Concept:

Going into this project, I was riding off the tail-end of playing a game called “The Binding of Isaac”. There’s a character named Lazarus in the game, who’s ability is to Flip between 2 separate forms.

With this inspiration in mind, I wanted my design to have different viewpoints depending on what side you looked at it, without there being any noticeable details on the other side. (Basically if you only see side A, you won’t even notice there’s a B side until you’re shown it)

With that in mind, I sketched this short drawing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/190347140@N06/51440383119/in/dateposted-public/

 

I had this sketch, only half of the design, which I didn’t mind much since it would be symmetrical anyways. The lines and such on the helm were meant to represent the lines and ripples that rams and gazelles have on their horns, though it didn’t really come into fruition in the final part.

The other thing I made sure to do in the sketch was to hide the B side in plain sight, something that wouldn’t look ‘off’ with the style of the drawing, and something someone wouldn’t notice until they’re shown it. Then it hit me. Why not use the Spartan Helm’s design to hide a longer face?

 

Iteration:

So that’s what I started off with, giving the helmet some wings or cheek plates and other details so when flipped, it wouldn’t look off. Then I went into photoshop and did 2 or 3 different designs and cut them out.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/190347140@N06/51439633446/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/190347140@N06/51439883643/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/190347140@N06/51440599725/in/dateposted-public/

 

After cutting out these three, I decided to go with option 1, since the thick line art makes it sort of Pop, especially a white vinyl against a black laptop back. This design was really fun to make and contrasted really well with just black and white, but there were still a few problems with it. Sharp corners, thin lines, small end pieces that would curl up over time, and the design seemed too small surrounded by that thin bounding ring.

Final:

After throwing the SVG into illustrator, fixing it up, and making it perfectly symmetrical, I was left with the final design.

 

I did stick with the rough lines on the horns of the B side, which technically leaves it with 3 pairs and a central horn on the B side, while keeping the Helm of the A side rounded and looking naturally blended with the art style I chose. The other thing I did to ‘cheat’ was to connect the design to the outer ring, which made it a thousand times easier to weed and cut out, since the only thing that was kept was the black parts of the design, and the white parts were discarded.

I wanted to challenge myself with this project since I know illustrator pretty well and I know the vinyl cutter like the back of my hand, but I felt like it was cheating to not follow the project somewhat. That’s why I still left my initials hidden in the project, seen below.

 

 

I sought out to make a design with a similar effect to the ‘Dalmatian illusion’ shown in class, where once you see a little detail in this icon, it’s completely unseeable (See Below).