Sugar Shack Sticker Maple Syrup Bottle Label I was asked to make a label for a family that makes maple syrup. They wanted their bottles to be identifiable next to other homemade maple syrup. The first thing I did was to find out the look and feel they were going for and what text they wanted to appear on the label. They wanted the name, some key points, a sketch of the sugar shack, and if there was space, the location to appear on the sticker. The name went back and forth before landing on “Kellar’s Sugar Shack.” I went through a few designs before coming up with the final look of the sticker. Once I had everything finalized it was time to send the file to a print company. Once the 3″ stickers arrived and we started putting them on the bottles and I held a little photoshoot of a bottle with the sticker on it. Below are some highlights from the photo shoot and the digital version of the final design.
Pride Tabs
Pride Tabs Social Media Effect In the past, the Canadian Bar association’s (CBA) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Community (SOGIC) Section wanted to have lawyer tabs with the different pride flags as social media filters. This year (2022) Facebook did not allow anyone to create or monitor filters anymore. To replace them, I created Facebook and Instagram effects. The effects are more effective than the original filters because the effects use VR to find the person’s face and place the tabs on their neck instead of placing an image on top of their photo. I worked in Adobe Illustrator to save the previously made tabs in the appropriate size. I then brought the images into Spark AR. I used the neck effect template to make sure the tabs were added to the person’s neck properly. I then saved the files and pushed them to the Spark AR Hub where they were then posted to Facebook and Instagram. Check them out: Facebook | Instagram Facebook | Instagram Facebook | Instagram Facebook | Instagram Facebook | Instagram Facebook | Instagram
CBA Election Branding 2022
CBA Election Branding 2022 Social Campaign Graphics At the beginning of 2022, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) wanted to change their branding for their election period. In 2018, I was tasked with animating the current branding to help grab attention when using the graphic in emails or on social media. The original files were created in Adobe Photoshop, which made it easy for me to create a timeline to edit each line to appear as though they were moving at different speeds and heights while still making a seamless loop. I then exported the file as a gif in different sizes to be used on our multiple platforms. For the new branding, I was asked to find concepts that would represent volunteering. I decided to show two options. The first was a more abstract idea with lines that imitated the old branding and the second was using vector hands. Lines Hands Chosen Theme The hands were the chosen theme. Once I had a direction I purchases the files off of iStock to then start editing in Adobe Illustrator. I had to edit vector to follow the colour schemes for the three election periods – board of directors (black), committees (white) and sections (blue). Because the images are used in multiple ways, I decided to work on two options to allow the images to not be too repetitive when used on social media. I created a template with the first election period (board of directors) that I would then base the other two periods off of. I created an artboard for each size I would need to make for social media, emails and the website.
Cottage Dock
Cottage Dock Animation I created this in 2020 as a practice piece. I took the reference photo over the summer and I thought it would be a fun photo to recreate as a vector illustration. I took the image into Adobe Illustrator and using the reference photo, I recreated it. Once I was done, I thought I would take it one step further and create an animated gif from it. I wanted to use Adobe After Effects more and this was a perfect side project for me to do that. I formatted the Illustrator file so the layers would appear properly in After Effects to make it easier to animate. I was able to add the movement of the water in the lake and sway the Canadian flag like it was picked up by the breeze. When I was happy with it, I exported the file to Adobe Photoshop where I was able to create and export the files as a gif. If I am to ever create something like this again or go back and make changes I would: Add clouds in the sky (with some animation) Bring down the opacity of the flag Make it look like the page in the book is being flipped Adjust the gradient of the sky or figure out why it it looked like this after exporting as a gif file Change the colour of the water reflections so they are more prominent
Young Lawyers Spring Sale
Young Lawyers Spring Sale 2020 Social Campaign Graphic In spring of 2020, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) had a sale for young lawyers on their professional development webinars. To promote the sale, I created the below graphics in multiple sizes — email, website promotion and social media. The original graphic was purchased off of iStock and I imported it into Illustrator to adjust the text in the image to fit our promotion and to create the different sizes needed as individual artboards in the same file. Once that was done, I created different colour schemes that matched the CBA’s branding.
Wedding Couple
Wedding Couple Illustration This was a caricature I was asked to create for a couple who were about to get married. They wanted this caricature to be on a poster at their wedding as well as on the wedding programs they were providing guests. I created the illustration in Adobe Illustrator using the reference image the couple provided. I started with creating the image to be an exact replica of what they looked like with the body proportions and the outfit from the reference image. I made the background yellow to match their wedding colour. When I sent it back to the couple, they didn’t like how big their arms looked and they wanted a more cartoon caricature style. With that feedback in mind, I brought in the width of the caricatures, and I enlarged their heads, and eyes to match the caricature style they were asking for. I sent the file back to the couple to look over and they loved it. The last change they asked for was the background to be white and the dress and bowtie to be yellow instead. Super simple for me to change and once it was done the couple loved the final image.
Tmoji
Tmoji Promotional Animation I created this caricature of Tamra Thomson, the CBA (Canadian Bar Association) Resolutions Queen. It is being used to encourage CBA members to submit, debate and vote on resolutions by the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM). It also provides key dates and deadlines as well as where to find information about the AGM and the resolutions. I created the vector file using Adobe Illustrator. I made sure to structure my file accordingly to make it easier for me when it was time to import it into another Adobe program to animate. I created the different hand gestures, her eyes open and closed. I created this caricature of Tamra Thomson, the CBA (Canadian Bar Association) Resolutions Queen. It is being used to encourage CBA members to submit, debate and vote on resolutions by the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM). It also provides key dates and deadlines as well as where to find information about the AGM and the resolutions. I created the vector file using Adobe Illustrator. I made sure to structure my file accordingly to make it easier for me when it was time to import it into another Adobe program to animate. I created the different hand gestures, her eyes open and closed. At first I thought I would use Adobe After Effects but then I learned that Adobe Animate could automate the lip syncing if I set up the character properly. I created a separate Illustrator file with all the phonemes on their own layers. Once I was satisfied with these, I imported the file into my Animate project and assigned each phoneme the correct lip shape. After the audio was recorded, I brought the file into my project. I used Animate’s lip sync feature to do the bulk of my lip sync animation based off the audio file. Once this was done, I went back in to fix a few parts that did not look right. Once that was done, I made the eyes blind in a constant loop throughout the animation so the caricature would look natural. Once that was done, I added some gestures to show Tamra pointing out different things in the video. I imported graphics and text to highlight key dates, deadlines and other helpful information based on the video script. Because the CBA is a bilingual association, once I was happy how one language looked I had to start over with the second language making sure they stayed as similar as possible. The English video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhdXqxrSx58 The French video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/8wJ7mQiPsTo Every year since the dates in the video have been updated, but in the fall of 2020 the audio files were also adjusted because due the COVID-19 pandemic the 2021 AGM could not be hosted in person. This meant I had to resync all of the lip syncs in both languages and realign the information to line up at the proper time with the new scripts. In the fall of 2022, I was asked to update Tamra’s look. Her glasses changed in this time and since the videos were used for 3 years in a row it was due for a refresh to make them eye catching again since. 2022 Updated Tmoji
YLIP Recruitment 2019
YLIP Recruitment 2019 Promotional Graphics The Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Young Lawyer International Program (YLIP) hosted Tuesday Takeovers on the CBA’s Instagram channel from January – April 2019. These takeovers were part of the recruitment plan to get new applicants for the 2019-2020 YLIP placement. I created a general image and then an image to promote the person hosting the takeover each week. I created versions to be shared on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I created an Adobe Photoshop template for the specific takeover images. This made it easy for me to plug in the date, location, the host’s name, image of the host, and the outline of the country they were placed in. The only time consuming part was to remove the background from the image of the host.
Time’s Running Out
Time’s Running Out Motion Graphics The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) sends emails part of a campaign to get members and non-members of the Association to register for the many professional development conferences and webinars the CBA provides. I was tasked with creating an animation to go on the banner of the last chance emails for these conferences and webinars. The theme was to portray the idea of time is running out to register for these events. Many people have smartwatches these days so, I provided the same image of a closeup on a wrist wearing a smartwatch, with two different watch faces. One of a traditional analog clock and the other of an alarm clock notification. The branding for each conference and webinar is based on the colour associated with the CBA section that is running it. I created a version of each to show how it would look if the background was changed to match the colour that represents a couple of the CBA sections, who run the conferences and webinars.
Tackling Homelessness Imagery
Tackling Homelessness Imagery Visual Concept The Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Municipal Law Section published a toolkit called “Tackling Homelessness” in November 2019. I was tasked with providing a theme for the imagery to be used in association with this toolkit and sourcing the images for said theme. I started with two concepts; public benches and people. I searched on Unsplash and iStock for images I could use for both themes. Public Benches This visual theme was meant to be a more abstract representation of the toolkit’s message – homelessness. Benches – particularly park benches – are commonly used by homeless people as a place to sleep. This visual theme was meant as a way to share the message of the toolkit in a subtle way. People This visual theme was meant as a more direct representation of the homelessness message. This theme was meant to be more obvious, showing homeless people. This theme would be intended to invoke an immediate representation of what the toolkit is about. “Winning” Theme The direct representation of the theme was chosen because it was the most impactful theme. CBA’s overall visual theme is dark with high contrast. I edited the photos to match this theme but we thought something was missing. I decided to try making the images black and white but something was still missing. I then played with masks to make different portions of the image orange. Orange was chosen because it is the colour associated with the CBA’s Municipal Law Section. Highlighting an article of clothing of the person in focus was wearing added enough colour to the image without taking away the focus from the person. With the high contrast already added to the images, making an article of clothing drew the attention to the person.