I’m a writer, first and foremost, but once in a while I am compelled by necessity to open Adobe Photoshop and do something with words and images. I definitely do not claim to be an expert–I don’t even know how to do the magic lasso thingy really well!–but there have been times when I look at the finished product and am really proud of what I’ve done.
If you come across this post and are a professional graphic designer, I’d love to hear your thoughts on tips and tools that I can use to improve my work. Please also feel free to recommend classes and workshops that you really think are worth attending. In the meantime, here’s hoping you’ll like what’s in here so far. 🙂
ALBUM COVER DESIGN
Water SignZ by Paul Zialcita
This was the most challenging design project I took on so far, mainly because it was a very personal endeavor and involved the first album of my husband, Paul. For this, we used photos that he took using a camera phone, and I had to painstakingly write/draw the front-cover characters one by one. (No fonts matched exactly what he wanted!)
All in all, I love how it came out, but I do wish I had a better and more efficient way to write or create fonts.
POSTERS
Dreamboarding by Writer’s Block Philippines
I love how simple this poster looked, and how it evoked exactly the kinds of imagery and emotions that we wanted our audience to feel. This was inspired by a photo of faded lights in New York City. It might seem too girly for some, and the logos look a bit too big, but it worked for us then!
Eat Shake Love by Paul Zialcita and Sev’s Cafe (work in progress, 2013)
Another labor of love for my hubby, this is a save-the-date study (date to be approved) for a fundraiser for victims of the earthquake that rocked Visayas in the Philippines on October 15, 2013. Our idea was to keep the colors, fonts, and graphics very clean, and to emphasize the charitable aspect of the event.
What I loved here were the black, white, and red theme, as well as the simple icons that we used to emphasize each line.
LOGOS
Writer’s Block Philippines (designed 2010)
By far one of my favorite logos because of its simplicity and ease-of-reading, and because of its mission that remains close to my heart to this day. Writer’s Block Philippines now uses a different logo and is run by my former co-founders, Ana Santos and Nikka Sarthou-Lainez.
TechFish (designed 2009)
Here’s another favorite of mine. I remember being inspired by the “play” button of the old stereo components, then fusing that idea with the concept of moving forward and the evocative name that we chose for this venture: TechFish. The rights now belong to my friend, Vince Golangco.
POSTCARDS & OTHER GRAPHIC ELEMENTS
Here’s a number of other stuff I’ve done over the past few months.
There’s more where these came from; for now, I’m just grateful to have enough skills to come up with things that I like. 🙂
For your own stash of tips, tricks, and other feedback, tweet me at @ninaterol!
