Alex's Wonders

       This week’s design takeaway came straight from spending more time inside Illustrator and finally slowing down to really understand how some of its core tools work instead of just using them out of habit. The video I watched focused on two tools that, on the surface, seem like they do the same thing, but in practice feel completely different once you actually understand how they’re meant to be used. Watching it made me realize how much workflow matters just as much as knowing what a tool does.  Check the video out yourself! :  Patherfinder vs Shape Builder  by Dansky ( thanks for the recommendation Mr.Williams)       One of the big strengths shown in the video is how one of these tools gives you a lot of speed and structure when you already know exactly what result you want. It works well when shapes are clean, aligned, and planned out ahead of time. The downside, though, is that it can feel a bit rigid. If you’re experiment...

  For this creativity exercise, I wanted to approach it the same way we’ve been doing our other exercises, loose, experimental, and more about the process than the final result. The exercise asked what sound would look like if we could actually see it, and right away from Quadeca’s newest addition to his recent album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper (The Extended Cut)  “ accordions remorse ” . It’s not a song you just listen to in the background. It constantly shifts, stretches out, pulls back, and then hits you again, which makes it perfect for breaking into multiple visual moments instead of just one single piece.  Please check it out! :  Vanisher, Horizon Scraper (The Extended Cut) FULL ALBUM For the first section of the song, I imagined the sound as something very light and unstable. Visually, this part feels like thin shapes drifting without direction, almost floating in place. Nothing is sharp or defined here. The colors stay soft and de-saturated, and the movement f...

       For this project, I chose to work off   Project 6 from the Against the Clock textbook and put my own spin on it by redesigning something familiar: the Smarties candy box. The goal was to follow all of Project 6’s rules while still creating something that felt fresh, modern, and personal. Instead of reinventing the brand entirely, I focused on renovation rather than replacement.      I started by thinking about what already makes Smarties recognizable. The logo, the nutrition facts, the ingredients panel, and the overall playful tone are all core to the brand, so those elements stayed intact. I treated them as "non-negotiables" and built everything else around them. This helped me stay true to the project guidelines while also keeping the packaging realistic and believable.      Where I really pushed the design was in the visuals. I incorporated real images of the Smarties candy itself instead of relying only on flat c...

 Instructions The seven deadly sins are:  pride ,  greed ,  wrath ,  envy ,  lust ,  gluttony  and  sloth . Illustrate one of the deadly sins without using any text. Please be creative and think about all the different ways you could illustrate the sin. i.e., Don't choose greed and focus on money. You can dig deeper than this. Describe the project and your design decisions on your blog.  Content      For this project, we were asked to visually represent one of the seven deadly sins without using any text, which immediately pushed me to think more about symbolism and process rather than explanation. I decided to explore pride and envy , since they often go hand in hand, especially when comparison gets involved. My main goal wasn’t to over complicate the idea, but to show how small visual choices can communicate a bigger message when they all work together.      I started by building the main elements of the p...

       Welcome back y'all! To the weekly creativity blog! For this week’s creativity exercise, the goal was to keep things simple and let ideas flow without overthinking them. The exercise asked us to choose a random topic and spend a few minutes listing everything that comes to mind. No editing, no judging just writing. Through past exercises, I’ve learned that this kind of low-pressure brainstorming is where some of the most honest and useful ideas come from.      I decided to base my list around things people do while scrolling on their phone . It’s such a common habit that it often goes unnoticed. I set a short timer and wrote down whatever popped into my head, trying not to second-guess whether something “counted” or not.      Some of the things that came up were scrolling with no real goal, switching between apps without thinking, liking posts without fully reading them, rewatching videos that autoplay, checking notifications that...

  This week, I spent some time going back into Adobe Illustrator , but instead of learning something completely new, I focused on getting better at a tool I’ve already been using a lot lately: the Shape Builder Tool . After working on a few recent projects where Shape Builder played a big role, I realized I understood how to use it, but not necessarily how powerful it could really be. That curiosity pushed me to dig a little deeper. Check it out!:  Illustrator Shape Builder tool 101!      That curiosity led me to this video, which stood out immediately because of how efficient and direct it was. Instead of jumping straight into flashy results, the creator starts by explaining how Shape Builder reads shapes and overlapping areas. One of the key points in the video is how important clean, closed shapes are before even touching the tool. If your shapes aren’t properly overlapping or aren’t fully closed, Shape Builder won’t behave the way you expect and that expla...