Marks and Symbols

What I learned...

Symbols and logos are also known as marks (or trademarks). Both symbols and logos need to be simple and easily recognized. They are representing a company so the symbol or logo needs to show that it is connected to that certain company through a memorable, simple, and timeless design. 

A Logo

A logo is a word (or words) in type that identify a brand, company, group, or project. It can be a unique way to promote and it also makes it easier to recognize the company, brand, etc. 

A Symbol

A symbol is a mark that has no type in it. It is used to identify an agency, corporation, or institution. It is also another unique and simple way to give a quick impact. There are many key factors in creating an effective symbol. It should be clean and have a good flow. To make your symbol memorable, it needs to be simple and have heavy marks, that way it stands out.

Typography

For the past few weeks, my graphic design class has been working with typography. We had to find quotes or lyrics that somehow connected to us and meant something to us. I chose all of my lyrics from my favorite band, Twenty One Pilots. The band Twenty One Pilots is made up of two artists, Tyler Joseph (the lead singer, plays multiple different instruments, and raps) and Josh Dun (the drummer). Their lyrics are very inspirational and meaningful. I felt that their lyrics would fit perfectly for what my "vision" was. I chose song lyrics that would make sense in a certain format that I wanted. These are the four designs that I created and how I personally view each song. 

Lyrics from Kitchen Sink

          These lyrics are from the song, Kitchen Sink. The song is about helping you to defeat your "demons" that are inside your head. The very first lyric of the song is "Nobody thinks what I think" and in the second verse, the first lyric is "Nobody thinks what you think, No one, Empathy might be on the brink of extinction." I chose this lyric because it is, sadly, becoming true in this day and age. People are judging others before they even know each other. The empathy for technology is greater than the empathy for each other. For thefts, I wanted "EMPATHY" and "EXTINCTION" to look as is they were deteriorating. For the background, I used an image that had smoke on it and I thought that it fit with the lyric and style. 

Lyrics from Forest 

          This design was inspired by the song Forest. It is about living off of emotions and how they effect life, how we are afraid of what will come next. We live in fear and are restricting ourselves from living our lives to the fullest because of it. In the chorus of the song it says "Down in the forest, We'll sing a chorus, One that everybody knows. Hands held higher, We'll be on fire, Singing songs that nobody wrote," what this is saying is that we need to live in the moment and forget about our fears together. I chose the lyric "I don't want to be heard, I want to be listed to," because there is a big difference between being heard and being listened to. For example, if you multitask and work on homework while playing music in the background, you are only hearing the music, you are not paying much attention to it. When you listen to a song by itself and really understand the lyrics and what they are saying, I would call that listening. I chose this specific lyric because I think that every single person can relate to it in some way. 

Lyrics from Screen 

          This lyric is from the song Screen. It is about hiding who you truly are behind this metaphorical "screen." A lyric in the song that really sticks out is "We're broken people," and that is repeated multiple times, it means exactly what it says, there are people who try to act like everything is fine in their life when they're actually trying to hide the fact that they're "broken." I would have chosen that lyric, but I had an image in my head about the specific lyric that I chose. The lyric by itself may not make sense exactly, but if you know that song, the line right before it is "While you're doing fine, There's some people and I, Who have a really tough time getting through this life, So excuse us while we sing to the sky." What this is saying is, you might be enjoying life and you're okay, but that does not mean that every one is like that. There are people out there who are struggling but hide it behind their "screen" so that no one can see their pain. I wanted my graphic to look as if you were looking up at the sky so I made the font a cloud shape with a sun in the center. 

Lyrics from Lovey 

          The final lyric is from the song Lovely. The song is sort of like a message to whoever is listening. The chorus is "Won't you stay alive, I'll take you on a ride, I will make you believe you are lovely." Tyler (the lead singer) is saying that he believes that you are worth it and wants you to believe it too. He tries to stress "Stay Alive" is a lot of his songs, he wants to show that he cares and knows what people can go through. The song is about trying to make you believe that you are worth it and to stay alive because it will get better. I wanted to make the font give off a "lovely" tone so I chose a flowery font and a cursive font. I chose this lyric because I think that everyone should feel lovely and if they don't, I want to make them see just how beautiful they really are.

Responsive Web Design

What is responsive web design and why is it important? 

Responsive web design is the design and development of a website responds to the user's behavior, screen size, and platform/orientation. It consists of grids and layouts with an intelligent use of CSS media. A website needs to look good on all platforms (laptops-iPads-iPhones).  It is important because many people use their cell phones now to look online and if your website looks good on a larger laptop screen but not on the phone, your website will be overlooked.  

What are media queries and breakpoints?

Media queries is a CSS3 module allowing content to adapt to the screen that you are viewing the site on. A breakpoint are the point at which the content of your site will respond to the platform with the best layout.

Example of a Responsive Website

This website works in all sizes of platforms. It works on the laptop and also on the phone. The images and text look good in both platforms. With this website, there isn't that much content, it focuses more on the images and animations, but when there is text, it looks great. 

Saul Bass Poster

Why Saul Bass?

         In my graphic design class, a while ago we were asked to choose from a list of graphic designers and movements to research and create a power point about. From the list, I chose the designer, Saul Bass. His art was unique and different from what you would normally see and that really caught my eye. The way that he made his art his own was inspiring. His graphics are easy to recognize and are always interesting to look at. This week, we were asked to create poster in the style of our artist or movement, promoting their work at the Nelson Art Museum. One of his works that really caught my eye, was his posters and covers for the film The Man with the Golden Arm. In his arts for the film, there is this arm that is almost like a signature for the film and Saul Bass. Every time I hear Saul Bass, I think of that arm so I decided to put that in my poster.

Research

          To make sure that my poster looked the best that it possibly could, I had to research what the importance of a poster is and what makes a good poster. The main idea of a poster is to get inform others about a certain event in the simplest form possible. You want all of the necessary information on the poster without making the poster look too busy. I researched some of Saul's posters and also tired to make it look like something that he would create. I looked at multiple fonts and found the perfect font to represent Saul's style (Viktors Littl Creepy Horror). I found Saul Bass's works usually used dark colors to portray a cynical feel. I tried to create the same kind of feel by using the colors that he used (dark, warm colors). 

20 Layout Sketches

          In addition to the research, we had to create 20 different sketches of ideas for our poster. I knew that I want "Saul Bass" to be the first thing people saw when they glanced at my poster. I made different sketches of how I could portray Saul Bass through this poster. I had to think about where every piece of information would go and how large I wanted the details to be. I then started to add certain graphics and fonts that I thought would represent Saul. I settled on one of the first sketches that I drew. Going into this project, I already had an mage in my mind of what I wanted my poster to look like, it was just a matter of where to put everything and how to make certain information to pop.

The Process in Illustrator 

          When creating this in Illustrator, I knew that I wanted "The Arm" to look as if it were placing "Saul" onto the poster. I made sure to use the same colors that Saul used. The most difficult part of all of this was trying to get all of the information on the poster without making it overwhelming. I think that with a little outlining I successfully got all of the information that I needed on the poster. I tried to outline the whole poster with harsh, jagged lines because I have seen some of Saul's works outlined in that sort of way. It was challenging to try and create this in Saul's style while trying to make it my own.

Conclusion

          Overall, I enjoyed creating this poster. There were few challenges and going into this project, I already knew what I wanted it to look like, which made it easier to create. I feel like I did a good job at portraying Saul Bass in the poster. If I could change anything, I would probably try to find a more readable font. Other than that, I like my poster.

Topic Site Reflection

What was this assignment and what was the process? What did I learn?

          In my web design class, for our final, we were asked to create our own website about a topic of our choice. My topic was the Olathe Northwest Soccer program. I used the html coding and css styles that I learned from previous projects, I was able to get a good starting layout for my site. I had 5 tabs/pages, Home, Boys Teams, Girls Teams, Coaches, and Records. I was unable to fill in all the content due to timing and trouble with the layout. I was trying to center the links but I had to get help from my instructor. I also had to put a minimum width so that the banner would fit in the div.  I learned new css styles and html tags to help customize my website.

What would I do differently? What would I do the same?

          I would probably change how I large I made the banner because it made it hard to work with div. I also probably would have changed how I did the tabs, I think that it looks ok and I like the style of it, but I did something that made them difficult to work with. I defiantly would not have changed the layout of my site, I like the way it is set up with the links across the top, right under the banner. 

Thoughts?

          Overall, I enjoyed this project. I wish I had more time to work on it. Because making the layout had so many difficulties, I did not have time to put in barely any content. But I did enjoy not having to follow a tutorial and trying to figure out certain things for myself, even though I did have to ask for help on a few things.

Here is one of my pages that has a little bit of content:

Semester 1 Final Reflection

What did I do this semester?

Photoshop:

          My favorite photoshop project was the Nature Man Challenge. It took me a approximately 3 class hours to complete. One of the biggest challenges was the hair because I still wanted all of details of the hair. I learned a lot of new skills in Photoshop doing this project that I previously had no knowledge of, like creating layer masks. A lot of the people that I showed this to, seemed to like it a lot. If I had to change something on this project, it would probably how I went about making the hair. I tired to make the hair look like a wave and I feel like it is hard to tell that that was what I was trying to do. Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this project. I think that if I had more time to go back and fix the hair, it would look better, but it still looks good.

Illustrator:

          We have done a lot in Illustrator this semester, but my favorite would have to be the Raccoon Postcard.  The raccoon itself took about 3 class hour, the background took about 2. One of the challenges I faced when creating this had to be when I used pathfinder. When we had to follow the tutorials, it was hard to understand what certain directions were. Along the way, I learned how to use the warp tool and got a better understanding of the pathfinder tool. All the feedback I received on this project was very positive. If I could go back and change something, I would redo the whole raccoon now that I understand how to use pathfinder. Overall,  this project was probably my favorite out of all of my work because it was fun to create and i enjoyed making it. 

How did I use my time in class?

          At the beginning of the year, I used my time very well but I also thought that we were not given  enough time to work on certain projects. That improved throughout the semester, though. I felt like I used my time better on the projects I enjoyed, but I would get sidetracked on the projects I didn't necessarily like. If I finished early on the projects, I usually worked on the challenges that our teacher assigned as extra credit, but I rarely finished those because when I started, we were then assigned a new project and then a new extra credit opportunity. Before I would work on the extra credit, I looked at parts of the project that I could improve upon and tried to fix little problems. Outside of class I do not have the the Adobe programs to really work on projects. I try to come in early on some days and work in Illustrator or Photoshop, but mostly I stay after school to do that. I have also downloaded free software but they are a lot harder to understand because I am so used to the Adobe programs.

What are my areas of strength as an employee or graphic designer?

          I pick up on new skills and information pretty quickly. I understand how to use most of the tools in both Illustrator and Photoshop, but I would not say I am an expert. There are many aspects of both Illustrator and Photoshop that I have no clue on how to use. When I am assigned a project, I try my best to personalize it, make it look the best that it can. I use my creativity to help my projects visually appealing.

What are my areas in need of improvement?

          There are many areas where my graphic design skills can improve. Infographics is one of them. I like to make everything look balanced and clean, which can be a good thing, but sometimes it doesn't look good on an infographic. My Photoshop skills could also be improved because there are many thing I do not know about the program. We have spent more time in Illustrator than Photoshop, which doesn't bother me, but I would like to have a better understanding of Photoshop than what I have right now.

Summary

          This semester, in graphic design, I loved creating the raccoon in Illustrator, it was was fun and enjoyable. I like Illustrator a lot. One thing that I would change would be that we didn't work in  Photoshop as much as I would have liked. I learned a lot this semester and I now have a better understanding of graphic design as a whole. One goal that I have next semester is to just improve on my skills overall. I thought I did better than I thought I would've this semester and I am pleased with the outcome.  

The Top 6 Predators of Earth Infographic

The Infographic

        For the past couple weeks, my graphic design class has been working on infographics. We were asked to research any topic of our choice and create an infographic about it. I chose to research the top 6 predators on earth (not including humans). I chose this topic because I enjoy learning about animals and I thought it would be a fun topic.  

       I wanted the whole layout to be organized, clean and balanced, so thats what I did. I made sure each animal got the same amount of space and same with the header and footer. For the animals, I found pictures and outlined them with the pen tool in Illustrator. After I outlined each animal, I filled each outline in black because I felt like it would look cleaner without all of the details.

       I know that there is a lot of room for improvement but I am pleased with how it turned out for my first infographic.