Hello and thank you for being part of J465 this semester. Together, we will undertake a series of projects and assignments that are meant to build your abilities as designers and increase your expertise in the core Adobe programs that are the tools of the trade. You will be designing logos, illustrations, layouts and animations that will showcase your creative vision and your unique personal style.
You will use this site throughout the semester to post your work, as well as descriptions of your creative process and analyses of the finished products. As authors, you may post additional thoughts and reactions any time you see fit. As part of the class, you will also be designing and maintaining your own J465 website, showcasing your project and exercise work. To read the full syllabus for J465, please visit our syllabus site at www.stevelayton.net/j465/s25.
Good luck — and once again, thanks for being here.
For my Project 3 conceptual magazine, I chose the article OLDTECH by Nick Bilton. I was really drawn to the idea that older technologies like vinyl records, Polaroid cameras, and cassette tapes aren’t just surviving, they’re thriving because of how people still connect emotionally and physically to them. I wanted my illustration to reflect that in a way that felt warm, immersive, and metaphorical. I created a top view living room scene filled with analog tech, showing two people relaxing and engaging with retro formats. Instead of placing the image on a standard magazine page, I framed the entire scene within a rounded, analog-inspired layout that feels like you’re looking into the past through an obsolete interface.
I built the illustration in Illustrator and then used Photoshop to add texture and depth. I layered a soft retro grain over the entire piece, added subtle drop shadows, and applied sprinkled gradients and radial shading to create a warmer, more tactile look, especially around the rug and table. These effects helped the illustration feel more like a printed object rather than something flat or overly digital. I also made sure to include specific visual elements from the story, like vinyl records, a cassette tape, and a vintage camera, which are placed intentionally throughout the space to draw the viewer in.
For the typography, I used a bold retro serif for the headline “The Groove We Live In” and paired it with a softer italic style for the deck and byline. I wanted the typography to support the illustration while still maintaining a clean editorial structure. One of the biggest challenges was making sure the concept felt thoughtful without being too literal. I didn’t want it to just be a room with old objects in it. I wanted it to suggest that these objects still hold meaning and are very much part of the present.
Overall, I’m proud of how this project turned out. I focused not just on aesthetics but on how illustration can carry an idea forward and enhance the message of a story. This was the first time I felt like I was able to combine narrative, design, and visual storytelling in a complete and cohesive way.
This animation for EyeLeaf Publishing logo was created in After Effects, which was a learning experience in itself. I started by using fade-in effects and scaling to gradually reveal the logo, but what really shaped the tone was the dramatic soundtrack, “Reveal” by Francesco D’Andrea. The cinematic and tense quality of the music gave the animation a surprisingly serious mood, which contrasted interestingly with the organic visuals of the brand. I also incorporated a typewriter sound to emphasize the publishing concept, timing it with the appearance of the company name. Learning how to time audio and visuals precisely in After Effects, especially syncing sound effects to movement, was one of the most challenging but rewarding parts of the process.
The final project was definitely the most challenging for me. I didn’t have any prior experience with After Effects, so I was certainly going to have to put the time in to make this animation. Despite the animation only being ten seconds long, it still took a long time to complete, showing me just how difficult animating something can be. The main idea I had for the project was for the pineapple to continuously rise from the ground. Of course this would start with the crown sprouting up first, followed by the body. I wasn’t sure where to go from there at first but then decided it could be a fun idea to have the pineapple shoot high up into the sky and spin while falling back to the ground. In terms of sound, I used a “pop” sound effect when the different parts of the pineapple came out of the ground. The hardest element to determine the sound for was the different parts of the body coming out of the ground. I ultimately went with a crunching leaves as I felt it sort of reminded me of something trying to rustle its way out of the ground. Overall, I enjoyed this project as it allowed me to learn something new and challenged me in new ways in design.
Making this magazine was a bit of a challenge. It took me awhile of on and off designing and drawing before I finally got something decent. I wanted to make the style of my spread customized with a hand drawn style. Alongside that I wanted to experiment with the idea of random fridge magnet letters that you might see in a junk drawer. To me it was a random but creative way of adding a unique touch to the overall design of the magazine spread. The rest of the text I used the Bitters font for a simple but serious legible font for the reader to view.
The article by Nick Bilton references the Apple Watch, FitBit, and Google glasses. So, likewise I wanted to try my hand at drawing those gadgets to add to the opening spread. Everything but the text is hand drawn by me. I chose to illustrate two junk drawers next to each other for the opening spread and added some recognizable items that are common to find in a junk drawer. You can find a tape dispenser, push pins, rubber bands, measuring tape, post-it notes, a singular red crayon, and a singular clothes pin. Together they all resemble items in a junk drawer as well as emphasizing the metaphor that Bilton uses referencing wearable tech being not usable enough except for decorating the junk drawer.
The second page of the spread has the familiar looking tech from the opening spread as well as some “junk” decorating the page. I also added some of the optional sidebar in the spread. It was a bit of a challenge with the main text not being very long. I wanted to just have the main text and no sidebar, but after 30-45 minutes of frustrated fiddling with sizes and measurements, I realized I needed to bite the bullet and add some sidebar to the spread. I didn’t have a lot of space and I didn’t want to squeeze everything in as it took away from the overall cutesy and simple design of the page. So, I removed some things while still getting the main gist although I do think there’s still some space that could have been more creatively utilized if I had kept experimenting with it.
Overall, it was a challenging and dragging process (on account of myself) but I really put myself out of my usual creative comfort zone. In doing so I was able to take the reigns of how I wanted the overall conceptual design to look and I think I did a good job.
This animation project was a fun and new challenge. I had an idea for how I wanted my animation look like but my skills to do so were lacking. Despite that, I was motivated to animate my logo to life and created a light hearted and magical animation for my logo “Ephemera Books”. Because my logo consists of a moth, I wanted to personify the moth into an actual insect and made it move around like so. The video then ends with a magical sound that pops up the words “Ephemera Books”. I kept my colors the same and placement. Even with the challenges of trying to make this animation, the results made it all worth it.
For Project 03, we were tasked with creating a conceptual illustration for a magazine spread based on one of three topics: DIYHOME, OLD TECH, or WEARABLE TECH. Each topic came with an article to base the conceptual illustration on, along with some sidebars and images to include in the spread. I chose the OLD TECH topic, which features an article by Nick Bilton about how old technology continues to be relevant in today’s world despite the introduction of new gadgets and technology.
In my illustration for this article, I wanted to depict how newer generations are continuously reaching for old tech, while some older generations are trying out new gadgets. I illustrated young and old people on a film strip and placed it on the opening spread. To unify the opening spread with the next spread, I continued the film strip along the bottom of the next page. I added a faded old newspaper background to give dimension and texture to the pages, which looked a bit plain and overly white before.
On the opening spread, I included a quote by Ellen Weinstein on the right-side page: “Though people may be obsessed with new gadgets, many also cling to outdated technologies like turntables, film cameras, and books.” I think my conceptual illustration represents this quote well. I found this quote attached to the real article posted on the Seattle Times website and thought it fitting to include in my spread.
After adding the text to the next spread, I realized the article was very short, so I had to get creative to fill the remaining white space. I started by adding a callout within the article with a quote I thought was important. This helped lengthen the article but not nearly enough. I looked for images in the provided materials but was disappointed to find none. I ended up finding my own image, which I feel fits alright, though it’s not my favorite. I wished the article had come with an image to add.
Next, I designed the sidebar from the provided materials. I made it larger than usual to fill the space, given the short article. I like how it turned out, though I wished it didn’t have to be so large. Finally, after adding the sidebar, there was still some room at the bottom. I brainstormed and tried rearranging the page, but it never looked right. Ultimately, I decided to add some of my own copy at the end, summarizing the article’s message in one sentence. I really like this addition as it pulls the spread together nicely.
Overall, I’m decently pleased with the outcome of my conceptual magazine spread. This wasn’t my favorite project, as I struggled with coming up with a conceptual idea. I don’t think conceptual illustrations are my strong suit, but I enjoyed exercising this skill throughout the project!
For Project 04, we were tasked with creating an animation for the logo we designed in Project 01. My logo for BASS PUBLISHING is an outline of a bass fish. For this animation, I opened my original logo design file and inverted the colors. The original logo features a red fish and letters on a white/transparent background, which didn’t suit my idea, so I switched the colors.
Next, I decided to create bubbles for the animation. After searching extensively on YouTube, I found a tutorial that allowed me to create bubbles from scratch in Illustrator. Following the tutorial was actually quite fun, and I think it added a unique touch to my animation. The bubbles look really realistic!
I used the puppet pin tool we learned in After Effects to move the fish’s tail without moving the entire fish. Navigating the fish around the frame was the hardest part. I wanted the fish to move across the frame and then come back from the other direction, so I had to ensure all my keyframes were correct to prevent the fish from turning around on frame. It was a tedious process, but I’m very pleased with the result.
After completing these steps, I felt the plain red background made the animation look somewhat boring and flat, so I added some movement with a gradient. I started the animation in blue to enhance the underwater feel with the fish and bubbles. The part I’m most unsatisfied with is the popping of the bubbles at the end. I tried my best to make them look like they were popping, but I couldn’t get them quite right.
Overall, I’m pleased with my animation and enjoyed using and learning the features of After Effects, as it was a new application to me.
In are last project of the semester we had to create an animation for the publishing logo we created in the beginning of the class. this project was definitely changing for me, this was my second time ever using adobe after effects. It was challenging to understand all the mechanics and what dose what with the platform, I tried my hares doing nothing fun but making sure I could actually do what I wanted to. I wanted the shoe to looking like its “walking or hopping” on screen and adding the foot step audio cuddly in the background helps. as for the affect with the word Publishing I just messed around with all the affect available and came up with this almost push domino affect you see. overall I will say this was the most challenge project I’ve done yet but for this being my second time doing nothing like this Im happy with the turn out of it and although it was a bit of a struggle I had fun with it!
For the animation project, I animated the arms of my windmill and added wind sounds in the background to create the sense that the wind is turning the arms. The word “Publishing” is written out to match the calligraphy of the font. Before “windmill” appears on the screen, I made sure to have the actual windmill logo stand in for the word windmill for a few moments before “Windmill” fades in. As a last minute addition, I added the cloud movement to fill in the background space and add more motion aside from the windmill arms. I chose a Spanish guitar riff to stick with the Spanish roots that inspired the logo design.
Creating the animation for my “Love More Publishing” logo proved to be one of the most challenging but fulfilling creative experiences I’ve encountered this semester. Right from the beginning, I had a vivid idea: I aimed to design a brief animation where a butterfly flies into the screen and lands on a flower, leading to a fade to black that showcases my logo text. What appeared to be a straightforward concept, was harder than I thought. One of my primary challenges was making the butterfly’s wings flap in a way that appeared natural. Initially, I attempted to use rotation keyframes on layers imported from Illustrator; however, regardless of how I adjusted the anchor points or expressions, the wings continued to spin awkwardly rather than flap smoothly. I decided to abandon the original wings and recreate them directly within After Effects using solids and simple shapes. This decision allowed me to take control over the animation, and it finally began to resemble my vision. It taught me that at times, the best solution is to start anew with a simpler method.
Timing presented another obstacle. I had to coordinate multiple keyframes for position, scale, opacity, and audio to ensure everything transitioned fluidly over 10 seconds. The landing bounce, fade to black, and text reveal all needed to feel cohesive. I also faced difficulties with audio initially, uncertain about where to find royalty-free music and how to integrate it into After Effects, but once I found the YouTube Audio Library, that finishing touch truly helped tie the piece together.
In spite of the challenges, I’m proud of the progress I made independently from creating layers and utilizing expressions to resolving export settings. I realized how much consideration and technical precision go into what may look like a simple motion. I take pride in the warmth and character I infused into this animation, and I believe it effectively reflects the brand’s essence. In summary, this project illustrated that animation can be challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. I now have a better grasp of how to break down a vision into manageable steps, and I’ve recognized my growth not only as a designer but also as a creative problem-solver.
