Final CD Cover

ORIGINAL IMAGE

This image is one of my final pieces from my university photography project. I first converted the photo into black and white and cropped it to fit the CD dimensions. Personally i much prefer black and white images as i think they have a much stronger impact as opposed to colour. Black and white also allowed me to experiment more with fonts and colours as they were less likely to get lost amongst the array of background colours. From looking into existing album covers i found that this is a technique regularly used. 

I went on to place my text in multiple locations around the page to get an idea of what worked best. 

I decided that the pink font was too difficult to read and didn't make enough of an impact on the dark background. Instead, i changed this to blue which is not only easier to read but also connotes the concept of freedom, linking in with the title 'Breakaway'.

FINAL CD COVER

 I decided that this was the best place to position the text as the solid dark background really allows it to stand out. The other positions i tried weren't nearly as effective as the text wasn't eligible on the textured backgrounds. I took care when positioning my text, making sure to apply the rules of alignment which are important to any graphic design project. 

  I wanted to choose a fairly simple font because the image already has a very strong impact and i didn't want to take too much attention away from this. I really liked the font used on Ellie Goulding's 'Halcyon Days' so i tried to find something similar for my own cover. The closet i could find was 'Microsoft Yi Baiti Regular' - I then spaced out each letter to create the effect i originally had in mind. For the album title i chose the contrasting font 'Segoe Script Regular' - I think these work really well together and the hand written style of 'Breakaway' adds more of a unique, personal touch.  

CD Cover - Experimental

ORIGINAL IMAGE

My chosen photograph was first converted in to black and white.


I then cropped it to fit the dimensions of a CD cover, made a copy, flipped it horizontally and placed it next to the original image.




The sun light on the floor was the perfect place to position the text with 'Lindsey' and 'Berrill' being divided by the central wall. I chose a simple black font which would allow the blue title to stand out more as the only pop of colour on the page.

Although i do like the final outcome and the techniques used, i think that using a different image could have a much bolder and stronger impact. 

Logo

REAR WINDOW BREW - PRETTY LITTLE LIARS

The logo i have designed is for the 'Rear Window Brew' - a coffee shop from the show Pretty Little Liars.

SKETCHING IDEAS
I started off by sketching some possible logo ideas...

PRACTICES

From the sketches, my favorite logo design was the one incorporating the coffee cup. However, once i started to actually create the logo in Adobe Illustrator it wasn't as effective as i'd imagined. I drew the coffee cup from scratch using the curvature tool which was ultimately a success however, i don't think the logo works very well on a whole. I prefer the first version more than the second as it's a lot more compact and together however, the coffee cup is fairly cliche and not necessarily needed.

I thought incorporating a window into the design instead of the generic coffee cup would be more appropriate and unique to this specific coffee shop. On a whole, i prefer the circle design as it appears neater and has a much bolder impact. However, I had some issues with placing the text how i originally planned and i think a better font could have been chosen. 
FINAL LOGO

PROCESS

I started off by drawing a circle with the ellipse tool. Within this i drew a smaller circle and simply used the line tool to create a window. I chose to fill in the space within the cirlces with a deep red colour to coincide with the colour used on the coffee shop sign in Pretty Little Liars. Finally, i placed a white rectangle over the design to split the circle in two, allowing me to insert the text.

I made sure to line up the central text with the outline of the circle and chose a contrasting dark brown colour to create a bold impact.


The 'Type on a Path Tool' was used to incorporate the text and curve it along the circumference of the circle.  I used the same font as 'WINDOW', just slightly smaller and white, to stand out against the red background.