#trremix

via Pinterest

Annette is an avid biker - on an average, summer day, she bikes 12 miles. For this piece, we wanted to do something surrounding her passion. Originally, we were going to edit the Twisted Rope logo inside a bike wheel, like the below examples. 

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

However, Annette thought of remixing the logo into an entire scene like the image below, instead of only an up-close shot of a wheel.

via Unsplash

In the end, she searched the Internet for famous bike scenes and when the E.T. movie poster popped up, she decided on that.

via Entertainment Weekly

I wanted to personalize the graphic so I swapped out Elliott and E.T. for Annette and her dog, Hermes. However, she suggested that I should be in the basket since we collaborated on the piece together. To make it accurate, I found a picture of her bike on Instagram to use as a reference. Annette prefers to wear her hair in a ponytail when she’s biking so I added that into the piece, too.  Lastly, I wanted us to be flying over the Tri-Main Center, which is where our North American office is headquartered.

To create this graphic, I first drew a draft using Copic black pens and Canson illustration board. Next, I utilized both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to digitize the design.

For the most part, the process was fairly simple. I love experimenting in Illustrator so that part didn’t take very long. The most challenging part was getting the lighting right so that the brightness of the moon shone properly on the top of the Tri-Main Center. Originally, I made the image longer so that the moon was higher in the sky but that wouldn’t work for social media so I reworked it to the current design.

I’m very pleased with how this turned out and I can’t wait to collaborate on a future TR Remix with another Twisted team member. 

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To start, I picked my color palette. I stuck with Twisted Rope’s main colors so I used various shades of gray and orange. I also decided on a blue background to make the orange pop. 

In order to create the look of a painting, I used special brushes in Photoshop that give off that exact effect. These brushes allow the user to control the thickness and weight of the strokes, making the graphic appear more realistic and life-like.

Here’s an up-close shot of the texture. 

Here is the overlay I used to add depth.

Once the painting was complete, it was time to “hang” it somewhere. Originally, I put it against a brick wall. However, I found that it was too busy and distracting; I wanted the background to complement the painting, not compete with it. So, I swapped out the brick for a solid, pink wall. 

When the background was finished, I realized it looked like a painting hanging in a museum. Therefore, I added a small light on top of the piece and created shadows around it. To finish it off, I stuck a small plaque at the bottom of the painting.  

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Orange and Yellow, 1956

Blue, Green, and Brown, 1952

White Center, 1950

While not specifically inspired by Rothko’s work, this week’s TR Remix is about the exploration between color and environment.

Color allows a specific environment to take shape. By utilizing different hues and saturation, viewers can distinguish specific elements in a piece of art, illustration or graphic.    

My main goal was to build a world inside the Twisted Rope logo, instead of building the logo into another world or environment (like I previously did here). I wanted to manipulate color in a way that would create depth.

To make this effect, I used bright gradients and layering to build depth, as well as a horizon. I also used specific colors to allow for the background to be understood, like the green trees and white clouds. To distinguish the rope section from the rest of the logo, I used a brighter palette, which allowed for it to stand out from the background and remain recognizable.

Once the illustration and coloring was complete, I thought the piece felt a little flat. Therefore, I added a bit of subtle noise and texture to give it a printed appearance.

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This week, I wanted to do something that was not only festive but also hands-on so I decided to carve our logo onto a pumpkin. Instead of simply superimposing the logo on a stock image, I wanted to do it for real.

While some Photoshop was used in the end, the majority was done by hand. I ventured to Green Acre Farms in Rochester, N.Y., to find my perfect pumpkin.

Hands-On Portion

I followed simple pumpkin-carving protocol for this experiment. First, I hollowed out my specimen using a scraper from a carving kit. Next, I made a stencil of our logo by enlarging it to fit on a standard 8.5 x 11 in. piece of paper. After cutting it out and taping it to the front of the pumpkin, I traced the stencil by poking holes with a knife. Once the outline was complete, I removed the stencil and carved out the designated sections.

Merging Analog with Digital

The original picture of my pumpkin was taken at the Twisted Rope offices in Buffalo, N.Y. However, for the purposes of this remix, I wasn’t completely happy with how the picture turned out. I couldn’t take a new picture because my pumpkin rotted out and was soon covered in flies.

For a quick fix, I used a free stock photo from Pixabay and got a little help from Photoshop.

To start, I used image masking to get the logo I carved on this photo. Next, I had to match the colors. As you can see, my pumpkin doesn’t have any green on it, while the pumpkin in the stock photo does. I played around with hue to get it to look just right.  

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Like many people who enjoy mindless internet distractions, I always love cool, food-related photos and videos. Be it royal icing videos, tiny food, or just pictures of nicely-decorated cookies, there’s something uniquely satisfying about edible masterpieces. 

One of my favorite food-as-art distractions is Oreo art, which is when artists use an Oreo as both a canvas and a medium. The trend started in 2015 when Tisha Cherry first started creating clever Oreo art. 

via. Tisha Cherry’s Instagram

The Twisted Rope logo lends itself well to a round canvas, so I gave it a shot for this week’s TR Remix.

To start, I googled the diameter of an Oreo. The diameter is 1 ¾ in. or 4.445cm. Based on that knowledge, I grabbed the Twisted Rope logo and plopped it into PowerPoint where I resized it to 1 ¾ in. wide.

Next, I made 12 copies of that logo because I didn’t expect my first attempt to be successful. I wasn’t quite sure how things were going to work at this point. 

Was the whole logo going to appear on the Oreo? 

Do I use the filling as a circular border or the cookie? 

With so many questions and no answers, I decided to play it safe. I resized a few of the logos to have varying template sizes just in case I wanted to get wild with this thing.

Template with 12 Twisted Rope logos in various sizes.

At this point, I would like to disclose that I have not eaten an Oreo in about 10 years. I am, unfortunately, gluten-free and have only eaten off-brand gluten-free “sandwich cookies” for the last decade. While there isn’t a lot positive to say about gluten-free alternatives, these cookies have always been stuffed evenly with filling – as in, the filling goes right to the edges and I have never felt shafted upon opening one up. Additionally, gluten-free sandwich cookies are weirdly durable. The cookies themselves are strong and the filling is dense enough that it holds onto itself under most circumstances. This may not seem important, but it absolutely is for my Oreo-carving experience.

With my templates set and package of Oreos in hand, I was ready to get carving. I grabbed a toothpick and opened my first Oreo only to discover mayhem. The filling did not reach to the edges and it didn’t stay attached to one side. I was operating with my gluten-free sandwich cookie experience in mind and didn’t even think to be delicate with the cookie separation. 

Nonetheless, I declared the not-really-intact filling okay for a first attempt and continued the process. However, it was then I realized my templates based on the 1¾ in. diameter were not going to work as intended. Luckily my unintentional, forward-thinking plan about various template sizes came in handy. I cut out one of the medium templates and got to work.

A close-up of the messy process.

I ended up going through three cookies and sticking my elbow in a lot of filling before being happy with my final product. The process of carving was not quite what I expected, but it was an interesting experience.

As it turns out, Oreo filling gets soft when you’re actively touching, stabbing, and probably breathing too closely to it. Every few minutes, I would pop the Oreo in the freezer to harden up the filling to make it easier to manipulate. After doing that the first time, I realized that Oreos don’t particularly like to jump temperatures. A few minutes after taking one out of the freezer, the cookie would start sweating and it ended up being a little shiny for its photoshoot.

Once I had my picture, I brought it into Photoshop for a little bit of correcting. I zoomed in, added a photo filter, and adjusted the brightness.

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The donut perched on top of the bakery measures 32 ft. tall and has made cameos in numerous photos, TV shows and movies, like Iron Man 2, Futurama and The Simpsons. Their menu includes delectable-looking glazed donuts, as well as apple fritters. 

via. Marvel Gifs

via. Slurmed

via. tstotopix

When I was initially brainstorming iconic Los Angeles landmarks, I wanted to use the Hollywood sign. But, it turned out to be more complex than I thought. So, I chose Randy’s Donuts because the circular part of our logo fits perfectly onto the donut.

The original photo was taken during the daytime so I modified the sky to simulate a night scene to turn our logo into a neon sign.

I removed the text and placed the Twisted Rope logo on top.

After, I added stars to the sky to create the nighttime scene. I also had to make sure that my light source made sense with the texture of the donut. There was something missing to make this remix complete, so I added a soft glow of lights to make it look more realistic.

I originally had the signature pixel of our logo glowing pink but changed it to our Twisted orange.

For me, this was an exercise in creating space and image compositing. I also made the signs from scratch, which was a little challenging, but the end result was worth it.

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By Shannon Gostomski Motion Graphics Animator, Twisted Rope

Initially inspired by the many variations of MTV’s logo iterations throughout its history, my original plan was to create a cartoon-y textured version of Twisted Rope’s logo.

When I started the animation, I started creating various textures, but as I continued, it felt like the animation was missing something.

I took a break and thought about using Trapcode Form, a plugin I’ve never worked with before and wanted to experiment with.

The plugin is part of Red Giant’s Trapcode Suite and contains a series of plugins that are a staple in a motion designer’s toolbox.

Since this was my first time working with this particular plugin, I started from scratch and watched tutorials to learn how to to use it.

As I watched the tutorials on the latest version of Trapcode Form, I decided to experiment with using the plugin to create textures for the TR Remix. Using Form, my piece moved towards a different direction visually. It went from a cartoon-like idea to a more digital and retro-space type of vibe.

Below are still images of the texture grids used for this week’s TR Remix:

I really enjoyed working on this piece and seeing how it evolved. Since this was the first time I’ve used this plugin, it was fun to experiment and learn something new. The finishing touch was adding the sound effects to give the remix a little extra something.

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For this week’s TR Remix, the design team decided to use “food” as a theme. Instead of having a mix of random food bunched together, I narrowed it down to a specific category. Personally, I really love cool-toned colors and wanted to incorporate these in the remix. With the color palette in mind, I thought about green colored food and immediately thought of veggies.

I went with the illustrated-style look because I like how the fine lines make the image cleaner. I wanted the final piece to look clean and minimalistic, which is why I opted to create tiny illustrations of the vegetables.

First, I found pictures of all the vegetables I wanted to use and I drew it out on the computer to match the picture. I was looking for all variations of green vegetables and eventually lined them up from lightest to darkest. I used green apples, cucumbers, jalapeños, Brussels sprouts, green peppers, broccoli, asparagus, kiwis, avocados, celery, grapes, watermelons, pears, limes and artichokes.

For the gray parts of the logo, I wanted it to match the same tones as the green and narrowed it down to the few veggies I would use. The gray areas were created with garlic, white corn, cauliflower, beans, onions and turnips for the white vegetables.

For our signature orange pixel in the logo, I used carrots and oranges.

After all the illustrations were created, it came to the fun part, which was putting the different fruits and veggies together to form the logo. The illustrations were done but I had to fit them within the boundaries of what the Twisted Rope logo normally looks like. As I went along, I adjusted a few of the colors from what I had started with.

Towards the end, I added the white food because I felt if I left this space of the logo empty, it wouldn't feel complete. I included the orange square to match the Twisted Rope logo.

I'm happy with the result and how it turned out. If I were to do it again, I would maybe make each of the illustrations a bit larger. That being said, I like how at a distance you can instantly recognize the Twisted Rope logo, but once you take a closer look, you can easily identify each vegetable used.

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