Sea Creatures Stuffed Animals : Updated Fish

I updated the fish in my sea creatures stuffed animals collection.  The button eye wasn't consistent with the crab and octopus, so I changed it.  It is a more cohesive collection now.

Sea Creature Stuffed Animals

My professor in my Putting It All Together class was very impressed and happy with the exhibit panels that I made.  He told me for my final assignment I should have fun and create something for the gift shop.  I decided to make cute stuffed animals based on some of the illustrated characters I drew on the panels.  I thought a crab, an octopus, and a fish would make excellent stuffed animals that children would like, and I had fun designing and making them!

Note: Updated fish here

Here are some few in progress photos making the crab.

I forgot to take progress photos of the fish.  For the octopus I loosely followed this tutorial here.

SURTEX

This past weekend I made it down to New York City to go to the SURETX convention.  The SURTEX convention is the nation's premiere surface design show where artists go to have their work licensed by manufacturers.  I had a great time and enjoyed seeing all the art and design work - it was truly inspiring.  It also was great to talk to people in the industry and get some advice.  The show was also enjoyable because it included admission into the National Stationery Show and the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair).  I went to the show with my friend Sam Cole and you can see her beautiful work here.


Unfortunately photos were not allowed inside, but here are a few I managed to take.

The Javits Center

SURTEX with it's purple and neon seafoam colors

There were tons of magazines to pick up.  They are excellent reading material, but at the same time they added about 10 to 15 pounds to my bag!

On a side note, I ate at Chevy's and loved their graphic design and illustrations on their menu.  The color is awesome too.

Hello New York City!

Rhode Island Community Food Bank Poster Updated

I made a few changes to my food bank poster based off feedback I received in my critique.  The title is more legible and the can in the sun looks more realistic.  I also moved the collection dates so it would be larger and quicker to read.  You can see the pervious version here.

Surface Design: Fox Summer Dish Set

For my final assignment for my surface design independent study I am creating four dish sets for kids showing the seasons. This collection is the summer set inspired by my favorite summer memories of going camping.  I plan on having every dish set show the fox doing something unique to that season.

Rhode Island Community Food Bank Poster

Our final in my typography for illustrators class is to design a poster for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank's summer food drive.  The food bank will pick one poster from the class to use for its food drive this summer.  Below is my submission and I hope they pick it, I worked really hard on it!

Note: updated version here

Exhibit Design Panels - Shipwreck Exhibit for Children

For a semester long project in my Putting It All Together class, I designed a mock children's museum exhibit about shipwrecks.  I focused on creating multiple panels that would include information, illustrations, photos, videos, and interactive elements.  I really wanted to make the exhibit fun and exciting for kids.  Below you can see my whole process from initial sketches to final designs.  While creating this project I learned about combining graphic design, surface design (patterns in the background), photographs, and illustrations-and I learned about undersea archaeology too!

Initial sketches

Computer sketches

Final exhibit panels

Sketch on a Plane

I found myself on an airplane this weekend and decided to make a quick sketch of an older gentlemen sitting across the aisle from me.  I drew this on my new Intuos 5 tablet  For some reason I found it easier or less intimidating to draw a face on my tablet than with traditional media.  So here is my 5 minute sketch (he woke up).

Cupcake Ipsum

I was doing some research for a layout design and came across a fun new version of lorem ipsum.  Lorem ipsum is a word/text generator for graphic designers to use as a placeholder for body copy while they are beginning a project.  Yesterday I found cupcake ipsum!  It uses treats and other yummy goodies as the placeholder text.  The next time I need placeholder text I will definitely use cupcake ipsum because it is more fun than regular lorem ipsum.  If you want to visit the site click here.

Moving Sale Poster

For my typography class this week we are supposed to create a poster using type that was not created using the computer.  I was about to recycle some packaging peanuts when inspiration stuck me.  Below is my final poster.

Patterns for Exhibit Design

I am in the midst of creating an exhibit design for children about undersea archaeology.  The exhibit is a grouping of panels with information and interactive elements on it.  For the panels I wanted to create some pattens for the background.  Each pattern relates to a different part of the exhibit.  The wood is for the panel that tells about shipwrecks. The water pattern is for the main part of the exhibit which tells about discovery of sunken ships, submarines, and excavation.  Finally, the rock pattern is used on the panels that discuss artifacts and ecosystems.  I will be working on the graphic design of these panels in the next few weeks.  I can't wait to show you when it's complete!

Typography

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Here is some work from my typography class. I have always wanted to take a graphic design class and have been learning so much about fonts, layout, hierarchy, and more!  Learning about these things will help with my overall design work, but I can also see overlap into my illustration work because I am learning about composition and color.

An exercise exploring color with type

Poster inspired by old typeshop prints

Parking ticket design

"Hello My Name is" Senior Show

Here are the photos from my senior show "Hello My Name is". The opening was an amazing night being a culmination of all my efforts at RISD.  It was so great to celebrate this exciting moment and share it with eight of my friends!

My corner

Surface design wall

Product design and illustration wall

Goggles mock up

People looking at my work

Me with my work.  Photo courtesy of Mark Mooney.

These are photos of everyone in the show.

The whole group together!  We did it!