[EN/CN: OrientalHub Cover Image Design Contest] HK Ocean at Dusk

EN

Hey Steemians!

So previously I posted about a Cover Inage Design Contest organised by @orientalhub, and my entry into said contest. At the end of the post I posed a question asking if I could submit multiple designs. Well after 2 days of waiting for clarification, I got too excited about my idea that I just went ahead and did it.

Here it is!

I actually came up with the concept for this design on the night I posted my previous one, just when I was about to go to bed. As I was looking over my post I realised my design wasn't very on theme, which was "An oriental boat sail in five oceans to seven continents in hopes of bringing out talents and synergy amid cross-community collaborations, promoting community harmony, and connect people together without geographical borders."
I felt like I could do better, by making the boat the focal point of the design.

So here's the breakdown of the design:

Again, I wanted to maintain the dark background to contrast the white font on the Steemit cover image. So I had to think of a way to make the background subtle enough that it would flow with a bright red boat in the middle (rather than just put it on a black background or something). I thought the use of a gradient background was pretty good, so I decided to change it up for this design and mimic a sunset instead of a night scene.

For the actual colour of the background, I was debating whether to use a red sunset or a more typical orange colour. Since the boat is mainly red, I decided to use a softer orange for the background so the boat could still stand out. I also used silhouettes of the HK skyline for the same reason.

I decided to keep the dragon but I changed it to a silhouette to match the city skyline. The dragon helps to emphasise the oriental aspect, and in my opinion is quite symbolic for HK; a fierce competitor able to stand on its own, that kinda thing.

You'll notice that the city skylines on either side are slightly different, and that I didn't mirror the design this time. I wanted to demonstrate the cross-community aspect by using different skylines (although they're both technically HK) linked by the 2 junk boats as they travel towards each other. The airplane here also represents the increased connectivity we now enjoy with air travel, i.e. connecting people together without geographical borders.

I used an orange sun as it provides good contrast to the blue profile picture used by @orientalhub. The sun placement was kind of tricky, but I knew I wanted it to form concentric circles with the profile picture, so it took quite a few tries to get it just right.

Unfortunately, I realised that the position of the profile picture is not fixed for everyone and it actually depends on how long the display name is. Also, the cover image dimensions will be altered based on the zoom on your browser. 😔 Oh well, I hope it'll still look good anyway.

Here's my first draft yet again. This was drawn on my phone at 4am. I guess inspiration can truly strike at any time.

I really hope @orientalhub doesn't penalise me for submitting multiple entries. The rules didn't explicitly say 1 entry per participant, so I took a risk (I did ask though!). A rule like that would be kind of silly anyway as it would really limit your creativity. As you can see, even my 2 designs were vastly different even though they share a few similarities.

This contest was really fun and interesting! It also gave me a chance to practice my digital art skills more, even though I mostly used online tools and MS Paint. Regardless, I really enjoyed it, and it was cool to see other designs as well.

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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中文

嘿 Steemit!

之前我發布了關於由@orientalhub組織的封面設計比賽，以及我參加比賽的情況。在帖子結尾，我提出了一個問題，問我是否可以提交多個設計。在等待澄清2天后，我對我的設計想法感到非常興奮，然後我決定繼續做下去。

這是我的設計！

事實上，在我準備上床睡覺的那個晚上，我發布了前一個設計的概念。當我看著我的帖子時，我意識到我的設計在主題上並不太適合，即“東方的船在五大洋航行到七大洲，希望在跨社區合作中發揮人才和協同作用，促進社區和諧，將人們連接在一起，沒有地理邊界。“
我覺得我可以做得更好，把船作為設計的重點。

所以這裡是設計的細節：

再次，我想保持黑暗的背景，以對比Steemit封面圖像上的白色字體。所以我不得不想辦法讓背景變得足夠細膩，以便在中間放置一艘亮紅色的船（而不是將它放在黑色背景上或其他東西上）。我認為漸變背景的使用非常好，所以我決定改變它的設計，模仿日落而不是夜景。

對於背景的實際顏色，我在辯論是否使用紅色日落或更典型的橙色。由於船主要是紅色的，因此我決定在背景中使用較軟的橙色，這樣船仍然可以脫穎而出。我也使用香港天際線的輪廓出於同樣的原因。

我決定保留這條龍，但我將它改為與城市天際線相匹配的輪廓。龍有助於強調東方方面，在我看來，這對香港來說頗具象徵意義;一個激烈的競爭對手能夠獨立自主，那樣的意義。

你會發現兩邊的城市天際線略有不同，這次我沒有反映這個設計。我想通過使用不同的天際線（儘管它們在技術上屬於香港）通過兩艘垃圾船相互聯繫來展示跨社區方面。這裡的飛機也代表了我們現在享受的航空旅行增加的連接性，即將人們連接在一起，沒有地理邊界。

我使用了橘紅色的太陽，因為它與@orientalhub使用的藍色配置文件圖像形成了良好的對比。太陽位置有點棘手，但我知道我希望它能夠與個人資料圖片形成同心圓，所以花了不少努力才使它正確。

不幸的是，我意識到個人資料圖片的位置並不是針對每個人都固定的，而實際上取決於顯示名稱的長度。此外，封面圖片尺寸將根據瀏覽器上的縮放而改變。 😔哦，我希望它仍然會看起來不錯。

這是我的第一份草案了。這是在凌晨4點我的手機上畫出來的。我想靈感可以隨時真正打擊。

我真的希望@orientalhub不會懲罰我提交多個條目。規則沒有明確說明每個參與者1條記錄，所以我冒了一個風險（儘管我曾經問過！）。這樣的規則無論如何都會很愚蠢，因為它會限制你的創造力。正如你所看到的，即使他們有一些相似之處，即使我的2個設計也有很大的不同。

這場比賽真的很有趣！這也讓我有機會更多地練習我的數字藝術技能，儘管我主要使用在線工具和MS Paint。無論如何，我真的很喜歡參加這個比賽，而且看到其他設計也很酷。

謝謝閱讀！

Check out my previous design! 看看我另外個設計！
[EN/CN: OrientalHub Cover Image Design Contest] Neon City Skyline