Assignment #1 - I love/ I hate

Update: 12 Nov 2008
This is the most recently updated version of Assigment one. I did some tweaking to the pictures by making the stroke thicker so the design is more noticeable and somehow looks better (:


Ok so we're more or less done with the first assignment after our tutor and the class have given comments.

These are my four thumbnail sketches that I did showing the different name manipulations of what I love and hate. I've decided to go with I love fashion brands and I hate smoking.
For the 'I love' column, I drew my name using different fashion articles such as shoes, bags, dresses and jeans. I chose brands with obvious logos such as Coach or a standard trademark look like the Hermes birkin as they are easily recognizable.
For the 'I hate' column, I positioned cigarettes to make up my name and sketched some drawings to exemplify my extreme dislike.

I chose these 2 out of the 4 thumbnails from each category...

I like the first drawing better as did the rest of the class when they gave comments. They said the A could not really be seen from the shoe and I needed to find some way to make it stand out more. I then decided to add color for the next stage. As for the second drawing, I don't like it.

There were mixed comments for I hate smoking. Personally, I like the top one better as it really communicates my hate for smoking and the drawing looks better too. However, most people felt that it was too cliched so I decided to go with the second one. I added the sign in the smoke to portray my hatred of smoking.

And... here's the final two drawings! :)

I finally managed to get something halfway decent looking after much agonizing over Illustrator. My drawings are inspired from Christian Louboutin, the famous shoe designer who's trademark is that all his shoes have red soles, True Religion jeans and Dior. :)

I used live trace over my drawings which I scanned in and used the pen tool to adjust the shapes to what I want. Then just added in some color to make it more presentable.
The class commented again on the shoe, that perhaps it has to be lighter in color to make the A more obvious. I'm still working on it.

I hate smoking is conveyed through the sign made by the smoke fumes coming out from the cigarettes. Illustrator is hard work and I had to adjust the curves in the smoke individually using the pen tool. A tedious process. I think it needs better color to make the drawing less cartoon-like.
Will refine it before the final submission. :)