kate elrod

The Most Epic Euro-Backpacking-Venture ITINERARY

2010-07-06T06:23:00.005-05:00

here's just a taste of what's about to go down... and yes, kids- dreams really do come true :)

Ben's ads!!

2010-03-28T22:26:00.006-05:00

here are my first draft of ads for Ben's Breads and Bagels. (don't judge too harshly, i'm still working on updates ;) there's two main target audiences for this bakery- one is for cafes and restaurants that will buy the bread wholesale, and one is for the middle class consumer who will come in to buy a loaf or two of bread, or some incredibly soft bagels for their kids or business brunch...

full page, 4-color ad for publication in Portland Monthly Magazine (for single-serve consumer)

full page, 4-color ad for publication in Freshcup Magazine (for cafes, restaurants)

full page, black/white ad for publication in the Portland Tribune

4-color billboard ad; final size= 12'H x 24'W

cutie patootie

2010-03-28T22:11:00.019-05:00

here are some pics of samuel that i took on truman's campus a couple weeks ago. what a sweet kid! AND he's growing up bilingual... so cool.

SB KV 10

2010-03-09T13:00:00.013-06:00

while most of my friends are gallivanting around the countryside, getting tan and having the time of their lives over spring break, i've decided to be disciplined and catch up/work ahead on schoolwork in my parents basement... here's what i've actually been up to so far over SB2010:

1) retouching old photos

2) reading this book (and recommending it to every 20something that i know)

3) and this magazine (weird? yes... i bought it in a moment of weakness when i was feeling rich.)

4) watching this awards show (and realizing that it's prob'ly more political than i'd like to know...)

5) avoiding this homework (yes, i developed a new name and logo, woot!... more to come on this matter...)

6) watching this documentary (WARNING: WILL CHANGE YOUR AMERICAN LIFE.)

and this documentary (and realizing that everyone in the fashion world really is anorexic...)

7) and this just in!!

(i might need to rework this one a bit... it's a little boring...)

good work, team. countdown to graduation: 60 days. ptl.

i'm being good at updating, so you should be too!

2010-02-11T23:18:00.008-06:00

soo... here's what's up these (crazy) days...

• last week i went on a trip w/ the TSU A.I.G.A chapter to minneapolis to visit some friggin sweet design firms (you can find an itinerary of our trip here if you're extremely curious), which was friggin sweet because A) i got to know some really legit viscom girls a lot better and B) we were in a big city visiting friggin good design firms... what else is there to say? highlights: duffy and partners, where i learned about using visual briefs as a "bible" for each project (SO GENIUS!). Target's in-house designers were also extreeeemely cool and down-to-earth... not pretentious like you would expect. so cool. i'm so glad i went, even tho i'll be playing catch up w/ school projects for while...
here's my "visual brief" for the (currently nameless) company i'm designing for:

• also, i've decided to change my capstone project from a grocery store to a bakery... i came up w/ a really sweet logo for a bakery called brownbag bakery, but thankfully my cool classmates (no, they really are cool) informed innocent lil me that brownbag actually has a sexual connotation w/ it or something, and my prof also said (essentially) it sucked. so (after getting an education via urbandictionary.com) i'm in the process of changing the name, probably to ALL RISE PASTRY SHOP. or maybe just all rise bakery. or RISE baked goods. idk. new logos are still in progress, which means i'm quite behind on many things these days... and it's only february. great.
here's some examples of stationary sets i designed for the already-deceased brownbag bakery:

• here's another poster i designed for CCF recently:

• and finally, a confession... i've been slightly obsessed w/ Beyonce this week. "Sweet Dreams" has been in my head every morning for about 4 days straight now... how can you not think she's completely fabulous?! lungs of steel + moves + decent acting skills = a classically awesome entertainer and legitimate diva. here's a pic of her playing Etta James in Cadillac Records. if you can't handle the intensity of the movie, at LEAST listen to the soundtrack, people. it's. so. good.

• wait, one more plug: i set up the facebook page for studio1004 this week at work. become a fan today and keep up w/ the awesomeness of kville's best photog! and his faithful sidekick ^_^

happy living, dear world!

just some recent-ness

2010-01-25T11:00:00.004-06:00

Here are some things that have been in my life recently that I thought I'd share....

• First, a poster I designed for a campus ministry. The models are two of my good friends. I'm pretty proud of their awesomeness and also how the poster turned out.

• Melody Gardot continues to be awesome in my book... and in the world's book, apparently. She is getting famous-er by the day, which is great. CBS Sunday Morning ran her story yesterday morning- so inspiring!

• Brunette-dom. I had my hair professionally dyed after I royally screwed up some highlights from a box. I've been a brunette for 2ish weeks now, and I'm really loving it, not sure why. It seems really normal to catch myself in the mirror with dark hair.

• airfare watchdog is also rocking my world (and soaking up way too much of my time...) I'm preparing for a summer backpacking trip thru Europe, and this is the best airfare-update website I've found. You can request emails about low fares into or out of specific airports of your choice. love!

• Don Miller's new project also has me distracted from school-ness. He's interviewing scholars on various topics relating to religion and life. You can request a free trial of the All Things Converge series or also watch first episodes of the interviews. This one's my fave so far.

• I'm designing/creating my own high-end grocery store. It's definitely in the early/rough stage, but I'm thinking of naming it either Num-Nums or Omnom... or Omnonnom. ^_^ I'll keep you posted, of course...

THE GRAND FINALE

2009-12-15T11:16:00.011-06:00

a compilation of illustration (near) mastery!!!

The following is a collection of pieces from this semester that I feel highlight what I have learned through practice with the different mediums of illustration. In the end, I feel the most comfortable with gouache, and I hope to continue practicing with it, whether for clients or for my own personal work (hellooo, family Christmas gifts ;) This class has also helped me realize some of my strengths and weaknesses with illustration (and creating art in general), which include the following: I neither enjoy nor hold proficiency in creating photo-realistic illustration; I do enjoy the initial stages of sketching out ideas/brainstorming as well as experimenting with different materials. If I pursue illustration further, I want to continue to develop the sorta Fauvist/expressionistic style that I think comes more naturally to me- i.e. drawings made with very expressive lines, paintings that have a loud use of color but also retain the quality/texture of the paint itself, etc. I really have learned a lot as an artist in this class, and I'm proud of what I've made.

book illustration
6.25 x 9.25 in., gouache and photoshop

The assignment for this piece was to create a book cover for a popular book that has several editions and has thus had numerous book covers through the years. It was a challenge to relate the illustration to the content of the story in a way that hasn’t been done before.

missouri postcard
4.5 x 6 in., gouache

The assignment for this piece was to create a postcard for the state of Missouri using imagery outside of typical Missouri topics (e.g. St. Louis Cardinals, a barn in a field, etc.) I chose this angle of a cow’s mouth to reference Missouri farm culture in a new way.

overheard conversation
10 x 10 in., gouache

The assignment was to illustrate an overheard conversation. I heard a girl telling about a dream she had in which flowers grew out of her fingers. I thought the gouache medium would be great for attaining a dreamy effect.

d.m.v. cartoon
6 x 3 in., pen and photoshop

This cartoon assignment was an introduction to storytelling via illustration, as well as an introduction to incorporating hand-drawn work into computer-aided illustration.

large watercolor
20 x 30 in., watercolor on paper

This was an exercise in large-scale watercolor painting.

cheesy airbrush
12 x 10 in., airbrush on board

We were assigned to choose a “cheesy” character to illustrate via airbrush. I chose a Lisa Frank dolphin.

gouache exercise
7 x 9 in., gouache

This was an initial exploration in the gouache medium.

world record poster
13 x 19 in., gouache and indesign

The assigment with this piece was to advertise a world record from the Guiness Book of World Records on a 13” x 19” poster with a bleed.

adventures in illustration, #798!!!

2009-11-30T14:23:00.007-06:00

assignment: illustrate a book cover.
6.25" x 9.25"
open medium

here are some sketches, illustrating various events in the book Lord of the Flies.

i'm not sure if i'm cut out for this type of work... my classmates are confused by my ideas. again.

color comp!

i'll be adding the title of the book in illustrator or photoshop, my dear classmates... save your confusion for someone else. also, i'm going to add a dead fly to the bottom, per rusty's request. sweet.

i think rusty was right.. it needed a little something else...teehee.

i also like this idea a LOT... we'll see how the shell turns out w/ gouache and move on from there, eh?

ta-daaa! i went with the first idea. i'm diggin' the dead fly :D

wh(eye) magazine

2009-11-13T15:35:00.010-06:00

i turned this viscom4 project in on monday... what a relief to be done!! the assignment was to come up with an idea for a magazine that has something to do with graphic design...
here's the mission statement for wh(eye) magazine:

"Wh(eye) magazine is directed toward documentary photographers. The purpose of the magazine is to inform these photographers of social injustice issues around the world that need awareness so that they may be able to inform society visually of these issues."

we had to design a cover, a table of contents spread, a department spread, 2 feature spreads, and a promo piece. *whew! here's what i got:

cover

contents

department: wh(air)

feature!

promo piece: 5.5" x 8.5"
doubles as a postcard...

ssoouunndd!!! illustration.

2009-11-13T15:01:00.008-06:00

assignment: illustrate sound
gouache or watercolor!!
10" x 14" !!

herrrre are my ideas...

and herrrre are my classmates' comments.
rusty said i could go with the abstract-ish illustration of the jazz band instead of any of the realistic ones, woot! i think i'm gonna do gouache. again.

i originally oriented the piece like this...

but i think this is kinda sweet too...

yeah i like this composition. my classmates couldn't handle the abstraction...

here's color comp #2, done in gouache

final version, 10x14", gouache.

missoura postcard

2009-11-13T14:55:00.005-06:00

the assignment is to create a 4.5" x 6" postcard for good ol' MO that has a bleed and no text. photographic reference is allowed. illustration to be completed with gouache or watercolor.

the scenery of Missoura is what i wanted to focus on... i also think farm animals add to the charm of our state... and they're just friggin funny lookin!

teehee. grandpa and grandma would appreciate this :)

the final was done in gouache.

airbrush = satan?

2009-11-13T14:43:00.007-06:00

here i have laid out for you my experience with airbrush/satan thus far...

spheres and a cube!! i created many more than this, as well as some cones, but those are officially off the record...too embarrassing for bloggage.

fruit! i'm kinda proud of the apple, especially how o.c.d. i was with the masking... the kiwi reflects about 2 hours of me finagling with about 40 airbrush parts and getting so frustrated that i just used an uncontrollable, spurting airbrush and then did some correcting with gouache. UGH.

the official airbrush assignment (after those horrendous exercises...) is to create a "cheesy" illustration of a subject of our choice. my mind immediately went to LISA FRANK!! i chose the dolphin... i think she has an official lisa frank name like "delphi" or sum'n...

color comp!! i have a lot of masking that i'll have to do... i plan to do the yellow and pink-ish highlights with gouache.

this is so humiliating...

teehee

2009-11-02T17:53:00.003-06:00

(an xmas card for a.i.g.a.)

Guiness Book o' World Records Illustration

2009-11-02T15:03:00.006-06:00

The assignment:
to create a poster that advertises a world record from Guiness' Book...
I picked the WORLD'S HEAVIEST LEMON. you didn't even know that was a category, didja...

some brainstorm action...

first sketch of the chosen idea...

i not-so-quickly realized that I had never seen lemons grow on oak tress... ^_^

new sketch! the heaviest lemon is in a grove of lemon trees, if you can't decipher that.
these trees are a bit more realistic.

marker comp!! the sky is so plain in order to leave room for the text of the poster....

ah yeeuh

new final gouache montage

2009-10-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

conversation illustration

2009-10-23T14:18:00.009-05:00

what a sensation to produce a conversation illustration!
(shall we also build a dalmatian plantation?)

the assignment is to illustrate an overheard conversation... here's my process:

overheard convo ideas- i chose to illustrate a girl's dream about flowers growing out of her fingers-
and some initial sketches...

the blue is rusty's sketch of a creepy hand... i veered away from that idea...

here's a "tight pencil comp" of the dream.

classmates' comments on the pencil comp.

so i re-did it. rusty liked this comp better... so did i.

marker comp!! the background is gonna be a dreamy-ish blue-gray made by letting the gouache do its thing w/ the H2O. magical things will happen, i'm sure of it.

MIDTERM!!!

2009-10-14T14:37:00.011-05:00

1. Three-image gouache montage. (Uh... I'm still mastering the art of getting the jpeg version to look like the real, live painted piece... please excuse the annoyingly bright palette and high contrast for now, thanks.) I'm finally getting quasi-comfortable with gouache these days. I used the reduction technique to start off with, and then went in with some medium and darker tones of different hues to create dimension in the three objects. The background (which is not so neon in the actual painted piece...) is sort of an abstract sky, which I thought might thematically be appropriate with the hot air balloon and the umbrella. This took me about 8 hours in all.

2. The giant watercolor! I was initially scared to do this assignment, but I ended up loving it. I really like how the water and the paint sorta take over with this medium...most people seem to want more control when it comes to painting, but I freely let it go. I used the kleenex/dobbing technique for the clouds and a mix of round, bright, and bamboo/watercolor brushes throughout. This took me around 6-7 hours total.

3. The gouache barn. This was one of my first experiences with gouache, and I instantly enjoyed the fact that it is just as flexible a medium as watercolor (i.e. I didn't have to control EVERYthing...) but with more opacity. Meaning, I wouldn't necessarily have to paint as many layers as the watercolors required. This project took around 2-4 hours.

4. Memory portrait. I enjoyed the process of this piece. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed stylizing portraits of people until Rusty made us draw a relative (from memory!) in various styles. I also enjoyed working with watercolor; I think the softness of the watercolor in this piece helps express the personality of my grandfather- the strong, silent type with a big heart. I did a lot of waiting for each layer of skin tones to dry- it might not look like it, but I ended up painting about 5 different layers of watercolor. All things included, this project probably took me 6-8 hours.

5. DMV cartoon. I also enjoyed the process for this project. Doing the brainstorming and sketching was great, and I learned that making a cartoon isn't actually as scary and/or difficult as I had anticipated. I'm going to utilize the photoshop-coloring technique more in the future. I like the contrast of the expressive, hand-drawn lines with the clean, computerized color. In the end, this project took me around 5 or 6 hours.

3-image gouache montage

2009-10-09T15:04:00.011-05:00

whew! what a process! the end goal is a 10x14" gouache montage of three unrelated objects... here's what i've done so far:

these are the three initial sketches... i think Rusty liked the 2nd one, but I thought it was boring... too nature-y. so i went with the third one to refine...

marker comp!! i'm not very experienced w/ the prisma markers... so that was fun to make. rust said this composition was crap (which... i admit, it is.) so i went back to the drawing board...

interesting, right?! rusty said it sucked...
ahHA! the boss approved one! i think the background color needs some serious help, but... the gouache medium will hopefully save my booty.

ta-daa! doneskees.

decisions, decisions

2009-10-08T21:59:00.006-05:00

here are different covers i'm considering for my viscom4 magazine... it's called wh(eye) magazine- it presents social injustice issues that need awareness to documentary photographers... i'm still working on the masthead, don't worry... i know its a little clunky.

memory portrait

2009-09-30T14:04:00.005-05:00

memory portrait assignment: draw a relative from memory... i have here sketches or diff styles, color studies, and the final product.

cartizzle!

2009-09-29T21:08:00.008-05:00

attempt at realism...

2009-09-23T14:20:00.004-05:00

so... one time Rusty gave us an assignment to illustrate a product realistically.
this image is attempt #1... i let the water have its way after attempting to be a control freak/control the gouache... i like to think that it turned out to be an abstract cityscape. notice the smoke rising from the "factories."
^_^
this is attempt #2. it's still not quite as realistic as it was probably supposed to be... but i like it.

red barn in a field!!

2009-09-18T16:00:00.004-05:00

first attempts at gouache!

illustrations

2009-09-18T15:39:00.003-05:00

here are two examples of different illustration techniques of the same object. the top one is pencil and a micron pen, and the second is with a sharpie.

the big one

2009-09-17T22:20:00.001-05:00

i finally got around to posting the big ol' watercolor i did for monday's class...

more w.c!

2009-09-11T15:18:00.003-05:00

pen and ink with watercolor

2009-09-09T13:58:00.005-05:00

here are two sketches and their accompanying watercolors from today's assignment. i tried to get on the paper just the necessary visual information with the pen and ink work as well as the watercolors. for the bottom lamp base, i blew on the pigment while it was still wet to get the highlights. with the top lamp base, i layered the colors to try to add depth; i also created highlights by taking away wet pigment with a paper towel.

man. hat. tan.

2009-09-04T15:07:00.009-05:00

these are band pics i took in august for a kirksville-based, indie-rock, friggin sweet band, manhattan.

latest and greatest ccf publicity

2009-09-04T14:19:00.008-05:00

this was the first project of the summer w/ ccf. this is a screen shot of ccftruman.org... i didn't design the website... just the 2peter bible study shabang.

i designed these newsletter headers- b/w for print, color for the website. (http://ccftruman.org/signup)

i designed this logo for ccf's fifty at 50 campaign- they're trying to get 50 ppl to commit $50 a month (see http://ccftruman.org/finances). notice that the font is similar to that of the fifty dollar bill... ;)

this poster i just finished for campus christian fellowship will hit the presses soon, kids! keep out weather eye around campus- it'll be gracing every billboard soon;)

watercolor landscape 1

2009-09-02T14:15:00.002-05:00

I attempted to let go of control with this landscape, letting a little bit of pigment and a lot of water do the work.

please just be aware of this

2009-07-15T08:45:00.002-05:00

in an attempt to secure a job post-graduation, i've taken on too many jobs, including an internship at a local medical school that arouses my creative juices about as much as an episode of pbs' miss marple.
this morning i'm finishing up a flow chart for a doctor with entries such as these:

GASTROENTEROLOGY
-Diarrhea/Constipation
-Acute Abdominal Pain
-Dysphagia
-Jaundice
-Nausea/ Vomiting
-Abdominal Swelling/ Ascites
-Elevated Liver nzymes
-GI Bleeding
-Acute/ Chronic Hepatitis
-Acute/ Chronic Pancreatitis
-Colon Cancer
-Inflammatory Bowel Disease

CARDIOPULMONARY I/
NEPHROLOGY
-Chest Pain
-Azotemia and Urinary
Abnormalities
-Palpitations/ Syncope
-Edema
-Acute/ Chronic Respiratory
Failure & Hypoxia
-Shortness of Breath
-Cough
-Incontinence??
-Acute Coronary Syndrome/
Chronic Angina
-Acute Renal Failure/
Chronic Kidney Disease
-Pericarditis/ Endocarditis
-COPD
-UTI/ Pyelonephritis

...this internship better land me a pretty friggin sweet job.
that's all i gotta say...

please read from the bottom up :)

2009-05-05T13:10:00.015-05:00

aaaand... i decided to give up the html attempts and use flash.... and here's the result of hours of flash work....
www.k8elrod.info
ah yeeuh :)

illustrator stuff, fingerprints, etc.

this is me trying to be organized and prepare stuff for html.

i made my own font...with my fingerprints.

this is the idea i ran with.

here are some new thoughts on my site.

and then we had a random poster assignment, which was fun.

original thoughts on portfolio website...

ten second ad from the last assignment....

for ze flash intro...

2009-03-31T00:04:00.003-05:00

3 Flash Intro Concepts: Washington St. Java Co.

2009-03-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

1) I will play off the idea of the SMELL of coffee, and especially of Java Co. (as both have a very distinct smell...) This will be the intro the website, playing after the viewer clicks "Enter" from the splash page and leading into the homepage of the Java Co. website. The target audience is the coffee-lover who knows and is comforted by the smell of coffee and who enjoys/will enjoy this aspect of Java Co. I will use sound to simulate opening a bag of coffee, pouring a cup of coffee, grinding coffee beans, and smelling coffee before taking a drink. I will also use background chatting/coffee shop noises behind the Java Co. photos and "steam" animations created in Flash.

2) The concept is from Ashley May's comment of Java Co. as an "urban oasis" in Kirksville. I will appeal mainly to Truman and ATSU students who are from bigger cities and enjoy the escape from small-town-ness that Java Co. offers. This 30-second piece will be more of a promotional piece that will link to the website after playing.

3) Again focusing on the idea of escaping, this concept focuses on the fun atmosphere at Java Co. I will emphasize the community feel, the good food, the artsy aspect, and the sense that life is good at Java Co. This will be a heavily typographic piece with bright/warm colors (like those on the walls of the coffee shop) and music. This intro will appeal to stressed out Kirksville community members, including college students and hard-working (coffee-loving) adults.

SB homework...

2009-03-16T10:41:00.001-05:00

here's the tutorial i completed

tutes.

2009-03-04T15:13:00.003-06:00

demo 2
demo 3
demo4
demo 5

2009-02-23T13:39:00.001-06:00

k8elrod.info/java_co

there's a lil more...

boooyuh

2009-02-20T14:40:00.000-06:00

k8elrod.info

it needs some content help, i know.

hm?

2009-02-16T15:10:00.000-06:00

decisions, decisions

2009-02-15T22:52:00.004-06:00

1
2

3

screen shots of html practice

2009-02-02T16:09:00.005-06:00

more (java co.) site ideas..i am a machine.

2009-02-02T13:42:00.007-06:00

splash pAGE

2009-01-30T14:27:00.000-06:00

site designs!

2009-01-26T13:44:00.006-06:00

design 6

design 5

design 4

design 3

design numero 2

design numero uno

new sitemap

2009-01-26T13:41:00.001-06:00

here's the expanded site map...

my attempts at a site map...

2009-01-21T13:37:00.004-06:00

yep... thar she blows.

company options!

2009-01-13T23:29:00.000-06:00

I'm deciding between these four businesses for the semester-long VisComIII project...

1) AFRIHCO- Technically "African Hearts Community Organization." This is a Non-Governmental Organization that takes in HIV/AIDS orphans in Kampala, Uganda, and helps them raise money for their schooling through the making and selling of arts, crafts, and music.

2) The Bridal and Formal Shoppe- Located in downtown Kirksville, this small-town boutique provides Northeast Missouri with formal wear for any occasion. . . and currently has no website.

3) Java Co.- Also located in downtown, this coffee shop offers delicious homemade soups, salads, quiches, and various baked goods as well as a plethera of hot and cold drinks. The atmosphere is perfect for studying, socializing, or just hanging out on a rainy day. Java Co. also has no website at the present.

4) Sheffield Place- This is a home for homeless mothers and their children in downtown Kansas City, MO. They offer excellent counseling and rehab services and also help the mothers get back on their feet (get off drugs/alcohol, obtain and hold down a job, learn how to manage money, etc.) before sending them back out in the real world.