Technology. Technology. Technology. That’s what the world seems to be all about anymore in modern society. Everyone is always on some sort of device, whether it be phones, computers, tablets, and all the other electronic’s there are. I am one of those people who always seems to be on their phone; if this is the case, why not create a phone that is attractive looking, and practical for everyday use? I got the opportunity to create a device skin for my iPhone, so why not! A device gel skin is a sticker for a phone device, and in this case an iPhone. This skin sticks to the back of the phone, and wraps around the sides. The front comes with its own sticker, and a picture is emailed to you, so that, once its set as the back ground, the image lines up with the sticker on the phone! Awesome!
Since this is something I would have to look at everyday, a lot of planning had to go into this. As well as it be attractive to me, I had to make it a successful skin, by following some criteria that would make it successful if it were to be sold. Some of the overall criteria is as follows; the design appeals to many audiences, it’s unique and eye catching, follows current trends, the design is composed of original work and has no copyright imagery, there is a balance between simplicity and complexity in the design, there is unity in the composition, the design is technically well made, and it is attractive in terms of it’s colours and subject matter. This made the design process a lot more complex, as the skin had to appeal to a wide variety of people, not just myself; thus meaning I couldn’t make it outrageous and crazy in a way that only I would enjoy, but try to make it outrageous and crazy in a way that everyone would like it.
During my research process, I tried to stick with cartoons and skulls, as these are things that are appealing to both me and a large variety of people. More so lately, I’ve been getting in touch with my country side, and I wanted to incorporate this in my design. As well as this, I wanted to capture my theme and style for this year, which is skulls. While exploring the gelaskins website, ( http://www.gelaskins.com) I found the image of “Mex”, which was a skull design for skins. This really appealed to me and my skull side/theme. While on this site, I found a lot of cartoon designs, which are fantastic for me, as its something I find very appealing and they (cartoons), are something I can draw on the Tablet in Illustrator. With this in mind, I decided to do a skull in more of a cartoon form. I also decided that I would put antlers on the head, and a deer like body under the skull, so it looks like its a deer, with a skull head; this is the country aspect I wanted to incorporate in my design. I originally wanted to do a mash up of cartoons behind my skull deer, but I realized it would be to busy and distracting to the overall look of the skin, and would take away from what I wanted to capture most, which was the skull deer. Deciding on a background was hard, but looking into trends, I found that the geometric/tribal look was very trendy, and decided to use this in my skin. By using a drawn tribal background, I was able to use a variety of colours; the use of these colours helped by balancing out the white deer with the contrast of a wide range of lines, designs and colours behind it. Also, by using a purple filter over the tribal design helped unite all the colours together by unifying it together. My skin turned out very successful, and follows all the criteria to make it successful; its very unique and eye catching, the tribal and the cartoon style are both current and popular trends, all of the artwork is hand drawn, thus making it completely original and copyright free, the busy, colourful, busy and comlex background balances out the simple white-black tone skull deer in the foreground, the filter provides unity, as well as the use of the same colours throughout, and is overall attractive to look out. I am very happy with the way it turned out and plan to apply it right away!
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
5 cm x 9 cm
Melissa Reid: Art Portfolio Blog 