Visual Communication Theory & Practice - Section 2

Wrap up post

2009-08-14T22:36:00.004-04:00

The days in graphic design class were fun to me. I think the most beneficial part is how to use designing software, such as Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. To know how to use them is not just for fun, but indeed benificial for us to look for a job. My favorite project is stationary design. I actually can use the work that I've done in the future.
Thank you Darren and Nate, for your patience and kindness.

last post

2009-08-14T22:17:00.002-04:00

Hey Nate. I just remembered to write this post. I really did forget. Sorry.
I am typing this blog post at Zach's apartment on Zach's computer.

I just wanted to say that you were a great TA. Graphics was a great class. I have never used any Adobe programs before, except for PDF stuff, and you were a big help.

My favorite project was the stationery project. I learned a lot of valuable skills. I love the pen tool.

Oh, by the way, thanks for telling me that little trick to make my stuff print out before everyone else's. It worked out great.

I love you.

Last post

2009-08-14T21:03:00.003-04:00

It feels odd that this is the last time we will all be posting on this blog. Don't get me wrong I am glad boot camp is coming to an end because I feel we all need a much deserved break. I really do feel like it was just yesterday that I was try to figure out why I picked certain typefaces for my resume. Now that the class is over though I feel like I got a lot out of it. I guess it's like Jeff said in class the other day, grad school teaches us the why. Now I feel like I am able to complete a project and understand why something looks good or bad. I am glad this class was so heavy on actual design because I really wanted to know how to get to use CS4 better. Even if at times the projects were frusterating, Nate and Darren did an excellent job of teaching us. Also, I will be see Helvetica in my sleep for probably the next 3 years. I hope everyone enjoys the break!

wrap up post

2009-08-14T19:22:00.003-04:00

Surprisingly, I had a better time in this class than I expected. On day 1, I did not think I would dig this at all, but I actually enjoyed some of the projects we did. I was not a big fan of the lectures, they were rough. I also was not that interested in the excessive studying on the different kinds of fonts. However, I did like exploring my creative side on the projects in class. I felt like the the one I aathe hardest one for me, but it was the one I most enjoyed. I really like how it turned out, and I feel like I could actually use it in the future, along with my resume. The project I least enjoyed was the website project, part of that may have been because it was the last week of class, but I also did not like working on photoshop as much as indesign. All in all, the labs were interesting, and they kept me engaged in what I was doing. I enjoyed what I learnt, and I feel it would be useful, especially since I want to design my own website.

wrap up post

2009-08-14T18:55:00.003-04:00

This has been a very challenging class. I would have liked to have had more time to learn the software and to complete the assignments. The projects were interesting I learned a great deal in a very short time, but I’m glad it’s finally over. I feel that I’ve gained a decent working knowledge of the adobe suit, though I don’t think working with them will ever be something I really enjoy. Hopefully I will be able to apply what I've learned to what I do in the future.

wrap up post

2009-08-14T15:49:00.006-04:00

I really enjoyed this class. Although I am not sad that the stressful parts of Thursday and Friday will be over, I learned so much in such a short period of time. Prior to this class, I'd only heard of the Adobe programs but had never even opened one.

I was definitely nervous about taking this class, but I felt like the projects were challenging enough to push me without being too overwhelming. I appreciated the variety of projects and feel like at this point I have at least a basic working knowledge of each of the programs.

I've learned to look at typefaces everywhere. Billboards, tv credits, labels, everything. It's pretty annoying to think "serif" or "sans serif" when I look at something, but I do feel like I've developed a better eye for design through noticing the world around me in a different way.

I've been having dreams about the pen tool and wish I were kidding. For some reason, after a long night out on a Friday or Saturday, I've been having 8 am dreams about InDesign and Illustrator, so clearly these programs have been on my mind.

I thought it was helpful to have to write rationales for everything. Because we spent so many hours on the projects, it was nice to have the chance to explain ourselves and really analyze the final product. Making the resume was by far the most stressful experience, just because I was so scared that I just wouldn't be able to complete the assignment. Four weeks later, however, I really enjoyed designing my magazine spread because I knew I'd be able to finish somehow and had grown much more confident in my design ability.

Because of this class I notice the world in a different way, whether it's a logo, advertisement, cereal box or website. At some point in my professional life, even if I am not directly using the programs --- I will need to tell someone what I need or what I like or don't like. Developing a basic knowledge of these programs was difficult but well worth it. I'm happy it's over, but so appreciative that I was able to learn what I have in just 6 weeks.

2009-08-14T15:49:00.005-04:00

I know that we didn't have to post the interface project on here, but I wanted to. I put a lot of work into it and I'm not going to go into detail about what I did. But here are a few keep points:

1) it is for the Center for Photography of Woodstock

2) they have residencies for colored artists

3) they produce high quality work

4) check out their actual website www.cpw.org

Go NOW!

Wrap Up Post

2009-08-14T15:43:00.004-04:00

This summer has been a fun and exciting time. I learned a lot of new things and met a lot of cool people. Coming into this class, I've never used InDesign or Illustrator, but now I feel comfortable using it and will most likely use it for future projects. I am pretty happy with the work that I produced during Boot Camp. I have a new respect for graphics and I think I'll be keeping up with it. I also will be using what I learned in this class for future classes. I can't escape graphics and I don't think I want to either.

I am excited that I learned these new things and can't wait to see what I can do with them in the future. I am looking forward to taking the upper level graphics class over the next year. I want to continue to get better at this and hopefully, the knowledge I learned these past 6 weeks will never escape me.

Wrap-Up

2009-08-14T15:11:00.002-04:00

6 weeks have come and gone, and thus so has this Graphics class. I really enjoyed this class and knew that I would. I have worked with these programs before, but this time around was definitely the most fulfilling. though I couldn't say the same for all the lectures, and even all of the assignments, I thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of the class.

Come spring I may find myself taking another graphics class. You can always have the practice, and especially with the growth of the Internet, and web 2.0 and the transformation to everyone sharing and being an intricate part of communication mass Media, graphics is at the center of it all, and something that if you are decent at, can make you very valuable, and even very lucrative.

Good luck to eveyone in this next year at Newhouse, twas a pleasure working with you all.

Definitely a big thanks to Darren and Nate

- Mike D.

Wrapping up

2009-08-14T12:48:00.002-04:00

I learned a lot about how to use Adobe suite in this class, which was awesome. I learned more about photoshop in the last week then I did in an entire semester long class that I took a few years ago. I had no idea how to use any of the programs six weeks ago, and now I have the fundamentals I need to teach myself more and produce at least decent work.

Design concept was definitely the hardest part of graphics for me. Once I come up with a concept I can execute it, but my grasp of concept is not as good as I would like it to do. The lectures helped a lot in figuring out color, hierarchy, typography and other elements of design. I think that I would have learned more in a full semester though. Having the lectures more broken up would have helped a lot in absorbing the information for me.

Regardless, I understand more about design now then I did before and I know a lot more about Adobe then I ever have before. This class taught me a lot and it made me want to take another design class in the future so I can continue to build on my new skills

Wrap Up Post

2009-08-14T11:56:00.002-04:00

While it was often tedious, I am happy I took this class because even though I already knew a lot of the stuff about the programs, I learned the right way to do things. Before I had to teach myself how to do Illustrator and InDesign and I was doing things that looked good, but I did it the hard way. I'm happy I now know the easy way to do it and to do it well. I think this class has helped me focus my design "eye" which will certainly help me in the long run.

Interface Project & Rationale

2009-08-14T11:17:00.003-04:00

Not-for-profit Site Audience
Guide Dogs for the Blind’s audience ranges from people helped by guide dogs to people interested in adopting a retired guide dog to friends and family members of those needing guide dogs. People can use the website to apply to be a volunteer, adopt dogs, donate money, and get news from the organization. The website also has informations on the different community programs available.

Website Visual Identity
The website that is currently up for Guide Dogs for the Blind is very busy and very wordy. I didn’t find it very visually interesting. I wanted to create a website that was more visually stimulating with imagery that helps the audience through the website easily. I feel website that have too much information aren’t as interesting, so I wanted to avoid that.

Design Strategy
I didn’t want my design to look cheap or 1990s by using horrendous bright colors or anything like that. I wanted to use strong visuals that the text revolves around--not vice versa. Because of this I chose strong photos that were visually interesting, as opposed to the generic ones people see over and over. I put the photo of the sad looking dog on the donate page because you want people to want to donate. Links are indicated by either orange text or being underlined. The underlined links appear in the body copy, while the orange colored links appear as navigation or headers (with orange being the default for rollovers on the navigation options). I chose orange because it complemented the tan of the background really well. I chose the combination of using a serif type face like Georgia (which looks great on the web) with a sans serif type face like Helvetica. The sans serif type is used as navigation because it is straight and direct, while the serif type face looks better as headers and body copy in the site.

Style Sheet
Navigation Headings: Helvetica Bold 14pt
Navigation Sub-headings & footer text: Helvetica Regular 12pt
Page Headings: Georgia Bold 16pt
Body Text: Georgia Regular 13pt

Document Grid
I used a 12 column grid for the website, it helped me to organize my body copy and my visuals in a clean and concise manner. I placed my navigation where I did because I wanted it to be easy to find on every page. I kept the logo on the top left to account for different monitor sizes & resolution settings.

Current Event 3

2009-08-14T09:36:00.002-04:00

http://bx.businessweek.com/web-design/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smashingmagazine.com%2F2009%2F01%2F27%2Fcss-typographic-tools-and-techniques%2F

50 Useful Designs Tools For Beautiful Web Typography

Not really a current event, but a practical site for what we have been working with and hearing in lecture this past week. This particula article looks at 50 useful typographic tools, techniques and resources for creating effective and expressive designs.

Some notables:

7 - Grids

10. Examples of Great Web Typography

It was bitter sweet

2009-08-14T00:17:00.004-04:00

GRA 617 has been a journey of discovery and second glances...but it was also one that was as addictive as it was repelling!

I really enjoyed the discussions on the fundamentals of graphic design, a subject I must confess I took totally for granted. In the past I never gave much consideration to white space, grids, widows and all the little nuances which make good design. Now I do.

I lack the creative eye which makes for exceptional artwork... my sketches are testament to that...but in completing GRA 617, I have gained an appreciation for the level of talent and thought that goes into producing good layouts. And, I know how much designers should be able to give; and the elements they can draw on to produce the kind of work I would want to use in a campaign etc.

I realise that graphic design is a package, and every tiny element combines to produce artwork that communicates with the audience in the way it is meant to. It is interesting that despite the "randomness" of human nature, we can all look at a piece of graphic work and understand the subtle messages of color choice and page layout.

I never knew typography was so complex! Nor did I realise it was all around me. I simply took these things for granted... and was totally oblivious to the Helvetica invasion.

On the flip side, I felt boxed in by the deadlines for the projects. I feel like there wasn't enough time to properly think through the concepts before putting pen to paper. I guess in the professional world, graphic designers complete the project is about the same time as we got in class. But, we're not professionals though... so that aspect was challenging...at least for me. Sometimes it seemed like as soon as I was getting really into the assignment, it was time to submit.

My creative juices were severely stemmied by the rigors of Bootcamp. There were many times when I was physically present, but miles away mentally, thinking about how to shape a story for the news writing course. It was a bit challenging balancing both without sacrificing one for the other. While I did not miss any lectures to do interviews, I must confess my attention span waned, despite the antics of some lecturers.

Overall, it was a great experience. It was clear the course was well thought out. The presentations were very relevant and well-researched. I also think the level of support received in lab was excellent on all levels.

I think I'd like to do another graphics course... in the normal semester though, when I don't have the limitations of bootcamp.

Kit's Wrap-up Post

2009-08-13T23:28:00.003-04:00

Graphics class, oh how I love and loathe thee. I love it because I've always been drawn to visual arts. I love to understand and dissect good design, and I buy lots of t-shirts, books, and magazines when I see pretty images. Now I understand the concepts to fully comprehend why designs were "good" or "bad." My font world has extended beyond Times New Roman and I know terms like "serif" or "san-serif" and am a little (just a little) obsessed with analyzing things I see. Everything covered in this course--from fonts to colors to layout to Gestalt Principles and everything else will be super useful when I once again step back into the world of advertising. Design is everywhere, and advertising is all about good ideas and good design.

Now, the loathing part. This course was probably one of the most challenging ones I've ever taken in my life. I understand the concepts covered in lecture, and I can completely imagine what my design's final product will look like and I can sketch them out on paper (although a bit sloppy). But here's the issue: I have trouble executing. Although I'm a lot more comfortable with InDesign and Illustrator now, I know I've still got a long way to go before I can feel fully confident doing a project without any of Nate's or Darren's or my classmates' assistance. This part utterly frustrates me. It is extremely stressful to be dropping your project in the class folder at approximately 4:45 pm each Friday. But it also forces me to learn, and to learn it quick. I might get some books later to brush up on the software skills, because I feel that design is such a crucial part of my future profession (or any profession, for that matter). I might even stop loathing the execution process once I get comfortable enough with the programs. That, or leave it for the art directors to do. ha.

Wrap up post

2009-08-13T19:20:00.004-04:00

When I first came to this class a few weeks ago, I was really nervous because I was totally unfamiliar with the programs. Also, I imagined that they were all really hard to use or that I wouldn't be any good at them. After six weeks, while I still feel that some of the programs are difficult to use, I feel much more comfortable working with all of them in general and I actually like some of the work that I've done. I think I enjoyed the magazine and resume projects the most and the poster project the least. While I did not think all the lectures were necessarily useful, I always felt like I was learning something new in the lab. I thought Nate and Darren did a really good job of teaching us the programs and were always very helpful, even though I'm pretty sure we drove them crazy at times.

I feel that you can really get creative with graphics, if you apply some of the design principles that we learnt in class. I really look at design differently now. I have started to understand the importance of type, contrast and similarity in design and I see that they all play an important role in getting your message across to the target audience.

I'm sure I'm going to be using some of these programs at some point in my career and so I'm glad that I have begun to learn it, although I'm not sure that I will ever feel as strongly as some of the people in the Helvetica video about type!

Wrap-up post

2009-08-12T20:35:00.002-04:00

Oh, graphics, how can I describe the ways in which you've changed me these last six weeks. Before this, I was just a technologically illiterate lost soul. But really, this class has done SO much for me and has forced me to do things that I NEED to do. I had never used ANY of these programs before, no lie. I was very, very nervous coming into this class because I knew I was going to look like an idiot not knowing anything about graphics and little about computers in general. I'm really glad I've now spent some time using Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and I think Dreamweaver is next, right? The programs actually look more intimidating than they really are. But, I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go, I need more practice so I can really remember all the tools and tricks (and stop asking my TA Nate for constant reminders!) I knew I needed to work with these programs and learn them, because these skills are valuable in the job market and are integral to magazines and online publications, my desired fields of interest.

The pressure and time crunch to get these huge projects done in two days was so stressful, but in the end, I'm glad we did it that way because it makes me feel like I can do anything now. All the projects were quite a tackel, but many were extremely useful like the resume and business card. I think my favorite one so far was either the poster or magazine layout.

I like how Greg always showed us a lot of student examples in lecture, and I liked the interactive stuff we did in lecture. Although typography is a bit tough to swallow, I understand why it is important from a design perspective. And it has changed how I look at things, I think it's changed everyone because we're all mentioning different typefaces frequently.

The Gestalt principles were helpful, I've been using continuation in every project I think.

So, I've come a long way, but I still have far to go, but at least this class was the first one to get me started on the design road.

Magazine Project

2009-08-10T21:19:00.004-04:00

For my magazine project, I chose to do a travel magazine about Ireland. I studied abroad there in 2007 when I was a junior in undergrad and absolutely fell in love with the country. I will admit that it wasn't my original idea but as I went searching for ideas and magazines, this one prevailed and ended up as my idea. The article I chose was a top ten places that you must visit while in Ireland. I didn't change their order of places to see. I did change all the pictures and format of the article. The photograph of Ireland and the Guinness pint were found on-line and the other 3 or 4 were ones that I had taken while I was there.

I didn't use drop caps in my article because of the numbers and titles of the places. It competed too much with each other so I decided to not use drop caps. The greens and tans all came out of the Ireland photograph. So I tied in my feature spread with my jump spread that way. Also, the blue background in the sidebar came from the blue background on the feature spread.

For fonts, I used a couple font families. I don't remember all of them but there were probably like 5 families used. All of the fonts I used were meant for that particular word or phrase. So I didn't randomly just use them. I named my magazine "What's the Craic?" which craic means good or fun. The Irish use this term a lot. The intent of my magazine is to be very photo heavy with a lot of colors. Ireland is a very colorful place and the magazine honors that attribute. I used a 12 grid system for the layout and a 2 column system for the text.

Current Event

2009-08-10T12:29:00.006-04:00

I stumbled across the site www.designtalkboard.com a site with resources for persons working in the creative industry.

The site has a myriad of pages with information and also had a very useful list of iPod applications which are helpful for designers. The list included an application which turned the iPod into a ruler, another with colour palettes, a swatch library and interactive colour wheel.
The applications seemed pretty cool, and turned a mainly entertainment device into a tool for the trade.

Thumbnails of the Ruler and Colorexpert apps.

The site also featured forums about issues including: web design, software, prepress and design education.
What I found interesting was that the website was not littered with 'pretty nothings' to dazzle the reader. It was simple and clean. It was clearly designed on a grid. The masthead was typography set against a light grid and the navigation bar tucked neatly under it. I liked the layout...
I think the side bars were a bit too cramped though... Every other item is set against a grey background and that is distracting for me. But, it did appear that they left sufficient margins so the text did not start immediately on the edge of the grey boxes.
For a list of the iPod apps, go to http://www.designtalkboard.com/design-hardware/iphoneapps.php

Claudine Magazine Spread

2009-08-10T12:19:00.002-04:00

MAGAZINE IDENTITY AND READERSHIP:
The name of the magazine is “On Stage” and it is a magazine that publishes Q&A interviews with entertainers and artistes. The publication is designed to be for entertainment enthusiasts.
On Stage is a quarterly magazine and is distributed worldwide.

MAGAZINE VISUAL IDENTITY
The design is crafted to put the artist centerstage. It is a ‘no-ad’ publication, so it often transitions into posters taken from issues. If I had to design a cover for this issue, it would feature Michael Jackson given his recent passing. The cover would be bold with the masthead discretely placed to maintain presence but preserve focus on the main featured artiste.

ARTICLE VISUAL IDENTITY
I wanted to make the Q&A easy to read, but distinguish between the questions and answers from Michael. I also wanted to readers to be drawn by the photos of him performing.

Article Design Strategy
The feature page gives the reader a feeling of Jackson as a performer. I used photos of him performing at Motown, and included Quincy Jones of whom he speaks. I used the colours in the feature spread in the jump spread to maintain consistency and also used photos of the same intensity on both pages. It gives a feeling of uniformity. I maintained the black and purple bluish colours which I think kind of discribes Michael - really intense (black) and royal - purple. But, I broke it up with a bit of red which I got from his lips in one of the photos.

Style Sheet:
Opening Spread Headline: Bauhaus Standard - 300 and 380
Opening Spread Deckhead: News Gothic - 50
Jump Spread Pull Quote: Bauhaus Standard - Light - 14
Body Copy: Chaparral Pro 9.5

Document Grid: I used a 6 column grid because I think it gives flexiblity for placing photos and text

Sources:
Feature spread photo: www.londonisfunny.com
Jumpspread:
www.michael.wordpress.com
www.thewrittenword.wordpress.com
www.filter27.com

DRAGAZINE

2009-08-10T11:41:00.004-04:00

Magazine Identity & Readership

Ferosh is a magazine intended for drag queens (female impersonators) but is also geared toward anyone with an appreciation of drag culture and feminine beauty. Drag culture is over-the-top, theatrical, and fun, so I wanted to create a magazine that would maintain these qualities. Although drag queens make up a very specific demographic of people, Ferosh would offer entertainment for other groups of people from heterosexual women seeking beauty tips to homosexual men looking for their daily dose of Britney Spears, or in this case, the lovely Katy Perry. When drag queens like something like a dress or a wig, they may call it “fierce,” but when they really love something they may say “ferosh” for ferocious. I wanted this magazine to be a level above fierce.

Magazine Visual Identity

If I were to have designed a cover for my magazine, I would probably use a similar picture of Katy Perry. She is dressed in a Fosse-meets-Betty-Paige-meets-bondage look, and I can totally imagine the drag queens I know eating this up. On the cover, I would say something about Katy Perry being the “muse of the month.” This title would mean that Katy Perry is the female performer that drag queens are looking to for inspiration right now and would be a monthly feature in Ferosh. I would want the overall look of the magazine to be a little over-the-top with lots of color and costumes. If I could put sequins somewhere in this magazine…I probably would.

Article Visual Identity

Visually, I wanted to create a layout that showcased vintage glam. Using shades of black, white, and red, I wanted the layout to have a classic look with the gritty background of the bricks throughout. I wanted my design to be kind of naughty and scandalous without being trashy, which I suppose is the ultimate goal for many of my friends who are performers. I wanted my visuals to push the boundaries to the edge but maintain a level of sophistication.

Article Design Strategy

The original Katy Perry article was from Cosmopolitan and features very “innocent-looking” pictures. It talks about her music, fashion, sex, etc. I took very racy pictures of her from Complex magazine and decided to spin the images that were intended for men and target an entirely different market.

For my lead spread, I chose a picture of Katy Perry looking very powerful in black and white. Because there is a brick background, I used a faded brick background on the other side of the page for continuity. She is looking upwards in the picture, so I tilted the headline and deck head to tilt the opposite way, as if to look at each other. I used the color red for the “ferosh” and “Katy Perry” because they are the most important words of the headline and indicate that the color red will be found elsewhere in the article. I also used a different typeface for “ferosh” because I wanted the word to look the sexiest and set itself apart from the rest of the headline. I used ITC Eras Std for the rest of my headline and deck head because it was a sans serif that was modern and kind of funky against the brick.

For my jump spread, I used two pictures of Katy Perry in the Betty Paige look. It’s provocative, but it’s not trashy, and I showed continuity with my lead spread by using a faded brick background. Red appears in Katy’s lipstick, the drop cap, and the sidebar, which also ties to the headline of the lead spread. For my body text, I used Adobe Garamond Pro because it added an elegance to the article that offset some of the scandal implied by the images.

In my sidebar I showed two of Katy Perry’s “costumes” that happened to follow the black, white and red theme. I titled the sidebar “luvs it!” because it’s a catchphrase drag queens use to show approval. The sidebar is also meant to give fashion inspiration to the performers and whoever else is reading the article.

Style Sheet

Opening spread headline:

ITC Eras Std Demi

“Perry” 150/180

“is” 60/72

Snell Roundhand LT Std Black Script

“Ferosh” 170/204

Author/photo credit: ITC Eras Std Demi

“By Shirley Halperin” 24/28.8

“Photos: Gavin Bond” 18/21.6

Opening spread deck head: ITC Eras Std Medium and Bold

“Move over…” 36/43.2

“Katy Perry” (bold) 72/86.4

“is” 36/43.2

“New Muse” 48/57.6

Jump Spread body text: Adobe Garamond Pro 10/13

Jump Spread pull quote: ITC Eras Std Demi 18/21.6

Jump Spread sidebar:

“Luvs It!” ITC Eras Std Demi 18/22

body text, ITC Eras Std Medium 12/15

Folios: ITC Eras Std Demi 7/8.4

Document Grid

I used a 12-column grid and 2 columns for my body text because it worked much better for me than 3 columns. For my margins I used 2.6 on top, 2p10 on the bottom, and 1p5 on the inside and outside.

Sources

For my images I used an article from the August issue of Complex magazine, and Gavin Bond took the pictures.

For my sidebar, I used two pictures that I found from Google images.

Katy in polka dot dress: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://socialitelife.celebuzz.com/bfm_gallery/2009/06/katy_perry_at_the_capital_radio_summertime_ball_/gallery_main/gallery_main-katyperry-summertime-ball-06092009-04.jpg&imgrefurl=http://socialitelife.celebuzz.com/archive/2009/06/09/katy_perry_wants_to_pull_a_britney_spears.php&usg=__cqluH5-996skfLjFGrVo_ax6Um0=&h=759&w=452&sz=96&hl=en&start=24&um=1&tbnid=InkaAwwXEqwnwM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3DKaty%2Bperry%2Bpolka%2Bdot%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1

Katy in tuxedo:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/07/article-1083681-0262C8FB000005DC-83_468x683.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1083681/Quick-change-Katy-Perry-wows-MTV-Awards-TEN-different-outfits.html&usg=__7fqCQE-L9aZYvkU0SzICSsTLXBw=&h=683&w=468&sz=93&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=pEt-rRwSQ2eEkM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkaty%2Btuxedo%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

Magazine project

2009-08-09T23:00:00.008-04:00

Jenny Richter

Magazine Project

08/06/09

Magazine Identity and readership
My magazine’s title is nouvelle, which means news in French, and I wanted to create a news magazine intended to appeal to women, particularly professional women between the ages of 25-55.

Magazine Visual Identity
Since I wanted this magazine to appeal to women I gave it a stylish layout similar to that of a fashion magazine., I also incorporated lots of visuals of Michelle appearing fashionable and well dressed along with shots of her husband to appeal to my target audience. On the cover I would have tried to continue the simple sleek layout that would be feminine and classy so that it would appeal to professional women.

Article Visual Identity
My article is a discussion among African American women about the president’s recent inauguration and what Michelle Obama means to them in particular. I intended to convey the article visually through the layout of the article, by incorporating images of Michelle looking elegant but also laid back and natural so that she seems relatable to the audience. I also tried to fit my headline and deck heads to the content of the article both in content and design.

Article Design Strategy
The initial impression my opening spread makes, with the black and white photo of Michelle is that she is natural and beautiful, which relates to my headline, the reader then looks down to the other images of her in several different situations. I took the color from the left photo and incorporated that color into the headline and then I layered the deck head and author underneath the headline to give it continuation. I open my jump spread with an image of Michelle with her family to give it a warm feeling that women would find appealing. I also continued the background color from the opening spread to jump spread to make the layout consistent. To this end I put two columns of text in the layout and used a modern type serif font with thin and thick contrasting strokes, Bell Mt Std, which looked similar to what is often used in fashion magazines. I used Helvetica Nue ltd st a sans serif to contrast the serif text, it still had a very thin stroke, which I thought worked well with modern serif.

Style Sheet
Opening Spread Deck head Folios Helvetica Nue ltd st rome 55 20/24
Opening Spread Headline Bell Mt Std semibold italic 12/14.4
Opening Spread Headline Bell Mt Std semibold italic 57/68.4
Jump spread pull quote Helvetica Nue ltd st bold

Document Grid
I chose to have two grids of text in my jump text to make my magazine seem similar to fashion and high end news magazine. I kept made my first picture and my side bar the same width as the two columns of text to give the layout consistency.

The black and white photo of Michelle Obama and the picture of her laughing on my opening page came from the May 2009 issue of Time Magazine

Sources
The picture on the far right on my opening page came from the March 2009 issue of Vouge Magazine

The family photo of the Obama’s on my jump page came from
beauty.about.com/.../ss/michelle-obama2_2.htm

The Center picture of Michelle on the right page of the jump spread came from this website www.kenyasstyle.com/blogs/kenyasstyle/2009/04...

The bottom left photo on the second page in the jump spread in the Side bar came from this website
chicago.about.com/.../ss/ObamaLovePhotos_7.htm

The photo bottom photo on the second page in the jump spread in the side bar came from this website
www.mystyle.com/mystyle/b2738_arm_candy_coutu...

Magazine Design

2009-08-09T22:41:00.006-04:00

Magazine identity & readership

My magazine (Gorgeous) is a high classic fashion magazine. It is published every month and introduces new fashion trends. It reports a celebrity every month. The intended readership are well educated women who are interested in fashion.

Magazine visual identity

I used black and white photos to present Megan Fox, who is very sexy in her usual time. I want to give readers a different version of Megan, who can also be very classic and elegant.

Article visual identity

The article is to dig the soul of Megan, not just body. So the black and white version could be the perfect connection between them because it’s simple and meaningful.

Article design strategy

On the first page, the big image of Megan’s face jumps into reader’s eyes. I used the portrait of the person because I don’t want to show her body again (too much of it). It makes readers look straightly into her eyes and soul. The font of the context is rather firm and clear, which expresses the intelligence of Megan.

Style sheet

Opening spread deckhead :

Bulmer MT Std 72

Waters Titling Pro 72

Folios: Stempel Schneidler Std 12

Opening spread headline: Stempel Schneidler Std 12

Jump spread pull quote Stempel Schneidler Std 14

Document grid

I used two columns instead of three because I want it to be as simple as possible.

magazine

2009-08-09T12:02:00.003-04:00

Magazine identity & readership:

My magazine is called mosh pit gormandizer. Unlike other music and entertainment magazines that provide hardly any information or articles on concerts, mosh pit gormandizer is for the concert enthusiast who wants to know what artists are in concert and why. The word “gormandizer” is in reference to CBGB & OMFUG ("Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers"), the famous concert venue in New York. Gormandizer is loosely defined as a “ravenous eater of food.” In terms of my magazine, my readers are people who are “ravenous” for mosh pits and live music.

Magazine visual identity:

My magazine design is geared towards readers who appreciate photos of concerts and any background information about the band and their music. I want readers to see the concert photos and want to be in the audience cheering. If I were to have designed a cover I would take 20-30 ticket stubs and organize them like bricks so they covered the entire page. The tickets, which would be dirty, bloody, bent and in perfect condition, would be from some of the big concerts this month. I would package my content by region/location and ticket price. The more popular bands playing bigger or more intimate venues, with cheaper ticket prices—like Blink 182—would get more coverage. In terms of tone, I want my readers to feel like my magazine appeals to their financial situation and their location.

Article visual identity:

The content of my feature article is meant to reinforce the fact that Blink 182, a punk rock band from California, is back together after a break up in 2005. The three pictures I used, including the feature spread, were intentionally chosen. All of them show the three band members together playing or clowning around. My sidebar is a discography of all the band’s major albums. The feeling I want my sidebar to convey is one of surprise and excitement that the band will be playing songs from most of these albums.

Article design strategy/Extras:

The overall design of my article is meant to show unity. As I mentioned above, I wanted to reinforce the idea that Blink is back together after years of bickering and working with other bands. I chose to open my feature with a huge picture of the band in concert to excite fans and bring back memories of past shows. The font I chose for the feature was Calvert. This serif font has little stroke variation and a large x-height. I liked this font because it conveys seriousness to an aging band that is known for their onstage antics. The light blue used for the deck head was taken from Mark Hoppus’ t-shirt (the guitarist on the left). The pink square above the ‘I” is also from his shirt. For the second half of the feature spread I use the pink square again to bring the eye down to the blue Futura type used for the headline. I use a white, bold Futura type to highlight the numbers four in 52 because they are most important for readers to know. This color white can also be seen on Hoppus’ guitar. I felt like Futura was a light-hearted font that provided a nice contrast to Calvert. Inside, I use the same blue in my drop cap and pull quote. For my sidebar I only used the color white because the blue and pink got drowned out or vibrated against the grey box. In order to create hierarchy, I used different variations of Futura type and different sizes. For the body text I chose Chaparral. I liked how this serif font was easy to read, a little wormlike and not too bookish or boring.

The two photos in the jump spread show the serious and playful attitude the band is trying to convey. This dichotomy is also shown through the album art. As the band got older, their album art got darker and more serious while maintaining a little but of that playfulness with a smiley face.

Style sheet:

- Opening spread deckhead: Calvert Bold, 150, the “l” and “I,” “n” and “k,” and “I” and “n” were kerned -10 each.

- Opening spread headline: Futura Medium, 26, the numbers 4 and 52 are in Futura Bold

- Folios: Chaparral, 8 (page #, Chaparral Bold)/7.5 (magazine name, Chaparral Bold)/6 (date, Chaparral Regular)

- Jump spread pull quote: Futura Medium, 15

- Side bar: Futura, 19 (side bar title, Bold)/12 (album title, Bold Italic)/8 (year released, Condensed), the “l” and “I,” “n” and “k,” and “I” and “n” were kerned -10 each. The “182” was kerned -30 between the 8 and 2 and -130 between the 1 and 8.

Document grid:

I used a 12-column grid for my jump spread. The 12 columns helped me organize the eight album covers and the accompanying text. For my text I used three columns. Three columns gave me enough space for my text but also left a good amount of white space. I used 2p0 for the top, 5p0 for the bottom and 2p0 for my side margins. I wanted more space at the bottom of my jump spread for my sidebar. I also wanted a larger margin so I could have more white space to balance out all the text. With my feature spread I changed the margins to 2p0 all around. Since I used a photograph across both pages, the margins don’t make much of a difference with one exception. I used these to decide where to place the headline.

Sources:

http://www.blink182.com/discography/

current event

2009-08-09T11:47:00.004-04:00

I was visiting www.insidehoops.com when I stumbled across an article about the Philidelphia 76ers. The Sixers, which have had a dry spell since Allen Iverson left, are switching back to their old logo which "evokes memories of some of this franchise’s proudest moments," said Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider in a June 23, 2009 article in the Web site. Snider also said,

We also made this change because we understood how much this logo means to our fans, this franchise and to our city. The fans had a big input on this decision. We’re excited and we want the entire City of Philadelphia to be excited for Sixers basketball.

Here is what the old logo looked like:

Here's the "new" logo:

I think this was a wise change. The old logo, with the star and tan colored type, looks dull and cheap. The "new" logo is much more iconic and clean looking. The brighter colors stand out on the white basketball. I also like the use of lower case type for the "ers."

Recently, a lot of NBA teams have been wearing throw-back jerseys regularly in games. In the same vein, this "new" logo is riding this wave of nostalgia that fans and players have bought into. This throw-back fad may not last long but this logo change is a step in the right direction.

Current Event #3

2009-08-09T01:18:00.002-04:00

So this week for my current event, I am relating it to the lecture that Mary gave on thursday about photography editing. I wanted to post this video on here that Dove did about how models are made up and that the product that you see isn't what it really is. I never knew this occurred until I saw the video. It really opened my eyes to the world of photoshop and modeling. I think it is a very powerful video. It really speaks to women. I think it exposes to people what the modeling world is all about. I also think it deters young women who want to become models from doing it. The video is all about being yourself and being real and I think they achieve it.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vFvLhNWfZU

I also want people to watch this video. It is along the same lines as the one above, but it goes into detail how they actually do it and what the industry has become. I found it pretty interesting and insightful.

Second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP31r70_QNM&NR=1

St. Ives logo change

2009-08-08T20:56:00.002-04:00

St. Ives recently redesigned it's display on the container of the appricot face scrub. The type face in 'St. Ives' changed to a more modern looking serif, and the name apricot scrub was changed to a thinner serif than the old bottle. The overall design is drastically different. The new bottle has less color and only a few peaches are at the top left hand corner. Personally, I think the older design is much more appealing. St. Ives decided to ditch the mountains over their logo, which I think was a poor idea because it connected the name to the swiss origins. I think that by changing the logo so much they might not sell as many products because people won't recognize the bottle at stores.

Current Event - Logos & Twitter

2009-08-08T20:55:00.002-04:00

I saw this story on one of those crazy design blogs and I couldn't help but comment. I think it's interesting how quickly new media and online social media has permeated throughout everything--even design. I mean, now there's Twitter feeds dedicated to discussing design. Are people actually following all of these? I guess there's something out there for everyone, but it's just interesting. There's blogs for everything facebook sites, twitter feeds and micro-blogging...how do people have the time to keep up with every single one of them? I barely have enough time to keep up with the new media stuff I do and I don't even work full time.

Current Event 3

2009-08-08T18:32:00.002-04:00

I noticed the Sci-Fi channel had changed their name and logo a few days ago while I was chanel surfing. I was baffled by the change initially. According to the New York Times, the name change (same pronounciation, different spelling) has come out of a re-branding campaign and the fact that Sci-Fi was too generic to trademark (because it's a genre) but SyFy can become a trademark. The channel also says it's trying to differrentiate itself from other cable networks.

After reading the NY Times article, I have more of an understanding for why they changed the spelling. It makes sense, especially from a business point of view, to be able to fully own and trademark your channel's name, you want to stand out inside of blend in with a larger genre. It will certainly take some getting used to. The company's new slogan "imagine greater" has replaced their old logo. I like the slogan, but I think the channel needs a visual, especially if the network is about science fiction. For some reason, whenever I look at the new logo, it reminds me of a "green" company. I guess it's the sans-sarif, bold, white text, and it's very organic looking. The old logo, with its typeface and saturn image is more reminiscent of science fiction. I liked the saturn. Maybe change the name but keep the same style and saturn logo?

Current Event

2009-08-08T18:19:00.002-04:00

On Friday August 7th, Gingko press announced it would be releasing the "look back issue," #70 of Emigre, which will feature 25 years of images from graphic design in a 512 page book, the issue will be released on December 5th, 2009. The issue will feature historical images from Emigre through its humble beginnings in the 1980's through to its successful present. The issue will cover the transition of graphic design that occurred with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer. The book will also feature the rise of emigre to one of the most popular and controversial design magazines. The book was edited by the co-founder and designer of Emigre co-founder and designer Rudy VanderLans. The website for the article is listed below. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/default.aspx

Kit's Magazine Project

2009-08-08T16:24:00.002-04:00

Magazine Identity & Readership

My magazine name is “Parler,” which is French for “speak.” I intended it to be an upscale fashion/entertainment magazine for women in their mid-twenties to forties.

Magazine Visual Identity

I would describe my magazine design as clean, simple, and readable. If I had designed a cover for this issue, I would use the color grey to tie in with my visual identity (since Gwen Stefani is wearing grey in the feature spread and my deckhead is also that color). My cover would probably have a large picture of Gwen Stefani, because she is the selling point of this particular issue. I intend the tone of the magazine to be chic, upscale, and entertaining.

Article Visual Identity

My feature spread has a large photo of Gwen Stefani to pull the reader in. I also had various photos of Gwen Stefani in different stages of her life to tie in with the headline of “Platinum Blonde Life” (which is also one of her song titles).

Article Design Strategy

For my feature spread, Gwen Stefani is looking directly at the audience, yet her body language also leads you to the left side of the page to the article. I chose a Serif font for the headline so that it conveys a sense of chic and sophistication. The sans serif for the deckhead complements the fine lines of the serif on the headline. For my body copy, I also used a serif to keep the looks consistent and keep the article readable.

Style Sheet

Opening Spread Deckhead: Helvetica Neue LT Std 25 Ultra Light 22/23

Folios: Helvetica 8.5

Opening Spread Headline: Didot LT Std 105/90

Jump Spread Pull Quote: Didot LT Std 20/22

Document Grid

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what type of grid to use for my magazine design. Initially, I wanted 2 column grids but in the end I went with 3 columns because it was more flexible to place my photos and sidebar story. I also chose wide margins to keep a classy look to the magazine and to make sure my body copy wouldn’t be too crowded.

Sources

All my images were from nodoubt.com and gwenstefani.com

Current Events- Kelly Clarkson Cover Controversy

2009-08-08T15:58:00.004-04:00

The controversial cover

Kelly Clarkson from a recent performance in late July

So just a few days after our lecture on the powers and dangers of Photoshop, I find this article on my Yahoo homepage. Kelly Clarkson is the covergirl for the September issue of Self magazine, and her curves have (obviously) been photoshopped out. Apparently, this has caused quite a big controversy online, with some people feeling “cheated” by the magazine for distorting the truth. Self magazine responded by admitting that they did some digital airbrushing, but “no more than any other cover model.” The editor-in-chief also added that Kelly Clarkson’s cover “shows her confidence and beauty.”

Oh, the irony. This was the Total Body Confidence issue of Self magazine and it ends up completely blowing up in their face for airbrushing Kelly Clarkson’s curves. It also doesn’t help that “Slim Your Way Down” is written right next to her on the cover. To be fair, I know that all magazines photoshop their models, but I think the trick is to do it in a subtle manner so that the audience won’t notice it. This really goes back to our lecture on where the fine line lies between truth and distortion with digital altercations.

In this case, it probably was bad judgment on the magazine’s part since Kelly Clarkson is a high profile celebrity that always had people buzzing about her weight to begin with. What do you guys think?

Source of Current Event: here

Magazine Project

2009-08-08T13:53:00.017-04:00

Magazine Identity and

Readership

My magazine is Timeless Style. It is targeted at women of a higher income group, between the ages of 25 and 35. It focuses on high fashion and high society.

Magazine Visual Identity

As the article mainly focuses on Julianne Moore, her career, motherhood and life at 48, I picked out a strong, beautiful image of her for the feature spread and made that the dominant image on the page. Since the article talks about her ageless style, I picked an elegant and sophisticated font to match the photograph and highlighted the word ‘Moore’ to show that she constantly wants more out of life.

For the jump spread, I picked another photograph of her where she still looks beautiful and sexy even at 48 and made that the dominant image on the jump spread. She is a celebrity and is wearing clothes that can all be considered high fashion, which is what the magazine is all about.

Article Visual Identity

The content again ties in with the idea of her being an ageless beauty and managing a successful career and kids.

Article Design Strategy

The image on the feature spread ties in with the font - the color of the font reflects the color of her hair and eyes. The title is also in line with her eyes. This is to create a sense of continuity leading the reader from the image to the text.

This feeling of elegant sophistication is carried from the feature spread to the jump spread through the use of color and the text used. In the jump spread, the colors used in the drop caps, quote and sidebar are the same or a variation of the colors used on the feature spread. I also used a sans serif font for the sidebar as it is easier to read and serif fonts for the rest of the article because it looks prettier.

Style Sheet

Opening Spread Deckhead – Caslon Roman, 20

Folios – Adobe Garamond Pro, 10

Opening Spread Headline – Caslon Italic, 72/144

Jump Spread Pull Quote - Adobe Garamond Pro, 22

Document Grid

I chose to have two columns because I thought that it looked easier to read and more elegant and I had 13 pt leading between lines because I thought that would be easier to read.

Sources

Photographs are from the following websites:

Photograph on feature spread - theinsider.com

Photograph on jump spread - www.leninimports.com

Photograph of Colin Firth and Moore - eonline. com

Extras

The image on the feature spread ties in with the font - the color of the font reflects the color of her hair and eyes. In the jump spread, the colors used in the drop caps, quote and sidebar are the same or a variation of the colors used on the feature spread.

Jovita Current Event 3

2009-08-08T13:40:00.003-04:00

The Obama administration has recently come out with a new healthcare logo meant to promote his initiatives toward healthcare reform. I think it has been done well and is reminiscent of the 'O' used in his logo during his campaign trail.

The logo is partially filled with red and white stripes and topped with a caduceus, a herald's staff entwined with two snakes and topped with a pair of wings that is often used to symbolize the medical profession.

I think Obama is one of the few presidents who has really made good use of branding and typography to build up support not only for his election but also for all the initiatives he plans to undertake while he is in government. People immediately look at that 'O' and think of him, which is really the power of branding.

2009-08-08T11:57:00.002-04:00

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/loopy_solutions.php

Network Solutions has recently changed its logo. The company is a pioneer of domain registration and as of January 2009 has managed over 6.6 million domain names. Although this company provides an easy way to register a domain, in the past there has been some controversy because the company allegedly locked up domain names automatically if they were searched but not purchased. All that aside, the company is redesigning it's website and logo.

I don't see anything spectacular about the old logo. Considering this company is devoted to registering domains of organizations and people that have all sorts of logos and designs for their respective websites, it's important that Network Solutions is staying current in their branding. I like the look of the new logo. I like the choice of typeface --- the curvature of the "t"s work well with the loopy quality of the n/s. The new logo looks much more modern and speaks for itself in a more distinctive way. Before this class, I would have never really considered the importance of Network Solution's decision to re-brand themselves, but I am now aware of how crucial it is to stay current -- especially with a company based around domain registration. I certainly would not have noticed the continuity created with the "t" and the "n/s," but I have become much more aware of these details as well.

Current Event 3

2009-08-08T01:42:00.003-04:00

Launch of new logo, new brand... New Tropicana!

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tropicana Las Vegas unveils its energetic new logo to kick off the comprehensive revitalization and rebranding of the legendary Las Vegas Strip property. The vibrant, almost free-form logo replaces the previous diamond visual that has been used for more than two decades.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090806/LA58488LOGO)

"The new company logo will serve as a roadmap for our entire transformation," said company Chairman and CEO Alex Yemenidjian. "From the Havana inspired font to the lively color palette and unique arrangement; this image was designed to represent our vision of excitement, sensuality, rhythm and style."

With more than 50 years of staying power on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard the property once coined "The Tiffany on the Strip" has stood virtually unchanged since the last major renovation in 1985.

"The unveiling of this new company logo marks the beginning of a complete renovation and rebranding of the property with an energizing South Beach, Miami feel," said Yemenidjian. "The new Tropicana Las Vegas will have a hot Havana-like vibe with pulsating music, live salsa dancers, bright tropical colors and a sizzling nightlife scene."

Recently acquired by the Onex Corporation and led by Yemenidjian, the Tropicana will undergo a long-awaited physical and cultural transformation. Tropicana Las Vegas' planned $125 million renovation includes the redesign of every hotel room, the casino and world-famous pool area among others. There will also be several new restaurants, bars, a new poker room and nightclub.

In addition to the physical renovations taking place, the new Tropicana and its' team will exceed customer service standards, improve overall atmosphere and guest experience, and maintain the highest level of quality property wide.

I think the new logo is fresh and really exciting. It's simpler than the old one and became more impressive. The color is also very bright, which draws people's attention easily.

Erica Magazine Spread

2009-08-07T16:54:00.000-04:00

Magazine Identity & Readership

The name of my magazine is Indie Quarterly, a quarterly magazine highlighting different Indie aspects of film and music. The intended magazine audience is young hipsters, whether female or male (though the magazine has a more feminine feel.)

Magazine Visual Identity

What I intended to convey visually through my magazine design was a hip, yet classy tone, with a bit of a feminine feel. If I designed a cover for this issue, Zooey Deschanel would be the main focus, with no other photos and a few cover lines on each side of her. I would package my content with organic tones, professional-looking typefaces and the personality would be hip and up-and-coming.

Article Visual Identity

The content I intended to convey visually through my feature was a quirky, yet semi-sophisticated tone. I wanted it somewhat quirky because Zooey Deschanel is quirky and organic, but simple too. I wanted the focus to be on her and not the design necessarily.

Article Design Strategy

The initial impression my feature page makes is fun and soothing. The deep purple is low-key, not screaming out at you. It’s fun/quirky because Zooey is looking up and smiling in the picture, and the headline is a question. I carried this feeling into the jump spread by continuing the deep purple (which is from the color on her shirt) in my drop cap, pull quote and sidebar. With the jump pictures, one is sophisticated and the other more low-key and organic. My type further complements this message because it is toned down, very magazine-like, with a hint of a feminine touch.

Style Sheet

Opening Spread Headline: ITC Korinna STD Bold 152.9/183/.5

Opening Spread Deckhead: ITC Lubalin Graph STD Book and Demi 24/30

Byline: ITC Korinna STD book 14/16.8

Body Copy: Kepler STD Caption 10/12

Pull Quote: ITC Lubalin Graph STD Book 22/26

Photo Caption: Utopida STD 9/10.8 Bold Caption

Photo Credit: Warnock Pro Caption 6/7.2

Folio: ITC Lubalin Graph STD Book 10/12

Sidebar Title: ITC Lubalin Graph STD Demi 30/28

Sidebar: Cronos Pro Semibold Display 12/14.4, 11/13.2, 10/12

DropCap: Times Regular 129/155

Document Grid

I chose 12 columns because it allowed me to line things up really well. My margins are Top 2p0, Bottom 4p0, Inside and Outside: 3p2. I set them this way because magazines normally have a lot of white space at the bottom and small space at the top.

Sources

Wallpapers.skins.be/zooey_deschanel/zooey-deschanel-1600x1200-30457.jpg

Yeni.az/uploads/posts/2009-01/1232047084_zooey_deschanel_003/jpg

Images.allmoviephoto.com/2008_Yes_Man_048.jpg

Dailybeautynews.wordpress.com/2009/05/82063_zooey_deschanel_jeff_vespa_2007_146_122_45810_wwwhqparadisehu1.jpg

Images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/1700000/Elf-Will-Ferrell-1747353-800_450.jpg

Macleans.files.wordpress.com120081061th_05419r-thehappening-zade-rosenthal.jpg

Extras

I took the purple from her shirt and used it throughout the design, the color makes a more subdued, professional tone.

Lisa's Magazine Feature

2009-08-07T16:46:00.004-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership

My magazine is CountryStar, and is intended for fans of country music. The magazine comes out monthly, and in each issue there is a spread on a featured artist. The feature varies from group to solo artist to duet, and from men to women. The magazine contains information that primarily interests woman, but there is information that appeals to men such as tour dates and information on how male country stars spend there time.

Magazine Visual Identity

CountryStar magazine gives it’s readers a very up close look into the lives of famous country performers. The magazine is very photo heavy and shows the stars performing and gives a look into his or her personal lives. It is chalked full of interviews allowing the stars to tell their own stories. The cover would draw the reader in through the featured artists large photo and teasers about other country performers.

Article Visual Identity

Taylor’s feature article allows readers to get a look into her professional and personal life. For readers who don’t know much about the star the feature gives a very good taste of what she is all about. Through pictures that relate to the article I allowed reader to better connect with the article

Article Design Strategy

The initial impression is that Taylor is a serious and classy performer.The hierarchy of the feature spread is the image of Taylor Swift with her microphone; her first name on the opposing page mocks the angle that she is holding it at. The bold font in the headline was chosen for her out going personality, and the script to demonstrate her class and feminine style. The deck head front also alludes to her feminine, classy reputation. The white space on the page is used to leave the focus on her, which plays off the title ‘Taylor Moves into the Spotlight.’ On the inside spread the photos were selected to show her popularity with fans and to a

Magazine

2009-08-07T16:38:00.011-04:00

Magazine Identity & Readership
My magazine is called WORLD, and it’s a magazine like Time or Newsweek. A news based magazine, and feature magazine about BIG things in the World. Readership would be intellectuals, people who like to know what’s going on the world, and particularly larger than life things: civil war, sky scrapers, political powers, World Cup. My particular article is a Sports article that I think would fit. It’s on Usain Bolt, and how he is the fastest man in the history of the World.

Magazine Visual Element
As you can see from my folio, I choose a tall serif font, and wrote World in all caps. As far as the cover, I would probably just write out the number of the estimated amount of people that have ever walked the face of the Earth… and then blow a lot bigger, “Fastest Ever”, with some dominant visual element, like Usain Bolt’s famous pose, or just his face.

Article Visual Identity
My article features a dominant visual, of the 100m dash from the ’08 Beijing games. The picture is of the field coming down the runway at the Birds Nest. I think it’s on par with all the images of Phelps from that summer. Phelps had numerous moments, but it’s hard to recall one image from his performance. Usain Bolt’s time in the spotlight was shorter, yet I think we remember that moment more vividly. Him crossing the finish line at a jog, way out in front of the field is what I’ll always remember. My article uses Polaroid’s to capture a lot of shots from the monumental moment, as well as tying together the yellow and green from Bolt’s native country and Jamaica throughout the article.

Article Design Strategy
I really enjoyed this assignment. When you enjoy it shows in your work, as well as your mood when facing the computer for hours on end. I thought the feature spread worked really well. The visual is great and really dominant, as well as the use of just the time as the main headline. As I worked with the Polaroid’s I thought it would work better and communicate the cohesiveness of the Polaroid’s, by adding them to the feature as well. I used the cliché 15 minutes of fame, and used it to go along with the 9.69… “seconds of fame.” The idea behind the deck head ties into that, its basically talking about how Bolt’s life changed in a matter of seconds. Prior to the gun at the Olympics he was really a no body, and what he did over the next 9.69 seconds, changed his life forever. The rest of the visuals are post race, the celebration, and success generated from that 9.69 seconds. All which would not have come to fruition, had it not been for that brief moment in time.

Style Sheet

Headline: Cambria 59/70.8 bold
Opening Deck Head: Cambria 24/29 regular & bold
Body Copy Cambria 9.5/13
Folio: Birch Std 12/14.4 regular
Pull Quote: Cambria 14/16.8 bold
Sidebar Headline Cambria 20/24 bold
Sidebar Calibri 9.5/13 bold
Photo Caption Headline Cambria 9.5/11.4 all caps
Photo Caption Calibri 9.5/11.4 regular
Photo credits Calibri 7/8.4 regular

Document Grid
The margins for the top, sides, and bottom are 2p5, 3p0, and 3p5 respectively. My text goes pretty close to the edges and doesn’t allow a lot of holding space, but I really wanted a lot of content to be able to fit. I want this magazine and article to be content heavy. You pay for the magazine, you deserve all the content you can get.

Sources

Article: ESPN the Magazine

Photos: Google Images

FEATURE SPREAD (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) www.iowastatedaily.com/ blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com, widewallpapers.vyhledavace.net

JUMP SPREAD www.deviantart.com, upload.wikimedia.org, Boltbeijing.jpg , www.egmcartech.com

www.automobilesreview.com, w.ibleedgarnetandgold.com, lh3.ggpht.com

Extras
I used the color of his outfit, the green in particular for the headline, some keywords in the deck, and the background color for my sidebar. I tried to use it sparingly, and really only sprinkled it in a few places. I chose and orangeish yellow for the time on the feature, and used it as the headline for my sidebar. I think they work very well together.

Typogaphy on an invitation

2009-08-07T16:05:00.006-04:00

I found a great example of creative and elegant typography in the FPO blog. A woman designing an invitation for a gala used a folio stamp to create the lettering with underwater images. What I think is so great about it is that the design works even at a distance. In this first photograph you can read what the bold sanserif is saying and the wavey design of the stamplooks a bit like fish scales or waves. Then when you zoom in you can see that fishes, wave like lines and water bubbles were also incorporated into the design. I love that the tpeface of "river" and "gala" contrasts so much with the script type of the rest of the invitation. I also think the metallic blue against the black backgroun accentutes the visual of the message.

Ultimate Frisbee Magainze

2009-08-07T15:54:00.001-04:00

My magazine is for people who love to play Ultimate Frisbee and identify with Frisbee culture. It would contain articles on Ultimate Frisbee and things going on in the community (for example the outcome of the Ultimate Peace expedition to the Middle East, or the outcome of the World Games).

The magazine design would be fun and full of bright colors, because Ultimate players love bright colors. You only have to look at a typical jersey to see that! The images throughout the magazine would be pictures of people playing Ultimate at any level and having a good time. This isn’t the UPA magazine, which focuses mostly on high level of college and club play. My magazine is called Ultimate Joy and would focus on people anywhere playing to win (at all levels) because they love it.

The article is on how to properly throw a forehand, and get some real power behind that. As a result every picture is of a good Ultimate player releasing a forehand throw. I used photographs of three very different forehand throws; all three well executed and appropriate for the defense that the thrower was facing.

The initial message is just play ultimate Frisbee. There is a college-aged boy winding up for a forehand throw. I connected the right side of my spread to the left side with ellipses disappearing into the background, almost like a Frisbee flying away. I took the color of the Frisbee for the bar on the left side of the spread, the side bar story, and the headline. I used bold type initially in the headline because the article is about a powerful forehand throw, and I wanted the type to look powerful. Then I contrasted that with a thinner type for the rest of the headline. I picked simple and easy to read type for the text because reading a magazine should be simple and easy.

Headline: Marker Felt Wide 81/100 and Monaco 45/54
Deckhead: Stoneserif Semibold 38/38
By line: Stoneserif Bold 20/13
Opening Spread Story: Stoneserif Medium 14/20
Jump Spread Story: Stoneserif Medium 9.5/11.5
Paragraph Headers: Stoneserif Bold 12/13
Captions: Skia 8/11
Photo Credits: Skia 8/11
Sidebar Headline: Stoneserif Bold 12/13
Sidebar Copy: Skia 10/10.78
Sidebar Photo Captions: Skia 8/11
Sidebar Photo Credit: Skia 8/11

I used a 12-column grid because it allowed me a lot of flexibility in photograph size. I made my left, right and top columns 3p0 because I did not want too much white space on the sides. The bottom margin is 4p0 because I wanted to leave a little more space for the page number and bottom information, without making it seem crowded.

For the sidebar I used pictures from the Ultimate Peace flickr photostream (www.flickr.com). The rest of the photographs were either taken by myself, or taken by a friend and reside on my desktop.

The Magazine Project

2009-08-07T15:10:00.006-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership
The identity of my magazine is rooted in its original target, in early-aged, fashion conscious, maybe pre-professional men (men on their way to management level positions in years approaching). My target is more fashion conscious then the average man, but not quite at the level of a GQ reader. (Consider this a poor man’s GQ). My magazine design attempts to remain relevant in this regard, making the attempt to show Jason Bateman in a fashionable, up-to-date light.

Magazine Visual Identity
Again, with fashion as one of the pillars for this magazine, my design attempts to convey this with thin, clean lines and simple colors. I tried to utilize shapes to add spunk, but paid attention to not overdo any of these aspects. The particular feature photo used contributes to this attempt, as Jason Bateman is simply, but cleanly dressed. A cover for this issue would include a cover photo from the same photo-shoot to imply the importance of fashionable dress to our magazine.

Article Visual Identity
Again, through both design and the photo selection, fashion is at a high awareness in the design. A design element on the right of the feature-spread page is influenced directly from the tie in the photo to the left and so again, we see fashion influencing the design of this particular article. It’s done so in an effort to mimic the “fashionablity” of the story (and possibly Jason Bateman himself) and the magazine as a whole.

Current Event

2009-08-07T15:02:00.003-04:00

Animal planet recently changed their logo from the one on the left to the one on the right. The new logo was designed by Dunning Eley Jones, a designing firm from London, England.

According to Animal Planet, their new programming "will tap into the instincts that drive us all - fear, hunger, pleasure, nurture - with compelling stories that resonate with what it means to be human." They are doing this by showing programs like "Grizzly Man," something that they apparently never would have done according to their old standard of programming. I suppose their new logo is supposed to reflect that programming. The various sizes of the letters could potentially represent different animals, as well as the turned over M, which I originally thought was a sleeping animal.

I think their new logo is terrible. It is somewhat confusing and harder to read than their old one. A logo should not do either of those things. Their old logo actually shows an animal and the globe, which would better signify the planet and our place within it as humans. That is what they are trying to achieve with their new programming, so their old logo would be better suited for it. Their new logo in no way fits with their goals, and is an abomination to the quality of some of their shows.

Magazine project

2009-08-07T13:53:00.006-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership

The title of my magazine is The Human Xperience. It is a magazine that studies the extremes of humanity and the human potential. Whether it is mountain climbing or genocides in Darfur, the articles will address the entire spectrum of what it means to be human. That meaning can only be found in extreme, out of the ordinary situations. Thus, it is through the understanding of such situations that the magazine will describe the human experience. Consequently, the intended readership would be those who are looking for answers to our existence and who wish to discover the human potential, as opposed to those who are content with mediocrity and float through existence without the desire to dig deeper into our place in the world. Specifically, the intended readership would be similar to those who read National Geographic. Extreme sportsmen, world travelers and explorers of the human mind would be the kind of audience I target

Magazine Visual Identity

My magazine design will be simple and not flashy or artsy. The focus will be on content, and the simplicity of the design will reflect that focus. The cover would be designed with a powerful picture of the headline story and a few headlines of the major articles in the magazine. Simplicity is the key to my magazine’s visual identity, because I want my readers not to get distracted from the content, which attempts to discover humanity. There is nothing easy about that search, and thus the design’s simplicity will keep the readers focused.

Article Visual Identity

The content of my article describes one man’s search for himself in the mountains. Thus, the picture on the feature page is mostly of the mountain, and Messner is only a small part of the picture. I wanted to convey how miniscule we are as human beings in the world. There is only one picture in the article where you can actually see Messner’s face. I wanted the reader to at least know who the article is about, but for the most part I wanted to the pictures to reflect the human ability to engage with nature and in turn discover their potential. As a result, Messner is only a small part of two pictures, and in one of them, all you see is the presence of a human, with a tent that almost appears to be floating in the clouds.

Article Design Strategy

My feature page will inspire awe in the reader as to how small we are compared to the vastness of the world around us, in a beautiful and engaging picture of one of the greatest climbing achievements in history. I used the same font for my headline as I did for the captions, and sidebar headline in the rest of the story. I made the text large and white to contrast with the darker background, and to really stand out for a reader. I also enlarged the 14 and the 8000m to make the fact that he climbed all 14 of the 8000m peaks stand out. I did use a Lucida Grande for the tagline, a font that I have not used anywhere else because it was bolder and bigger than the Lucida Sans I used for the headline of my sidebar, but it was similar enough to fit in with the article. I also used Minion Pro for the article because I wanted to use a simple and easy-to-read serif font, to give some contrast to the rest of the article, which uses san-serif fonts. I went back to the san-serif for my sidebar to give it some contrast to the main article. All the fonts are very simple and easy to read, which is exactly what I intended for the visual message of my magazine.

Magazine Project & Rationale - Moo

2009-08-07T12:21:00.002-04:00

MAGAZINE IDENTITY AND READERSHIP
I titled my magazine “Healthy Lifestyles.” I believe the readership would be aimed at people who would read “Women’s Health” or “Men’s Health” and would generally have an appreciation for living a healthy lifestyle. Since the focus of the article is about how food is processed, the aim of the magazine has to do with eating well and living healthily.

MAGAZINE VISUAL IDENTITY
The magazine’s visual identity is eye-grabbing, yet professional and not over the top. If I were to design a cover for this magazine’s issue it would probably be bold words on the front in a high contrasting background asking readers: “where does your meat come from?” I think this would be a bold message that would go very well with what the article is trying to convey.

ARTICLE VISUAL IDENTITY
I used four images total for my article. The opening image is a close-up of a cow’s face, cropped to the side and only showing one eye. I chose this because it looks like the cow knows something the audience doesn’t. The next image is at a slaughterhouse, showing some of th process the meat goes through. I finished with a graph about mad cow disease and a huge cheeseburger, which shows where the meat ends up. I thought it was slightly ironic because after reading the article, no one’s going to want to jump up and have a big burger.

ARTICLE DESIGN STRATEGY
Like I discussed in the previous section, My goal visually with the design was to lead the reader’s eye from the eye of the cow to the headline then on the next spread from the slaughterhouse image to the graph and finally to the cheeseburger. Every image was placed methodically to help lead the reader’s eyes through the process the meat goes through from start to finish. I liked the cartoon I used because it adds a little more sense of irony to the article’s design. The font for the body is serifed, and the captions and sidebar content is sans serifed. I liked the contrasting nature of using both because it also helped lead the reader’s eye from place to place.

STYLE SHEET
Headline: PenumbraSerifSTD Bold
Sub-heading, byline, body copy & page numbers: Cochin Bold
Side bar content & photo credits/captions: Helvetica Neue Light

DOCUMENT GRID
I used a 6 column grid and separated my body copy into two columns. I thought three columned body copy looked strange and compressed the information too much. Two columns made it easier to read. The margins are 1p10 on the outsides and around 3p on the insides and bottom. I wanted to leave more room on the bottom so I had room to insert the page numbers.

SOURCES
All my images came from Google image searches. The cow photo on the feature spread is courtesy blog.beefmagazine.com. The slaughterhouse photo is by April Swafford and pulled off her blog. The cartoon is by Matson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The burger is from superhomeless.wordpress.com. I wish I could have found the actual photographers for the cow and burger images, but I really couldn’t.

Desktopography

2009-08-06T17:58:00.003-04:00

"Designers and developers spend about 90% of their waking life in front of a computer so the most appealing genre for a wallpaper would be one that has beautiful design mixed with the all important aspect of being outdoors.

What we see everyday can affect our mood and state of mind, enhance your desktop with a wallpaper creation from desktopography and feel the essence of nature and the outdoor existence on your computer. Bring tranquility to your desktop, feel the wilderness and give your background a breath of fresh air..."
-Pete Harrison

This is what is written at the top of the Desktopography website. As graduate students, I think most of us can understand what it's like spending all day (especially Thursdays and Fridays) in front of a computer screen, staring at InDesign or a blank background and knowing that it's a gorgeous day outside even though we aren't there to enjoy it. I took a look through the website and found some truly beautiful and inspirational images. Though none of them were straight nature shots (there was some photoshopped element to everything I looked at) it did not diminish the beauty in my eyes. In these images the natural collides with the graphically altered to create creative and pretty desktop images.

Logo Project

2009-08-04T10:25:00.004-04:00

VISUAL MESSAGE:
I intend to convey strength, compassion, calm and assertiveness which I think are words which describe my personality.
I also used the outline of a Periwinkle, a flower which I played with as a child. It grows in abundance in rural Jamaica. Recent research shows it contains cancer-fighting properties.

AUDIENCE
The stationery set is designed for use in my personal communication and the recipients will be persons with whom I intend to network. However, I designed the stationery to coordinate with my resume, so it can be used for a cover letter.

DESIGN STRATEGY
The Logo

I chose to combine two elements for my logo - a brick wall for strength and a flower for compassion. I chose bricks because they are small units that combine to make a strong product. I think the bricks convey strength easier that a solid finish. Each talent and each experience I have had is a single brick and together they have made me a strong person. But, even with that strength, I am compassionate, and I used the flower to show that. I chose a shade of yellow because I think the color represents my calm nature and levelheadedness. It is a strong enough shade to be assertive even though it represents calm.
The Business Card
The wordmark and contact information is different on the business card. I dropped the address below the wordmark to make better use of the space and make the logo stand out.
Letterhead
I used the wordmark and address to balance out the logo which was placed at the bottom of the page on the opposite side.

STYLE SHEET
Stationery Name: Gill Sans Light light was used in the wordmark and Candara for the address block
Business Card: Gill Sans Light was used for the wordmark and Candara for the contact information.

logo

2009-08-04T00:16:00.002-04:00

For my logo, I wanted it to be different. I did a lot of research on for this project and wasn't inspired by anything. I remember one of the TA's designs, Drew Jordan, and really liked his. So his logo gave me some inspiration for mine. I wanted it to look handmade because I wanted my customers to feel that I would put my hand in all the work that I do. I also imagined my logo being on a t-shirt that I would wear. I used it on everything else that we had to create as a watermark. Also, the logo represents me and my personality. It is a fun logo and I want people to feel that I am a fun person and easy to work with.

On my business card, I put all my information along with the services that my company would produce. I reversed the "r" in Rice because in my wordmark that i made (its on the back of the business card), the R is reversed.

Lisa's Logo

2009-08-03T22:33:00.005-04:00

Visual Message

My aim was to link my logo to my future career plans: working in politics. My logo is a podium, an object I will use daily in public relations, but it represents the American flag. A podium is also the place where politicians and their representatives give speeches and release information. Turned on its side it is even a stripe out of the flag. The logo says I’m ready to represent a politician who has American ideals.

Audience

My audience for this stationary set is anyone who works in politics. This could be for a senator, assemblymen, lobbyist, etc.

Design Strategy

I wanted to take symbols of America, and use them in an original way. I feel that the same symbols are often used in the same overused way. The colors of the flag automatically give the viewer the impression of a flag without showing it. Many times politicians are shown in the media with a podium in front of them, which is partly why I choose this political symbol. I also selected it as I said because it plays a large role in political public relations. I decided on a front with a small serif; I selected the font because it has both a modern and traditional feel to it. It represents a traditional aspect that exists in politics, but because of the small size of the serif it has a progressive democratic look to it. In all three documents my logo comes up into the page from the right hand side. The microphone on the stationary and envelope, work as a continuation to the message or information in the documents.

Style Sheet

Stationary name: Utopia Bold Subhead
Stationary contact info: Utopia Regular
Envelope Name: Utopia Bold Subhead
Envelope Address: Utopia Regular
Business Card Name: Utopia Bold Subhead
Business Card Contact info: Utopia Regular

Sources and Influences

My source for the podium was President Barack Obama, at a podium, giving a speech.

http://www.advancedgraphics.com/store/pc/catalog/956-pres-barack-obama-podium_608_detail.jpg

Extras

The colors in my logo represent an American flag to trigger a familiar image in the viewers mind.

Logo

2009-08-03T21:47:00.003-04:00

MESSAGE

For the logo I chose to include the image of Namaste, which is a form of greeting in India, showing two hands coming together. I chose that image because it reflects my culture and also speaks of a relationship or bond between people, which is what I think the PR industry is really all about.

AUDIENCE

The PR industry

DESIGN STRATEGY

I chose the color purple as it’s my favorite color and I think it looks regal. I wanted the image and the color to reflect throughout the stationary.

STYLE SHEET

I used Garamond Regular font as it is simple and easy to read and conveys a sense of seriousness.

SOURCES AND IMAGES

I drew the image of the hands because I wanted it to look exactly like how it would look in a picture.

Current Event?, or am I just a Kanye Fan?

2009-08-03T20:05:00.006-04:00

A pillar in the design world for me is attached to the 3rd solo album of Mr. Kanye West, Graduation. The album art done by Takashi Murakami, is something that, even years after the release of the album is still quite amazing. So much so, I feel when I have my own condo in whatever city I have attained all my succcess in, that I would paint a wall in my home with the inspiration of the style of art used for that particular album.

Kanye West's blog http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/ keeps with the theme begun in his 3rd album, and though he has since released a fourth album, completely unrelated in musical style and composition to the 3rd, the art and design message still works. I think the opening page to his blog is to be appluaded and is quite entertaining.

Please enjoy the album art below and check out the blog if you care to understand further, what I am talking about.

Logo project

2009-08-03T18:28:00.007-04:00

Visual Message:
What I intended to convey with my logo is my passion for photography. Instead of representing this passion with a piece of film, I thought a picture of the camera itself really got the point across. Overall, I wanted my logo to be very clean and readable. I went for a very cool, laid back tone by using dark colors with a splash of yellow color.

Audience:
I plan on distributing my logo and stationary system to friends, family and colleagues. I am not a photography major but I love iconic cameras and old technology that is now “hip.” By no means are these stationary items intended for a potential employer.

Design Strategy/Extras:
I wanted to incorporate the camera (Polaroid Spectra, to be exact) in every piece of stationary. Because the camera was a little big, no matter how much I resized it, Darren and I found a creative way to use it. In the envelope and business card I bled the image over the side and had the rest of it peeking out from the back of either stationary. This clever visual cue is the overall feeling I was going for with my stationary. I wanted people to ask themselves, “What is that thing? Is that a Polaroid camera? Cool!” Since the camera was a mix of black and grey colors I needed a font that was light. At first I used the fonts from my resume, Lubalin and Leawood, but they weren’t light enough. By using Suitcase I found Memphis, a serif font. I liked that there was little stroke variation. This type reminded me of when someone writes a name or date on the bottom of a Polaroid picture after it develops. The shape and design of my name is consistent through all pieces of stationary. My name, which uses color and type variation hierarchy, is written on one line and in one font size. My information, address, email, ect., follows underneath the “F.” As I mentioned before, the only variation in my logo comes from the peek-a-boo Polaroid on the business card and envelope. Overall, I want my stationary system to be fun yet functional (just like a Polaroid.)

Style Sheet:
Stationary/envelope/business card: Memphis medium, bold and light, the “A” and “L” in Alfonso were kerned tighter, and the “F” and “O” were kerned looser. There was also some light kerning done for the “III” in my name.

Sources and Influences:
This past May I was at home reading the New York Times when I came across the article “Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film” by Carter Dougherty. The article discussed the fall of Polaroid and how film is disappearing. When I finished reading I started looking online for old Polaroid cameras. Amazon.com was selling some for $300; eBay.com had others for $250. There was no way I was going to be able to afford it. I shut my computer off. A few minutes later I remembered my dad’s old Polaroid camera. He used to take pictures of all of us playing basketball outside. I jumped up from my chair and ran to the living room. Stuffed in the back of one of the shelves was my dads old camera. I dusted it off and checked for film. I had no idea how to use this 25-year-old camera. For the rest of the summer I’ve been searching for film and learning how to use the camera. I’ve had the time of my life. There is something about seeing that square film develop that makes me smile. I am still fascinated. Every time I use the camera I think of my dad; I think of home.

I traced a photo of a camera at an angle for my logo. I then filled in the larger pieces of the camera and removed all the strokes. I gave the logo a three dimensional effect by using different shades of grey and black.

Kit's Logo Project

2009-08-02T15:35:00.014-04:00

Visual Message

For my logo design, I intended to convey a sense of boldness, balance, and a dash of tradition (with the logo being influenced by a traditional Chinese symbol). I wanted the logo systems to be clean, simple, and easy to comprehend. Also, I wanted my audience to take in how my last name is spelled out in the logo with the negative space forming a "T".

Audience

Since this is more a personal logo than professional, I think the audience would mostly be my friends, family, and people I communicate with on a daily basis.

Design Strategy

As mentioned before, my initial influence was a traditional Chinese symbol, but I tweaked the design a little bit to contain the letters of my last name. I used the color red because it is bold, feminine, and associated with Chinese culture. My typeface was ITC Avant Garde Gothic Std, and I chose it because it is a geometric San-Serif. I thought the roundness of the font complemented my logo well. To keep the looks consistent for this project, I added red borders and red lines throughout my designs.

Style Sheet

For all the projects: ITC Avant Garde Gothic Std

Sources and Influences

I used this image from flickr.com for inspiration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20228080@N08/3390625916/

Extras

I chose red to tie in with the entire design related to Chinese culture and to make it visually more eye-catching.

Current Event 2

2009-08-02T11:10:00.003-04:00

http://yayeveryday.com/post/5260

http://www.bbdo.de/de/home/presse/aktuell/2009/mtv_und_bbdo_verneigen.popup.flash.Par.0002.html

Found this when I was searching for my Current event. It was made by BBDO Germany for MTV, as a memoriam for Michael Jackson.

I thought as we were talking about and working with logos this week, that this one was real nice. We have looked at adaptations on memoriam ribbons, and I thought this one was perfect. You get the idea of the ribbon, but you know 100% what it refers too. I also like how the animated it as well. Really well done. Simple, plain, yet a great adaptation of the classic ribbon.

Stationary Set-Xiaoyun Fan

2009-08-02T01:09:00.010-04:00

visual message
Since I am a fashion photographer, I want to give my clients or workmates a fresh and inspiring impression. The different colors in the logo represent the colorful fasion world. The “X” in side it is the initial of my first name. And it also gives people a message that my photos are always surprising.

audience
My audiences are clients of different fashion brands and workmates.

design strategy
I used dots to creat a letter “X”, which is the initial of my first name, because the dots indicate the pixels of an image. And “X” means not only my name but also surprising elements in my photos. Different colors, green, yellow, blue and pink, represent the colorful fasion world. The fading of the colors means the changable trends of fashion. The font of my name gives people a reliable impression. There are white lines in each of my designs and they unite the style of each piece.

style sheet
Name: Copperplate Gothic Bol
Contact Information: Cronos Pro Caption

sources and influences
I didn’t use any visual sources on the Internet. But I got the idea from Mary’s lecture about the dots.

Current Event 2

2009-08-02T00:53:00.003-04:00

There was a logo solo show by a French graffiti artist and notorious logo destroyer, Zevs. He painter a "liquidated" Chanel atop the flagship Giorgio Armani store to "reflect the war of brands".
Of course, there's no such thing as bad press—we recommend checking out the show. It features all new works, including lacquered paintings of Louis Vuitton and Chanel logos, as well as ceramics and metal pieces, produced by local craftsman using traditional Chinese methods. If you're currently in Hong Kong, stop by the Giorgio Armani store while you still can to see what's left of his street escapade.
I think it is an adventure for logo designing. As we all know, brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton haven't change for years. Of course, they are very successful logos and it carved in people's brains. But by changing it in a unique way could bring more accomplishments to the logos.

Current Event #2

2009-08-02T00:15:00.004-04:00

Today, I was snooping around the Nikon (cameras) website and noticed that they just released the Nikon D300S. Now, to most people, this is no big deal, but to me it is. Anyway, I know this is a little off topic, but it got me thinking of how Nikon and several other companies use a consistent logo for their products.

First off, all their digital SLR camera names start with "D" and then a number. This is great for Nikon to have a product that is cohesive, but it also gives them sort of a logo or identity for them. We have seen this before in Mercedes Benz (S-Class, C-class, and so on), BMW, and others. The one thing that I noticed in Nikon's choice of typography is a stencil of some sort for the letters. It gives it a sense of ruggedness and durability. This is very true in all the different cameras that I have used from Nikon, I have never had a problem with them. They are very durable and have strong bodies.

I never gave typography much thought before this class and definitely not when I looked to purchase a camera. But this makes a lot of sense that Nikon uses a bold stencil for their lettering because it reflects the product.

So go check out their new cameras the D300s and D3000 at nikonusa.com

Current Event 2 Quicktime and Museum of Aviation Logos

2009-08-01T23:22:00.004-04:00

Quicktime has a new logo. While I scrutinized the piece, I thought to myself – this doesn’t follow the lines of our lectures re logo creation. It has a stroke outline, a glow in the center, shadows and several other logo ‘NOs’. But then, given that Quicktime is web and digital based, they can bend the rules to suit their own purposes. Right?
I don’t quite like this new look. It seems like a prop from the Terminator movie. But, I guess they have owned the ‘Q’ and are taking the plain old letter to new heights. Funny though, I can remember what the old logo was....

The Museum of Aviation also has a new logo. It was unveiled as a part of their 25th Anniversary Celebration Year.
I think the logo looks very ‘spacey’ it represents aviation – even without playing on the obvious plane. I think I recognize some wings in it though.
I like the way the ‘A’ in Aviation was incorporated with the lines of the logo.
This logo was designed by Bright Ideas Group in Macon, Georgia.A release from the museum stated that the colors of red white and blue represent the patriotism and valor of the U.S. military veterans to whom the museum pays homage through exhibits and displays.

current event

2009-08-01T22:07:00.004-04:00

I had an hour to kill before a movie at the Carousel Mall. As I walked around aimlessly I came across the Coach handbag store. In the window were a bunch of overpriced bags with "C's" on them. Before taking graphics class, I would have kept walking. Today I stopped and stared. Stitched into every bag was this:

This new, sans serif, letter "C" is either a design just for Coach's fall line or maybe permanent change from the following:

I'm don't know much about the handbag world but I'm almost certain that Coach is on the bottom of the designer purse totem poll. That being known, I don't think it was wise for Coach to switch their logo to one that is less professional looking. The original "C" is a regal looking serif font that appeals to older audiences. I'm sure the geniuses at Coach thought the new "C" appealed to young high school kids.

I think this change, whether it is permanent or not, is a bad move. It is going to confuse people and alienate people like my mom and grandma who only know the old "C" with the stroke variation.

Minutes before I walked into the movie, "The Hurt Locker," I saw a woman in line with one of these new purses slung around her fleshy arm. I must admit, the bag looked like a bad knock-off.

current event

2009-08-01T20:02:00.002-04:00

http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4203

FontGear has developed a tool for font identification. A lot of times, designers find images that contain text with a font that can not be identified, and this tool solves this problem. Daniel Coleman, the marketing dir. of the company said, "Many of our customers have been asking for a full-featured font identification tool that will work well with color images." The program examines pictures and finds the typeface of all the text within the image. The program supports most image types, produces a list of fonts that most closely match the image, and generate character previews of the matches. After the program finds your fonts, it's easy enough to do a web search in order to download and purchase the typeface you need.

I think this program will be extremely helpful to designers. I am sure designers are constantly finding images that contain interesting-looking typeface, but are unable to easily identify a match. This program will be the solution to that problem and eliminate a lot of guessing in the process. A few weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have seen much importance in a tool like this, but after all of the lectures on typeface, I realize now that if I were looking at an image and saw the exact typeface I wanted to use but couldn't identify it, I would absolutely be grateful for a tool like this.

Current Events 2, Toronto Maple Leafs

2009-08-01T18:27:00.007-04:00

CURRENT LOGO

OLD LOGO

Recently, some Toronto Maple Leafs fans have started a petition to replace the team’s current logo for an old-school one used during its heyday in the 1960’s. The reason for this? The Maple Leafs haven’t won a cup since 1967, and fans feel that bringing the old logo back will revive its glory days. Also, it will remind them of some of the greatest players on the team, such as Johnny Bower and George Armstrong.

It really surprises me how much a logo can mean to people. These Maple Leafs fans believe a change of logo can help the team win another cup because they feel so attached to the logo. Not only does the old logo remind them of the team in the 1960’s, but it also gives them a sense of pride and personal connection.

As for the actual logos, I think the current Maple Leafs logo is a lot cleaner and simpler than the old one. The leaf has less edges (they’re less sharp too!) and the font is clear. Although I don’t feel that the current logo is amazing, I have to admit it is instantly recognizable and does the job. I have mixed feelings about the old-school logo. Although I love all things vintage, the old logo is kind of messy with all those white lines and the shape of the outline needs to be simplified. I do like the typeface better on the old logo than the current one, however. What do you guys think?

Source of Current Event: here

Current event 2

2009-08-01T18:21:00.002-04:00

Discovery channel recently changed their logo from the one on the left to the one on the right.
“The stylized earth, contemporary color palette and fresh typography all combine to bring the mark more in line with Discovery as the international communications company it is today," the network said of its new logo.
Putting the globe onto the D in discovery has the effect of connecting the world with their channel. However, I think the globe should be bigger in order to reflect the world the channel portrays. I personally prefer their older logo because the world is bigger, and I think the bold black font is more powerful than their new one. However, I suppose change is a good thing, and it was just time for them to create a new look.

Jovita Second Current Event

2009-08-01T16:47:00.008-04:00

Sony Ericsson plans to announce a revamped logo. It will likely get more versions of its original green and white logo in multiple colors. The other colored logos are not likely to make it to the hardware, but are expected to be used extensively for marketing campaigns.

The company has been on a loss-making spree over the past year and is therefore trying to change its image and launch new products so as to get back to a decent position in the handset market. The new logos are a part of this rebranding exercise.

While I think that the new logos are colorful and will surely be attention grabbing, I think that changing the color of the logo entirely may not be a wise thing to do, as everyone has come to identify the green and white color with the Sony Ericsson brand.

However I do like the new advertisements that it is planning to come out with. In fact I have always thought that their ads are pretty innovative. This is a sample of one of the ads it is planning to come out with. I think it's simple and creative and will appeal to the youth.

current Event

2009-07-31T20:14:00.005-04:00

Nickelodeon announces that it will unveil a new logo design for all of its networks this fall to replace the logo they have had since their inception in 1984. The network will be replacing the logo's for all of its stations including Nick at Nite, Nicktoons, Nick Jr. (currently Noggin), and Teen Nick (currently the N). All of the logos will feature similar logos that use a lower-case font. According to a Nick employee, Cyma Zarghami the network decided that it would redesign the logo after efforts began to incorporate all of the stations logo onto the same business card. Executives decided that "it looked like a mess." So to streamline the logo and to move away from the, "splat" image they determined a new design was needed. The new logo will be unveiled at Nickelodeon's 30th anniversary this fall. I found this article Variety online.
http://www.variety.com

Logo Post

2009-07-31T16:23:00.008-04:00

Visual Message:
With my logo I wanted to convey several things, first I wanted to display my career interest in
conflict resolution, which is why I incorporated the peace symbol into my logo. Since I am interested in working for the government I encorporated the circle, because most government logos are incased within a circle. The interior circle is a modified version of one of my family’s crests. I encorporated the blue and line design to make the logo more personal to me. Since I would be working with international publics I wanted my logo to be simple and universal.
Audience:
The audience I envision receiving this stationary set is
government and international contacts.

Design Strategy
The first thing a person will notice about my logo is the peace symbol, which is a nice thing to convey.
I encorporated the light blue, because it is a calm, peaceful color. For the design I aligned the entire text on both my stationary and business card underneath the line of the peace sign, so that the reader will be brought from the logo to the text. I aligned my first name over my last name to continue this visual hierarchy. I also aligned my name and address on the envelope to keep my stationary set consistent. I centered my logo on the back of the envelope right over the fold so that it looks like a... I made the section headers bold italic to create more visual hierarchy within the stationary set. I chose the font calibri, because it has clean simple lines and it has a bold and italic version. I also particularly liked the J in this font, which works well in my name. When I first saw this font I thought it had a universal look to it, which would work well with international publics. I tried to keep all of my stationary in the set as consistent as possible maintaining the same type, hierarchy, word mark, and the placement of the logo.

Style Sheet
Stationary Name: Calibri Regular, Calibri Bold Italic, and Calibri regular

Sources and Influences
The inspiration for the inner blue circle and lines came from a crest I found at family tree maker.com

Extras
I used the light blue color for two reasons. First because blue is a calm soothing color, and second because it was the color included in one of my family crests.

Erica's Logo

2009-07-31T16:13:00.000-04:00

Visual Message

What I intend to convey through my design and logo is the fact that I love to travel and plan to pursue this passion throughout my life. The fact that the plane is traveling over the globe indicates that I am a worldwide traveler and enjoy excursions to other countries. The impression and tone I wanted to communicate was playful and fun. The qualities and attributes were that I am up for anything and am adventurous.

Audience

The audience this is designed for is personal, not professional. Though I would enjoy travel writing, it’s not what I am aiming for.

Design Strategy

The design communicates my message because it uses two iconic figures: a globe and plane. These images can be universally understood, and are synonymous with travel. The initial impression my logo makes is fun and playful, because of the bright colors and bold stroke lines, which doesn’t make the logo pretentious. My choice of fonts further articulates my visual message because my name is in a script font, giving it a playful edge. My contact information contrasts it with a sans sarif that is readable but doesn’t project too much seriousness. The bold orange line gives more of a design element and matches the color of the plane. I made the back of the business card orange to put a different spin on the usual card.

Style Sheet

Stationary Name: Caflisch Script Web Pro Semi-bold

Business Card Contact Information: Avenir LT Std 35 Light

Sources and Influences

Two Google images I used for influence were one of a simple plane: http://www.dotolearn.com/picturecards/images/imageschedule/airplane_l_.gif. And a globe: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commonc/thumb/e/e2/Ambox_globe.svg/600px-Ambox_globe.svg.png.

Extras

I used bright colors because they are fun and playful. I chose an orange for the plan because gray made it look too similar to a shark and brown was awkward.

Mike- Logo

2009-07-31T15:54:00.003-04:00

Visual message:

For my rationale I wanted to stick with the sports and entertainment theme. I chose a hand with the number one, because I feel it conveys the celebration and passion of sport. Sport to me is more than the game, its about the passion and celebration and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I wanted to convey that because I would like to work in that industry as well as convey my own sense of passion for my work, and a lot of things in my life. I am a passionate person The bold simple plain text also conveys the theme, simple without the gemics, but bold and in your face. A good mix.

Audience:

Again, the audience is a sport or entertainment business, like pretty much all of my work thus far this semester. Its who I am though, and I feel it conveys it well.

Design Strategy:

In think and sketching out designs for my logo I wanted something that said sports. Sports is my life I guess. I also played around with faschion, particulalrly sneakers, and or urban gear; fited hats. I also thought a bout a siloute of a suit. I like mens fashion, and fashion in general, nad have been drawing Nike shoes for as long as I can remember. I stuck with sports because I felt it translated into all aspects. I wanted to communicate the passion of sports and the celebration. I started drawing the famous picture of Joe Namath leaving the field after Super Bowl 3, holding his hand in the air, depicting the number one. I got rid of the picture as a hole, and just went with the forearm and hand, with the number one finger.

Style Sheet:

Business Card- Wordmark = Franklin Gothic Std Condensed
Contact info = Lubalin Graph Std Demi

Envolpe- Wordmark = Franklin Gothic Std Condensed
Address = Lubalin Graph Std Demi

Stationary- Wordmark = Franklin Gothic Std Condensed
Contact info = Lubalin Graph Std Demi
Copy = Minion Pro 11 pt

Sources: Picture of Joe Namath troting off after Super Bowl III

Logo in Stationary Set

2009-07-31T14:36:00.007-04:00

In my logo, I made an effort to convey a certain level of sophistication and new age style. I wanted something that was clean and to the point, but made a rather big point, being that any work done will be done with class, precision and professionalism.

Logo

2009-07-31T14:32:00.004-04:00

Visual Message
My design is a silhouette of a mountain ridge and building called Mohonk Point that is iconic in New Paltz, NY. I’ve always loved the tower in the silhouette because it is such a strange and unique shape, especially from a distance, and because at sunset it has always been a stark black shape against oranges and reds of the sky. I am trying to convey a sense of uniqueness and the impression that I always aim high in my design. I used the color purple because it is a deep, strong color, and because just before dusk the mountains always looked just a little purplish.

Audience
The design is personal, but I think it is still serious enough to be used on a professional level. I would hand this card out to potential employers or people who might be future contacts for me.

Design Strategy
I already talked about the reason I used purple in my design. I aligned the tower in the same spot for all the pieces of my stationary to give it a sense of continuity. In every place the tower is pointed straight towards the left side of the B in Bridget, ad lines up with the end of the shorter line at the top. I put two lines at the top of my stationary to add a bit more flair to the design and to give the page a little bit of an enclosed space. Because my logo is spread over the bottom of each page, the lines at the top balance it out, I think.

Style Sheet
Albertus MT Light

Sources and influences
I traced the skyline and the tower from the following Google image:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hikersholiday.org/SkiTop2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hikersholiday.org/&usg=__BujHH1rO3vBzO3y022jp5w4QdKM=&h=401&w=600&sz=127&hl=en&start=64&um=1&tbnid=eFfskk_1U26JXM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmohonk%2Bnew%2Bpaltz%2Bny%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D60%26um%3D1

Logo project

2009-07-31T14:30:00.005-04:00

Visual Message

I used the skyline of Cerro Torre (10,280 feet) in Patagonia to create my logo. It is often considered one of the hardest mountains in the world due to the technical nature of the climb, and the brutal, unpredictable storms in Patagonia. By using that skyline, I am able to visually convey the very essence of mountaineering. My stationary design is meant to very simple and elegant. The blue border visually adds to the elegance of the design. Visually, my message is simplicity and the beauty of the mountaineering pursuit.

Audience

The audience for my stationary set is those into the world of outdoor sports.

Specifically, fellow mountaineers and explorers, and companies like the North Face or Black Diamond.

Design Strategy

All my stationary items follow a similar pattern. The border around them makes it more elegant and visually appealing. The border is also in the same color as the mountains to complement the logo. I used an elegant, simple serif font, as it agrees with the general style of my stationary. Serious mountaineers would most likely recognize the Patagonian skyline of my logo and would immediately relate to it. I intentionally designed my logo to communicate the difficulty and challenge of mountaineering in Patagonia. I also replicated a part of the skyline that resembled my initials, AN. I wanted to keep that subtle, so I did not create a clear looking AN. It adds a level of mystery to my logo, which I wanted because that is also what mountaineering is about, the mystery, and the unknown. I made the mountains blue to add a bit of color to the logo, and the blue resembles a dark sky, which is often found in the mountains of Patagonia. I wanted to convey elegance and style with my stationary design, and the physical and mental determination required in mountaineering with my logo design.

Style Sheet

I used Minion Pro regular for all my fonts to keep the design uniform.

Sources and Influences

I used a picture of Cerro Torre to trace out the skyline for my logo.

http://profgeo.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/cerro_torre_argentina1.jpg

Extras

I only used one color, because I did not want the logo to be too garish. The dark blue mountains gave more impact to the logo. I used dark blue to represent the skies of Patagonia, and I used black for the sky to further reinforce that message, as Patagonian mountaineering is infamous for the difficulties presented by the weather. The white obviously represents the snow. I did not want to use blue for the sky as that would be too cliché. The black, blue and white all fit together to create a powerful logo and all in some way relate to the mountains of Patagonia.

Current Event - Wally World

2009-07-31T13:33:00.005-04:00

I wanted to talk about Wal Mart's logo change for my current event this week. The one on the left with the block lettering is the old logo and the one on the right with the yellow star is the new one. I'm not sure when this went into play, but I realized they'd redesigned their brand logo the other day when I was watching a commercial. The major difference is the change from block lettering to a lighter color and lighter typeface. They also combined the two words into one for the new one. The star they added is lighter and more original-looking than the star in the first logo. I like the redesign, but I wonder why they are doing it. Maybe they are trying to expand their customer base to a wider audience by trying to make it look more upscale. Perhaps they did it to try to keep up with competition, like Target. I think it's a successful redesign, however I don't think it will change a lot of people's preconceived opinions about Wal Mart. I've noticed that this new logo has been incorporated throughout their marketing in commercials, print advertisements and on the big sign above the front doors (not that I go to Wal Mart or anything).

Logo System & Rationale

2009-07-31T13:17:00.003-04:00

Visual Message
I wanted to convey a professional, yet creative message in my design. I wanted to have something I could use with family, clients, and even potential employers and networking opportunities. The parasol idea for my logo came from the below image. The reason I chose this image as a source was because it was the first photograph I ever sold to someone else. Selling that image gave me the convidence and the drive to try to make a professional career out of photography, so I felt that was a good personal touch to use. If I had it my way, I would have put the image on the back of the card as an accent and conversation-starter. My current business card has this on the back and it has always been something extra to make my brand unique.

Audience
My audience is for potential employers, clients, family and friends. I think having a clean, professional look is important and my design shows my creativity which is also important as a photographer.

Design Strategy
I think my design communicates my message to an audience because the clean lines and tight graphics show a professional, composed message. However, by using the parasols, I think it shows another separate creative and fun message. I used a watermark to accent my message on the business card, envelope, and stationary. The font is a clean, sans serif font which is both light and airy, yet also professional and not frilly. The type complements the logo design because both are clean and professional with harsh straight lines throughout. I tried to keep the design consistently professional, yet creative, through all three pieces and feel they tie together really well. I tried the design without the watermarked design, but I didn’t think it looked as well put together. I felt it was important to keep my wordmark from the resume project because I want my brand to be consistent and similar throughout all pieces that are mine. The watermark is always located across on the opposite corner of the pieces because it provides a good balance in the design.

Style Sheet
I used Helvetica Neue light for the type on my stationary set, envelope, and business card. I kerned the website url looser.

Sources/Influences
If I had it my way, this image would be on the back of the business card, but apparently that violates the terms of this assignment. It will be on the back once I print these professionally...

Yahoo Redesign

2009-07-29T20:13:00.003-04:00

Yahoo! is in the process of redesigning it's home page for the first time since 2006. This is a copy of the screen shot of their planned new look. Those firmilar with the website will notice the huge changes Yahoo! is making to the site. The task bar on the left hand side is completely different. From what it looks like, the designers have made the navagation at the top a little larger. On page 161 of Thinking With Type, Lupton uses an example very similar to how Yahoo! has layed out it's page. It used both the left and top navigation bars to frame the large, main news story. The old homepage uses a lighter blue in it, but I think this darker shade really makes the page look more professional.

Yahoo! has kept the large advertisement on the left, but if you read the link I have listed below, it will tell you that part of the redesign is to allow for more advertising space. The space can not be seen on the page now, but techonolgy allows for 'boxes' to pop up when the user hovers the mouse over a subject. The boxes will contain other links on what the user is looking for, but also more space for ads. The first link is where I found the screenshot, it also has another's opinion on the page. The second is an article with more information on the soon-to-launch redesign.

http://gawker.com/5051640/screenshots-of-yahoos-redesign

http://businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/52-technology/13744-yahoo-introduces-redesigned-home-page-first-since-2006.html

2nd Current Event

2009-07-29T19:33:00.002-04:00

This new logo for the Detroit Lions NFL team was revealed in April, according to nfl.fanhouse.com. I prefer the new logo much more than the old one.

I like how the lion has been filled in with lines and details rather than having just the outline. The new logo is more fierce, since the lion is now bearing it's teeth. The details make the line more vivid and allows more character and personality to show through. Before, you could fill in the look of the lion to fit any picture you wanted, but now the image is BAM, here are the lions, and THIS is what we are.

The color has been lighten just a tad. But it's still very, very similar, which is good in sports, since fans identify their beloved team in a certain way and usually are very attached to their logos. I don't know if the "Lions" is needed, but the typeface is cool, so it doesn't hurt.

Moving on To Logos

2009-07-28T16:15:00.001-04:00

In the wake of the logo project, I found this image pretty interesting when I saw the post on digg this morning. It shows the power of developing a logo that is timeless vs. creating a logo that is updated with the times. Regardless of your drink preference, which do you think is more effective?

Frisbee Poster

2009-07-27T20:43:00.001-04:00

Event:
My poster is designed to convince Ultimate Frisbee club teams to register for the club series, which is coming up. The club series is he big national event for the year.

Visual Message:
I wanted just a simple image so I went with a Frisbee, since that’s the big icon for our sport. Though no one outside of the Ultimate Frisbee community would notice it, I also picked a common Disc Craft Frisbee to put in to the design. No competitive player uses a Wham-O or any other brand of disc. The brand is important to convey a tone of competition and legitimacy to the series.

Audience:
My audience is men and women who are on serious club teams (or club teams that want to be more serious) and would be interested in playing against other serious club teams.

I curved my text to the page a little more of a sense of movement and to continue the curve of the Frisbee a little bit. The curve leads downward on the page to UPA logo, and is supposed to draw the eye down to it.

Style Sheet:
I used ITC Serif Gothic Std Light for the tag phrase “Because some Saturdays…” and for the registration information. For “Play Ultimate” I used News Gothic Std Bold because it looked like the same type that the UPA used on their logo. I traced over the logo and added “players association” on my own, so it was important that the type faces were similar.

Extras:
I used a red disc because it draws attention and it’s a common color for that design. I made Ultimate red because I wanted to draw attention to it. The UPA logo usually comes in green or blue, I made it blue to match the disc.

Poster

2009-07-27T18:46:00.002-04:00

Event/issue:

The event I chose is for a non-profit charity called the Food Bank for New York. The event is at the Rooftop Bar at the Empire Hotel. Some of the money spent on drinks will be donated to the bank. Essentially, the whole purpose of the event is for people to drink and be merry. Guests enjoy great views of New York while knowing the money they have spent on drinks is going towards a good cause.

Visual message:

I wanted to convey a very cool and relaxed tone with my poster. I want my poster to be inviting. I want people to get the impression that this event is going to be a great time.

Audience:

This poster is designed for the busy New Yorker. Instead of using a shot glass or beer can, I chose the wine glass to insinuate that the event is for the sophisticated city dweller that likes to have a good time (which is why I used a paler blue). This poster could be found in a bar or subway station.

Design strategy/Extras:

A common theme throughout all my original sketches and designs was I wanted use the New York skyline. The skyline has been done before in advertisements so I wanted to add sometime new. Since this is an event geared around drinking, I used a wine glass to symbolize this idea. The wine glass, filled with a little red wine, is on top of a building to symbolize the actual location of the event and also how guests should feel “on top of the world” over their giving to the bank. I used the phrase “Have a drink, Feed the Hungry” because someone passing the poster in the subway needs something catchy to grab their attention. When I have their attention, the rest of the information they need is located right below the phrase. The splash of red in the wine glass leads the eye to the right then down to the left in order to read the location and date of the event. The choice of “red wine” in the glass was deliberate. This event is likely to be in the evening which explains why I chose this dark red to symbolize a hot setting sun. I used Bookman type for the location and date because it was a clean serif that provided a nice contrast to the heavier Typewriter type. Also, Bookman had a wide variety of types that I used to create hierarchy. The text used for the phrase, Americana Typewriter, is playful. I made this white text 75% transparent to match the transparency of the wine glass. The transparency also goes along with the idea of a setting sun and darkness approaching. In terms of the skyline, I used different shades of grey for the buildings to create the effect of a city sunset and depth.

Style sheet:

Event phrase: ITC Americana Typewriter

Event location/address: ITC Bookman

Poster/Advertisement

2009-07-27T13:29:00.004-04:00

For this project, I chose a company called SurfAid International. It was created in 1999 when a doctor and surfer went to the islands of Mentawai looking for awesome surfing conditions. Besides finding the perfect waves, he also found small villages that were plagued with malaria. Malaria is a preventable disease, but the Mentawai people didn't have the resources to help prevent it. So Dr. Dave Jenkins created SurfAid International to help the people of Mentawai.

My event that I chose to do is "The Sun-Herald City2Surf 14k Fun Run." This event is in Sydney, Australia and it is the largest timed run in the world. There are usually over 70,000 people a year who participate in this event. I don't know how much of the money that is donated goes to SurfAid, but what money they do raise goes to help out the funding for the programs in the different islands.

The average age that a child lives to in Mentawai is 12 years old. I put an emphasis on the number 12 and made it (besides the picture of the children) the largest thing on the page. I wanted to use the picture of children because a picture of a child really hits home with most people. When a parent sees children, their hearts melt and usually they want to help. So the first thing that people will notice while looking at my poster is the picture, then their eyes should move to the "12." Then, they will venture over to the text which gives them the call headline and call to action. There is a lot of text on the poster for people to read, but I felt that the text was necessary for the viewer to understand what is going on. Finally, I have the date, website, and place of the event along with the event logo and SurfAid's logo. I wanted to do black because I found it to be a good background color for the red and white text. All the important points are in white while all the necessary, but maybe not so important points are in red. I chose the color red because of death and therefore the it coincides with what the event is for (to raise money to stop death).

All the other posters that I saw for this event were fun and bright and I wanted to go in a different direction with it because I really wanted to hone in on what the event was for.

Poster

2009-07-27T13:23:00.003-04:00

Event

I chose to do a poster for InterFaith Works, an organization that helps to promote racial harmony. They had organized a rubber duck racing competition at Onondaga Creek on June 6, 2009 in an effort to raise awareness about the damaging effects of racism in our society. I chose to do it on this issue because I feel that it is extremely important for people from different communities to co-exist peacefully.

Visual Message

Since it was a duck racing competition, I wanted to convey the message of racial harmony through the actual event. I therefore chose to include ducks of various colors to reflect the skin tones of people from different parts of the world. Also I wanted to create a sense of continuity with the row of ducks to lead the reader toward the text. I wanted the visuals and the text to convey a sense of seriousness and therefore chose the images and fonts accordingly.

Audience

People of different racial and ethnic backgrounds that InterFaith Works works with. The poster would be put up in and around InterFaith Works’ office.

Design Strategy

I wanted the entire poster to reflect the message of racial peace and harmony. I therefore chose sans serif fonts as they convey a sense of seriousness. At the same time since it’s a duck racing competition I wanted to showcase the actual event, instead of any other image that conveys racial harmony, as I thought it was unusual and different and I thought the use of ducks would be cute and colorful!

Style Sheet

Title: Helvetica Bold
Event Details: Optima regular and bold

2009-07-26T22:21:00.001-04:00

Event and Issue:

I made a poster to advertise the Art & Apples Festival, held this September in Rochester, Michigan. The Paint Creek Center for the Arts is a regional non-profit art center that shows exhibitions, offers art classes and creates outreach programs within the community. The Art & Apples Festival features over 250 artists from around the country. Textiles, watercolor, woodworking, glassblowing, pottery, and jewelry, and mixed media pieces will be shown. Another component of the festival is live entertainment from local and national bands, dance teams, and other performance groups. Lastly, there are all different types of dishes involving apples, which are available for sale throughout the festival. The Paint Creek Center for the Arts encourages other local non-profits to become involved in the festival to raise awareness and raise funds. An average of 125,000 people attend the festival each year.

Visual Message:

I wanted my poster to have a sophisticated but friendly appeal. Although this is an arts festival, the purpose of it is to attract the community at large, so I didn’t want the poster to appear overly "high class."

Audience:

I wanted all people within the Rochester community to look at the poster and want to go. I believe the poster would be placed throughout the community, so I wanted to design a poster that could be put in a school, on the street, or in a concert hall without looking out of place.

Design Strategy:

I wanted the apple to make the initial impression. Instead of using the traditional core and leaf of the apple, I put a paintbrush down the middle that was “dipped” in green paint to represent the core and leaf in a different way. Because there is a performance aspect to the festival, I replaced the seeds of the apple with music notes. For the entire apple picture, I played around with brush strokes to give the picture a more artistic feel.

For the typefaces, I chose the Kepler family to write, “Bite into the Arts” because it looked elegant and classic. I took bite marks out of the “Arts,” and placed “into the” within the bite mark itself. I used the Frutiger family for the rest of the information because it was a sans serif that gave the entire poster a more friendly, community-oriented feel.

I wanted the poster to look artistic but accessible at the same time. I wanted both children and parents to look at the poster and notice something creative, whether it is the music note and paintbrush in the apple or the bite mark in the word “arts.”

Style Sheet

Bite into the Arts: Kepler Semibold Extended Caption

Art & Apples Festival: Frutiger LTD Std Extra Black Condensed

Paint Creek Center for the Arts: Frutiger LTD Std Bold Condensed

Rochester, MI: Frutiger LTD Std Roman

September 2009: Frutiger LTD Std Condensed

Extras

I used a medium gray as the background of the poster. Originally I was using black, but it took over the entire poster. I used the red of the apple for all of the text to establish continuity. The red of the apple seems like it could be a fall color, which works nicely for September.

Current Event

2009-07-26T21:54:00.007-04:00

Yahoo has recently redesigned its home page with the Yahoo logo next to a bigger Web-search box than on the old home page, a left-hand column linking to various Web destinations on Yahoo and a series of boxes grouping other online offerings. The biggest change is the left-hand column of links which offers access to third-party sites like AOL, Gmail, etc.

I think that the new home page looks less cluttered than the old one and gives users many more options to navigate to other sites than on the old home page. However I think that the Yahoo logo stood out more prominently on the old home page than on the new one. I think it has to do with the placement of the logo on the old home page and also its bright red color that draws our attention much more than the logo on the new home page.

Poster

2009-07-26T21:31:00.002-04:00

Event& Issue

This event is about a commemoration for the anniversary of the Wenchuan Earthquake on May 12, 2008. It was held by Jet Li One Foundation, which is a non-profitable organization pursuing its charitable mission and agenda, on May 12, 2009 in Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan County. During the event Jet Li and more than 200 volunteer walked through Yingxiu Town. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate the achievements during the year of reconstruction and promote continuous social attention and support to the reconstruction effort.

Visual message

The two main parts of the poster are the candle and the radiation sign of the earthquake. I want to express a grave but warm tone through the poster.

Audience

This poster will be found in subways and streets to get people’s attention to this event. They may either join it or find the event on the One Foundation web page.

Design strategy

The radiation sign of the earthquake not only means the earthquake but also alerts people to remember this catastrophe. The candle is a combination of number “1” and a fire. The “1” represents the year after the Wenchuan Earthquake and the One Foundation. The candle means the effort that people made for the reconstruction during the year and their warm hearts to help the people who suffer from the catastrophe.

Poster Project

2009-07-26T19:37:00.002-04:00

Event & Issue

For my poster project, I chose the 2009 Silent No More Conference as my event. The conference is a way to spread awareness about cardiovascular disease to women in the Philadelphia region. This event caught my eye because I have always respected the American Heart Association and because I have actually heard about this event before in previous years. I also believe that more women should know about the dangers of heart disease, since it is the number one killer of all Americans. Philadelphia is my hometown, so I felt connected to this particular event. Hopefully, my poster can do justice to this meaningful conference.

Visual Message

I intended my poster to be casual, yet serious at the same time. I used the female symbol to keep the tone relaxed, but made sure I also had to keep the message bold and serious with the white lettering.

Audience

I would place this poster in the city of Philadelphia (or around that region) and my audience would be women concerned with their health. I think this poster can be placed in bus stops and on college campuses in Philadelphia so it can be exposed to more people.

Design Strategy

I wanted to grab the viewers’ attention by using a bright big heart as part of a quotation mark and leading their eyes to the bottom of the page. Simplicity was key. I kept the visuals and color at a minimum. I felt that red and white would be the appropriate colors for this event and it complemented the non-profit logo well. As for the typography, I felt that the tag line needed to be a bold san-serif. The typeface for the event details were softened a little bit with a more feminine (and serif) font.

Style Sheet

Event Name: Helvetica LT STD

Event Details: Kepler STD

2009-07-26T16:40:00.002-04:00

This is my poster. I did an event for the Planned Parenthood of New York City. The event was called Summer, Sex and Spirits. It was a benefit cocktail party.

I went into this project knowing I wanted to utilize the female form. I wanted to make an effort to do something kind of edgy. I did my best to subtly (or maybe not so subtly) imply the sex by showing a naked looking female body.

I wanted to visually explain the word "spirits" so I put a hand with a glass in it. The colors I used was an effort to reinforce the ideas of each of the words, sex, summer and spirits. The font was used to maintain a sexy and sleek look.

Current Issue

2009-07-25T21:37:00.006-04:00

I noted two logo changes this week. One is related to graphics, Vistaprint developed a new logo which has been tagged by the worst redesign of 2009 by http://www.corporatelogos.ws/
VistaPrint’s new design was accompanied by a new look website.
The new logo uses a new typeface and retains all the old colours except for green. They have now used a lower case ‘P’ for print.

Myspace has changed its logo, but is not using new graphics. The new logo omits the “.com” from the name and the familiar tag “A place for friends” which has greeted Myspace users for some time now.
Reviews of the new logo have been mixed, some people claiming the omission of the tagline has no impact or significance.
It is possible that the omission is facilitating corporate use of Myspace. Increasingly we see where artistes and actors advertise personal Myspace pages, and sometimes even movies are advertised via the social networking site. As marketers continue to capitalise on the benefits of social networking sites, Myspace has been used for targeting niche markets and wider international markets as well.

I believe the omission of “.com” also allows Myspace to create a brand outside the world of the internet...

Snapple's new bottle logo

2009-07-25T21:31:00.006-04:00

In March of this year Snapple redesigned it's image by placing different labels on all of its bottles. That is not the only thing that has changed about the drink; it is now better for the consumer's health as well. I think the image really captures the new healthier product that is inside the bottle. The sun and the small designs towards the bottom of the bottle make me think of nature and fresh grown ingredients. This is exactly what snapple is trying to get the consumer to believe; the product is now more healthy and natural.

The old label is covered in fruit, which still suggests that the drink is healthy, but I think it looks much to clutered. The new look is more simple and even more bold. The typeface of snapple isn't that much different, but I think it has a more crisper tone to it. I really like the little picture of the fruit at the top. I don't think it is necessary to cover the label with the type of fruit that the drink contains, one image of the lemon makes it very clear the type of fruit the drink it flavored with. The old label almost makes me want to to scream "alright, enough already, I get that it is Mango Madness." This new label is much more clean and easier on the eye, and definitely surves the purpose of the company.

To read what The New York Times had to say about it, click here:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/reading-the-tea-leaves-snapple-refreshes-itself/

current event

2009-07-25T21:00:00.004-04:00

The image on the left is American Alpine Club's newly designed logo. I believed they just recently changed the logo as part of the whole new design to their website. I feel like they changed the color to green to reflect the recent environmentalist trend affecting the world. As you can see the mountain is very similar to their old mountain design, it is just a different color. All in all the image conveys the same message, that the club is about mountaineering. However, with their new, green logo, they are telling people that they care about protecting the environment, a message that might not have been conveyed by their old logo.

Current Event, Logo changes

2009-07-25T20:35:00.006-04:00

Growing up as a child, one of my favorite television channels was the Sci Fi channel. I used to watch all the crazy movies that they showed. Probably one of my favorite movies was Hackers. The other day I was flipping through the channels and there was a Sci Fi commercial on. I was a little surprised when I saw there new logo.

I was a little perplexed by the change because not only did they change their logo, they did a complete name change. It's actually really confusing because people who watched the channel for years is now different. They may show the same types of movies but it's hard for me to accept the identity change. I am so used to seeing the old SciFi logo and to me the new logo takes away from the channel and the nostalgia of it.

This is a more recent example of the old logo. SciFi (SyFy) has always done cool things that have their logo interact with something science fiction. When I see this logo, I recognize that it is the science fiction channel. When I see the new logo, I have to think about what channel it is. Even though is resembles sci. fi. a little bit, it still doesn't translate that it is the science fiction channel. In my own personal opinion, the logo change and identity change just doesn't work.

Current Event- 20 Great (and 20 not so great) re-designed logos

2009-07-25T20:22:00.004-04:00

http://designreviver.com/inspiration/20-great-and-20-not-so-great-logo-redesigns/

A few years back I interned at an ad agency in Columbus, SBC Advertising, and I got to partake in preparation and eventual meeting for 2008 Planning for our client Instant Krazy Glue. In that presentation we looked at our competitors, of which on happened to be the number one competitor, Gorilla Glue. It was interesting to see that for 2007, Gorilla Glue totally turned against what had previously been their brand identity. All of their old ads featured a gorilla hand, holding their product, and featured an orange backdrop. For 2007, they tossed that image and association out the door, and in the Krazy Glue execs. minds, got rid of what made gorilla glue gorilla glue, and got rid of any brand continuity and recognition.

With that in mind, I decided to search for some similar re-designs, and stumbled across a site that featured successes and failures. Success that may have needed a change, and gotten a successful face lift, and others, who may have not needed one, or in trying to push their brand forward, took a step back.

There is quite a list of examples, and a good chunk of comments left by viewers as well.

Enjoy...

Current Event

2009-07-25T20:12:00.004-04:00

I found that My Space has changed its logo in July. The previous one was "myspace.com - a place for friends. "(the first image). Now they deleted "a place for friends" and ". com". I think it's better because it is simpler. Only "My Space" will make a strong impression to the readers.
However, the My Space PR did not response to the change. They didn't neither admit that they change the logo nor explained why they were doing this.

Resource: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/01/new-logo-for-myspace-no-longer-a-place-for-friends/

Poster

2009-07-25T20:05:00.002-04:00

My event that I designed my poster for was for the 16th Annual Bowl-A-Thon, for the Starfire council. The Starfire council is a not-for –profit out of Cincinnati. A friend of mine has just recently been hired there and she’s in charge of planning events. When I got the project I had her and her work in mind, and it just so happened they had an event on the horizon. This year’s bowl-a-thon is actually 70’s themed, and she mentioned some t-shirts they had made, where the pins were go-go and disco dancers, and the disco ball was the bowling ball.

Visually I wanted the message to be that of bowling and the 70’s theme. I also wanted to communicate the organization, and a few of the specifics of the event.

The audience would be bowlers, and persons who would like to use bowling as a means for supporting a cause. People of all ages and walks of life enjoy bowling, and this event is great because its blends bowling, and supporting a great cause.

At the last second I changed the background to a real nice purple. It was black for most of my work, but at the end I changed it to purple because I feel it lightens the mood. The black made it seem a little bit dark and too serious. The purple lightens it up, and with the graphic element makes it real pleasant. It also worked better with the reflection element. All in all I am happy with the finished product. I wish I could have worked in some 70s/disco themed type or fonts, and I worked a while on an element for the event in mojo font, but it just didn’t work.

Event name: Lubalin Graph 100 pt.

Event Info: Franklin Gothic 18