Hey everyone! Yes, I’m still alive. A big reason for the silence around here this last month or so is that the Fall semester is in full swing and I am back in school full-time. I know I sound like a nerd but I’m so excited about my classes! I’m taking Photoshop, Typography, and Web Graphics. It’s been really fun learning how to use digital tools to execute the ideas in my head. I’ve been watching lots of tutorials in my spare time to learn as much as I can, though I have to say my sewing has suffered a bit as a result! Anyway, I thought I would share some of the projects I’ve been working on:

The photo above is a packaging design I made for my Adobe Illustrator class last semester. We had to create a package for some kind of edible product, and I decided to do salt water taffy (yes, it’s so I had an excuse to put a cute mermaid on the front). I kind of went all-out with the ocean theme and did a shell cut-out for the front window and seaweed and bubbles on the sides.

 

This was another project for my Adobe Illustrator class. We were tasked with coming up with a design for a skateboard and T-shirt that had a limited color palette appropriate for screen-printing. I decided to do a retro, feminine design (yes, I know I’m so predictable). I found this great image of female skateboarder Patti McGee and simplified it into a sort of posterized design. I went for a color palette that seemed to hearken back to the 1960s and early days of surfing.

My next project was for my Adobe Photoshop class this semester. We had to create a “fantasy portrait” and place ourselves into an image/environment of our choosing. I was hoping to find a good image of a fabric store in the 1950s or 1960s but was unsuccessful, so I decided to use this fashion ad from a magazine instead.

This is a shirt design for a contest put on by my community college. I decided make my design in the style of the vintage-look badges that are everywhere right now. I tried to make this design with a more unisex look than I usually do and make it mildly funny. The contest is still ongoing so I don’t know if they’ll choose it. I figured I would come up with a design for the practice more than anything!

The last project I’ll share with you is these Christmas cards I designed just for fun. I found some cute vintage Christmas images in one of my McCall’s Needlework and Craft magazines and decided to play around with making cards. I liked them so much by the time I finished that I printed a few and listed them on Etsy, so if you like them you can purchase them here.

PS: I decided to try to learn how to use WordPress so I made myself a little portfolio site this week just to try it out. It was harder than I thought but I think I finally got the hang of it. You can check it out at www.melissaormondeguzman.com. Let me know what you think!