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https://donnadi.com/pages/fashion-art-1

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COLGATE REIMAGINE 2020

Artist Rosa who i found on Instagram, is a digital illustrator and graphic designer based in the UK. She did a Self-initiated project to re-brand popular tooth care brand, Colgate.

I love that the shapes and minimalist design of the packaging, contrasts with 1970′s/1960′s ad design at the same time. 

I also like that she has included her color pallet and Typography on her site.

The fact that she did a self initiated re-brand is really interesting to me, as a beginner designer, I will need to do projects like this  to build my portfolio.

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I made a logo! 

I a very proud of my new logo I created for a wedding photography client. 

Above explains all the elements of my logo. 

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Here is the 10th edition of Letterpress Calendar. Be creative in 2021 following every month words of wisdom of the Mr Cup creative manifesto letterpress calendar. It is a hand-numbered limited edition. Every year, 2 editions are available: Deluxe and Standard.

The calendar is printed in France, at Studio Pression. Letterpress printing has the ability to create relief into the paper by adding tons of pressure while printing. It’s called a deep impression, or debossing. And it’s done at the same time, printing AND debossing, always one color at a time. The thicker the paper, the deeper the impression. For a crisper effect, we use much harder magnesium plates instead of a photopolymer. Hot foil uses the same machine but instead of ink, pre-dried ink or foils are transferred on the paper at high temperatures.

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This is a great project by  Matt SingerInterior for  custom wallpaper and prints for Warby Parker's store in Colorado 

Warby Parker is an American retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses. The company was founded in 2010 with a lofty objective: to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. Since 2010, Warby Parker opened 55 stores across the U.S. and Canada.

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COVID and ART

I wanted to share this design from the cover of Nature Outlook. 

It is both a scary and beautiful image to me. The shape of the COVID brings us feelings of fear and uncomfortableness, but at the same time the people in lab coats give us a message of hope. 

Indeed the virus is dangerous but with the work of our amazing scientist, medication we will hopefully one day not fear the virus as we all do now. 

I also love that this image uses subtle colors and great textures making it look like a vintage image.

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In my opinion Beth Harmon The Queens' Gambit is, without doubt, one of the top tv series hit of 2020. 

A year like no other showed us many unknown and unexpected parts of the human society, identity, and behavior. 

Beth Harmon is a protagonist that many could associate themself with, and chess is the stage on which many psychological and sociological plots can be employed. In 2020 each one of us had to play a newfangled chess game toward the coronavirus pandemic. It's an continuous game with many complex difficulties, foreign moves, simple and not so apparent strategies, perplexities, and developments. This game against an unseen enemy has formed our lives and revealed us our weaknesses. Finally, it gave us an ultimate opportunity to rethink ourselves and our civilization.

Charis Tsevis, a fantastic designer from Greece this series as a side project the last moths. He built his amazing I wanted mosaics on a simple checkerboard with a limited colour palette stolen by the mini-series. Even more amazingly he has made all his digital filse free for all the "Beth Harmon fans out there and for anyone who likes to decorate hers or his room with chess and beauty"

Images are available to download here "The Queen's Gambit Mosaics" 

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Food Baby and Lazy Oaf

I love these super cute illustrations and stickers by artist Rosa in collaboration with one of my favorite fashion designers Lazy Oaf. 

My favorite part of these are the clean lines and the fantastic contrast. 

An apparent faux pas I love the contrast of pink and red together and it is one of my favorite color combos, especially in fashion. 

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My final image represents joy. I took this photo during one on my nighttime street photography strolls, something that I plan on continuing after this assignment. This photo was a right place right time kind of opportunity.

The two boys pictured where with a large group of people from the Romani community that often spend time many hours socialising on Dublin streets at night. The boys ran up to the tree to get a better look at the lights. The older boy (who I assume is the big brother) lifed up, the smaller child so that he could get a better look at the lights.

I am delighted to capture an image that represents joy so quickly. The joy of Christmas as a child, the joy of seeing the bright lights, the joy of curiosity as children and the joy of touching something you are not supposed to. You could see on the boys face how delighted he was. For myself, I was not feeling very joyful a few seconds later, as the children turned to me and started shouting curse words. Curse words that children their age really should not know. Although on the bright side they were delighted with themselves after they have behaved so rudely, so I suppose even their naughtiness brought them joy.

From a composition perspective, I like this image because the children's faces fall directly in the middle of the shot. The orange hat which contrasts the blue very well also draws the eye to the little boy. I didn't do a lot of editing on this photo, as my changes had many adverse side effects. Changing saturation made orange or pink glares in the background. Or brightening the blue of the lights made the image strange looking. This is mostly because of the lense I was using, which is not able to handle extremely low light. And as the photo was a one-second opportunity, I did not have time to adjust my settings. to be able to see the lights up close finally

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This photograph represents danger, and it is my favourite out of the four I submitted. This photo was like many of my other images taken on a nighttime walk in Dublin City. I work full time, and nowadays, I only get to leave the house after the sun has gone down, making photography more difficult. As a female, walking around the city at night is often a dangerous venture. We are taught from a young age to avoid alleys like this and to, of course, never take a taxi home alone at night. It also reminds me of dingy night clubs often depicted in gangster movies. But, what makes this photo special to me is because it also reminds me of my favourite heart-pounding videogame resident evil. Any moment a zombie will come crawling up the alleyway, or one of the cars will explode! I love this photo because you can interpret danger in so many ways and it's not so subtle nod to horror movies abound, heightened by an almost low-fi aesthetic.

From a composition point of view, I love the gritty, almost dirty textures I captured. The harsh neon lighting reflecting off the old concrete buildings and puddles on the floor bring the eye down and into the ally and the headlights at the end of the road brings the photo to a close. I feel as if the foreground, middle and background each highlight a different part of the image.   I manipulated the clarity and sharpness in this image that to bring our the textures and I played with the specific colour saturations, especially the red.  

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A quick google search of the word safety will show you men in hard hats, the police or even safety sign. For me, safety is being with the person I care most about in the world. I chose to include this recent photo of my partner Ken which was taken in a cafe in Kilkenny we visited during my birthday weekend trip this month.  Although the image looks moody and dark, this image means warmth to me; it represents safety.

Yes, the room is dark, but the light casts a warm yellow light across the table and his face. Unlike the other images I submitted in this assignment where the lighting is neon and harsh, this yellow light makes it feel warm, almost creating the yellow glow of a fire.

With all this taken into consideration, the most crucial reason this image represents safety to me is because of the way it shows Ken's personality. He is looking down with a slight smile on his face, lovingly tolerating me taking yet another photograph of him.

Ken is a very reserved steady person, and although the eye is drawn directly to the bright bulb my subject (Ken) almost hidden in shadow is comforting in contrast. Ken is also physicist, researching heat technology, and this images shows him both beside an obvious source of heat but also captures the look I often see on his face. Of concentration doing some simulations or equations in his head whenever he gets the chance. And finally, this image looks like the vintage photographs of professors. The iconic image of a philosopher in his library sipping on whisky as he solves the world problems.

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Anger was a problematic photo for me to represent in a single image. With everything going on in the world right now, it is easy to find things to be angry within 2020. I wanted to find something more human.

I was out walking this week, and I came across this beautiful young man dressed head to toe in red crocodile leather posing for Instagram photos with his friend. And although it is entirely out of comfort zone, I stopped and asked if I could talk a picture of him. My first instinct was that this image would represent joy with its bright colours; however, after a conversation with the young man, I realised that this photo would be my expression of anger.

This young black man is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Young black men have been the subject of so much anger in 2020. The violence inflicted on black men that has sparked the Black Lives Matter movement to the constant struggle and harassment of the LGBTQ community to be accepted in society.

I feel that the photo is well framed with my subject centred and the neon red and blue contrasted with the dark shadows being a mood of darkness. Additionally, the angry but soft facial expression of my model again contrasts with the harsh lighting and clothing.

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Nostalgic GIF

We recently learned how to make GIFs on Photoshop. We looked at how to make text move, which will come in very useful to me as social media specialist but I would love to eventually be able to make something like this. 

Isn’t it interesting how the whole mood of the image can change with a slight color difference bringing a simple image to life. 

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New Hair New Man

I chose to share these photographs by photographer  Maria Savarbova who is on Forbes 30 by 30. 

I like her style because they are both creepy and relaxing at the same time. The cool tone of the photos and seamless colors are calming. Yet at the same time the weird perfection and stiffness of the models are strange and unsettling. A contrast that I love

Costumes: Zuzana Hudakova

Models: Mix Model Management, Silvia M. & Daughter 

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Punky Pins

Positivity, playfulness and personal empowerment are at the heart of everything Punky Pins does.

You can find the pins here https://punkypins.co.uk/ 

Punky Pins gives voice to authenticity, opinion and joyful irreverence through a mix of witty pins, patches and fun practical accessories. Founded in 2005 by Claire Whaite, Punky Pins was accidentally born from an adventure with a kid’s badge making machine.

 With the results of Claire’s playful hobby selling like hot cakes on eBay and MySpace (*sigh*), she decided to upgrade to a professional machine, team up with a graphic designer and launch the Punky Pins empire. 

With Punky Pins, cat jokes and playground innuendos are no longer a secret giggle had when no one’s looking - but a fast - growing language of self - expression and connection for individuals across the world.