CDJ Art and Design

Hello! I'm Courtney Dorothy Jane a creative person making in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am currently finishing up my final year at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), where I will be receiving my BFA in Illustration and Photography. This blog is a collection of my work, process and inspiration.

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Earlier in the semester we worked with Colectivo to redesign their 16 oz cups. Here are 4 designs that I submitted. 8 designs will be chosen from all the submitted work to be printed on the cups during the upcoming year.

I was really inspired by a couple ideas while working on these designs. The first was Day of the Dead. The current 16 oz cup (picture below) already features a day of the dead skull, and this inspired me to create my own version. Something that I spend a lot of time working with is pattern. I wanted to incorporate patterns to hint towards the previous design, while still creating something that was my own.

I have two designs that ended up incorporating the Day of the Dead pattern. The first has a simple frame that has the logo, with the pattern in the background. The second designed has a large stylized skull in a frame.

I was also really inspired by the Guatemalan kite festival. Guatemala is one of the countries that Colectivo works with to get their coffee. They hold a festival where they create huge, beautiful kites. These geometric and colorful shapes inspired one of my designs.

image courtesy of: https://veginist.wordpress.com/tag/local/

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Holiday Card Process

This will be a pretty simple overview on how one of the Holiday Cards was made.

Each card was hand drawn on tracing paper and then scanned and brought into illustrator. I then used the Image Trace tool to vectorize the words.

Unfortunately image tracing did not come out as clean as I wanted and I decided to use the results as a base that I then drew over in Photoshop.

In Photoshop I picked out my color pallet and began working. I created my 3D type and then used a watercolor brush to add texture to letters.

I then decided to add a decorative element on the outside to finish the piece. 

I added back in the background color and completed the card.

Much like how an actual card would have the company information on the back, I included my logo and my website link to the back of the cards. 

I will be putting up a more in-depth tutorial on the textured 3D type at later date. 

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This year for MIAD’s annual Student and Alumni Art and Design Sale I decided to create a selection of Holiday Cards. 

Here are the 4 cards that made it into the sale. 

Something that was important to me when creating these cards was that they were not all Christmas Cards. I personally celebrate Christmas and thought that it would be nice to include one Christmas specific card, but I wanted the others to be open to more people. It was interesting hearing the response from a lot of people who celebrate Christmas, and how they were almost offended that I was selling Holiday cards instead of Christmas cards. I think that separating your Holiday so significantly from all of the Holidays is silly, and we need to learn to love and embrace everyone who spends this time of year celebrating, and even the ones that don’t celebrate anything.

The inside of all of the Holiday Cards were left blank, and enclosed there was a card that read “The holidays should be used to spend time with the people you love. Maybe you will be giving this card to one of them! We encourage you to take the time to write something to them. This is why we left the inside of the card blank. Fill it with a memory, a quote, a drawing. Whatever you fill it with, they will be glad it is from you. Happy holidays!”

It was important for me to allow everyone to write his or her own messages. That is what this time of year is about.

 Regardless of what you celebrate, I hope you all enjoy the season.

~~~IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN PURCHASING CARDS~~~

I still have plenty of cards available. If anyone is interested in purchasing any, please feel free to contact me through tumblr, or at [email protected] or through my website CDJArtandDesign.com




Cards are 5″ by 7″ and are all hand cut and folded.


All cards come with an envelope.

1 card for $4 (Includes envelope and shipping)


or

4 cards for $12 (Includes envelopes and shipping)

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Hello Internet, I hope you welcome me with open arms.

This will serve as not only my first blog post, but also a quick introduction

I am Courtney Dorothy Jane (last name not included) and I am a creative person making in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am currently completing my final year at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) where I will be receiving a BFA in Illustration and photography.

I am experienced in working in a wide range of medias including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Digital Photography, 4 by 5 camera, pastels and watercolors.

I enjoy doing a bunch of different things including hand lettered type, patterns, children’s books illustrations, fine art photography, and fashion photography.

I have a dog and a cat that I love with all my heart, I spend a lot of time at local cafes, and I am home bar enthusiast. (Which basically means I like to pretend I am a really great at making drinks). When I am not working you can probably find me snacking, playing Elder Scrolls, or watching Once Upon a Time. (I often am doing these things while working).

This blog will be a collection of my work, a look at my process, and a look at artists and designers who inspire me. 

Feel free to ask me any questions along the way!

Thank you for you time, I will be seeing you again shortly.

Courtney Dorothy Jane