Artist, graphic designer, & tech consultant in Nelson County, VA
Author:lemsy
John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.
I had a few proper graphic design courses in college, but decided during the first class that I was not cut out for graphic design. This had mostly to do with an exercise involving the abstraction of an idea in lines. I was repeatedly reminded that I was sloppy, uncertain of the Gestalt concepts, and mostly belonged in the fine arts, where sloppiness was not only allowed but expected. As a teacher, the guy was fail. With Inkscape, I have to work to be sloppy, which is fine with me. This is exactly the kind of exercise I failed at in the class — using lines to create an illusion of movement. So, I’m submitting it 15 years late, but consider it submitted. This is my first use of the tweak tool in this series.
Olive branch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #peace
Olive branch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #peace
This is an olive branch, which in certain religions represents a peace-offering, but I like to think that has become somewhat universally recognized as such. It’s a simple execution in Inkscape — I used the pencil tool set to shape: triangle in to create the branch, and set to shape: ellipse I used it to create the leaves. So, if nothing else, I hope you find some peace today. I just began a two-week vacation on Monday, and so far it’s been quite peaceful. 🙂
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Pure Imagination illustration cc-by lemasney
We’ll begin with a spin traveling in the world of my creation – Illustrated lyric from Pure Imagination, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
In this post, I’m doing a few things:
illustrating a lyric from a great song in a fantastic movie,
lamenting the remake’s poor choice of new songs,
showing sadness about the current use of this song in a commercial,
and suggesting that sometimes my work can be a bit quirky and imaginative, perhaps defying explanation.
I hope.
“Willy Wonka is a character in Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the film adaptations of these books that followed. The book and the film adaptations both vividly depict an odd Wonka, a phoenix-like man arising from his creative and Strange genius. He bewilders the other characters with his antics, but Charlie enjoys Wonka’s behavior. In the 2005 film adaptation, Willy Wonka’s behavior is viewed more as a sympathetic character flaw.” curated by lemasney from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Wikiwand at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory
“Willy Wonka (portrayed by Gene Wilder) has hidden five Golden Tickets among his famous “Wonka Bars”. The finders of these special tickets will be given a full tour of his tightly guarded candy factory as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate. During the tour, Wonka tempts each of the bad children to disobey his orders with something related to their individual character flaws. Charlie and Grandpa Joe also succumb to temptation and purposefully steal “Fizzy Lifting Drinks,” but unknowingly break the rules, violate the signed contract, forfeit the grand prize and to be yelled at by Mr. Wonka. Mr. Wonka’s experimental line of soda products that allows the drinker to fly, only to come close to death (the drinks are too strong, and therefore, not ready).” curated by lemasney from Willy Wonka – Wikiwand at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Willy_Wonka
This is a definition of Illustration from Wikipedia that I generally agree with, and this is a sketch that I feel is an actual illustration in respect of the definition. The wave of each line and the lines themselves are graphic elements that represent the flexibility of the definition. I did this in response to a recent definition of illustration at this site that I felt was far too restrictive and was also… disrespectful to other creative endeavors. The article raises interesting questions and claims, but in a far too biased way in my opinion. I wonder what she thinks of the classification of this design as an illustration.
During this workshop on the basics of visual design best practices, we’ll examine examples and counter-examples of great design, the basics of layout, simplified color theory, rules for fonts and legibility, images and photographs, designing stamps vs. pages vs. slideshows vs. billboards, copyright and creative commons, and free and open source design tools (photo manipulation, illustration, layout, catalogs, and quick editors).
By the end of the program, you will:
* Find and evaluate web-based resources for great design
* Choose the best colors, layouts, fonts, and graphics for other design projects
* Respect copyrighted work by finding imagery and other materials that are freely and legally available
* Become inspired about your design projects
* Move beyond Word and Publisher to more sophisticated design tools”
Clients often contact me asking for a logo, and my immediate response is to ask how they (plan to) define their brand. If I get a blank stare or silence back, I know we’re going to have a lot of work to do. If they respond with a few key phrases or words that help me to define what they are and why they exist in the world, I know we’re going to have fun. If they say that they never thought of it before, I know that we’re going to do some important but necessary work. This is the beginning of the end of our branding planning for a new blog venture called Central Jersey Good Eats, which strives to make people aware of good food and related topics in the central part of New Jersey, be it gardening, cooking, eating out & visiting restaurants, food photography, farmer’s markets, and anything else you can think of. We feel like we have a plethora of things to talk about related to food in New Jersey, and through interviews, techniques, tips, reviews, and other journalism, we plan to share it all. Before we even began thinking about visual representation, we developed a Strategic Plan, vision and mission, ( http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad-YsRMv5bPqZGNrZm05ZndfNTY1ZnFmcnh6ZnM&hl=en ) which we are able to use to help us to make decisions about visual representation and other decisions, because answers are either brand centric or brand divergent according to the plan. The plan answers why we still will exist in the samw world with Yelp! If you live in Central Jersey, keep an eye out for new articles and stories about good food where you live.
