Another project for Horner Recruitment; this time an invitation for the AFL Grand Final Eve luncheon. I am a total ignoramus when it comes to anything related to football... However, I don't live under a rock and haven't been in a coma for the last couple of years -- SO, I do at least know that the Grand Final is played at the MCG and that last year's premiership winners were the Sydney Swans. Sufficient enough information to put together a decent invitation I think!

 

I provided Horner with three options initially. The first two layouts are identical, but with different colour schemes. I chose the black and gold colour scheme because I feel it's an elegant colour combo and fitting for such an event. The red and white colour scheme is actually Horner's corporate colours.

 

 


Layout One

 

Layout Two

 

Layout Three

 

The preferred option was numero duo. Makes sense (to me), as I know the managing director and that he likes to apply the corporate colours where he can (who wouldn't?)... Not to mention his AFL team is the Sydney Swans. Only a few changes were requested. Replace and darken the background image; and add the AFL logo. I also made a few tweaks here and there that I though would improve the final image. I am really fortunate to work with such nice and flexible clients :)

 

 

The final design.

 

Final



Jobs

A couple of months ago I was contacted by Horner Recruitment to design an evite for their client movie night. The movie for this event was Jobs.

The extraordinary story of Steve Jobs, the original innovator and ground-breaking entrepreneur who let nothing stand in the way of greatness. The film tells the epic and turbulent story of Jobs as he blazed a trail that changed technology -- and the world - forever.

 (c) Official Site

 

The concept was a no brainer, I had to use the iconic iPhone, duh...



First draft

 



The first draft with the dark background is very clean, bold and polished, totally my preferred style. Horner were happy with the smart phone concept, but were concerned that is wasn't clear that this was an invitation to a movie.

So, for the second revision, I added a movie theatre background and made the main text look like it was being projected on the movie screen.
 

Second draft

 

The final revision involved adding some curtains to the movie screen, pops of colour in the main text and a clickable banner at the bottom.

 

Final

 

Btw, I have a Samsung phone.

 

Photography by Jenny Do

 

After lunch last Sunday, RT decided that we should have an impromptu picnic. It sounded like a great idea to me, until RT asked me to pick the location...

*groan*

 

One thing you should know about me, is that I rather dislike making decisions... As long as it's not illegal, won't land me in jail and/or result in me missing some vital internal organs, I'm usually a go-with-the-flow kinda gal.  

 

RT has commented that I have been getting a lot bit better as of late, but maybe he's just being polite? To help me out, RT put two options on the table. Beach or Park?

 

 

My choice? Whatever is closest! Even with two options I couldn't (really) make a decision... I have some serious decision making issues!

 

We did a quick pit stop at home to pick up some picnic related provisions. A couple of towels, a bottle of rosé, crackers and dip and a can of sour cream and onion Pringles. Yup, talk about a gourmet spread.


We sat at a bench for a while, sipping our wine and people watching. The Pringles tasted even better than usual.. must've been the crisp sea air  or something ;)

 

I wouldn't say that it was perfect

beach weather. It was more on the chilly side and cloudy, but the sun made sporadic appearances and warmed our backs - the wine also helped.

After awhile, we packed up our picnic and meandered along the coast enjoying and admiring the scenery, snapping pictures here and there.

I also enjoyed examining all the different and interesting plants. Each time I discovered a new species, I would contemplate;

1. Would I eat it? and

2. How I would prepare it

 

I think RT thought I was a bit strange, but that's nothing entirely new. I'm hoping it comes across as endearing *fingers crossed* ;)



I think impromptu trips/activities are great as you don't really have time to plan or stress over the little details. Great for a go-with-the-flow kinda gal like me :D

Guess who?

 

Photo Walk: Melbourne CBD

Over the weekend I went on a photo walk in Melbourne's cbd, to see if I could get some good shots to play with. As I was about to take my first shot, I realised something important. I had forgotten to put the memory card back in my camera, d'oh! Luckily, JB was just down the street and I could purchase a new memory card, which I need for my other camera anyway.

 

My friend's and I walked around Bourke street mall, the small lanes and acrcades, Federation Square and Southbank. That's a lot of walking! But it was definitely necessary, as we had a BIG lunch at Mamak earlier on.

 

Despite all the walking, upon arriving home and browsing through all my photos I was rather disappointed. I didn't really get anything good. The highlight of my day was lunch and then coffee at Brunetti's where I stuffed my face with three types of cake.

 

In this picture I reduced the saturation and added a cooling filter. I also added a curves adjustment and that's about it.

 

This doorway image is actually made up of two duplicates. I rotated and reduced the opacity of one, hence the strange angle and shadows. I also de-saturated the whole image, increased the blacks and then through a layer mask revealed pops of colour.

This was taken down at Southbank. There's a bunch of locks that couples have latched onto the bridge. Anyway, all I did to this image was add a sepia tone, which in my personal opinion adds an air of romance. The original colouring is stark silver.

 

This outing was a total bust for me in terms of photography.. sigh..

 



Making A Splash

My latest creative project has been utilising these water splashes in place of hair in portraits. It really gives a whimsical and aquatic feel to an image. All it takes really is a little creativity and imagination.

I spent many hours contemplating the placement of each splash, because I'm a bit pedantic about making things look aesthetically pleasing. Also, I love puzzles which this is comparable to. I also decided that I may as well tell you a little story -- Meet my water spirits.

Like humans, these spirits come in all different shapes, sizes and personalities. This is Ileume (pronounced ee-loom-ay), she is ruler of all the water spirits as depicted by the water crown. Her job is to keep all the spirits in line and make sure that they don't get up to any mischief. Should she fail her duties, the crown will magically disappear, whoosh. No one knows how a new ruler is chosen, but the water crown will magically appear atop the new chosen ruler.

 

This is Sireyna, a very wise and practical spirit. Her demeanor is very conservative and she conducts herself with much decorum and class. Rumour has it that she would be the next ruler should anything happen to Ileume.

 

Meet Coralise, she's a playful free spirit who hates brushing her hair. Although I cannot fathom how one brushes their hair when it's made of water. Coralise likes to crack bad jokes, which oftentimes does not bode well with the other spirits.

Here's Kiri, she can be a bit naïve and has rather quixotic views about things. Kiri just wants to play all day long, and loves to dance around and flick her hair, which sometimes results in whiplash.

 

 

Most water spirits are affable and compassionate, but not all. Like, Lorelai. She has a mysterious demeanor and a dark sense of humour. They say she is bitter about something, but no one knows what. She's not the type that is going ask you out for a coffee and catch up.

Water spirits live right here on earth, near water mass like lakes, rivers, and the sea etc. The water spirits float above water and absorb the moisture from evaporation to keep energised. The spirits can only be seen by victims of water related calamities. They appear to either assist, or not... depends which spirit you meet. Just cross your fingers it's not Lorelai.

Here's a random fact... I have almost drowned three times in my lifetime. How else do you think I would know about these water spirits? Can't make sh-t like this up y'know?
 

Princes Pier

The sun was shining yesterday so I headed down to Port Melbourne with a couple of friends, so that we could take some photos of the old pier. I've mentioned before that I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination and I don't own a fancy camera or filters etc... but with a quick lesson from my friend, I managed to capture this shot.

I'm pretty chuffed with the outcome. Prior to yesterday I've always shot photos on auto and maybe tweak some of the settings. However yesterday, I learnt about aperture, iso etc... I still don't really know what it all means though.

 

I decided to see what I could do with this image in Photoshop. For the first image, I used cooler tones to give it a crisp feel. I think my lips were the same colour, it was freeking cold! I also removed all the background buildings to give it a clean horizon. Reminds me of an army all lined up ready for battle and waiting for the enemy to appear -- the calm before the storm.

The next image I decided on slightly warmer tones (by adding purple) but using darker hues. I also replaced the whole sky with an imported image of a starry sky and hills. Not sure if the moon needs to be in the picture, but I added it anyway, because I just cannot help myself.

I was getting sick of working on the same image so I decided that this would be the final image. I used the posterize filter, so it kind of looks like a painting with pencil outline. I think this image has a vintage feel to it, kind of like a painting you'd find in a Salvation Army store for 3 bucks.

It was a fun outing, but got really cold after sunset. I'm really looking for to more photography adventures utilising my newfound skills :)

 



It's Snowing!

Not really. Living in Melbourne, you just never know whether you're going to experience four seasons in one day. However lately, it's just been cold, or REALLY cold, but not cold enough to snow. I came across a tutorial showing how you can change an image into a winter scene and add snow etc. so I decided to give it a try. I used this picture of a happy bridal party - in a park - on a clear day. Little do they know, they're about to experience a freak weather change in just a few moments *evil laugh*





Have you ever been part of a bridal party? I have... more times than I can remember. It often involves a really long day and copious amounts of awkward/cheesy poses. You name the cheesy pose and most likely, I have done it. Um, I don't know why I had to mention this. Anyway... Here's my winterised image! - and I really need to work on my segue skills.

 

To create this winter effect (in Adobe Photoshop) I used a number of layer masks, adjustment filters and custom brushes (for the snow). I made sure to apply a cooling filter so that the skin had a bluish tint and decided to keep the magenta as vibrant as possible for a pop of colour. Looks pretty convincing if I do say so myself. The only really unconvincing thing is that they seem too happy right? =D

Now... if only I could use Photoshop irl to transform this cold weather. I wonder who I'd have to write to at Adobe to make this happen...

To try this effect out yourself the tutorial can be found here.
 

Canada (West Coast) - Land of Turquoise Lakes

Have you ever been to the west coast of Canada? It's one of my most favourite travel destinations. A true photographer's dream -- it boasts beautiful landscapes and lakes that are so clear and turquoise, that sometimes you have to rub your eyes (and risk smudging your carefully applied eyeliner), to make sure that you're eyes aren't playing tricks on you.

So eff'n gorgeous right?! This is one of the best photos I took and trust me, I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. I simply point and shoot. [Tangent] How lucky are we to live in the age of the digital camera??! Steven Sasson (American electrical engineer and inventor of the digital camera) I LOVE YOU! [/Tangent]
 

Anywayyy... I decided to play around with this image in a couple of different graphic programs. The image below was created in Corel Painter using the auto paint function and the blender brush. I started with bigger brush strokes to lay out the colours, then smaller strokes to add detail/texture. It's a quick and easy way to turn a photo into a painting. It also helps if you look at it from REALLY far away (and squint) =P

The next image was created in Adobe Photoshop. I imported a starry sky and a cloud image and used the gradient function to blend the two images together and replaced the original sky. I also added the moon (obviously). To complete the composition I utilised a number of layer masks and adjustment filters. I was going for an ethereal/whimsy feel.

This is a (different) image I created in Corel Painter, again with the blender brush. Still in the Canadian Rockies, Whistler I believe. Again stand really far away and squint (please).