Brandon James Art

  In designing this cover for They Both Die At the End by Adam Silvera, I wanted to stick with a few themes. I went with my fourth choice. TBDATE is a Young Adult novel that's very popular. It's likely to be adapted into a series or movie of some sort. For my cover, I leaned into the movie aspects. Using two stock photos of teenage boys as the two main characters, I  had a few things in mind. After removing the backgrounds and cutting the objects, I did some really light feathering and smoothing of the pictures. I also had to convert the pictures of both young men into smart objects, as resizing them completely ruined the quality the first time around. I also had to cut out portions of one of the young men as well as play around with their sizing, as the proportions of the initial photos were different.  I looked up a few movie and book adaptation covers to get a feel for how I wanted to place the main characters on the front. In placing them, I realized that I didn't kno...

  I chose to redesign the cover of one of my recent favorite reads, They Both Die At The End. Its the story of two young men who both get a notification that they are going to die within 24 hours and what they choose to do with that time.  This first sketch leans into the theme of time and minimalism. The clock on the front will have the title on the hands. The bike on the front is a significant thing from the story itself. The back cover would depict an hourglass, further leaning into the theme of time.  My second sketch leans into typography. The main focus of this cover would be the title. I'd find a way to make the words look more 3D and add in some breaking line effects that can evoke emotions.  Sketch number 3 is a whole story on the spine of the book. The front cover depicts a dead or dying tree. The colors and background will be muted but the back cover will show that same tree, full of life before dying.  The fourth image is more along the lines of a mo...

For my event poster, I chose the 80s style, themed after the YO! MTV Raps logo from their classic TV show. In choosing this option,I knew that I would be relying heavily on color. I wanted to design something that was reminiscent of the 80s.  I had to search to find the logo for the show. After doing so, I removed the background and erased the original text. I then searched and downloaded a font that was similar to the original text. While couldn't find something that matched exactly, I tried out a few that matched the style before landing on this font called Badaboom. After installing the font and typing my text, I used the stroke effect to add a yellow highlight.  I searched for 80s backgrounds and noticed a lot of geometric shapes and bright, vibrant colors. The backgrounds were usually plain or just one color. I played around with the stroke effect to add some more texture to some of the shapes. I also had fun making my own shapes and squiggles from the backgrounds.