e card

The topic of my e card design for environmental sustainability is the promotion of growing vegetable gardens instead of lawns. Growing grass can do a lot of damage to the environment.  Many people use a lot of water and chemicals to maintain their lawn. Gas powered mowers emit a lot of pollution. Vegetable gardens are a much more environmentally friendly option. The first section of my e card is an introduction to the topic, then middle section gives the details, and the last section sums it up. I think this design will be effective because it gives information in a positive way.

Here is an updated version of my design. I made changes to the author name and text on the back cover.

I removed the blue bands from my original design to make the design less busy. For the photo on the front cover I used the clone stamp tool and paint brush to remove the “Lark Tavern” part of the photo and replaced it with “Son Volt”. I distressed the type and free transformed it to make it blend in with the photo. I used HDR toning and desaturation to make the photo look more interesting. I also added a camera flare to look like the sun coming over the top of the building. For the back cover, I used gaussian blur and soft light to make the photo glow a bit, then added a mask to bring some of the detail back into the tree line. I also made a logo for the fictional publisher in Illustrator. I altered the photographs and distressed the type in Photoshop, then put all the elements together in InDesign. 

I decided to use the folk/alt country band, Son Volt, for my book cover. I wanted to use photographs of roads, countrysides, and scruffy old buildings because I think it suits the band’s personality. I searched through my photos to find ones that would be appropriate. I had a particular one in mind that I wanted to use for the cover. It's a photo of a brick wall with a sign for the Lark Tavern on it. I thought it would be interesting to change “Lark Tavern” to “Son Volt”. I haven’t listen to Son Volt in a while, so I did a little research to make sure what I thought was their style still actually was. I found out that one of the songs on their latest album is called “Brick Walls” so that makes me feel even more confident in my choice for the photo for the front cover. I chose the photo for the back because it had a Son Volt feel to it for me and it also had a nice light sky that I think the book description will look good on. For the description I took the first two paragraphs from the band bio on sonvolt.net.

I think this design will be effective because it will complement Son Volt’s style of music and represent them in a way that will appeal people who would want to read a book about them.

I made this logo in Illustrator for my fictional publisher:

This is the photo plan to manipulate for the cover:

This is the photo I plan to use for the back and spine:

Final Draft of Awareness Poster

Here is the final draft of my awareness poster.

Awareness Poster

For this project I’m creating a poster for the American Red Cross. During the holidays blood donations tend to decrease, so I decided to make that my focus. My design is Santa with a “Be nice to me, I gave blood today!” sticker on his chest. I used the American Red Cross’s tag line “Give the gift of life” because I felt they would want me to use that tag line if I was actually making a poster of them and it fits in with the theme. I think this is an effect design because it encourages a person’s desire to give in a unique way during the holidays. I’m not sure how I’m going to treat the typography yet. I think I’m gong to use white text on a green background though.

If it’s not okay for the purpose of this project to use a current tag line, I would change the design to Santa eating some milk and cookies, or maybe just a plate of cookies and milk by a Christmas tree with the tag line “If you donate blood, you’ll get milk and cookies too.” I’m not sure if people who haven’t donated blood would know that you get cookies, though, and you don’t get milk, you get juice. Another idea would be an angel with the tag line “Be someone’s angel. Give blood.”

Here is the final version of my design.