Illustrator Turtorials
Final Graphic Design Project
For my Graphic Design project I incorporated photos of myself, my favorite gym’s logo, and a background image of weights. I tried to make the photo really represent my topic in general, which is fitness. I will cover many aspects of fitness this semester, what it is, how it affects us, my personal relationship with it, and how it can benefit each and every single one of us. I decided to do a brochure photo with images that were very fitness related.
Originally, I made the background image very pronounced, making it the focus of the main image. I wanted the photo to look very dramatic and pronounced, while still giving a very athletic feel. I lowered the opacity on my photos to make them fade in the photo, so the photos of me weren’t so pronounced.
After receiving suggestions from peers and friends of mine, I heard a lot of feedback about it looking “intimidating”. Which I came to agree with, the focus of the photo was not of me, it was of weights and the Gold’s Gym logo. So I went back onto the photo and edited the shadows/highlights to make the background photo more gentle. I then proceeded to lower the opacity of the Gold’s Gym logo, to make it so it was not the focus of the image. Lastly, I edited the photos of me, creating some more shadows to them and raised the opacity so they were more of the focus of the photo. One of my friends told me that one of my photos was placed unnaturally so I lowered that too, and it looks significantly better.
I spent a large portion of my time re-watching the tutorial videos and looking up fun techniques to use on YouTube. I am grateful that we did the tutorial assignment last week because I would have had a very hard time creating this image. I obtained the photo of the weight room and the Gold’s Gym logo by looking online for free photos. The photos of me were taken by my close friend, Jarid Adams, for his app Train Centric. Please feel free to scroll down to my “Image Collection” post on my webpage to see his signature to allow me to use these photos. I’d like to take a second and thank you for reading my blog post and feel free to leave suggestive comments below. I am excited to spend this semester discussing what fitness means to me and I hope you are too! Thank you!
Graphic Design Project Draft
For this project I decided to do what looked like a magazine cover for my fitness blog. I included the photo of the weights in the background to give an athletic feel, making it very easy to tell what this magazine was about. I tried to make the photo in the background very pronounced and dramatic, then used the smaller photos with a lower opacity percentage to make them fade in the main picture. It was a challenge for me to put this together. I am not the most computer tech savvy person you’ll meet, it takes me a long time to understand certain software and I had to go back and watch the videos for the tutorials we did last week. After re-watching the videos, I felt as if I used most of the techniques we were taught, then tried to add some of my own.
I obtained my photos by looking online for free photos that I could use to resemble a weight room. There I found the background, then looked for a logo of the gym I most frequently used. The Gold’s gym logo that I placed on the top left corner is something very important to me, it is the gym that I found my passion for working out. It is where I have made many friends that I will hold close to my heart for a lifetime. Then, the photos that are of my one of my friends used for his app, Train Centric. If you scroll down, you will see where I gathered his permission to use these. Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave comments about tips / any helpful hints to help me with this software.
The links for the two photos are listed below:
Image Collection
My idea for the project is to use the weights as a background and possibly these photos of me in-bedded in it as a collage.
https://www.freeimages.com/photo/lifting-weights-1-1186106
https://pixabay.com/en/fitness-weight-dumbbell-1882721/
^ Photos are for Jarid Adam’s “Train Centric” app. His signature is posted below:
Photoshop Tutorials
Below are my completed tutorials.
Beginning of my Fitness Journey
My topic for this semester is going to revolve on fitness, my fitness journey included. I am excited to discuss what fitness is, the benefits, and much more, including my personal relationship with the topic. I selected fitness because it is something that has altered my life, and I would love to get an opportunity to express that with my viewers. I plan on collecting original materials from the Student Recreation Center here at Washington State University, as well as at the Chinook. I have many friends that are passionate about fitness who I plan to ask to help with some audio recordings and/or video footage. For unit one, I most likely will develop an original photo depicting the visual design of fitness, perhaps with weights or a woman lifting weights. Unit two is where I will be working with Adobe Illustrator and will project visual identity and design. I plan to come up with a unique logo that blends together a happy life and fitness. In unit three I would like to incorporate some of my friends into the topic, perhaps recording their answers to some questions I would prepare for them. Lastly, for unit four will be the most exciting for me – it is where I can visually show what fitness is through an entertaining video. In order for me to start developing ideas for my blog, I decided to look around for articles, photos and ideas I have found inspiring. They are featured below…
https://fitbottomedgirls.com/about-us/
Fit Bottomed Girls started off as a small blog created by two women, which turned into an online phenomenon. The mission of this company is to let everyone, both men and women, that fitness and health comes in all shapes and sizes. The site motivates individuals to be the best that they can be, and much more.
https://neoreach.com/top-fitness-influencers-instagram/
This page features the top fitness influencers on Instagram, there are photos and profiles included in each of the summaries depicting each of their lives’. This page has a list of inspirational figures that are all unique in their own way, I am excited to take a deeper look on these figures.
https://www.pexels.com/search/gym/
This page has a great amount of photos, some of people working out, gym equipment, and much more. It gave me some ideas on what to do for my logo.
About me
Hello, my name is Emma Herro and I am the creator of this blog. This blog has been created due to the request of my professor in COM210, here is where I will complete projects and show my academic growth through the semester. I am a transfer student here at Washington State University, and am very excited for this year to kickoff. I live in Sammamish, WA during the summers, but am previously from Iowa City, Iowa. I love Washington and hope to live here for most of my life. A few of my hobbies are hanging out with friends, eating delicious foods, going to concerts and working out. A hobby I hope to achieve would be traveling, I have not done much during my lifetime but wish to do a lot of it in the future. I am obsessed with dogs, as you can see from my header photo. I also really enjoy cooking, it is a hobby I have just recently caught up on and is something I love to do. I hope to obtain a career that I live that fits in with my communication degree that I plan on achieving here at WSU.
The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Emma's Blog 