Homage Project: Stefen Sagmeister

For the first project we were instructed to pick a developed graphic designer or artist and create a homage piece which displays their most common design concepts and ideas. After researching multiple designers I decided to go with Stefen Sagmeister. He is definitely one of a kind. Every seven years he takes a one year sabbatical to refresh his mind and directional talent and has a lot to show for it. Here's a video about him discussing his sabbaticals and what they've done for him as a designer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNuOmTQdFjA These sabbaticals create life lessons which he usually ends up expressing through his art work.

He has done several art pieces that involve using expressive typography. He has also designed multiple CD covers for famous artists like the Rolling Stones and David Byrne. He is most well known for making his designs interactive. Take a look at some of his popular work below:

Below is a wall full of bananas spelling out one of his life lessons: "Self-confidence produces fine results". This was left on the wall until the bananas started to change color...Much like the "A Diamond is Forever" advertisement by De Beers. 

Below is one of his more famous works from which I imitated while making my homage piece.

There's plenty more where that came from, just check out his website or simply 'Google' him. The piece that I made reflects Sagmeister's work by using type to create the art work. Although the typeface wasn't exactly what I wanted, it served its purpose. I used Illustrator to create it from scratch. By using the pathfinder attributes and simple shapes and type, I created a this homage piece. I wanted to make it appear to be chaotic and random, but also keep a level of simplicity.  I learned about balance and technical Illustrator alignment tools during this process.  Let me know what you think!

Conquering the Pen Tool

As an exercise we received a template to work on our "pen tool" skills in Illustrator. Since I haven't kept up with them since last year, I had some difficulties. But, as in all things, practice makes perfect. After about the fourth round I made significant progress and conquered the several twists and turns with the pen tool. Below is the template I used.

Some tips I learned:

-When creating a circle or curve, always insert each pen point at 90 degree intervals to manage a perfect curve.
-Cut the point when going from a curve to a straight line.
-Use live trace when possible and lock it in the background if you need to have a guideline.
-After you're done, zoom in and eliminate any unnecessary points. The more points, the more ragged. The less points, the more smooth... however you want to look at it!
-Hold down the shift key to make very straight and even lines. It will make equal angles and straight lines according to your last point.
-When re-creating a logo or type, try using shapes if possible and create as outlines and minimize the points if needed.

Let me know any additional hints or tips that you use!

iLike

Just got done with Day 1 in Graphic Design II class. I can tell I will like it and I'll learn so much more about CS5. It's nice to have a structured environment where I'll constantly be working on a project. I really hope to get better at Photoshop and InDesign, especially since I'm starting to work with creating websites. Well, today is about the twentieth time I've been told to keep a folder/book/reference of all the design, art, ideas, images, etc that I like so I can refer to it later. Here's part of my collection so far.

Ad ran for Barilla noodles around the New Year: simple & eye catching.

Ad for Smoke Vodka: One of those things I just think is great design.

Chicago Sky Deck's graphic for the Sears (I guess Willis...) Tower. I like the simplicity of it, and that it explains the attraction so well by using typography.

Below are some random links I've saved. There are videos, commercials, and ads, and clever guerilla marketing implementations that I find ingenious. Check out the links I've posted at the right hand side of my blog if you want to keep up on the latest art/design awards.

Piano Stairs! Great guerilla marketing. Reminds me of the T-Mobile Dance in the train station which was a very successful viral video.

I LOVE this Old Spice campaign. I mean, completely love it. There's a video online somewhere that interviews the Creatives for the campaign. They go step by step through this commercial and find out whether it was done in one take or not. I won't give it away.

Thought Nike did pretty good on this one. It's quick, catchy, and sports-y...exactly what Nike is all about. It does a good job of keeping my attention even with such a well known brand.

So, what do ya think of my favorites? What are some of YOUR favorites?