What's that smell?

Perfume, cologne, smelly stuff...whatever you wanna call it, the bottle is very important! Initially when you think of perfume, you imagine the purchase of it would be made solely down to how nice it smells. However, this is not true, even if the scent is of the highest quality, if it is displayed in a hideous fashion, then no one will want it.


The design of the perfume bottle is what originally draws in our attention to pick it up and give it a spray. Below I have tried to copy and represent a couple of perfume bottles, and then I've had a go at making one myself.

The perfume bottle which I've made is aimed at men. It is structured with thick bands that allow for a firm grip on the bottle. The colours of black, blue and silver were decided upon to give a very masculine image to the bottle. 

COKE

Mmmmm Coke. Far too much sugar and bad for your teeth, but tastes oh so good! Once again on Adobe Illustrator, I was having a play with the different tools and this was the result, Coke bottles with a twist...

...makes you kinda thirsty "don't it?"

Logo number two!

Thinking back to the earlier logos I looked at and then made, I remembered I've already created one before! Below is my logo, 'To the Point'. I designed this on Adobe Illustrator using the 3D bevel and rotate tool.

I really love the colours on this design. The warm red, oranges of the ball combine well with the dark, bold, black of the text. I was playing with the idea of shape when creating this; first off with the 3D ball, but then with the octagon, rectangles and triangles of the originally 2D image of my logo.

I played with the lighting effects to give a better impression of the ball being 3D, also adding shadow below. However I think the whole image may have benefitted in representing the logo in 3D more, if I had a slightly darker background.

The "Love Split" ice lolly..

After having seen a presentation from Mark Davies, founder and managing director of the company 'Outside the Box', it really got my juices flowing (as such) for being creative.


In the presentation Mark put a list of words up on the board including; trees, football, food etc, and instantly, being a keen footy fan, my eye was drawn to the obvious...football! When Mark turned to me and asked me to pick any of the words it was clear what I was going to choose....


....but instead, I chose the word Love.


I remember turning a brighter shade of red as soon as this word slipped out of my mouth. My reasoning behind it was not wanting to be cliche and a 'lad' by picking football, but I certainly didn't plan on choosing the word Love, it just sort of...slipped out.


Anywaaaayyy, after picking this word and a few giggles round the room later, we discussed how we could combine this word Love with ice cream, and how many different designs could come of it.


When I got home the thought of this was still in my head, and I ended up having a little play on photoshop and coming up with my own design incorporating the word Love into it. 

My idea behind the 'Love Split' ice lolly, was that by having two sticks, a couple could be sitting in a park quite intimately, and hold a stick each, nibbling away at their side. And no doubt could end up fighting with one another about sticking to their side!


Another possibility however, would be to pull the two parts away from each other creating a broken heart. This would be possible due to a 'gooey' strawberry and raspberry centre which could easily be separated with a bit of tugging! This way the couple could hold half of the heart each...sweet ey?!


A final option of course, is to have the whole thing to yourself!!
Check out Outside the Box or 'OTB' at...http://www.outsidethebox.co.uk/contact.aspx

A Grumpy VINTAGE Santa!

I made a Christmas card for someone special this year and she happens to work in Cath Kidston, yet says she doesn't like 'vintage' stuff! So I thought what better way to spread some Xmas joy than with a grumpy vintage santa.

I just gave him a little revamp on photoshop adding a bit more colour...

        

       ...what do you think?

Cheating at Art...

I came across this website from which you can download a little piece of software, which when started, will record and trace the movement of your mouse on screen for as long as you like.


Here's my 'art' after a couple hours on photoshop....

..pretty impressive ey?! In a really strange way I think its actually really interesting to look at considering how simple it is. Might even submit it to the TATE Modern...(just kidding)

For the IOGraph (mouse tracing software thingy!) go to: http://iographica.com/ 

A Quick play on photoshop...

After looking at the different logos from my last post I found myself constantly doodling on any scraps of paper round the house of ideas for some designs of my own.


For some very strange reason, I kept coming back to the idea of writing the word 'Ladder' vertically, to represent a ladder. Don't have a clue why...but I decided to have a little play on photoshop with the idea!


This is what i came up with..


For my 'Ladder' logo on the right I wanted the letters to be incorporated into the shape of the ladder more. To do this I used a fairly stiff, straight font and placed them where the rungs of the ladder crossed between the two rails. I decided upon flipping a couple of the letters to make the logo appear more interesting, and perhaps slightly more difficult to read, in turn creating more time for the observer to spend looking at it.

With this 'Ladder' logo I played around with the perspective, trying to give the impression that you are looking up at it. I used two layers of lettering to give a black outline to make them

 stand out more.