Flash Animation Project 2

So I just recently finished my second project for Interactive Design. We had to do a typographic animation by choosing a song and animating the words. This is only my 2nd attempt at creating Flash animation - well, besides the tutorials and lessons in class. The song I chose to animate was "Technologic" by Daft Punk. I probably spent roughly between 20-30 hours on it (I'm not joking...). Check it out here and tell me what you think... I don't think it's too shabby for a beginner, ya know?

http://cmcerniglia.com/images/P2cerniglia_DIG2500.swf

The Importance of Package Design

Most of you know I'm a print designer at heart. I was wearing typography shirts at a young age and have always been an arts and crafts fanatic. I get excited just by the feel of nice paper, a fact that grants me a few odd looks from friends who just don't get my fascination with print. When it comes down to it, I like design that I can hold in my hand, and package design just begs to be held (and loved and cuddled…). It's a love that borders on obsession.

I was recently in Mt. Dora at a store called Noni and could hardly contain myself. Amongst the collection of eclectic art pieces and an astonishingly overuse of Papyrus, there were shelves upon shelves of bath and body products. I picked up, examined (and smelled) as much as I could. I was drawn to the colorful collection of Pacifica products, and could hardly resist the variety of Thymes. Being aware of my obsessive nature, I was careful not to purchase anything I didn't need - need, of course, being a rather relative term, because I didn't need a new candle, but I could always use another addition to my print collection.

Now, as a designer who is striving to "be green" and eco-conscious, package design has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It is an industry that, quite unfortunately, is an example of excessiveness. All too often products are packaged, packaged, and packaged some more just to make it look pretty. Some people love that (like me), while others, like Lush Cosmetics, think it silly and make a point to use as little packaging as possible. I understand where they're coming from, and am even inclined to agree on some of the finer points. But the fact of the matter is that image is everything. How you package your product is equally as important as how you design your product.

You may or may not be aware of how important package design really is. If the design is not appealing to a customer (design obsessed or not), then why would they buy it? They want products that match their lifestyle. Package design is an example of how important a first impression is. If two products by different companies are exactly the same, with maybe only a slight variation in the price, then how do you make your decision? You might pick the one that's a few pennies less, but in many cases you will subconsciously pick the one that feels right for you. That being said, you need to make sure that your product fits your demographic.

So, to any of you out there who are considering putting a product on the shelves soon (internet shelves included), I suggest learning a little more before proceeding.

There is an excellent (albeit, long) article over at The Dieline that discusses the importance of branding in regards to package design. Check it out and leave us some thoughts. You might also check out Lovely Package for some inspiration. Below are some examples of some examples of my favorite package designs:

Music Choices for Website Project

My next project in Web Design is to design a website for a music artist of my choice. I'm struggling to pick between 3 artists: Kate Havnevik, Zero 7, and Cobra Starship. I've decided to go ahead and do roughs for each, but here are a few tracks by each artist so you can get a better feel for who they are and whether or not the roughs I make would work for them.

Our new frog!

Over the last few months we've slowly been rebranding ourselves at Treefrog Cinegraphix: new look, new logo, new website. The new website will be up in a couple of weeks and the logo has only been simplified, but recently I finally got around to redesigning our frog icon. We wanted the look to be cuter and even a little more cartoony than the last. So here he is... new and improved.

Wine Poster

Just finished up my first project in Advanced Graphics II with Krity Peninno. We had to design a wine poster for this competition hosted by a Spanish wine company, Bodegas Terras Gauda. Aside from the basic competition specs, Kristy also gave us some constraints to which we had to adhere:

1. The entire piece had to be done by hand - no using the computer to do any work except adding the logo after scanning/photographing the finished piece.

2. It had do be 3-dimensional in some way.

Additionally, we also could only use our own work, which meant we couldn't use someone else's stock photography or images from magazines, etc.

The piece I ended up doing was an Art Nouveau piece done entirely with cut paper, ink, and watercolor paint. The golden frame is actually raised up from the background by about a quarter inch - this was done to help meet the 3-D requirement and give it some depth. It's still a bit rough, and I plan to go into Photoshop and fix up some of the line and color work (cause yeah, I totally didn't use those watercolors right). Overall thought I am pleased with the final outcome giving the difficulty I had putting the thing together.

New Illustration Portfolio

Hi all :) So I just went ahead and uploaded a whole bunch of work to my portfolio at Coroflot. It features my illustration and illustration only. So, please check it out when you have some time... maybe leave a comment cause comments are nice and they make me warm and fuzzy inside :)

Check it out here!

Nothing like some nitty gritty baby photos to start the day off right

Over the summer I did a series of photo shoots for an anti-smoking campaign in Advanced Graphics I. This set of images is from the first shoot. The idea around the imagery was to simulate the environment a baby is living in while you're smoking during pregnancy. The premise was "would you do this to your baby?" The photos were to be graphic, dirty, and disgusting. But first I needed a baby.

So I went to Thriftko and spent all of $2 on a baby doll in a little pink dress. Perfect. I got up on a Sunday morning and headed over to the apartment complex of fellow photography aficionado and VCC student, Rita Barnes. Together we went around her development looking for the most vile, disgusting habitats to put our little "Peggy Sue" in... puddles, sewer pipes, trash cans, dumpsters... if it was nasty then we were happy. Peggy Sue got progressively dirtier and dirtier aa the morning wore on, and eventually we bagged her up and called it a day.

Below are some of the primo picks of the 150 we took that day. They've been given only slight color and contrast adjustments. I've also done alternates in black and white because it gives the imagery an entirely different (and darker) tone.