill deeper into finer distinctionsbetween type families: Times, Palatino, Garamond, or Bodoni? Or perhaps a custom, avant-gardesolution from a type foundrya type design firmwill provide the required edge?Equally important to the layout of type are decisions about the hierarchy of information. The size,weight, proportions, and placement of text on the page are critical to helping the readers eyenavigate through the layout and intuit the importance and purpose of each piece of content. Figure 1.19. The choice of typefacetraditional, austere, or playfulis an important design decision.
Prominent text (titles, headlines, and company logos) may need fine-tuning for coherence andimpact, in which case the designer will adjust the kerning or spacing between pairs of letters. Inblocks of text (body copy), margins and justification (line length and left/right alignment) andtracking and line spacing (spaces between letters and lines) may all be tweaked to promotereadability and enhance the overall composition. note Any prominent text such as headlines and logos will need careful adjustments to letter spacing for maximum impact.Studying typography can yield enormous dividends. The more you immerse yourself, the more youwill discover that type itself is a graphic element. The shapes of letterformstheir distinctive contoursand the negative spaces they createare powerful tools in your work. A mastery of typography is themark of a designer. Figure 1.20. Expressive use of type is the hallmark of a designer, shown here in Gabriela Monroys work.
CompositionNow that weve explored how imagery, color, and typography each play a role in a design, lets lookat the big picture: composition. Composition is the art of layout or placement of all those elements ona page. Its the heart of graphic design, and yet when done well, it is invisiblethe feature a viewer willbe least conscious of.Most design projects begin with the arrangement of elements on a page: a two-dimensional surfaceor screen with defined boundaries. The page is a blank slate. You can place elements anywhere on it,and divide the space any way you like. Careful, thoughproportion and balance will play an enormousrole in the psychological impact of your message.Emphasis is a critical element in composition. Its particularly important in editorial design, in whichthe size, color, and grouping of elements are used to establish a visual hierarchy. In a magazinearticle, for example, the relative importance of different blocks of text or images helps the readerquickly scan and grasp the purpose of each item: headline, byline, body text, pull quote, and so on.Figure 1.21. This two-page spread for architecture magazine Azure does a wonderful job of creatively interpreting the article title to pull the reader into the story.
Depending on how you place objects on the page, you can attract the eye to a place of rest or lead itin a merry dance by suggesting movement. A single, centered object or set of objects will evokecalm, stillness, and equilibrium. Objects sitting to the left or right may connote movement or drawattention in that direction. Objects positioned toward the top or bottom of the page will pull the eyeup or down.When you place any object in a two-dimensional space, part of your image will be interpreted aspositive space (the subject of the piece) while other parts will be seen as negative space (thebackground). Using contrast will give due emphasis to the subject of the piece. But this doesnt meanto ignore the background. The form of the background plays a strong role in the viewers perceptionof the overall composition. Smart designers are often able to exploit the shape of negative space andthe ambiguity between what is foreground and what is background to add intrigue and impact to apiece. Figure 1.22. A half-munched apple or a marketing company that understands its customers? This identity developed by 98pt6 plays a clever game with negative space.The balance of your composition must complement the message too. Designs with elementsproportioned equally on a central axis (visible or implicit) are said to be symmetrical. Symmetricalcompositions suggest calm, order, and rationality. Everything has been neatly arranged for you.Compositions that distribute elements unevenly, by weighting the page mostly to the left or right, aresaid to be asymmetrical. These can feel unbalanced, energetic, and edgywhich could be the rightdirection for a certain kind of project.
Critique the DesignIn this project, youll develop your critiquing skills by comparing and contrasting two excellentprofessional designs. Learning to evaluate how and why a design works (or doesnt work) is a criticalstep in any designers development.This chapter has given you a foundation in essential aspects of graphic design work and the roles ofimagery, color, typography, and composition. This written assignment will challenge you to assesshow these elements are handled by the pros.Project Brief: The Big CritA major design and advertising magazine is preparing for its annual award ceremony. You are a luckydesign journalist employed to help the magazine critique hundreds of cutting-edge designs to identifythis years winners.To help the panel, you need to put together an intelligent critique that addresses not just the detailsof the visual design but also how creatively the designers addressed the clients overall businesschallenge. Critical questions are provided to guide your thinking (Figures 1.23 and 1.24). Figure 1.23. This ad for a new product line of Champion Athletic apparel exhibits masterful composition and use of negative space. Strong lines pull the eye to the top of the page, reinforcing a sense of the athletes poise and well-being.
Figure 1.24. "A Delicate Balance," a poster developed for Seattle Repertory Theater by Cyclone Design.Figure 1.25. Poster for the Cascade Festival of Music in Bend, Oregon, developed by TBD Advertising.
Project Summary Write down your initial emotional (noncritical) reaction to each piece. Try to see the designs through the eyes of an average person, not a designer. STUDIO SESSIONS www.studiosessions.net/portfolio Post this chapters project online for feedback from professional designers. access code: STUDIOp Critique each piece in terms of imagery, color, typography, and composition. Think about the project brief for each work, and critique how each piece addressed the companys business challenge. Post your critique in the online class area, and compare your thoughts with those of other students.
Extra credit: Find two comparable designs in another medium, and repeat the process!Project Steps1. First ImpressionsPut aside everything you know about design, and write down your raw first impressions: 1. What is the first visual element that you noticed in each piece? 2. What was your initial emotional response? Write down the first ten words (adjectives, nouns, or verbs) that popped into your head. 3. Look at each piece out of the corner of your eye, with other pieces, and from a distance. How eye-catching is it? 4. How easy is it to figure out the message of the each piece? Is the point immediately apparent, or does it take a few moments to click? Why?2. Design CritiqueNow put on your designer hat and think about how each element in the design contributes to theoverall message: 1. Summarize what you think the purpose or message of the piece is. 2. Comment on the designers choice of imagery. Why do you think the designer chose a photograph as opposed to an illustration, or vice versa? 3. PhotographsDid the designer do anything with the scaling, cropping, framing, or treatment of the photograph to bring out its emotional message? 4. IllustrationsDid the use of illustration contribute to a sense of creativity, a symbolic message, or a sense of play? 5. ColorDid the choice of colors evoke any strong emotional associations? How would you describe the mood evoked? 6. TypographyWhat emotions are evoked by the typefaces used? Did the designer do anything unusual with the text layout? What is the information hierarchyin what order is the text intended be read? 7. CompositionHow does the placement of lines, points, or objects guide your eyes through the page? Which elements are the subject (positive space) and which are background (negative 8.
7. space)? Does the composition feel balanced or unbalanced? 8. Does the design (your answers to questions 28) support the apparent purpose of the piece (your answer to question 1)?THE BIG PICTURENow try to think about the designers project brief. Considering the projects likely goals, think abouthow well each piece meets these business objectives: 1. Does the design communicate a specific message quickly and memorably? How? 2. Does the design support the brand of the company or organization? How? 3. Does the design try to connect to a target audience? Can you guess what the target audience is, and will the piece also be understandable by the general public? Why or why not?
Chapter 2. Photoshop EssentialsAdobe Photoshop, the professional painting and photo-retouching tool, is fast becoming a culturalicon. The product is now a household word and even a verb: "Let me Photoshop it to fix the color" or"Why did you Photoshop Donald Trumps head on Grandmas body?"The secret to Photoshops success is simply its ability to manipulate the photographic image:perfecting, enhancing, or reinventing bitmap-based (raster) files for maximum effect. Its by far theindustry-standard bitmap image manipulation tool, and a must-know for every graphic designer.In this chapter, well explore the fundamentals of Photoshopconcepts like layers, selections, masks,and using typeto build a foundation in techniques for editing photographic images. At the end of thechapter, youll tackle a fun and challenging photo compositing project. COURSE DEVELOPER: DONALD GAMBINO This chapter is based on a lesson developed by Donald Gambino, an educator and computer artist with 20 years of experience and former chairperson of the computer art department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Figure 2.1. With Photoshop, you can turn a digital image into a tasty treat.
In this chapter you will: Learn about the role of Photoshop in design projects. Learn how bitmap images are edited. Learn to use layers to manage complex artwork in Photoshop. Learn to select areas of an image using basic selection tools. Learn to perform basic modifications on selected areas of an image. Learn to select complex areas using Quick Mask mode. Learn to input and format text using the Type tool, the Character palette, and the Paragraph palette. Learn to adjust lighting in a photo using an adjustment layer. Create a composite from a variety of images.
Photoshop and Graphic DesignAdobe Photoshop is all about image manipulationstarting with raw photographic material (or evenfrom scratch) and creating something unique. Artists often use Photoshop as a sort of digital brushthat can be used for photo-realistic imagesimages that look real but arentor fantastic, surreal digitaleffects.For graphic and Web designers, it is even more indispensable. The odd thing is that when Photoshopis handled by a professional, its use goes mostly undetected. Think about every photographic imageyou encounter in your busy day: in catalogs and glossy magazine ads, on Web sites and book covers.If those images grabbed your attention and enhanced the message, they most likely had work doneon them in Photoshop.Figure 2.2. High-impact graphic concepts are the hallmark of Photoshop, as shown on the cover of Photoshop User magazine.How does Photoshop fit into the graphic design process? In a design agency, conceptual developmentcomes first, digital imaging second. On an ad campaign, a creative director will meet with designersand copywriters and brainstorm a strong visual idea. If a photographic image is required, the
designer may obtain images from a stock photography company, hire a photographer, or evenconduct the shoot herself. Only afterward will the image be imported into Photoshop for editing. Figure 2.3. Photoshop projects start with a conceptwhat if your instructor were an appetizer?And then what? Well, the skys the limit. Sheer flexibility as a photo-retouching tool is what gavePhotoshop its name. You can change the lighting in an image, adjust its sharpness, modify colors,change backgrounds, and even compile multiple photos into a single, seamless image via a processcalled compositing. Then, embellish to your hearts content, using a variety of painting and drawingtools, effects, and filters.One caution: Just because you can doesnt mean that you should. Its important for design studentsto realize that endless tweaking in Photoshop does not equal good design. In fact, Photoshop is usedmostly to eliminate distracting detailto produce a simpler, clearer, more powerful, or moreappropriate visual. Less is more, remember?Figure 2.4. Less is more. Most projects are about clarifying a message by bringing out essentials and removing unnecessary detail.
Proficiency in Photoshop should be an essential goal for any design student. So many computer usersare familiar with Photoshop to some degree that graphic designers must attain a high level ofexpertise to stand out professionally. A fluent designer can recognize the graphic potential in anybitmap image (or part of an image), manipulate it at will, and take care of the details so that theviewer is convinced or even fooled.
Editing and Organizing ImagesIn this section, well work on the essentials of Photoshopthe ability to organize artwork into layers, toselect parts of an image for editing, to use silhouettes and masks, and to add and format text. Thiswill build a foundation for later work. Basic ads and posters (good ones, too) can be created usingjust these tools.About Bitmap ArtTo understand how Photoshop works, its helpful to know how bitmap art is put together. When animage is referred to as a bitmap (or "raster"), it simply means that its made up of lots of tinysquares of color called pixels. Pixels are generally so small that they are not individually visible in afinal, published image. Combinations of pixels are perceived as a continuous tone rather than a gridof squares.With a painting application such as Photoshop, you can create brushstrokes on any bitmap image justas you would on a traditional canvas, by changing the color information in a group of pixels. To thenaked eye, these brushstrokes will look smooth and painted, but zooming in will reveal that any editsto an image are indeed made up of changes to tiny dots.Figure 2.5. Pixels make up every bitmap image on your computer screen and every image taken by your digital camera.
Bitmap art is "resolution dependent," which means that the number of pixels per inch (onscreen) ordots per inch (in print) determines the images size. High-resolution images have many pixels,resulting in rich detail and fine print quality. Low-resolution images (typically used onscreen, such asfor the Web) have fewer pixels and are therefore less detailed.If you try to change a low-resolution image to high, or even try to enlarge any bitmap image, you willsee a loss of detail, so its important to always work at your intended size and resolution from thebeginning of a project.Using LayersGetting comfortable with layers is an important skill for designers. Using layers, you can isolate anypart of an image for editing, and stack different elements in an image on top of each other. Computerartists often use as many as 20 different layers to achieve subtle effects in a digital image.CREATING LAYERSManaging your artwork using layers requires some effort, its true, but Photoshop creates most layersfor you. Any time you copy and paste an image or drag a layer between documents, Photoshop willcreate a new layer. Thanks, Photoshop!To create your own layers, use the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Ifyoure a shortcut junkie, Shift+Ctrl+N (PC) or Command+N (Mac) will create a new layer for you byopening the New Layer dialog box. Add the Alt/Option key into the shortcut, and Photoshop willautomatically create a new layer for you with a default name (such as "Layer 1").What if you want to create layers from an existing image? Photoshop allows you to create a newlayer from a current selection. This is a powerful shortcut, as it saves you the time it would take youto copy a selection, create a new layer, and paste it into the new layer.To create a new layer from a current selection, simply select something on a layer with one of theMarquee tools. Then choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy or Layer > New > Layer via Cut. The firstoption copies the contents of the current selection onto a new layer but leaves the original layerintact. The second option cuts the contents of the current selection and places it on a new layer. Theshortcuts for these commands are Ctrl+J/Command+J and Ctrl+Shift+J/Command+Shift+J,respectively. Memorize them well; theyll undoubtedly save you time. Figure 2.6. This image contains several different layers. You can have thousands if youre so inclined, but the more layers you add, the slower Photoshop will run. [View full size image]
ACTIVE AND HIDDEN LAYERSTo develop flexibility with layers, you must keep close tabs on which layers are active and which arehidden. An active layer is the one that is currently selected for editing. Hidden layers arent editable,poor things, until you make them active.You can determine which layer is active by looking at the Layers palette. The active layer will behighlighted. It will also contain a small paintbrush icon located just to the right of the visibility icon(more on this next) in the Layers palette. To make a layer active, just click the name of the layer.Remember, you can only have one layer active at a time. Figure 2.7. Three types of new layers you can create. Left to right: new blank layer, new layer via copy, and new layer via cut. [View full size image]Note the distinction here between selecting a layer and making a selection with one of the Marqueetools.
Layers can be hidden or shown very easily. The leftmost icon on a layer in the Layers palette,represented by an eyeball, toggles the visibility of a layer. Hiding a layer doesnt remove it from yourdocumentit just makes it invisible until youre ready to see it again.LINKED LAYERSIf you need to move or transform more than one layer at a time, then youll need to link layerstogether. A designer might use this technique to apply a color or effect to specific layers within animage.To link multiple layers together, click to the left of one of the preview thumbnails in the Layerspalette. This will display a link symbol that indicates that the active layer (the one with the smallpaintbrush icon) is now linked to it.Figure 2.8. The active layer is highlighted and has a paintbrush icon next to the thumbnail.Now you can move layers, transform them, or align them with each other. To move layers, select theMove tool and move them just as you would a single layer. To transform them, select any of theoptions from the Edit > Transform menu. To align layers, first select the Move tool. Then pick any ofthe alignment choices that are displayed in the Options bar.THE BACKGROUND LAYERThe background layer is like the cardboard backing of a drawing pad. It is added automatically whenyou create a new canvas in Photoshop; its locked, and no other layers can be dragged beneath it.The first thing I do when opening a new canvas in Photoshop is to create a normal layer from thebackground layer. To me, the background layer has so many restrictions that it usually becomesmore of an inconvenience than anything else.
To convert the background layer to a normal layer, just Alt-double-click/Option-double-click the layerand it will become Layer 0unlocked and ready to be used, moved, or discarded. If you like to be morein control, then leave out the Alt/Option key and just double-click the layer. The New Layer dialog willdisplay and youll be able to name the layer whatever you please.MOVING AND DUPLICATING LAYERSTo move a layer within a Photoshop document, just drag it up or down in the layer stacking order. Toduplicate a layer, select Duplicate Layer from the Layers palette options menu, and the active layerwill be duplicated.Alternatively, you can drag the layer to New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Also, ifyou dont have a current marquee selection, then just press Ctrl+J/Command+J. This will create anew layer from the current selection (which is nothing) and is a great time saver.To move a layer to another (open) Photoshop canvas, just drag the layer from the Layers palette tothe new document. Youll need to be able to see both canvases to do this, however. You can alsoselect the Move tool and drag the contents of a layer from one canvas to another.Often, moving a layer can leave you unsure where your moved layer was placed in the newdocument. To prevent this problem, hold down the Shift key when dragging the layer to the newdocument, and Photoshop will place the contents of the layer in the center of the canvas.Making SelectionsNow that weve got our layers under control, lets start having fun with an imaging project. We willstart with a picture of a Volkswagen Beetle (fabulous lime green, of course) that I took at dawn onemorning when I couldnt sleep but had the urge to take pictures with my new digital camera. Here itis, parked in the driveway. Shhhh! Its still asleep. Figure 2.9. Linked layers will move together, helping keep your image consistent while leaving the contents of each layer separate.
Figure 2.10. This Beetle photo will need some work before its ready for a slick, professional ad.
Nice, but we have to do a few things to this picture. We want to give it a professional look for anadvertisement, so the background must be eliminated (which means we have to silhouette the Beetlefirst). Then we will make the car face the other way, and finally, well give the windows a sleekreflection and touch up the wheels.THE SELECTION TOOLS note Each of these three tools has various options and settings that can be changed in the Options bar when the tool is active.The selection process reigns in Photoshop. Selecting an item or area enables you to perform anaction upon it. A selected item can be cut, copy, pasted, deleted, distorted, blurred, feathered, scaledown, rotated, duplicated, or made negative. To edit, first select. Lets examine the tools that do it: Lasso tool: Pressing L on your keyboard or clicking the Lasso icon in your toolbox will activate the Lasso tool. The Lasso allows you to draw a freehand shape around the area you want to select. This lets you precisely select only the parts you really want. Rectangular/Elliptical Marquee tool: The Marquee (press M on your keyboard) lets you select a rectangular or elliptical shape in your image. You can drag the rectangle or ellipse to any size you like. Magic Wand tool: Clicking just once with your Magic Wand (press W) will select all of the pixels whose color is similar to the one you clicked. If you click a white pixel, for example, it will "look for" all of the other white (and near- white) pixels and select them.MAKING A SILHOUETTELike many design projects, this one begins with isolating the subject of the piece. We want to makethe background disappear to white, silhouetting the car. We will do that by selecting the car first,then inverting the selection so that everything except the car is selected. Then we will clear theinverted part so nothings left but our shiny new Beetle. Lets do it!In Photoshop, open the image VW_photo.jpg that youve downloaded from the online download site.Start by selecting the car with the Lasso tool . If the Lasso you see is shaped differently than theone in this icon, click Shift+L until the right one appears in the toolbox, or hold down the button inthe toolbox and grab the Lasso from the flyout menu that appears.Click and hold your mouse button and carefully drag along the rear of the car (I started with the backbumper) to the top, down over the front, back around the front wheel, under the shadow, and under
the rear wheel, finishing at the back bumper again. Dont worry if your selection isnt perfect. Figure 2.11. Keep an eye on the "marching ants" that show you the selected area.If some parts did not get selected that should have been, do this: With the dashed selection outlinestill active (the "marching ants" crawling around the Beetle), hold the Shift key and add to yourselection simply by lassoing those little parts you missed the first time. You can do this any numberof times. tip The Shift key plus any selection tool (Lasso, Rectangular/Elliptical Marquee, Magic Wand) will add to your selection. The Alt/Option key plus any selection tool will subtract from your selection. To select all of your image, choose Select > All (or Ctrl+A/Command+A). To deselect areas of your image, choose Select > Deselect (Ctrl+D/Command+D).If you selected areas that you did not want to select, just hold the Alt/Option key and use the Lassoto similarly subtract the offending areas. You can do this any number of times until youve selectedjust the parts of the image you want.Now that youve selected the car, you must silhouette it by deleting the background and making itwhite. Do this by choosing Select > Inverse. You have now selected everything except the car. Pressthe Delete key, and the background should change to white. If it is a different color, choose Edit >Undo, then press the D key (setting white as the background color), and press the Delete key again.
Save this file as VWSilo.psd.With the selected area still on the screen, reselect just the car by choosing Select > Inverse. Good!Now that youve got just the car on a white background, we must make the car face the otherdirection. Choose Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. If you see a trace of the green outline of the carafter you have flipped it, dont worry; you can clean that up by choosing Select > Inverse, thenpressing the Delete key. Finally, choose Select > Deselect.ADDITIONAL SELECTIONSNice jobbut we arent done yet. Lets clean up our act. We must select the windows and delete thegrass and dirt showing through them, replacing them with a sleek, showroom-type gradient blendsince we are creating an ad. Do this by first carefully selecting the front window with the Lasso tool.Then, hold Shift to add the rear passenger window to your selection with the Lasso tool. Now, deleteto make selected areas white by pressing the Delete key, or using a slower way, Edit > Clear. note This icon, near the bottom of your toolbox, allows you to change your foreground and background colors to the default Photoshop choices, which are black for the foreground and white for the background. You can either click the icon or press D on your keyboard to switch your current colors to the default.Figure 2.12. Deleting your selection will show the background color in its place.
OK, now well fill the windows with a black-to-white (foreground to background) gradient from thetop of the window to the bottom, using the Gradient tool. To fill with the gradient, make sure youhave the default colors in your toolbox (black as the foreground color and white as the background)by pressing the D key or by clicking the icon in the toolbar.Now press G for Gradient tool , or select it from your toolbox. Click within your car windownear the top, and drag your mouse straight down to the bottom of the window and let go. Adjust thegradient as necessary by undoing and trying the gradient again. Remember: To undo your mostrecent step, go to Edit > Undo or Ctrl+Z/Command+Z. note Gradient tool: This tool allows you to paint a gradient, a blending of two colors into each other. You can create a black-to-white gradient (or vice versa) to fill your selection, or blend any other colors of the rainbow.Figure 2.13. Get that showroom-sleek look with a swipe of your Gradient tool.Great! Whats next? We must zoom in and select the VW logos on the wheels and make themupright. (After all, thats what the client would want, right?)
note Zoom tool: Zooming allows you to move closer to or further from the actual size of your image to focus in on details or to fit something giant on your screen. Clicking the Zoom tool over your image will "zoom in" and center on the area you clicked. Holding down the Alt/Option key will zoom back out when you click. The percentage of your images size is noted at the top of your image window100 percent is actual size.Do this by selecting the Zoom tool and then clicking in the center of the front wheel logo until itis a good size for you to work with.Now, choose the Elliptical Marquee tool , and select the circular VW logo from the center. Do thisby holding down Alt/Option when you click and start dragging the marquee, and hold down the Shiftkey to make a perfect circle.Try it until you have it. If its not right, just undo or deselect to start afresh.Now, rotate your selection by choosing Edit > Free Transform. You will see a bounding box withcorner handles (little boxes) around your selected region. Position your mouse just outside of acorner until you see a curved, double-ended arrow, then move and rotate it until the VW logo isupright. If you grab and move a straight arrow instead of a curved arrow, you will change the size ofyour selectionwe dont want to do that now. Press the Enter/Return key to accept that choice. Nowdo the same steps for the other wheels logo, and then deselect and save. Figure 2.14. Attention to the details is important for a designer.
Great! Now weve got an advertising-ready image of the car. Who would believe what it once lookedlike? To finish off the ad, I threw in some clean and simple advertising text. Figure 2.15. After that hard work, our photo is ready for center stage.Selecting with Quick MasksWhats the big deal about masks? They asked Zorro the same thing. Masks are often brushed off bydesign students as another advanced topic theyll get to someday. Ill admit that it sounds difficult.But in essence, a mask is just a selection.If I leave you with one concept from this mask discussion (other than how to use them) it would bethis motto: "Black conceals, white reveals." As you learn about masks and start to use them, thislittle saying may come in quite handy.QUICK MASK MODEQuick Mask mode is another way to view a selection that youve made using one of the selectiontools. Once youve created a selection, you can use this method of masking to view that selection, oradd or subtract areas in it.To use Quick Mask mode, first create a selection. Press Q or click the Quick Mask Mode button inthe toolbox. At this point, youll see everything but the area you selected covered by a red tintedoverlay.Figure 2.16. In Standard mode (left), the selected area is represented by
the "marching ants." In Quick Mask mode (right), the selected area is the portion without the red overlay.The red overlay covers and protects the area outside the active selection.Currently selected areas areleft unprotected by this mask. By default, Quick Mask mode colors the protected area using a red, 50percent opaque overlay, but you can change this by double-clicking the Quick Mask Mode icon in thetoolbox. Figure 2.17. In some images, its easier to differentiate the masked and unmasked areas if you choose a different overlay color.Now you can edit the mask by using the normal painting tools, thus editing your selection. Use blackto add to the overlay or white to take away from it. Youll notice that once you select the Brush tool,for example, the swatches in the toolbox automatically turn black and white. This is because onlyblack, white, and shades of gray can be used on masks. So if you were to try to select a color, sayblue, the swatch would turn to a dark gray color instead.Once youre done manipulating your mask, click the Standard Mode button in the toolbox to turn offthe mask and return to your original image. Youll see that the "marching ants" that indicate selectionsurround what was the unprotected area of the mask. Now youre free to perform any needed
modifications to this selection. tip Ive found that round brushes, either soft or hard, work best when in Quick Mask mode. Use a hard-edged brush for areas with a noticeable contrast between the selection and its background. Use soft-edged brushes for areas that youd like to appear more blurred or subtle. Figure 2.18. In Quick Mask mode, I made my overlay color blue, then used black and white paint to mask everything but the leaf. When I switch back to Standard mode, the selection will be perfect.Using TypeMost graphic design projects require you to combine images with some text, as we did with theBeetle retouching project. Simple text treatments, such as for posters or Web site mockups, can be
easily accomplished in Photoshop.THE TYPE TOOLUsing the Type tool is simple. Photoshop creates type on a new layer each time you choose the Typetool and click in your image area. You simply type your text, and then choose a color, size,justification, and so forth. Pressing the Enter/Return key puts your type on a layer above the layerthat was previously active.As with other layers, you can duplicate, delete, show/hide, and change the stacking order of Typelayers. However, what is special is that Type layers give you "live" or "editable" text. You can double-click the T icon in the Layers palette at any time and edit your text, its size, the font, or othercharacteristics. Neat, huh?However, you cant paint (or anything else) on that Type layer until you rasterize the layer and makeit a "nonlive" or "noneditable" layer. Then the type becomes an imagejust an array of pixels. tip Type tool: This tool gives you the ability to place type directly on your document as a new layer. After selecting the Type tool and clicking the cursor anywhere on your document, a new layer is created to house your text, and youre ready to start typing and formatting your textalmost like you would with a word- processing application.Create a new Photoshop file (File > New) that is 5 inches by 5 inches, in RGB color mode, at 72 dpiresolution, and with a white background.Now choose the Type tool . Click your cursor anywhere on your image area and type anything youlike, such as a company name. I used the name Greenwood Farms because Im going to design apackage for a fictional food company. The back of a food product package usually has a lot of text onit: introductory copy, ingredients, nutritional info, and so onso this project will be perfect forexploring the Type tool.The letters go directly on your image area, and you can change format settings like font, size, andcolor in your Options bar. Be sure to highlight the text youve typed before changing settings so thatthe changes will be made to the selected area. When youre done, press Enter/Return. Figure 2.19. I set my texts anti-aliasing to Sharp, giving the letters clean, smooth edges rather than jagged ones. [View full size image]
In your Layers palette, you should now see your Type layer (with the T icon) above your original,white background layer. Double-click the T in the Layers palette and edit your text. Make sure yourtext is highlighted to edit it. Choose a different font and size. Make it a different color by clicking therectangular color box, and press Enter/Return. Easy, right?Now create another Type layer by clicking below your name in the image area with the Type tool.Type something else (I used the product name), make it a different font, size, and color, and pressEnter/Return. Nice! You see another layer. You can do this again and again if you want. Or, you cango back and edit any layer by double-clicking the T in the Layers palette. Remember, this is "live" or"editable" text. Figure 2.20. With your text layer selected, you can apply any formatting changes from the Options bar or type palettes. [View full size image]THE CHARACTER PALETTEWhen youre setting the text in a small area like the back of a package, precision counts. How closeare the letters to one another? How close are the lines? Flush left or flush right?
These characteristics of your typography can easily be manipulated in Photoshop with two palettes inparticularthe Character palette and the Paragraph palette. Well discuss the most useful componentsof each palette, but you should experiment further on your own.If you dont already see the Character palette on your screen, go to Window > Character to pop it up.As you can see if you have your Type tool selected, many of the options on the palette are mirroredin the Options bar (the color box, font selection menu, font size area, and anti-aliasing). But othersarent as common, so theyre found only in this palette. Figure 2.21. The Character palette is full of optionssome of which you have already used and some you havent.On a new document, with your Type tool, type up a few lines, separated by paragraph returns. Pickany font, size, and color you like. Figure 2.22. The default leading is fine for most purposes. [View full size image]
Notice the drop-down menu on the Character palette, which by default says (Auto). This is theLeading setting. Leading is the distance between lines of text. If you dont like the default point value,you can set it manually with the menu or by specifying a new value. A smaller value will bring thelines closer, and a higher value will draw them apart. Figure 2.23. A lower leading value means closer lines of text. Too low, and theyll overlap as they do here. [View full size image]Now lets check out the next row of drop-down menus. The first is Kerning and the second isTracking, and they have similar jobs. Both affect the spacing between letters, but they work a littledifferently.To use kerning, place your cursor between two letters, and change the Kerning value in theCharacter palette to move those two characters closer together (a negative value) or farther apart (apositive value). To use tracking, select all of the characters you wish to modify, and change theTracking value in the same manner. This will move all of the selected characters closer together orfarther apart, rather than modifying just two.
Figure 2.24. A high tracking value gives your letters a lot of breathing room. [View full size image]Lets wrap up our look at this palette with the T buttons at the bottom. These are handy styles youcan add to your selected text.The first two are Faux Bold and Faux Italic. Sometimes the font youre using wont have its own boldor italic set (which you can select in the drop-down menu next to the typeface name), so Photoshopcan simulate one for you.Figure 2.25. Use the faux settings only when your font doesnt come with its own bold or italic set. (Im using Faux Italic here.) The versions supplied with a font are usually best. [View full size image]
The remaining "T" buttons give you styles like small caps, superscript, underlining, and strikethrough.Hover your mouse over the button on the palette for a pop-up explanation if youre not sure what itdoesand just experiment.THE PARAGRAPH PALETTEThe Paragraph palette is usually found tabbed right next to the Character paletteclick the Paragraphtab to display it. If you cant find it, go to Window > Paragraph to pop it up.Figure 2.26. The most common Paragraph palette buttons, the alignment settings, are also found in the Options bar.The Paragraph palette is most useful when dealing with lengthy passages of body text, though youcan use its Left, Center, and Right buttons (also found in the Options bar) on text of any size. Figure 2.27. The alignment settings work just like the ones youre used to in a word-processing program.To use the remaining features, youll need to create a text area with your Type tool and fill it withtext. This defines a rectangle for the text to fit in; your Paragraph palette settings will influence howthe text in the box is displayed.
Click and drag a large rectangle on your document with the Type tool. Youll see that you havecreated a box with handles, much like a transformation bounding box. Copy some text from anotherdocument, and paste it in the text area you just created.Now you can experiment with the other tools in the Paragraph palette. Try the justification buttonson the top bar, indentation effects, and other settings. Figure 2.28. To alleviate text overload in a text box, I justified the lines, added indents, and changed the spacing between paragraphs. [View full size image]By modifying my type settings in a number of different ways, Ive set up a hierarchy of informationon the food package. Notice that to keep it simple I did this with just a limited number of fonts,varying instead the color, sizing, and other settings.Figure 2.29. Heres my finished package with all of my text set in a clear hierarchy.
Adjustment LayersAs a designer, youll frequently be asked to work with images that require some global correction,such as lighting or color balance. Lets explore that now. In Photoshop, open the imageLowlight_dish.jpg that youve downloaded from the online download site, and make sure the Layerspalette is showing. We will adjust the lighting of the photo using an adjustment layer. An adjustmentlayer allows you to make and edit global changes to an image on a separate layer, so you dont messup your original. Figure 2.30. Youll use adjustment layers to give this dark photo more attractive lighting.
note Clicking the little black-and-white circle on the bottom of your Layers palette will open a menu allowing you to create various types of adjustment layers. For now, well stick with a Levels adjustment layer to adjust lighting, but you can also change color, saturation, and other options.Go to the bottom of the Layers palette and click the half-black/half-white circle icon . This willpop open a menu allowing you to choose from a range of possible adjustments to your image.Choose Levels. Figure 2.31. Choose Levels from the adjustment layer menu, but take note of the many other options.
See the black mountain of data? That is a histogram, which shows the balance of information on thedark areas (blacks), the middle-toned areas (grays), and light areas (whites) of your image. As youcan see from the Levels dialog, the image has too much histogram information to the left side of thechart, or toward the dark areas (blacks), and hardly any toward the light areas (whites). We need tofix that.Figure 2.32. The Levels histogram shows you information on the amounts of dark, medium-light, and bright areas of your image. note
After a Levels adjustment layer has been made, it will sit above your main layer and the histogram/slider icon will be visible. Double-clicking this icon will allow you to tweak your existing adjustments.Make sure the Preview box is checked so that you can see the changes to your image as you makethem. Now click the little white triangle on the right side of the chart and slide it over to the left untilthe Input Levels value says 168. Grab the little gray triangle and slide it until the Input Levels valuein the middle says 1.15. Your rates may vary due to your monitors brightnessfeel free to usedifferent values than these if you need to. Press Enter/Return or click OK to accept your choices.Very goodyou just created an adjustment layer in the Layers palette. It has this icon indicatingthat it is a lighting control or setting, but no real pixels are on that layer. The adjustment layer isvisually blankno pixels, just dataso make sure you are not in that layer whenever you actually wantto select or edit pixels. At any time, you can go back and edit your adjustment layer to your liking.Simply double-click the Levels icon on the layer to reedit your Levels.We did as much as we could for the overall picture, without "blowing out" the items on the place mat.Now we will selectively choose other areas and lighten them. First make sure you click theBackground layer of the Layers palette to target your pixel info, not your levels info. Figure 2.33. Heres what weve got so far, but some areas still need work.
Select the place mat and everything thats on it with the Lasso tool. When you get to a straight edgeon the place mat, use this neat trick: Hold down the Alt/Option key and click (but do not drag) theLasso at one corner of the place mat, then move to the next corner and click (without dragging).Then you can release Alt/Option and continue with free-form selecting.Because the place mat is selected, and we really want to edit everything except that, we must chooseSelect > Inverse. Now, make a Levels adjustment layer for that area. Move the white slider to theleft until the levels are how you like them. You may need to move the gray slider slightly as well.Press Enter/Return or click OK to accept your choices. Figure 2.34. The finished photo is lighter in all the right spots.
The lower adjustment layer is the "everything except the place mat" layer, because you inverted yourselection before you made that layer. The layer above it is the adjustment for the whole image. Seethe before-and-after effects of your adjustment levels by clicking on and off the eye icon next to eachadjustment layer. Additionally, you can change the opacity of those adjustment layers by sliding theOpacity slider in the Layers palette for each adjustment layer.Once youre done, you can incorporate all those adjustment settings into the final photo by choosingFlatten Image from the Layers palettes options menu or going to Layer > Flatten Image.
Photo Compositing ProjectIn this project, youll explore the challenge of photo compositingcompiling a variety of photos into asingle, convincing image. This technique is used often in professional graphic design projects, thoughyou might not realize it since the results can appear seamless.The photo compositing requires a variety of Photoshop features including precision selecting, patterndefinition, "pasting into," and lighting effects. Well walk through these features as you work oncreating a detailed and persuasive image of a room from an empty shell.Project Brief: Interior DecoratingWere moving to the city and our bleak, empty new apartment needs lifefast! The outside looks nice,but the inside looks bare. Can you turn this room into a place that people will want to hang out in andinvite friends to visit? Figure 2.35. Where will the guests sit? Its your job to make this room more comfortable.
Figure 2.36. The room I made in Photoshopcasual and cozy. [View full size image]
Starting with the empty room image, your job is to create a fully decorated room using Photoshoptechniques, your own creativity, and a variety of furniture and accessory images of your choice.There are just a few requirements for this exercise: "Paint" all of the walls. Add "wallpaper" to at least one wall. Modify the windows in a major wayfor example, add curtains, or change the outside view, maybe even change the style or placement of the windows. Change the carpet. You can repair it and change its color, or change the floor covering altogether with a new rug or style. Include at least three large pieces of furniture or appliances (for example, couch, chair, and TV; or couch, bookshelf, and coffee table). Place a piece of artwork on at least one of the walls.Project Summary Plan your room design and find appropriate working images. Use selections and transformations to add furniture and accessories to the room. Apply lighting and shading techniques to add realism to the components of the image. Create a convincing photo composite incorporating all of the required elements. STUDIO SESSIONS www.studiosessions.net/portfolio Post this chapters project online for feedback from professional designers. access code: STUDIOpProject StepsYou are free to use any methods in Photoshop to create your room redesign, as long as therequirements are met, but Ill walk you through how I created my version and give you some tipsand ideas to guide you along.
1. Obtaining the Empty Room File and Component ImagesFirst, in Photoshop, open the originalroom.jpg image that youve downloaded from the onlinedownload site. This will be your starting point, and all work should be done on this file.Looking at the empty room as well as the project requirements, think about what youd like to do tothis space. What feeling and attitude should it have? What colors and textures will give it this feeling?What kinds of furniture and accessories would look best in the room?You can use the furniture and accessory images I have provided for you on the online download site,and/or whatever images you find on your own, to decorate the given room and give it character.Consider taking your own photos of these pieces, or visit home decor Web sites for images andinspiration. Dont bring these images into the room just yethang on to them, and bring them in asneeded.2. Selecting and Modifying the CarpetThe carpet is a good starting place for this project. Decide what you want to do with it, then make aselection of the entire carpet. Remember that you can make straight-edged selections by holdingdown the Alt/Option key and clicking with the Lasso tool, or you can use any other selection methodyou prefer. Save your selection in case you decide to go back to the floor later in the projectjust go toSelect > Save Selection.To change the color of the rug, you can first clean it up using the Clone Stamp tool . Alt/Option-click with the tool on a clean area of the carpet, then click a dirty area to "stamp" the clean selectionyou made. It takes practice, so Edit > Undo as needed and keep trying. With the rug clean, click thehalf-black/half-white circle icon on the Layers palette to make an adjustment layer and chooseHue/Saturation. With the Hue/Saturation sliders, you can pick any color you like. Remember,because its an adjustment layer, you can always change it later. Figure 2.37. I made the rug plusher using the Add Noise filter (Filter > Noise > Add Noise).
If youd rather change the texture of the rug, try a filter in the Filters menu. You may need to go toEdit > Fade after you add the filter to make the effect a bit more subtle. Alternatively, you could fillyour rug selection with a new pattern altogether, perhaps giving the room a tiled or wood floor.3. Revamping the WallsTime for a fresh coat of paint. Selecting the walls will take some time and some careit looks simple onthe surface, but you may want to zoom in on some areas like the baseboard heaters and windowsills.Remember to subtract (Alt-click/Option-click) the windows from your selection. Save your selectionto use later if needed.Clean up the rough or dirty spots of the walls, then use any method you prefer to color the wallsforexample a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, or Edit > Fill > Foreground Color. If using a fill, do it ona new layer so you can adjust the opacity (using the slider on the Layers palette) or other featuresindependently of the room layer. For an added decorative touch, you can paint the ceiling or paintdifferent walls different colors, but try to keep it tasteful. We do want a realistic room!Figure 2.38. I filled my wall selection with blue, reduced the opacity, and chose Multiply in the Layers palette menu so the color blended with the shading of the original walls.
[View full size image]Now for some wallpaper. Pick a wall and select it carefullythe back one is best because of its angles.Save the selection in case you need it later. (You should do this with all the selections you makethroughout the project.)Find a pattern from another document to use as wallpaper. If you find a good pattern on the Web orfrom your own photos, open the file in Photoshop, select the area you want as your pattern (it can bevery small, just one piece of the repeating pattern), and go to Edit > Define Pattern to save it as aPhotoshop pattern.With the pattern defined, the wall selected, and a new layer in your room document created, fill theselection with the pattern by going to Edit > Fill and choosing your pattern in the Fill dialog. Lowerthe opacity or use another technique (such as a Blend mode in the menu on the Layers palette) tomake it more subtle and shaded properly. It may take some tinkering before youve got the perfectwall covering. Figure 2.39. I defined a couple of dots on a fabric image as my pattern, and let it repeat throughout the back wall selection.
4. Changing the View tip If you want to rewind and remove several errant steps youve made, head to the History palette, click the last step that you wish to keep, and then continue working. The steps after the selected step will be removed and overwritten by your new work.In our final step before moving furniture into the room, lets make this a room with a view. First, do arepair job with your Clone Stamp tool to clean up the second windowsill, or use another method torepair it if you prefer.Then pick an image to place in the windows, giving the room a more exciting view than cars andgarbage cans. Try some greenery, a skyline, or even some clouds if this apartment is on a high floor.Select the glass of the windows carefully. To place your chosen background image, use the Paste Intotechnique. Open your scenery image and select it all (Select > All), then go to Edit > Copy. Now,return to your room document and choose Edit > Paste Into, which will insert the copied scenery intothe window selection.
Figure 2.40. A prettier view, dont you think?Alternatively, if youd like to keep the current view, find or take a picture of curtains or other windowtreatments, and add them to these windows using the techniques youll use shortly for furniture andaccessories.Pause here and give your room a thorough look-over. Make sure that you are happy with everything,and make changes now if you feel you need to.5. Furnishing the RoomThe online download site contains several interesting pieces that you are welcome to use in yourroom. But you dont have to use these, and you should find some of your own images online or takesome photos.Begin by choosing all of the large pieces you wish to have in your room and opening the images inPhotoshop. Remember that you must have at least three large pieces of furniture or appliances. Youdont have to use the pieces exactly as you see themif you want to change their color, place animage on a TV screen, or make any other changes, go for it. Figure 2.41. I found a sleek photo of a sofa, then selected it, flipped it, and transformed it to make a perfect fit in my room.
[View full size image]Next, very carefully select each one in its respective document and drag it using the Move tool ontoyour room. Use any of the selection techniques you learned in the warm-ups. The Lasso tool will beparticularly useful, and you can refine the Lasso selections using Quick Mask mode.With your pieces in the room, all on separate layers, you can use Edit > Free Transform to shrink,rotate, and otherwise shape them as needed to conform to the room. Remember that youll need tomake active the layer you wish to change by clicking it in the Layers palette.Also try Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to get the mirror image of your piece if needed.Place all three of your major pieces, but dont worry yet about the lighting and shading, which welltackle shortly; just make sure that their edges are clean with no excess bits and pieces. If theyrenot, you can use your Eraser tool to clean them up, but remember that precise selection should avertthe need to do this.6. AccessorizingWith the three major pieces placed exactly how you like, you can now add the accessories to theroom. Have some fun decoratingplace items on tables, add some cozy throw pillows, smallfurnishings or lamps, a few shelves (with more accessories!), and so on. Use the same process thatyou did with the furniture until you have your room decorated to your liking. Figure 2.42. The bowl of green apples and some throw pillows made the place feel like a real home. [View full size image]
Next, lets get some art on those walls. There is some artwork on the online download site, or youcan grab anything you like from the Web that goes with your roomsites that sell posters are a greatplace to look. You can even "frame" your favorite digital photos by placing a border around them(Edit > Stroke).So youve got your artwork. Youve selected it and dragged it into the room with the Move tool.Youve scaled it to the size you like with Edit > Free Transform. But whats wrong with this picture?The art wont look realistic until its perspective has been manipulated to match the angle of the wall.The best way to address this, although challenging, is with Edit > Transform > Distort.Drag the corner handles of the distort bounding box carefully, making the vertical sides parallel to thewalls, and the horizontal sides in the same direction as the floor and ceiling lines. Try to imagine thefloor and ceiling lines extended as far as they need to be until they meet, then aim the top andbottom borders of your art toward this "vanishing point."Figure 2.43. You could eyeball the vanishing point or make some lines ona new layer to act as guides. Then delete the line layer when youre done.
7. Lighting and ShadingAt this stage, all of the items in your room should be placed and styled exactly how you want them.But theres something else keeping your room from looking realisticshadows. To begin working onthese, lets improve the lighting on all of the pieces in the room using Levels adjustment layers. Thiswill give us a good starting point before we make more detailed lighting and shadow tweaks.Do a Levels adjustment layer for the main room layer, just as you did for the warm-up earlier. Useyour best judgment on the settings. Then, for the pieces in the room, youll first need to load aselection before applying an adjustment layerotherwise the levels you adjust will affect all the layersbelow as well. If you didnt save selections of everything, its OK. Go to Select > Load Selection, andin the Channel menu, choose Transparency for the layer you wish to adjust. This will select only theobject on that layer, so you can then apply an adjustment layer. Repeat for all of your items in theroom. Figure 2.44. By adjusting the levels, some pieces have brightened and some darkened, all becoming more realistic. [View full size image]
Next, lets give each piece its appropriate shading. Begin with a large piece of furniture, and apply aDrop Shadow effect (Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow) that is subtle and realistic in opacity, color,distance, and blurring (make sure Preview is checked in the Drop Shadow dialog so you can see yourchanges while you make them). Keep in mind when selecting the angle that the main light source isthe left window, unless youve changed it. Figure 2.45. The Drop Shadow dialog box allows you to create subtle or dramatic shadows at any angle you choose. [View full size image]
You can now copy and paste this style onto your other layers using the Layer > Layer Style options.Not all of them will look perfect when you paste them, but well go back to them and tweak in thenext step.In my example, the distance and size settings I used for the couch shadow were too large for someof the smaller pieces in my room, such as the pillows and artwork. I double-clicked the f icon on mylayers for the smaller pieces, and made the shading subtler.On some pieces, the drop shadow that youll apply might not make sense at all, particularly smallpieces sitting on other surfaces such as tables, where the shadow should only be on the surface itself,not the other objects behind it.But rather than remove the shadow altogether and start fresh, heres a handy tip: With your layerselected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Create Layer. This will turn your drop shadow effect into itsown layer to which you can do anything you like. You can erase the parts that dont belong with yourEraser tool, or transform it to a more appropriate size or shape. Figure 2.46. The bowls shadow should be cast only on the table, so I made a new layer for the shadow and tweaked it.
If you need any additional highlights or shadows on your objects, you can finish up by using theDodge tool and Burn tool in your toolbox. Dodging will lighten any part of the layer that you apply itto, while burning will darken. Both tools offer many variables in the Options bar, so you canexperiment for just the right look. Lighting and shading is a difficult technique to master; just useyour eye and do your best. Figure 2.47. After a final bit of dodging and burning, my room is ready for guests.When youre done, you should have a room filled with objects that look like they were there allalongan apartment people would love to visit.Student Work
What have other designers done with this photo compositing project? Here are some projects createdby Sessions.edu students:Figure 2.48. Adam Benefield created an Asian-inspired meditation room, and he used some pretty complex selections (like those of the bonsai tree) to do it.Figure 2.49. John Messingers room is high-tech and masculine, with nice use of distortion to achieve realistic perspective and angles.
Figure 2.50. Melinda Langevin used lots of greenery (and very detailed selections) to create a tranquil, tropical room.
Chapter 3. Illustrator EssentialsDesigners starting out know Adobe Illustrator as "that program for designing logos," but its capableof so much more: ads, illustrations, page layouts, and Web graphics, to name just a few applications.Its the industry-standard application for vector graphics.You dont even have to be a virtuoso at drawing to create good Illustrator art. It helps, of course. Butmany designers who are not skilled illustrators are able to harness the programs drawing, selection,color, and effects tools to create powerful and detailed artwork.If youre new to Illustrator (or just rusty), this chapter will get you well on your way towardunderstanding the fundamentals of using Illustrator to create vector graphics. Test your skills at theend of the chapter on an advertising design project. COURSE DEVELOPER: MICHAEL HAMM This chapter is based on a lesson developed by Michael Hamm, a freelance designer in Houston, Texas, and an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Adobe Illustrator. Figure 3.1. Ready to let your imagination fly? Vector art created in Illustrator by designer John Schwegel.
In this chapter you will: Learn about the role of vector graphics in design. Learn to use Illustrators drawing tools to create vector shapes. Learn to select and arrange objects on the Illustrator Artboard. Learn to apply colored fills and strokes to objects. Learn to modify vector objects using transformations and distortions. Learn how to use basic and specialized typography tools. Learn to apply transparency, filters, and effects to add complexity to objects. Design an outdoor advertisement using only vector art.
Illustrator and Graphic DesignAdobe Illustrator started as a simple drawing program intended to automate technical drawing tasks.Today? Illustrator has come a long way, baby. Its raison dêtre is still illustration, the creation of lineart. But along the way, its developers have added in a host of features that make it sophisticated andflexible enough for a range of applications.Mastering Illustrator certainly isnt easy. The programs tough learning curvecompared with that of itsubiquitous pal Photoshopis daunting to many who are most comfortable with the latters paintingmetaphor. But for any serious graphic designer, Illustrator cannot be ignored.Digital illustration is called for when a designer is looking for digital art with the special quality thatonly drawn art can impart. To produce an annual report, for example, an art director mightcommission an illustrator to create a set of icons and illustrations that run throughout the document,identifying chapters and reflecting its major themes. Figure 3.2. Editorial illustrations such as these, by designer Heidi Schmidt, add grace to print layouts.
Professional-looking stock photography and clip-art graphics are so widespread these days thatunique illustrations can really enhance the perceived quality of a project. Whether its sketched inIllustrator or by hand, any piece of pictorial art is immediately grasped by the viewer as a symbolicrepresentationan imaginative rendering of a person, organization, or concept. People respond to suchimages differently than they do to photographs. Figure 3.3. Ready to make your mark? Logo design is a core application for Illustrator.From a design standpoint, one reason more people are learning Illustrator is that it offerstremendous flexibility in the creative process. With skill and good visualization, the basic buildingblocks of an illustration (such as lines, fills, colors, and gradients) can be easy to deploy andduplicate. Illustrations can be combined with the precise typography required for visual-identitydesign and print publication. And the results can be modified using a variety of popular effects suchas distortion, transparency, and three-dimensional perspective.Developing skill in Illustrator can open up many avenues in the design field. The program providesthe crisp accuracy in the placement and proportion of lines and letters thats so essential in visualidentity and packaging design. The ability to resize a vector-based graphic with no quality loss isinvaluable; blow it up to billboard size and youll still see a perfect result. Illustrators precisetypographical tools lend themselves to basic page layout projects such as promotions, magazine ads,and posters. Even Web graphics and pages can be initially designed in Illustrator before conversion tobitmapped format. Figure 3.4. Futuristic, three-dimensional, and designed entirely in Illustrator.
At the professional level, the lines between photography and illustration in design are beginning toblur. Truly proficient Illustrator artists are creating art that looks just like photographic imagery bythe skillful use of drawing tools, paths, shapes, and effects. Real or unreal? These images intrigue theeye, pulling us in. And they inspire people to learn Illustrator. Figure 3.5. Designer Brooke Nuñez is renowned for her photo-realistic images. This rose uses complex gradient meshes in Illustrator.
Creating Vector ArtIn this section, well work on the essentials of Illustratorthe ability to use the drawing tools; selectand arrange your artwork; work with strokes, fills, color, and type; and utilize some basic effects. Ifyoure new to Illustrator, thats a lot to cover, but it will provide a foundation for further study. Asyoull discover in this chapters project, a lot of creative work can be done using just these tools.About Vector ArtTo understand how Illustrator works, its helpful to contrast it with Photoshop. If youve worked withphotographs or artwork in Photoshop, youll know that such images are composed of pixelstiny dots,each with its own color. A group of pixels put together form what is called a bitmapped image.Images created in Illustrator (and other vector-based software programs) dont have pixels. If youzoom in closely on them, you wont see any little dots. Illustrator artwork is referred to as vector-based; vector art uses mathematical equations to create lines and blocks of color.Thankfully, you dont need to know a thing about those equations when you create your vector art.What you do need to know is that they contribute to the beauty of Illustrator. Vector art is infinitelyresizable. Make your design much larger or smaller, and youll experience no loss of qualitywhich isnot the case with bitmapped images, which can get blurry and muddy when you resize.Figure 3.6. Size doesnt matter in the vector world. No matter how much I enlarge this vector graphic, it retains its crisp edges.
DRAWING TOOLSIf youre launching Illustrator for the first time, why not begin by exploring different ways to createlines and shapes? Illustrator provides a number of basic drawing tools that create different shapesbut share common functionality and features.SHAPE AND LINE TOOLSSelect the Star tool in the toolbox and click once on the Artboard. Doing so displays the options forthis tool. You can access options for all the shape tools (Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse,Polygon, Star, and Flare) and line tools (Line Segment, Arc, Spiral, Rectangular Grid, and Polar Grid)in this manner.In the Star options box, enter a value of 25 for Radius 1 (the stars inner radius) and a value of 50for Radius 2 (the outer radius). Leave the Points value as is, and click OK. In doing so, youve drawna shape numerically rather than with a mouse. Be sure to try this with the other tools. Figure 3.7. Clicking with most tools on the Artboard gives you their numerical options.Drawing numerically is useful for precise drawing, but it may leave you feeling restrained creatively.Rather than clicking and entering numbers to draw, you can also click and drag with a mouse ordrawing tabletcertainly a lot quicker than entering numbers. Illustrator accommodates whateverdrawing style you choose.If you draw with a mouse or tablet, hold down the Shift key to constrain shapes (such as therectangle or star) so that all sides are of the same length (equilateral), creating squares, perfectstars and polygons, and so on. In the case of an ellipse, holding down the Shift key while you dragwill create a perfect circle. To create a shape from a center point, hold down the Alt key (Option on aMac) as you draw. Use both modifier keys together (Alt+Shift/Option+Shift) for additional control.Those of you with sharp eyes might be wondering where, amid all the basic drawing tools, a Triangle
tool is. Well, there is no such tool. To draw a triangle, select the Polygon tool and click and drag onthe Artboardbut dont release your mouse button just yet. While dragging, press the down arrow keyon your keyboard and note how the number of sides on the polygon decreases to three, theminimum. Instant triangle. And you can even draw a triangle numerically by clicking once on theArtboard with the Polygon tool and entering a value of 3 in the Sides input box. Figure 3.8. What is a triangle but a three-sided polygon?Want to try something really cool? As you draw with the mouse, hold down the tilde (~) for adramatic wireframe effect. On a standard keyboard, look for the tilde on the accent key, just to theleft of the 1 key. By pressing this key, you make a copy of the shape any time you move the mousewhile drawing. Try it now with the Star toolclick and drag to create a star, but dont let go of themouse button. Hold down the tilde key and give your mouse a spin.Stop for a moment and look at the various drawing tools that all share this functionality. Just byusing ellipses, line segments, rectangles, polygons, and other simple shapes and lines, you canconstruct a multitude of creations, from robots to landscapes. Figure 3.9. My handcrafted automaton. Basic shapes form the backbone of this robot illustration.
FREE-FORM DRAWING TOOLSShape and line tools are certainly not your only drawing resources. Those who like to draw freehandwill enjoy the Paintbrush and Pencil tools. The Paintbrush tool is a freehand drawing tool thatseffective with a mouse and downright powerful with an electronic drawing tablet. The Paintbrushworks in conjunction with the Brushes palette (Window > Brushes). With it, you can create artworkthat emulates the look of watercolors, chalk, or even scribbles with a pen. Double-click with thePaintbrush tool to display its many options, such as Smoothness. Experiment with them to see avariety of painting possibilities. Figure 3.10. Look to the Brushes palette for a range of media that you can emulate with the Paintbrush tool.
The Pencil tool is practically an identical twin to the Paintbrush. They share similar tool settings(Fidelity, Smoothness) and functionality. While the Paintbrush automatically starts drawing with abrushstroke, the Pencil tool, by default, starts off with a 1-point stroke. The Pencil can draw withBrush palette brushes, but it does not do so by default. The Pencil and Paint Brush tools have beenpart of the Illustrator family for so long that if Adobe chose to combine the two into one, much chaosand mayhem would ensue. Figure 3.11. This cartoon piece of sushi was drawn with the Pencil tool. (The Chopstick tool is still being developed.)Finally, there is the Pen tool, which goes beyond the scope of this chapter but youll learn all about itlater. The Pen provides the ability to construct ultraprecise paths, but has a learning curve almost assteep as that of the rest of Illustrators features put together.As you draw more and more shapes on the Artboard, they will invariably overlap. The newest shapesalways appear on top of the older ones in what Illustrator calls a stacking order. Think of this as
layers upon layers of shapes or objects. Up next, well look at how to alter the stacking order with theSelection tool.Selecting and ArrangingIf youve been trying out all of the drawing tools, your Artboard may be pretty crowded by now. Timeto clean up. Select the solid arrow in the toolbox (in the top-left corner).THE SELECTION TOOLThis is the Selection tool, and with it you can select, move, rotate, and modify shapes on theArtboard. A shape or object in Illustrator must be selected before you can make any kind of changesto it.When you select a shape, a bounding box consisting of an outline with eight points appears. If forsome reason you dont see a bounding box as shown below, choose View > Show Bounding Box. Tomove a selection, click within the bounding box and then drag. To resize, move the cursor directlyover a bounding box point until it turns into a double arrow. Click and drag to resize or reshape theselection. Press and hold the Shift key to resize proportionately. Hold the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac)key to constrain movement from the objects center. Figure 3.12. An objects bounding box and handles are visible when you select a shape.To rotate an object, move the cursor just to the outside of one of the points until a curved doublearrow appears. Click and drag in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion. Hold down the Shift key toconstrain rotation to 45-degree angles. Reset the orientation of your bounding box after rotating byselecting Object > Transform > Reset Bounding Box from the menu bar.To select more than one shape with the Selection tool, hold down the Shift key and click additionalobjects. If the object youre clicking does not respond, it may not be filled with a color. Try clicking onthe outline of the object instead. Another way is to click the Artboard and drag a selection marqueearound the objects you wish to select, just like making a marquee with the Zoom tool to zoom in onobjects.To make multiple copies, select an object, press the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key, and then click,
drag away from the original object, and release. To deselect, click on the Artboard away from theselected object(s).ARRANGING OBJECTSRemember stacking order? Its time to shake things up and down. Draw two circles that overlap eachother a little.Select the bottom circle (with the Selection tool) and choose Object > Arrange > Bring To Front. Thestacking order of the two circles changes. If you select the Send To Back command (from the samemenu), the circle returns to the bottom of the stack.If you try this and dont see any effect, make sure both of your objects have a fill. Select an object,and then click the miniature Fill and Stroke icon in the lower-left corner of the regular Fill and Strokeboxes in the toolbox. Figure 3.13. Clicking this mini button gives an object a white fill and a black stroke.Now, add another overlapping circle on top of the other two and make sure you can see all three.Select the bottom circle and choose Object > Arrange > Bring Forward. The circle moves between theother circles to the middle of the stacking order. Rather than jump to the top of the stack, thiscommand can bring an object forward one position at a time in the stacking order. The SendBackward command has the opposite effect, sending an object back one step rather than all the wayto the back. Figure 3.14. You can control the overlapping of any objects, like these stars, by adjusting the stacking order.
If you have an object selected, you can also access the Arrange commands by right-clicking (Ctrl-clicking on the Mac) to display a pop-up menu.Working with Multiple ObjectsWhy reinvent the wheel when you can so easily cut and paste it? That is the wonderful philosophybehind objects, which permit us to clone repeated design elements.POWERFUL PASTE COMMANDSLike most modern software applications, Illustrator features traditional copy and paste commands.They function as expected. You select an object, choose Copy or Cut from the Edit menu, and thenclick Paste. The new copy appears on the Artboard in the middle of the screen.If you need to paste an object precisely in front (or back) of its original, however, these traditionalcommands are ineffective. To the rescue come the Paste In Front and Paste In Back commands.When you use either of these commands, found in the Edit menu, Illustrator will paste your copyeither exactly behind the original or exactly in front.The keyboard shortcuts for the special paste commands appear in the Edit menu.For the skeptics in the audience, draw a circle, select it, and make a copyCtrl+C (PC) or Command+C(Mac). Select Paste In Front (Edit > Paste In Front). Nothings changed, it would seem. Now selectthe circle and drag it across the Artboard. Notice the other circle now? That is the original; you aredragging the copy, which was pasted in front of the original. Voilà! The Paste In Back commandworks the same way but pastes the copy behind the original.GROUPINGNext, lets take a look at the grouping (and ungrouping) of objects in Illustrator.When you group objects, you effectively create a temporary bond. Group three stars together, andwhen you select one of them (with the Selection tool), you select them all. Fill one object with a
color, and you fill them all. Rotate one object, and … you get the picture. Grouping is useful fororganizing related objects in your document or for moving multiple objects about with little trouble.To group, select two or more objects and choose Object > Group or press Ctrl+G (Command+G on aMac). To ungroup, choose Object > Ungroup or press Ctrl+Shift+G (PC) or Command+Shift+G(Mac).Figure 3.15. Just click any of the objects in the group to select them all at once.You can group together object groups, and those groups can also be part of another group!Working with Strokes and ColorDifferent strokes for different folks, they say. That is true in Illustrator too, once you gain controlover your stroke palette.THE STROKE PALETTEStroke may seem an odd name for something deserving of a palette, but youll quickly come toappreciate it. A stroke refers to the outline of an object, whether its a simple line or an elaboratepolygon. The objects youre drawing so far are all (most likely) in black and white (until a fewparagraphs from now!), and the stroke is the black part.The controls on the Stroke palette affect both the style and width of the lines in your artwork. Sinceyou can now select objects, grab a shape on the Artboard and enter a value of 5 in the Weight inputbox. As you do this, the lines thickness, or the stroke weight, changes on your object. Preset strokeweights are available from a drop-down menu; spin controls (the up and down arrows in the box)provide an alternate selection method. Figure 3.16. Thick, thin, or in between, the Stroke palette handles all your outlining needs.
The Cap and Join settings on the Stroke palette determine how a line terminates (the cap) and howone line meets the other (the join). A line or stroke can have one of three caps: a butt cap (a straightend), a round cap (a semicircular end), or a projecting cap (an end extending beyond the endpoint byhalf of the current line width). The three types of joins are Miter, Round, and Bevel. The Miter joinhas an input box below the Weight input, which allows you to select the Miter limit, or how long andpointy the join can be until one line turns into the other.Figure 3.17. Cap and join options, from left to right: Miter join with a butt cap, Round join with a round cap, and Bevel join with a projecting cap.As you might have guessed, the Dashed Line option will give you dotted or dashed lines. To activateit, click the check box and enter a value for the dash size (1, for example) and a value for the gap(such as 3) between dashes. Its only necessary to enter a value within the first dash and gap box.The other boxes give you enhanced control over the dashed-line appearance by mixing dashes ofdifferent sizes and shapes with smaller or larger gaps. Experiment with different values in each boxto see the result. Figure 3.18. Strokes are found throughout this delightful Sonoma Joe illustration by Heidi Schmidt, particularly in its text.
By default, the stroke on any object is positioned above the color that fills it. As you increase thestroke weight, it begins to obscure the fill below it. This is most noticeable on text objects. To movethe stroke below the fill, select the object you wish to edit and open the Appearance palette (Window> Appearance). This palette displays both the stroke information and fill information for the selectedobject. Click the Stroke appearance and drag it below the Fill appearance.USING COLORBefore we move deep into the territory of color, I want you to first look at the fundamentalcomponents of the shapes were drawing. By doing so, youll gain an understanding of what you canapply color to.If you draw a circle in Illustrator, youll see that the shape is made up of four points and four curvedlines. The points are anchor points, and the lines are path segments. Together, the anchor points andpath segments form either a closed or an open path. Squares and circles are examples of closedpaths. A straight line, an arc, and a spiral are examples of open paths. Figure 3.19. A closed path comprises anchor points and path segments.
With an object such as a square, the outline of the square is the stroke; the area within the outline isthe fill.In the toolbox are the Fill and Stroke color boxes. The Fill box is the solid square, and the Stroke boxis the hollow square. The boxes represent the current colors used in newly drawn objects or thecolors used in selected objects. Every object we have drawn so far has had a white fill and a blackstroke, unless you have already changed these settings. Figure 3.20. The Fill and Stroke color boxes are found at the bottom of the toolbox.Some of the drawing tools, such as the Line Segment tool and the Arc tool , remove the fill colorand use only the stroke color. If you drew objects earlier with these tools, the Fill box most likely hasa red slash running across it, which indicates no fill color.Draw a circle on the Artboard and well change its colors. Be sure the object is selected once thecircle is complete. With the Selection tool, double-click the Fill box to display the Color Picker. Clickand drag in the color box or color spectrum bar (the thin vertical bar) to select a color. Click OK. Thefill color of the circle changes to reflect your color choice.Figure 3.21. Checking the Only Web Colors box in the Color Picker showsonly colors in the Web-safe palette. Leaving this unchecked will give you the full color range to choose from.
To change the circles stroke color, double-click the hollow black square. The Stroke box is now theactive color box since it is in front of the Fill box. Choose a color and click OK.The double arrow in the upper right of the Fill and Stroke area lets you toggle colors back and forthbetween boxes. A single click on either box will make it active without displaying the Color Picker. Torestore black and white default colors, click the mini Fill and Stroke box icon in the lower-left corner.To see how the fill and stroke affect an open path, select the Spiral tool and click and drag on theArtboard to draw the shape. The fill color abruptly cuts off at the last endpoint on the outside of theshape. That cutoff connects the two endpoints of the path. Any open path can have only twoendpoints; Illustrator will automatically connect them with the selected fill color. Figure 3.22. The black dots Ive added in this example represent the connection of the endpoints of the open path.As another example, select the Pencil tool and draw a free-form line on the Artboard. Be sure to
select a color for both the fill and the stroke. When you complete the line, Illustrator again connectsthe two endpoints.In case youre wondering, a straight line can have both fill and stroke colors as well. However,because the path has no interior, the fill is not visible. To confirm its presence though, just look at theFill and Stroke boxes in the toolbox.REMOVING FILL COLORS AND STROKE COLORSTo set either the Fill or Stroke box to fill or stroke a shape with no color (making the areatransparent), choose the None icon (shown as a red slash) just below the Fill and Stroke boxes.A shape does not have to have a fill or stroke color. In fact, a shape doesnt have to have any colorinformation whatsoever. Select an object youve drawn, and then click the Fill box to make it active.Click the None icon just below the Fill and Stroke boxes. Do the same for the Stroke box. Your objectis now invisible, so to speak, but you can still select it to see its outline and bounding box.The fill of an object can consist of a gradient rather than a solid color. A gradient is a smoothtransition of one color to another. The stroke of an object cannot accept a gradient fill. Feel free toexperiment with this on your own using the Gradient palette (Window > Gradient).THE COLOR PALETTESlider controls beneath color bars on the Color palette (Window > Color) give you another way ofchanging and selecting colors. Depending on the color model active on the palette, you can also enternumeric and hexadecimal values in input boxes. Choose from among grayscale, RGB, CMYK, andother choices in the palettes option menu. The color spectrum bar or tint ramp that appears is alsobased on the color model. Figure 3.23. The Color palette the entire spectrum at your service.A miniature Fill and Stroke icon is displayed on the palette. As with the toolbox version, click eitherthe Fill or Stroke box to make it active. The palette supports drag-and-drop features. Click the Fillbox and drag its color onto an unselected object on the Artboard. The fill of the object changes toreflect the color on the Color palette. The toolbox version also supports this handy feature.
Swatch palettes give you a third choice in color selection. Choose Window > Swatch Libraries todisplay a menu of color swatches. Select Default CMYK to display its swatch palette. The palettefeatures various CMYK color swatches (plus gradient and pattern fills as well) that you can drag ontoselected or unselected objects, the Fill and Stroke boxes, or the Color palette. Figure 3.24. The Swatch palette holds solid fills as well as gradients and patterns.To keep a swatch palette visible between Illustrator sessions, uncheck the Persistent option on thepalettes menu.Use the Eyedropper tool if you want to select or sample an objects color. To use the tool, select theEyedropper and click an object on the Artboard. Both the Fill and Stroke boxes take on the sampledcolors. Press the Shift key while using the Eyedropper to selectively sample colors for the active colorbox. This is particularly useful if you have a multicolored object and you only want to sample aparticular color from it.Another trick is to select an object, then click another object with the Eyedropper tool. This changesthe color of the first object to match that of the second.Using TypeTypography is essential to many design projects, so lets go over some of the text possibilities usingthe various type tools. Text in Illustrator behaves a lot differently than does text in a word processor,making it a little more challenging but a lot more powerful and flexible.Lets start with the standard Type tool on a new, blank document.THE STANDARD TYPE TOOLClick anywhere on your document with the Type tool to set your cursor, and then type out a fewwords. The default is that the text is filled black, has no stroke, and is a small, standard font. But,like anything else in Illustrator, this can be changed by selecting (either with the Selection tool or byhighlighting with the cursor) and applying a change using various palettes. The Color palette and Fill
and Stroke boxes can be used on your text just like on any other object.The most important typography features are found in the Character and Paragraph palettes (Window> Type > Character, Window > Type > Paragraph). The Character palette gives you all of your fontface, font size, and spacing choices. The Paragraph palette handles the alignment and justification oflines.Figure 3.25. This text has a fill as well as a stroke, and its letterspacing is set to 50 to pull it close together.Figure 3.26. This line uses the default letterspacing, but the word Up! has a baseline value of 10.Figure 3.27. These lines of text are centered in the Paragraph palette. For some breathing room, the line spacing was set to be much larger between the heading and the first item, and closer between the four menu items.
THE SPECIAL TYPE TOOLSIf you click and hold the Type Tool button in the toolbox, youll see a series of useful (and a few not-so-useful) special type tools:The Area Type tool is easy to use. First create a shape in Illustrator as you normally would, andselect it. Then, with your Area Type tool, click in the upper left of the shape. (Try to click directly onthe path; otherwise, you may get an error message.) Any text that you type will be formatted to fitinside the shape. Use the Justify All Lines button on your Paragraph palette so the text flows to bothedges of the shape. The Vertical Area Type tool is just as simple, but the results usually arentvery readableso this tool should generally be avoided. Figure 3.28. Go ahead, type a few lines in any closed shape or path.
The Type on a Path tool can be a little trickier at first, but its one of the most useful of the specialtype tools. First, create a path that youd like your text to follow, like a curved line, using anydrawing tool such as the Pen, Line, or Pencil. Make sure that this path is not an important part ofyour artwork it will disappear after you enter your text. Click with your Type on a Path tool directlyover the path or shape (if you get an error, keep trying to click right on the path)when the cursorappears, you can begin typing. The Vertical Type on a Path tool works in the same way, but just likethe Vertical Area Type tool, the effect isnt always very readable or attractive. Figure 3.29. If you need to move your type elsewhere along a path, usethe Selection tool and drag the bottom of the I-beam that appears at the beginning of the text.CONVERTING TO OUTLINESIf youd like to give your text some other effects, like a gradient fill, for example, youll need toconvert your text to outlines. This means that the wording will no longer be editable (so check yourspelling first!), but each letter will become a shape made of paths that can be edited just like anyother Illustrator object. To convert to outlines, select your text with the Selection tool and go to Type> Create Outlines. Each letter will be its own shape, and the letters will be grouped together. If youneed to work with the letters individually, you can ungroup them (Object > Ungroup).TransformationWhile weve been drawing, a heretofore hidden palette has been silently going about its business oftracking movements and displaying information about the tools weve been using and the objects
weve been selecting.THE INFO PALETTEThis surreptitious palette is none other than the Info palette (Window > Info). It provides x, ycoordinates for the currently selected tool, color values of objects, width and height values of shapesand paths, font information for text tools, angles of rotation, and other useful feedback. I mentionthis palette now because it will come in handy when working with various transformation tools andcommands that follow. Figure 3.30. Now thats a lot of info!ROTATE, REFLECT, AND TWISTThe Rotate tool may seem an odd thing to talk about since you already know how to rotate usingthe bounding box. The beauty of the Rotate tool is that it lets you rotate an object around any pointyou define. To see this, turn on the Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides), draw a circle on theArtboard, and then draw a couple of small stars close together nearby. Next, group the stars (Object> Group), keep them selected, and then click the Rotate tool. Position the crosshairs cursor over thecenter point of the circle and click. This defines the origin point for rotation. As you click, thecrosshairs become a black arrow. If you click and drag with the black arrow, the stars now rotatearound the center point of the circle. Notice that as you rotate the stars, the angle information in theInfo palette updates. When you release the mouse, the crosshairs cursor appears again since the toolis still active. Figure 3.31. You can move objects around any origin point you define using the Rotate tool.
Hold down the Alt/Option key and click again on the circles center point. The options dialog for theRotate tool appears. In it, you can enter values to set the rotation angle. Enter a value of 25 and,instead of clicking OK, click the Copy button. Figure 3.32. Defy your instinct and click Copy instead of OK to place a rotated copy of an object.Press Ctrl+D/Command+D to repeat the last action. If you continue to press Ctrl+D/Command+D,copies of the stars eventually will appear at 25-degree angles all around the circles center point.Rather nifty!Figure 3.33. I needed to create an animation based on this graphic with aneedle moving around a gauge. All I had to do was select the needle and then set its rotation origin with the Rotate tool to make it happen.
To demonstrate the Reflect tool, draw an arc (using the Arc tool) on the Artboard. When finished,double-click the Reflect tool found within the Rotate tool fly-out menu. The Reflect options dialogappears with a choice of axes to reflect against (Horizontal, Vertical, or user-defined Angle). SelectHorizontal and click Copy. A reversed copy of the arc is created across the horizontal axis of theoriginal arc. The axis for an object originates from its center point.Delete the copy of the arc, and select the original so that we can reflect an object with the mouserather than via a dialog box. Click once on the Reflect tool (note the crosshairs cursor), and click justto the right of the arc. Press the Shift key and click a little below where you just clicked. The arcreflects across the vertical axis we defined.To make a copy of the arc across the axis, press both the Shift and Alt/Option keys before you click asecond time. In this demonstration, the Shift key is used to constrain our axis to a straight line.Because an axis can be defined at any angle you choose, it is not always necessary to use Shift key.Figure 3.34. If you want the object you draw to be symmetrical, you onlyneed to draw one side, like I did with the shield shape here. Then use theReflect tool to make a copy for the other side. Join the paths together to form a closed object to accept a fill.
SCALING AND SHEARINGThe Scale tool is useful for the precise resizing of shapes when used in conjunction with the toolsoptions. To use it, select the object you want to scale, and then double-click the Scale tool to displaythe options dialog. Here, you can enter a percentage value for uniform scaling, or an amount to scalethe object horizontally or vertically. The Scale Strokes and Effects option, if checked, will increase thewidth of the stroke. For instance, if you scale a path segment with a 1-point stroke to 200 percent,not only will the object double in size, but the width of the stroke will also increase to 2 points. Effectsapplied from the Effect menu, such as glows and drop shadows, will also increase in size when thisoption is checked.The behavior of this tool when using the mouse instead of numeric values is similar to that of resizingan object using the Selection tool and the bounding box. To scale with the mouse, select an objectand click the Scale tool. For uniform scaling, click and drag out at a 45-degree angle while holding theShift key. For horizontal scaling, drag the mouse horizontally while holding Shift . Drag verticallywhile holding Shift for vertical scaling. Other than constraining scaling movements, its not necessaryto hold down the Shift key when dragging.To demonstrate the Shear tool, select the Spiral tool and draw a spiral on the Artboard. With thespiral selected, click the Shear tool, hold the Shift key to gain a modicum of control over this erratictool, and then click and drag. If you drag along a horizontal axis, the spiral shape will slant or skewitself along this line. If you drag along a vertical axis or any other angle, the shape slants along thatline. By default, the Shear tool sets the center of an object as its origin point. The origin pointdictates where the slant will begin. Figure 3.35. Put a new slant on your designs with the Shear tool.
For those who dont have the patience for such "toolish" nonsense, your best option is to use theShear options dialog. By doing so, you can enter numeric values for precise control over your shear(or slant or skewpick one!). As with most tools, you double-click this one to display its options. Setthe value of the Shear Angle, choose an axis (Horizontal, Vertical, or user-defined Angle), and makea copy of the sheared shape from this dialog box. Clicking the Copy button instead of OK, and thenrepeating the command by pressing Ctrl+D/Command+D again and again, can quickly lead to chaos!Enjoy it. Figure 3.36. Gain more control with the Shear tool options dialog.THE FREE TRANSFORM TOOLThe Free Transform tool is the Swiss army knife of transformation tools. This one tool can resize,
shear, rotate, and distort objects. Unleashing its full potential requires the use of modifier keys suchas Shift, Alt/Option, and Ctrl/Command. Figure 3.37. The billboard and the box images in this illustration by Leo Espinoza were distorted to great effect. When you need quick and dirty perspective angles, Free Transform is the tool to use.Since weve yet to use a rounded rectangle for demonstration purposes, draw one on the ArtboardtheRounded Rectangle tool is found in the Rectangle tool fly-out. To use the Free Transform tool, youmust first select the rounded rectangle with the Selection tool, and then click the Free Transform tool.There are no visual clues that the Free Transform tool is active, other than the Info palette displayingsome new information.To resize or rotate the rounded rectangle, you use the tool in the same way you use the Selectiontool and an objects bounding box. Click and drag a handle to resize, or click near a point to rotate.Lets move beyond these basic functions and distort the rounded rectangle with the tool.Click and drag a bounding box corner. As you drag, hold the Ctrl/Command key. Notice that it affectsonly that corner of the object. Figure 3.38. Object distortion using the Free Transform tool.
Now press the Shift key along with what youre doing. This constrains the distortion to the horizontaland vertical axis. Press a third keyAlt/Optionsimultaneously to have an adjacent corner mimic themovements of your selected corner point. To shear the object, release the Shift key but continue tohold the Ctrl/Command and Alt/Option keys while you drag. You can achieve a variety of distortioneffects by using practically any number of modifier keys while selecting any of the bounding boxpoints. The key is to click and drag first, and then use the modifier keys. Figure 3.39. Use the magic of Free Transform to create swanky boxes.THE TRANSFORM PALETTEMany of the functions found in the Free Transform tool can be found and modified numerically in theTransform palette (Window > Transform). As a reminder, an object must first be selected in order forthis palette or any palette or tool to have an effect. Figure 3.40. The Transform palette.
By entering values in the input boxes, you can move an object along the x- or y- axis, alter its widthor height, rotate it to any angle, and shear it to any angle. When a project calls for precision, this isthe palette to have on hand.The Transform palette features a miniature representation of a bounding box that surrounds aselected object. Select a point on the bounding box icon from which to originate changes. Forinstance, if you select the lower-left point of the bounding box icon and then set a rotation angle, theobject youre modifying will rotate around its lower-left bounding box point. The Transform palettesoption menu provides additional functionality. From this menu, you can choose to reflect an objectalong a horizontal or vertical axis and check the Scale Strokes and Effects option rather thanaccessing this function through the Scale tools options box.TransparencyTransparency is simply the ability to see through an object. When designers talk transparency, theyoften use the word opacity. Opacity is the level of transparency you give to an object. Figure 3.41. The blue windows low opacity lets you see through to the yellow shape below.
To use opacity, select any object under the Illustrator sunan object already sitting on your Artboardwill do just fine. Open the Transparency palette (Window > Transparency) and enter a value from 1to 100 in the Opacity box, or drag the slider that appears when you click the right-facing arrow onthe Opacity box. The lower the value, the more you can see through the object. Objects are said tobe opaque if the value is set to 100 percent. To be absolutely certain this is working, turn on theTransparency Grid (View > Show Transparency Grid). The grid should be visible through any objectwith an opacity level other than 100. To change the size or color of the grid squares, choose File >Document Setup and choose the Transparency option from the drop-down list. Figure 3.42. The lower the opacity, the more you can see through an object.You can modify settings for the Transparency Grid by choosing File > Document Setup from themenu barselect Transparency from the drop-down menu. These settings are document-specific, sodont expect to see your changes reflected elsewhere.Other than the grid, you can use the Appearance palette (Window > Appearance) to determinewhether your object uses transparency. If an object has an opacity level of 50 percent, an attributein the palette will say Opacity: 50%. If opaque, it will read as Default Transparency. This palette willalso display which blending mode an object uses. Figure 3.43. This photo-realistic piece by designer Brooke Nuñezincorporates transparency settings in the sky and the face, in addition to exhibiting many other endearing qualities.
Since were in learning mode, turn on all options for the Transparency palette by choosing ShowOptions from the palettes fly-out menu.Note that if you stack multiple objects with transparency, they will gradually become more opaquewhere they overlap, because transparency is a cumula-tive effect.KNOCKOUT GROUPSContrary to ones initial thoughts, knockout groups have absolutely nothing to do with a gaggle ofrogue boxers roaming the streets wild and free. Rather, knockout groups serve a fundamental needin the world of transparency by preventing overlapping objects from applying their opacity levels toeach other. Confused?When you stack semiopaque objects, they become more opaque. Many times, this cumulative resultis not desirable, such as when youve created semitransparent shadows that overlap. In real life,shadows wouldnt become more opaquetheyd just blend together. Figure 3.44. The shadows for the silver balls and the lines connecting them have the same opacity setting, 50 percent. Notice the clear distinction between shadows. This is caused by one 50 percent shadowbeing on top of another 50 percent shadow. From a design standpoint, it just wont doknockout groups to the rescue.
When this problem crops up, just select the separate objects and group them (Object > Group). Asyou do this, the objects miraculously merge to eliminate the cumulative transparency. If you want togo back, uncheck the Knockout Group option in the Transparency palette.Special Effects and FiltersPicture this scenario: Youve got an outlandish vision for your next illustration, but you cant quitefigure out how youre going to draw everything you want using Illustrators basic tools and features.Illustrators special effects and distortion filters can lend a hand. These workhorse features alter yourdesigns to give them an eye-catching complexity that your trusty drawing tools just cannot achieve(or not quickly enough, at any rate).If you remember only one thing about this topic, remember this: Filters are final, effects are not. Itisnt that filters are bad, theyre just not as flexible as effects.You can apply a whole range of effects to an object (as youll see), and then save the file, lapse into acoma for years on end, open up the same file in Illustrator, and remove the effectsand the basicshape you began with will still be intact. If you were to apply filters to the same object, you wouldemerge from your coma to find that youre stuck with the pink drop shadow, the plastic wrap fill, andedges roughened by the Roughen filter.What follows is a look at some of the filters and effects you can apply to objects. You are highlyencouraged to experiment with them and others, keeping in mind that filters and effects require youto first select the object before you can apply them.FILTERSGot some bitmap art around, like a photo? Open it in Illustrator and go to Filter > Create > ObjectMosaic. It converts the color values in a bitmap image to vector mosaic tiles, similar to a stainedglass window. Control tile size, spacing, and number of tiles with the filters options. Additionaloptions constrain the width and height ratio, output the result in color or grayscale, and let you keepthe bitmap image visible with the result or delete it.
Figure 3.45. A photo of fish becomes an abstract design with the Object Mosaic filter.Filter > Create > Trim Marks places tiny marks around artwork to serve as guides for trimming orcutting after printing. It uses the dimensions of the bounding box around selected artwork. If youwork in print design, youll find this handy.A wide range of Distort and Stylize filters are found in your Filter menu, and these do some prettycool things to your art such as give it a shadow or pucker the shape inward. But hold your horsestheEffect menu has many of the same ones, so well look at them when we get to effects.The remaining filters below the last divider line on the Filter menu (and the Effect menu) areborrowed from Adobe Photoshop. They are quite extensive, and because they are primarily raster-based filters, I will not discuss them here. If you use them in your work, I would advise using onlythe ones in the Effect menu so you can go back later to make changes. Feel free to experiment withthem, though.EFFECTSNote that most of the effects described below will not work in CMYK mode. If you need CMYK mode,such as for a print project, start out your artwork in RGB when you create the document. Apply theeffect you want, and then change the documents color mode to CMYK (File > Document ColorMode).Effects are cumulative. For example, if you apply the Drop Shadow effect to an object over and over,the shadow gets progressively darker. To remove any of the effects from an object, choose Window> Appearance to display the Appearance palette. Select the guilty effect and click the trash can iconat the bottom of the palette.
Effect > Convert to Shape gives objects the effect of having the shape of a Rectangle, RoundedRectangle, or Ellipse. In the Shape Options dialog (common to all three shapes), set Relative orAbsolute width and height and adjust the corner radius (for Rounded Rectangle).To give your shapes pointy spikes or rounded bulges, choose Effect > Distort and Transform > Puckerand Bloat. Pucker is great for creating interesting stars, while Bloat is useful for creating floweryshapes.Figure 3.46. Boring squares become much more exciting with the Pucker (left) and Bloat (right) effects.Effect > Distort and Transform > Roughen/Scribble loosens paths to give an almost hand-drawn feelto them. With some of the settings on Roughen, you can create both jagged and smooth paths.Figure 3.47. Try out the whole range of Roughen settings for a variety of results.The Transform effect under Effect > Distort and Transform has many of the same features youd findwithin the Transform palette, such as sliders and value boxes to control scale, rotation, size, andhorizontal and vertical movement. Some of the controls are limited. What makes this effect special,though, is when you start playing around with the Copies and Random options. Select an object onthe Artboard, choose this effect, check the Preview option, and start entering some values and
moving sliders. You can get some really interesting effects by doing so. Figure 3.48. Letting Illustrator create random transformations can yield some wild designs.Enough with the twisting and twirling commands! There are no fewer than four commands inIllustrator to do such a thing, like Effect > Distort and Transform > Twist. If youve tried the Twisttool in the toolbox, youre 99.9 percent of the way there with this effect. However, because its aneffect, remember that you can always go back to the original shape.For an instant wavy line, try Effect > Distort and Transform > Zig Zag. Draw a straight line, choosethis filter, and uncheck the Preview box. Next, adjust the Ridges per segment slider, and then selectSmooth from the Points section. Figure 3.49. Instant wavy line!The Effect > Rasterize command is similar to the Rasterize command found within the Object menu,and turns your vector art into a bitmap. But, as an effect, it will not do permanent damage.Remember that youre changing the appearance attributes of an object, not the object itself.
Add Arrowheads, found under Effect > Stylize, is useful for adding not just arrowheads, but alsoarrow tails to an open or closed path. Use Object > Expand Appearance (plus a few Ungroupcommands) to work with the individual heads or tails.Figure 3.50. The Add Arrowheads effect has plenty of different heads and tails to choose from.The series of Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow/Feather/Inner Glow/Outer Glow adds soft (or hard)effects borrowed from the pixel world. The end result, however, is in fact a raster-based (bitmapped)effect added to an object, since the results still scale up and down without any loss in quality. Theseeffects are good to have around the house, so to speak. The Feather effect is useful for creating ablurred look to hard-edged vector objects.Figure 3.51. Drop shadow and other raster-based effects are shown here.
Need to emulate the rounded corners on a road sign or make a pointy star look friendly? Effect >Stylize > Round Corners will tackle those tasks with no effort. Setting the radius of the corners is theonly option you get with this no-frills effect. Figure 3.52. A simple effect with lots of uses.So now youre armed with all sorts of methods for distorting simple and complex objects. Use thesetechniques in moderation, so as to enhance your creations rather than overpowering them. I know Ican trust you!
Outdoor Advertising ProjectUsing type in a design can be just a simple way to communicate information, or an art form in itself.Illustrator provides the tools, type designers supply the typeface designs, but its up to you to createdynamic and appropriate typography that communicates the message. Figure 3.53. This project takes your Illustrator skills citywide!In this project, youll create an advertisement that wraps an entire city bus. In this moving medium,youll need to think about how to make your text readable and stand out. Youll also need to use colorand imagery to add life to the ad and make it eye-catching on the street.Project Brief: Bean MountainA regional ad agency wants to make use of the areas extensive public transportation system topromote its newest client: a national coffee shop chain called Bean Mountain thats recently expandedinto your city.Your task is to create a colorful, stylized design to market the brand for placement on the citysbuses. You will need to use the bus template provided below. To spur your ideas, think about thesample company name, slogan, and campaign copy below. You may include any of these copyelements in your design, or create your own. Name: Bean Mountain Slogan: Climb the cup to a higher taste Copy: Coffee drinker at the peak fitnessI place no stylistic demands on you for this project, except that you must design something
appropriate for this type of client and product. I would, however, like to see you make use of thevarious typographic features you learned in this chapter. Dont cram them all into one design, butthink about how a creative type treatment might call attention to the message.As youre learning the basics of vector art, you are strongly encouraged to create your imagesentirely within Illustrator. If you use any bitmap imagery, please limit its use to no more than 25percent of the overall design.For ideas and inspiration, visit the Web sites of local and national coffee companies. Researching thecompany or product category is the first step in any design project.Project Summary STUDIO SESSIONS www.studiosessions.net/portfolio Post this chapters project online for feedback from professional designers. access code: STUDIOp Brainstorm and sketch advertising design ideas. Use Illustrators typography tools to set the copy for the ad. Create a design that draws attention to the advertising copy.1. Downloading and Using the TemplateGo to the online download site to access the bus template. The bus template file contains two layers:the Bus Frame layer (which contains a locked outline of the bus) and the Bus Clipping Mask layer.You can see them in your Layers palette (Window > Layers).Read the steps below carefully so you understand how to use the clipping mask layer and avoid anyunnecessary extra work.The Bus Clipping Mask layer contains a light gray bus shape that represents the surface in which youwill design. Hide this layer as you create your artwork by clicking the eye icon next to the layer name(clicking it again will show the artwork). Once you finalize your design, you will use the gray busclipping mask.A clipping mask is a shape that can hold other shapes within its boundaries or outline, like a pictureframe. Dont worry about fitting everything within the design areathe excess will be hidden by the
mask at the end of the project.Figure 3.54. Any artwork that is outside the bus area will be hidden when the mask is applied at the end of this project.2. Brainstorming Your Bus DesignLets step aside from Illustrator for a moment to visualize the design. The coffee company is calledBean Mountain, so you might consider a literal approach, using drawings of coffee beans ormountains. Coffee beans are so irregularly shaped that you could draw them freehand prettyeffectively with the Pencil tool, even if youre not a confident illustrator. Mountains are just triangles,right? Polygon tool!For something less literal (and more abstract), think about what colors and shapes remind you ofcoffee. Peppy, bright colors and stars representing all that caffeine energy? Soothing colors and wavylines to connote a delicious aroma wafting in the air? Consider the tools and effects you could use tomake these ideas come alive, such as the Zig Zag effect.Next, think about the typography youll need to apply to the bus. What text should be the biggest?What font would be readable at a distance but indicative of the product? Consider whether youd liketo apply the text to a special shape or path, or leave it straight, and where you would like to place itin relation to your graphic ideas.You may even want to do a few sketches on paper before you begin.
3. Creating the Bus GraphicsClick the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and drag the new layer so that itsits below the two other layers. Make sure your new layer and the Bus Frame layer are both visibleand the Bus Clipping Mask layer is hidden. Figure 3.55. Layers start here.Now you can begin designing on your new, bottommost layer. The bus outline on the Bus Framelayer will help guide your placement of objects and text, but remember that you can let your art"bleed" beyond the bus since the excess will be cut off later.Use your drawing tools to create the imagery you planned for your bus designs. You can be asdetailed or abstract as you like, as long as it supports the goal of the advertisement. Keep these tipsin mind as you work: Use Object > Arrange to modify the stacking order of your objects as needed. If you cant get the exact shape you want from a shape tool, try applying an effect from the Effect > Distort and Transform menu. Dont underestimate the power of freehand drawing with the Pencil tool you may surprise yourself. Use the Stroke palette to apply thick strokes, dashed lines, and other special outline features. Try an interesting look by purposely making a large shape bleed off the edge of the bus shape. Group (Object > Group) selected objects in your design so that youre able to move them or scale them as a single entity. Just ungroup them if you want to edit them separately again.4. Adding the TypographyNext up is the all-important task of setting type for the ad. Using the copy supplied above (or yourown), set the typography on your design.
If youd like to use type on a path or inside a shape youve drawn, youll need to draw that first.When your path or shape is ready, choose the appropriate special type tool (Type on a Path toolor Area Type tool ), click the path or shape, and enter your text.You might be wondering how you can have type run along one of the graphics youve created already(like around the side of a coffee bean or along a mountain) without removing your graphic when youstart typing. Heres what youll want to do: Select the graphic and copy it, then use the Paste in Frontcommand to put a copy right on top of your original. Then use the special type tool of your choice toinput the typethe copy will disappear, but the original will stay underneath.With your type in place, consider adding fill and stroke colors that will help the text stand out fromyour design as well as integrate with it for a cohesive look.5. Applying the Clipping MaskWith your designs in place, its time to put on the mask we talked about earlier and hide the excessspace that surrounds the bus shape. Zorro, look out!Make sure that your Bus Clipping Mask is above any layers that you have created artwork on (andbelow the Bus Frame layer). Make the Bus Clipping Mask layer visible, and unlock it by clicking thelock icon next to its name.At first, this will obscure your artwork below. This is only temporary; it will return to normal once wecreate the clipping mask.The next step is to select all the artwork and the clipping mask shape together. Do this by holdingdown the Shift key as you click the hollow circle on the artwork layer(s) and the Bus Clipping Masklayer. As you do this, the hollow circles become double circles, indicating that the artwork on thoselayers is selected. Figure 3.56. Hold Shift and click the circle on your artwork layers and your Bus Clipping Mask layer to select all the objects on each layer.The final step is to choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make. This will cause your artwork to be maskedinside the bus shape or bus mask.Youll notice that any part of your design appearing over the windows shows up differently than on
the rest of the bus. This is to simulate light showing through from the other side of the bus and givesthe design a more real-world look.Student WorkWhat have other designers done with this bus advertisement project? Here are some work samplesfrom Sessions.edu students: Figure 3.57. Jeff Weiner used gradients, type on a path, drawings of cups, and even a spill to cover his bus in the warm feeling of coffee. Figure 3.58. Patricia Baumberger drew a coffee bean design that she copied, pasted, and transformed many times to cover the bus, and applied a variety of text effects.Figure 3.59. Using thick black strokes, lots of repeated coffee beans, and type on a path, Stephanie Adams created a bus design as bold as the coffee it advertises.
Chapter 4. Digital ImagingDigital imaging is tough to nail down. One minute its an abstract, futuristic-looking art piece on acompany brochure, and the next its a soft drink ad depicting a penguin in the Sahara. Real orsurreal, literal or abstract, digital imaging is all about creativity and communication.The fact is that with todays digital imaging toolsand some experienceyou can produce any artisticconcept that pops into your head. You have all the creative freedom in the world. But dont goPhotoshop-crazy just yet. When you take on a professional graphic design project, your creativeideas and digital imaging expertise have a single goal: communicating the clients message.As we explore a wide range of digital imaging techniques in this chapter, from photo touch-ups torealistic scenes created from scratch, consider the images you see every day on packages, inmagazines, and on billboards. What do they communicate to the audience? How have retouching andother artistic techniques helped get those messages across? COURSE DEVELOPER: MATT KLOSKOWSKI This lesson was developed by Adobe Certified Expert Matt Kloskowski, author of Extreme Photoshop, Illustrator Most Wanted, and other books on design. Figure 4.1. Would you believe this image created by famous artist Bert Monroy is not a photo? This wow-inducer was painted from scratch in Photoshop.
In this chapter you will: Learn to use the Healing Brush tool and Patch tool to retouch blemishes in photographs. Learn to use the Color Replacement tool to change the hue of an area of a photo. Apply a Shadow/Highlight adjustment to quickly repair lighting problems in a photo. Learn to use Levels and Curves for precision lighting and color correction. Learn to use a variety of Filters to create abstract artwork and modify its properties. Explore the settings available in the advanced Brushes palette. Learn to create and save custom brushes. Create a photo-realistic image using custom brushes.
Communicating with Digital ImagingIf youre a digital artist creating art for arts sake, the world is your oysteryour work cancommunicate anything your heart desires, or nothing at all. For graphic design professionals,however, digital imaging has a very specific job to do. That job is to make images that look great andcommunicate. Sometimes you wont notice that any digital imaging work was done at all, which isquite a compliment to the designer. Other times, youll be knocked out by the unmistakableapplication of digital imaging techniques.The first category is the retouching and correction of original photographs, an important skill fordesigners in the publishing world. Such work can be as simple as making the sky more blue in avacation ad or as extreme as lengthening the legs on a supermodel for a fashion cover. Designers goto town on model shots, performing such subtle tasks as slimming the waist, coloring the lips,enlarging the eyes, and correcting skin imperfections.Even outside the world of glossy magazines, most photos that are published are first retouched andcorrected, with the goal of removing features or blemishes that would distract the viewer or make aperson or product seem less than ideal. These techniques also help designers and photographers outof some tough jams, such as when the lighting or weather on a photo shoot isnt ideal. Why reshootwhen you can retouch?Digital imaging also affords the designer the ability to make a surreal concept a reality that grabsviewers attention and sticks in the memory. Lets say a pet food company asks you to design anupcoming campaign for a new cat chow that makes cats feel younger and more playful. You instantlypicture dozens of kitties at the amusement park riding the coasters and bumper cars. Its not asituation that a photographer could ever hope to capture. With a handful of photographs and somedigital imaging prowess, though, you could certainly make a scene that was convincing andmemorableand a moneymaker for the client. Figure 4.2. Retouching is a common tactic in digital imaging. In this image, created by photographer Ken Milburn, the car and background were separate photos that were enhanced, then combined to make a finished scene.
Where Do You Draw the Line?Every designer must ask himself this question when embarking on a digital imaging project. Sincethere are no limits to what you can do to an original photograph, some ethical concerns are raised.Digital imaging can be so realistic and convincing that it can be misleading. How perfect should youmake that cover girl? Is it OK to put that guys head on this other guys body?The answer to these questions depends on the medium. In the news media, for example, only minorcorrections to color and lighting that help balance an image are permitted. Newsweek and TV Guidehave both been in hot water over cover designs that included one persons head on anothers body,leading readers to believe that the images were actual photos. In fashion magazines, where readersexpect the ideal, heavier retouching is more acceptable.In advertising and packaging, color and lighting corrections are used to make product imagesappealing but attainable. In a hamburger ad, for example, the lettuce and tomato might be touchedup so that they appear more vibrant and appetizing, and reflections on the meat highlighted so that itseems extra juicy.Creating a scene that is patently not real can also be acceptable. If floating that same hamburger inspace or placing it on top of Mount Everest through digital imaging helps communicate a specificmessage, theres nothing stopping you. Viewers will understand that it is an unrealistic situationmade to look convincingjust like the cats in the bumper carsand will not feel misled.What all the above scenarios have in common is the use of photography as source material. Mostdigital imaging assignments begin with photographs, obtained from photographers or stock
photography sources. But it should be noted that photographs are by no means a requirement, asskilled Photoshop pros are able to create abstract and photo-realistic art from scratch. These pieces,formed with brushes, filters, and other tools, present an alternative when photos simply wontachieve the objective. The challenge of creating them helps keep digital imaging experts at the top oftheir game. Figure 4.3. With a blank slate and plenty of Photoshop expertise, Colin Smith painted this realistic, detailed guitar.
Image RetouchingBecause a photographic image is rarely perfect, Photoshop offers many tools for retouching andcorrecting images. Retouching deals with fixing or touching up the small details in an image. Thesetasks can range from something as simple as removing red-eye to something as complicated assmoothing wrinkles. Some may see this as cheating, but youre really just trying to enhance aphotograph so that it looks its best.I once heard Photoshop guru Scott Kelby speak about this issue at the Photoshop World convention.An audience member asked him how ethical it was to manipulate reality and change someonesappearance for the better. Scotts answer was interesting: He said that the purpose of retouchingwas to make a photograph look as good as real life.When youre talking to a friend, so much is happening that you may not notice that he has a smallblemish on his face or a feature that is just a bit off. But when youre looking at a photograph of him,you have nothing else to concentrate on but the photograph itself. Because a still image is a momentfrozen in time, youre much more likely to pick up on any problems. Thats a great way to think aboutimage retouching.So, with no further ado, lets jump right in and take a look at some of the image-retouching tools inPhotoshop.The Healing BrushThe Healing Brush tool allows you to cover up blemishes, wrinkles, scratches, or image damage. Itworks similarly to the Clone Stamp tool in that you sample from one area of an image by Alt-clicking/Option-clicking a source area and then paint on another area where youd like to cover upblemishes. The way it works is by sampling the color, texture, transparency, and luminosity of thesource area separately. Then, when painting, Photoshop merges the values of the sampled area withthose of the target area.If you choose the Healing Brush tool, youll notice the Options bar changes to display a few settingsspecific to the selected tool. As with other brushes in Photoshop, you can change the Mode in whichthe brush paints. Figure 4.4. Like other brushes, a Mode menu is available in the Options bar.
The next group is the Source settings. Choose Sampled to use the pixels from the current image inwhich youre working. Choose Pattern to repair the sampled area with pixels from a pattern. Thepattern can be selected from the drop-down list next to the check box. Another key setting is the UseAll Layers check box on the right. It instructs Photoshop to use all layers when sampling or to useonly the active layer. Figure 4.5. Choose whether you want to sample all layers or just the active one before you start using the Healing Brush.Note that its best to work with small areas at a time. A general rule of thumb is to sample often.Even slight changes in texture and lighting values in the source image can wreak havoc on yourhealing abilities, so youll want to make sure youre always sampling from an appropriate source.Figure 4.6. Various creases appear when a subject smiles, but well make them less severe with some retouching. The forehead creases will be smoothed with the Healing Brush tool, and then well use the Patch tool on the ones around the eyes.
Political tip: When retouching photographs of your friends and family, never let them know thatyouve used the Healing Brush on them. As you can imagine, its really not a compliment, and theydbe better off just thinking that they had a really good day at the time the photograph was taken. tip Duplicate the layer and use the Healing Brush tool on the top layer so that you can reduce the layers transparency and soften the effects without affecting the original. Figure 4.7. A small area of the skin is sampled (left), then painted over the wrinkle (right) to smooth it out.
The Patch ToolThe Patch tool is similar to the Healing Brush tool in both the applications for which its useful andin the results that it produces. It works by repairing a selected area of an image with pixels fromanother area (or pattern).Figure 4.8. An area to patch is selected (left); the selection is placed overan area of smoother texture (middle); and the finished area takes on that texture.A handy feature of the Patch tool is that it gives you a preview of what effect will be applied to thetarget area. This happens after you first select the area to be repaired. Youll notice that as yousearch the image for a sample to repair from, the selected area will display the sample so you cansee how they match. note The Patch tool works only on the current layer. It doesnt offer the Use All Layers setting that the Healing Brush tool does, so be careful.To use the Patch tool, select an area to be repaired in the same way you select with the Lasso tool.Once you have selected a source area, position your cursor within the selection and begin to dragaround the image to look for an area to sample from. Again, just like the Healing Brush, the Patchtool will try to match the color, texture, transparency, and luminosity of the sampled area with thesource selection.When youve found a suitable source to sample from, release the mouse button and Photoshop will
do the rest. Figure 4.9. The creases are now much softer (right), thanks to the Healing Brush and Patch tools, without being unrealistically smooth.The Color Replacement ToolThe Color Replacement tool is similar to a regular Photoshop brush except that it does notoverwrite all of the data on your image. Instead it manipulates the color on your image whileretaining the image detail (texture, transparency, and luminosity).Because the Color Replacement tool functions as a brush, it can be applied with more precision thansome other color replacement functions in Photoshop. Also, because the Color Replacement toolperforms image analysis on the fly, it saves you the step of extracting a particular area from yourimage before applying color changes.Figure 4.10. The client wants a blush wine in the ad, and youve only gotBulgarian chardonnay? Not much you can do about the taste, but you can easily change the color.
That said, the Color Replacement tool is extremely easy to use. Once its selected, youll see varioussettings in the Options bar, like Tolerance, which you should be familiar with from other tools. Figure 4.11. Familiar options for the Color Replacement tool. [View full size image] Figure 4.12. Notice how the rabbit is affected by each individual Mode and the sample color.
The Mode settings determine the ways in which the Color Replacement tool can be applied: Color Uses the currently selected foreground color to apply color to your image. It replaces the hue and saturation but preserves the luminosity of the source image. Hue This option keeps the luminosity and saturation settings of the original image but replaces the original hue with the foreground color. Saturation Adjusts the saturation of the image to match that of the foreground color. Luminosity As you can probably guess, this option manipulates the luminosity (or brightness) of the source image to match that of the foreground color. However, the hue and saturation of the original will be preserved.
Image CorrectionImage correction is different from retouching in that it concentrates on repairing portions of an imagethat should be different. Color casts, strong shadows, washed-out highlights, overexposure, andunderexposure are all great examples of issues that might need corrected.Shadow/Highlight AdjustmentHave you ever taken a photograph thats too dark or too light in certain areas? Ill bet you have. Ifso, the Shadow/Highlight adjustment, a recent addition to Photoshop, may be just what yourelooking for. Used alone or in combination with other tools in Photoshop, the Shadow/Highlightadjustment has the ability to quickly transform your photographs into balanced, higher-qualityimages.In my example photo, the little girl is hidden in the shadows. Due to the large amount of light in thebackground, the foreground was not exposed correctly.Figure 4.13. Harsh backlighting hid the subject in shadow, but we can fix this with image correction techniques.
To fix this, I go to Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight. The dialog box presents many options.(If yours doesnt, check the Show More Options check box at the bottom of the dialog box.) Often,the default settings work just fine. If not, note that the dialog box conveniently categorizes areas ofadjustment such as Shadows. Experiment with these settings if you feel your photograph needs morework than the default. Remember to keep Preview checked so you can see the results as you adjustthe sliders. Figure 4.14. Check Show More Options in the Shadow/Highlight dialog box to see the full range.
The Shadow/Highlight adjustment works well in many cases. However, as youll see in this lesson,other tools can work similar magic on your image and allow you more detailed control over thesettings. Youll have to decide which is better by experimenting, as the various tools each work wellin certain circumstances. Figure 4.15. Looks much better, dont you think?
Adjusting with LevelsThe Levels adjustment is the simpler of the two advanced color and lighting correction tools inPhotoshop. It can be used for many things, but one of the most useful is extending the range oftones and colors already in an image. For example, photographs are often taken in situations wherethere is not enough light or too much of it. The Levels adjustment can redistribute the colorinformation in the image to a more ideal range.One of the nice features of the Levels adjustment is that opening the dialog box itself (Image >Adjustments > Levels) provides information about the image; you dont even have to do anythingelse. Go ahead and try it. Open a photograph that youre not happy with, or use my samplephotograph from the online download site. Figure 4.16. Dark photos are usually more salvageable than they look!
Choose Image > Adjustment > Levels. In this example, you can immediately see on each end of thegraph that the grayscale values of the image dont extend to the full width of the possible range.Youll notice the graph is flat on both ends. You can immediately see that the left side (blacks) isheavily weighted with one large spike. However, the right side (whites) is not. Figure 4.17. The Levels histogram shows you the distribution of grayscale values and lets you modify them precisely.To reduce the tonal range of the photograph to a more ideal range, drag the middle slider toward the
left where the histogram begins to climb. This will force those shades of black to lighter values whilestill retaining the lighter tones on the right side of the histogram. Figure 4.18. Each sliderblack, gray, and whitecan be moved to even out the tonal range.The Levels adjustment should be one of the first tools you choose when embarking on a colorcorrection project. It can quickly help you fix overexposure or underexposure and many other relatedproblems. However, keep reading, because youll need to know where to turn when Levels doesntwork or doesnt do enough.Curves AdjustmentThe Curves adjustment allows us much more detailed control than Levels, as we can more preciselyrestrict our adjustments to certain ranges within the image. We also have more points available inwhich to adjust the tonal range of the image. Instead of just the three points that we have withLevels, we have 14 possible points with which to adjust.In the Curves dialog box, we can strategically enhance an image. To see how, start with a fresh copyof the image you used to try out the Levels adjustments. When we applied a Levels adjustment onthe photo, we ended up washing out the overall scene in our attempt to brighten the dark areas.
Figure 4.19. Levels helped brighten the dark areas, but they also brightened the entire scene more than we needed.By moving the sliders from the left to the right in the Levels adjustment, were brightening all colorsin between, even if they were already fine. This is where we can turn to a Curves adjustment.Press Ctrl+M/Command+M to open the Curves dialog box, or go to Image > Adjustment > Curves.Our first step is to figure out which part of the curve needs adjustment.Use your pointer to hover over areas in the image and see where they fall along the curve. You mayneed to move your dialog box out of the way so you can see your image. As you drag your pointerover the image and click, youll see a small circle appear along the curve in the dialog box. In ourexample we want to bring out the leaves, so drag over the dark ones (such as those in the upperright), click, and note where a small circle appears on the curve. Thats the area we want to modify. Figure 4.20. As you move your pointer along the problem parts of the image and click, you can see their corresponding areas on the curve inthe Curves dialog box. In this example, I clicked a leaf in the upper right, and a circle appeared near the bottom of the curve in the dialog box. [View full size image]
At this juncture, you can either remember where that point is and add it manually (by clicking on thecurve) or Ctrl-click/Command-click with the pointer on the image to actually place a point along thecurve.Now that we know what area to change, we also need to know what area to leave the same. Movethe pointer and click around the waterfall, the bright parts of the rocks, and other areas you feel lookfine as is. Youll notice that these points all tend to fall in about the top third of the curve. Add a pointto the curve around the middle of this third to set a white point.The default diagonal line represents no change to the image. So as we modify the curve in theproblem areas, our goal will be to keep this acceptable area the same is it appears now. Figure 4.21. We want to leave this part of the curve alone, since it represents areas of the image that are just fine.
Now that we have the technical details behind us, you can go ahead and begin moving the point youcreated at the bottom left upward with the up arrow key. No need to go crazy here; just a smalladjustment will make a big difference. As you do this, youll notice that the dark areas all becomelighter but the bright spots dont change. Figure 4.22. Our finished version is crisp and well-lit, without the washed-out feel that we got from Levels.
Experiment with Curves as much as you can. This is the main tool used by color correction expertsand is an invaluable part of Photoshop. Curves can do anything that other adjustment tools can, so ifgiven an opportunity to pick only one adjustment tool to use in Photoshop, most experts wouldprobably choose Curves adjustment.
Abstract ImagingGiven all of the great photo-retouching and correction tools in Photoshop, its easy to forget that youcan create amazing digital art from scratch for use in any graphic design project. Figure 4.23. Renowned imaging specialist Colin Smith created this abstract design from scratch in Photoshop with filters and various other effects.Follow along with me to create some high-tech, abstract art and learn a lot about Photoshop BlendModes and Filters along the way.First, youll need some abstract elements to work with. Gradients, the Clouds filter (Filter > Render >Clouds), the Lighting Effects filter (Filter > Render > Lighting Effects), and the Gaussian Blur filter(Filter > Render > Gaussian Blur) will become your best friends here.1. Start off by creating a new, 800-by-600-pixel canvas in Photoshop. Fill the background layer with black.2. Use the Elliptical Marquee tool to draw a circle in the center of the canvas (on the background layer). Press D to set your foreground and background colors to the defaults, and then choose
Filter > Render > Clouds. Deselect, and you should have something like my example. Alternatively, why not experiment with your own shapes? Figure 4.24. In a few short steps, well turn this cloudy circle into a high-tech, abstract design.3. Now choose Filter > Stylize > Extrude. Choose Pyramids as the Type, 30 pixels in Size and with a Depth setting of 255, Random. Or try your own settings in the Extrude dialog box. This filter, with my settings, will give you a three-dimensional, spiky-looking object. Figure 4.25. The Extrude filter is one of the quickest ways to go 3D in Photoshop.4. Color the object by choosing Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. You can give it an orange
color like mine, or experiment and choose your own. Be sure the Colorize box is checked. Figure 4.26. These settings will turn your spiky design bright orange, but you can use the sliders to choose any color you like.5. Duplicate the Background layer (Ctrl+J/Command+J) so you have two layers. Select the top copy and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge using the menu in the Layers palette. Figure 4.27. The Color Dodge mode should be applied to the duplicated layer, above your background layer. [View full size image]
6. Duplicate the top layer and choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a Radius setting of 6 pixels. Change the Blend Mode on this layer to Pin Light. You wont see the blur until you apply this new Blend Mode.7. Duplicate the topmost layer again and change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Then link all the layers together and choose Merge Linked from the Layers palette options menu. Change the name of the Background layer to Layer 0 by Alt-double-clicking/Option-double-clicking the layer name. It will change to Layer 0 automatically.8. Create a new layer below the orange spiky ball layer and fill it with black. Then change the Blend Mode of the layer above it to Screen. This shouldnt change anything yet; dont worry.9. Duplicate the topmost layer five to ten times, positioning each copy randomly toward the left side of the canvas. Changing the Blend Mode to Screen in the last step allowed the black areas of the layers to be hidden so we can see through to each layer below it. Figure 4.28. Abstract digital art from scratch!
In just a few simple steps, you turned a blank canvas into an abstract digital image perfect for ahigh-tech magazine article, a software box, or another graphic design project. You saw that filtersdont just adjust existing imagery but, in the case of the Clouds filter, also create imagery to workwith. Blend Modes added to the high-tech effect we were going for, and you can see how each affectsa layer in a different way. Figure 4.29. Add text, a grid, or other design elements to make an abstract piece work in a graphic design project.
BrushesPainting with brushes is another way to create digital imagery from scratch, and Photoshop gives youamazing flexibility in its Brush tool.Basic Brush SettingsYouve got a few ways to view brushes in Photoshop. Lets start with the simplest view containing thefewest options. When you click the Brush tool in the toolbox, youll notice that the Options barchanges to reflect the current tools available settings. Figure 4.30. The Brush tool options. [View full size image]By exploring these options, youll find the most basic settings that can be applied to a brush: tip To change brush sizes quickly as you paint, press the left and right bracket keys. Press the [ key to reduce the brush size and the ] key to increase it. The increment of change depends on the brush size. A brush size between 0 and 100 pixels will change by 10-pixel increments each time you use this shortcut. A brush between 100 and 200 pixels will change by 25 pixels; a brush between 200 and 300 pixels will change by 50 pixels; and a brush between 300 and 2500 pixels will change by 100 pixels. Master Diameter This setting controls the size of the brush. Enter a value in pixels or drag the slider to change the setting. Hardness This setting controls the size of the brushs hard center, or crispness. It is expressed as a percentage of the total brush size. Setting the hardness to 100 percent means that the
brushs hard center extends out to the full width of the brushthe edge will be crisp. At 50 percent, the center (50 percent) of the brush is hard and the remaining portion (50 percent) becomes softer toward the edge of the brush. Mode This setting controls how the current brush affects the pixels in your image, like the Blend Modes youve used in the Layers palette. Opacity This setting controls the opacity of the brush. At 100 percent, the brush will be applied at full opacity. Anything less, and youll begin to see through the brushstrokes. Flow Flow determines how quickly the brush applies paint. A lower setting produces a lighter stroke. Airbrush The Airbrush button allows you to apply gradual tones to an image, simulating traditional airbrush techniques.Advanced Brushes PaletteHeres where we get into the meat of Photoshops powerful brush engine. The advanced Brushespalette contains the options for re-creating traditional media brushes as well as options that allowyou to generate random textures and designs quickly. This is the palette in which youll be spendingmost of your time when doing advanced painting in Photoshop.Starting from the top, lets work our way down the palette and see what each option can do for us. Brush Tip Shape Youve already seen what the Diameter and Hardness settings can do. This view offers even more options regarding the tip of the brush. Angle and Roundness Angle specifies the angle at which the brush is applied to the canvas. Roundness specifies the elliptical shape of the brushfrom a perfect circle to a thin oval. Use these settings together to produce calligraphy-like effects with a round brush. Figure 4.31. With an Angle of 37 degrees and a Roundness of 36 percent, the brush is a narrow, slanted oval and will produce a calligraphic stroke.
Spacing Spacing determines how closely the Brush tool spaces each brush mark. A small valueproduces very tight spaces between brush marks. A high setting makes the brush appear toskip as you paint.Shape Dynamics The Shape Dynamics section controls three aspects of the brush strokeappearance: size, rotation, and perspective. The variations for each parameter are specifiedwith sliders.Youll see the word jitter used throughout the Brushes palette. Essentially, Adobe uses this termwithin certain brush settings to determine variation in the individual instances of the brushs tip.Think of it as the maximum range of allowable values. Jitter-based settings allow you to achieverandom effects with brushes, as they produce different results each time.Scattering Scattering spreads copies of the brush tips shape along the path of a stroke.Texture The Texture setting in the Brushes palette uses a pattern to make strokes appear as ifthey were painted on a textured canvas.Dual Brush The Dual Brush option adds another brush tip to the one selected as the Brush TipShape. The second tip is overlaid using the Blend Mode at the top of the Dual Brush section ofthe Brushes palette. This section is a cross between the Brush Tip Shape and Scatteringsections. In addition to selecting the second brush tip and Blend Mode, you adjust the second
tip for diameter, spacing, scattering, and count. Count refers to the number of times the second brush tip appears in each stroke of the initial brush tip. Color Dynamics The Color Dynamics section hosts more settings that really let you save time and randomize your brushes. Color Dynamics looks at the current foreground and background colors (set in the toolbox) and interprets colors between them based on the settings in this section. It then applies those colors randomly to each instance of the brush tip that is applied to the canvas. Other Dynamics Other Dynamics contains settings only for opacity jitter and flow jitter. These two settings operate just like the opacity and flow settings discussed earlier, but the added jitter lets you vary the application of them.The various Control drop-down menus let you specify how youd like to control the variation ofcertain elements of brushes. You can choose not to control, fade, or vary a brush based on PenPressure, Pen Tilt, and so on. Figure 4.32. These controls are available if youre using a pressure- sensitive drawing tablet.Pen controls are available only when youre using a pressure-sensitive digital drawing tablet ratherthan your mouse. A warning icon appears if you select a pen control but have not installed a tablet.Custom BrushesCustom brushes are a great way to enhance your creative painting options in Photoshop. They letyou go beyond what Photoshop has provided and create a brush tip shape out of nearly any objectyou can imagine.Figure 4.33. Another stunner by Bert Monroy. In this Photoshop painting, the leaves were created using a customized brush tip and settings.
To create a new brush tip, use any selection tool to select the area of an image youd like to use as abrush. Once its selected, choose Edit > Define Brush Preset. Your new brush will now appear in thebrush tip presets seen in the Brushes palette discussed previously.Saving your brushes to your computer is similar to saving the contents of any other preset inPhotoshop. Once you have the custom brushes youve created in the Brushes palette, just expandthe options menu at the right of the palette and select Save Brushes. Name the file accordingly, andyour brushes can now be backed up and reloaded should you ever clear your current brushes or ifPhotoshop crashes and deletes the current settings.Saving your Brush tool presets is slightly different from saving the actual brush tips. Suppose youvecreated a complex brush preset using the advanced Brushes palette. Youve got it just the way youwant, but you realize its time to create another brush preset. What do you do? You dont want tolose those settings and have to re-create them. Writing them down hardly seems like a goodalternative.Never fear; Tool Presets to the rescue! To begin, create the brush youd like to save, then open theTool Presets palette (Window > Tool Presets). Choose New Tool Preset from the fly-out optionsmenu. Give it a meaningful name, and youre set. Just as with brushes, you can save these ToolPresets.
Photo-Realistic Imaging ProjectCustom brushes and the advanced features inside the Brushes palette can be useful for any type ofillustration or design work for Web or print. However, I find them particularly important whenworking to create photo-realistic art. In this project, youll design a photo-realistic golf ball sceneusing custom brush features to give your image a lifelike appearance.Project Brief: Photo-Realism from ScratchHeres your chance to impress (and fool) your friends. Your goal when working with photo-realisticgraphics in your design projects will be to make the viewer ask, "Is it a photograph or is itPhotoshop?" Figure 4.34. Fore! Tee up your Brush tool as you embark on a photo- realistic journey to re-create a golf ball in the rough.Your client, a leading golf ball manufacturer, wants to showcase his product up-close-and-personal ina realistic situation.
Photoshop files for the golf ball and my golf scene are available at the online download site. You canuse the golf ball in your illustration, but do not use the sample scene as your template file. Feel freeto see how specific elements of the scene were created, but I strongly encourage you to create yourown scene from scratch. Most of the layers are clearly labeled to help you explore the file further andsee how I created it. Figure 4.35. The golf ball from the online download site should be the only part of the image you dont create from scratch.Project Summary Brainstorm a scene for the golf ball, and create a sky relevant to the scene. STUDIO SESSIONS www.studiosessions.net/portfolio Post this chapters project online for feedback from professional designers. access code: STUDIOp Consider how the lighting would affect the coloring of the grass, and set Color Dynamics accordingly. Use a default and/or custom brush to create realistic grass in the foreground and background, blurring as necessary for a depth-of-field effect. Expand the scene using a custom brush to create trees, birds, or other realistic features.
Project StepsI created the example version using one of Photoshops default brushes and a golf ball I extractedfrom another image. The effects used most prominently in creating this illustration were the ShapeDynamics, Scattering, and Color Dynamics sections of the advanced Brushes palette. Lets look at mysteps.Use the RGB color mode to create your image. The final dimensions of the file should be 500 by 375pixels.1. Background and LightingWhen you design your golf ball scene, think about the depth and lighting on the landscape. I includeda blue gradient background behind my scene to establish that it is a bright, sunny day.Try various gradients and shades of color to get the sky the way you like it for your version. It can bebright blue like mine, gray and overcast, or even a vivid sunrise or sunset. Dont worry about cloudsjust yetyoull add those later.When you consider your sky and how bright the lighting is, consider that the grass will need todisplay various green hues that represent this type of lighting. Youll want to use brighter, highlysaturated greens for sunny daytime colors and slightly less saturated colors if its overcast outside.Plus, not all golf courses are plush green all year round. (Mine are, of course, because I live inFlorida.) This would be a great place to expand and come up with some autumn colors. And yes,nighttime golf does exist, glow-in-the-dark golf balls and all. In that case, the grass would need to bedark shades of blue, with a moonlit sky in the background, perhaps.All of this translates to choosing an appropriate foreground and background color when working withthe Color Dynamics section of the advanced Brushes palette. Figure 4.36. I applied these custom Color Dynamics settings to Photoshops default grass brush. Notice that I used the Jitter sliders to make my grass vary widely in brightness, somewhat in saturation, and just a bit in hue. Too much Hue jitter and my grass would have been multicolored!
Recall that the Color Dynamics settings apply variations of color between the current foreground andbackground shades, which in my case are a light green and dark green.With the foreground and background colors chosen, you can begin creating your grass.2. Foreground and GrassI created my grass using a default brush, included with Photoshop, which youll find in your menu ofbrushes. However, feel free to create your own grass brush for a more advanced application. Also,you may want to place some rough, longer grass in one part of the image using the default brush,and short, well-groomed grass in another with a custom brushas on a real golf course.To create a custom brush for the grass, make a handful of grass in a new document using anydrawing or painting method you choose. Select the area of the image youd like to use as a brush,and choose Edit > Define Brush Preset. Your new brush will now appear in the brush tip presets seenin the Brushes palette.
Figure 4.37. These are my Shape Dynamics and Scattering settings, but yours may differ depending on the effect you want. [View full size image]Several grass layers were created to portray the illusion of depth, with some in front of the ball andsome behind. The golf ball is not right up against our fictitious camera, so you can blur any grass infront of it to create a depth-of-field effect. The same goes for grass behind the golf ball. You canachieve these effects after you create the grass by applying a Gaussian Blur filter (Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur) to those layers. Your blurred areas may vary depending on where your ball is in thescene.Figure 4.38. Notice that the closest and farthest layers have a slight blur. [View full size image]
Also, as objects recede into the distance, something known as atmospheric perspective takes place.This causes the colors to appear less saturated with color and more gray. Next time youre around amountain range, see if you can notice it. This effect can be applied to the golf scene by adding aHue/Saturation adjustment layer to the background layer(s) of grass (Image > Adjustments >Hue/Saturation) and reducing the saturation setting.The image still needs a little something, dont you think? Well add to it next.3. Ideas for ExpansionWith your pretty sky, lush grass, and ball sitting in the scene, your next task is to expand your imageto include at least one other element that uses brushes. You can include nonbrushed elements too,but something created with the Brush tool should be your first priority.In my example, I used clouds. Ill admit I extracted my clouds from a separate photograph. But youcan create your own clouds with the Brush tool and some experimenting. You dont need to includeclouds per seId really like to see some creativity here.Figure 4.39. Heres my final version with some clouds. What will you put in yours?
Here are some other ideas for expanding this project with brushes: Create a custom brush of a tiny, faraway, flying bird, and populate the sky with some of them. Design a forest in the far background of the scene. Use Color Dynamics and lots of jitters to achieve a random look.Student WorkWhat have other designers done with their golf ball scene? Here are some work samples fromSessions.edu students: Figure 4.40. Mareile Paley created a paradise of a golf course with brushes to create grass, waves, and distant bushes.
Figure 4.41. In addition to using brushes for the grass and clouds, Don Noray gave this scene a creative perspective and added a tee.
Figure 4.42. Sabine Welte used the single-blade tip and other brushes to create a truly stunning piece presenting the golf ball at dusk.
Chapter 5. Digital IllustrationDigital illustration is an exciting medium for creating art on the computer. With just a few strokes andclicks (OK, more than a few), you can create wonderful line art in Illustrator, using your screen as acanvas. No pencil sharpeners required, just a mouseor a drawing tablet if you get really obsessed.Digital illustrators use the traditional principles of drawing and painting, using line and shape torepresent form, space, and light. But once the work is created, the medium has no limitations. Adigital illustration can be easily edited, resized, duplicated, and applied to a whole host of graphicdesign projects in print or on the Web.In this chapter, youll learn some ways to "see" objects as an illustrator, and then youll explore howto create them using Adobe Illustrator. Dont worry if you dont have much traditional drawingexperience. Digital illustrations can be created in many different ways; you may find that you candraw something amazing onscreen that you could never do on paper. COURSE DEVELOPER: YOUNG MO YOON This lesson was developed by Young Mo Yoon, an award-winning digital illustrator who holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Figure 5.1. Designer Joshua Hood created this simple but effective logo illustration with a stylized approach to color and curves.
In this chapter you will: Learn to use Illustrator guides to position objects on the Artboard. Create a stylized alarm clock using basic shapes, colors, highlights, and eye-catching details. Learn time-saving ways to duplicate objects and create complex shapes from very simple ones. Use the Pen tool to create closed paths and join existing paths. Learn to create smooth curves and hinged curves with the Pen tool. Create a stylized TV and tennis ball using Pen tool paths, colors, highlights, and other details. Learn to use the Pathfinder to create complex objects from the intersections of simple ones. Create an illustration of an everyday object of your choice using shapes, the Pen tool, the Pathfinder, and other features.
Illustration FundamentalsIllustration, by hand or on the computer, is the translation of form, space, and light into a picture. Doyou remember your first black-and-white pencil sketches as a child? Childhood doodles are theessence of drawing, which is the attempt to capture exactly how things look in a simple, recognizableform.In our first drawings, we often sketch the outline of an object: a house or flower, for example. Butlook closely at most objects in the world, and youll see that there are no outlines that go all the wayaround an object. Instead, youll see contours: lines and shapes formed by contrasts in texture orcolor on an object and by the light that falls on it. Figure 5.2. Illustrations like "California" by Chris Varricchione can combine surrealism and creativity with great attention to realisticcontours. The result is a piece of art that makes a viewer stop and stare.
If you could see the world in black-and-white (imagine your television was broken), you would seecontours everywhere: on some edges of an object, around areas of empty space, or as lines on thesurface of an object, such as craters or wrinkles.Some illustrators attempt to capture every detail in a shape. Others stylize and simplify theirdrawings, capturing the boldest contours and hinting at tones, shapes, and lighting without trying tocapture every little nuance. This approach can be really effective in digital illustration, whereillustrations can be created by either using a digital pen on a Wacom drawing tablet or using yourtrusty mouse to create simple shapes and colors in Illustrator.Before we dive into the hands-on part of the chapter, I want to mention some techniques that I findhelpful for digital illustration. First, perspective is importantsome type of depth is required to keepthings from looking flat. Simply varying the thickness of my contours can give the drawing muchmore volume and life. Second, to make sure youre thinking about contour, you may want to limityour colors initially to two tones, dark and light.But dont stop thereonce your basic composition is coming together, the use of color can alsocontribute to the dimension of your work. Flat color can be quite beautiful in drawingsjust simple fillsof outlined shapesor you can use gradients to mimic the lighting and depth of real life. Darker shapes
can form shadows, lighter shapes can become highlights, and less saturated (less intense) shapescan represent areas that are farther away. Keeping it simple, youll want to tweak your design so thatthe finished work has naturalism and charm.Creating Visual ConceptsOne important item to mention is the the need to brainstorm before you draw. When youre hired tocreate an illustration for a graphic design project, the primary goal is to communicate the clientsmessage. Because illustrators are often called upon to communicate abstract concepts (technologicalchange, say, or job satisfaction, or the rising stock market), the brief from the client can be a littlevaguesometimes nothing more than an idea.This leaves the illustrator to brainstorm the conceptto come up with a visual idea and carry it out. Aconceptual illustration can be handled very literallyfor example, if the client wants to convey theflavor of a product, you may want to draw a juicy strawberry. But often the illustration goes in a lessliteral direction. Editorial graphics for an advertisement or a magazine article, for example, must givethe viewer something to think about and draw conclusions from.Try to sketch or write down as many different ideas as you can before you start drawing. One of mymagazine clients needed an illustration on the topic of email security and how easily hackers cansnatch email messages. I started by brainstorming, writing down everything I could think of relatedto email and theft. I thought awhile about using an image of Sherlock Holmes, but realized thatwould be too complicated and some people might not recognize him. Then I thought, "Why not drawthe computer as an email thief, and represent the email message as a letter?" The client loved itbecause it was very clear without being too literal. I was certainly glad I had taken the time tobrainstorm various options before beginning to draw. Figure 5.3. Lots of brainstorming and sketching leads to creative concepts that clients love.
Watching the ClockWere going to start this exploration of digital illustration with a fun (and easy!) clock drawing usingjust the basic drawing tools. Follow along, and youll end up with a clock like mine. Figure 5.4. My finished clock.Using GuidesLets begin by opening a new document in Illustrator. Go to File > New and click RGB. Leave theArtboard size at the default, which is U.S. letter size (8.5" by 11"). Save the file as Clock.ai.Go to View > Show Rulers. You will see ruler units on the left and top of the document window.Depending on your current preferences, youll see the ruler unit in either points or inches.Throughout the chapter, we will use inches.To change the ruler units, go to Edit (or the Illustrator menu in Mac OS X) > Preferences > Units &Display Performance). Change General to Inches. Leave the rest as is, because type is betteradjusted in points.Click and drag guides from the left and top ruler, and release the mouse in the center area.Drawing the Clock with CirclesNow you are ready to draw! Well play with the Ellipse tool, drawing circles where the two guidesmeet. Lets call this point of intersection the "crossing guides" from now on.
Figure 5.5. Drag guides from the horizontal and vertical rulers to form the crossing guides, circled here.We will start by creating an outline of a clock. Go to the toolbox and select the Ellipse tool . Positionthe pointer at the crossing guides. Press the Alt/Option key, and the pointer will change to a roundicon . Click once and a dialog box will appear. Type 3 in for both the width and height.A color may already be filled inside the circle you just drew. It depends on how your color fill is setup. If the circle doesnt have a color, go ahead and give it one. Go to Window > Color to bring upyour Color palette, and choose RGB mode from the option menu on the palette.With the circle selected, type 255 in the Color palettes R (red) field, 191 in G (green), and 0 in B(blue) to put a cool orange color in the circle. Figure 5.6. Your circle should look like this.Now, we will draw shades. We will make two. One is a half circle, the other a full circle. We will callthe half circle shade A and the full circle shade B.
Figure 5.7. Our two simple shades (left, middle) will add up to a more interesting shape (right).Shade A will be a half circle, but we will use a full circle to make it. Draw a new circle using the sameprocess as before, but this time type 2.7 in for both width and height. Youve created a circle slightlysmaller than the first.You will turn this into a half circle by deleting an anchor point. With the Direct Selection toolselected, click the right anchor point of the circle. Now youll see that the only anchor point isselected. Press Delete. You will see an open path. Choose the Pen tool and click one of the endpoints, and then click the other end point to close the path. Figure 5.8. When you have an open path, its a good idea to close it.We will pick an orange color for this, different from the first. Go to the Color palette and type 255 inR, 140 in G, and 0 in B.Now we will rotate the half circle. Select the shape (with the regular Selection tool ), and choose
the Rotate tool . With the Alt/Option key pressed, click the intersection point of the crossing guides.A dialog box will appeartype 45 for the angle.Make another circle, again using the same process as for the first, but now type 2.3 in for both theheight and width in the dialog box. You just drew shade B, which you should make the same color asshade A. Cool!Lets make one more circle from the crossing guides, the same way as before but with 2.1 in for theheight and width. This will be the glass cover on the clock. In the Color palette, type 0 in R, 160 in G,and 198 in B to make a cool blue.Drawing the Clock HandsThis is the beginning of a Pen tool study. In this section, we will create simple clock hands using thePen tool. The Pen tool is a very useful part of creating vector graphics. I would even say, "No Pentool, no Illustrator." Sound harsh? Thats how important it is. But dont panic. After we create acouple of illustrations, you will master the tool, and youll even start to enjoy the precision andcontrol it gives you.Select the Pen tool in the toolbox. Make sure the fill color is set to None and the stroke is black. Wewill draw the long hand of the clock first. Figure 5.9. Check the Color palette to make sure your fill is None and your stroke is black.First click along the vertical guide. This is the starting anchor point. With the Shift key pressed(holding Shift while you drag vertically or horizontally will make a straight line), click the intersectionpoint of the crossing guides. Good! We just created the clocks long hand. Figure 5.10. Click the spot circled here in red to begin your first clock hand.
Move your Pen tool toward 7 oclock and click. This will be the short hand. Play with the handit couldpoint to any hour. You are the master of time!Now lets look at what weve drawn. Arent the lines too thin to be clock hands? They sure are, solets change the line weight. Go to the Stroke palette (Window > Stroke). Type 8 in the Weight fieldand select the Round Cap button. Choosing a round cap creates nice rounded ends for the clockshands. They should be much more realistic now.Adding Legs and a ShadowNow we have to give legs to the clock, right? Otherwise, it may fall over.Before we begin, Id like to recommend that you be creative with these details. As youll see, the legsdont have to look like those in my original drawing. They could be longer, skinnier, or fatter. After wecreate the left leg, we will use the Reflect tool to copy it to create the other leg. That will save youtime.Lets start with the left leg. Select the Pen tool. We will draw a triangle with three anchor points.Once again, yours doesnt have to look the same as the original drawing. Figure 5.11. A simple triangle and circle make up the leg.
Next, position the Ellipse tool pointer on the bottom anchor point of the triangle, and draw a circle. Allright! Youve created a leg. Once the object is grouped, you can move it around at will, so lets dothat now.First, select the triangle and the circle that make up your leg together (hold down Shift while clickingwith the Selection tool to select multiple objects). Then, go to Object > Group to group those twoimages. Now you can move them together with the Selection tool. Find a perfect spot for the leg.Lets add a color. You may see the leg outlined in black. If so, go to the Color palette, and clickStroke (the open square) to activate the stroke color. It will come forward. Click None , and thestroke color will be gone.While the leg group is selected, click Fill (the solid square in the Color palette) to activate it. Type 255in R, 140 in G, and 0 in B.Uh-ohis the left leg sitting on top of the clock? Dont worry. In Illustrator, the most recently createdobject always sits on top of the other objects. In this case, you should send the leg backward, behindthe clock. Select the leg, and go to Object > Arrange > Send to Back. You will see that the top partof the leg gets hidden. It was sent to the back. And I mean all the way back.Figure 5.12. Send to Back places objects at the very bottom of the stack.
Now lets reflect the leg group to make another set. While the leg is selected, go to the toolbox anddouble-click the Reflect tool. Choose Vertical and type 90 as the angle. Click Copy (not OK!). You willsee another leg appear, reflected.With the Selection tool, drag the leg horizontally until you find a proper location, and release themouse.Next comes the shadow below the clock. This is easy. Just draw an ellipse with the Ellipse tool. Whileit is selected, go to the Color palette and type 3 in R, 74 in G, and 94 in B (for the fill, not the stroke).Drawing Bells Using a GradientWere getting there. We will draw two alarm bells on the top of the clock. Once again, if you want totry something on your own, thats fine. Id like some variety.Draw any size circle that you think is a proper size for an alarm clock bell. I used 0.4" for the widthand height. Place your bell toward the upper left of the clock.Figure 5.13. It doesnt matter what color your bell is filled with, since we will change it to a gradient next.Now, we will try out the Gradient tool . Lets open the Gradient palette (Window > Gradient). Wewill use a Radial gradient here. In a Radial gradient, the beginning color is the inside color, and theoutside color is the ending color.Figure 5.14. The gradient default is black and white, but you can click the
sliders to change the colors.To set up colors in the gradient, you must choose the colors from the Color palette. Drag the Colorpalette right next to the Gradient palette for your convenience.Click the left slider , and go to the Color palette. Pick a color, whatever you like. I chose white. Nowyoull see the left slider filled with the color you just picked. Next, select the right slider. Choose anycolor for the ending color. For this example, I chose gray (163 in R, 163 in G, and 163 in B). Nowyoure finished with the color settings for your gradient.With the Selection tool, select the circle youve just created. Go to the toolbox and choose theGradient tool. Click where you think the beginning of the gradient should be, drag, and then releasewhere you think the ending should be. Also make sure you get rid of the stroke outline for the bell.Cool!Lets connect the bell to the clock using a stroke. With the Pen tool, click the center of the bell, andthen make another click anywhere that looks good. Make the stroke weight 3 points. Figure 5.15. Two clicks of the Pen tool, and your bell is connected.It is on top of the bell. Lets send it to the back, like we did earlier with the leg. With the Selection
tool, click the stroke you just created, and go to Object > Arrange > Send to Back.The next step will be to make the echo of the bells. We will use four circles to draw this. The center ofthe bell will be the center point of the four circles.Draw four circles with no fills (their sizes do not matter as long as theyre all different) and strokecolor settings of 255 in R, 191 in G, and 0 in B. Give them all a weight of 2 points.With the Direct Selection tool, select two anchor points of each circle, and delete. Quite easy, huh?Lets group the remaining pieces. Select the whole bell unit, including echoes and connection lines,and go to Object > Group. Figure 5.16. The center of the bell should be the center of the four circles.Click the bell group with the Selection tool. Double-click the Reflect tool to make another set. Thesetting will be Vertical and the angle should be 90 degrees. Enter these in the dialog box and clickCopy. Move it to the appropriate location, then send to the back: Object > Arrange > Send to Back.Highlights of the ClockWow! Look at what youve done so far. The clock we created looks pretty good and is nearlycomplete. Lets keep it up. Were almost there. Even though the clock looks good, somethingsmissing. What could it be? The highlights. Figure 5.17. Lets add some highlights so our clock wont feel so flat.
Highlights are the brightest spots in an illustration. Adding highlights adds a sense of depth to animage. You should always have highlights in your illustrations.Lets think about what color we should go with. We will put a highlight on the glass cover. It shouldbe brighter than the color of the glass, right? I simply added more white on the highlight. The colorsetting I will use is 191 in R, 231 in G, and 241 in B.First well make a circle. With the Alt/Option key pressed, position the Ellipse tool at the intersectionof the crossing guides and click. Type 1.8 in for both width and height.For the highlight, we will use only a quarter of a circle. We will get rid of two anchor points to makeit. Choose the Direct Selection tool, click two anchor points, and delete.Figure 5.18. Select and delete the two anchor points circled in red to get a quarter circle.Now the path is open. Lets close it using the Pen tool. Click any open end, and then click the
intersection of the crossing guides. Lastly, click the other end. Good. Lets rotate it. Select thehighlight using the Selection tool. Then select the Rotate tool and position it on the intersection of thecrossing guides. With Alt/Option pressed, click once. In the Rotate dialog box, type 45. Click OK. Figure 5.19. Rotate the highlight to give it a more interesting position.Adding Eye-Catching DetailsWe added a highlight. So far, so good. But a block of color looks kind of dull, doesnt it? And the otherparts of the clock look too symmetrical for my taste. Id like to add some actionsomething live. Wecan add a few line touches so that the highlight pops out. This could be the eye-catching element ofthe composition.Eye-catching elements are little exaggerated light effects, colors, or delicate shapes. Theyre notrealistic (usually), but they are crafted to be intriguing to the eye. "Whats that?" asks your eye. Letstry it.We will start by using a couple of circles. Select the Ellipse tool. With Alt/Option pressed, click theintersection of the crossing guides and type 1.5 in for the width and height value. Lets draw anothercircle, this time with 1.1 inches as the width and height value.Select those two circles and give them no fill but a stroke color setting of 0 in R, 0 in G, and 0 in B,which is solid black. (This color setting will be changed soon.) Make the stroke weight 4 points. Letsplace these circles on the clock as depicted in the beginning of the chapter. As you see, we will usejust a quarter of the circle. Well do this the same way we did the bell echoes.Choose the Direct Selection tool, then click two anchor points of each circle and delete. Figure 5.20. Delete the anchor points circled here, and youll have two arcs.
With the Selection tool, click to select the strokes. We will rotate these strokes from an axis of thecrossing guides. Select the Rotate tool and position it on the crossing guides. With the Alt/Option keypressed, click once. In the Rotate dialog box, type 30 and click OK.Lets change the stroke color settings to 0 in R, 160 in G, and 198 in B. Figure 5.21. A color change makes all the difference.Done! Lets look at the whole image. To have a clearer look, hide the guides (View > Guides > HideGuides).Adding a couple of lines in the highlight gives a very different look. Remember that big changes dontalways make an illustration better. Sometimes just a minor touch can give you a better look. Figure 5.22. All done!
Once again, you can add whatever you want on top of this illustration. Just try!
The Pen ToolYou might say, "What, the Pen tool again?" I know what you mean; all of this emphasis on the sametool can be trying. But in this section, you will not only practice what youve learned so far with thePen tool, but also take it even further by using it with just about every type of path you can think of.Remember: No Pen tool, no Illustrator!I consider the Pen tool the most powerful tool in the whole Illustrator kingdom. In time and withpractice, you can use it to draw anything you imagine! Figure 5.23. Designer Todd Macadangdang uses the Pen tool in thisillustration to create the contours of this womans face, later filling them with gradient meshes for realistic shading.As we explore the Pen tool, I recommend you turn on the drawing grid (View > Show Grid) and itssnap-to feature (View > Snap To Grid). This will constrain the tool to the grid lines and help you learnhow the tool behaves. When you are more confident, you can get rid of the drawing grid and drawfreely.
CREATING A CLOSED-PATH OBJECTWe will start our study with a closed-path object, so select your Pen tool now. Youll see an X next tothe Pen tool pointer . That means the Pen tool is ready to begin a new path segment. Clicksomewhere on the Artboard and then click again somewhere else to create a straight line. Now the Xis gone , which means youre drawing! If you hover over the second anchor point now, a pointershowing a small arrow appears . The arrow means the Pen tool can create a cusp anchor point(well talk about that later) or remain a corner/straight anchor point. Well keep this as a straightanchor point by clicking another part of the Artboard to draw a second straight line.Place the pointer above the first anchor point we drew. Now there is a circle next to the pointer .That means that once you click, you will close the path. Figure 5.24. One more click and youll have a closed path.ADDING AND SUBTRACTING ANCHOR POINTSLets try another quick study. Draw two separate path segments beside each other but not touching.To end a path and start a new one, press Enter before you draw the second path.Select the first path segment with the Selection tool and position the Pen tool near the center of it.The Pen tool now has a plus sign pointer , which means youll add a new anchor point if you click.Try it. Now move the Pen tool to the new point you made. See the minus sign on the pointer ?When you click the point, it will be deleted. Try this too. Figure 5.25. Try it outadd a point to a segment, then subtract it, watching your Pen tool pointers.
You can also add and delete points using the Add Anchor Point tool and Delete Anchor Point tool inthe toolbox. So many options!CONTINUING AND JOINING EXISTING PATHSNext, move the Pen tool over one of the anchor points on the end of either path segment. Thepointer has a forward slash, which means you can continue a previously drawn path . Click theanchor point, and then move the Pen tool over an anchor point on the other path segment. Now thepointer is a box with a line on both sides . That means if you click, youll join the paths. Give it atry. Figure 5.26. Clicking now will join the two paths.Creating CurvesYou can also use the Pen tool to create curved lines (also called Bézier curves) similar to the way youcreate straight lines.CURVED LINESHow is it done? Instead of clicking, you click and drag. When you drag, direction lines and handlesappear. The direction lines show the path a curve will follow when you click to create another anchorpoint.Lets make a curve. Click and drag with the Pen tool to create an anchor point with direction handles.Click and drag somewhere else to complete the curve. As you drag, you can change the rotation andlength of the direction lines. Longer direction lines create steep curves, shorter lines create softcurves. Figure 5.27. I made a symmetrical curve using vertical direction lines of the same length on both sides.
If you click a previously drawn curve with the Direct Selection tool, youll see its direction lines. Youcan move the direction lines with the Direct Selection tool too. Practice drawing lots of curves. Selectthe segments, and study the angles and lengths of the direction lines to see how they change thepath as you see in Figure 5.29. A tip to keep in mind is that the fewer the anchor points, thesmoother the curve. Figure 5.29. Your hinged curve should be pretty close to mine.HINGED CURVESIn a hinged curve, two curved lines meet to form a cusp point. It may sound weird, but its actuallyvery handy.There are three types of anchor points in Illustrator: corner points, smooth points, and cusp points.Straight lines use corner points (which we drew earlier with our straight, closed path); curved lines
use smooth points; and hinged curves use cusp points.Follow along, and well make a hinged curve.Click and drag upward to drag out direction lines. For the next point, click and drag downward to pullout direction linesbut do not release the mouse, OK? Hold the Alt/Option key to drag the bottomdirection line and align it with the top direction handle, and then release. Create a third point byclicking and dragging down to pull out the direction handles. Does your path look like the letter M?Great! The two points on the outside are smooth points, and in the middle is a cusp point. Figure 5.28. Just practice!IDENTIFYING AND CHANGING ANCHOR POINTSSelect any anchor point with the Direct Selection tool to see what kind of point it is. Corner points donot contain direction lines; smooth points always have two direction lines (in a straight line above andbelow the anchor point); and cusp points have either one or two direction lines at different angles.Are you wondering whether you can change one type of anchor point to another? I hope soyou cando it with the Convert Anchor Point tool under the Pen tool in the toolbox.To convert a smooth point or cusp point to a corner point, just click the anchor point with the ConvertAnchor Point tool. Try it out on a curved path segment or on a circle. The smooth and cusp pointslose their direction lines, and the path segments lose any curve information. Figure 5.30. This was a circle until I converted an anchor point.
To convert a corner point or cusp point to a smooth point, click and drag the anchor point with theConvert Anchor Point tool. As you drag, direction lines appear and the path segments leading into thepoint begin to curve on either side of the anchor point.What about converting a smooth point to a cusp point? Thats a little trickier. First, draw a circle topractice on. Select the bottom anchor point on the circle with the Direct Selection tool to see thedirection lines. Hold the Alt/Option key, and click and drag a direction point. Notice that the otherdirection line stays put. Wow, this a lot of information to digest! But lots of practice with the Pen toolwill make you a master of it soon.
Two Objects InteractingBefore we start this next piece, Id like to share some thoughts on illustration.When I was in college, I was frustrated about not being as good as van Gogh (he is my favoritepainter). But once I entered the workplace, I realized that pure talent is not everything, because Iwork for clients! They are the ones who judge my artwork. Sometimes they make me feel like vanGogh, sometimes like nobody.To keep my clients happy, I put a lot of effort into conceptualizing the design, sketching out variousoptions before I get started. I tend to avoid abstract concepts, because almost every design has tomake sense to a lot of people. I aim for realistic concepts and add my point of view. And I try to pullit all together through composition.When I move forward with the design, I pay a lot of attention to the little details. Simplicity is thegoal, so I try to avoid boring and unnecessary details. I concentrate instead on elements that holdpeoples attention. Sometimes its the smallest thing. For example, if I have to draw ten straight lineshorizontally, I would never draw ten lines with the same length and angles. I would make sure that Iproduce my lines with slightly different angles and lengths. Try it! I know it will make people moreinterested in your artwork.Making Guides from an ObjectWere going to make an eye-catching illustration that involves composing two different objects andmaking them interact. Along with our trusty Pen tool, were going to play with the Pathfinder andsome other cool Illustrator features.Figure 5.31. This finished illustration involves planning, composition, and … the Pen tool.
Start a new Illustrator document that is in RGB color mode and U.S. letter size (8.5" by 11"). Savethe file. Lets call the document TV.ai.There are many different ways of creating guides. The one you learned earlier, dragging from therulers, is a basic method. This time we will use a rectangle to create guides. Huh? Thats right. InIllustrator, any object can be used to create guides. You will see how.First of all, lets draw a rectangle. Go to the toolbox, select the Rectangle tool , and click in thecenter of the document. Type 1.55 in for width and 1.17 in for height.With the rectangle selected, go to View > Guides > Make Guides. Its that easy.Figure 5.32. The initial fill on your rectangle (left) doesnt matter since it will become a blue guide (right).We will illustrate a TV on top of this, so lets lock this guide so that it doesnt get moved by accident.Go to View > Guides > Lock Guides. Most of the time, guides start out as locked.
Drawing a TV Using GuidesOn top of the guides we just made, lets draw a TV set. Select the Pen tool and move the pointerinside the guides. Just make two angled shapes similar to my example. It is not that hard, right? Tocreate these angled brackets, youll just use straight lines. They dont have to be proportional orperfect; in fact, its better that theyre not. Figure 5.33. Our TV will be very stylized, starting with these angled shapes.Youve just created an outline of a TV, so now add a fill color. It will be 51 in R, 51 in G, and 153 in B.Now with the Pen tool, draw a leg, the left one. It is just a triangle. We will use the same color weused for the TV outline. Figure 5.34. The second leg will be a simple duplicate of the first.
Because the two legs Im using are the same, we will make a copy to use as the right one. With theSelection tool, click the left leg and drag it to the right with the Alt/Option key pressed. That willmake a duplicate. Find an appropriate place, and release the mouse.We may need more guides for other parts of the TV later, but we dont need the rectangle guideanymore. To avoid confusion, lets delete it. Go to View > Guides > Clear Guides.The TVs body and screen are next. Using the Pen tool, draw a (slightly off-kilter) rectangle with fillcolor settings of 102 in R, 102 in G, and 255 in B. It will be a TV body. Its currently on top of theframe we made, so lets send it to the back. Cool.Notice that the upper-left corner in my example is not fully covered by the rectangle. I meant tocreate this highlight by using negative space. Sometimes you can create highlights out of light effectswithout adding anything to the illustration. In this case, omitting the corner of the TV creates a lighteffect with negative space. Figure 5.35. Sometimes you dont need to draw anything extra to make an interesting effect.
For the screen, select the Rounded Rectangle tool and click with it on the Artboard. Use 1.12 in forthe width and 0.85 in for the height, and give it a Corner Radius of 0.2. Place it in the middle of theTV and give it a fill. I used 51 in R, 204 in G, and 255 in B to get the bright aqua color.Now just add a circle of 0.13 in for width and height. This will be a channel dial. Figure 5.36. Now we have the basic TV shape finished.Modifying Shapes with the PathfinderIn this section, we will use Pathfinder commands to modify shapes. The Pathfinder uses specialcommands to create new shapes using the intersections between simpler objects. We will try it out bycreating some objects here. Lets begin.First, well draw an antenna base using a half circle. We will start with a full circle thats 0.33 inchesin width and height. Now draw a rectangle a little bit bigger than a half of the circle.Select both objects with your Selection tool, holding down Shift. Go to the Pathfinder paletteif youdont see it, go to Window > Pathfinder. Click the Subtract from Shape Area button in the Pathfinder(the second button in the Shape Modes row. Figure 5.37. When we use the Pathfinder, the intersection of the two shapes will be removed (right).
You will notice that the front rectangle and the intersection of the circle are gone. Now you have aperfect half circle. Fill it with the same color as that of the TV frame.Now we will add two antennae to the base in the same color. Just draw two triangles in any shape,and add two circles to their peaks. Figure 5.38. The antenna object adds interest and asymmetry to the composition.We are almost finished drawing the TV set. How are you doing? Your TV looks great so far, but lookagain at the final illustration. We have a way to go! Lets keep up our hard work and do some morePen tool studies.The Curved SegmentsWell put what you learned earlier about curved paths to work here. You just need a little practice tocreate beautiful curved segments.
With the Pen tool selected, click in two places on the page, outside of your main drawing. You will seea line connecting two points. Grab the Convert Anchor Point tool. Click and drag slightly the twopoints you just created, one at a time. Youll see direction lines and direction points appear.Just play around with the direction points for now. You can click and hold them with the DirectSelection tool and move them around. Why dont you spin one 360 degrees slowly and see how thecurved segment changes?You can also play with curves using a circle drawn with the Ellipse tool. Make one now, and use theDirect Selection tool to pull one of the direction points down. Wow. See how it changed? The longerthe direction line, the longer the curved segment with the strange angles. Its a rule! Figure 5.39. You can move the direction points on any objecta circle, a Pen tool path, a star, you name it.Dont forget to delete the practice shapes once you are done with them.
Accents on the TVThe TV looks good, but it still needs some accents to pull the eye. Id like to put some around thecorner of the TV set. Lets do it. This requires the Pen tool skills you just practiced.First, we need a swoosh shape in the top-left corner. I just put a guide in blue to show you what kindof a shape we will draw. With the Pen tool, click and (somewhere toward the top of the screen)slightly drag the line toward 11 oclock. Dont worry about the precise direction too muchyou canchange it later. Figure 5.40. The blue guide shown here is the shape you will make with these direction line tweaks.Move the Pen tool to the right. Click and slightly drag toward somewhere between a 3 oclock and 4oclock direction. Notice that the bottom direction line of the first anchor point disappeared. Why?Because you are not using it in that direction. But it will appear when you close the path.Now here comes the tricky part. We must go back to the first anchor point, keeping the sharp edge.You cant do it without changing the direction of the direction point. If you just go back to the firstanchor point without changing it, you will lose the sharp edge. Just try it (and use Edit > Undo whenyoure done). Its good to experiment.OK. We will change the direction point toward a 9 oclock direction. Press Alt/Option and click thedirection point. Drag the point toward 9 oclock. You kept the sharp edge and just changed thedirection.With Alt/Option pressed, click the first anchor point (to close it) and drag it toward 6 oclock. If youget confused here, its OK. Even though you drag it down, you may see a direction line pointingupward, instead of downward. Thats all right. Youre dealing with the hidden direction line of the firstanchor point. Figure 5.41. Close the path, and make your direction lines like mine.
If you find this hard to believe, just go back to the previous stage by going to Edit > Undo or pressingCtrl+Z/Cmd+Z. Then, close the path without pressing Alt/Option. You will now see both directionlines.The reason to press Alt/Option when you close the path is to keep the direction point and line 1 of thefirst anchor as is and change the other direction point and line 2 of the first anchor point to keep thesharp edge and smooth curve. If you dont press Alt/Option, you will lose both the direction point andline of the first anchor point and control of the shape. Figure 5.42. A close-up look at the shape you created and its direction linesPlay around with it until you get it right. Then just add a fill color: 51 in R, 51 in G, and 153 in B.Now, just add a couple more swooshes next to it and at the bottom right. This will give you somemore practice. Figure 5.43. Practice your curves by adding some new swooshes.
Next, we will add a visual effect in the middle of the tube, where the tennis ball we draw later willcome out. I used the Star tool and modified its shape with the Twirl tool . Heres how:First, select the Star tool and click in the center of the TV screen. A dialog box will appeartype 0.2 infor Radius 1, 0.4 in for Radius 2, and 12 for the number of points. Now you have a star with 12points.Select the Twirl tool, and click and drag it around. The star will start twirling from the center. Figure 5.44. Little touches like the twirled star make your illustrations feel alive and active.Now lets add a background image. We will start by using a circle, as in my example. We will use onlya section in yellow for the background. In order to do that, we will have to add a rectangle with edges
that are similar to the TV outline, then cut out the intersection and the rest of the images usingPathfinder. Figure 5.45. Well create this yellow background in the Pathfinder.Draw a circle thats 1.45 inches in width and height, and then use the Pen tool to draw a rectangularshape that has a similar edge to the TV outline. Overlap them like in my example. Then use thePathfinders Subtract from Shape Area button to cut out unnecessary images. Color it with 255 in R,255 in G, and 0 in B. Figure 5.46. The TV-shaped intersection area is removed in the Pathfinder (right).
Masking the BallIn this section, we will illustrate a simple ball and its tail. The tail is a swoosh that creates motion.This part of the illustration requires masking skills and very delicate lines. Sounds tricky, but Ill helpyou along.As you work, youll need to use layers to keep everything organized. This illustration is gettingcomplex! If you dont see the Layers palette on your desktop, go to Window > Layers. Name thecurrent TV layer TV layer.Lets create a new layer and name it tennis ball. We will illustrate the ball objects on this layerbecause the TV layer is too busy. To avoid a traffic jam, we will temporarily hide the TV layer byclicking the eye icon. Done? Now you wont see anything on the Artboard.Click the tennis ball to make it active. Lets draw a ball using a 1.1-inch circle in yellow (255 in R, 255in G, 0 in B). This will be the outline of the ball. Add a green circle (0 in R, 255 in G, 0 in B) of 0.89inch on top of the yellow circle.Create two more circles with yellow strokes (255 in R, 255 in G, 0 in B) and no fills. The strokeweight should be 3 points. Put them in the appropriate place, referring to my example. We just drewa tennis ball. Figure 5.47. Wimbledon, here we come!We are about to put a mask on top of the circles to hide the outer rings. First draw a 1-inch circle.Select all the circles around, including the mask, and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make. You willsee only the properties inside the last circle. Cool! The ball is finished. Figure 5.48. Only whats inside the last circle is visible.
Lets hide the tennis ball layer for now. Click the eye icon to hide it. We will show it again later.Drawing the Balls TailYoull find drawing the tail-like path of the ball to be highly challenging. Lets think about how could itbe done in the easiest way.First of all, go to the top of the page and look at the outline of the tail. How could it be done? Thatsright; I created it with two circles: a big one for the outer shape and a small one for the inner one.Then I used the Subtract from Shape Area to crop out the intersection of the two circles. Bingo.First, create a new layer for the tail and name it tail. Now draw two circles. The big one is 2.65 inchesand the small one is 1.6 inches. Move the smaller circle on top of the big one and arrange them likein my example. With both circles selected, click Subtract from Shape Area from the Pathfinderpalette. The intersection is gone. To make sure, just add any color to it as a fill. Cool. Figure 5.49. Arrange your two circles like these.
If you look at the completed illustration, youll notice that only the bottom half of the image is used.So we will crop out the top portion.At this point, working with colors makes it hard, so lets switch to Outline view (View > Outline). Wewont worry too much about colors now, since we can change them later. When youre done withOutline view, you can return to regular view by selecting View > Preview.Go to the toolbox and select the Rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle. Its got to be bigger than the tophalf of the tail image.Place the rectangle on the top half of the tail image. Click the Subtract from Shape Area button fromthe Pathfinder palette. The top half of the tail should be gone. Figure 5.50. Draw a rectangle over the top, then subtract this area with the Pathfinder.Now we need to draw a circle, which goes on top of the tail. It will become the outline of the ball. Asyou can see from the finished artwork, these objects are filled with a gradient. Notice that the ball willsit on top of the circle. Hmm. Then it will be complicated, right? Just to make it easier, lets combinethese images into one.Select both images, then go to the Pathfinder window and click Add to Shape Area. Now they are oneobject. Figure 5.51. A simple circle is united with the tail and given a snazzy gradient.
Fill it with a gradient: Select the Gradient tool and go to the Gradient palette. Choose 153 in R, 255 inG, and 255 in B for the beginning color; 102 in R, 102 in G, and 255 in B for the ending.Now we must locate this object on the TV set. Lets make the hidden layers visible (a tennis ball andTV layer). The end of the tail should be in the center of the TV screen, so it looks like it is coming outof the TV. Lets move the ball onto the head of the tail. Drag the tail layer below the ball layer in theLayers palette. The illustration will look like my example. Figure 5.52. Make all layers visible, and bring the ball and tail to the same location as mine.Finally, we will draw three little tails inside the big one. Make sure youre in the tail layer. Go to the
toolbox and select the Pen tool.Ready? Try to produce an angle similar to that of the outer tail by modifying direction lines toproduce the curves. It doesnt have to be perfectly accurate, but it should look like it is coming fromthe same place. Color it white and add another small tail right next to it, then one more. Figure 5.53. These are the last elements of our illustration.What do you think? It looks great! Its a fun interaction between two different illustrations, and itreally shows off your Pen tool and Pathfinder skills. Great job. Figure 5.54. That was hard work! Time for a TV break.
Illustrating with DimensionThe clock and TV illustrations in this chapter should have warmed you up to the idea of drawing withIllustrator and working with the Pen tool. With simple shapes, curves, and colors, we were able tocapture the essence of the objects they represent without making them too realistic. All it took was alittle creativity and some observation of the actual objects to figure out what was worth drawing andwhat we could leave out.Youll continue with this idea of drawing stylized objects in the next project, but were going to take ita step further. An image doesnt need to be flat to be stylizedyou can work with color and perspectivetechniques to give realistic dimension to your drawings.Project Brief: Accessories with StyleA new clothing and accessories shop is working on the in-store signs that will mark each productdepartment (for example, hats, shoes, neckties, jeans). Theyd like you to pick a single departmentand create one illustration for it before commissioning you to do the rest.The illustration should contain a pair of items (such as matching gloves or two different shirts) thatshould have some depth but still be stylized. The illustration should be only of the two items and notinclude other elements or textand it must be drawn completely in Illustrator; no bitmapped artallowed.Figure 5.55. For this project, an illustration of a pair of shoes, I combined stylized contours and an illusion of depth using color and detail.
Project Summary Brainstorm and sketch illustration ideas for a pair of clothing or accessory items. Use the Pen tool and other drawing or shape tools to create the outer and surface contours of your items. Apply color fills that represent the highlights, midtones, and shadows to give the items realistic depth. Introduce details to the items that maintain a stylized appearance and contribute to the illusion of depth. STUDIO SESSIONS www.studiosessions.net/portfolio Post this chapters project online for feedback from professional designers. access code: STUDIOpProject Steps
Before you begin, choose the items that you would like to draw. Select a pair of items that suits yourskill level in Illustrator so far. Its best to use items that you have on hand so you can set them uphowever you like to sketch. But you could use a photograph of items from a magazine, the Web, orelsewhere.Its also recommended that you choose solid-colored items so you can focus on their shapes andlighting rather than on intricate patterns or color changes.1. Sketch the Pair of ItemsArrange your items so that one is in front of the other, and angle them however you like for anattractive setup. With just pencil and paper (yes, really!), create a rough sketch of what you see.As you sketch, first look at just the contoursthe lines and curves around the objects and on theirsurfaces. Which ones are most important in helping a viewer understand the shape? Which onescould be exaggerated for effect or removed because they are unimportant?After contours are drawn, look carefully at the lighting on and around your items. Try to pinpoint themiddle tonesthe ones that are neither very bright nor very dark. Shade these midtone areas lightly inyour drawing. Avoid shading areas that are brightthe highlights of the scene. Shade more heavily theareas that are shadows on the items or cast by the items. As you look at the highlights, shadows,and midtones, also think about their colors and how you might represent them in Illustratorbecausethats what youre about to do.2. Draw the Front ItemIn a new Illustrator document in RGB mode, use your Pen tool (or shape tools, depending on theitem) to draw the outer contour of the front item of your pair. Make sure the finished path is closedand has no stroke. Take your time to get it pretty accurate, but remember that you can adjust whatyouve drawn with your Direct Selection tool.Fill the shape with a color that you feel closely matches the main midtone shade of the object. Whatyou have now should look like a silhouette of your item, since its just a flat, filled shape that has nodetails, highlights, or shadows yet. Figure 5.56. Depending on your item, the silhouette might not look like much now. Adding highlights and shadows will make the shape much clearer.
Notice the highlights and lighter midtones on your objects and on your paper sketch. Your next stepis to draw those areas and fill them with the appropriate lighter colors.This can be a little tricky, so lets think back to the highlighted areas we placed on our clock and TVdrawings. To make those, we reshaped simple objects like circles or drew little shapes using the Pentool. The shapes themselves were pretty abstract, but they followed the main object contours nicelyand were in realistic locations.You may use several shapes to build up to bright white highlights, using colors closer to the midtonefor the larger shapes and colors closer to white for the smaller ones.Now its on to the shadows, so check out your actual items once again, as well as your sketch. Aswith the highlights, draw shapes that follow the item neatly and fill them with the appropriate darkertones.And dont forget about the shadows your objects may cast on the surface. Remember that for ourclock all we needed was a simple gray oval. Maybe thats all youll need for your object, or you mightneed to draw something with the Pen tool if your item is complex. Figure 5.57. You can see my highlights and shadows here. My use ofabstract shapes and flat colors keep the stylized look that I like but give it instant dimension.
Heres a handy trick that works for those shadows that items tend to cast. Copy your midtonesilhouette shape and paste it on your Artboard as a duplicate. Fill it with the appropriate shadow color(such as a light gray) and put it at the bottom of the stacking order. Then just move it, rotate it, ortransform it as necessary.3. Draw the Back ItemYou might think that drawing the back item would be just like doing the front one, but Ive got evenmore tricks up my sleeve that will help you achieve realistic-looking depth in your piece.Start on a new layer above your front item. When youre done, you can simply drag this layer belowthe front item layer to change the stacking order. You may also want to hide your front items layerso it doesnt get in the way.Draw the shape of your back item and fill it with a color, just as you did for the front item. Butinstead of the same midtone color you used in your front item, use a slightly lighter and lesssaturated version of the hue. This instantly makes it look farther away.Your back item should also be smaller than the front onethe smaller you make it, the greater theperceived distance between the two objects.Next, as before, add in your highlight and shadow shapes. These should be a bit subtler in color thanthe ones you made on your first item, and you can make them a little less detailedall contributing tothe illusion of depth. Figure 5.58. My back shoe is lighter, smaller, and less detailed than the one in frontwhat a difference that makes to the illusion of depth. Cool!
Imagine where else you can use this handy technique. How about in an illustration of a group ofpeople? The detailed people with more color contrast will appear closer than less detailed, softer,smaller people in the group, even though its still just a drawing made of colored shapes.4. Add the Finishing TouchesSpend some time comparing your Illustrator image with your actual items. Most likely you have leftout many of the detailswhich is good, since we want the illustration to be simple and stylized.But, like with our clock and TV, there may be some accents or details that you feel are key to theseitems and give them some punch. Maybe its a touch of color around the brim of a hat, or a smallstarburst shape indicating a sparkle on a belt buckle or eyeglasses lens.Go ahead and add these now, and recall that these would be best placed on the front item (and onlyvery subtly on the back item) to maintain the depth of the image.Student WorkWhat icons have other designers created? Here are some work samples from Sessions.edu students: Figure 5.59. Brent Brooks made his sunglasses more realistic by including gradients and transparency. Finishing touches add sparkle to the final project.
Figure 5.60. Jane Boss used the Pen tool very carefully to work with the challenging folds in these shirts. Figure 5.61. Strong reflections can make the highlights tricky, butJonathan Swihart was up to the challenge and created realistic shine and depth on these boots.
Chapter 6. Poster DesignPoster design is a fundamental challenge for any graphic designer. A simple composition in two-dimensional space, a poster is put to a thousand uses, ranging from advertising and event promotion,to public service announcements.The designers challenge is to use the medium to engage, inform, and finally motivate passersby.Walk down a city street, hop on the subway, or visit a museum, and youll see posters everywhere.The best pull us in, present their message with alacrity, and leave us thinking about them afterward.In this chapter, well explore some principles of composition that can be helpful in developingeffective poster designs. Youll learn approaches to achieving unity, balance, and rhythm in yourposters to make them stand out on the street. COURSE DEVELOPER: PIPER NILSSON This chapter is based on a lesson developed by Piper Nilsson, a New York-based graphic designer and information architect. Figure 6.1. Posters like this one by designer Gabriela Monroy use balance, repetition, and other intriguing compositional techniques to communicate effectively and make a lasting impression.
In this chapter you will: Learn about different methods used in poster design to deliver effective messages. Explore methods of creating unity in the design of a poster: proximity, repetition, continuation, and underlying color. Learn how and why to create symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions. Learn how different methods of balancing a composition influence its effect. Learn about three types of rhythmic approaches to composition. Learn about proportions found in art, nature, and design.
Explore some applications of typographical rules in poster design.Design a poster for a music festival considering compositional techniques, imagery,typography, and the display environment.
Poster Design FundamentalsThe poster has been around for about as long as people have had something to announce, and itshows no sign of going away. Why is this, when one might have expected video ads and billboards totake over our public signage? One answer is that a well-executed two-dimensional design still has thepower to entrance us. Figure 6.2. Urban construction projects generally prohibit posters. Soon after the hoardings go up, posters appear anyway..Posters are all about economy of expressionusing a minimum of information to get a lot across.Sometimes poster designers are asked to whittle down information and translate it into a visual form;at other times, to create a compelling message with typography alone. Finally, designers aresometimes asked to find a way to organize a daunting mass of details and make it accessible.A designers choice of image can clearly make or break a poster. The function of an image is tosimplify the messageto avoid having to present part of the message in a more complicated way,through lines of text. Images most often represent what a product is, whos providing it, or whom itsfor. They are a shorthand explanation for something thats hard to describe, like "providing working-
class people with loans to buy a house they couldnt otherwise afford."Figure 6.3. How do you communicate the names of dozens of performers and composers without information overload? Make them into anattractive piece of art! In this poster for Lincoln Center, the clever use oftype works with the photo as a single image to draw viewers in and get them to read more.A poster designer must also have a strong grasp of typography. It may come as a surprise thattypography is so important when text on a poster is used so sparingly (compared with, say, aproduct package or a magazine spread). But its an unwritten rule of design that the fewer elementsyou use, the more carefully you need to use them. Oftentimes the goal of a poster is to communicatea specific text message: "U2 concert on Friday the 12th," or, "Entrance closed for repairs." Thedesigners choice of typeface, text layout, and balance between text and images will all determinewhether this message is actually read and remembered.
note A posters "stickiness" is just as important as its initial impact. Viewers may see a poster for mere seconds, but some aspect of the poster must leave a lasting impression.Finally, keep in mind that the poster composition itself must intrigue us to attract our attention. Eventhe simplest images and wording can get lost in an ineffective composition. How do you create astrong design, direct the viewer to the most important elements first, and make the whole thingmemorable? It all comes down to composition, so well look at a variety of classic approaches in thischapter.
Achieving UnityLets face it: Designing a poster series, like any graphic design job, can be chaos. Photographers?Missing in action. Writers? Theyre wrestling with deadlines and inner demons. Marketers? Theyrechanging their minds every two minutes.At this point in the process, the designer must bring order through composition. Literally. Posterdesigners must somehow create a sense of unity from a confusion of headlines, blocks of copy,photographs, and logos. Without unity, a poster becomes chaotic and unreadable. All the parts of adesign must fit together to make a coherent whole.How do we create a "unified" composition? Lets explore some of the classic principles of art anddesign to find out.ProximityThe first principle of unity is proximity, also called grouping. Proximity is based on a natural principle:Things that belong together, go together. When we see objects that are grouped together on a page,we tend to associate them. We think of them as groupsregardless of whether those objects areactually similar or related. Its like guilt by association.This law of proximity can assist the poster designer in a number of ways. First, the grouping ofpeople, objects, and text can enhance the message. Think of a billboard in which a customer photo,product shot, and ad slogan are all interwoven. The type of person depicted (kid? grandpa?overworked parent?) will be inevitably associated with the product. If the typography is handled well,it will look like the customer is saying "I always use Bleacho," not the advertiser.Second, grouping elements together can give them greater impact than if they were standing aloneor apart from one another. When several items are placed in close proximity (for example, aninterlinked group of watches in different styles), the eye moves smoothly from one to the next. Theitems become one visual unit, providing a single message for the viewer to look at instead of a set ofdiscrete items.If a group of items is the most prominent part of the poster, the structure will hold together theoverall composition and draw attention to it. Any remaining elements will be viewed as secondary.Figure 6.4. In this diagram, notice how your gaze flows from one circle to the next. The individual items are recognized as parts of the whole, which is the focal point of the design.
RepetitionAnother way to create unity in your designs is to repeat shapes, colors, or values. When we see adesign element repeated on different parts of a page, our eye naturally follows them, linking themvisually even if they are not grouped together. We cant help playing connect the dots.The simplest way to use repetition is to create a pattern of repeated shapes in the background of theposter. A tiling effect in the background can create a visual interest and structure that ties theforeground elements together. In this type of composition, repetition is a secondary element.Another way of using repetition is to use a line of repeated elements to lead the eye to an importantmessage, logo, or image. Repeated elements can form a path that draws the eye, creating a sense ofsuspensewhere is this going? Its a way of telling a story and compelling a viewer to look at an itemyou want him to focus on. Figure 6.5. The series of caterpillars leads the eye directly to the INNU logo. The repetition continues past the logo with the butterflies, which represent how youll feel after a visit to the salon.
Repetition can work extremely effectively even when objects themselves are not repeated. The mererepetition of a shape or color in a few places can really pull a composition together. It can be verysubtle. For example, a poster for a new nail polish might show a large drop of the polish. Elsewhere incomposition, the same shape and color may be echoed in the bottle of polish and the models nails.Without our realizing it, our eyes are drawn to this repetition. Figure 6.6. Here, the dots that are an essential part of the logo are repeated in the illustrationcreating unity, getting attention, and reaffirming the brand.
In posters for consumer products, repetition is also an effective strategy for persuading viewers tocompare related items. An ad poster might be covered in a dozen pairs of shoes, all different. Theinitial message (shoes!) is easy to understand because related items are repeated, but a secondaryeffect is that the poster invites the viewer to look at each pair individually.Another popular design technique is to present a row or set of items that are all exactly the sameexcept for one that breaks the mold. You might design a grid of 15 squares, 14 of which are blue and1 that is bright pink and contains a company logo. I know which square people will look at. Thisstand-out-from-the-pack approach is useful for helping viewers focus on the uniqueness of a product,company, or event. Repeated elements feel mundane, less important, and less exciting than thesingle, unique one.Its also worth noting that repetition creates the consistency that is essential when constructing aposter series, whether the posters are to be viewed simultaneously or on separate occasions. A set ofoutdoor ads designed for a summer concert series must work as a team; seeing one should remindyou of other posters in the series. The repetition of positioning, color, scale, or imagery can make aseries a cohesive group and promote the recognition and absorption of an overall message.ContinuationWhat other techniques for creating unity are there? Continuation is another method for attracting andleading the eye. Its often used in conjunction with repetition, and youve seen it in the priorexamples. When a designer uses continuation, the edges of shapes in a composition are aligned tolead the viewers eye from one item to the next.This principle uses the properties of lines to help a composition hang together. When we see a line,our eye instinctively wants to follow it, to find out where it leads. The edges of objects can be used inthe same way. Any objects in a set can appear disjointed when they are placed on a page. If itemsjust float in space, the viewer has to do too much work to find and ultimately understand themessage. By aligning the edges, howeverhorizontally, vertically, or diagonallythe composition can beunified.
Figure 6.7. Continuation is used in this poster to lead the eye vertically,from the text to the U or vice versa. The left and right sides of the U andtext line up perfectly, and if "U" look more closely, youll see the E and C of "PEACE" align with the inner lines of the U.This technique works with images on a poster, leading the eye to information and branding, but it isalso a great choice for text-based designs. Continuation makes it clear which elements (such asheadlines and subheads, or photos and captions) are meant to be read together.Underlying ColorHow do you unify a composition where there are a variety of objects with no shapes, colors, or edgesin common? A simple solution is to place them on a solid color field.Now this might beg the question, Why would you place unrelated objects in your poster in the firstplace? Ordinarily, you wouldnt. For most commercial posters where you need to get a messageacross quickly, you will generally have access to some related shapes or colors.
Figure 6.8. In this poster, "Red" is not only the name of the performanceand an allusion to its political theme, but its also the color that holds the elements of this design together. Proximity is used along with a strong sense of balance to make this an incredibly strong piece.For art events or posters where the viewer will have some time to interpret the piece, however,discordant elements can provide an interesting, experimental look. Occasionally an advertiser will askfor a surreal combination of items. Using an underlying color as a background for disjointed elementscan ground them so the viewer understands they relate. tip A word of warning: Dont use the underlying color method as a quick way to avoid a properly aligned or otherwise unified composition.
Achieving BalanceBalance, or a lack thereof, is a powerful tool for any poster layout. And thats because a lack ofbalance is disturbing. From a young age, we learn to avoid leaning trees, rocks, furniture, andladders as potential dangers. Seeing imbalance in a design causes a similar visceral reaction: Are wegoing to fall over? Is something going to fall on us?In composition, we assume a center vertical axis and expect to see equal weight on both sides.Balance is especially important in a poster design, because a poster will often need to stand alone,with nothing outside of the design to stabilize it. (Some designs, like magazine ads, can be balancedby the adjacent page or another nearby element.)Symmetrical BalanceNature is full of examples of symmetrical balance. Butterflies, maple leaves, and snowflakes can beevenly divided down the center. Humans are attracted to symmetrical designs partially because ourown bodies are symmetrical (well, mostly).Designers play with these visual expectations. In creating a poster, a designer will often place a mainimage or block of text along a vertical axis, distributing equal portions of the object on both sides.This makes the viewer feel comfortableeverything has been neatly ordered for him. When the"object" placed symmetrically is a face or body, it can help viewers make an emotional connection tothe composition.Symmetrical balance also occurs when multiple objects are placed in the same position on each sideof a central vertical axis. This combines the benefits of repetition and symmetry to create acompletely balanced, rock-solid design.Figure 6.9. This striking design for Champion Athletic is almost entirely symmetrical along the vertical axis, making the design (and thus theproduct and brand) feel solid and comfortable. Bold color, lines, and use of negative space give it even more strength.
note Symmetry on a horizontal axis can also make for a balanced design, though it doesnt generate the comfort level of vertical symmetry.However, symmetry can have drawbacks. We dont always want a design to feel so solid, socomfortable, or so passive. By their nature, posters are often used to introduce new products,events, or ideas with the purpose of persuading viewers to take action. A more energetic compositionmay be required for such posters. Note that this doesnt mean developing a composition that isunbalancedit means using balance in a different way.Asymmetrical BalanceAsymmetrical balance is a common strategy for adding oomph to a poster design. Designers usecolor, value, shape, and position to balance dissimilar forms without letting chaos rule. Trulyasymmetrical balance can be difficult to achieveif the sizes, colors, or other elements are just a little
off, the equilibrium will be as well. Figure 6.10. The asymmetry in this Trackstar Motorsports poster makes the image arresting, and you can almost feel the scooter moving to the right.Lets look at several types of asymmetrical balance and examine ways to achieve them.BALANCE BY COLORHave you ever wondered what made the painting of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian tick? Mondriandevoted a great deal of his work to the balance of weight in colors. For example, one of his paintingsfeatures mostly white blocks with a large yellow block in the upper left and a small blue one in thelower right. The small area of blue perfectly balances the large area of yellow. To form such abalance, Mondrian moved colors around the grid until they were just right. Figure 6.11. In this design exhibition poster, the large yellow field is beautifully balanced by the small black bar and color photos along the bottom.
Balancing colors is mostly intuitive, so practice is required. Here are some guidelines: A small area of color can balance a much larger neutral area. Color attracts the eye more than neutrals, giving a spot of color equal weight to a large neutral area. Warm colors carry more weight visually than cool colors. Oranges and reds jump out at us, while blues and greens tend to recede. Therefore, a large area of a cool color is needed to balance a small area of a warm color. The more vivid the color intensity, the greater its weight. A richly saturated blue will seem heavier than a dull blue. How do you work with this? Balance small bits of vivid color with larger areas of muted color.BALANCE BY VALUEAsymmetrical balance is based on equal eye attraction, which occurs when dissimilar objects arebalanced so that they are equally interesting to the eye. One element that invariably attracts ourattention is value difference, the contrast of light and dark. Black against white creates a strongcontrast. Gray against white creates less contrast and less visual weight.
tip If youre not sure about the values of the color choices in your design, convert your image to grayscale momentarily. Seeing just white, gray, and black will give you a better sense of how your lights and darks balance.How do you balance values to enhance a poster design? You can do it by balancing light and darkvalues intuitively, the same way you balance shapesacross the surface as a whole. Test your intuitionby blocking out any questionable area and looking at the remaining picture. Then unblock it and seewhether you feel better about the balance of values and shapes in the design.Figure 6.12. Balance by value is used in this Cub Scouts poster. The blue dots on white create an illusion of very light bluemuch lighter than therich red in the lower section. The elements in each section also balance by valuenotice the dark truck and the white lettering.A contrast of values on each side of a poster creates so much eye interest that a tension is createdbetween the sides. The eye skips from one to the other, wanting to pull the two componentstogether. A visual energy and a subconscious excitement are created simply by the interaction ofdifferent elements in the composition.
BALANCE BY SHAPE AND POSITIONBalancing shapes will also help bring unity to your poster design. A large, simple shape (or image ortext area) can be balanced by smaller, more complex elements. The larger shape will generallyattract attention to the overall composition. The smaller elements will be viewed as secondary, butthey can be just as important to the visual equilibrium of the poster. Figure 6.13. In this diagram, the detailed field of varying stars is balanced by the simple, solid wave. Figure 6.14. This type of balance works great in photography-based posters. The large, simple focal point of the man and sneaker balances against the distant and detailed street scene below him.
The positioning or placement of the elements plays an important role in balance. The farther anobject is from the center of the page, the more visual weight it will suggest. This visual association isbased on our experiences with balance in the real world: On a seesaw, for instance, a child on theend of a beam can lift an adult sitting near the center. Figure 6.15. This outdoor ad for a technology firm dramatizes the concept of customization by showing different sizes. The balance between the XL and XS tees draws the eye to the poster.