Graphic Design

Fools with Epaulettes

This is a 52-card deck of playing cards. All of the kings, queens, jacks and two aces are foxes of different breeds corresponding to each suit (ex.: diamonds are desert foxes). I have chosen these animals since they are often perceived as tricksters I many folk tales. Often at the end of these folk fables the trickster fox gets his/her comeuppance and thus becomes the fool him/herself, hence the name. The name is also inspired by an old game I used to play with friends as a child.

final product

sketches

Hearts – red fox

Spades – black fox

Diamonds – desert fox (or bat-eared fox)

Clubs – arctic fox

Smithsonian Folkways

A CD package design for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings project, songs from the Civil War sung by Tom Glazer. The package also includes liner notes concerning the songs and the historical period. This project focuses on the human aspect of the music, the experiences felt by those at home and at the front, regardless of their political alignments. Please note that the photographs you see here were NOT taken by me and DO NOT belong to me, they were provided by Smithsonian Institution: Moses and Frances Asch Collection. Courtesy of The Smithsonian Institution, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

the Lovely Soaps

Here’s a project I finished in spring 2010, it is also the winner of the Applied Arts Scholarship (GDC National Scholarships). This is the final project for my illustration class, for which I have designed packaging for a line of luxury soap. I’ve always wanted to see something different and unique in the field of luxury bath products, and therefore chose to design packaging which is interesting and quite daring. The target audience for my product would be young people ages 18-30, who have a sense of humor and a taste for something corky and different, and who are also willing to pay extra for high-quality soap. This product might be sold at stores like Anthropologie or smaller businesses like Eden Lilly or Gravity Pope Tailored Goods (located in Edmonton, AB).

Pairing up pseudo-victorian decor with bright colors and strange zoomorphic characters, puts a spin on an average luxury soap design (where victorian-inspired ornaments are used broadly). The packaging resembles a wrapped candy, signifying that this product is precious and extravagant. The designs are bright, playful, and unique, which I feel will capture my target audience.

There are six types of soap, and each scent has a specific character assigned to it. On the back of each label there is a short bio of the character, just to make things more interesting.

short poster exercise, topic “I am a designer”

Signage Design

An informational booklet, a proposal for redesigning signage of the Biological Sciences Building here on campus (University of Alberta). The booklet contains a short write up of present problems and their possible solution; as well as color and type breakdown, examples of proposed signage and a redesigned map.

Studio Theatre Posters

a play titled Love and Human Remains

a play titled the Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Illustration

This is one of my illustration project for a short story called Ravens. I was working on illustrating the cover, and a small sequence of the actual story, turning it into a story-board.

the cover

here are the 3-D book mock-ups (on cream and off-white papers)

These are the storyboards for a small part of the story (a few paragraphs at the end)

Poster for the eMC group

Poster for our art-show

This is the poster I have designed for the group art-show, which I’m participating in as well. The show is hosted by the Steeps tea house, hence the tea-pot and a cup with legs. The name of the show is derived from the name of our printmaking course, or it’s number Art 422; the student of this course are the artists featured in the show.

the poster

our poster

the flyer

422 flyer

Graphic Design work from January to April 2009, mostly school projects

Useless: a history of fashion accessories which are absolutely unnecessary for basic survival

This was a self-directed project at university, which lasted from late January till the very end of the semester (April). It required a research topic and a final product. The research topic, as you can see, is a history of ‘useless’ fashion accessories: basically any accessory that is not vital for survival (ex. : necktie ), and the product is this book. The book contains most of my report, and includes some fun pop-ups. The reason for the pop-ups was to bring some humor into what could be just another dull book, and support the overall humorous mood of the project.

the front cover

the introduction spread

another few spreads

stockings

gloves

Conference Material

Another project I did this past semester was to design conference material for a made-up conference, which in my case was on illustration. Here are some pictures of the conference material. If you scroll down you’ll find some individual items as well as the visual system guide for the logo.

meleskine notebooks, special edition for the conference

Conference invitation, the size of the announcement envelope (6.5 x 4.75″)

Conference material_3

Conference material_4

after pulling out the insert, one can read all the immediate information, which introduces and announces the conference (what, where, who, why etc.), the recipient of the invitation is then directed to the conference website for further inquiries.

Conference material_5

the broadsheet poster, contains more details on the conference: the speakers bios, letter from the chairman, accommodation info, registration info and the registration form. The registration form is at the bottom of the broadsheet, it can be cut out or torn out ( the edges are serrated) along with the mailing info; that way the broadsheet can be displayed as a poster.

Conference material_7

Visual ID system guide for the conference logo, please note that this is not the complete system (there were too many pages, so I reduced it to the minimum)

front cover

visual system-1

elements of the logo

visual system-5

scaling

visual system-7

color palette and the official font

visual system-8

business card designs

visual system-11

core stationary

visual system-12

Oribunny and the Personal Calling Card

these are the ‘self promotional’ items I have designed for one of the projects at University, the Oribunny is a origami rabbit which contains my personal information along with the logo-initials (km or mk however you want to read them) as the eyes.

oribunny1 oribunny2

here are the rest of the items: the envelope to contain the rabbit and the calling card with a rabbit-like graphic element

Design work from fall/winter 2008:

a submission for the University of Alberta I-week poster

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kanvas. says:

May 20, 2010 at 1:30 am

This is really amazing and extremely inspirational. I’m a graphic design major, sophomore year, and I do a lot of pen and ink work. I noticed how you were able to maintain your original ink lines on the first poster. How do you do that? if you don’t mind answering. A lot of things are new to me and I’m always browsing trying to learn more from people in the field of design and illustration. It would be great to communicate!

mariyakarpenko says:

May 20, 2010 at 10:55 pm

First of all thanks a lot for your comment, I’m really flattered. Basically what I do, is I scan an inked/drawn image and ‘trace’ it in photoshop, but here’s the trick:

1) draw a sketch(either pen or HB pencil), then scan it 2) open the jpg or tiff in photoshop, create a new layer on top, and fill it with a saturated solid color(not black, I usually use bright aqua-blue, note this new layer must be on top of the ‘line drawing’ layer) 3)then you must select the “solid color” layer you’ve created, go to the Layer tab, to the ‘layer blending mode’ window (where it usually says “normal”) and change it to ‘screen’ 4) you should now see your image (if you can’t change the opacity level of the ‘color layer’, you shouldn’t need to go lower than 50), your image is the color you chose (in my case aqua-blue), now PRINT IT. 5) trace this drawing in black ink (use india ink and a nib, or some kind of draftsman pens) and make sure black is black 6) scan that, now you have your two color drawing. all you need to do is select color range (in the toolbar go Select –> Color Range), and select your black outlines, note you can also alter the ‘sensitivity’ of the selection (that way the computer will only pick up a specific color – black, and wont pick up the other ‘mistake lines’ you did when preparing the sketch) 7) you have your ‘inked-drawing’ selected, now you can make a brand new layer and fill the selection with black or whatever you want — and you will have a clean drawing that still has your style in it.

This method is sort of like drawing in pencil, then inking it up (by tracing the pencil lines you want to keep) then erasing the pencil marks, then scanning it. only this way, when selecting it the computer will also pick up the faint pencil marks (although this might be the look you’re going for). You can also skip the ‘computer — color layer’ step if you have good pencils in different saturated colors (my professor had some kind of a blue marker, that he then traced with black over). Note, this is only for complex work with different line-weights and many intertwining lines (like that poster of mine), if you have a simple design, it might be easier to trace/ free trace it in illustrator

I hope this isn’t too confusing and you will find it helpful in you future studies and career

Mariya

May 21, 2010 at 1:04 am

thank you so much for responding and giving that information! I’m going to try it over my break and send you the result!

Graphic Design

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