Graphic Design Pencil Project

For this project we had three sections to work on. The first section was to create a basic pencil using a tutorial sheet, as well as creating a can to put the pencil in, and it helped you learn how to create a basic object with basic shapes. The second section was to create another pencil, but have it personalized. My personalized pencil was colored in Royals colors and it was writing on a piece of paper. The last section had you create something of your own using shape tools and other useful tools in Illustrator. I decided to create a synthesizer using the mainly the shape tool and the text tool.

One of the main things I learned when doing the project was to always save frequently. At one point at this project, I forgot to save my progress, and right towards the end of class Illustrator unexpectedly crashed. Consequently, I had lost all of the work I had done that, which pushed me back progress-wise from the rest of the class. From that moment on, I try to save every time I make a major change, and I will try to make that a habit for later on in the year.

As for tools, I learned how to use the shape tool. For example, I learned that if you simply single click on the board, you have the option to input specific measurements for that shape. Also, if you hold the spacebar it locks the movement of the shape to a certain path. If you hold down the shift button when expanding the object, it locks to the original shape, allowing you to keep the same height and width. I also learned what the Live Bucket Tool is, which is a special kind of bucket that creates objects out of what's drawn, and then fills it in with a color.