Final

Brand Questionaire

1)   What is your business?

We sell clothing, predominantly t-shirts.

2)   Describe your business in one sentence.

We sell clothing with a wide spectrum of inspirations, including street artists, the skateboarding culture, heavy metal/hardcore punk music, and non-political correctness.

3)   Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is anyone who is into streetwear, usually teenage/young adult males (16-25 give or take). We also have products marketed towards female of that same age group.

4)   Who are your competitors?

Supreme, Mishka, Flying Coffin, Borgata DC

5)   What makes them better/worse than your product/service?

Supreme's website can get messy at times and their products are usually very overpriced, Mishka and Flying Coffin often don't come out with new designs for a long time, Borgata DC only has limited numbers of each item.

6)   Do you currently have an identity?  (This is more for companies that are already established and you’re just revamping the logo/corporate identity.  If you have a new company or product, skip this question.)

7)   (If your answer to #6 is no, skip this question)  What do you like about it and what don’t you like about it?

Why is this important?  Even if you plan to change the logo entirely, it’s good to keep an inventory about what specifically worked and didn’t work about your previous design in order to inform the new one.

These following questions might seem silly, but their purpose is to help generate ideas.

1)   How do you want your image to be seen in two years?

I want my company to be ranked up with other streetwear brands in two years, and not just an attempt to cash in on a new fad.

2)   If your company was an animal, what animal would it be and why?

A chameleon, because we're always changing our ideas and no shirt will be the same.

3)   If your company/brand was a person, who would it be and why?

Charles Manson, because while society may have a negative view on him, he still has a cult (no pun intended) following.

4)   If your company/brand was an object, what would it be?

An ice cube, because we're just that cool. 

5)   If your customer was a cartoon character, who would it be?

Nick Dean from "Jimmy Neutron", because he's always looking good and stylish.

Song Lyric Project

For this project, I chose the line "And I don't know much, but I do know this, With a golden heart comes a rebel fist" from the song "Here's to Life" by Streetlight Manifesto. I chose to make a literal "golden heart" with a graffiti feel along with a rebel fist stencil inside. I feel displaying it as a graffiti piece further brings out the "rebel" feel. I then used a font generator to make the lyrics a stencil font. Finally, I added a streetlight, for obvious reasons.

Custom Brushes Project

For this project, I first made a blue-dark blue gradient background. I then took pictures of different fish and turned them into custom brushes. The Red one is being caught by a fishing line. Then, I took the "Fire" brush and changed it to green to resemble seaweed. Finally, I made a "bubble" brush, and added it to random spots. I was feeling nautical when I made this.

Photoshop assignment 1

For this assignment I took a picture of me from last Halloween (dressed as Lt. Dangle from Reno 911!) and placed it in a picture of the Greek riots. The picture of me had no feet, so I had to make sure it was placed in an area where my feet would normally be concealed.

Illustrator Project

This is my final illustrator project. It's John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, except with a Deadmau5 head. I'm not too sure where I came up with this idea, which is why I really like it. First I made the Mau5head, which took a lot longer then expected. There was a large amount of shading on the head and ears, and it turned out pretty good. Next I opened a new file, and began working on the Pulp Fiction body. The hardest part was by far the hand, it took me about an hour to finally get the layering and grip on the gun right. Once I finished both, I transferred the Mau5head onto the body and it was complete. This is probably one of my favorite projects, and once I become more skilled in Illustrator I'm definitely going back and touching this up. The only thing I don't like is how the right ear got cut off a little.

Company Logo

Here's the final logo. I ended up taking Jeff's idea and using the "devil horns" as the I in pit. The hardest part was deciding how to draw the hand, I tried about 4 different ways before deciding upon a more simple design. I personally felt that making the hand more complex looking took away from the whole feel in a way. The font was actually my second choice, at first I wanted to use an Iron Maiden type font, but had trouble downloading it. I think it was for the better, since this font gives off a metal/punk vibe.

Logo Critiques

 

The first logo I'm critiquing is the clothing brand Supreme. the logo itself is extremely simple, however it's instantly recognizable among people who are even the tiniest bit involved in the world of street-wear. The red box makes the white "Supreme" pop out, which helps when it's placed on a darker colored shirt. When stickers of this logo sell anywhere from $5-$30 each, depending on the model, you know it's a great logo.

 

 The second logo is of the thrash metal band Anthrax. This is one of their most recent logos, as for years they've used simply their name as the logo. Although I love the band, this logo never really made sense to me. It's based off of an inverted pentagram, a symbol synonymous with satanism and is used by metal bands that cover that topic. However, Anthrax is not known to cover satanism. In fact, I believe there's only one or two songs that talk about Satan or anything of that sorts, so I was always confused as to why they went with this logo.

 

The  third logo is of the Onion, a satire news company. One of the things I love about this logo is the fact that it looks like an actual news company logo, which leads many people to believe it's true. Normally a company wouldn't want to misinform their customers. However, the Onion purposely does this as part of their humor style. When you're walking through a city and you see the green onion on the side of a free newspaper box, you know that it's an Onion paper.

Logo four is of the infamous club CBGB's. The club was intended to be for country and blue grass bands, however it became synonymous with the punk movement. Everyone from the Ramones to Blondie to Agnostic front to Beastie Boys have played here. While the logo itself was made during the country years, they decided to keep it the same. This could have been a huge issue for a tourist who has never heard of the club, walking in expecting some country music and instead seeing people going nuts to whatever hardcore band was playing that night. Nowadays, you can ask almost anyone about what this logo means and nine times out of ten they will tell you that it's a club venue.

The final logo I chose is of the clothing company Mishka. Like Supreme, they are a street-wear company, except a majority of their clothes have a darker, punk and metal influenced style. If you aren't already familiar with the brand and don't understand Russian, it would be hard to tell what the company is. The Mishka bear is almost as recognizable among street-wear enthusiasts as the Supreme logo, however I personally like this one better.

Caligramme

This is my caligramme, which is a picture made out of words. It is a Nike SB Dunk low, made out of all the names of SB's throughout the years. I am an avid sneaker collector, so this was the first idea that popped into my head when this project was assigned. A large portion of these shoes were inspired by pop culture, including movies (Hulks, Ferris Buellers, Boba Fetts, Oompa Loompas), rock bands (Appetite for Destructions/November Rains, Dinosaur Jr's, Dr. Feelgoods), household products (Band Aids, Shoe Goos, Bruts, Bics), and TV shows (Mork & Mindys, Twin Peaks, Shimuzus). Every design and colorway has some sort of meaning or inspiration, which is what makes Nike SB's different from the generic Nike Outlet shoe.

Fictional Company Ideas

1. Sally's Saxophones: A family owned and operated music store that has been in business since the late 19th century. They specialize in instruments but sell other products such as CD's and old Vinyl.

2. Possessed to Skate: A local skate shop, popular hangout for hardcore skaters and amateurs alike. Name is inspired by the Suicidal Tendencies song of the same name.

3. die Famili: Limited, street-art inspired clothing. Collaborations with street artists and other companies are not uncommon.

4. The Pit: A medium-sized concert venue for ska, hardcore, and metal bands. There are no seats, so dancing, moshing, crowd surfing/stage diving etc. is encouraged. Everyone from local bands to legends such as Bad Brains and Slayer will play here. Light security enforced by law, but only to prevent fights. Imagine a modern day CBGB, except kept a lot tidier.

5. Rampage Riot Punch: An alcoholic beverage that goes down incredibly smooth but packs a crazy punch. Marketed towards college students, this crazy concoction is guaranteed to be the talk on campus. Every bottle has 2 ibuprofen attached, perfect for the morning after.

At first I wanted to do the skate shop, however after thinking for a while I decided on The Pit. Concert-going is one of my favorite hobbies and I really hate how CBGB closed while I was still young. I've been to too many concerts where the band was great but the venue was insanely strict. A venue with a great reputation attracts better bands, and is a great place for underground artists to make it big.

Rich Stick Man

Here is my project. It is a stick figure "rich guy", complete with a top hat, cane, and monocle. It took me a long time to complete this. Here is the HTML 5 Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var canvas = document.getElementById("myCanvas");
var context = canvas.getContext("2d");

////////////////////////////////////// start below this line ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇ

context.beginPath();
  context.rect(0, 0, 800, 600);
 var grd = context.createLinearGradient(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
           grd.addColorStop(0, 'rgb(200, 50, 255)');
         grd.addColorStop(0.5, 'rgb(230, 150, 255)');
        grd.addColorStop(1, 'rgb(255, 255, 255)');
   
        context.fillStyle = grd;
        context.fill();
 


context.beginPath();
context.arc(425, 210, 100, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        context.fillStyle = 'rgb(238, 204, 172)';
                context.fill();
        context.stroke();

 context.beginPath();
        context.rect(325, 125, 210, 30);
        context.fillStyle = 'black';
        context.fill();
        context.stroke();

context.beginPath();
        context.rect(375, 50, 100, 90);
        context.fillStyle = 'black';
        context.fill();

context.beginPath();
context.arc(370, 193, 5, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        context.fillStyle = 'black';
                context.fill();
        context.stroke();

context.beginPath();
context.arc(470, 193, 5, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        context.fillStyle = 'black';
                context.fill();
        context.stroke();

context.beginPath();
context.arc(420, 223, 5, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        context.fillStyle = 'black';
                context.fill();
        context.stroke();
       
        context.beginPath();
context.arc(470, 193, 15, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        context.stroke();
       
          context.beginPath();
  context.moveTo(470, 208);
  context.lineTo(470, 225);
  context.stroke();
       
  context.beginPath();
        context.arc(420, 250, 40, 0, Math.PI, false);
        context.closePath();
        context.lineWidth = 5;
        context.fillStyle = 'red';
         context.fill();
        context.stroke();
       
  context.beginPath();
  context.moveTo(425,310);
  context.lineTo(425,500);
  context.stroke();     
 
context.beginPath();
        context.moveTo(325, 600);
        context.quadraticCurveTo(425, 400, 525, 600);
   context.stroke();
   
   
     context.beginPath();
  context.moveTo(575,390);
  context.lineTo(275,390);
  context.stroke();   
 
  context.beginPath();
       context.moveTo(550, 600);
        context.bezierCurveTo(490, 400, 575, 400, 575, 390);
        context.strokeStyle = 'rgb(139, 90, 43)';
  context.stroke();
////////////////////////////////////// end above this line ˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆ

};

</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="myCanvas" width="800" height="600"></canvas>
</body>
</html>

Heart

My heart. Made with numbers and letters and whatnot.

CODE:
/*
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script>
window.onload = function() {
var canvas = document.getElementById("myCanvas");
var context = canvas.getContext("2d");

////////////////////////////////////// start below this line ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇ

 context.beginPath();
 context.rect(0, 0, 800, 600);
  context.stroke();
 var grd = context.createLinearGradient(0, 250, 800, 250);
  grd.addColorStop(0, 'rgb(200, 190, 255)');
  grd.addColorStop(1, 'rgb(100, 100, 255)');
  context.fillStyle = grd;
  context.fill();
  context.stroke();


 context.beginPath();
  context.moveTo(400,200);
  context.bezierCurveTo(300, 0, 160, 220, 275, 315);
    context.quadraticCurveTo(350, 375, 400, 500);
    context.quadraticCurveTo(450, 375, 525, 315);
  context.bezierCurveTo(650, 200, 520, 0, 400, 200);
   context.lineCap = 'round';
   context.fillStyle = 'rgb(255, 0, 0)';
  context.fill();
    context.lineWidth = 19;
     context.strokeStyle = 'rgb(255, 160, 160)';
       context.stroke();

  //context.bezierCurveTo(300, 0, 160, 220, 400, 500);

  context.stroke();







////////////////////////////////////// end above this line ˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆ

};

</script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="myCanvas" width="800" height="600"></canvas>
</body>
</html>
*/

First Post

My name is Brian Caples, and I'm an 18 year old freshman at the University of Tampa. I'm from Bay Shore, New York, which is a somewhat large town on Long Island where everyone knows each other and is known for being very racially, religiously, and economically diverse. I love the town to death, but had to take a break from the freezing cold winters so I came down here. I'm currently majoring in New Media production, however that may or may not change as time passes. I hope to expand upon my basic skills of computer programs like photoshop and get a better understanding of technology.