#week1-5

Since I’ve only just learnt Illustrator and Photoshop, I am happy with what I can create with it now, but I want to improve it to become professional and efficient in it.

I enjoyed creating vectors and icons and would like to improve upon it because I think it’s quite a useful skill to be good at.

I have improved with the pen tool in Illustrator, but I am at a beginner level and struggle to make objects unless I’m tracing something for it. I managed the in-class and SDL activities fine, but once I wanted to create my own designs or without tracing, I struggle to control the lines and anchor points the way I would like. I think what I can do with it is good enough for my designs so far, but if I were to go further in adobe and create more complex and professional designs it would be good to be better with it. I also haven’t used clipping masks except for the in-class activity, I would like to further my skills on it.

I also noticed a few times when I remove backgrounds or subjects in photoshop, I still get jagged lines or bits from the removed part left, I'd normally use an eraser or spot healer to remove it. With more knowledge on photoshop tools and effects I think I can fix this.

At first, I didn’t use grids at all, I can make square and rectangle grids easily, but not circular and I struggled to use them efficiently. I would like to improve upon this for future work and better incorporate them into layouts.

From the past weeks I’ve learnt how to use the basic toolkit of both Illustrator and Photoshop, I learnt how to use layers efficiently and to my own liking. I was introduced to the pen tool but would like to improve my skills with it, and I learnt how to use Photoshop and Illustrator hand in hand, and a few other skills within each program.

I know I can improve on my poster, but I am proud with how it came out and I think it combines Swiss poster styles and Herbert Matter’s Poster styles well enough. Next time I would like to try starting by recreating reference poster designs or basing my designs from them, and then turn it into my own design from there, instead of starting from nothing and trying to match up the desired style when the poster is already laid out.

In the beginning of week 5, I started getting stuck with my poster designs and not having enough ideas for it or liking what I had. I eventually came to design I liked after many changes, edits and hours in Illustrator and Photoshop. After receiving feedback, I explored a more Swiss design approach, and I wasn’t exploring different paths and ideas or using grids very much until then. The brainstorming helped with finding more ideas, I went back to the previous ideas I had documented and written down and experimented from there.

When I started designing posters, I realized I didn’t have a very large source of relevant assets, I had to create as I designed, which worked out fine, but if I had more to work with from the start I wouldn’t have to create and test, and then create more after seeing if it worked or not. I think I could’ve saved myself some time and stress if I had planned my assets a bit better.

I’ve been homeschooled my whole life, so everything is quite new to me. I am proud of myself for what I have already achieved and learnt in all the courses.