Alex's Wonders

 Instructions Using Adobe Illustrator and the gradient mesh tool, create an illustrated self-portrait. 8 x 10 in @300 dpi. Export as a .png resized to 1280px wide @ 72ppi.  Content       This project was easily one of the most challenging assignments I’ve worked on so far. It brought together everything we’ve learned over the past few weeks while pushing me to spend more time in Adobe Illustrator, a program I’m still getting comfortable with. The goal was to create an illustrated self-portrait using the gradient mesh tool, starting from a photo of myself. From the beginning, the process felt slow and very detail-heavy, especially when it came to image tracing and breaking the portrait down into simple, clean shapes that could actually be built on.      To keep the illustration manageable, I limited each main part of the portrait my face, hair, hoodie, and flannel to around three color swatches. Instead of relying on a wide range of colors,...

       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...