Thanks to a tour at JDS Industries, I am the new owner of a leatherette journal. I can etch into it with the school’s laser (like I did with the tree ornament).
I just had a new assignment: a laser/engraving portfolio design piece. Some classmates are buying keychains, pens, etc. I am just rolling with the neat journal. I knew I wanted my design to be lyric-based. After listening to one of my favorite songs (Sunbleached Flies) I knew I had some verses to pick from.
I ended up creating my file in Illustrator and going with an eye-catching cathedral window. Picking out fonts was really fun, I wanted the font to match the tone of the lyric. Script fonts are really fun to play around with and I’ve curated a collection of fun cursive fonts on Adobe Fonts.
The final design 🙂
With the complex window, I opted to keep the rest of the design simple. I can’t wait to fire up the laser and engrave my notebook. Stay tuned!
Lately in Layout 3, we’ve been learning about trapping. It’s a printing technique. I’ve learned how to design, but it’s nice knowing the print side as well.
Today in my Production Lab class, we got to engrave tree shaped leatherette ornaments. It was a bit scary, but I think that’s because I didn’t want to mess with the engraver. I made up my designs below in Adobe Illustrator.
The front (v1)The front (v2)The back design
I ended up going with the second front design.
The frontThe back
My takeaways
When printing on this type of leather, bold letters show up better
If I would do this again, I would thicken the stroke of “Ethel Cain”
I had to do this on the fly and engrave the back twice because I could barely see the engraving the first time
It was a lot easier to use the engraver than I thought! Now I’m not as hesitant to use it.
I’ll be the first to admit, I wish I could do all of my projects to 210% of my ability. But with multiple school projects, working twenty hours a week, and trying to adult, it gets to be a lot sometimes. Because of my busy school and work life, sometimes my projects aren’t to the caliber that I try to uphold. So with some extra time this week, I wanted to revise some past projects.
Victim number one, I mean project number one, was my packaging design from last semester. I love the idea of it, but it just felt a little flat to me. The back seemed too plain.
The original packaging design
I made some minor adjustments, by increasing the size of the tagline above the rainbow, and keeping the rectangle motif. I think that helped it feel a bit more streamlined and professional feeling.
slightly tweaked packaging designnew logo type w/tweaked packaging design
I wanted to play around with the logo design as well. It just felt a bit rushed. In the future, I’ll take my revised versions to my teacher to get some feedback. The new logo design is growing on me. What do you think?
Hopefully I’ll post some more revised projects. Until then!
I’ve been steadily working on my perfume label in class. Initially, I wanted the perfume to have the scent of bleeding heart flowers, but since the bottle is an amber color, I decided on an orange scent.
I’m still playing around with font combinations for the brand. But I am happy with the body copy font (The Seasons).
The brand font in this early stage was GautreauxHere are my WIP font options… still not sold on any yet
Then I wanted to include orange blossoms on the label for some floral imagery. I found a reference online and digitized the flower for a sketch/illustration feel. I then resized it to better fit the label.
The current iteration of the perfume label, with a different brand font
I think I’m starting to get somewhere now. I need to play around with the borders (color, thickness, etc) as well as the color of the label itself. The brand font is better, but needs to be tampered with a bit. The orange blossom flowers need stems and perhaps leaves. This is far from its final form. Stay posted!!
The college homework saga continues! We are currently designing the nameplate, or title, of our magazine. After scrolling through adobe fonts, I finally found my font: casserole. Which is such a fun name and just warms my Midwest heart.
But picking a font was just the beginning. Now I have to expand my Illustrator skill set and figure out just how to manipulate type. I haven’t done a whole lot with typography so I consulted google and found these really helpful videos.
I learned a lot about the pencil tool! I’ve become so comfortable with the pen tool, that I haven’t tried it. That ends today!
Brainstorming
My magazine title is musings. After thinking and surfing Pinterest, I wanted to try incorporating a quill nib into the title.
some generic quill nibs (not my pic)
I started sketching how I wanted the nib to replace the i in musings.
some of my scribblings!some iterations
I like the one in the middle. I don’t think I need a dot for the i. This week, I’m going to check in with my teacher and get some feedback. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to knock out the middle pieces of the quill either.
That’s all for today folks! Did you learn anything new?
I’ve been chipping away at my final projects! Right now, I’m finalizing my last article spread. I really want to have it nearly finished so I can get feedback and turn in my magazine before class ends tomorrow. Here are my different iterations: I think I’m leaning towards the last one. Maybe I’ll change the…
I’ve been steadily working on my perfume label in class. Initially, I wanted the perfume to have the scent of bleeding heart flowers, but since the bottle is an amber color, I decided on an orange scent. I’m still playing around with font combinations for the brand. But I am happy with the body copy…
Jessica Walsh is a graphic designer, creative director, author, illustrator, design teacher, and founder of the design agency &Walsh. Her Career Walsh was born in Rhode Island in 1986. Before even stepping foot in college, she coded and designed websites at 11 years old. She got her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design in…
