Martin College Graphic Design Magazine

issue 2spring 2011

WELCOME

Material and articles in this publication are general comments, not advice. Any views or opinions presented in this publication are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent those of Martin College or Study Group Australia Pty Ltd. Artworks and material re-produced in this magazine have been created solely for educational purposes. This magazine has been produced by Martin College students solely for educational purposes.

imagine

Martin College is proud to publish the second edition of IMAGINE - the Martin College graphic design student magazine. As you read the features in this edition you will certainly be inspired by the breadth, depth and innovation of possible approaches to design.

This magazine provides a vehicle for graphic design students to have creative real-life design briefs and visual projects about current issues, trends and practices.

I extend my thanks and congratulate our IMAGINE editorial team and the graphic design students for the production of a truly exciting edition. This edition showcases the quality of work produced by our students and the extensive range within our graphic design course. The commitment shown to this project heralds a sparkling future for all those involved.

Ahabab Chowdhury National Director of Studies, Martin College

WINNINGMartin College

Students in the

The Australasian

Student Design

Awards.

4.

10-21.

STUDENT

GALLERY

24.

THE REAL

WORLDWhat’s it like to

freelance? MC

Students share

their experiences.

in this issue

6.DESIGN

AGENCYBasis Agency give

the low down on

an internship.

8. TUTOR TIPS #1 The Photoshop Colour Replacement Tool

22. TUTOR TIPS #2 Let your font do the talking

26. TUTOR TIPS #3 Web Design with CSS3 - the new version of CSS

28. ON SHOW Martin College’s Graduating Student’s Exhibition

31. THE WORK FORCE What it’s like to get a job

32. TUTOR TIPS #4The Value of Visualizing

14. Jason Hsiao:Taiwanese mask festival mascot illustration, Illustrator.

3

The Australasian Student Design Awards 2011

The annual Australasian Student Design Awards (ASDA), aims to elevate the region’s high achieving design students by recognising their outstanding work. ASDA brings together designs from various disciplines and has helped increase awareness and action on life cycle and sustainable design practices.

Martin College Brisbane campus nominated two outstanding design students for awards: Melissa Lee and Ashlie McManus. Each entrant’s design was exhibited at Australia’s leading design event, designEX.

Kudos is due to Ashlie McManus who won second place in the New Media Design category 2011. Ashlie has won a design internship of choice and a DIA Student Membership for 1 year sponsored by the Design Institute of Australia.

WINNINGimagine

Congratulations to both Ashlie and Melissa on the effort they put into these projects.

4

Melissa Lee

Submitted under the Visual Design category, Melissa designed promotional material to rebrand and relocate an

international event. This included a new logo, a mascot (Franki the combi van) and a sales presenter to promote this event.

Ashlie McManus

Entered under the New Media Design category, Ashlie designed an annual report to be distributed online as an interactive flip book. The multipage layout included an innovative fold-out table of contents with all images and graphics created by her. 5

imagine

DESIGNAGENCY

Martin College (MC) Workplace Co-ordinator Karen Sharp is

eagle eyed in finding internships for MC Design Students. The internships provide practical experience and they get to find out what the industry is really like. David Ryan, Creative Director at Basis Agency has hosted a number of MC students and shares some insights with Imagine readers.

What type of work does Basis Agency do?

We are a mainstream advertising agency which designs and produces everything from full advertising campaigns (eg print, radio and television) to corporate identity projects (eg logos, business cards and brand style guides). We also design and produce fully integrated websites and electronic marketing material. We have been in business for 14 years.

How many Martin College students have you had at your business for work or internships?

We have had several Martin College students over the two years that I have been in charge of the creative department at Basis. Some of the students we have had with us have included Taleah Weir in 2010, Melissa Lee and Meg Crocker this year.

The support services such as the Career Starter Program that Martin College have are really important to the graduates.

When selecting graduate students to work at your company, what criteria do you use?

• A great folio that shows a candidate’s range of skills.

• An ability to work in all the appropriate design programs, eg Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

6

• Enthusiam and the drive to be proactively involved.

• A good understanding of design in all its facets and generalproductionandfinishedart skills.

What types of work do you get the graduating students to do?

We are constantly developing new logos and branding for our clients. We design weekly press ads and material that helps these students to develop a good understanding of production and the daily pressures of working in an agency.

Have any of the students surprised you with their experience or lack of?

I’ve found that all the students we have had with us thus far have demonstrated a great skills base from which they can build on. Recently, we had the pleasure of working with Melissa Lee, a graduate who had previous experience working in another retail studio before she completed the Martin College course. Melissa was arealfind.Unfortunately,shehasrecently moved on and taken up a full time roll at another agency.

How would you rate the level and standard of work in the MC student portfolios?

I like a lot of the folios I see coming out of the Martin College course. It isatoughmarketinwhichtofindemployment but I think the folios

I’ve seen display a great potential.

How job ready are the students and is their training relevant to the industry?

The students I’ve seen are all getting the right training, however, this is one of those industries where there is no substitute for experience. Experience builds confidence,skillsandtheability tocommunicateconfidently.

If you could have had one piece of advice when starting out, what do you wish it was?

You need a great folio to get to firstbase.Afterthat,it’stalent,enthusiasm, commitment and being a team player. My one piece of advice however would be: You’re in the communication business. You will particularly need to develop your ability to connect with an extensive range of ages and socio-economic groups. One great way to do this is to continuously peruse a variety of publications and to watch and listen to a broad range of TV and radio networks, including those outside of your typical reading, viewing and listening preferences. Your ability to be an effective and dynamic communicator is an essential skill in this industry and is one that will require constant development if you are to continue to be great at your job.

imagine

7

Selecting the Color Replacement Tool

Colour Replacement Tool is in with the regular Brush Tool.

With the Colour Replacement Tool selected, your mouse cursor will change into a circle with a target in the centre. You can adjust the size of the circle from your keyboard using the bracket keys [ and ].

How the colour Replacement Tool works

As you drag the Colour Replacement Tool over your image, Photoshop continuously samples the colour that’s directly under the cursor. This is the colour that will be replaced with your current Foreground colour.

Any pixels that fall within the larger circle surrounding the target symbol that match the colour will have their colour changed. There are some options we can set in the Options Bar to alter the behaviour of

the tool (which we’ll look at shortly), but essentially, that’s how it works.

You can see what your Foreground colour is currently set to by looking at the Foreground colour swatch.

To change the Foreground colour, simply click directly on the colour swatch - I’ll choose a green colour, just for fun.

If we paint on an image with the Colour Replacement Tool at this point, whichever colour the target symbol is over will be replaced with green. As an example, here’s a photo of a young girl holding a balloon.

Photoshop’s Colour Replacement Tool is not the most professional way to change colours in an image, but it works well for simple tasks and is such an easy tool to use that it’s worth giving it a try before moving on to more advanced and time consuming methods.

Tarnya Mcburney

THE PHOTOSHOP COLOUR

REPLACEMENT TOOLimagine: tutor tips #1

8

She may look happy with her blue balloon, but what she really wanted was a green balloon. With the Colour Replacement Tool selected, I’ll move the target symbol over the blue balloon in the image and click my mouse button - any blue pixels that fall within the larger circle surrounding the target symbol immediately change to green (my Foreground colour).

As long as I keep the target symbol over the blue balloon and don’t stray off into other areas of the image only the blue colour will be

replaced with green.

Tolerance: Everything seems to be going smoothly as I paint over the balloon until I get to the edges. If you look closely, you can see some faint blue fringing at the edges.

The Tolerance setting determines how different a colour can be from the sampled colour for Photoshop to replace it with the Foreground colour. The default value is 30%, which is a good starting point. I’ll increase my Tolerance value to 50%, which will allow the Colour Replacement Tool to affect a wider range

of colours. With a higher Tolerance value entered, I’ll undo my last step and try again. This time, as I move along the edge of the balloon, the Colour Replacement Tool is able to remove the blue fringing.

Our once blue balloon is magically transformed into green thanks to the Colour Replacement Tool and a little boost in the Tolerance value.

9

Sera Turqiri: Billboard advertisement, Photoshop.

Henrique Barros: Billboard advertisement, Illustrator & Photoshop.

10

student gallery

Natalie Schnelzer: Vector Magazine Cover, Illlustrator.

11

Greg Emmett: Sales presenter, logo, mascot and merchandise for new international event, Illustrator & InDesign.

12

student gallery

R EDCentre

Florists

Elliot KiddAmanda

Beran

Sara Westman

Luke Cridland

Sabrina Romanov

Sera Turqiri

13

Jason Hsiao:

Taiwanese mask

festival mascot

illustrations, Illustrator.

14

student gallery

Anna Bergstrom: Event merchandise illustrations,

Illustrator & InDesign

15

Elliot Kidd: Biscuit packaging template, Illustrator.

16

student gallery

Luciana Barros: Martin College Library promotional poster,

Illustrator & InDesign.17

Tzu-Yu LIN (Sushe): Poster, Illustrator

18

student gallery

Eleanor Clarke: Typography Illustration, Illustrator

19

Amanda Beran: Poster design and vector illustration, Illustrator.

20

student gallery

Ashlie McManus: Website design, logo design and content for

event, Photoshop & Illustrator.

21

Selecting the best fonts to use in your design work can be one of the most time consuming elements of a job, and can be the difference between a good design and a great design.

Everyone has a different method for selecting fonts and quite often we choose them simply because we like them. But does the font you have chosen sing the message of your design in the right tone of voice?

Good font selection will be harmonious to the other elements in your design and will speak to you in a certain tone of voice.

We all know that typing in capital letters on your messenger service is like shouting; fonts also have a tone. Some, are elegant and soft, others, are butch and bold. Vivid, exciting, authoritative are all adjectives that can describe the tone a font can take.

How to choose your fonts to speak the right tone is primarily a subjective exercise however, following are some guidelines I use when making my selection.

LET YOUR

FONT DO THE

TALKING

imagine: tutor tips #2

http://bonfx.com/19-top-fonts-in-19-top-combinations/http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/DTG-Solutions/WhichType.htmlhttp://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/headline_fonts.htmhttp://www.fontmarketplace.com/category/calm-fonts.aspxhttp://bonfx.com/the-100-best-fonts-in-a-huge-sortable-table/

GReAT WeB ReSouRCeS

Melissa Lutton

22

1 2 34 65

Understand your target audience and the core message you are trying to impart ie are you shouting about a Discount Warehouse or are you promoting a new range of designer handbags. This will help you use the correct tone of font.

Limit the number of fonts you use. This will obviously depend on the size of your document but, I would advocate no more than two different fonts. When selecting your font it is a good idea to choose fonts that have a good size family ie bold, extra bold, light, italic, condensed, extended. This means you can use the same font for the entire document but with different variations. It is not a good idea to stretch or squash fonts or to use outlines. Fonts are designed in a specific way and by altering the spacing or weight, the design of the font may be compromised.

Be wary of using trendy‚ fancy‚ or stylised fonts, especially in logos! Chances are when the fashion changes in six months, (and you see your favoured font on the front of a store that has gone into liquidation) you will hate your design. Logos need to be timeless. Trendy fonts are great for publications or material that have a short shelf life ie newspaper advertising; event posters, fashion t-shirts etc.

Consider readability and legibility particularly for details such as terms and conditions, phone numbers, addresses or long pieces of text. While Times New Roman and Helvetica may be boring, they are proven to be easy to read.

Never use a script font in CAPITAL LETTERS. It is impossible to read

As a very rough indicator, the combination of sans serif fonts for a heading and a serif font for the body text will generally make for easy reading.

23

Jo and Yvette, you just finished working on a real Graphic Design project together. Where did you meet, and how did you get the job?

Yvette: We met in class (Graphic Design Martin College) and saw that we could work really well together. A website called Gumtree had some graphic design ads. I saw one looking for a photographer with photoshop skills so I sent an email; just trying my luck. The client called a few days later, explained the job, and I realised it would be way too much to do by myself. I asked Jo if she was interested in sharing the job as she is a photographer.

Can you give IMAGINE readers a quick summary of the Graphic Design brief.

Jo: There was no written brief, so we had to improvise. The job just

kept getting bigger and bigger. At first it was just the photography and photo editing of 150 pieces of jewellery, the client was impressed and then got us to do the actual layout for his jewellery catalogue with realistic sized product images and their details.

How was it working as a team? Did you give yourselves separate tasks to share the workload?

Yvette: We split the job so that Jo took all the photos and I did all the cutting out, and touch ups. Jo also fixed the colours of the photos and I did the catalogue layout.

What were the biggest challenges of this job?

Jo: Most probably the pressure that was put on us to meet the Deadline. We didn’t realise how long the job would take and there was a lot of running back and

THE REAL

WORLDimagine

24

forth, doing touch ups and fixing little things. I only had a limited time to photograph all the jewellery to the client’s standards. However they didn’t have any working studio equipment, therefore I was forced to improvise with household items to try and perfect the jewellery shot. Jewellery is not one of the easiest thing to photograph!

How did you feel when you saw the final printed version?

Jo & Yvette: It was the most exciting thing ever! It felt like this massive weight was lifted off our shoulders. It kind of felt like ending a journey.

What tips can you give other students thinking of taking on freelance graphic design work during their course?

Yvette: Don’t under estimate the size of the job and make sure that the contract is perfect to avoid any misunderstandings between the client and you. Don’t let the client try and get away with giving you less money or make you do more work without updating the contract.

Just be prepared and don’t get stressed out when things get a bit messy, it’ll all pay off in the end :)

25

HTML and CSS are the basic building blocks when creating a Web site. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is used to structure the content of the page, like headings, paragraphs, lists and images.CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) isusedtodefinehowtheHTMLelements will be displayed and styled, like font, size, colour and position.Currently, the standard for web design uses a version of CSS which dates from 1998. However, since 2008 the W3C has been working on a new standard which is now a working draft - the all new CSS3!

So what can CSS3 do for you now?

Here is a basic list of things that CSS3 can do now in some of the most recent web browsers:

• Gradients• Rounded corners• Drop shadows• Rotation• Opacity• Border images• Multiple backgrounds• Multi-column layout

When can you start using CSS3?Although CSS3 is only a working draft, you can start using it today. Have a look at the following table that shows which CSS3 properties are supported by the major web browsers - look at css3please.com, www.css3.info or check my blog webdev-il.blogspot.com and click on the CSS3 label to view details about CSS3.Just remember CSS3 is the future and so is HTML5 (but, that’s another story).

WEB DESIGN WITH CSS3

imagine: tutor tips #3

The new CSS3 logo

THE NEW VERSION OF CSS

Toby Daniel

26

CSS3 Properties & Web Browser support

Firefox Safari IEChrome Opera

3.6 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11.1

RGBA colours ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

HSLA colours ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Background Size ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Multiple Back-

grounds

✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Border Image ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓

Border Radius ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Box Shadow ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Text Shadow ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓

Opacity ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

CSS Animations ✓✓

CSS Columns ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓

CSS Gradients ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓

CSS Reflections ✓✓

CSS Transforms ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

CSS Transforms 3D

CSS Transitions ✓ ✓✓ ✓

CSS FontFace ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

FlexBox ✓ ✓ ✓✓

Just remember CSS3 is the future

“

“ 27

On 17th February 2011 the Martin College Brisbane campus hosted the graduating students Graphic Design Exhibition. This exhibition showcased the work of the talented Design students who have recently graduated from the Diploma of Graphic Design.

Theworksondisplayreflectedthestudents’ skills and passions, and covered a range of mediums from drawing to typography, creative advertising and web.

The exhibition boasted 48 printed works and multimedia displays for guests to view. Students also had

theopportunitytopresenttheirfinalportfolios to a discerning audience of friends, family, colleagues, and industry representatives.The exhibition was organised and run entirely by the design students and the event’s success was a credit to the hard work and dedication of the student body.Visitors to the exhibition said the high calibre and professionalism of the work on display was a credit to the students and to the design department facilitators.

The other highlight at the exhibition wasthelaunchofImagine‚thefirstedition of the student-produced Graphic Design magazine.

Pics: Sara Westman

ON SHOW

imagine

28

With a year of study under their belt, many of the graduates are now continuing their studies at tertiary level, and some have already secured full time work in the industry.

29

21st Century: Art in the First Decade

I never thought I’d see a slippery slide in the middle of an art gallery. Holler’s Left/Right slide is just one of the many pieces at GOMA’s recent contemporary exhibition. Focusing exclusively on works created and acquired between 2000 and 2010,

with interactive art works and projects created by exhibiting artists especially for children and families. The Martin College Graphic Design students took a tour of the exhibition, enjoying some of the beautiful and some of the bizarre worksfromartistofthefirsthalfofthe 21st century.

Sprite Musgrave

ARTimagine

30

Meg Crocker and Sera Tuqiri didn’t waste much time finding work after graduating from Martin College. Karen Sharp, workplace co-ordinator was able to put them in touch with a local sign company and both were lucky to get work. Sera on a full time basis, and Meg on a contract basis. Sera discusses her work.

Name: Sera Tuqiri

Company name and description:

Signright. We specialise in large format digital printing, car signage, wrapping and shop signs. Signright design, print, manufacture and install.

Job Description? My job is basically to design a range of prints for visual communication. I prepare the design for the client, and once they’ve approved it, I produce it ready for installation.

What are some of your daily tasks? My tasks range from day to day and just to name a few: liaising with clients, designing layouts for vehicle wraps, business cards, logos,

buildingsignage,preparingfilesfor print. (the list goes on - invite me over for a drink and I’ll tell you more!)

What do you love about GD?

I love every aspect of graphic design from conceptualising an idea, creating it and then seeing it come to life. It’s pretty cool seeing something I’ve worked on displayed in public - freaks me out all the time!

What is your least favourite task?

Not enough hours in the day.

Best advice for students?

Tertiary education gives you a solid foundation. It makes you stand out from the crowd and could make all the difference you need to land that firstjob!

Q&Aimagine: the workforce

Former Students (l) Meg Crocker and (r) Sera Tuqiri pictured with

directors of Signright Tim and Steve Best. Pic: Melissa Lutton

31

Visualizing saves time and money

Visualizing is a skill worth developing. The greatest asset graphic design students possess is something called – ‘a brain’. It sits up in the cerebral hemisphere but is often seen floating into digital space.

Visualizing empowers the designer to control the entire creative process. This saves time and money!

Practice Visualizing techniques

Here’s an example from one of the course modules ie, ‘take an existing ad and make it better’.

Here’s a BMW ad. Great product, great brand but terrible ad.

Harvey Hapi

THE VALUE OF

VISUALISING

imagine: tutor tips #4

1Start with quick 2B pencil thumbnail roughs using overlays. This allows the creative juices to flow.

32

3

4

Before and after

Next, proceed to a black fine marker. This solidifies the layout. Always check the dimension and proportions of the ad. (NB: At this point the designer can quickly and inexpensively change the creative strategy if it is not working).

Now, render the ad using a combination of pantone markers, watercolor pencils, fine black markers and gouache. Try to do this rendering in less than 20 minutes. It is possible with practice!

With all the creative boxes ticked, now proceed to digitally compose the final ad. The final ad should resemble the visuals.

2

33

StaffToby Daniel: editor & web versionHarvey Hapi: tutor tipsMelissa Lutton: print coordinatorTarnya McBurney: tutor tips

StudentsLayout: Elliot KiddFront Cover Image: Elliot Kidd; Moeko Kusunose; Luciana Barros

Featured studentsHenrique Barros; Luciana Barros; Amanda Beran; Anna Bergstrom; Luke Cridland; Greg Emmett; Yvette Hough; Jason Hsiao; Elliot Kidd; Melissa Lee; Joanna Lim; Ashlie McManus; Denise Musgrave; Sabrina Romanov; Natalie Schnelzer; Sera Turqiri; Sara Westman; Eleanor Clark; Tzu-Yu LIN (Sushe)

Imagine Magazine Graphic Design TeamUS

imagine

34

Choose a course in:

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Marketing

event ManageMent

tourisM

inforMation teChnology

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get the Career you want.

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Online Edition:www.martincollege.edu.au/magazine/imagine_magazine.html

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