Interpretation: Day 2

Today I spent my time editing the original vector art (within Photoshop), and then began working with editing the layer masks to look correct. Currently, there is room for three "photo" layers: two on the inside of the letters, and one in the letter outlines. After I got the masks correct for each layer, it made it incredibly easy to drop different photos in and try them out to see how they react to one another.

The photos I used in this version are by no means final (it's also missing a photo within inside of the letters). Tomorrow I hope to finalize the photos I'm using so I can create a final rendering of the letters; then, on Thursday, it's my hope that I can start experimenting with adding other shapes and photos to the composition/background, sort of like the master study photo. We'll see how that goes; I don't want it to get too crazy.

Also, I told this to Babcock, but it probably wouldn't hurt to post this here as well. As far as stock photos go, I've found sxc.hu to be particularly helpful. It doesn't have the greatest selection, but sometimes you can find usuable images, and you can download everything at full resolution if you get a free account. Pretty nice.

Interpretation: Day 1

For my interpretation, I decided to try out a promotional piece for my friend The One Electronic; something that he could perhaps use on a poster for a future show. Today, I spent time preparing the vector art within Illustrator so that I could import it into Photoshop.

To start, I created the basic text, taking different letters from two different typefaces and editing them slightly. I then offset a copy behind the original letters and used the pen tool to add the angled connecting sections, giving it the dimensional look.

Next, I plan to cut bits and pieces (like in the study) to create a bit more movement. I don't think I necessarily want every letter to be striped like it is on the right, so I've kept a seperate layer copy without the pink lines. I might try working with textures or scans (I've contemplated scanning in some water color blotches) as opposed to photographs, and see how that turns out. I think that may work out well for a background as well.

My first attempt at typographic art

I found this picture while looking through a graphic design pdf file put together by Tanya Rubbak, whose art was recently featured in an article on Juxtapoz.com. Although it's not the best resolution, it struck me as something that might be interesting to mess around with.

To start out, I traced the letter in Illustrator. After experimenting with different Pathfinder tools, I ended up with the vector art on the right. As the stripes are slightly different on each side in the original design, I made them different colors so that I could easily edit the areas seperately in Photoshop.

After placing the vector file into Photoshop, I set each color to be its own seperate layer. Then, after I placed the pictures, I used the vector shapes to mask the appropriate areas of the photographs. After several masked layers, it finally started to look like the original photo.

Unfortunately, I made one grave error (oh no!). As I started working on top of the original, less-than-stellar-resolution photograph, I realized that I had forgotten to change the size of the canvas when I first started, and thus, the resolution on the final version is barely passable. Definitely something I'll have to watch out for in future projects.

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