Earlier this week, Ian asked me if I would design a virtual poster for Dean Olwen Moseley for her bike ride to Cardiff Bay. Over the last few days I have designed some variations and I have been in contact with Olwen. Olwen wanted something simple and it needed to be done quickly so that it could be distributed before the bike ride on Monday 10th October. The designs I sent to Olwen are below:
Olwen most liked the first design and sent me a few adjustments to make before distributing the promotion. I changed the orange features to white and added the Cardiff Met logo. The finished design is below:
There are things about this poster that I would change and that irritate the perfectionist in me as I look at it now, however this was an accomplishment for me. I am only a beginner with the pen tool on illustrator, having taught myself the basics by following tutorials over the summer period. This is the first thing I have created with a purpose that isn’t just tracing photographs in order to come to terms with the tool. Just to be asked by Ian to design this project for Olwen gave me some confidence and reassured me that I can do these things and should have more belief in my abilities. When you’re surrounded by such talented people who are so much further advanced at programmes like photoshop and illustrator than myself, it is easy to compare myself to them and feel less capable. It is important to remember that every body has different strengths and there is no right or wrong way to design. Though it is important to have good technical skills on the computer in industry, it isn’t the be all and end all and it can also be incredibly useful to have good skills in creating things by hand, where my skills are stronger. This mini project has been a great way to start second year for me, as it has given me a confidence boost and proven to me that I can create real work for real people and should throw myself into extra curricular design activities more often.
