Adobe Photoshop, 2023
The purpose of these postcard designs was to convey my feelings about a special place to me: Charlottesville, Virginia, specifically Arrowhead Farm. I used to go here every summer and visit family friends until I was about 10. I wanted my postcards to reflect the imagination and hazy memories of childhood. Arrowhead farm was truly magical as a kid; it felt like a different world. I made three postcards for three specific places I remember: the pond, the train track, and the open fields. For these designs, the main elements that I focused on were layering, perspective, and color.
The first postcard I made was the pond postcard. I wanted to show what it was like to be underwater in the pond, with tadpoles surrounding me and nibbling at my toes; looking back up at the surface like I had crossed through a magical portal. I layered photos of water and plants to create the pond, then outlined and added a drop shadow to the lily pads so they pop as the primary elements of my design. I added the tadpoles characters as the secondary elements. I posited them to make the design flow naturally. When the tadpoles were blending into the background, I decided to make them pink. I liked how this looked and fit my childhood imagination theme and changed the color of the critters in the following designs as well.
For my second design, I really embraced the worms-eye view perspective. When I was little, I used to lie down in the grass and look at the world from the perspective of a bug. Creating this design brought back a flood of memories and I remembered showing my friend this when we were in Charlottesville. I layered photos of grass and this time decided to add a bumblebee super up close to the viewer’s perspective. I focused on the hierarchy of elements for this design. And I made the bumblebees purple against the yellow dandelions.
My final design of the train tracks was the one I had most trouble with. I knew I wanted to incorporate the “looking up” perspective or worms-eye view from my previous designs but I didn’t know how to do this with the train track that I remembered so well from my trips. I wanted to showcase the hills and fields that were always in view in Arrowhead Farm but also the train track that would seemingly go on forever. So I created the background first and then added the train track with the worms-eye view perspective. I added the up-close monarch butterfly and flower. To make it match more with my previous designs I added some flower photos with a lowered opacity to give a layering effect that made the design more interesting.
Franny Kehoe 