Mountain View Corridor and the Mitt Romney Visit

Couple months ago, Mitt Romney came for a visit to check out the pieces of military property that needed to be transferred into state hands so they can finish building the MountainView Corridor. I was asked to generate a couple maps to make clear what is being proposed. Went through multiple revisions. Used Adobe Illustrator to produce these. 

Effective cutouts using Photoshop

Hello!
The following tutorial should help anyone looking to improve their ability to cut out images in photoshop. Having worked as a graphic designer and layout artist for over 10 years now, I have seen every level of cutout from crappy rough edges to the superbly flawless. When done right, and incorporated into a composition thoughtfully, cutouts can add pop and interest to final imagery.

Images to cut

I will be using the following 2 examples. The one on the left represents the minority of all photos that most designers will work with. It is high contrast and therefore very easy to work with and cut out. It is the type of image we all wish we could work with all the time.

The second image represents the majority of images that, in reality, we will work with most of the time. This would be considered more difficult and requires a bit more patience and skill to cut out.

Photo on left from Shutterstock.com. Photo on right from Deseret News by Jeffrey D. Allred.

Using the 'Select and Mask...' option

Lets get started with the easy photo of the Mom and girl. After opening activate the lasso (L) tool in the tools palette. Once selected the 'Select and Mask...' option will show up in the options bar at the top of the screen.

Select and mask interface

Once you click on 'Select and mask...' a new interface will fill your screen. This work space' sole purpose is to help you make the best selection for your image, as quickly as possible.

Graphics in Review, Nov. 2017

Another rip-roaring month at the Deseret News. Below is my contribution, with the first 10 or so being my top picks.

American Family Survey graphics

I did a number of graphics for a series of stories that ran in the Deseret News. Below is the massive graphic I did for online. Here is a link to its location on the landing page for this series.

Graphics in Review, Oct. 2017

October went fast. Here, again, are graphics and imagery I've created at the Deseret News in the month of October. Enjoy!

Temple distances project

I was tasked with creating a world map that highlighted various distance extremes between Mormon LDS temples all over the world. Obviously something this large doesnt work very well on mobile screens, so I broke each distance into their own graphic. Considering space restrictions etc., I think this turned out rather well. This is probably the top graphic of October.

The rest of October

7 months of graphics

Been slacking in posting my graphics in review. Since I cant possibly post every single graphic for the past 7 months in a single post, I will simply post my favorites for each month.

March

Cranking out the News in Education pages

Following are 3 one-page Classroom Connection pages I did for the Deseret News. All were published in the Newspaper.

Invasion of Poland

With all the craziness going on in our world it's easy to forget the catastrophes of long ago. I was asked to do this one-page on the invasion of Poland. I hope what I chose to focus on really helps anyone see a snippet of history on this hugely key event in our worlds history.

Detail of the headline

Hard-hitting graphic on the human cost of war

Especially prod of this one. Did a bunch of research to put this one together. Hope I got it right

All about Humpback Whales

Love whales, their grace, uniqueness and size. Decided to do an NIE on Humpbacks. Found out these creatures are born weighing about a ton, and reach maturity in only 10 years! For how large they are, I find that amazing.

Detail of 2 of the graphics

Detail showing the cutout work made with photoshop, then laid out in InDesign

Hurricanes

I did this quickly and on the spur of the moment, thinking it would be timely with all the hurricanes hitting islands and U.S. coasts. Most of the graphics are direct re-makes. The graphic in the lower left, with its small illustrations are of my devising. The 3D illustration in the bottom right graphic was created using Illustrator and Blender 3D.

Detail of graphic with original illustrations depicting the devastation of different hurricane intensities