As one spends more time in Adobe Illustrator, they gain a deeper understanding of the programs capabilities and are able to create more professional vectors and illustrations. In this project we were asked to create 3 creative and professional looking stickers that would eventually be printed to give out and/or sell. I decided in this project how I wanted to put my creativity to the test and see if I could create a compositionally interesting sticker that would bring feelings of joy to my audience. To do this I wanted to have a play on words which would create those feelings. I also wanted to keep my illustrations basic with little to no gradients, and rely on highlights and color contrast to create depth.

I found the phrases I wanted to use which were, "Couch potato", "Fish out of water", and "Music to my ears." I researched these common phrases and what they literally mean to help me think of a compositionally interesting and balanced illustration.

As I started my sketching process I want to have a cartoon and light animation feeling to it. To achieve this I wanted to add happy animated features to these unrealistic vectors. I had to also contemplate the hierarchy of the illustration to make sure my audiences eyes were following the proper detailing I put in. 

These were my first drafts. I was having a difficult time creating the fish and making it look realistic. I felt confident in the puddle I made, however I didn't like the shading on the fish and it looked very sloppy. My second illustration I felt was good but the music notes were too small on the rainbows and it would have provided issues with printing. My third graphic of the potato was good, however my stroke widths were different so I needed to go back in a fine tune it.

I decided to completely scratch the fish graphic and decided to use the phrase "move the mountain" instead. I took pictures of my hand to see the correct angle of how a hand should be drawn in that position. I went back to my sketch book to see how I could create a graphic that would get this message across. I also received feedback on the tangent lines from my couch so I went back in to adjust the corners. I also received feedback that my second graphic was good but compositionally predictable so I decided to cut out the face and just do the ear. I created the ear to look like there were notes spiraling around with the rainbow coming out of the eardrum. I felt like this would be a more interesting choice than my original.

After resketching and looking at my stickers in a different composition, I was able to create more balanced feeling graphics while also maintaining a cohesive color scheme, with visually pleasing symmetry.

I feel like I achieved my goals for this project. I wanted to focus on having a strong composition and after completely deleting one sticker, and redesigning another, I feel accomplished in my final designs. With the color contrast I used I was able to fully utilize the design principles I had hoped for this project.