GRA 217 - Introduction to the Graphic Arts - group A

Final Wrap Up Post

2008-12-09T13:44:00.002-05:00

I know this post is really late and probably not going to count, but I thought I'd do it anyway. I've learned a lot in graphics this semester. Before this class, I didn't even know what indesign was, let alone how to use it or photoshop and illustrator. Although I struggled at times with my designs, I was proud of my final products. Obviously, I really struggled with my blog postings and I have no excuses for that. They were relatively easy assignments and because I don't have Friday classes, often times I completely forgot, which is totally my fault. Other than that, I really enjoyed the class and I learned a lot. I also really appreciated my peer feedback during class, you guys were awesome. Thanks so much for a great semester!

Wrap-Up

2008-12-06T23:37:00.002-05:00

I thought GRA 217 is a beneficial class because graphic and visual knowledge is incredibly important to what we do in communications. There are so many ways to communicate, and to make it in this industry at this time it is important to be able to communicate in many diverse ways. I came into this class with good knowledge of the programs, but now I can channel my creativity into more concise and graphically pleasing products that I can hopefully use in the magazine industry. I also really enjoyed Professor Taylor and I hope to take another class with her again. I LOVE GRAPHICS!!

Wrap-Up

2008-12-06T17:59:00.003-05:00

This class was awesome in many ways. I've never used any of the Adobe programs prior to this course (I never had to) but after taking this course, I come to appreciate them and their potential use in real life. I also learned to be more creative and original, and although many of the projects were challenging, the challenge was necessary for me to learn the important skills. I know I never created projects that blew people's mind away, but I know that I improved a lot since the first day of class. I'm just thankful that I was given the opportunity to take this class with Professor Taylor and Wasim who were both very helpful in and out of class. Thank you once again.

Wrap Up Post

2008-12-06T17:22:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed Graphics 217 and learned a lot about the different programs. I really will not lok at type or color the same. I liked the poster project and enjoyed learning about Adobe illustrator. Overall there were some components that were harder than others (the magazine project), however I do feel that I accomplished and learned a lot from this class. Thanks Wasim for your help and I hope to take what I learned in this class and apply it to other classes and possibly beyond graduation.

Wrap Up Post

2008-12-06T09:51:00.003-05:00

I thought that GRA 217 was a very interesting experience, and I did learn a lot from the course. Even though I am not a graphics major, I think that the knowledge of the Adobe Suites is extremely beneficial for anything that I may do later in my college and professional careers. My favorite projects of this course would have to be the logo and the resume because I think that I will most definitely be able to use those designs in the near future. Also, I thought that we learned a number of interesting things in lecture that necessarily weren't connected to our graphics project, but were still good things to know. Overall, I think that GRA 217 was a good experience and I would totally recommended taking it with Prof. Taylor to any of my classmates.

MODaMOUTH.com

2008-12-05T23:47:00.003-05:00

This is modamouth.com which is like a blog site. In terms of visual hierarchy, the most important things are made evident by the size of the font and usage of color. i like the background of the picture and how it is repeated in the subcatergories. The colors to me really pop out at you. i think their usage of whitespace and containers is very good. The only thing i would of done differently is the lenght of the paragraph. the paragraphs look extremely dense and one a blogsite its better to be short and to the point.

WRAP UP

2008-12-05T23:13:00.002-05:00

I believe that i have learned a lot from this class about layouts and how to create an effective one. I find myself look at things more critically. I notice the typeface and the color more than I have ever done in my life. Never have I ever brought a magazine but now I find myself buying magazines because of the layout. Learning the Adobe suite was extremely beneficial. I am now capable of doing more things to papers and projects. the only thing i would change is the blog postings. Its annoying to post every week. how about every two weeks???

Website floating re-do...

2008-12-05T18:33:00.006-05:00

I tried to keep this website really simple; I tend to over design things. Green is the basic color because the organization is an envionmental advocacy group. I brought in elements from my poster, because I designed it for the same organization. The photos are from the actual events of this organization. I used georgia font and made the pretty vines in Indesign.

End.

Wrapping it Up

2008-12-05T13:39:00.002-05:00

If I could take this class over again, I probably would. It was a nice break from the typical lecture-exam structure of the rest of my courses, and it stretched my mind in a way I definitely wasn't used to. I loved learning to use inDesign and I know it will definitely be helpful in the future to have a little bit of a background in graphics and to understand all of the Adobe programs. I think I'll have to agree with Katrina's post. I doubt I'll remember the terms we discussed a year from now, but I know the concepts and skills will definitely stick with me. Thanks Wasim and Professor Taylor for an excellent semester! :)

Wrap-Up Post

2008-12-05T11:40:00.003-05:00

Overall I enjoyed this class. I learned a lot, simply because I barely knew anything about graphics when I first started. I found the gestalt principles the most interesting part of the class and I really enjoyed the part on color. I also found it very useful to learn how to use the adobe programs and I really want them for my own computer.

I found the projects to be a lot of fun, but that's about it. I didn't think they were very helpful to my future. Being a print major, i found a majority of what I learned not applicable to my life and hopeful career. It was nice to know but in all honesty I will probably forget the terms by next year. However I will most likely use the concepts I learned for much longer.

Thank you from Wasim

2008-12-05T02:47:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to thank everyone for posting on this blog for the semester and, for the most part, actively commenting on each others' work. I know it's been a thorn in the side sometimes, and we sometimes got off track, but I hope everyone learned a little bit from doing the assignments and sharing their projects with this peers.

Blogging will be important once you all enter the "real world" out of college. It's a great (and cheap!) self-promotional tool. What we did this semester was just the start; a way to whet your appetite for blogging.

By creating a Google account to use this blog for the class, you've already created 90 percent of what you need to start your own blog, which I hope many of you try. College is a great time to learn the ropes of blogging.

As many of you have probably figured out, I run my own blog using Blogger - something I created after taking the same graphics class (albeit the graduate-level version). You can check it out at http://wasimonline.blogspot.com/. You'll find a link there to my Web site, which was created using the same principles I learned here in the interface design project. And I already showed you all how blogging can drive traffic to your Web site. It's a synergistic relationship between the two.

Try it - you may even find it's fun! All it takes is signing in and clicking on "Dashboard" at the top and then "Create a blog" on the next page.

Thanks everyone for a great semester. You all worked really hard and I saw some great work coming from this class. It's been a pleasure to work with you in my first instructional associate job here in Syracuse.

Wrap-up post

2008-12-04T22:09:00.002-05:00

I honestly don't know where to begin with graphics. I loved it, but at the same time it was conducive to my obsessive perfectionism, which of course had me in the labs for a good portion of this semester. It is so helpful that we learned Adobe Creative Suite. I never knew I was capable of properly using a Mac, in fact. Now, a PC just seems complicated. I got in touch with my artsy side, and want to take more graphics classes. In fact, I'd like to switch into the major.
I never knew font would matter so much to me. I never really noticed type-faces on trivial things like medicine bottles or trucks- meaning that I never knew they mattered. Now I find myself analyzing every sign and label for a recognizable font. Yay, graphics! I also made friends with all of the students that work in the labs because I am in there so often for extended periods of time.

magazine re-do. fun stuff.

2008-12-04T22:04:00.004-05:00

Sharing resources

2008-12-04T12:43:00.004-05:00

This class was very useful to me in learning about the visual side of the communications industry--I'm grateful for the software training and the knowledge about design, photography and printing that I now have.

For those of you who would love to see your business cards in print, this site gives away 10 cards for free that come with a 10 percent coupon. It's a great way to see your cards before you by them on a proper piece of paper with double-sided or glossy effects. You just upload your image.

Enjoy your breaks!

Interface Design

2008-12-02T21:07:00.005-05:00

Design Strategy:
I chose the same event as my not for profit poster, and purposely incorporated the poster design aspects into my website. The same icons – the band aid, pumpkin, candy corn, etc. – are featured in the navigation bar as identifiers for each section. I chose to do this because I not only wanted continuity between all publicity objects representing the SAFE event, but I also feel I captured the audience so well in my poster that I would incorporate the same child like shapes and colors in my website. This is a website for parents and kids to enjoy, and I designed for that audience.
The navigation bar’s shape and placement is for readability and eye travel. As the eye begins at the top left, it immediately sees the reason for the Web site – the event name. Then the eye travels down the curve to each brightly colored section bubble.
I used wide, but short blocks of text with colorful headers to make for “quick reads” and always included my helpful links on the right side of the page for consistency and eye travel. The eye will see them last, and they will hopefully be inclined to click through.

Typeface:
My “novelty” header font is Marker Felt and my body text is Georgia. I wanted to stick with a web-friendly font for my body, because the Red Cross might actually use this, as I am still an intern. Marker Felt reminds me of childhood handwriting, yet with enough readability to attract adults. The serif/sans serif contrast makes the website look professional despite its youthful theme.

Color:
I chose the traditional Halloween colors because it is a children’s event and it speaks to the audience, just as the bright candies and band-aids do. The black background serves as a matte background for the bright fonts and pictures to really pop out of the screen. My colors for the other navigation windows derive from the poster and from my own realm of bright, child like colors. I purposely did not stick with one color theme throughout; I wanted each page to be a little different with color, and used the design aspects to create consistency.

Website Project!!

2008-12-01T10:43:00.008-05:00

Design brief:
I used the same organization from my poster project for my interface project. Jazzmin Hall is a friend of mine that is trying to start a new program with in the community of Englewood for young female children. I tried to accommodate the different of needs her website. I tried t use pictures that were visually pleasing to adults as well as children.
I did a page for things that I thought were important to the organization and this event. I made a page for the home page which describes what the event is about. I did a page about the organization mission and the style of dance that is being offered. I did a page on joining the organization.
I did a page on contributing and contacting the org.
In each I provide quick reads that were long enough to give the read some insight but not to long to push them away. I provided extra links on the pages that you would see on really websites. For example, a link for directions.

Typefaces:
I used verdana because this is the one out of the many typefaces that was recommended. It provided a small amount of versatility but definitely allowed me to follow the rule of visual hierarchy. Another thing about this font is that you could use it at a smaller size and it will still be legible.

Color:
I pulled the color out of the pictures that I used. I used mostly warm colors because I wanted her site to be warm and inviting. I also believe that it would make the website pop more than colors that were too dark or too light. In addition, the background is white; therefore, light colors would fade into the white. I felt that dark colors would not work with the theme of dance.

interface design

2008-11-29T22:49:00.006-05:00

This web page is designed to attract both children and parents who might be interested in registering for the CNY Korean School. Therefore, my design strategy here was to put bright colors and cute icons to draw their attention. Bright colors such as red, purple, and yellow were chosen for the icons, and I purposely chose light shade of orange as sort of the main color for this webpage because it immediately caught my eyes and it seemed like an appropriate color for the concept. Each page has an icon that sums up what the page is basically; for example, in the “where we are” section, I drew a “car” to indicate what this page was going to be about. These icons are placed next to its headings to also indicate what the heading mean.

The links are in the shape of grass because when we think about things that children like to do, we make a link with outdoor activities. When the link is clicked, the entire link is highlighted in white which I think is pretty cool and unique.

I left the text box in white to show contrast with the colors around it. By doing this, I felt that it was much easier for readers to read the body text.

The lists on the page are placed in order so that it goes from most important ones to the least important ones.

Interface design

2008-11-28T23:23:00.007-05:00

For this project I choose to pick an event connected to my poster design. This event is a coat drive put on by an organization called New York Cares in December. For my poster project I did another event from this organization. The homepage is the last image and I used a picture with children in coats because children usually evoke positive emotions from people. The other pages support the homepage and give more information about the organization. I also created a donation page that is not pictured here and a receipt for people to claim their donations on their taxes.

web design

2008-11-27T02:15:00.006-05:00

Design Strategy
I decided to do the top of the web page in the curvy shape because I wanted it to resemble a wave since the event involves running into water. I added the curves to give the illusion of waves and to add dimension to the design.
I put the navigation bar on the left because it’s easy to find things there. I decided to change the color of the link the person was on so that they would know which page they were on. I kept all of the paragraphs short because it would be easier to read that way. I also presented some information in list form so that it would cause diversity to the webpage and thus make it more pleasing.
I feel that the links I chose answered the questions that would generally arise. The who, what and why are addressed on the home page. The where and when are discussed in the event page. I added a donations link because that is the main function of the event. The other links, photos and press, were added for fun things for people to look at. The links are arranged in that order based on their importance to the event and reader.

Choice of Typefaces:
I chose Verdana because I wanted a font that would be used on all types of computers. I was able to create diversity of the font by using it as italic and regular and in different sizes.

Choice of color
I decided to use greens and blues and whites in the design because of the pictures I found. I based the color scheme off the water in the pictures. I also used these colors because the plunge is very early in the new year so the water will be very cold so I wanted cool colors.

Choice of Pictures
All of the pictures I used were from google images except for one. The one of the girls dressed up like superheroes is from Facebook. I chose these pictures because I wanted penguins since the event is called the Penguin Plunge. I chose the superhero picture because it’s one my friends took from when they participated

Hey look, visual hierarchy!

2008-11-23T23:57:00.003-05:00

I love this layout because it is painfully simple, as it should be- it is webassign after all. Online homework should be straightforward. The red leads our eyes around the page, there are two navigation bars- top and left side. They are very simple and easy to understand. There is a nice red border outlining the sign-in page, and there is a nice red button, which your eye hits and then you realize "oh, this is where I sign in". That screams great visual hierarchy (score! easy navigation).

Visual Hierarchy

2008-11-23T21:59:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama's website is genius, and is the most copied website right now. The blue catches my eye and brings me in. You can see the visual hierarchy immediately. The white navigation bar stands out brightly against the very American blue, and the pres and vice pres elect "oversee" the website with strength. There is no doubt who this website is for. My eyes skips from red button to red button, encouraging me to click. Well organized, informative, and modern. My favorite!

Clint Clemens - a bit late

2008-11-23T21:32:00.002-05:00

I attended the Clint Clemens lecture on November 6th (and am just now getting around to writing about it). I'm definitely not a photographer, but I certainly appreciate good photography and it was a treat to hear Clint explain how a lot of his photos came to be. I was impressed with his tendency to get in on the action wherever he can find it, and it made me appreciate the art a little more just hearing everything that goes into one of his photographs. Clint is definitely very scientifically-minded (as was evidenced by the second half of his lecture/presentation), and I was very surprised at how technical some of the processes he used were. I would never think to attach a paraplegic's sidecar to a motorcycle to get action photos, and the device he conjured up for some of his boating clients was ingenious. Being very naive to the whole photographic process, I had no idea that it would require an elaborate rig like that to get a blurry background and focused subject, so this presentation gave me a newfound appreciation for the art and science of photography.

visual hierarchy

2008-11-23T14:57:00.003-05:00

the visual hierarchy here in Youtube site is very strong. They placed the search function at the
very top and middle of the page since it is the most important one. Then as you scroll down, you'll see that they added icons in red and orange. Red and orange are said to be very strong colors; they are capable of attracting viewers' eyes. These icons are placed in boxes and each box takes you to different page. At the right corner of the top page, you will see a log in function. By separating this with the entire website, it allows members to easily find it and log in. The website overall is very organized, and even though there are alot of ads, they organized them in a way that is not distracting.

visual hierarchy

2008-11-22T01:54:00.004-05:00

I really like CNN's website. The visual hierarchy is great on the website with the navigation bar on top and then with the breaking news right under that. Under the breaking stories are groups depending on subject which makes it easier to find what your looking for. The big picture for one of the stories attracts the reader's attention, as does the use of red. The idea to post both articles and videos is clever as well. The one thing I would change is the length of the page. It tends to be pretty long. Overall it's a very nice website.

Visual Hierarchy

2008-11-22T01:41:00.003-05:00

I think the Vitamin Water website is a great site. I love the way it has plenty of white space and is very simple, yet fun with all of the color. I really like the setup with all of the flavors of water lined up and trailing off into the background. It creates a great element of movement and the visual hierarchy, with the product being the most prominent thing at first glance, is fantastic.

Magazine (Floating Redo)

2008-11-21T14:47:00.005-05:00

Sorry this is late. I did my floating redo, and I couldn't figure out how to get it on here until my lab TA helped me yesterday!

Rationale

Coming from an Italian family, I have seen my share of wine magazines. I have always thought they were very stuffy; almost inapproachable. These memories inspired me to create CORKED, a wine and style magazine. The magazine is aimed at wine enthusiasts from ages 21 to 60 right up into the 70’s. It is modern and clean, yet appealing to those who enjoy moving forward with the modern times with a glass of Chardonnay in their hands.
When I found the “Unpretentious Pairings” story on LexisNexis from the October 2007 issue of Cheers, I knew it was the perfect fit. It espouses everything my magazine is about: keeping up with the trends while maintaining that classic wine relationship. It also provided several options for sidebars, so I picked it.
Upon reading it, I was inspired by all the descriptions of the foods – sour, tangy, spicy, acid, grilled, fried, buttery, etc. – and I went on a quest for pictures that tickled my taste buds like the story. The first picture I saw was a plain white dinner plate, and the headline “Well Plated” (a play on the idiom “well stated”) popped into my head. I would put the dek on the plate and have a beautiful bleeding editorial image on the right side. Clean, stark. That is the momentum and the purpose of my design.
The idea to put the dek in the shape of the wine glass came about after seeing the dek just in a square on the plate and realizing it didn’t connect to the story or to the visual. So a wine glass was born.
I purposely have a frame of white around my text. It makes it stark and really makes the red (the spot color from the wine) stand out against the page, the same way the red stands out in the picture. Everything is squared off, keeping with my modern feel for the magazine. The script keeps the old=fashioned feel. I was able to achieve this with my 5x5 grid pattern.
The picture on the second spread emphasized the variety of wines available to enthusiasts and I purposely lined up the levels of wine to the text to carry the eye over. The pictures on the third spread are bright and incorporate the colors in them.
The sidebar fits in perfectly with my 5x5 grid. I rarely see a sidebar at the top, so I used my imagination and added that innovative aspect to my design, while sticking to clean basics for the majority of it. I want it to be modern and readable, and I hope I have achieved this.

Type Challenge - Mary Tyler Moore

2008-11-18T21:04:00.002-05:00

This week's type challenge is from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

What is the typeface used in the title?

First person to e-mail Professor Taylor with the correct answer wins a Starbucks card.

PR student's survey

2008-11-17T14:08:00.002-05:00

Professor Taylor passes along this survey from a PR student. Here's the message:

We appreciate you taking the time to complete our MAR 356 survey about our
Hookah Bar proposal for Marshall Street. The survey should take about
15 minutes to complete. Please be assured that the information you
provide on this survey is anonymous.

Here is the website:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RzsVcHdx47zFceHTo4WASg_3d_3d

Thank you for your time,

Scott Lepkofker
Lina Lisnere
Joanna Rivera
Viviana Rodriguez

PR student

2008-11-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

Brown Sugar :)

2008-11-16T15:18:00.009-05:00

2008-11-15T02:05:00.003-05:00

I chose a story that I wrote last year for my final profile in NEW 305. I liked the feeling of the story because it was about a woman changing her life into something she truly enjoyed. She realized what she didn’t like about her life, and she did something about it.

I was influenced by the tone of the piece. It is very calm but also inspirational. She found peace and happiness through the practice of yoga. I wanted her fulfillment to shine through the art space. The piece is all her character, and how she changed her career to fit that character. The colors and the images that I chose, display confidence and balance. They are yoga images, which is obviously appropriate for the story. I also included some illustrations because it shows creativity which is part of the main character’s personality.

2008-11-14T15:26:00.001-05:00

Story choice:
I really wanted to do a bridal magazine because I thought it would be a lot of fun to put together and it was. I didn’t want to do a story about dresses because it was cliché and overdone. I also didn’t want to do a feature about a particular person or event because it would have been difficult to find pictures of that exact event or person to go with the story. By looking on LexisNexis I found an article about a new trend in wedding cakes that would be fun, fresh and easier to get pictures of. I also new I wanted a story about wedding cakes because I liked the idea of having the history of the wedding cake as my sidebar and to be able to do that I had to find a story about cake.

Art design:
I designed the cover around the picture I happened to find. I loved the bouquet in the picture because it added color to a very white picture so I decided to bring the color out by using pink and green as my text on that page. The name of my magazine came from a phrase that is often told to the bride on her wedding day. I didn’t want anything that had the word bride in it because it is overdone. I also wanted a longer title so that it spread across the top of the page. It made for a better design look. I chose gold as the color for it because gold is a classic, elegant look, which are two words that I associate with brides. Also I wanted a color that would be able to remain the same for every issue so that the collection of magazines had a similar cohesive look.
I chose an ad for the back cover because it’s logical for a magazine to have an ad there. Engagement rings were a logical choice because of the wedding affiliation. All of the bridal magazines I’ve looked at have had engagement rings on the back.
The first spread was based on a picture I found of a cupcake cake. This picture had a great shape that allowed for a perfect place for the deck head. The other pictures I found for the spread had pinks, whites and beiges so I decided to play on the pinks and write the headline in it. I chose a font that was a script because I wanted it to look like someone could have written it in icing.
The second spread was based on the color scheme that appeared from the pictures I chose. All of the pictures went well together. The sidebar also played off the colors seen throughout the article. I especially played off the picture of the rose cake by using a pink background and adding red roses. By using a pink box for the sidebar it provided separation from the rest of the spread while connecting it to the article by having it be the same color as the dropped letter.

Kelina's Magazine Project

2008-11-14T13:45:00.005-05:00

Story choice:

From the first day the project was announced, I had a story picked out. But, when I started looking for photos, I was unable to find large enough ones to suit the topics. So I had to change stories. Election Day came around and I found myself on The Daily Orange's breaking news team. I was on the Quad for the post-election Obama celebration. I ended up writing the story that night and knew that it would be perfect for this project. At the same time as the Quad rally, there was a party on South Campus that was broken up by DPS. I fused the two stories together and laid out the design according to the "Tale of Two Parties" idea.

magazine design

2008-11-14T13:01:00.008-05:00

Although I am not quite finished with my magazine project, here is what I have so far. The name of the magazine is Stiletto, hence the Prada Monolo Blanik ad on the back. My story is about racism on the catwalk, and I wanted to illustrate that with the barbie models on the cover and the photos throughout. I'm not quite sure what color scheme I'm going to end up using for my deckhead and quotes as of yet, but here is just an example. I need to add captions to some of the photos still and more stories to the cover. I chose to do a third spread because I loved the picture of Jourdan Dunn and Josh Beech. Jourdan is one of the main models discussed in the article and I thought the photograph illustrated the racism in the industry very well. I also loved of the picture looked bleeding across the margin.

TRASH magazine....

2008-11-14T11:03:00.008-05:00

MAGAZINE!
Choice of Story:
The story I chose was about consumption and being eco-friendly. As Americans we are constantly consuming products that we don’t need and throwing away ones that are perfectly fine. I personally am not one of those people. I do most of my shopping at thrift stores as well as contribute products to thrift stores. At first, I wanted to do a spread on thrifting; however, there wasn’t a lot of information on it. The next best thing was an eco-friendly magazine with a feature article on thrifting. In addition, if this was a magazine, I was thinking how much shelf life would it have if it were solely on thrifting. Sooner or later the content would become repetitive. With a magazine on being eco-friendly, there’s a lot more to talk about. This magazine can be a global magazine that discusses problems in other countries besides America.
Verbal influences:
The words that influenced me were bamboo, thrift stores, landfill, and 68 pound of clothing. My first idea was to put bamboo on one sides and the price tags used in the thrift store on the other. I thought that this layout would be verbally pleasing. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the tags and had to come up with another solution. So instead, I used a picture of an inside of a thrift store. The pictures of the landfill weren’t flowing with the layout. I didn’t like it to much so I didn’t want to use it.
NOTE THE WORDS ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN ORANGE

my magazine

2008-11-14T09:00:00.014-05:00

Show all

Why did you choose the story?

I chose the story on Japanese denim because of a personal interest and for a design strategy. I have been a denim addict ever since I purchased my first Japanese denim. I realized that jeans can do more than just looking nice; wearing that perfect jeans with the right cut can make your whole outfit ten times better. Japanese denim are famous for this reason, they make you feel like you own the jeans as if they had been customized for your body. The artisans spend endless hours studying and analyzing all body types of people and their efforts are truly reflected on the jeans they sell. Japanese denim aren’t just typical denim, they are a work of art created by denim artisans who strive to be perfect.

Another reason I chose the story is because there aren’t magazines that target denim lovers. Also I felt that putting pictures of denim on a white spread sheet would really stand bold and strong. I chose oversized photos of jeans for this purpose.

Designs:

The cover page was designed to give off a neat and organized vibe. The colors were chosen with specific purposes. For instance, for the header I used red and black which are strong colors, and the body text is in white on a black background to show a strong contrast look. The rule of the third is applied to the layout; the picture was placed on the left side of the page to make it more interesting. The man’s eyes are leveled with the header to lead the reader’s to the header. I decided to bleed the picture because I felt that positioning the picture in the middle of the magazine is mundane.

The first spread has a huge picture that bleed off the edges and to the other page. This is done to capture the reader’s attention and to keep the reader’s interested to the story. The picture is also high quality and effective, and it strongly connects to the story. The small computer icon next to the author’s name is to indicate that the story was originally written on the internet by the author. The circular icon with jeans was placed behind the text to reinforce the reader what the story is about.

The second spread was designed with a layout that effectively guides reader’s eyes to the entire page. The text starts off from the left side and down, and then to the right side of the page and down; the pictures are placed to guide the reader in this way.

The layout design includes bold lines and dotted lines that bound texts and pictures around the edges, and grids and guidelines (although not shown) that organize the text and pictures in certain ways.

Typefaces:

The typefaces in this magazine are Lucida Sans TT, Eurostile, and ITC Caslon 224 Std. Lucida Sans TT was chosen because it was a sans serif font that really distinguished itself from the body text. Lucida Sans TT is used for the header, folio, and captions. Eurostile is another sans serif that I chose for the deck. It had a lower case “e” that I could make a face out of with two dots as eyes. And because the title is “Evolution of Jeans”, making a face with the letter e would give a human attribute to jeans which I thought tied really nicely to the article. ITC Caslong 224 Std was chosen for the body text because in class, we learned that Caslon font is a good font for the reader’s eyes due to the medium sized x-height (although ITC Caslon has a bit larger x-height, it is highly readable).

my magazine

2008-11-13T22:20:00.003-05:00

Story Selection:
I am Russian, and it seemed very appropriate to use my younger sister's non-fiction story about New York City's only Russian neighborhood. Also, for some reason I thought that this would make it easier to illustrate my magazine- I was wrong. Nevertheless, I am more or less pleased with the outcome of my labor.

Sidebar: Awkward Music Selections.
How perfect for a magazine called "Awkward"! There are songs with awkward song titles like "The internet is for porn", and "Just not tonight".

Images: Every image in this magazine was created by me, except for the Russian dolls in the center of the spread to the right, and the tiny album images in the side bar.

Top ten typefaces

2008-11-13T15:40:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to an article on Font Feed about the top ten typefaces used by book design winners.

I have to admit, I was surprised at number 1.

Magazine Project

2008-11-13T14:47:00.010-05:00

Type Challenge - Jeopardy

2008-11-13T09:11:00.004-05:00

This week's type challenge is from the game show Jeopardy.

Here's your answer:

This is the typeface used when displaying the answers on the monitors.

And here's a hint, in the form of a picture:

First person to email Professor Taylor with the correct answer wins a Starbucks card.

BazAAR!!!

2008-11-11T21:49:00.000-05:00

I though that this spread had great visual connection which is very important. The type mimicked the red in her dress. The headline coincides with the deck head, which is a political one. Instead of red, white, and blue, it is Drew. I liked the use of the white ducks in the background that also ties in. overall, it is very connected.

Color Effectiveness

2008-11-11T16:53:00.004-05:00

The September issue of GQ magazine featured James Franco and they labeled him as the next "James Dean". For this reason, I feel that they purposely used a black and white photo for the article that was written about him here. If you turn to other pages, you will notice that all of the photos are in black and white which I think was done on purpose to make a connection between him and James Dean. They used very large photos of him which made him look bold and strong even though the photos lacked color. Overall, I feel that although it lacked color, the black and whiteness tied well with the article and was effective in delivering the kind of message the writer wanted to deliver.

Clint Clemens

2008-11-10T10:52:00.003-05:00

I went to the Clint Clemens presentation/speech last Thursday; although he is a really cool and interesting photographer, he is one of the less able speakers that I have seen in Newhouse.

The first part of his speech was bearable; he was showing us his work (which was so awesome), and explaining how he got those shots. He uses some interesting guerilla tactics, like hanging off of helicopters, riding in the side-cars of motorcycles and leaning over to get the car as it is turning, and other mildly dangerous methods. I love his work. I suggest everyone check out his website, because his work is fantastic!

His speech was a little bit discouraging to me as a photographer, because he only reiterated how hard it is to be an artist now, and for the future, because it is so easy to create an image with new and developing technologies. I was puzzled and annoyed, because I had started photography as an 11-year old with a busted SLR from the 70's, the film compartment of which would pop out everyvtime I would take a picture; I never got any of that film developed because it always ended up over- exposed. Nevertheless, I had to learn photography the hard way, without digital. And now all of that technique/skill is useless, because any bozo who can push a button on a fancy camera can take a good picture by accident (optimistic, I know).

Another thing that I found rather annoying was that he had clearly (or so it seemed) been payed to advertise Canon, so several times during his speech he would stop and rattle on about Canon for a good minute.

The second part of his speech was very difficult to sit through because Mr. Clemens was giving a long- winded explanation of three-dimensional modeling.

A positive thing that I took away from his speech was a realization of how important 3D modeling will be within the next couple of years. I had taken a course on it in high- school, and because it was so frustrating, gave up the idea of being an industrial designer; that is how much I hated working with those 3D programs.
People began to get bored and talk about what they had for dinner, at which point I thought it was best to leave because it became increasingly difficult to hear Mr. Clemens.

Color

2008-11-09T17:58:00.005-05:00

I scanned this spread from Essence magazine. It is about detox dieting and I thought it was a great use of color because there is a lot of white space and the different shades of green really pop on the two pages. The pictures are also very large in relation to the text so the colors stand out even more on both pages.

Color effectiveness

2008-11-09T13:41:00.003-05:00

This image was featured in this week's edition of Rolling Stone magazine. I couldn't find a camera to take a shot of the entire spread, but, as you can imagine, the magazine used the intense yellow from the guitar and mirrored it in a portion of the headline "Elvis Costello & The Attraction." Although the color isn't as vibrant or bright as other posts, this small bit of color works. Overall, the image is very dark and the guitar (and the musical bond it represents) is the only real color. But it grabs the reader's attention and is very effective in the overall design.

Type challenge: Bloomingdale's

2008-11-08T17:20:00.002-05:00

Identify the type in the headline ADD A POP OF COLOR.

First person to e-mail Professor Taylor with the answer wins.

Fear the type

2008-11-08T17:16:00.000-05:00

Here's a story about scary fonts from the font feed. It's a little past Halloween, but still a good read.

But please ... don't use any of these fonts for your logo designs in the future!

http://fontfeed.com/archives/halloween-scary-type/

color magazine

2008-11-07T21:35:00.003-05:00

I found this spread in the November issue of Seventeen magazine. I feel that it executes its use of color very nicely. The colors used in the headline, bylines and the kicker are colors that appear in the picture of her. Also they are all warm colors which give the impression of happy, friendly and bubbly, all of which are characteristics that are associated with the disney star featured. These colors are seen in the pictures, pulled quotes and the Q&As that are seen in the rest of the article. As for the rest of the magazine, these colors are not seen in this exact way. Each spread in the magazine is different because each art design pertains to that one article. The colors are seen individually throughout it but this particular color scheme is not. However the page numbers are obviously seen throughout the magazine.

Color--Vitamin Water

2008-11-07T20:04:00.003-05:00

Vitamin Water does a great job of advertising their product because it comes in so many bright colors, which consumers can identify with. I know that when Vitamin Water first came out, I was in love with it and determined to try every flavor that they offered. I do also like how they have come out with different flavors and have connected with certain celebrities to advertise that particular flavor and color. For instance, for the Sex and the City movie, Vitamin Water created a new flavor that was dedicated to the movie and characters. Overall, Vitamin Water does an awesome job with promoting their colorful product.

Color

2008-11-07T19:36:00.002-05:00

I found this image of a magazine spread online and it immediately caught my eye with its effective use of color. I think the fact that the blue is used so powerfully, with almost the entire spread in different shades of it, makes it an example of really effective use of color. I also like that the color ties to the title of the article, so the reader gets the mood of the article before even diving into it.

COLOR!

2008-11-07T18:47:00.003-05:00

This uses three colors: your classic black, white, and red, your ultimate spot color. This is very effective, especially since the magazine spread is about a child serial killer. I personally like it for the interesting headline and use of red. It is very simple, though a little cliche.

Color

2008-11-07T17:36:00.002-05:00

The colors in the Barack Obama ad poster not only symbolize the American identity, but also help establish Obama's patriotism and the coming together of red and blue states to form one united nation. The two colors together highlight Obama's face and his message to the American people. Red is a very eye catching color and blue is a very warm color, so together they are extremely attractive to the eye. The white accents his facial features and adds to the patriotism of the poster.

COLOR

2008-11-07T10:32:00.004-05:00

I am absolutely obsessed with iPod's new ad series for the new nano. Their play on color here is genius. The use of paint colors- all bright, eye catching colors - against the white background makes this stick out above ALL other ads. It's stark, and the color speaks. The arrangement is ALMOST in roygbiv, but in a way that doesn't make my eye scream RAINBOWS!! It screams awesome instead.

SODA can!!! bet u didn't KNOW

2008-11-02T18:21:00.004-05:00

this is a product whose layout goes over looked. Soda cans are also based on a grid. A grid is used to arrange spaces with content. I believe that the construction of a can is a vertical grid (column). This is to make sure that all the content line up with the same space in between. It is also to allocation enough space so that the text will not appear to be within the same text. For example, individual paragraphs instead of one giant paragraph. This also allows the creator to create different sides of the can. This way you do not have to keep turning the can to read it.

2008-11-02T18:07:00.002-05:00

This is pretty unexpected, but as I was thinking about grid layouts, I realized all comic books are grid layouts! It makes sense: Little kids read them, so they have to be easy to follow. And they're timeless, so it never looks stale. It tells the story, and that's what a layout should help do - to facilitate the story. Your eye just goes from one block to another like reading. The organization doesn't hinder the eye. The white space between the blocks is similar to that of text boxes or photos in a journalistic layout. Maybe we now know where magazines got it from? :)

2008-11-01T18:01:00.002-04:00

Okay so this is pretty expected.. Andy Warhol is the king of the grids! His grid-business has shaped so many of the magazines and graphic layouts of today, that its almost sad that not many people before him applied this principle before, specifically in artistic layouts- I don't think that this would apply to newspaper or web design. Nevertheless, grid at its best.

Grids

2008-10-31T22:42:00.002-04:00

I found this image from the web and it is a poster for a clothing company called Uniqlo. The peoples' images are in a grid while they are modeling t-shirts. There are clearly defined margins and rows separating the images. Even the logo is is a grid, it is separated by a strong color and is a part of two rows in the grid.

grids

2008-10-31T21:57:00.003-04:00

This is a good example of a design using grids. By aligning the pictures in columns the grids and margins become visible. This technique allows for a clean design. The pictures touch the same line making the margin visible even though there is still white space present. I really like this design because of it's simplicity.

Grid layout

2008-10-31T09:20:00.002-04:00

This is an example of a grid lay out. It uses the rule of third; as you can see from the photo, Obama represents the 2/3rd of the picture, and the words wrapped in a box above Obama make up 1/3 of the photo. The areas are also divided into a specified number of rows and columns. Obama's face and the word Change above is lined up together vertically in the middle to define each other.

Artists for Obama

2008-10-30T21:59:00.001-04:00

Here's a link to the "Artists for Obama" post on Font Feed that Professor Taylor was talking about.

It's worth checking out - there's some interesting original work here.

http://fontfeed.com/archives/artists-for-obama/

Getting your business cards printed

2008-10-30T02:26:00.002-04:00

In case anyone wants to print their cards professionally so that they can start to use them "in the real world" here are a few options.

Sherri points out this site: Plasticprinters.com - Apparently they can turn your card into clear or frosted plastic. Very nifty, but I couldn't find prices on their site.

I personally use Vistaprint. They have templates for InDesign and Photoshop that you can just drop your design that you made in class right onto. I've had the most success when I order a set with one of the sides glossy; Some of my classmates ordered without a glossy side and the printing quality was notably worse.

Staples is also a good option for low-volume printing of your cards. Their non-glossy seems to be better than Vistaprint, if you are going that route.

Marina's awesome stationary and envelope.

2008-10-27T16:14:00.000-04:00

ReSume REdo

2008-10-27T15:59:00.005-04:00

Changes made:
I added information to the activities that i am apart of. I aligned my wordmark with the body of my text. I made the x in my wordmark bigger to give it a bigger emphasis.

Logo!

2008-10-26T22:30:00.003-04:00

Keeping it simple

2008-10-25T10:40:00.002-04:00

Professor Taylor asks you to take note of how simple a logo can be in this example of Bloomingdale's Web site:

Logo Project

2008-10-24T23:54:00.005-04:00

The logo represents who I am and what I love to do during my free time. I've been playing the guitar for over six years now and even had a band back in high school. I always wanted to be a musician so for this project, I decided to choose my favorite instrument to represent me. The gestalt principle is applied here. By looking at the logo, even though picture is not complete, the reader can form the complete picture in their mind. I stretched the letter "G" to form other half of the body.

The logo is intended for people in music or entertainment industry. I hope that someday I could work for a recording studio and use my musical talent to produce songs for artists.

I kept the logo fairly simple because I know that simplest logos are best logos.

logo project

2008-10-24T21:54:00.004-04:00

Design Strategy:
I couldn’t think of anything creative to use in my logo that had to do with newspaper journalism so I decided to design one for my name instead. My logo is comprised of my initials KRK. The butterfly wings are a mirrored image of capital Ks. The antenna is a lower case r. Thus my initials are presented KrK.
I feel the butterfly represents a free spirit with the flying off the page. It also represents change, which is something I’m open to. I like to try new things. The butterfly is also is a happy image and I am generally a happy person.
I chose to do a watermark for my stationary because I really liked my image and wanted it large and I didn’t know how else to put my logo on the page. I didn’t want to put it in the top left corner with my contact info because I didn’t want it to resemble my envelope. I didn’t want the logo in the top right corner because then it would be too much like my business card. I put my contact info at the bottom of the stationary because I felt it was the most appropriate place. I used the pink Apple Chancery Option 8 bullets to separate the information so that it connected the text to the image.

Choice of Typefaces:
I drew the letters in the logo because I couldn’t find them exactly how I wanted them to look from an existing font. I decided to use the fonts in my text to imitate the ones I drew for the logo.
I chose to use Charme Std. Roman for the capital Ks because I felt it resembled the Ks I drew for the butterfly’s wings. I really liked the font but it was too hard to read in large amounts so I also used Apple Chancery. I chose this font because the r resembled the r I drew for the antenna. It also complimented Charme Std. Roman font. I felt the font portrayed the characteristics classy and girly, both of which I feel describe me.

Color:
I chose to use the color scheme of black, white, gray and pink (PANTONE pastel coated .9324c). I felt that black and white is a classic color combination that will never go out of style. I added some gray in the wings to add dimension to the design. I chose pink to accent the color scheme and make my designs pop. Pink is also a girly color that fits with the theme I wanted to portray. I wanted to fade the pink on the business card because it’s like the butterfly is emerging from it into the unknown. It also adds dimension to the card.

Paper:
I didn’t choose a special paper. Anything special I wanted, I designed on the computer.

Kelina's Stationary Set

2008-10-24T18:22:00.006-04:00

Design Strategy:
My dream is to work for a music magazine. I wanted to somehow incorporate writing and music in an image while still representing myself accurately. I created a record using layering concentric circles each treated with a gradient. The label was created by another circle. Using the knife tool on two circles, I created the lines around the red label.

There is something about records that modern MP3s or CDs have and although it is an outdated technology, they are classic and hip. After finishing the record, it looked like it still needed more. Somehow I had to still incorporate writing other than writing “journalist” on the record. I then decided to create the arm of the record player. Rather than using the regular needle tip, I used Live Paint on the tip of a fountain pen to create the needle. I connected it using simple lines to create the idea of a full record player without all of the pieces.

I wanted to keep the letterhead and envelope simple. I continued the color from the label as the background.

For the business card, I chose to do a different size 19p square because the logo would be compromised if it were too small or cropped too much. The square shape is modern. I also chose to do a two-sided business card to accommodate both the full logo and all of my personal information.

Choice of typefaces:
I chose a modern sans serif font in caps for my name. Veranda is used in all text on the business card, letterhead and envelope. The font is slightly stretched in order to emulate the fonts used on real vinyl records. Using the Paintbrush tool in Illustrator, I made a ‘K’ and ‘I’ and created the small initials on the record.

Color:
The color red was chosen for the label and background because it is an attention grabbing color. It is C- 15%, M- 100%, Y- 90%, K- 10%. It is not a Pantone color because it was taken from Illustrator.

Paper:
All pieces were printed on the normal 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper from the labs.

My Logo Design

2008-10-24T15:38:00.009-04:00

Logo Design:

I wanted to create a design that had both strong and soft colors because I wanted the design to show strength and femininity. I wrote my initials with the paint tool and drew a fan like design next to the initials. Next to each other it reminded me of a butterfly/flower on blades of grass. I like that it can be seen to be both, it just depends on perception. I I choose to have the back of my business card a different color to have another contrast between soft and strong.

On my envelope I put my main image at 70 percent of it's original scale from Illustrator on the back flap. On the front I put the main image at 35 percent next to my address. I think it gave uniformity to the envelope. My stationary also has my main image at 35 percent scale

Choice of typeface:

I choose Palatino type for my logo project because it was simple and easy to read. I did not want the text to overpower the design. I wanted my illustration to stand out. I made my name is all caps and put it on the top and bottom of my card to utilize the vertical space I choose. Also I used white text in 14pt for my name to stand out against the background. My email address and phone number are in 10pt.

Choice of Color:

I used black as a base color because it was strong and draws the eye. For my illustration I used green (Pantone DS 278 C) for the blades of grass and pink (Pantone 148 5-C) for my initials that resemble a flower or butterfly. The illustration and the black background contrast each other well along with the white text. On the back of my business card I have a white background with the main image.

Logo Design!

2008-10-24T12:12:00.006-04:00

Design Strategy:

Originally, I thought that coming up with a logo for my name was going to be quite difficult, seeing as though my name doesn’t uniquely have even letters or my intitials don’t spell out an actual word. After playing with all three letters though, I came to a conclusion that it was a good thing that my initials were a palindrome because I could use one letter as the dominant, and the others would be able to uniquely fit with it. I would have loved to use just the letter “C” in my logo, but I discovered that idea has already been trademarked and is known worldwide.
I love music, so I wanted to play on the idea of having my logo represent the treble clef in a different way, with the dots on each side of the curvature of the letter “S”. Also. the two dots represent the separation of each letter in my initials, so I thought that was cool for me to use them as well. I didn’t know at first how I was going to convey my idea and how I was going to use font, but the paintbrush tool became quite the resource. The letter “S” is by far my favorite part because it looks like an “S” I would write to begin my middle name. I wanted my logo to be simple as possible, but still envoke class, sophistication, and who I am.

Choice of Typefaces:

The letter “C” in my logo is the typeface ITC Fenice STD, which is a serif font. I thought that this font was different in the sense that it uniquely resembled the letter “S” that I drew with the paint brush tool. Also, I wanted a versitle typeface family so I could stay in one typeface and still achieve contrast.

Color:
The color I used in my logo is R=210 G=99 B=161, which is the color pink. I love the color pink, and I also wanted to have a similar color that is present in my resume.

Paper:
I did not want to use a particular type of paper for my stationery because I thought that it would take away from the boldness of my logo, so I will just use reguarl white paper.

A note about posting your projects ...

2008-10-24T10:42:00.002-04:00

For anyone having trouble with the colors not exporting correctly from Illustrator:

When you export to JPEG, make sure you switch your "Color Model" option from CMYK to RGB. It's defaulted to CMYK if you selected a print document for illustrator.

Also check the box to embed the ICC profile into the JPEG.

That should clear up any problems.

Happy posting!

Letecha's LOGO

2008-10-24T09:35:00.004-04:00

Design strategy:
My logo is constructed from my initials (LCD). I got the idea to do a face from the LG logo. I thought that this was the best way to construct a design that represented public relations, which is the career I am interested in. This way it is conveying the message without being cliché. I think it represents public relations in a very graphical way. In addition, round shapes are very pleasing to the eye because they are placid shapes.

Color:
I used pantone 116 EC. This color is a golden yellow. I wanted to highlight the C, which represents the mouth. Public relations is all about interpersonal skills and communications, so I wanted to light the ‘mouth” part to symbolize my interpersonal and communication skills. When I thought about valuable, I thought about gold. Gold might not have the same value now as it did before; however, that’s the only color I can portray. If I were to use sliver to represent platinum I think people would read it as gray and not platinum. Also, yellow is one of the colors that grab your attention. Even though, it is not yellow it is a variation of it.

Choice of Typefaces:
My logo is made up of letters. I couldn’t use serifs because it wouldn’t of fit in because of the extra block that it has at he base and top of the fonts. Sans do not have these. Therefore, I could draw lines around sans fonts and it would appear as though I actually created the letters. The typeface I used in my logo was Ocean sans. I used type repetition to link my logo to my word mark.

Logo Design

2008-10-23T11:37:00.005-04:00

href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NamZVruPtWU/SQCbMMRhHII/AAAAAAAAABY/yWjY3UPnjY0/s1600-h/Lauren+Glass%27+Logo+stationary+final.jpg">

Design Strategy:
Again, I tried to design my logo to fit my personality, as well as the internships I will be applying for. Since I want to work for a fashion magazine, I designed it to appear chic and elegant. I played off of my last name, “Glass”, and the fact that I want to write for a fashion magazine and added a glass slipper. I found the “glass flashes” on illustrator and thought that they added a depth and a new dimension to my logo.
My stationary is relatively simple. Because my logo takes up a good portion of the top of the paper, I left my address at the absolute bottom. I wanted both to be centered and stack nicely on top of one another. I repeated the “glass flash” motif at the bottom, using two on one side and one on the other because a symmetry is more eye pleasing than symmetry.
Since my logo is so girly, I wanted my business card to be a funky shape, so that it would stand out in the fashion industry. Square business cards are becoming more and more popular and seem to be very en vogue right now. I got rid of the “glass flashes” because I thought that they distracted from my information. I used the purple to add more color and make it less boring. The back of my card is just my original shoe with the “glass flashes”. It is facing the opposite direction so that it still has the she of an “L” and appears to be the opposite foot.
I used just the shoe and my name for the front of my envelope because it was simple and elegant. I moved my return address to the back of the envelope so that the front was not overcrowded and I kept the “glass flash” motif on the back.

Choice of Typefaces:
I chose didot for my type family because I wanted to keep the continuity my resume and my logo. Didot is also a very fashion forward type family.

Color:
I stuck with the same basic color theme that I had used in my resume, because I wanted my resume to match my logo. I chose light purple, PantoneDS165-3C (C=35%, M=70%, Y=0%, K=10%) because not only is it my favorite color, but it is a color that is often equated with flowers and my first name, Lauren, means crowned with laurels. For the inside of the blue lettering, I used PantoneDS246-8C (C=20%, M=0%, Y=5%, K=0%). For the outside of the lettering, I used a slightly darker blue to accent the inside, and still give the lettering a glassy texture, PantoneDS230-8C (C=30%, Y=5%, M=50%, K=5%). I also used this blue for the shoe, which I traced in illustrator.

Paper:
I chose to use normal paper for my stationary because it is more economically feasible and the bright white color compliments the blue.

Effective Logo- Guess whose...

2008-10-22T21:17:00.002-04:00

effective logo

2008-10-21T23:48:00.003-04:00

I think that M&M came up with a simple and recognizable logo. Even if the characters were not in the picture, you can recognize the typeface that the company uses to symbolize the chocolate snack. They also chose a good name for the product because it could be easily marketable just with one letter. "m". The company has expanded the "m" symbol into two characters, one red and one yellow. They do commercials and ads. People around the world would recognize these two characters as representing M&Ms.

yummm McDonalds...effective logo

2008-10-21T14:44:00.002-04:00

Take your time and guess???
Your right! It's Mcdonalds!!!

I chosed this logo because I think Mcdonalds did a every good job at creating an effective logo. It's timeless and probably be around for years to come. The colors automatically jump out at you and grab your attention. Everyone knows what the golden arches mean. If you were in a foreign country driving down a road and you seen these arches you would know it was Mcdonalds. This logo transgresses through all cultural and ethnic boundaries. It's very simple and easy to remember! And doesn't make you kind of hungry just looking at it? The arches to me looks like to french fries... I think it's time for lunch!!

2008-10-20T01:46:00.002-04:00

I chose this one because I LOVE the colors. White, black, and that bright yellowish green, greenish yellow, whatever you would call it. The bright green/yellow is not used quite as often, and thus comes off as interesting in this logo. The designer just made three simple lines around the curves of the letter and numbers (simple, but brilliant). This logo speaks to me as fresh, spunky, and innovative. It's simple enough to look modern, and conveys its message well. I mean, you need to sort of know what this company is to get it, but it is still clever. The company is a Polish package design company. They literally put 2D and 3D together. Hence the logo: 2 + 3D. Get it? Designing in 2D and then putting those 2D designs onto 3D objects. I also like how the designed put in the company's name on top in a way that does not make the logo look over-done.

Effective Logo

2008-10-19T13:51:00.004-04:00

I think the Apple Inc. logo is very effective. First of all, the logo is an apple, which is helpful in recognizing its association with the Apple products and Macintosh computers. More specifically, the metallic, silver color makes it appear more modern and technological which is most likely just the feel Apple is going for. It also stands out because it is designed with a 3-dimensional look, unlike most logos which are definitely only 2-D. I also find it interesting that the company name is nowhere on the logo since the picture fully represents the company and what the company does.

company logo

2008-10-18T23:29:00.004-04:00

I think this logo is really effective because it incorporates many things into it that have to do with sewing and creating bears which is what the company is about. This is done with the bears making the bear and with the button and the spool of thread that replace the os in workshop. Another thing that this logo has is that it's displayed in a circle which is very simple and pleasing for the eye.

Effective Logo

2008-10-17T21:12:00.002-04:00

I think that the Jamba Juice logo is effective because it describes the product that you purchase from the store. I am absolutely obsessed with Jamba Juice, and I think it works because it is so colorful, welcoming,and fun. The swirl of the logo makes the customer automatically think of smoothies, and I think the colors are also used well because it describes the fresh products that they use in their products. The logo reflects the atmosphere that is present in the store, which is fresh, upbeat, and light. It is very simple, yet gets the point across to consumers.

Effective logo

2008-10-17T19:44:00.005-04:00

The Nike logo is simple and effective. If you judge a "good logo" by its ability to be internationally recognizable, exist at a variety of sizes and speak for an entire brand, this logo is perfect. Nike's swoosh elicits a sophisticated and clean design while incorporating a sense of movement. The swoosh is everywhere and Nike's brand recognition is probably up there with McDonalds' arches. Nike is known all over the world for well-made sportwear. I've been to the Nike campus in Oregon and the company is working hard to be sustainable on top of being fashionable. It's a company that you can trust, and with an effective logo, why wouldn't you support them?

Resume Redo

2008-10-17T17:35:00.001-04:00

Design Strategy:
I designed my resume to fit my personality, as well as the internships I will be applying for. Since I want to work for a fashion magazine, I designed it to appear chic and elegant. Originally, I had a lot of information that I wanted to put on my resume and even once I condensed it, I had a significant amount of type, so I wanted to keep the design simple. I chose my fonts and colors to look both, girly and graceful, and at the same time funky and fashion forward. I added the colorful lines to keep continuity between the two colors that I used in my wordmark.
I changed my wordmark for the redo because I wanted it to stand out more. I played around with it a lot, but in the end, I felt like I had to take advantage of the “N” fitting so nicely above the “G”.
I got rid of my retail management job and organized my experience descending in the order of which I had the job. Luckily, my most interesting job was my last job. I used tabs and bullets to create a sense of hierarchy in my resume and I moved the bullets closer to the words. I also picked margins and stuck with them this time.

Choice of Typefaces:
For my redo, I decided to only use Didot because it gives off a funky, yet sophisticated vibe. I wanted a versatile typeface family for the body of my resume, so that I could stay in one typeface and still be able to bold my titles and italicize the dates and locations of my jobs. Also, serifs are easy to read. I changed my font to size 10 to make it easier to read, and once I eliminated my retail management job, I was able to fit everything that I wanted onto my resume. I used all caps for my wordmark, because I wanted my name to stand out. I wanted it to resemble a magazine cover’s name. I also used caps/lc for my body because I think it looks more elegant than all caps and less brash.

Color:
I switched to pantones. I chose light purple, PantoneDS165-3C (C=35%, M=70%, Y=0%, K=10%) because not only is it my favorite color, but it is a color that is often equated with flowers and my first name, Lauren, means crowned with laurels.
I chose the light blue, PantoneDS223-7C (C=30%, M=3%, Y=0%, K=0%) because, again, not only is it my other favorite color, but I was also trying to find a “glassy”, almost opaque blue to play off of my last name, Glass.

Paper:
I have decided to use regular paper for my resume, because I love how bright the white computer paper makes my colors look. Also, I did not choose a different type of paper, because I although I want my resume to stand out, with its brash, new and in your face wordmark, I do not want it to be too much.

Effective Logo

2008-10-17T17:12:00.002-04:00

The Walt Disney logo is a very effective logo. It is very simple, yet very direct. Practically anyone can distinguish Cinderella's castle. The castle also enhances the logos effectiveness because it forces the viewer to think about fairy tales and Disney World. Kids especially are drawn to this logo and kids are Disney's prime market. The simplicity of the line drawn castle helps the target audience (kids) distinguish this logo. The funky, half cursive font is Disney's signature font that they use on most of their products and in their theme parks, thus it is easily recognizable and easily associated with the Walt Disney empire. Just looking at the Disney logo puts a smile on people's faces because of all of Disney's fantastical products.

effective logo

2008-10-17T16:36:00.004-04:00

The UPS logo emulates everything professor Taylor said makes a good logo - it's simple, it's unique, and it identifies the company's purpose.

The simple placement of the three letters in the badge shape is an image that is recognizable for the customer. They see the logo on the truck, and then they see it on the uniforms. An instant connection.

The package on top speaks to just what the company does: ships packages. It's incredible recognizable and there is NO question what the company is or what the company does. This logo presents an unmistakable brand. It just works.

effective logo

2008-10-17T08:52:00.003-04:00

This is definitely an effective logo that is both simple and meaningful in design. This is a logo of a fast-food restaurant that modeled itself after typical fast food places like McDonald and Burgerking but they differ in that they serve chicken instead of beef. From the logo you can see clearly what the restaurant serves. The letter C makes the face of a chicken, and to keep the rest of the letters consistent with the chicken, they are written in cursive. The choice of the color is perfect; somehow the color seem to relate to chickens. Maybe its just me but I like this logo alot! oh and the foods awesome

here's the link to the website! check it! www.chick-fil-a.com

Type Challenge: McDonald's Monopoly Game

2008-10-16T12:13:00.004-04:00

Here's this week's type challenge:

Name the font used for the McDonald's Monopoly promotion. Not the handwritten stuff about it being big, but everything else.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Effective logo

2008-10-15T15:54:00.002-04:00

Now, I know very little about cars or their stereotypes--this is purely my interpretation!! But this is one of my favorite logos--Cadillac. I think this logo works because at this point, it's been used by the car company for so many years that's it's identifiable with their quality and reputation. I think the circular logo principle we discussed in class yesterday applies here--it's round and pleasing to the eye. I think this logo is extra fun because of how the inside of the circle is split up so much--especially with such bold colors like black, yellow, blue and red. The silver trimming around the colored circle adds a touch of sophistication, and makes the logo look shiny and impressive on the front of a car. I also like the Cadillac logo because of the mini flags that are created within the circle. To me, that makes me think very distinct adjectives about the company--powerful, luxury, worldly and a little diplomatic.

Poster Project

2008-10-13T22:53:00.002-04:00

Design Strategy:

My poster is for my church’s youth benefit auction that is held every year. The proceeds all go towards the mission trips that the youth group takes. My youth pastor did not give me any limitations as far as design, and he was very flexible with content as well as long as the typical important information was included somewhere.

I felt that my headline would be a good place to start with this project. I came up with “from [the] auction block to [the] city block” to start out, so I tried to brainstorm images that could represent that. However, the ideas I came up with were too literal so I changed my route and instead used the headline “com-mission,” focusing on the verse from Matthew 28:19 that talks about the Great Commission, which is to do missions work. I thought the definition-style headline I made would help explain the whole idea behind the Great Commission.

I wanted to make the poster something a viewer could relate to; even if they aren’t able to go on mission trips themselves, they can still see ways to support those who do go on missions. I thought that photos of students on mission trips I’ve been on would be the best way to bring that idea home to the viewer. The scrapbook sort of theme was also an attempt to make the poster more “down-to-earth” and relatable.

Since my background is sort of a cardboard-handmade paper sort of texture instead of white space, I wanted to make sure that the printing margins didn’t make the rest of the page look out of place. To solve this problem I mimicked the Polaroid photo ideas to make the entire poster framed like a Polaroid would be.

I scanned in my background and the ripped white paper pieces.

Choice of Typefaces:

The only typeface I used was Constantina. I wanted a font that looked official since the top of my layout resembled a dictionary entry, but I also wanted something a little quirky since the theme of my poster is sort of like a scrapbook and kind of looks a little cut out and hand-pasted together. I did mix up the typeface sizes throughout the layout. I thought it added to the homemade feel of the poster by making the letters not a standard size. I used bold for the headline and the title of the event.

Color:

My poster is mostly “dry” tones – brown background, black text, and white paper. I didn’t want to use full-color photos because I wanted them to fit this theme, so I sort of spot-colored them and made the rest of the photo grayscale or at least dimmed. I really like how this turned out, with each photo sort of bringing out a different color. I also colored the word “mission” in “commission” with a faded red to make it stand out.

Paper:

I am using regular weight paper because of production costs.

Poster Project

2008-10-11T13:31:00.005-04:00

*Sorry that this is blurry. I explained to Wasim I had problems uploading. Originally the image was truncated and now even when I selected high resolution it's pretty blurry.

I decided to do my poster project on NY Cares Day because it helps make public schools more beautiful for students. On this specific day in October usually thousands of volunteers go to public schools in NYC and paint murals, plant flowers and organize libraries. It really helps these students look forward to going to school. I choose to play off the idea of New York City called "the big apple". I made the apple represent NYC and the hearts I drew inside the apple as the people/New Yorkers. I did this to show that NYC is full of people with big hearts! Also I used Cambria as a font because it is easy to read and simple. I used blue as a background because it is a strong color but also pretty and white text to stand out in the headlines and info. The text at the bottom text is multicolored to be happy, fun and cheery like kids. I now notice that there is a red, white and blue theme that is also pretty patriotic. Overall I am very happy with my design.

Poster Project

2008-10-10T18:15:00.001-04:00

Design Strategy:
For this project, I chose to make a poster for The Dougy Center, a non-profit organization from my hometown. The Dougy Center hosts group sessions where children, teens and adults can speak openly about their experiences with death. Personally, I attended groups at the center and I wanted to incorporate my personal experience in order to help the organization.

I started by brainstorming ideas and finally settled on the idea of fading photographs. To connect the visual to the headline, I partially grayscaled a picture of my father and myself when I was younger and placed the photo at a thirds point to create the most impact. I then framed the photo using strokes from Illustrator. I pulled the color of the drapes in the photo and used it as the background color. Overall, I wanted it to be simple with direct text.

Choice of typefaces:
The typeface family I chose was Century Schoolbook. I wanted a serif font with a level “e” and an interesting “i.” In the word memories, I transformed the letter “i” into a candle by creating a teardrop-shaped flame for the dot. Candles are used at the end of every program meeting to represent the thoughts, prayers and wishes of the participants. I chose to put “The Dougy Center” in small caps to differentiate between it and the headline.

Color:
I pulled the background color from the drapes. It is C- 3.14%, M- 5.49%, Y- 14.9% and K- 0%. The only other color used in the poster is the photograph and the flame of the candle, which has a lower tint.

POSTER PROJECT!!

2008-10-10T09:59:00.003-04:00

NOTE!!! this is not how my poster really looks. For some reason it will not upload it correctly.
Design strategy:
The Around the Way Dance Company of Englewood, NJ is a performance program that’s design for the youth of Englewood as well as the neighboring communities. This company was founded by friend that I attended high school with named Jazzmin Hall. The event the poster is designed for is an open house. Basically, it is a day where she will finally open the doors of the studio and display the techniques and skills the members will be learning. This will be a day where interests can come ask questions, sign up, or whatever they feel. In her mission statement she mentioned that her intended audience is the youth. This can range from teenagers to elementary school students. The focus is more towards females of color. The aspect of the event that would make someone want to partake in it is the dance aspect. This is another outlet for females of color to express themselves in a world full of oppression.
I provided the talent with a poster that could be used over and over again. I left out the time and place so that she can fill it in whenever she needs. She might want to have a yearly open house to bring more dancers to the company. With this poster all she would have to do is recopy it and fill in the time and place. The legs looks kind of imperfect and that was done on purpose. I was trying to convey the message that you do not have to be the best dancer to join. It also looks like someone around the target audience age group drew it. So, it can be something they can possibly relate too. Realistically, I do not think at this point in time she would be able to afford color being that this is a new organization. I tried to accomplish a poster that would grab the attention of girls from elementary school to high school. It’s a poster that simply, sweet, and straight forward.

Typefaces:
I use Penumbra as my typeface family. I decided to use this typeface because it is extremely versatile. It has serifs as well as sans serifs. This way I could use one typeface and not have to worry about finding a typeface that is readable. I also used it because serifs are better for poster because they are blunt, bold, and well defined. The letters are all cap and because of this I ran into problem when it cam time to write the secondary information. So, for this portion of the poster I used Gill Sans, which is a sans serif. It is an light easy read that gives off a friendly feel. Plus, I love it!

Color:
For the legs I used a cmyk percentage of 38.43, 81.18, 84.45, 56.86. This is to symbol the females of color so there won’t be any confusion. The shoes are 29.02, 43.92, 48.63, 1.96, to give the shoe a more vibrant feel and really pop out and contrast the deep brown. The dots are 20, 80, 0, 0, and that’s just to give a “girlie” feel to it.
Paper:
I used the regular printer paper because this is very inexpensive. In reality, if the money permits, I would use a paper that has a gloss to it. This way the poster would have that finished look.

Throw Safety in the Mix!

2008-10-08T23:37:00.004-04:00

Design Strategy:

I chose a center composition with a grid to execute a strong illustration with good stopping power, placing the most important information at the top and bottom thirds of the vertical 11x17 poster. The information reads like a Z, starting at the top left with my headline, down though the middle to my illustration, and across the bottom right to the event specifications and non-profit organization logos.

My non-profit organization of choice is the American Red Cross, and the event is specifically for the Onondaga-Oswego chapter, for which I am the graphic design intern. This poster is advertising the S.A.F.E. (Safety Awareness for Everyone) Halloween event. It is an event for both kids and parents to attend to learn about Halloween safety while still having Halloween themed fun. This explains the juvenile drawings – done in Illustrator – of the candy, pumpkin and safety icons.

The child will be drawn to the candy and the bright, fun colors. Once the child makes their mom or dad stop and see the poster, the view can read the clever headline and the smaller, functional information on the bottom left corner. Then the parent’s eye will travel to the bottom right hand corner and see the very distinctive Red Cross logo and immediately know the integrity of the event.

Typeface:

I chose Penumbra Sans Light because I considered the space in which the poster will hang. It does not need to have a prominent distance display; it will be hung in close quarters. I chose the all caps sans serif font because it looked clean amongst the variety of colored candy. It’s simple enough for children to read and the round counters give it a juvenile effect.

For the actual acronym S.A.F.E. I chose Trajan pro because of its unique serifs. The prominent serifs extend out and down to sharp points, giving it a spooky feel without being novelty or cliché. It is a subtle association with the Halloween spirit.

Color:

I chose the traditional Halloween colors because it is a children’s event and it speaks to the audience, just as the bright candies and band aids do. The black background serves as a matte background for the one dimensional, child like drawings and really makes the colorful illustration pop out. I put the important information – the headline, acronym, and event info – in the same orange as the pumpkin to keep the eye in check and helping the information to stand out against the dark background.

Paper:

Because of printing restraints, I’m keeping the poster on plain, printing paper.

poster project

2008-10-08T09:53:00.003-04:00

Design Strategy:
I wanted to create a poster that was clean and simple. I didn’t want a lot of background and so I decided to use one image with my text. I wanted the image to portray the idea that by giving blood, people would really help others. The idea for the superhero just came to me and I felt it matched this idea nicely. I decided to add the blood droplet on their uniforms to bring the blood drive into play. I wanted to still have some of the drawn aspect to make it seem like comic book heroes and so I drew it on a separate piece of paper and scanned it in.
The audience I was targeting was the campus community. I wanted a design that transferred well between the different schools and majors. I felt that a superhero was a concept that many people would be able to relate to.

Choice of typefaces:
I wanted a typeface that was versatile so that I could keep the fonts consistent throughout the poster, providing a uniform look but I wanted the option to present contrast by using different styles of the font family. This is why I chose Kepling Std.
I did the headlines in caps lock because I wanted a comic book, superhero type font. I also felt the caps lock made it more powerful and in your face, which is something I wanted to portray because giving blood is important. I did the headlines in italics because it made the words appear to be flying with the superheroes. Also, it’s a style that comic books usually use. I know that people don’t just read the word, but take in the shape of the word and the difference between caps and lc. Because of this I did the first letter of the words in the headline bigger than the rest of the word to give the illusion of capitalizing the word. Since the whole word was already in caps, this was the only way I could do it.
I did the information at the bottom of the page in black font and in caps/lc because it’s easier to read and this is the important information so there shouldn’t be confusion on that part.

Color:
I wanted to add color to my poster to attract people’s attention but I only wanted to do one color because it would be cheaper. I want these posters to be used and I didn’t want to deplete all of Crouse’s resources or money in the process.
I chose to use red (C=0, M=100, Y=100, K=0) as my one color because red is a warm color and it attracts people’s attention. Also red is the color associated with blood and this is a poster for a blood drive.

Paper:
I wanted to do it on white paper because white is easier to acquire and so it would be easier to make many copies. Also I think white looks best with my black and red color choices.

2008-10-08T01:56:00.000-04:00

Poster Project

2008-10-07T10:02:00.000-04:00

Design Strategy:
I designed my poster for the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout. My event was being held at Augustana College in Illinois so I assumed that it would target college students. I wanted a close up picture of a cigarette burning in an ashtray and the smoke to form the words “NO ifs, ands or butts”. The letters are meant to look smoky and I dragged the smoke using the smudge tool and the Gaussian blur to create that effect. The event information is not meant to overwhelm the viewer, but since it is obviously important, I lined it up with the right margin and lined the American Cancer Society’s logo up with the left margin. I used the smudge tool again to get rid of the Marlboro on the cigarette, because I did not want the label to distract from the poster’s message. I wanted the ashtray to pop, creating depth and making the poster more appealing to the eye. Originally, I wanted my poster to bleed, but in the end decided not to cut off the edge because the white border makes my white text stand out.

Choice of Typefaces:
I chose to use two different typefaces for my poster. I wanted my slogan font to look smoky, so I pictured cursive and I wanted it to flow, which is why I chose Bickham Script Pro. I made it size 76, but stretched it with a scale. I blurred the text with Gaussian blur. For my informational text, I wanted a typeface that was really easy to read and very simple, which is why I chose Calisto MT. I tried a variety of different simple fonts, but Calisto was the perfect blend of simplicity and slight boldness.

Color:
I wanted my slogan to look somewhat blurry and like smoke, which is why I chose a color that matched the actual smoke coming from the cigarette. The CYMK percentages are: C-38%, M-0%, Y-13%, 0%-K. I used pure white for my informational text so that it would stand out and be easy to read, contrasting the fuzzy look of the slogan. For the overall look of the poster, I wanted a natural glow, which is why I took the photo outside and did not change the colors.

semiotic logo

2008-10-05T22:13:00.003-04:00

This logo is extremely simple and uses repitition in its color scheme. The pepsi logo is recognized world wide with or without the name attatched. The logo not only works well because its pleasing to the eye but it is also extremely branded and recognizable. Pepsi, a world renouned soft drink company, and seeing this logo is often all it takes to make me thirsty.

Semiotics of: Gatorade

2008-10-04T20:21:00.002-04:00

I love this logo for its simplicity and hyper-boldness. That signature lightning bold screams "power-up", which is what gatorade is generally supposed to do for its drinkers. The colors are memorable, saturated, and work superbly with the white space and black shadowing, causing the symbol to stick well in peoples' minds. If you squint and look at the logo from a distance, you will notice that the shape is distinctive as well; even if I were to give you just outline of this logo, you will still be able to tell me what company it represents.

semiotics logo

2008-10-03T23:30:00.003-04:00

Whenever you see this logo, you know that it represents Gotham's hero, Batman. This symbol is pretty universal, at least to children and super hero fans around the world. The use of the bat in the circle is very classic and works well. It illustrates what he is and by it being in a circle it makes it very appealing and provides an enclosure to it. As we learned in class, circles are very impacting and memorable design shapes. It has stood the test of time thus far as it is still the same symbol as when Batman first began. Overall it is a pretty nice design and it definitely portrays the semiotics principles.

Please open the WINDOWS!

2008-10-03T22:52:00.007-04:00

Now this is a symbol you won't forget! As soon as this icon pops up everyone knows that it is WINDOWS!!!!! Windows is a operating system produce by Microsoft. It's newest version is Windows Vista. This is a logo that is universally known. If you owned or used a computer you know this icon. This icon simulates a window (get it Windows). I believe that this icon is timeless because of it simplicity. You don't have to guess what it means because it is directly linked to its name. This is a logo that is perfect for all sizes. This was a clever logo.

Semiotic Principles

2008-10-03T22:52:00.005-04:00

The Dunkin' Donuts logo is very simple and it uses repetition very well. The logo has both a symbol and the company name. It even has the company name on the symbol. Unlike the Starbucks logo, an image is not the main piece of the logo. The text/company name is in a very large font relative to the coffee cup. The company choose an obvious symbol and I like the steam coming from the cup. I think it really works because it is bright and simple. I can see the company probably changing the logo slightly in the coming years to possible be a bit more modern but it serves it's purposes. The logo makes sense, is recognizable and is smart at repeating the company name.