Just A Little Update.

     Just going to throw up the first few of the color study photos I've taken to show the direction I'm heading in.  Essentially I'm painting fruit with different harmonies that relate to the fruit's original color, and photographing them together.  The background I felt was too distracting so I've been shooting them on the light table to light them from top to bottom.

Color Emotion?

     Wow, I never would have figured thinking of emotions for these colors would be so hard.  Some weren't so bad but others like orange... all I could think about were oranges and other physical associations.  Either way here they are.

     For this part  of the color emotions project I had some difficulty coming up with new exiting names for these colors.  Many of them ended up being silly or very obvious.  I blame it on by lack of word association skill.

I Like Nice Things...

     These are the first color study for Color Form and Production utilizing four color systems, RGB, CMYK, HEX, and PANTONE matching system (PMS).  The CMYK is very hard to match and trust because you can't make a true CMYK color in RGB that will end up printing accurately.  The image I pulled the colors from is my own, so yes I own two bright orange ladles.

Alber's Colors?

     After I did the reading on Alber's different color relationships I found myself very confused.  Maybe it was just reading through them but I had a hard time making connections between the text and the examples.  I do understand that colors can relate to each other in many different ways.  It made it more clear to a certain degree using the interactive examples.  I'm more of a visual/kinesthetic learner.  I can see especially how the spacial relationships between the colors change in the second interactive experiment.

Color Harmony

     Now for everything I've ever made I've never had any extensive color theory instruction.  I'm aware of the different complementaries around the ol' color wheel but most often I simply select my color palette intuitively and use past experience, and as is the case with my spelling and grammar it's often on a "feels about right" basis.  I personally haven't had a project with a color palette that I didn't feel was strong since 2006, but I was young and stupid then and grunge/urban textures on everything was "ok" then.  All this would make me believe that harmony is often subjective.  Having done the reading on the different types of color harmonies I can see that all of the scientists and their fancy wheels had it pretty much spot on.  If you're not following these theories for harmonious color to some degree then your probably making visually offensive art, unless thats just your thing in which case... alright then.


The different color harmonies each have there own principles and function...

Complementary-

     Complementary colors, when put together will excite the eye and really grab your attention due to their contrast.  They can often have a nervous or vibrating effect.  I personally hold great disdain for the harsh contrast between the colors purple and yellow. The only time I ever use them together is when I make softly blended filters.  Together I think they work well in a winter theme.  While yellow is a warm color, put it next to purple and I think its sharp and ice cold.


Analogous-

     These colors are evenly spaced on the color wheel and therefor don't have a stark contrast that attracts the eyes.  This scheme can be great for seasonal palettes, and the affect you will get is often very clean, simple, and soft.  I'm a fan all the way around the wheel.


Split Complementary-

     The analogous colors consist of one color that is contrast by two colors evenly spaced from its complementary.  As apposed to the contrast found in the triadic colors they are much friendlier on the eyes and softer.  I can see these color combinations as being easier to theme.


Triadic-

     These colors can really grab your eye in a similar manner to the complementary colors.  They are any three evenly spaced colors around the wheel.  To me the colors blue, red, and yellow in their pure form seem kiddish.  I find the combinations with two colors sharing a similar primary to be very attractive.


Square and Rectangle-

     The square and rectangle are both double complementary.  They consist of two sets of complementary colors, and the square's are evenly spaced.  The square to me seems more playful while the rectangle seems more sophisticated.  The danger of the double complementaries is that the closer you get to the primaries the more daunting they can get. It may be better to stagger the colors picking one to be supported by the others.

GE Logos... please let me stop.

     So as of now have a total of forty General Electric logo variations.  It's starting to wear me a little thin now.  Once I completed the several requirements I moved on to reinventing the logo and even doing a short branding study.  Needless to say I'm not going to post all forty.  I stand by my claim, that not everything in illustrator is actually a useful tool.

Hidden (not incredibly effective)

Reflection (Photoshop appropriate)

Drop Shadow Harsh (Photoshop appropriate)

Drop Shadow Feathered (Photoshop appropriate)

Patter Fill (I can agree with this one)

Filters (I'm on the fence)

Then I had fun...

                   

GEneral Electric Cont.

     These are some of my top pics from my latest versions of the General Electric logo.  I've tried to experiment with the newer tools in Illustrator CS5 and even some of the old ones I never use.  I've found that many of the tools that are available are either not appropriate for this project or have functions that seem so rigid and elementary that I would never use them.
Someone please explain to me the benefits of the filter gallery when using this program.


But I digress...

• used the pen tool to extend the G and E into the surrounding circle

• used the grid tool and added weight to the lines to create a shutter
• flatten Transparency and refilled to grey

• added grey scale gradient
• adjusted gradient direction and placement for each unit

• singled out the "GE"
• replaced circle background with a square
• layer masked large "GE" and placed in corner
• added small "GE"

• used perspective on prior comp.

• using the pen tool added what I believe in professional practice is called "pizzazz" 

• took a segment of the "GE" using a layer mask
• duplicated/rotated the segment
• re-added the outer circle on top 

• recreated the outer circle into a triangle using shape, scissors and pen tools

• used perspective to create faux-3D objects and layered them 

General Electric and the Illustrator Fun.

  




     I've been working on my first project for Color, Form, and Production and I think I have enough to start posting a few things.  The General Electric logo has been easy enough to duplicate using the pen tool, shape tool, and scissors tool.  I've had a lot of downtime with this method in the past.  I was able to break it down into its general parts and then put it back together and it looked pretty accurate.

     
     The next step, using the live trace, seemed to work the first few times I used it, and for the most part it was reasonably accurate itself... not as good as me might I say but decent.  The tip of the G was a bit pointy.  When I used flatten transparency I was able clean up the points a bit.  I'm not sure if that is the right manner for going about it, but it worked.  Going to save each of these became a bit frustrating because on one of my files it kept insisting that there was nothing on the page after the live trace... so I gave up and saved it as a different file.

     The last thing  I've been working on has been trying to figure out the perspective tool.  Due to the circular nature of the GE logo, using this feature is less than a perfect solution, but I haven't explored it entirely.  I ended up with something more of an object than a logo.  Once I experimented with the perspective I came up with an idea to give some connection between the logo and a potential GE product.  Maybe it's a washing machine or a dryer.  I was unable to effectively use the perspective tool to achieve some different planar variations, due to the distortion of the curves in the logo.  I was however able to use the marked vanishing point to create what depth I achieved.

     Hopefully I will have a few more variations tomorrow.  Now that I've worked with the perspective tool I will probably move on to other methods, unless I should have any further revelations on the matter .