Design Portfolio: Birthday Present

(click to make larger)

I like giving my best friends presents that represent something beyond just material goods. What is usually the most available to me is t-shirts, but it's what you do with the t-shirt that really matters, isn't it? 

This year for my friend's birthday I used a past memory and some wicked photoshop skills to give her what I think is a pretty amazing present! 

The image is a take on the band death from above 1979's album cover, in which the two members of the bands have elephant noses on their faces. It's a widely known album cover and also has a pretty wicked look to it. A couple of years ago my friend and I dressed at the band for Halloween and it was a great night, so I thought I'd commemorate her aging with a great memory. 

How It Was Done:

I found pictures of each of us that I thought would have the right style for the format I was trying to achieve. I used a combination of posterising, levels and vector tracing in photoshop and illustrator to achieve the right balance between black and white. I added a few details to our faces (like her nose ring and labret ring and my monroe piercing) and then put on the elephant trunks. Then I used photoshop brushes and colour theory to achieve the background effect.

It's actually uncanny how much the elephant people look like us with our elephant noses on. :D