Psychedelic Design

If you will hear the word “psychedelic,” you may refer to the hallucinatory state of mind, distorted perceptions, altered state of consciousness caused by drug use. For broader description, neon colors of yellow green, blue green, orange, and red violet will penetrate your mind. Maybe some flowers, peace sign, a floral sprayed designed Volkswagen and long-haired hippies or afros will come across your imagination. To box all these attributes, psychedelic is best described as the 1960s pop culture.



Before the term psychedelic become the 60’s fashion of fit, trend neon, wide collared longsleeves and bell bottoms, it was coined by the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond as an alternative descriptor to hallucinogenic drugs. That could be the reason why hallucinogens are also known as “psychedelic drugs.” Indeed, psychedelic seems to be paired with drugs from the day it has emerged. Beyond its psychiatric definition and fashion statement, psychedelic has extended itself to music and arts which led it to create its own movement. Psychedelic art and psychedelic music gather inspiration by inducing oneself with drugs like marijuana, LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin. These drugs are derived from herbs and fungus.

But just like Chronos devouring his children, the popularity of psychedelic was eaten by time. It would be rare to see people wearing the psychedelic fashion unless it is a Halloween or retro costume party. Even the 60’s retro music is mostly played only during weekends. But its influence on graphic design still lives and is widely used in the music industry for posters and album covers. Psychedelic design preserves the neon play of colors, warped typeface, paisley, fractal, concentric circles, kaleidoscope effects, and theme of fantasy, ecstasy, euphoria, and hallucination.

Incubus’ A Crow Left of the Murder (2003), Mojofly’s Now (2005) and Oasis’s Dig Out Your Soul (2008) are examples of cover albums with psychedelic designs that were released by the 2000.






Shroomery.org

Psd.tutsplus.com

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics with all its stunning designs remains quiet compared to its loud photo manipulative companion. It appears that majority of graphic designers use raster-based, image manipulation programs. Perhaps one reason that many designers use vector graphics less is because of the complexity of its interface and its high regards to the techniques of traditional drawing and drafting which was somehow given little importance by other graphic designers who solely clings their skills on graphic software.

Vector graphics maintains its math origin “vector” a specific mathematical structure that has the ability to represent magnitude and direction. Since a vector graphics is mathematically defined, it is capable of modifying its mathematical location and prevents the graphic from pixelating when enlarged. Expanded vector graphics can retain its fine and delicate quality.

Vector graphics has many uses. If you are the person who has passion to draw, you can add vector graphics to your technical drawing skills. You can start by scanning your freehand drawing, studying the vector graphic program interface, watching tutorials and start with the basics. Mastering a vector graphic program will definitely take time as if you are studying freehand drawing from scratch. Only this time, you can easily edit, scale and duplicate your drawings.

Once you have absorbed the skills you need to acquire, you can begin voyaging the wide ocean of graphic design. Definitely you’ll meet other designers too like photo editor, layout artist, animator, web designers, and videographer.  Its primary use is for logo design and other business set. It is also used for creating technical illustrations and web design graphics. Hip vector portraits and posters are among the popular uses of vector graphics. Vector graphics seems to make its way to fashion industry.  T-shirt design now uses vector graphics especially those with decorative swirls, paisley, or anthropomorphic characters. 2D cartoons and comics are also designed using vector graphics. If your hunches suggest that vector graphics has limit itself to flat prints, it has now innovated its features and can now model 3D graphics and even realistic human images. Vector artist who would dare to bring their skills to this extent will definitely need to master perspective and proper toning.

Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw are the famous vector-based programs.


Illustrationclass.com

Gomediazine.com

Computerarts.co.uk

Adroit Designs

Blog.spoongraphics.co.uk

Voidix.com