Thought I'd post something a little different from the usual graphic novel update.
One of things I do as a graphic designer and illustrator is recreate really bad image files that my clients begin with into something that my clients can use. A lot of my clients need images in a vector format that they can then reproduce for various purposes, the most common being t-shirt imprints, posters and business literature. An image that takes up the front of a t-shirt is not going to look really good if it's just an enlarged jpeg image, but when it's been vectorized it is fully scalable to just about any size.
The image below is a file that I received recently with the request of being able to do something with it. The original image is pretty bad (though it's not the worst I've ever started with) and it's difficult to see the details required. If this were to be used as a full size imprint it would look pretty rough and the end customer would be less than happy about it.
One of things I do as a graphic designer and illustrator is recreate really bad image files that my clients begin with into something that my clients can use. A lot of my clients need images in a vector format that they can then reproduce for various purposes, the most common being t-shirt imprints, posters and business literature. An image that takes up the front of a t-shirt is not going to look really good if it's just an enlarged jpeg image, but when it's been vectorized it is fully scalable to just about any size.
The image below is a file that I received recently with the request of being able to do something with it. The original image is pretty bad (though it's not the worst I've ever started with) and it's difficult to see the details required. If this were to be used as a full size imprint it would look pretty rough and the end customer would be less than happy about it.
When I begin the process of recreating the image I take the original into Photoshop and take out anything that might be confusing when I'm zooming in and out during the recreation. It's usually a very quick process but you can already see the difference below. I've erased what was obviously just extraneous background sections and defined the edge of the actual piece they need. I've also adjusted the curves just a little to bring up some of the details.
From here on in I take the image into Illustrator and begin redesigning the pieces from the back forward. The end result needed to be in two colors with minimal shading or highlights. The client doesn't need to be able to rotate the piece so they can see it from different angles so I don't need to create it with 3D software, but if that's what was required the process is pretty much the same (except that you'd require image sources for all the sides and it would take a lot longer). The end result can be seen below.
So there you have it. A nice quick explanation of one of the things I do for a living. Not everything is super creative but it's always a challenge and if the client is happy with the end results, then I'm happy and I've done my job. Hope everyone enjoyed the simplified breakdown.