Visual metaphors

I decided to draw up concepts for all of the visual metaphores given for this task, here is the concepts for all of them as quick pencil sketches:

out of all of these concepts the Reaching Retirment stuck out the most for me, i had an idea to which i created a concept in photoshop of one idea that i had of an elderley man reaching the finishline of a marathon with the words retirment written above him and a crowd around him cheering him on, this would show him reaching the finish line along with an elderly lady runing just as a concept to see what it would look like with an elderly man and an elderly woman in marathon gear including a number on her tshirt, below is the concept:

i thought this was a good concept idea yet i had another idea in mind that i felt would have worked better than this one so i decided to draw a new concept of this idea that i had about elderly people climbing a mountain with a flag that reads retirment physically reaching the peak of retirment and it being an uphill battle, climbing a mountin is hard and takes time and persiverance i felt that this mountain idea would work better, here is the concept drawings:

next i decided to work on drawing the figures which i wanted to do in adobe illustrator, i wanted to have bold outlines for the people as seen in the top left of the image above, i started to create the outlines of the people and then added the clothing that can be seen below:

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After creating the people i then put them into photoshop and started to create what would be the final images, first i decided to use a block of colour for the mountain and showing all four people climbing a large mountain that can be seen again below:

i like the way the people are being seen climbing and that the mountain has a high peak, i made the people nearer the bottom of the mountain larger than those at the top to show depth in this illustration which i feel works well although i think that the flag at the top could have been bigger and focusing more on that person at the top reaching the retirment flag, i like this piece being in portrait and feel that it works well in showing th euphill climb to retirment maybe adding the people actually climbing with climing gear is an idea i could have expanded on.

After creating this image from the concepts i had drawn i decided to create the concept at the bottom of the concept page with more narrow lines rather than a block of colour to represent the mountain and a larger focus on the flag, this time i would create the piece horizontally as can be seen below:

i feel that thi spiece works well, the lines give off a more jagged and jared feel to the piece as a whole though i feel that the figures dont sit quite as well as that of the other image created, i like the effect that the lines give off yet maybe the lines being thicker would work better to match that of the elderly people in the image.

I then decided to go back to the first image created with the block colour and see if i could encorporate that block colour to the final image i would be creating, by using photoshop i decided to have more of a focus on the retirment flag and the people reaching the flag by including climbing gear to show the commitment and reach to retirment, i feel that this would work well as the block colour i feel works best and by not including all of the people as i feel that the people have been a main focus rather than that of reaching retirment that should be celebrated and shown more in the illustration i am creating, my process can be seen below:

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after adding the walking sticks i then put the image into photoshop and created a mountain along with a retirment flag and a man reaching the retirment flag which can be seen below:

I decided to zoom in on the flag and add a bit extra to the end of the image giving more distance between the flag and the end of the image, here is the final piece:

I feel this final image works well in portraying the reaching retirment task, having a mountain to climb and featuring 3 elderly people and one man reaching the retirment flag gives off what is asked for, i feel that the illustrations of the elderly people work well i like the composition of them on their own as well as in the final image, the use of block colour for the mountain i feel works better than that of the image with just lines much alike the illustrations of the elderly people i think that this fits well along with the flag all being similar and tieing into the illustration as a whole, The flag being a main focal point as being the end goal of reaching retirement.