For this project my goal was to design a meaningful gift for my best friend. In Adobe Illustrator I created an outline of a Ford Bronco. On the Ford Bronco I added little detail that is meaningful to my best friend. Those details are: a cowboy hat and a Tennessee license plate with “HOPE–23” and “established in 2001” on the plate. When designing in Adobe Illustrator, I had to use the colors blue, red, and black in order for the laser cutter to know what to cut / engrave. The red lines are a vector cut, the blue lines are a vector draw, and the solid black is a raster engraving. After using the right tools, I brought my file to the laser cutter and had it do its work. It took approximately 45 minutes to cut / engrave and then I sanded it all when it was all finished to make sure that it was smooth and ready to stain. I then stained the wood and made sure it was the right tone to match the furniture in her room.

Some challenges that I came across was making sure every line on the Ford Bronco connected and finding the right typeface for “BRONCO” on the front of the car. I had to distort the text a little bit in order for it to look like the actual logo.