Nicolas Rasmussen

[gld-by-nicolas]

Final Reflection

This year in GLD, I both pushed and challenged myself, as well as enhanced my skills in programs that I was already familiar with. For example, I dislike using photoshop; however, I used photoshop to create my intro projects and other projects. Later in the year I used Adobe after effects for the second time. I used it for a different use than I did last year. This year I used the paint tool and worked on manipulating frames and colours to create a drawing on a film. Last year I focused on using key frames and transforming shapes. I enjoyed using the type of after effects that I did this year more. This is because despite being time consuming and often frustrating, I knew that the outcome would be good so I persevered until it was done and I had completed one of my favourite projects. My design choices and my general style of work have stayed the same. I still predominantly make minimalist projects with block shapes and little details that aren't exactly details. The way I make my work is that I think of the big picture and then cut out unnecessary details and refine to get the look that I want in my work. This creates deeply complex pieces that appear simple and basic at the same time. You need to look closer into the work to realise the work and attention to detail that I have. I think to progress my work in graphic design, I need to be more experimental with my work and try programs and art forms that I have not before, such as abstract art and pencil sketching. I also need to push myself by trying new programs and increasing my ability with others such as Photoshop and Lightroom. My favourite project this year was my last video/passion project. I really enjoyed this project because it was extremely difficult to preserve with the project and complete it on time with enough time for my final projects. I think this was a very valuable experience because it taught me that even in school, good things come to those who wait. I spent weeks working on it and was overjoyed when I finished it. When I finally clicked “paint on transparent” for the last time and watched the video play through with the song that had been playing alongside it from the beginning, I felt a deep sense of accomplishment. This is how I feel when I complete all my projects, however this one was a different experience because it took many components and combined them at the end and it was only then that I knew my hard work had paid off.

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This piece was made as a logo for the, you guessed it, logo project in my GLD class. I made it with the idea of it being representative of a mountain or the outdoors in some way. I settled on the geometric shape of the logo due to a lack of any other ideas and it ended up being a a good idea. Colours were the most difficult thing to refine as I couldn't decide whether to use blues for a river, greens for a forest or brown for hills/mountains under the larger centerpiece mountain. I eventually decided to settle on the blue because it contrasted the most and the combination of colours was more satisfying to me. The multicoloured squares and rectangles above and around the mountain were one of the easily decided on components of the logo. Inspired by the lines of brightly coloured flags that are present on the tops of high peaks, I decided to add these to add some colour to a somewhat monotone logo. I wanted to keep the text basic to attract attention to the logo itself.

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This project was made for my passion project in GLD. My passion is evidently football (soccer). I chose some prominent and some of my favourite figures in football and some of their iconic poses. I wanted it to have an easy sketchbook sort of video so instead of using the pen tool and refining all the colours in the image with gradients like I did for my Led Zeppelin project, I opted to use the paintbrush instead, to get more rugged lines that almost give the players their own sense of motion making them seem alive. This was one of my favourite projects to make because I got to work with different tools and loads of colours. I think the final result is quite eye catching. The text is a quote from famous Brazilian football player Pele. the most difficult part of this project was making sure the inside of all the players was black and the letters didn't show up behind the transparent background of the players. for this, I created anchor points on the letter shape and moved it around until I arrived at the desired result.

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This was made for a final project in my GLD class. It was created on Adobe Illustrator. I have made projects similar to this in the past, but this one has more detail and I really refined the colour scheme for it also. It is made simply by creating shapes and editing them until they are the shape and format that you want. For example, the smaller trees were initially just simple triangles. Rounding the edges and then changing the shape give them their current distinctive look. After that, it is simply a matter of editing the layers in the composition to get the desired outcome.

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This was made for my inquiry project. I learnt and explored freeform gradients and outer glow effects. The hardest part of this project was getting the gradients to blend with the shadows nicely. This took a lot of time and concentration. My favourite part of the project is the glowing bits in the sand and the stars

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I made this piece for my Design assignment. I was very careful when picking the right colours so I had the right balance between light and dark. I also made sure to keep the scale of the piece reasonable so everything blended together nicely. My favourite part of this piece is the reflection of the house in the frozen lake

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This is my typography piece, I created this on illustrator by tracing out a photo of on of my favourite bands Led zeppelin. The hardest part of this project was adding depth and and the right amount of light to the clothing. I think the blue on blue writing adds a certain uniformity to the piece as well

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This was made for a creative typography assignment. I have edited the size, shape and path of the text in the image. The names are the 4 main band members of the Rolling Stones, one of my favourite bands. The hardest thing was trying to find the appropriate amount of space for each letter then for the word.

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This was made as a background for an animation that I made for and animation assignment. The most challenging aspects of this piece were making the size of the mountains just right, perfecting the clouds and getting a sense of depth in the composition as well.

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This is a piece of art that I created for an indigenous art assignment. For this assignment, I used adobe illustrator and made a sort of collage of patterns within my spirit animal which is the Bear. almost everything is hand drawn by myself. I took inspiration from similar pieces and the colours reflect those used in indigenous art around the community.

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This piece was made for a photoshop special effect assignment. In the piece I used a photo from a camping trip that I went on during the summer of 2020. I outlined my friends to draw attention to them however not too much attention so I didn't take away from the surrounding scenery and special effects, therefore i outlined them in more muted and pastel colours. For the added special effects, I decided on a galaxy setting in the sunset sky to add to the sense of the outdoors. Furthermore I added a faint outline of a forested ridge line in the bottom right corner. I wanted to make this piece subtle but eye-catching. 

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This is my rendition of a Peach Pit album cover. I made this for the trends assignment in my Graphic Design class. I used the ongoing psychedelic trend to add a pop of colour to an originally darker album cover. I hand drew all the shapes within the coloured area. Additionally, I added an extra filter on the surrounding people to make the album cover have a bit more contrast and make it darker against the colour of the background.

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This piece was made for the Background assignment in GLD. I made this background with the idea of an outdoor clothing/equipment store. I drew inspiration from the Quiksilver logo which has the mountain and the wave and a special edition Patagonia logo for some of the colour choices. All the illustration were made on illustration freehand. The hardest part of this piece was figuring out the colour scheme so it all blended and looked nice together. This is one of my favourite pieces.