This image of hands with eyes has no deep seeded meaning. I just like strange and abstract imagery I guess. The original image is not nearly as wide as shown in this preview. You can view the full size preview by clicking the image above.

To create the desired clean and professional feel, I kept the design simple and used black to tie everything together. The images I was given to work with had an authentic feel because the photos were taken during the recording process, but lacked a bit in the aesthetics department because of some lighting and clutter issues. To remedy this I masked out the backgrounds and did some touch up work to make the images pop a bit more. They seemed to blend nicely with the black background.

All image editing for the design was done in Photoshop with type being later added in InDesign. For the text I sampled colors from the image itself. This is a technique I use often because I think that color matching in design helps draw things together.

Basically I just started adding depth to the flat looking creatures using the burn and dodge tools. I then found ocean bottom images and blended them together to create the sea floor. This required a little color matching.

Next I used some texturing on the creature’s skin and hand drew in a set of teeth. For the breathing bubbles I used some Photoshop brushes I had found online. A couple drop shadows and lighting adjustments later and viola; a bland looking image transformed into something much more interesting.