I liked the idea of using the perspective of a recent college grad (which was easy to get, mostly because that’s me) and showing his necessity to take on a mature life style, and in doing so, “living like a grown-up.” This notion, from personal experience plays very nicely with the theme of IKEA. I remember most of my friends during college (especially once they moved out of the dorms and into apartments, would buy IKEA furniture left and right- mostly because of the affordability.) Yet the sleek design to many of their products, from bookshelves to bed frames, really do fool you into a more “mature” looking establishment.

The added element of humor in this is the “delete” boxes, which denote the items which represent this recent college grads bachelor style old ways, and the “check boxes” are those things (including the “serious relationship” which he needs now, in order to venture into the real world.

I chose to do totes, mostly because with all this snow/blizzard weather, I’ve had to use a lot of water proof clothing (to shovel the dreaded white beast) And in doing so saw that my winter gloves were made by none other than “Totes”. I figured it would be nice to do a little print add based on the once popular umbrella company- and felt that the use of the products as fish, was a cool little idea.

The concept simply plays off the umbrellas’ resemblance  to underwater creatures- and since the main product benefit is that it is made to get wet to keep you dry, the imagery worked.

Although there have been a few promising leads, I feel like I need to keep the creative juices flowing. So I decided to start a little project which I call “1 Ad in 1 Day”. The idea is: choose a product, then concept and create an ad for it- all in a day. If possible, I want to try to do this everyday-as an exercise in creativity and to help bolster my portfolio.

This first project is a little take off of one of my favorite types of movies: B Sci-fi. You know when you see a B Sci-fi movie, because the cover art is usually way better than the actual movie. The idea was to use this theme in an ad for Global Warming awareness- and the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization whose aim is to educate people on the real causes and effects of global warming. I felt it was a nice “eye-catching” juxtaposition-(and all around was fun to make)

It’s a nice angle, for me, to browse through a Record shop, because the art direction on many of these old albums are truly note worthy. Some albums have better art work than music! I guess the point of this rambling blog entry is, that you never know where you may find inspiration as an artist- mine just happens to be part of an eerily growing trend….

Music and art were meant to be fused together, experienced simultaneously, and I personally feel that old school vinyl albums achieved that. That and the fact that many music lovers are realizing the lack of the “complete album experience” in their MP3 driven world, leaves a musical void in their lives…Am I being dramatic? Maybe. But my point is still very true…

At any rate, I found another helpful website: Logo Design Love

It’s a nice little site with some cool links-(for fonts, and even an article about a website that offers $5 for every approved graphic logos design that is submitted for use by third parties….(sounds interesting, but to me, $5 isn’t quite enough for considerable quality work…) Still, it’s a very interesting site, so check it out!

On another note: I’m still applying EVERYWHERE to get a stable graphic design position…freelancing is good for a little while, but that whole “healthcare plan” and “steady paycheck”-thing is just too…well…necessary…

So far my application count is at…drum roll….50! But on the bright side of things, it looks like since the economy is comming back to it’s senses, more and more job opportunities, especially in advertising, are opening up. Most excellent!

Well, that’s all for now. If you look to your right, you will see an illustration of four very famous musicians…I did that in Photoshop, just for fun…Anywho, until my next entry…

Most people tend to use photoshop to simply manipulate photographs (logically). And many use Illustrator for, well all things illustrated…But Photoshop has some pretty mean tools to create some really cool works of art.

For anyone interested in doing so, I suggest you start by buying a Wacom board (or any other form of digital pen…believe me they are soo handy, and more affordable than most people think- I got my Wacom Bamboo for just under $60 on Amazon.)

Also, this website really helped get me started:

http://www.artsquared.co.uk/blog/category/tutorials/

The basic set-up for digital painting is practically the same as actually painting or using markers- you block everything in, then go over the small details- the only difference is each little detail can be on a separate layer, and there’s a “Step Backward” button when you mess-up. That is REAL helpful!

Also, there are a lot of online tutorials on how to create skin textures, metallic textures, even smoke in Photoshop. Sites like  www.MetaCafe.com and Youtube have great video tutorials for noob digital artists, or artists that want to get even better. I suggest you take the time to look up a few of these tutorials.

Here are a few digital paintings that may inspire you…

NOTE: These aren’t mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOJQXdwmrI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzoHhgrHrEg

The Red Lobster Ad

With this being my first post, I felt it appropriate to introduce myself. My name is David Tufano. I recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, with a focus in Creative Advertising/Graphic Design.

Although I’ve been doing mostly freelance work since I graduated, it’s been a goal of mine to work for a prestigious advertising agency, such as the Martin Agency or BBDO .
The print ad featured in this blog is one I created for Red Lobster in my portfolio class, and I feel it best represents the style of creativity I like to shoot for in my advertising concepts- a very unorthodox, fun, and eye grabbing visual style.

There will be more entries to come, and hopefully an update to my career…Big money, no whammies, no whammies…