Final Design

Final-Graphic

Going into this design project, I knew I wanted a graphic that was bright and colorful because that is what I find most visually appealing. I needed something that tied into my topic of spiritual and mental growth. The first thing that came to mind were the seven Chakra’s. Each Chakra represents a part of the body, and to align your Chakra’s is to draw in energy to maintain optimal spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health.

There are many elements involved in a Chakra, but my favorite sources of positive energy are the crystals that correspond to each body part. For example, rose quartz, the image above the person meditating, is connected to the green Chakra, or the heart. By wearing or keeping rose quartz near by or in special places can improve the strength of and help you tap further into your heart Chakra. I attempted to line up the crystal image below its corresponding Chakra for all seven and I really like the way it turned out. I thought doing this would create intellectual unity within my project in a subtle way and I think I was able to achieve just that!

I chose the milky-way background because I think space is fascinating. There is so much we cannot even comprehend out there, kind of similar to the power we hold within that most people don’t know they possess. I think that is what meditation and spiritual growth is about; looking into yourself to find that YOU are everything you need to be happy. In the bottom corners I created “amethyst mountains” as I like to call them. I found them visually appealing and wanted to make them look like mirror image mountains purely for the ~*purple mountain majesty*~ aesthetic. Lastly, the text I chose because it clearly states the message I am trying to get across. I wanted to keep the color white and the fonts somewhat simple since there is a lot of color everywhere else in my graphic.

Over the unit I have really enjoyed becoming better acquainted with Photoshop. I am by no means a pro, but I at least have a grasp on the basics now! To crop all of my images, I used the magnetic-lasso tool and then created a layer via copy, and hid the original image. I took advantage of free transform to make sure all of my images were the perfect size and position. I changed the saturation and brightness on all of my images to make sure I had the colors right where I wanted them: nice and BRIGHT! Lastly, I created a drop shadow on my mountains to give them a larger than life look that would really lift them off the page. One major thing I changed from my first draft to my final was the opacity of my Chakra banner. As Sage mentioned, it faded the intricate designs too much. She had a great point considering those elements were fairly crucial to my design purpose. Hope you enjoy!!

All of my images (besides one) were collected from Pixabay.com, a website that contains images available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) license. This means that they are free to adapt AND share. The last image I pulled by searching flickr via Creative Commons website. This photo requires Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) which means I am free to adapt and share this image. Below are the links to all images.

https://pixabay.com/en/chakra-mandala-muladhara-red-1340058/

https://pixabay.com/en/orange-chakra-mandala-svadhisthana-1340073/

https://pixabay.com/en/mandala-solar-plexus-chakra-yellow-1340066/

https://pixabay.com/en/green-anahata-heart-chakra-chakra-1340075/

https://pixabay.com/en/light-blue-vishuddha-chakra-mandala-1340078/

https://pixabay.com/en/blue-chakra-mandala-meditation-1340076/

https://pixabay.com/en/violet-white-chakra-crown-mandala-1340083/

https://pixabay.com/en/meditation-spiritual-yoga-1384758/

https://pixabay.com/en/milky-way-starry-sky-night-sky-star-2695569/

https://pixabay.com/en/rubies-diamonds-gemstone-gems-2021830/

https://pixabay.com/en/rose-quartz-gems-jewellery-242290/

https://pixabay.com/en/turquoise-amulet-rocks-the-stones-3388170/