Header Graphics for Water: The Source of Life.

I have finally finished the header graphics for my project “Water: The Source of Life.”

Having worked on the images for the headers, I then added text.

I only need two, but I have come up with 5 alternatives:

New York under water, with text added along with National Geographic logo.

This is not one of my favourite images of the five. I don’t think the underwater effect is prominent enough. If I was more skilled in Photoshop, I would have liked to create some decay and texture to the buildings, but this is something I will hopefully learn in the future.

Paris under water with added text and National Geographic logo

This is the first image I created and conversely the one which I have tinkered with more than the others. Again, with better skill I would have liked to create more rusting and decay on the Eiffel Tower. I do like the underwater effect here and the way the city appears to have ‘fallen’ into the rocks.

Rome under water with added text and National Geographic logo.

Although I like the light and water effects here, I’m not sure I’m really happy with the way the buildings have come out. I fiddled (that’s the technical term!) with the foliage in the foreground to try to create more depth and texture, but I don’t think I was very successful.

I do like the way the title text came out on this one though.

San Francisco under water with added text and National Geographic logo.

I was surprised at how well this one came out. I was lucky with a good image of San Francisco to start with and the water fitted very well with the overall look.

Sydney under water with added text and National Geographic logo.

Although I made this image as an afterthought, having created the others and deciding that I ought to represent Australia too, I actually like this one best of them all.

I like the way the water has affected the buildings and I think it is the most underwater-looking one of the set. I also like the text on this, as it stands out just right.

Image References

Life in Color, Stunning New Book from National Geographic (silverbirchpress.wordpress.com)
Belize’s Beauty Again Featured in National Geographic (prweb.com)
In this 1969 image provided by National Geographic via Christie’s Auction House, an illustration entitled; “A Blue Globe Hanging in Space – The Earth As Seen From The Moon,” by Charles Bittinger is shown. The picture is among a small (philstar.com)

Project

I am working on a web project for college.

My brief is to design 6 digital images to be placed on the National Geographic website to help promote the programme “Water – The Source of Life”

The programme is to be based on our misuse of water.

I am only required to design the graphics for this project – not the web pages.

My original idea is centred around the melting of the polar ice caps and flooding of mainland areas.

In the developed world we largely manage any sea encroachment onto land, but in the developing world, especially in parts of Asia, flooding is a big problem, as the Japanese Tsunami showed us a couple of years back.

With this environmental thought in mind I considered what some of the major cities in Eruope and the US would look like underwater, as though the sea had indeed swallowed them up.

The Sea

I started with a couple of images of bolow the sea:

My first underwater image.

I liked the circular effect of the rocks and the coral at the bottom. I thought it would look good with a city nestled onto it.

My second image.

Although this is darker in colour, I knew that I could alter the light in Photoshop. I particularly liked the way the light beams down onto the image from above.