Graphic Design: The Commercial Artist

As someone once said, in a nutshell, Graphic Design is the artistic technique to make information fun to read. Graphic design combines typography and illustration to effectively communicate a message to a specific audience. This combination of text and imagery is utilized within a shared space to create an aesthetically pleasing manner of communication between audience and broadcaster. Graphic designers are often employed in the media and advertising industries.

Common forms of graphic design include logos and branding, publications such as magazines, newspapers, and books, print and video advertisements and product packaging. Composition is one of the most important features of graphic design, especially when creating a unified layout for the integration of text and imagery.

David Smith

David Smith is a graphic artist and art director. He works in advertising agencies as the head of the art department. His department handles the design and production of print advertisements which range from newspaper ads to magazine publications and even to outdoor billboards. His department also manages television commercial design.

David Smith was born to Neil and Vida Smith on 21^st March, 1955. He grew up in a quaint house on 16 Dundonald Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Always having a love and fascination for the visual arts, David Smith began pursuing his dream of a career in the arts soon after his graduation from Tranquillity Government Secondary School. There was an advertising agency just around the corner to his home where he began his career as a trainee. As he knew little about the graphic design industry, he pursued a three year full-time Communications Design course at the John Donaldson Technical Institute, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

David Smith has been a graphic designer for over 25 years. He considers himself to be a sort of perfectionist when it comes to his artwork. He pays a considerable amount of attention to detail and continuously makes the extra effort to refine his works into the overall most effective communication of the client's product or service. He remarked once that as a graphic designer is more limited in expression than most fine artists because the final products MUST be pleasing to the client's tastes and specifications.

Mr. Smith's favourite medium is definitely the pixel. His entire creative process occurs behind his computer monitor, from conception and manipulation of the idea to the eventual refinement into the finished works. According to the artist, the convenience, versatility and efficiency of computer graphics is the major reason for his preference. He reminded me that research is a critical part of the design process. It is used as a tool for reference in terms of other existing designs and as a medium to gain inspiration and produce new innovative ideas.

Apart from graphic design, the last piece of fine art commissioned by David Smith was created around 1997. This is due to a lack of free time due to his career. He remarked that after a long, stressful day of design, the only thing he likes to do is to simply unwind and relax in the comfort of his own home. 

At his current advertising agency, one of the primary projects they work on is packaging design. One of their most prominent clients is the ABIL group. ABIL is one of the largest manufacturing companies in Trinidad. As such, his organization is responsible for designing the packaging of various products of Charles chocolates, Sunshine Snacks and Devon biscuits. When new products are released, new packaging must be designed, hence his plate is always full.

He considers one of the greatest achievements of his career to be his promotion to assistant art director in his early twenties. He was quite possibly the youngest designer to be granted that promotion in the country. Inevitably, his next great achievement was his promotion to art director, thus becoming the head of the art department.

David Smith, graphic designer and art director, loves his line of work. "There are times, because of the stresses that I don't love it as much." he joked. When asked if the design career is indeed a lucrative one, he responded that the fruits of a graphic designer's labour is very much dependent on his knowledge, skill and experience. According to him, the monetary returns of this line of work is worth all of the stresses and hassles involved. Also, the advertising agency employing the graphic artist is a major variable in the salary of the designer.

"It is a very, very stressful job." he admitted. He said that they are constantly working towards deadlines unlike in fine art. Another major source of the stress in the industry is the indecision of clients, especially those that are nearly impossible to please. Also adding to the stress, tension and possible frustration is the fact that most agencies handle the advertising needs of several clients simultaneously, thus adding to his workload. However, he believes that the majority of the public does not fully appreciate the hard work and effort which is placed into creating meaningful pieces of graphic art.

Fine artists have formed their reputations by appending their names to their works, however pieces of graphic design are usually anonymous. Mr. Smith stated that unless your name is associated with the company you work under, the reputation of a graphic artist is spread by word of mouth. On most occasions, the credit is given to the advertising agency and not the designer himself.

A pet peeve of his is the lack of respect sometimes given to graphic artists. It is his view that despite the customer always being right, there are some boundaries that should not be crossed. It is his belief that the client should also respect that graphic designers are professionals at what they do and the client should place more trust into the designer's judgement. He lamented that clients often think that they can do the designer's work better than them. Sadly, this is not the case.

Another irritation he constantly faces in modern society is the arrogance and ignorance of most casual users of photo-editing software or websites such as Picnik. It is a reality that most of this category of users are not educated about the graphic arts, however they believe that they are professionals simply because they can use these programs. He applauds their determination to further themselves as designers, but he simply resents the arrogance and smug attitude of most of these novices.

When asked to provide any advice to young and upcoming graphic artists, he remarked that having a creative mind is a necessity in the industry. Apart from having a high level of skill, a competitive edge is gained if the designer has the ability to come up with new innovative ways for the communication of the client's ideas.

He also recommended for those aspiring towards a career in the graphic arts to participate in certified communication and graphic design programmes to further their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, they must become adept at using the industrial standard of graphic programs, namely the Adobe CreativeSuite. Professional graphic artists must learn to master Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Designers must always keep abreast of new program releases and updates to graphics software.

Some more of David Smith's work is featured below:

More of Mr. Smith's work can be found at his digital portfolio at dsmith.carbonmade.com

David Smith continues to strive to be the best he can be and use all of his skills to become a better graphic designer. When asked about his plans for the future, he said that he simply plans to keep abreast of modern trends in advertising strategies and become the best he can be.

Year in Review: 2011

Here we are once again, facing the end of another year while eagerly awaiting the genesis of another. As time races by, one must always take some time out to reflect on the events of the year past to examine one's achievements as well as one's shortcomings.



This year has exposed me to a diverse range of experiences. The year two thousand and eleven has taken me from tragedy to triumph and back.


With 2011 almost behind us, I will take this opportunity to recap my experiences this year in the visual arts.

In no particular order:

• Republic Bank - Young Artists' Canvas to the World Project

In December of the previous year, 2010, I entered into Republic Bank's Young Artists' Canvas to the World Project.  Forced to paint during my end of term examinations of my first term in Form 4, this competition put my body and mind under a very large quantity of stress.

Thankfully, after a week or two of hard artistic labour between exams, as well as a very long month of tense waiting, I was invited to the awards ceremony at Republic Bank's head office.

There, I was announced as one of the seven winners of this competition. One of the champions.

My winning piece: The Magic of the Monarch

My winnings included $5,000 in cash for myself, $5,000 in art supplies for my school and the exhibition of my piece of art at the Piarco International Airport and at the Trincity branch of Republic Bank.

You can read the entire trilogy of this story starting here.

• HOUSE M.D. Portrait

Earlier this year, at the beginning of my Easter vacation, I started a new portrait. The subject of this portrait happened to be a favourite television character of mine, Hugh Laurie in the role of Dr. Gregory House.

However, at the private viewing of Canvas Caribbean's exhibit, With an Open Mind, I was advised by my visual arts teacher to stop doing portraits of foreign celebrities. Hence I decided that since this was the last portrait of these celebrities and characters originating outside of our shores, I would be letting this one go out with a bang.

This decision as well as an improvement in my skills led to the birth of my (now famous?) graphite portrait of Dr. Gregory House.

This is currently my flagship portrait, but who knows how long it's reign as my best portrait will be?
2012 seems like a very long year filled with opportunities for me.


This portrait has been very influential in many of my successes this year.

You can read more about this portrait here

This brings me to my next achievement...

• Guide to Online Schools' Student Blogging Awards

To all of those who can remember this button, I am deeply grateful for your support, your time and your energies towards promoting my blog. Your tireless voting put me into the winning spot once again.

With your appreciation of my post on the House M.D. portrait, your tireless voting placed me into the top 10 of the competition. Then, a panel of judges selected the five winning posts based on their quality.

I was one of those five.

You can read more here

• Caribbean Beat Magazine

  Republic Bank was also responsible for another accomplishment of mine, being semi-featured in the Caribbean Beat magazine. This magazine is available free of charge to all passengers of Caribbean Airlines and Air Jamaica on their respective flights.

In the article in the May/June issue of this year, Republic Bank spoke about the success of the competition and its impact on the lives of its participants and its winners.


I was elated to see that out of the seven paintings, they chose mine to display on their article.

You have the opportunity to check out this issue of Caribbean Beat magazine by clicking here

• Heritage - The Knowsley Building

With this being a year of many firsts, it was only fitting that I try to do something groundbreaking. Something that would make people talk for days, weeks, months, even years about a piece of art created by someone so new to the industry.

I wanted to make a statement that professionals need not be these larger than life, detatched individuals.

Greatness can be achieved without losing oneself to social constructs.
Individuality is key in becoming legendary.

Just look at classical Trinidad architecture.


Also, with this being my first major architectural focused landscape, I intended to set a high standard for my work. After five weeks of painstaking detail, shadowing and artistic substitution, 'Heritage' was born.

Heritage - 2011, Graphite pencils on paper: 22" x 17"

As it turned out, this piece along with my portrait of Dr. House became my premier pieces at my school's inaugural Visual Arts exhibition.

• Secrets: The Inaugural Exhibition

As a student of Hillview College, I have the ability to represent my school by the way I conduct myself and the things that I do. I can choose whether to be a positive change to society or to succumb to the pressures of negativity and conformity to the social environment we exist in.

When given the opportunity to display my artwork for the public eye, I must admit that I was a bit concerned underneath all of my excitement and intrigue. However, after the magnificent experience I gained from this occasion, I have faith that my generation can rise from the ashes of Trinidadian society and construct a new reality for the future of the minds of this nation.

Secrets has been a very enlightening experience for myself as I experienced first-hand what it feels like to make a positive impact on others, no matter how miniscule that impact is.

I felt appreciated by people who hardly knew me, I became a celebrity for a week :) , I received some harsh critiques as well as some heartwarming compliments for my efforts. I experienced some extreme contrasts but I deeply appreciated every moment that was bestowed upon me during our exhibition.

You can catch a glimpse of some of the exhibition pieces here

• The Gourmet Genie

As my first clients in the sphere of Graphic Design, I am deeply grateful to the owners of the Gourmet Genie for taking a leap of faith in hiring me to create a television commercial promoting their business in Southern Trinidad.

The Gourmet Genie is a lovely little store which specializes in gourmet food items, teas, coffees, seasonings etc. They also feature 'as seen on TV' products from a variety of famous Food Network personalities.

You can find the Gourmet Genie at Ground Floor, SSL Building, 40 Sutton St, San Fernando


Feel free to visit their Facebook page

And so ends another year in our lives. Was it a worthwhile one?
The year ahead is filled with opportunities to embrace as well as those to decline.


My advice to you is to set your standards high and keep your goals in sight in the coming year.
True success and happiness is born out of hard work and committment.



Have a safe, successful and rewarding 2012.

Secrets: The Exhibition

The first term of Form 5 is finally over.
Now I have the time to update the blog.

There have been quite a few hurdles to overcome this term and there have been a great deal of troughs and crests in our preparation for our inaugural art exhibition, Secrets.

The prospect of hosting an art exhibition at our school was very overwhelming when the idea was first conceived in May, 2011. At that point in time, we were 'enjoying' the all round pressures of the last term of Form 4 and as art students, when Mrs. Tappin - Davis announced that we had the opportunity to host an exhibition, we were very excited at the prospect of showcasing our work to the public.


Needless to say, the journey was a long and hectic one, but it was very much worth it in the end.

In our brave journey into the unknown, our art teacher and we upper school artists single handedly established Hillview College as an institution with a diverse selection of opportunities for academic improvement.


We placed Hillview College on the map for the study of the Visual Arts.



The opening night was abuzz with excitement as specially invited guests enthusiastically browsed through the diverse offering of the artworks created by students of Form 5 and 6.

Our exhibition boasted a total of thirty pieces from seven different artists.
Our display was held in the college's main hall/auditorium.

 Each of our thirty easels were adorned with artworks from our Form 6 artists such as Stephen Prince and Nikolai Maximay as well as our Form 5 artists including Duane Swift, Geovanni Ram, Marc Harroo, Matthew Babwah and myself.

Here are some samples of the artworks which were exhibited:

I shall start the display with my own pieces.
These very pieces gained me a perfect score in this term's Visual Arts assessment.
You may see some of my older pieces as well among the new creations.

All of my pieces:
Form 5M 
Johnathan Smith

Johnathan Smith: Copy of The Bongo Wake - 2010, Pen and Ink : 14" x 17"

Johnathan Smith: House M.D. (portrait 2) - 2011, Graphite on paper : 17" x 22"

Johnathan Smith: The Spiral - 2011, Mixed Media : 18 x 24

Johnathan Smith: Figure Drawing study - 2011 , Graphite on paper : 17 x 22

Johnathan Smith: Heritage - 2011, Graphite on paper : 17 x 22

Johnathan Smith: Pot of Gold - 2011, Mixed Media : 11 x 15

The other artworks were contributed by our Form 6 students, Stephen Prince and Nikolai Maimay, as well as the other students in my Form 5 class. I have included two samples each of my favourite pieces from their collections as well:

Form 6

Nikolai Maximay

Form 6

Stephen Prince

Form 5E

Matthew Babwah

Form 5M

Marc Harroo

Form 5W

Geovani Ram

Form 5M

Duane Swift

Secrets has raised much awareness about the artistic talents which can be found within the walls of the nation's secondary schools, especially those within Hillview College.

Honestly, who will take over as the nation's next generation of artists?

It starts with us, the youth.
Which brings me to another point...


I was elated beyond words by the dramatic turnout of Hillview's student population, on a daily basis, to the auditorium to experience our exhibition.

As Mrs. Tappin - Davis once said, the students came into this exhibition as an oasis from all of the stresses inside of the classroom. Inside of the auditorium, all wild behaviour and horseplay ceased. For the first time in my five years at Hillview, I saw a different side to the students.

They were serene.



I was also elated by the visit of the art students of two other secondary schools.

The Forms 3 - 6 art students of El Dorado East Secondary School and Gasparillo Secondary School both visited our exhibition that week. It was a very enlightening experience for me due to my own personal ignorance of art's appreciation in this country.

After seeing the neglect and pressures faced by the nation's art community, it was extremely refreshing, relieving and invigorating to see so many youths with a passion for the arts. Every single one of them displayed an indiscriminate love and passion for furthering themselves in the artistic realm. Their excitement fueled my love for the arts further simply by knowing "there are more of us out there in society".

It was an honour being part of this inaugural exhibition.

OUR exhibition.

Digital Art

Using Photoshop has inspired me to explore the realm of digital art, wallpapers and digitally rendered graphic design projects.

Photoshop is no easy software to master, however, the vast quantities of tutorials available out there on the internet, and the learning videos released by organizations such as Lynda and Total Training, make the job quite a bit easier for a rookie like me.


Traditional art is still my main area of expertise.


However, digital takes about one-hundredth of the time to complete.

In my time between the last post and the graphical revamp of the blog (done completely by me in Photoshop), I have created some...interesting pieces of digital art.

Some were created by following tutorials to the digit.

In others, I simply let my imagination and experimentation run free.




Here they are:

Wallpaper attempt 1
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, Digital Painting 1920 x 1080

A more likable wallpaper attempt (at least to me)
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, Digital painting 1920 x1080

A radical photo-manipulation of my friend Marc.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, Photo-manipulation 1440 x 900

A distant planet being visited by a strange starship.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, Photo-manipulation and Digital painting, 1920 x 1080

 

Digital art is possibly...more efficient than traditional media, but I personally think that it is not as valuable as traditional art because of the ease of it.

Going digital is absolutely perfect for the graphic designer.

With digital (especially with a tablet) you can achieve the most impeccably smooth gradient effects and lighting simulations.

Most importantly, with digital, you can step backwards and tweak your designs.

Unfortunately in traditional media, you must either start over or cut out and redo your wrongs.

There is a fine line between what you can achieve in traditional and digital media.
The difference is the ease of accomplishing these tasks.

I suppose that's why traditional sells for so much more than digital.

Playing with Photoshop

Graphic design is an interesting venture in terms of the factors necessary for grabbing the visual interests of the viewers while keeping the transmitter active to broadcast the necessary message to the specific viewer.

By definition, graphic design is the process of applying visual art and communication skills to create a medium in which a specific message can be conveyed to the specific target audience this message was meant for. It's all about presentation and clarity.

I personally have an extreme fondness for working in traditional media such as pencil or pen for undertaking these graphic design challenges, but recently, I have tried and succeeded in using digital media. 

Namely, Adobe Photoshop CS4.

However, don't get fooled, I haven't come anywhere near to doing what the professionals can do with this software suite (using Adobe Illustrator along with Photoshop).

But at least I'm trying some text effects.

I must say however, that the tutorials at PsdTuts are a colossal help to learning how to achieve some of these effects. The rest lies in personal touches and judgement by visual appeal.

A nice little design with a subtle indication of the value my form class will be to Hillview in Form 5.

Experimentation for creating an effect of fluid within glass.

My very own experiment (observation, not tutorial) for making TRON effects text.

A grungy, gritty, urban sticker.

Playing with effects, layer masks, expanding my brush collection, expanding my font database and many other ways of toying around with this magnificent program is the way to achieving true design inspiration.

Of course, first you need to learn HOW to use the software.

I am still going through that journey, and it is indeed a long, winding road.

I STILL cannot do anything magnificent with PICTURES!!!


I use another, simpler program to accomplish that task, but they are indeed small edits. Nothing much to be raving about.

This vacation will be the perfect time for me to isolate myself from my normal interactions and truly develop the skills needed to take myself to the next level.

Both in terms of artistic development and academics.

CXC is next year >.<

The Human Figure Drawing

Since my last post, we have begun an aggressive study of the human figure.

Every class so far has either been about our discussions for a secret project in late October of this year.....

Or we have been drawing contour and stick figures of each other to attain a better understanding of the human body and to firsthandly experience the power of proportion!!

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to:

A fancy pose by Mrs. Tappin - Davis

A drawing of Duane drawing

All of these were done in charcoal stick in literally under a minute each.

We are working on speed drills...trying to capture as much of the essence of the person and their personality as quickly as possible.

The next stage will be to start putting flesh on these figures...and precious details.

HOUSE

I am a passionate photorealist. I cannot fully appreciate pieces that lack detail unless they vividly depict a deeper, alternate meaning than what is presented at face value. I strive with all of my being to include as much detail as possible into all of my pieces. The full effect of photorealism is achieved through the application of high contrast, painstaking shadowing and the inclusion of as many details as possible.

In portrait work, it is even more important to pay attention to these principles in order to create an impressive replica of the subject in portrait.

However, one must also pay rapt attention to the details of the layout of the face and the person's features. Accuracy in this department will aid in ensuring that the portrait looks just like the person.

A fellow blogger, Portia Subran (a.k.a. DeadEyes), has experience in developing portraits.

You can find her at The Art of Wisdom and War

Anyway, its my turn to show 'off' my portraits too.

It's been a while since I've done a proper portrait. 

Not counting the one I've just completed, the last portrait I created was completed on the first of September last year.

Wow....it's been a while.

Personally, I think that I have definitely improved upon my techniques and my rendering capabilities but I definitely have to continue working hard at improving my accuracy and proportion mapping.

The following picture shows the first portrait I EVER completed:

A 'failed' portrait of Dr. House  

 

House M.D. (Portrait 1), Graphite on paper: 14" X 17".
I definitely have improved since then.

If you take a close look at the portrait, I signed this piece over a year ago.

Since then, things have changed.

My ability to achieve shadowing has improved and I am proud of what I am able to achieve nowadays in my artistic studies and exploration of expression.

I was heavily advised to stop doing portraits of these famous people, so I thought I would let them go out with a bang.

One year later, I decided to take Dr. House for a spin again...

 

I definitely am proud of my improvements, but I leave the verdict up to my readers to tell me where I have to continue the physical practice and research necessary to become a better portrait artist.

Simply more than a year has helped me improve my techniques to a level beyond my own expectations.

On the 22nd April, 2011 This is how the NEW House M.D stands:

House M.D. (Portrait 2), Graphite on paper: 17" X 22".
Improvements galore.

So concludes another vacation in the life of a dedicated student and a very tired human being. The trials of academics and art help make me stronger at least, so there is some good that comes out of hard work.....

This is my last portrait of an internationally famed person who is not locally based.

In the future, I may post some pictures of my previous portraits which include the likes of Queen Latifah, The Joker, Taylor Swift, and last (but not least) Ellen DeGeneres.

Due to my return to the hectic life on Tuesday, my posts may start to dwindle in frequency, but I will try to update as best as I can.