Combine Type and Symbol to create and Illustration
I chose the word Nail and used an image of a nail to substitute the letter "l".
Combine one Letter and and Overlapping Symbol to create an Illustration
I chose the letter "R" in Comic Sans font because I liked how it looked. I used a star in the middle. It reminded me a bit of the 'Toys 'R' Us', R.
Combine type and a Photo
After looking through some source images, I chose the word "Clamp" and then used the clamp to replace the letter 'C'.
Use a RGB Photo as a verb/noun to replace a word
I created a simple sentence, "Treasure me." and found an image of treasure and placed it next to the word 'me'.
Combine two RGB Photos to communicate a phrase, cliche, or idea
I used an image of Tron and a Bone to create the word "Tron-bone" a play on the word "Trombone".
Incorporate an image relating to and interacting with text
I chose the image of of a lock and "locked" the letters 'o' and 'c' together. I also tilted those letters together and brought them a bit closer to have them appear to be interacting better with the image.
Using only type, Illustrate a word or concept
Using the word "Wide" I took the letters 'I' and 'D' and using the text tools available, widened the letters out.
InDesign as a Layout Software
InDesign is a very good layout software. It is much easier to work with type and aligning it with other sections of text. It's drawing skills aren't the best, but it's also not as necessary in this software.
Robotype
Going to www.robotype.net, I created this image using only letters. I considered this to be my "sketch" of the image I would do in InDesign.
Type Figure One
Using what I had done in Robotype as a basic idea I fleshed the image out better in InDesign. It took a bit to get the letters to be the thickness I wanted within the fonts I chose. The eyes, nose, and slippers are all in Comic Sans for example.
Type Figure Two
Using the ellipse tool to create a circle for the text to sit on, I wrote the sentence "What goes around comes around." It did take a bit to adjust the font to make the sentence fit all the way around the circle.
Type Figure Three
This one was to create a shape that related to the text, and then wrap the text around the object. I selected the opening for Homestuck and placed it within the SBURB logo. This one got a bit complicated with the shapes, but after simplifying it to its outline the text was willing to fit within the house.
Type Figure Four
This was a sentence that required an emoji, so I chose the shades emoji \></. This one was rather easy once I knew what emoji to use.
Type Figure Four
In this image, the goal was to use a word and demonstrate it using the word involved. I chose the word "Gradient" and using the gradient tool, did a black to white gradient on the letters in Photoshop before placing it in InDesign.
Preparation
In the case of a low quality image, try to scan at a higher resolution so that you have a bit more to work with.
Clean Up in Photoshop
The steps needed to prepare the low quality image for a Live Trace could be done in the following. Adjust the levels of white, black, and grey with the levels until the image has a nice high contrast. Alternatively, if your image is only in black and white you can adjust contrast and then adjust levels.
Live Trace in Illustrator
Live Trace is good for making a base layer for you to work off on. It does grab a lot of the pixelation if you are not careful. I created the best version I could by using the Three-Color option and then changing any colors I needed.
Logo Reconstruction Using the PEN Tool in Illustrator
Recreating the logo using the pen tool was a bit harder but had a overall better end result. After making sure that only the stroke was visible, I began to make the oval and then later the Bat symbol. The oval was easy to create, clicking and then getting to the radius of the oval that I wanted, I then curved the line to best fit and repeating the process to finish the oval off. The Bat was done in the same manner. I didn't need to add or subtract any anchor points as I was pretty satisfied with what I got.
File Formats
After scanning the image, it was saved as a .tiff
In photoshop, after tweaking the image a bit, it had been saved as a .psd
Once done with the logo in Illustrator, it had been saved as .ai
For delivery it had been saved as a .jpg
Advice on Vector Creation
Be patient and take your time, its very easy to get frustrated and it will make you want to throw your computer through a wall.
Functions and the result
Click and drag:
Selects letter at a time.
1 click:
Places cursor in that spot.
2 clicks:
Selects the word.
2 clicks and drag:
Selects words at a time.
3 clicks:
Selects a line.
3 clicks and drag:
Selects lines at a time.
4 clicks:
Selects paragraph.
 |
| Four clicks |
4 clicks and drag:
Selects paragraphs at a time.
5 clicks:
Selects everything/the whole page.
5 clicks and drag:
Nothing.
