Adobe Illustrator « Donovan's Art & Design Blog

Menu of Options

This assignment had us re-create a local restaurant menu using only a grid format. It was an assignment focused on visual hierarchy. I chose a menu from North County: Tavern + Bowl.

Specifications were: Use 2 fonts only (like a serif and sans serif) and up to 3 colors. No images were allowed. I bended the rules and added a ransom like font, but only for the name of

the restaurant and not in the menu items themselves.

March 11, 2011 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, artist, CSUSM, designed menu, donovan olson, Graphic Design, grid, menu, menu of options, re-design, restaurant menu, San Marcos, tavern, vector | Leave A Comment »

Vector Self-Portrait

My vector self portrait done in Illustrator using the pen tool and a large number of layers and fills. Link to PDF attached at the bottom of the post.

LINK TO PDF ——-> Vector Portrait

December 15, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, art and design, blog, Cal state san marcos, computer, cool, CSUSM, design, donovan olson, Illustrator, illustrator cs5, people, portrait, realism, realistic, San Marcos, self portrait, student, vector, vector self-portrait, voice on a page, voiceonapage, voiceonapage.com | Leave A Comment »

Tinting a Scan

For this assignment I’ve made a fake business card, a Treasure Island hotel room key, a Donovan’s Steakhouse gift card, a San Diego Zoo Membership card, and LA Lakers Finals ticket.

December 12, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, art and design, blog, CSUSM, CSUSM art, donovan olson, Donovan's steakhouse, fake gift cards, hotel key, lakers finals ticket, lakers ticket, mock ticket, san diego zoo membership card, San Marcos, scan, tint, tinting a scan, treasure island, treasure island hotel key | Leave A Comment »

Gradient Mesh Bottles

Bottles made in Adobe Illustrator using the Gradient Mesh tool.

November 24, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, bottles, Cal state san marcos, cool, CSUSM, design, donovan olson, gradient mesh, gradient mesh bottles, Graphic Design, image, realistic, realistic bottles, student, vector, vector bottles | Leave A Comment »

Fruit Crate Label

My fruit crate label for Golden Gate Grapes done in Illustrator.

Here are some old labels I used for inspiration

November 24, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: 3D text, Adobe Illustrator, art, cool, CS5, CSUSM, Donovan, donovan olson, fruit crate, fruit crate label, Golden Gate Bridge, golden gate bridge vector, grapes, Graphic Design, illustrator cs5, new fruit crate label, old style art, student, vector fruit, vector grapes | Leave A Comment »

Hills and Bubbles

Hills and Bubbles assignment done in Illustrator using only shades of blue and green.

November 17, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, art student, CSUSM, design, donovan olson, Graphic Design, hills and bubbles, Illustrator, mesh hills, mesh tool, student, vector, vector bubbles, vector hills | Leave A Comment »

The genre I chose for my gig poster is a variation of the Art Deco movement. Art deco originated in Paris in the early 20th century. It had a profound influence on the other art movements such as Pop art. Art deco deals with many simple shapes and colors. The logo for the show Mad Men is one example that influenced me.

I tried to make my poster with the silhouette idea in mind, and added some more shapes to bring it to life. I wanted to choose a strong picture to make my silhouette. And who else other than the man in black himself, Johnny Cash, would make such a great subject. His music may not fit the art deco genre much, but the famous image of him flipping off the camera gave me a strong silhouette for the poster. Although art deco paintings include gradients in some pieces, I chose not to use gradients in the poster because I wasn’t happy with the results. I stayed more with simple shapes and colors.

I chose a different font for Johnny Cash’s name took make it stand out. Art deco always reminds me of the the 50′s and 60′s, so that was another reason that I chose a musical artist from that genre. The gig occurring in this poster is a tribute concert. So even though the style may be older, it is a concert that will be performed by many different artists from different generations. Johnny Cash was also seen as a man’s man, I chose a manly drink to sponsor the concert, Jack Daniels, and I chose Coca-Cola to bring an even more recognizable face to the poster.

An artist emblematic to the art deco genre that I found was A.M. Cassandre. Here is an example of an art deco poster that he has done.

November 10, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, concert, CSUSM, donovan olson, event poster, gig poster, Graphic Design, Johnny Cash, vector poster | Leave A Comment »

Vector Fruit using Gradient Mesh

Vector fruit done in Adobe Illustrator

November 3, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, cool, CSUSM, design, donovan oslon, Fruit vector, gradient mesh, graphic, Graphic Design | Leave A Comment »

Donovan Logo

A grid featuring my logo design options.

donovan logo 9 page <——– link to 9 page layout

October 20, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, cool logos, CSUSM, design, donovan olson, Graphic Design, logo design, Olson, shark, student | Leave A Comment »

Type Effects

October 15, 2010 | Categories: Graphic Design | Tags: Adobe Illustrator, art, CSUSM, donovan olson, fonts, Graphic Design, Type effects | Leave A Comment »

ELEFONTS

Here are three “ELEFONTS” I did in Illustrator. Elefonts are designs of animals made entirely out of nothing but different sized fonts and glyphs. No pen tool, shape tool, no skewing etc. Here I made a Bird made completely out of the letter “V,” a pug, and a T-Rex. I found myself using a lot of (Parentheses.)