Thinking Conceptually

For this project I had tons of ideas, and I sort of ended up working backwards.  I had images popping into my head before I even had to brainstorm on any specific social issues.  I couldn't stop scribbling and sketching fast enough!  I showed all of the ideas to Rafa, and this is the one he was the most taken back by.  The idea of a Catholic Nun, that is actually a Devil in disguise.  I titled it "Catholic...NONE", a play on words meaning this person in neither Catholic or Holy at all.  Rafa gave me some ideas, and wanted me to make it more serious and less like a cartoon.

This is the end result.  Simple and to the point, yet a very strong message.  "Deliver us from Evil", part of the "Our Father" prayer known to many.  I thought of several other titles for this, but this one fit the best.  The priest's arm looks as if he is guiding the child somewhere, almost like the child is being 'delivered' to evil instead of away from it.  A powerful image indeed.  I must add this was almost uncomfortable to make due to the strong suggestions in the content, but nothing wrong with stepping outside the box.  I my intent wasn't to bother or offend anyone with this, it was just a crazy idea I had.  

This is where it went...  A child, or young boy, being guided by a Priest that is a Devil in disguise.   Anyone who would be viewing this from the front would not know, or have reason to assume he is evil because they can't see that he has the tail of a Devil.  I wanted it to be simple, not distracting with bright colors or too much detail.

I never brainstormed anything on this exercise, but this was one of the original sketches for this concept.  It went from this idea (which was going to be a Devil or Evil Priest of some sort), to the Nun idea, before coming upon the final direction.

This was the other idea Rafa liked, a "Free Speech" Coupon with an expiration date.

This was another sketch.  The concept of big business and corporations not wanting us to know what kind of bad things they are doing.  This is a nice neighborhood street, would have kids playing and nice green grass and trees.  The view is obstructed by a massive brick wall.  On the other side, a sign reading "Wall Street" representing the corporate corruption and has some smoke stacks spewing out polluted air.  I was really quite surprised at all the ideas I had for this assignment, and how fast they all came to me.

"Baby with a Bluetooth", "Goo Goo Glass" (as in Goo Goo Ga Ga baby talk), or "Google Ga Ga" was the name of this.  A baby all decked out in technology wearing Google Glasses and a Motorola Bluetooth in his ear.  It represents how much technology takes over at such a young age.  

Graphic Translation - "Cultiv8 Brooklyn" Urban Garden

I found this image online.  It had wayyyyy to much going on with the rainbows and everything, but I liked the upside down city saline, and the tree idea.  Candice and I talked about an "urban garden" idea, so I wanted to use this as a starting point.  I was going to simplify it, and try a different type of tree altogether.  (Please excuse my border play logos peeking through paper...haha.)  

I was searching for tree images on my phone and found this one that I thought was cool.  I liked the look of the tree and its branches, but most of all I liked the roots showing.  The leaves of the tree were too nice looking, I was going to make mine a bit rougher since I decided to use it to represent an urban city.  

I traced the tree, I decided I would get rid of the part that was supposed to be grass for the final part.  

Another tree I considered.  I decided it wasn't the one I wanted to go with.  

Again, another tree that didn't make the cut.

The first rough trace of the original image with it's original tree.  Next step is to swap out the tree for the other one I wanted to use.

I wanted to roots to be able to use the roots as negative space, so I didn't color them in and kept them as 1 piece with the trunk of the tree.  Got rid of the mound of grass look on top, and decided I was ready to start Illustrating this.  In my head I knew that the leaves of the tree still needed to have more rough and jagged parts, I thought that would fit with the urban city feel more.

I swapped out the tree and used the one I wanted.  I was going to make the top half look like a mound of grass, but after looking at this I didn't think that would work.  I also decided that I wanted to roots to look a bit different so I wanted to do one more version before getting into Illustrator.

I knew I wanted this urban garden to be in either Brooklyn or San Francisco.  The name "Cultivate" came to mind, it plays well with the garden theme.  I started thinking of calling it either "Cultivate SF" or "Cultivate Brooklyn"...then the idea of using the number 8 came to me and my decision was made.  "Cultiv8 Brooklyn" was born.
  

Color option number 2 for "Cultiv8 Brooklyn" Urban Gardens.

And option #3 with the logo in the middle of the tree.  

Great Minds

Paul Rand was a great mind, but a genius one!  I wanted the layout of this to be very simple, much like his logo designs.  

Layers

Layers Sequence

These are the shapes I cut out to use for this assignment.  It's crazy to me that you can do so much with the most simple/basic cutouts.  This is an area that I know I could spend sooooo much more time getting better at, and I plan on continuing to work on layers and adding effects & textures to other objects.  

Grids & Patterns

Grids & Patterns - Color Composition Grid #5

Grids & Patterns - Color Composition Grid #4

Grids & Patterns - Color Composition Grid #3

Grids & Patterns - Color Composition Grid #2

Grids & Patterns - Color Composition Grid #1

Grids & Patterns - Black & Gray Layout Grid #5

Grids & Patterns - Black & Gray Layout Grid #4

Grids & Patterns - Black & Gray Layout Grid #3

Grids & Patterns - Black & Gray Layout Grid #2

 Grids & Patterns - Black & Gray Layout Grid #1

Patterns (Black & White) # 1 

Patterns (Black & White) # 2

Patterns (Color) # 2

Patterns (Black & White) # 3

Patterns (Color) # 3

Patterns (Black & White) # 4 (made some extras, definitely need more practice with patterns and will continue to work on this area!)

Patterns (Color) # 4

Patterns (Black & White) # 5

Patterns (Color) # 5