For this project, I designed a fictional creature called the Dreamcatcher. This creature is a Photoshop job done on a scorpion, cobra, and deepsea viperfish to the background of a desert, which was also heavily Photoshopped to appear darker and redder.
The goal of this project was to demonstrate an understanding of Adobe Photoshop, and later to create a brochure based on this work using Adobe InDesign.
One asset I created of the Dreamcatcher was this encounter of the creature in the desert, parodying photos of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and UFOs by intentionally distorting and blurring the image. The point was to create an image that might have the viewer disputing the authenticity of what is being claimed by the photo.
Based on research of medieval imagery, another asset created was of a supposed encounter with the Dreamcatcher. Details of note is the lacking expression of the man even in a haunting situation—as European art cared little for the depiction of individual expression—as well as the pale colors of the figures, common in depicting dark scenes. I applied a worn texture overlay to create an illusion of age.
The skull of the Dreamcatcher was made with a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator.
The final asset created was another Photoshopped work depicting the Dreamcatcher wrapping its long neck under a branch and biting the top. This is to demonstrate the flexibility of the creature and create a chilling factor to the image, as it easily comes across as unnatural. This asset was designed to fit on the bottom of the brochure and had printer marks in mind when determining the width.
When approaching the brochure, I had things like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster in mind. I didn’t want to portray the Dreamcatcher as though it is proven real, rather, I approached this as if it were just yet another legendary creature that people are actively looking for. The cover is left a kind of desert orange to communicate that this is the ‘surface’, while the other side is depicted as being the dark ‘underground.’
Final Production
With the brochure finished over Adobe InDesign, a PDF was produced and sent in for printing:
- 11 x 8.5 in. pages
- 0.25 in. margins
- 0.25 in. full bleeds
- Glossy cardstock, Letter paper
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