Hey! Hello!

Hope all is well.
I’m going to go back a bit in time today and show you some work that I did a few months ago for an assignment at school (I’m studying graphic design).

Students were asked to choose two designers who we learned about in class and emulate their style. I chose Milton Glaser and Paul Rand. I’ll share the Rand another day.

Milton Glaser is an awesome designer from NYC. He’s well known for his iconic I Love NY design as well as his epic Bob Dylan poster, and more recently his work for the opening credits of the popular TV show Mad Men.

I wanted to emulate the swirly colourful psychedelic feel of his work. The poster was specifically to promote the Conservatory for the Performing Arts, which is a school here in Halifax that teaches music and dance to children and teens.

My process started with making a sketch. I brought the sketch into photoshop and began painting with my tablet. I discovered the awesomeness of drawing tablets this year after I received one for Christmas. I used it for almost every assignment after that. I found that I was able to blend my love of drawing with the technology I was learning in school.

I paid special attention to the way Glaser used his materials. With skin tones I noticed he would shade with pencil, so I emulated that using my tablet on the computer. I was actually blown away by how pencil-like the pencil tool looks. Once the ballerina’s body was drawn and coloured in I started on the most detailed part of the illustration: the dress!

You’ll notice in the images there is a tiny version of one of Glaser’s book design covers. I kept that image right next to my illustration in Photoshop the entire time so I could constantly check and see if my work was Glaser enough. It was really helpful, especially when it came to creating the pattern on the dress. I used the colour picker to pull colours from the cover design.

I finished off the illustration by adding ballet slippers and I decided to extend the pattern into her hair for a sense of unity. The final poster design looks like this:

I kept the background simple and stuck with very neutral colours as to  not distract from the focal point. Colours for the background were chosen based on Glaser’s work. I did have a version of the poster with a typeface, however with some help from my teacher we decided it would be nice to have the title hand drawn (though I’m not a fan of my handwriting). I was really happy with the outcome and loved spending more time using my tablet in photoshop. I learned a lot in the process and had a ton of fun!

Hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the process!