Illustrator: Espresso Machine and Ziggy Stardust Cover Art

After learning about the different tools available in illustrator, we used them to create two different images.

The first exercise was to use the tools to outline a uniquely shaped espresso machine, to create a poster which could potentially advertise it. 

To do this I started by using the pen tool to create outlines around the different parts of the machine, using the click and drag technique to create curves where necessary. To make it easier to see where the points were going, I used Ctrl+= to zoom in and changed the fill to transparent or changed fill opacity in the properties. Once done with tracing the shapes I could then change the colours of them and add elements such as text. The colours I used were black, red, grey and white. I chose these colours because I thought they worked well together to create a bold image. Also, the colour red can be associated with heat, which could link to how coffee is often served hot. 

I also aligned the espresso machine shape to the center of the page (by selecting all, then using the align tools), this made it the focal point of the image. After this I added text and two lines using the "Paintbrush" tool to represent steam coming out of the machine.

One thing I really liked about using illustrator was how adjustable it was, in comparison to non-vector programs, like photoshop, in the sense of features like being able to move the anchor points. However I think there would be pros and cons for this depending on what you are working on. One very small problem I faced when working on this exercise was that occasionally there were very thin white lines between the different coloured shapes, I think this may have been due to them not lining up perfectly, but I wasn't quite sure how to fix it. 

(This is a recreation of what I made {Using a different program}, since the original got lost)

(Original espresso machine image : https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71YscqQkN6L._AC_SL1500_.jpg )

The second exercise was to recreate the Ziggy Stardust- reimagined concert poster by Mike Joyce.

The focal part of this art is the overlapping magenta and cyan "O" shapes. I think that this shape looks sort of 3D or as if it has a bit of a glitch effect. After looking at other pieces by the artist Mike Joyce, it seems as though they like to create these sorts of  illusions or "distorted effects" by overlapping different shapes, patterns or texts. 

The artist also uses CMYK Cyan and Magenta, most likely because the poster was intended to be printed. This could also be because the artist wanted to keep the colours simple to tie into the modern elements of their work. I also think that the "O" shapes could perhaps be simplified shapes representing vinyl records, this is because the poster is music related. 

The artist has also made good use of space, including leaving a decent amount of empty space around the "O" shapes and the way that they have spaced the text out is also interesting. They have considered the hierarchy of the information on the poster by making the shapes the biggest thing, followed by the title, then the less important (but still informative) text at the bottom in a small font size. The text is also quite evenly spaced, but there is still an element of asymmetry.

To begin my recreation I first had to make the "O" shape. To do this I used the "Ellipse" tool and held Shift to make a circle. I then made another smaller circle and lined it up with the middle of the first circle. After this I used the "Pathfinder" tools to cut the smaller circle from the big one, I was then left with the "O" shape. After this I copied and pasted the shape, then changed the colours. I then changed the opacity of the cyan "O", however it was not possible to create the blue colour where the shapes overlapped (as seen in the original image) this way. Therefore, I had to make the "overlap section" a separate shape. To do this I duplicated both "O" shapes and (after moving the original shapes to the side) I used the "Pathfinder" tools again to create a new shape for the "overlap section". I then changed the colour of this (using the "I" shortcut for "Eyedropper", to get the colour from the original image) then reassembled the pieces so that they lined up correctly and finally used the "Align" tools to make sure they were in the center of the page. 

After this I added the text from the poster, the challenging part of this was finding a similar font and getting the text to be around the same size and in the same positions. The final touch was using the "Rectangle" tool to change the colour of the background, since it is an off-white colour.

Overall, I think my final result is quite good. It is not exactly the same as the original, but I think it is quite close. I think if I was to do this (or something similar) again, I would experiment more with different colours and shapes.

(Recreation of reimagined David Bowie cover art by Mike Joyce: Ziggy Stardust - reimagined concert poster by Mike Joyce (vam.ac.uk)  )
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