Cumulative Project

In a world that is rapidly becoming more and more visual, graphic design plays an important role in all aspects of media. Therefore, there are many job opportunities with training in photoshop. This business card provides my name and information, highlighting some of my favorite work from the year. I used the theme of unity throughout this business card through the colors I chose. The colors of the text and border were taken directly from the pieces of art that I showcased. The color of the background emphasizes this by contrasting these bright colors with a simple black and white gradient in the background.

Thanks for a great year Ms. Burnett!

Avatar

This project involved creating avatars of ourselves through photoshop. In the first piece, I chose to make myself an avatar that resembled those from the movie, Avatar. I tinted my skin and hair blue, broadened my nose, enlarged my eyes, and shaded them bright yellow. I even chose to make it seem as if my shirt had been torn. Finally, I inserted a background from the planet Pandora, the home of the Navi. For the next project, I chose to emphasize the traits that people often tell me I have. I have been told I have a small mouth, yellow eyes, dark eyebrows, and a prominent chin. Therefore, I tinted my eyes yellow, used the Burn tool to darken my eyebrows, used Liquify to shrink my mouth, and painted a small line to emphasize my chin.

Hotel Rwanda- Hope

To the people seeking refuge in his hotel, Paul Rusesabagina is a constant symbol of hope. He saves them from multiple dangerous situation and makes sure to protect his guests and family as best he can. That is why I chose to associate him with the word "Hope" in this project. The hands reaching towards him are all those he brings comfort and safety to.

Radio Theme: The Spark

In the beginning of Hotel Rwanda, a signal was given to all Hutus to begin killing the Tutsi. This signal was given over the radio. Tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi had been high for a long time. In a sense, the explosives were set, and all that was necessary to set them off was a spark. The radio provided this spark. This cartoon depicts a personified radio lighting a fuse in order to set off the Rwandan Genocide.

Radio Theme: Cockroaches

The most common words that could be heard coming from the radio in Hotel Rwanda were, "Crush the cockroaches." "Cockroaches" was a demeaning name given to the Tutsis by the Hutu. The radio constantly blasted anti-Tutsi propaganda such as this to encourage the Hutu to destroy their Tutsi neighbors. This cartoon personifies a radio, as if the radio itself is striking at the cockroaches.

Radio Theme: Hutu Rally

Though not obvious, Hutu Power Radio played significant roles in parades and rallies such as this one. In the first scene of Hotel Rwanda, a rally almost identical to the one above was held by the Hutu. In the background, the radio could be heard, egging them on. In order to express the subtle role of radio in the Hutu uprising, I inserted a small radio tower in the back of the picture.

Radio Theme: Hutu Weapons

Machetes and Ak-47's are typically described as the main weapons of the Hutu. However, one of their most effective weapons against the Tutsi is often not recognized. This weapon, the radio, is hidden above. It is hidden to show its discreet yet terrible role in the genocide.

Radio Theme: Hutu Power Radio

This piece introduces the theme for my next four projects. Hutu Power Radio plays an important role in the movie Hotel Rwanda. It gives the Hutus the knowledge and organization they need to find and destroy the Tutsis.

Hotel Rwanda Movie Poster

This is a poster designed around the movie Hotel Rwanda. The different colors signify the Rwandan flag, and the images beneath signify the violence that plagues the country. Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) stands in the center. The hands reaching towards him symbolize all the people he strives to help, and the sun symbolizes the hope that he gives to them.

Hidden Object

The purpose of this project was to hide an object within a scene, making it difficult to find for viewers. Because it is March, I chose to hide a leprechaun within a bed of clovers. Unfortunately, because of his red beard, he is fairly easy to spot.

Filtered Stencil

For this project, we had to create stencils, showing one image through another using some sort of shape. I chose to show an image of a crashing wave through several different surfboards, with another beach scene in the background.

Animoto Video

This project involved a website called Animoto. This website allows you to create a themed slideshow of various images, and set this slideshow to music. I chose a water theme for my slideshow, and I inserted pieces of my artwork which I though would go nicely with the theme. I chose an upbeat jazzy song for  my video because I thought it matched the video nicely.

Chairs

This project, though difficult, turned out to be one of my favorite projects this year. We coated chairs in paintings and photographs. I chose to coat my chairs in famous pieces of artwork by Andy Warhol. The second chair, which Sam and I worked on, is coated in paintings by Jackson Pollock. The second part of the project was to create a shadow for the chair. This was a fairly simple way to create a realistic effect.

Comic Strip

By: Sam, Ian, and Michael
For this project, we took pictures of ourselves around the school, and made them look like a comic strip by adding speech bubbles, and using the effect Posterize to make them look like cartoons. We could not find a conclusion exciting enough to do it justice, and we wanted it to remain a mystery. So, it is up to the viewer to decide what Michael was doing.

Smoke Tutorial

This tutorial teaches a very realistic, but somewhat complicated way to add smoke to a photo. However, the upside of the complexity of this method, is that it allows the artist to adjust the smoke freely, contorting the smoke in any way they want.

Artist Review- Wolf Kahn

I enjoy the exaggerated color Wolf Kahn uses, like the startling pinks and yellows. Though his paintings are not realistic, they still remind me strongly of fresh air and the outdoors. He is able to take a scene from nature, make it somewhat abstract, but still keep it instantly recognizable.

Inside Out

In this project, we took the exterior of something, and tried to represent what is on the inside. I chose to take a picture of myself and depict the inside of my head as a variety of gears. I used the lasso tool to delete half of my head, and behind it I had a black background. I filled the empty space with different gears, to show that the human brain is very complicated.

Filtered Self Portrait

In this project, we created nine self-portraits, each with a different filter on them. I used a wide range of filters, each of them doing something very different. My favorites were the Glow Filter (middle right) and the Mosaic Filter (middle left). The Glow filter changed the background to black, while outlining crucial lines of the photo in bright colors, making it look like a neon sign. The Mosaic Filter made my portrait appear to be made up of tiny tiles.

Midterm

Our midterm project was to create a piece filed with 35 squares, each of them containing something different. Some contain one-square-inch snapshots of previous projects, while others contain solid colors.  

I attempted to make my arrangement of squares seemingly random. while still keeping it eye-pleasing. I made the solid block colors match the colors in many of the pieces of art, and attempted to organize the matching colors, to a certain extent. I wish I had had more time, and then I would have been able to fill the top 7 squares with interesting snapshots.

Holiday Card

Marla

This work is based off of paintings done by a famous four-year-old named Marla in Binghamton, New York. However, there is controversy over whether or not she actually completed these paintings herself. Her father is suspected have helped her along, or maybe even to have done the paintings himself. Either way, the paintings have a distinct abstract style.