Illustrator Logo Draft

/ mikennavogel / 2 Comments

personal logo

When designing my logo,  I knew I wanted a simplistic design. I find simple designs to be very clean cut and appealing to the eye. When looking for inspiration, I went back to Spirit Daughter, someone I mentioned in my original topic introduction. Her logo is a series of triangles in purple and gold. I loved it! Triangles represent unity and balance which is exactly what I was looking for in my logo and my blog.

I wanted to include my initials to make it more of a personal brand or logo. To me, you can clearly see the “MV” in the center of the triangle. I knew I wanted my initials to blend in with the outline of the triangle, and I figured white would be the best choice of color. Making the letters was harder than I expected. At first I tried making the letters by creating triangles with the polygon tool, as I did for the outer triangle. My plan was to then delete the path of the triangle’s that didn’t belong to create my letter, but I couldn’t figure it out. SO! Back to the drawing board, I decided to keep my triangle shapes, trace them with line segments to keep the exact shapes I needed, and delete the triangle to reveal a “V” shape. Last I anchored the end points and joined their paths and made minor adjustments to achieve my perfect final shape, and repeated these steps for the “M”.

Along with balance, color is also one of The 12 Essential Rules to Follow When Designing a Logo. According to WebDesignerDepot, it is important to choose colors that will evoke a feeling. When doing research on color meanings, I was drawn to yellow and orange. Neighbors on the warm color scale, I thought I would have the colors fade on a gradient. I loved the way the radial gradient is centered around the point of my “M” and draws your attention to my initials. These are two of my favorite colors, representing happiness and energy which I found extremely fitting for me.

I am overall very pleased with the design I created for my draft but I am open to any constructive criticism people may have!

 

Final Design

/ mikennavogel / Leave a comment

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/

https://pixabay.com/en/amber-heart-pendant-jewelry-669469/

https://pixabay.com/en/citrine-crystal-stone-quartz-gem-1093454/

https://pixabay.com/en/rock-crystal-clear-to-white-gem-top-1603480/

https://pixabay.com/en/gem-amethyst-violet-crystal-cave-1576233/

https://flic.kr/p/d52dFy

 

Graphic Design Draft

/ mikennavogel / 5 Comments

Graphic-Design-Project

For this project, I decided to make a graphic to add to the aesthetic of my blog. I wanted to include all aspects of the themes I mentioned in my topic introduction post in a way that will visually appeal to any readers. I used tools like the law of proximity to show the connection between certain elements of my design. For example, the stones below the banner are meant to be perceived as belonging to the chakra symbol above it. I plan on adding text to my design for the final product but I haven’t decided what yet. also plan to add some original images. All of the images used in this graphic were retrieved from pixabay.com, a site that contains free to use content. None of the pictures were subject to copyright.

Photoshop is a new area for me so my skills are not quite were I would like them to be, but I had fun playing with my own design and the tools available! I was able to change the opacity of the top banner, which was originally all separate images that I grouped together. I had to adjust the sizes of them using free transform as we learned in the tutorials. I also had to figure out how to flip the image in the bottom left and right corners of the graphic. Additionally, I added a drop shadow to those “amethyst mountains” as I like to call them. I used the magnetic lasso tool to crop images, created layers via copy, and then hid the original images to reveal only the portion I wanted to show.

Below are all the links necessary to find all the individual images I used for this project so far. They are all available under the creative commons license CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)  or Public Domain Dedication. This means that no rights are held to the image and anyone is free to use and transform it as they please! 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.

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/

https://pixabay.com/en/amber-heart-pendant-jewelry-669469/

https://pixabay.com/en/citrine-crystal-stone-quartz-gem-1093454/

https://pixabay.com/en/rock-crystal-clear-to-white-gem-top-1603480/

https://pixabay.com/en/gem-amethyst-violet-crystal-cave-1576233/

https://flic.kr/p/d52dFy

 

 

 

Image Collection

/ mikennavogel / Leave a comment

Below are three images I plan to use for my graphic design project. Though I have gathered much more and plan to take some originals of my own, these three give a good glimpse into my project! I plan to make a collage graphic for my blog to accompany my explanation of the 7 chakra’s and how to bring out the positive aspects of each one. I can’t wait to share!

 

Gathered from Pixabay.com
Gathered from Pixabay.com
Gathered from Pixabay.com

I retrieved these three images from Pixabay.com, a website that contains images released under CC0 1.0 – Public Domain Dedication. This means no real citation is required because the creator released all rights to the public. However, I have linked the three pictures here as shown from left to right: amethyst, crown chakra, and the milky-way

The Intro: What, Why, & How

/ mikennavogel / 4 Comments

When creating this blog, I wasn’t sure what on Earth I was going to post about. I could not even begin to think of something about myself that was interesting enough to publish for all to see. That’s when I decided I would make this an all around learning experience for myself! Not only will I be learning content creation in COM210 this semester, but I have the opportunity to dive deeper into a topic that I have felt myself growing more and more drawn to.

As I mention in my about me, I have never been a religious person, but I find myself in my early twenties dying to find something to believe in. Not wanting to force myself into religion, I have decided to take a different spiritual route. Now, I realize a lot of people find astrology and the power of crystals and meditation to be a bunch of BS and that is OK! This blog is open for anyone who chooses to enjoy its contents and join in on my little learning journey.

So… without any further introduction, welcome to my page! I will be writing about my own spiritual and mental journey over the course of the semester. I was inspired to write a blog like this by an Instagram account I have followed for some time now called Spirit Daughter. The creator of this account is so knowledgeable on the topics I am interested in and heavily influenced my decision to go forward with this blog. I do not plan to copy her material to create content for this blog, but her posts do fuel the fire for my writing and I hope to achieve the same voice she has!

Other influencers on Instagram have increased my awareness on the benefits of restorative yoga, especially the meditation aspect. I remember taking yoga as a P.E. course in high school and by far my favorite part was the 10 minutes of meditation at the end. It essentially felt like a power nap! As I have gotten older, the stress and anxiety life brings has only increased, resulting in a greater need for that “me” time. Meditation is a very healthy mental practice that I hope to get better at over the semester! I think for my audio project I will record myself guiding a calming meditation.

This topic has me very excited for the multimedia content to come in this course. I have created a collage physically surrounding similar topics before, so I look forward to creating projects digitally via Photoshop. For this project, I will be able to collect content by taking pictures of crystals and other elements around me and use it as a platform to showcase their beneficial properties. A local place I go to for some gorgeous crystals, or just to browse on the good energy is Gem State Crystals Inc. in Moscow, ID. I will be taking pictures of my precious stones for this project and I couldn’t be more excited!

Although I am nervous for the video recording project, the influencer I mentioned in the paragraphs above does videos every Monday on her Instagram page that I think will be very useful guidelines when creating my own unique video at the end of the semester. Another helpful tool for anyone interested in horoscopes or planetary phases is Time Passages, an app for your phone. It even explains terminology so anyone can become an expert! While on the topic of apps, there are also TONS of meditation apps and videos on YouTube for all beginners like me, take advantage of them!

Taken with my iPhone just outside of Cheney, WA. The smoke made the sun look blood orange!