Week 15: Create a Retro Style Surf Poster

Create a retro style illustrated surf poster or postcard, with faded colour palette and texture.

Beginner

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Create a surf poster in Illustrator, sourcing images to trace for the background and surfer. Create custom brushes to illustrate water and sky details. Use layers for different areas of the image.

Intermediate

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Create a surf poster in Illustrator, sourcing images to trace for the background and surfer. Create custom brushes to illustrate water and sky details. Use layers for different areas of the image. Open poster in Photoshop and add grain/grunge texture.

Advanced

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Create a series of surf posters/postcards in Illustrator, sourcing images to trace for the backgrounds and surfers. Create custom brushes to illustrate water and sky details. Use layers for different areas of the images. Open posters/postcards in Photoshop and add grain/grunge texture.

Time Allocated

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60 Minutes for Beginner: Create a scene, trace image and illustrate with Illustrator pen tool, layers and brushes. 75 Minutes for intermediate: Create a scene, trace image and illustrate with Illustrator pen tool, layers and brushes. Use Photoshop to add texture. 90-360 Minutes for advanced: Create scene, trace images to create a series of 3 posters/postcards and illustrate with Illustrator pen tool, layers and brushes. Use Photoshop or illustrator to add texture.

Design Goals

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Create a retro style illustrated surf poster or postcard, with faded colour palette and texture.

Constraints

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Create the scene and trace images in Illustrator and then use Illustrator custom brushes to illustrate details. Use Photoshop effects to add a grain.

Resources

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Software

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  • Adobe Illustrator

    Layers

  • Other

    Adobe After Effects

Upload

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Learn More About DEX

Who is this for?
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Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced level designer. There is a brief to suit you. Follow the instructions in the brief to the letter.

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Once you're done upload your image to share. We may upload your image to our new Instagram page, be sure to include your Insta handle (@username) so we can credit you. If you don’t have an Instagram account, you can just type in your name. Leave your details blank if you like.

What is a good size for the images?
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Please make sure your image is of good resolution, it shouldn’t exceed more than 5mb or thereabouts. png, jpeg, svg all acceptable formats. By uploading your image you're giving us permission to publish it.

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