Project 1A: Bitmap Book Cover

The Beekeeper's Apprentice is a book by Laurie R. King, in which the female main character, Mary Russell, meets Sherlock Holmes and becomes his partner. Sherlock has retired to Sussex and is spending most of his time as a beekeeper. Some of the book takes place in Oxford, where Russell is in school and spends time in the Bodleian Library. Typewritten notes play a major part in the mystery, which is why I chose a font that resembles a typewriter.

I used Adobe Photoshop to design the book cover. I first looked for three images that I could use on Pixabay and Unsplash. I then added the images to a black canvas. I started out with the library picture being larger, but I decided that I liked the black frame better. In the original image, the magnifying glass appeared to be magnifying a fingerprint, so I removed it. I then selected the part of the bee image that could be seen in the magnifying glass and removed the rest. I entered the title and author, and decided that I wanted a bit of a blur around the letters, so I copied them, made the words black, and applied a blur filter. I also blurred the library image a touch so it was out of focus. The original library image was also too bright, so I adjusted its transparency to make it look darker.

Project 1B: Vector Logo

I wanted to create a logo for the computer science teachers in Colorado. At the AP CSA reading each year, teachers wear their state shirts, and we do not have one yet. I was inspired by the Colorado State flag.

I created this design using Inkscape. I created the three blue mountains first. Then, I added the CS letters and found a font that resembled the C on the state flag. I then added the yellow circle behind the C to match the flag. I then created a large white triangle and made three smaller white triangles to represent the snow. I then duplicated them and resized them for the other two peaks.

© 2025 Kate McDonnell.   University of Florida’s Educational Technology.   Design by TEMPLATED.