I did a lot of work in Illustrator for Matt’s NMD 104 class but this was one piece that I particularly enjoyed. The task was to create a CD cover for a particular band. I chose the Gorillaz and although they don’t behave or appear anamalistic, their musical genre could be thought of as having similar qualities. It was for this reason that I chose to incorporate the mean-looking face of a primate on the cover. By using a horor-themed font and blood-red coloring I hoped to accentuate the fear one might feel when confronted by such an animal in the daylight or otherwise. The stark contrast of the face and the inky background give the CD cover even more of a shaky feel and drive to promote the band as tough and serious about their work.

This project was one of my first experiences with Photoshop and although it was incredibly infuriating at times, I felt very accomplished at the end. I don’t remember how I came up with the idea to do a Mexican-themed project for our mock website assignment but I do remember feeling a stroke of genius – the name just fits too well. I went with dark, spicy colors to aid the Southern vibe this site demands. I accented these darker colors with some bright yellow to make things stand out. I felt like the font choice really helped as well. Also, if you read the descriptions of the food items you may get a sense for the fun I managed to have building an approach for this site. I now prefer to do most of my designs in Illustrator, although the lessons I first learned here in Photoshop carried over and helped me a lot.