Artsnova Digital Art and Space

Photoshop National Space Society Banner Let’s Build a Future Together by Jim Plaxco

Last night I submitted an entry to the NSS (National Space Society) Banner Design Contest. What made my submission unusual is that I am one of the judges for the contest. This left my fellow judges wondering what my intentions were - was I dropping out as a judge to become a contestant? Did I want a crack at the $500.00 cash prize? Not at all I explained. The night before (Wednesday) I had gone to the NSS Banner Design Gallery to look over the submissions that I would be voting on. Unfortunately I didn’t see any that I really liked. Most were far too science fictiony for my tastes given that these designs are to be used to produce a banner promoting the NSS and its chapters. I expressed my negative feelings to my fellow judges in an e-mail. After sending that e-mail, I thought “why just criticize - what can I come up with?” I figured that I would see what I could do so later that night I set out to create my own banner design. It is that design which is the illustration for this post. You can see a larger version on my submission page.

In creating this banner, there were five basic elements to consider:

• the background image
• the NSS logo
• the NSS name
• an appropriate slogan
• creating a composition from these individual elements

For a background, I decided to go with a lunar landscape that featured an Apollo LEM (Lunar Excursion Module). To achieve this, I composited together a series of Apollo 16 70mm Hasselblad images. These became a single layer in my Photoshop document. I located a separate image of the Earth, also from the Apollo 16 mission, taken en route to the Moon. I brought this into Photoshop as another layer. To this I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer as a clipping mask and slightly increased both the saturation and lightness of the Earth.

I now had to come up with a slogan. A page full of scribbled ideas later, I decided to go with “Let’s Build a Future Together.”

Lastly, with the Moon, the Earth, my slogan, the NSS logo, and the NSS name all on separate Photoshop layers, I began to work with both the placement and the sizing of the individual elements. At this point the only element that remained static was the lunar background. I eventually arrived at a composition that I was happy with and called it a night.

Yesterday after work I used the automated design submission form to enter my design in the contest. Why not give it a try yourself. You can find all the details about the contest at the National Space Society Banner Design Contest web page.

Ad Astra, Jim

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Space Art, Photoshop, National Space Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.