For the past several years I have faced several struggles that have not allowed me to play my favorite sport. I believe soccer has impacted my life extremely to get me to be the person I am today. I had to put a major commitment into my studies and into surgeries for me to be able to reach some of my goals including graduating from high school. I choose to make a poster that would give the audience motivation to continue their path regardless of the struggles they might be facing. My topic is relatable to the poster I created because I decided to look for images of stairs on FreeImages website that can represent steps that guided me to see the light regardless if I felt as if I was never to get out. I got motivated to create this poster after reading “The Power of Images” article. Through the image that was provided in the article because through the colors it contained and the description of 20th Century gave me the idea that those children were not working by favor, but by force. That is one of the reasons why I decided to use dark colors in my poster and blend the corners to a dark color for it to show that during stages of my life I was struggling.
At the start of my draft I decided to start by messing around with photoshop, mixing colors and using the Hue/Saturation tool as well as color balance to get a better image of how I wanted the stairs to look. After messing around with the colors, I began my draft by adding several layers to put a single image in each. I added my image and had quite a trouble using the cropping tool, which is why I changed to using the Magnetic Lasso tool where I had better results because I could delete and add additional parts to my image if I did not like how the image was looking. Next, I went to the next layer and used the Magnetic Tool until I was satisfied to how my image looked. Once I was satisfied with the images in each layer, I started moving the images to different locations because I did not know which corner or location it would best fit. After adding my image, I continued to lower down the Opacity in order for it to blend well with the background, which was the stairs. Lastly, my image was looking quite blank and even though I was satisfied with the message, I knew my audience needed to understand what I was trying to demonstrate. After adding a few text words, I decided to lower the Opacity of the text as well for it to blend with the background image. Most of the tools I used were Magnetic Lasso Tool and Hue/Saturation. Even though it was quite a process trying to find the right colors for my message to be clear to the audience.
I am amazed! The feedback I received from some pf my classmates were great, it made me feel great about the work I did for my Graphic Design Draft. It was very helpful the tips they gave me to improve for my final Graphic Design. Some of the tips I received were to try and change my wording because it was quote focusing as they would reach the message from the top of the poster to the bottom of the poster. I changed the wording and also changed the message for my audience to get a better understanding of my perspective and be motivated to reach their goals. Also, some of my classmates advised me to change the color of the stairs because it was quite hard to see and also quite blurry. I decided to change the background color and mess around with a few Hue/Saturation colors for it to match the blue light color I used on the self-portrait image. I did not make much change because my audience was satisfied with my work.
Finally, I started making a few changes to my final graphic design, not many changes because my audience were satisfied with my draft. Some of the changes I made were changing the Hue/Saturation to the stairs for it to match and blend well with my self-portrait image. I did not make much changes to my image other than increasing the Opacity for it to be clear and show that regardless of the struggles I was able to keep on smiling. A huge step that I made sure to change were the text words. I changed the message and also changed the font, size, and color for my audience to be able to read clearly my idea. Overall, I had a lot of fun messing around with adobe and being able to create a design that made me happy and would fit my topic of soccer.
Self-portrait Image- Got it from my own gallery.
Soccer Ball & Stairs background-
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