Strawberries: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Keenan Chau (2015)

I am exploring the feeling of confusion through the experience of search for companionship. In my photograph there are two strawberries. I chose two very different strawberries to appear in the picture with one being green and small while the other is red and large. They are also pixelated using the ''Patchwork'' filter to give them a more digitalized look. I made the wall behind the plant blurry to help make the strawberries stand out even more.

For the Photoshop process, I made added a vignette in the first window thing. Then I used the pen tool to make a selection around each strawberry. I saved each selection so I could easily re-select their paths after deselecting them. After that, I used the filter gallery to find a filter I saw most fitting for my piece. Lastly, I exported the file as a .pdf file to turn it in. Before taking this class I had never used Photoshop before and knew nothing about it. This specific project taught me how to use the filter gallery more in depth. In the project, I applied the ''Patchwork'' filter to give the strawberries a pixelated look. Aside from filters, I got a lot of practice with the pen tool to the point of using it properly. At first the pen tool was very confusing, but once I figured it out things started to move faster. Selecting the green strawberry went significantly faster than the red one. I also believe the green strawberry looks better in the final product. The strawberries represent people searching for companions. They have different qualities that define them, such as the color and size of the strawberries in this piece. They are like the people who they are representing. From the leaves, the strawberries have grown out from under the shadows behind them into the sunlight where they can be seen by animals. However, they seem pixelated and fake which causes confusion to the things that can consume the strawberries. The filter was chosen because of the widespread use of internet based social media. I wanted the strawberries to look as if they were on a low resolution computer screen.