From Thumbnails to Finsh- Final Phase

I made the revisions to the duck as requested and visually it looked much better. The more visible duck naturally led to a bolder color palette which helped the overall design. Next, I added the type elements which included dates, sponsor logos and contact information.

I also changed the stacked IKEA RENTON portion of the logo to a single line and resized other elements on the page to work better with the change. I really should have tried this before, but I thought the logo was always stacked and the size relationships were fixed.

The primary use of the graphic image has been for posters and T-shirts. This year, I set up items in a Cafe Press Store using a simple template and applied the graphic to several selected products. You can see these items at the Renton River Days Cafe Press Store.

This was a fun project. I always look forward to the creative process. It's exciting to see what might develop.

Thanks for letting me share. 

From Thumbnails to Finish- Phase Three

I brought all of my created assets together into a rough color composition. Colors are just suggestions in this phase and I'm still using my rough sketch as the guideline. I usually do rough sketches of most of my assets before building them in Adobe Illustrator. I love sketching because I'm able to do it anywhere and can generate far more ideas quicker than trying to create ideas on the computer. The above image is the rough comp I presented to the Renton River Days marketing committee.

The committee liked the general direction, but they did want to see a few revisions. The feedback included: They wanted to see the duck clearly and not transparent. They also requested a rounder shaped duck head with a smile. Overall, they wanted more detail on the duck.

At first I thought a more detailed duck was a bad idea. I wanted the duck to look transparent as if appearing out of thin air. Maybe I was being a bit too literal in my approach. In any case, I needed to create a duck the client would be happy with. So I went back to working on the duck and refining the colors and the layout.

Next week: Final Phase
Revised duck and making adjustments for product applications

From Thumbnails to Finish- Phase Two

The River Days Board selected the theme “The Magic Continues” and asked me to develop thumbnail sketch three. That was my favorite sketch so I was excited to move forward with the selected theme.

I usually do a series of exploratory sketches that aren't shown to the client. These sketches help me determine the look and feel of the assets. Versions 1a and 1b are the first round. There are times in the creative process where mental frustration begins and self doubt starts to creep in. Yes, this was that time for me.

I wasn't happy with the initial duck and hat sketches and I couldn't think past them. I don't have a singular solution for breaking through creative blocks, however, a few things have worked for me: getting feedback from another artist, leaving the project for a while or working on something else. I might even start to doodle for fun which then sparks an idea or direction for the project.

It was a random doodle that helped me realized I was trying to be too literal with the duck and hat. I decided to go more abstract and just have fun with the concept. This approach is represented in sketches 2a and 2b. The hat was starting to look fun and I liked the connections of the line work, so I chose to work with sketch 2b and start building each item as separate assets in Adobe Illustrator.

Next week: Phase Three
Using the assets to create a composition.