Visual Communication Theory & Practice - Section 4

test

2009-10-21T23:44:00.000-04:00

. fff

test

2009-10-21T23:42:00.001-04:00

just trying something out

K Dub's wrap up.

2009-08-15T12:14:00.002-04:00

During week 1 I absolutely loathed graphics class. I thought it was going to be 6 weeks of ascenders, endless kerning and confusion. I really couldn't see myself doing anything interesting or useful with the class, but by the end this changed. I feel like I found a little area of design that I could use for my employer's and my own advantage and even though I will not design for a living, its a useful skill to have. By the end I didn't view the projects as hard work even though Adobe could be frustrating and I enjoyed making my last three projects. I've received lots of positive feedback on my logo so far and I'm glad that we took this course instead of news writing. Drew and Mary were solid and I'm glad that they were my instructors/helpers and put up with the mundane questions I had. Its getting kind of annoying that I am now evaluating miniscule design flaws everywhere I go, but in a way its a good thing because I finally have some way to transfer my thoughts into art. In the future I would like to audit a flash or advanced graphics class to continue with the process because I think I was just figuring my own style out at the very tale end of the class.

Rosalind's wrap-up

2009-08-15T00:15:00.000-04:00

Well, this class was definitely a break from news writing. So in that sense, it was great.

I'm really glad I can now say I'm adobe-literate. I never ever thought I'd learn how to use photoshop. After today...I can do the basics. I can't believe I designed a website. And a magazine. And a resume (not on Word!)

I'm really grateful for Drew and Mary for being so patient and always having a sense of humor. You two were my lifelines.

I know that computers and programs don't make designers, but I wouldn't have been able to do half of that stuff w/o the adobe suite (and Mary and Drew)

I'm really glad we had this class and I'm really gonna miss my section.

SNOOOOOOCH!!
LOL

Love you all!

See you in a few

-Rosalind

Wrap up post_Lucy

2009-08-14T20:30:00.003-04:00

I didn't believe it before when people kept on saying the six weeks of bootcamp will be over before you know it. Now I finally know why they said so.

Before GRA617, I wasn't aware at all to what's going on in the world of graphic design. I would notice a certain type or poster design I really like, but couldn't say exactly why I liked it or what was unique about it. Now everywhere I go, I tend to pay attention to the type face of signs on stores, the labels of wine bottles, and the negative space in magazines.

The lectures were thoughts provoking. Even though I didn't necessarily understand everything, I did get a much better idea of how certain things should be designed. Now I'm even pickier when choosing birthday cards for friends.

I enjoyed this class very much. And as a PR major, I will definitely continue to learn more about graphic design.

Wrap Up

2009-08-14T16:49:00.003-04:00

Graphics 617 was truly a wonderful and enlightening experience!! I have learned sooo much about the design industry. I will never look at a sign/poster or any type of design the same again.

I have always wanted to learn the Adobe CS4 Suite, and now I have thanks to this class. I cant express how much I have benefitted from this class, and all my future endeavors will showcase the techniques that I have learned throughout these short six weeks.

Hopefully, even though I am not taking any more graphics classes, I can continue to expand on the skills Ive learned and become more proficient in each program.

Delante

last post

2009-08-14T16:45:00.002-04:00

I have really enjoyed this graphics class. I think the introduction to the adobe programs was very useful and I am sure I will go on to learn more about all of them.

Wrap-up

2009-08-14T13:03:00.002-04:00

This has been quite the experience. I am actually noticing font and design wherever I go now ( I know I said that way earlier in the semester, but that was bullshit... now it's true). I can definitely say that I've received a lot of satisfaction from coming up with ideas, sketching them out (sometimes) and then bringing them to life in class. I've enjoyed the creative process and I look forward to continuing to work with Adobe and graphic design in the future.

Final Post

2009-08-14T09:44:00.002-04:00

This class has been a great one. The lectures taught me to be very critical of billboards, logos and websites. Now, I walk past every sign and disrespect the artist. Yesterday, I was walking past Varsity, looked at the sign and thought it needed to be a different font style. From our section, Drew is man. Very insightful. BUT! Can't forget about Mary because she always keeps it real with the students. I told Mary that I thought my magazine project was good. She said "No my brotha!" Then helped me with it. I now know the difference between serifs and san serifs. I can understand better what fonts go with certain types of designs. Overall, this class makes me look at text, logos and presentations differently.

Anne-Final Post

2009-08-14T09:33:00.002-04:00

When I first signed up for this class I was both excited and confused about why a MNO student would need to take this class. I realize that knowing how to do all of this is important for journalist, especially considering the way the field is going. At the same time, I didn't know what to expect or how useful this class would be to me. Little did I know.

During the first few classes, especially the labs, I didn't know what was going on. I never had any experience using these programs and before looked at graphics in the sense of "that looks good and that looks bad." I never considered why or how.

As corny as it sounds, now I see things differently. From type and logos, to overall design messages, I am starting to catch on.

The programs have been hard to adapt to. I'm not that best at this stuff, but over the 6 weeks I feel like things got a lot better. And now seeing what I can do, makes me want to do more.

I agree with what Kevin said in his post: the professors and TAs made this class what it is. We got to explore our creativity as our own person, not according to some guidelines. Especially in our lab, there wasn't anyone trying to change what we were doing. Instead, I think Mary and Drew did a good job of seeing what we were going for and then helping us adapt to that thought process, when they easily could have said "that sucks, start over." I think all of these factors made the class both fun and worthwhile.

Good luck to everybody and see you around!

Masnooch, final post --

2009-08-13T23:50:00.002-04:00

Well gra 617 -- it is time to say good-bye

(crying happy tears)

I liked this class so much -- not only the people in class but the professors, TA's and everyone else who helped us out along the way.

I learned so much in 6 weeks that I never thought would be possible.

I learned how much I love type, design in general -- and CS4/CS3

Now, I want to shape all of the rest of my study towards at Newhouse with a design feel -- and I will continue on to pursue my writing and creativity.

All of the projects, especially the website and magazine project -- were a lot of work, but so fun to produce.

Good luck to everyone, I am sure I will see everyone around in the fall --

Just remember, if you ever need a good laugh, think of masnooch!!

Until next time...

Morris_Wrap-up Post

2009-08-13T22:01:00.002-04:00

I'm very satisfied with this class. Unlike in news writing, the professors and TAs treated us more like actual graduate students, giving us greater freedom and individual time in lab to learn on our own. The lectures had the potential to be boring, but the professors did a great job of bringing typography and design to life through humor and sheer enthusiasm.

I also now feel comfortable using inDesign and (to a certain extent) Illustrator, both of which I had never used before, and both which have the potential to open doors for me professionally. Unfortunately I won't be taking any graphics classes next semester, but I fully plan on staying late in the computer labs around with design--it's fun.

Williams final post

2009-08-13T20:19:00.005-04:00

I had no idea what this class would be about. When I learned more about what we were going to be doing I was terrified, intimidated and wondered if I'd make it because I don't have any design experience.
This was a great class because it changed the way I look at everything.
When I look at magazines I question the design.
While viewing Web sites I look for grids.
And I'm always thinking about what the graphic artist wants me to feel when looking at fonts.
We were introduced to a lot of design principles in a short time and we were able to practice them.
The class moved very fast though, especially for someone who has never used these programs.
But Mary and Drew (thanks Mr. Jordan) were very helpful and patient.
I never thought I'd be capable of doing this kind of work without months of practice.
I'm not a design expert now.
But I want to build on these skills and do more of this work.
This class showed me that I can take my ideas, no matter how abstract, and create strong, intriguing images.
Now I don't want to just write for a Web magazine I want to create one.
If this is what the Newhouse experience will be like I'm really glad I'm here.

Sherri Williams

Barron Wrap-up Post

2009-08-13T19:23:00.002-04:00

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to talk about in this last post. I will say that it is the first design class I have ever taken. Thus, I think that it was helpful in helping me to see things (especially typefaces and organization) in a different way. I wish there was more time to let learning the software sink in, but unfortunately that is simply the nature of boot camp. I guess that I'll add something to the post if there was something I left out.

Magazine - "Bruno"

2009-08-11T21:28:00.003-04:00

Magazine! After the Special report Article from Economist did not qualify with enough images, this is what I found to be plentiful on the Web.

Magazine identity & readership
Stars and Stripes Weekly is an entertainment magazine about American television and cinema. The idea is to create an exciting illustrated product with subjects of mass public interest to cater a wide variety of audience among the TV and cinema viewers.
The name is different from an existing “Stars and stripes” newspaper in the way it is “weekly”.

Magazine visual identity
It is highly illustrated with exiting bold titles and illustrations (!), lots of illustrations makes the tight connection to motion pictures visual entertainment industry. While in contrast to some existing products the magazine has less clutter and fewer sidebars, for the reader to be able easily trek information and make informed decisions.

Article visual identity
Is coherent with magazine as the whole consistent product, images and clear clean sidebars and quotes. The opening spread has a bold statement and headline as well as a matching image, while the jump spread counterweights with an opposite image and additional illustrations for the material. Choice of fonts for deckhead is conveying the voice of guerilla tactics and wartime military delivery boxes type of font.

Article design strategy
The opening image is cropped from a report with the background carefully removed in Photoshop to remove and clutter that could distract from the image of main character, which is coherent with textual content. The headline is in line with characters’ cuffs projecting the powerful message. Jump spread uses same colors in the pull quotes and sidebar, while become more clear to read with white background and well spaced fonts.

Style sheet
Opening spread deckhand: Stencil 25/30
Folios: Times 12/14
Opening spread headline: Gill Sans Ultra Bold 124/148
Jump spread pull quote: Times

Document grid
Grid is 6 columns with 1p6 gutted and 4p margins. The choice of 6 columns allows for a greater flexibility over a three columns design in placement of photos, text columns and jump quotes, while the 2 or 4 columns would create too wide columns difficult to trek at letter sized pages. The choice of gutter 1p6 is based on lecture recommendation by Darren Sanefski.

Vassar Magazine Spread

2009-08-11T20:39:00.004-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership

The name of my magazine is TRILL. It’s a music magazine that covers more intellectual less-mainstream stories about musicians and their work. The magazine would cover all genres from underground hip-hop to indie rock bands. The only commonality between any music types presented in this magazine would be their musical rarity and originality. Ideally, TRILL would be a publication for music aficionados who are bored with the commercialized auto tunes of the 21^st century.

TRILL’s readership would be comprised of music listeners from all cultural backgrounds. While the magazine could definitely be appealing to more mature readers, the targeted demographic for TRILL would be ages 18-24.

The magazine’s namesake is based on the musical theory term “trill” which the AB Guide to Music theory defines as “a rapid alternation between two notes; a musical ornament consisting of alternations from note to note.” In short, TRILL is a musical flourish in a song; it’s a quick shift from one note to the other. I chose to title my magazine after this term because it bears a great deal of significance in music, it’s a widely used technique in all kinds of music genres, and the idea of “trill” (switching from one note to the next) mimics the magazine’s c hange from one artist to the other in subject matter. In addition, TRILL possesses a certain intellectual component (as a music theory term) but is also an urban term used in older hip-hop songs. In certain facets of urban culture, trill is slang for a combination of the the words “true” and “real” (true + real = trill). I thought this colloquialism also fits the idea that TRILL covers “real” music and artists who are “true” to the industry rather than jaded commercial performers.

Magazine Visual Identity

Being that the magazine is more for an esoteric music listener, I tried to keep the visual identity extremely simple. I used colors that were lively but not too overwhelming; the combination of black, cream, and read compliments the more subdued cool of an artist like Mos Def while appealing to a more artistic readership.

Article Visual Identity

The article I originally read about Mos Def was about a private glimpse into his musical inspiration, interests, and future plans for a documentary film. I tried to design the article with this “sneak peek” notion in mind. The hole on the jump spread attempts to convey a sense of voyeurism as a reader; the idea that the article gives audiences a more intimate and in-depth look into who Mos Def really is and what is art truly exemplifies. I also included a side-bar on his films because they present a lesser-known side of Mos Def as an actor rather than a hip-hop artist; this information adds to a greater complexity of Mos Def as an artist.

Article Design Strategy

I really wanted to make use of circles and color. I used circles throughout the spread to reiterate the theme of “looking into” Mos Def’s career and identity; I wanted the voyeuristic aspect of the jump spread to resonate throughout the article which is why I used circles on the side-bar as well. In addition, I wanted to maintain visual unity between text and images so I used the same colors throughout the spread (largely sampled/based on the photographs). The black, cream, and red add a consistency to the spread but also compliment the spread’s images.

Both photographs in the article are meant to show a more serious side of Mos Def and add a juxtaposition to some of the very political and often witty things he says (i.e.“I’m an artist man; I put that shit on my W-2 form").These photographs also are taken with similar lighting and clothing almost as if they both were part of the same photo shoot; this sort of consistency was deliberate as well.

Style Sheet

Opening Spread Deckhead: Univers Condensed,

Folios: Eurostile

Opening Spread Headline: Univers Bold/Regular

Jump Spread Pull Quote: Univers Condensed

Article Text: Minion Pro

Document Grid

I used 2 grids for this article for simplicity. Mos Def is not some flashy hip-hop artist decked out in gaudy platinum chains; he’s more of an “everyday” guy whose music seeks to reach listeners who want something political to ponder. His music is simple without lacking musicality or a message. The two grids were consistent with the simplicity of his work while making the space between text/margin more readable.

Magazine Spread-Delante Thomas

2009-08-11T10:27:00.002-04:00

My magazine is a women’s empowerment magazine intended not only for women of color but women all over the world. The magazine, Reign Supreme caters to the hip-hop generation and feeding them with knowledge on women’s rights. This article features Queen Latifah, a long-time advocate for women’s rights.

I wanted to convey Queen Latifah, a powerful woman in a more sensitive yet strong way. If I had to design a cover for the magazine I would include Latifah on the cover in stern look, to compliment the sultry feminine inside touch. I intend to package this magazine as one for all fans of Queen Latifah.

Visually I chose a softer picture with pink/lavender highlights for the article.. The pictures are bordered in the same pink as the background of the cover photo. The caption boxes are also the same color, as well as the drop boxes.

The pictures that I chose of Latifah really bring my point and topic home to the readers. They are softer pictures with a warmer feeling.

STYLE SHEET

Opening: Zapfino -60 (Long Live)
100 Queen
Deckhead- Perpetua 18

Folio –Skia 10
Pull Quote – Perpetua 24 Pink
Drop Cap- 3Lines (Italized)

My margins are relatively small to create a more sleek look. The smaller margins visually appeal to the sleek and slim font.

My images came from a google search of images of Queen Latifah.

Magazine Project -- Masucci

2009-08-10T22:56:00.006-04:00

Once again, I had to make some changes to get my project posted -- so if it looks odd or wrong, I apologize -- Hope everyone likes it!!

Statecraft Monthly

2009-08-10T19:29:00.006-04:00

This is based on an article in Wired about a delegation of American tech execs who were sent to Iraq to see how the Internet and other digital tools could be used to build and support infrastructure there.

The feature graphic is a composite image. I overlayed the shot of the computer lab with a nightvision-y thing. Now that it's done, I definitely would go back and do some more work on it. The text layout on the 2nd page just doesn't really work for me. And the call out/pull quote in the 1st page is pretty ugly.

But this trip seems pretty rad.

Magazine project

2009-08-10T16:15:00.005-04:00

Here is my layout. The magazine is Midwest Knows Best Magazine and it caters to Midwestern dwellers with a taste for fairs. I wanted to show the sights of the state fair that Keillor so adeptly describes in his article. I’ve included food signs and a spinning ride, along with an image of the neon signs and rides of a Midwestern fair lighting up the night. I know that Rosewood is generally frowned upon, but I think it really works in this case for my headline, since it really evokes the feeling of a state fair sign. I tried to keep up a bright and active image theme throughout the project and I managed to do it all without resorting to pasting a huge picture of a corndog in the middle of everything. You're all welcome.

-Tom

Magazine Spread-Winton

2009-08-10T16:01:00.009-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership

My magazine is called “Show Ya Right”. This was a term used in the 70’s in the black community, maybe in others too, but I only know it from my parents and relatives. The readership consists of those interested in hip-hop culture. So, the design should appeal to those people.

Magazine visual identity

Show Ya Right is a vibrant magazine. I am a vibrant person. I’m trying to use colors and certain font types to convey my messages to the people. That’s how the cover would be and that’s how I tried to design this package, for cool and open-minded readership.

Article Visual Identity

The article is about a rapper, Fabulous, who is very popular because of the songs he is featured on. I showed on the feature spread, of how he visually is a “king” with a crown above the “I”. In the article, I use an orange color to match the orange in the photo on the cover. I included photos of him performing as well as a photo of him with another artist, Ne-Yo, who he has done songs with.

Article Design Strategy

I wanted to make use of grids. I also wanted to find some way to use the orange and make it work. I used the orange blocks to separate the paragraphs. I used it throughout. I also used it in the sidebar as well. It shows that the article is creative and that we make good use of visual elements along with pictures. I carry this theme throughout because it’s important to be consistent with the use of colors and photos. This story is a good story to read and I wanted the visual elements to help convey that message.

Style Sheet

Opening Spread Deckhead: Helvetica bold, 68

Folios: Chaparral Pro, 12

Opening Spread Headline: Helvetica regular, 30

Jump Spread Pull Quote: Chaparral Pro bold, 18

Document Grid

I have 3 grids set up for my article. I used 3 because I feel that it flows a lot better. It does a good job at spacing the article out, allowing for an easier read. The spacing is more consistent and it’s more appropriate.

Magazine Project - Screech Powers

2009-08-10T12:19:00.003-04:00

I did my article as a sort of spin off of the People Magazine Saved by the Bell 20 year reunion. Dustin Diamond, aka Screech Powers, was not included in the reunion, but the article did have a little side bar on him. So I decided to reverse the idea. Basically I wanted to convey what he has been up to since the show. His life has pretty much gone down hill, so I decided to play off the whole child stardom gone wrong thing.

The feature page plays off the darkness of the image I used of him. The title plays off the name of the show and the color of a bell. The jump spread incorporates the "where are they now theme," with his lack of success being contrasted on the bottom bar by the somewhat successful careers of his formers cast mates.

Even though the topic seems like a joke, I felt that this magazine, geared towards people who love 90s pop culture, needed to be professional, as the people in that age group would be well into their 20s by now. As a result, I used a serif for the typeface of the article and incorporated a more modern tone in the typeface of the articles title, as well as the bottom bar typeface.

There are a few things I would have change if I had more time, but all in all I'm ok with it.

Magazine Post

2009-08-10T12:10:00.005-04:00

So, I chose to do an article on Beyonce because, other than the fact that I love her, there are tons of photos of her online and she's on the cover of something almost every other month. I started off by searching Google Images for Beyonce. I noticed a recurring theme of black dresses and one black suit, which is the picture you see in the feature spread. I knew I wanted to do something surrounding the idea of "fierce" and I knew I'd be doing a fashion spread, so when I saw this picture, I thought of doing a spread illustrating "the new Beyonce" and how she is "the new black" or the "it girl". The term "fierce" has been around for a while, but Beyonce turned it into a mainstream thing with her latest album, "I am ... Sasha Fierce." Since it's become so popular, and since the feature photo and accompanying photos are of her in black..."Fierce is the New Black."

Design Concept:

I wanted my headline to make a bold statement, so I made the page into a block of white and a block of black. Then, I put "BLACK" in white letters on the black half so it would stand out (Gestalt). I put "is the new" at the halfway point to symbolize "fierce" becoming "the new black".

For the facing page, I chose this picture because it seemed really fitting for the feature. I didn't want to do the obvious and put one of her actual "Sasha Fierce" shots there. Magazines always do feature spreads of her in dresses, smiling, or more recently, in the futuristic, space-age, fierce wonder woman type of outfits. That's all been done. Even though this photo was actually featured in Fashion Rocks Magazine – an annual publication that only comes with subscriptions to some Conde Naste publications – I don't think it was ever sold on newsstands. I used this photo because there's still an element of fierce, even as she wears this Armani suit. My deck head text, describing her accomplishments and attributes, counts down from 6 to 1, loosely tracing the outline of her figure.

For the jump spread, I kept it pretty simple. The story I had to work with was from InStyle Magazine's January 2007 issue. A lot about her has changed since then, which is why I really wanted to use the January 2009 issue of ELLE, which also featured her on the cover and had a more extensive and relevant article. Nevertheless, the InStyle article was relatively short (maybe because not much was going on in her life then besides the upcoming Dreamgirls). I used this to my advantage and put that text in the body. I made half of the first page that big picture because everything about it catches you off guard. From her 8 inch ballet heels to her contorted shape to her straight eyebrows, it's just an interesting photo.

My sidebar story was inspired by InStyle. They always have different looks of a celebrity in a sidebar. I thought I'd keep the black theme going by showing how she looks great when she steps out in anything black. If you'll notice, the black background of the sidebar continues from the black background of "the new black" from the feature spread. So there's some cohesiveness there as well.

Typography:

For my feature, I wanted to make sure the typeface I used for "Fierce" fit well. I wanted to make sure I did the word justice. I think Arcana established that. I also wanted to make sure that "is the new Black" looked like it belonged in a fashion magazine since it's a fashion industry concept. I used the Didot family (regular and italic) for that as well as the deck head to have some cohesiveness across the pages.

For the body copy, I used Garamond because I think it's easy on the eyes and it looks pretty similar to the typefaces in most fashion magazines.

For the captions, photo credits, sidebar text, and folio, I used the Futura family because it consists of a wide variety of easy-to-read sans serifs, and it's about the same typeface of ELLE Magazine's folio. I used Tiffany, only for the page numbers, also taking inspiration from ELLE's folio. I needed a sans serif font to go in my sidebar because small serifs tend to dissolve in black backgrounds.

P.S. this was long because my rationale sucked. I started it at like 4:56 and finished at 5:02, right after the printer crashed.

Oh yea, I called it Strut because I wanted a title like Vogue, and vogue is a verb so I thought of another "fierce" (I promise that's the last time I'll say it) verb related to fashion. Hence the name Strut.

My magazine is for the same audience as ELLE, because it's similar to Vogue, but sometimes they have more realistic finds and they tend to have a few less ads.

That's it!

Logo

2009-08-10T12:08:00.001-04:00

I have tried a million times to post my logo and this was the closest I got...

It's an abstract bird of paradise, the colors here are different and it is suppose to have a black stripe in the back.

Magazine Project

2009-08-10T11:54:00.008-04:00

Here is my my magazine layout. I wanted to make a layout that was very simple and easy to read.

Ana Ivanovic is a very beautiful person and there are many pictures of her in bathing suits and all glammed up but because I wanted to keep a more relaxed feel I chose pictures of her that seemed more realistic. I also feel like these picture better portray her personality than a swimsuit picture would.

That "L" is tough.

2009-08-10T00:25:00.006-04:00

This is current to me, so here it is: the ultimate typography showdown.

Being able to recognize a brand from a fraction of its logo is culturally important probably. Whoever made this might think so; maybe it encourages questions about marketing to the subconcious. Fair enough.

But really, I wanted to announce that I knew the majority of these, and then my girlfriend picked up almost all of the ones I missed. She even knew #12, that big "L", which is astounding.

Apparently we're a power consumer couple. We don't know what to think, except that some of these were sorta tough. Advertising works. Logos work. That's why they're expensive.

Take the test and post your score. [don't cheat]

current event posting

2009-08-09T22:24:00.002-04:00

http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/graphic-design/nimbuzz-emoticontest

There is an upcoming graphic competition at the end of this month.

"Nimbuzz is a mobile social messenger combining instant messaging, (geo) presence, and VoIP. From one contact list you can call, chat, message and more, with all your friends in one place. All you need is an internet enabled mobile phone with an internet connection. With the Nimbuzz EmotiContest you have to design up to 5 emoticons for Nimbuzz, winner will get a brand new Nokia 5800. The emoticon needs to fit the style of the existing Nimbuzz emoticons. Each entry must include these three files: 16×16px png, 32×32px png, Your workfile/-s (AI, PSD or whatever file format/program was used). Entries are your original work, have not already have been published or submitted to other competitions and do not infringe the rights of any other person. The contest is open to anyone worldwide and no entry fee is required."

So, it's basically a competition to make an appealing emoticon for this mobile social messenger that's called "Nimbuzz." Prize is 403 USD, so feel free to try out!

Rosalind Dean's Current Event 8/9

2009-08-09T18:18:00.004-04:00

I know I'm a little late, but Saturday is a terrible day to have posts due. Thursday and Friday was hectic and before that, the week is consumed with News Writing...*exhale*

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is really a current event because news has been out about it for a while. But, we haven't talked about it in graphics, so...

James Cameron's newest movie, Avatar, is coming out in December. It's going to be a 3D movie, so that should be pretty interesting. We know his directing from Terminator (1 and 2) and Titanic. The graphics in Titanic were pretty crazy for '97, so I can only imagine what this 3D movie will be like with all the technology used in films today.

The teaser trailer doesn't say much about it, but I think it's going to be a Final Fantasy type of animation. You know, how it looks like real people, but it's not, kind of. I'm sure there's a name for it. I just don't know it.

I guess they had to push the date back, because a lot of online ads say Summer 2009, but the current release date is December 18th (Yahoo! Movies).

Karsten Walker Magazine

2009-08-09T16:09:00.001-04:00

Magazine identity and readership:
The people that will read my magazine are generally males who shave their legs and wear excessively tight clothing, also known as cyclists. Rather than manifest their masculinity through contact sports, cyclists chose to ride for really long distances on crappy roads in Europe as they waft the fine French air and discuss the nuances of expensive cheeses.

Mazagine visual identity:
My magazine is a preview of the 2009 Tour de France and is meant to provide readers with some insight as to who the people in the horribly designed clothes really are. It is also designed to get viewers accustomed to the subtle elegance of European art and culture; something they will come across a lot during the three week Tour. To fully understand why someone would want to pedal around France for 2000 miles, you must first understand the nuances of what is considered a “sport” in Europe. Commonly referred to as “exercising” in the United States, European sports are often based on forgotten athletic qualities like physical fitness and work ethic.

Article design strategy:
I made my article cheesier than Nacho Doritos. Cyclists have a bunch of unique, yet equally cheesy, terms for various things. When races are in France terms suddenly become French and when riders cross the border they adopt the terminology of the Italians or the Swiss. Many cycling ads lay the cheese down like none other so I figured that I should be blatant in making as many visual design puns as possible. I learned in lecture the other day that playing off of cheesy names and designs helps people remember you and hopefully people will remember my magazine despite the fact that it provides no information that a person couldn’t get from a Google search. I wanted to emphasize the rift between the team, so I made sure to choose pictures that had all of the riders singled out and only one picture of them riding together. Cycling pictures are usually all the same and only cyclists understand the nuances of posture, proper shaving techniques, appropriate sock colors and give the viewer an idea of the simplicity of cyclig; the wind blowing their locks in the breeze. I wanted the viewer to feel the vibrations of the road and the rifts between the riders. In the movie Top Gun, Ice Man told Maverick “You can be my wingman any time,” and I want readers to understand the length of the rift between riders. In Top Gun competitors overcame differences to win against communists, but cycling feuds are bigger than competitions for global hegemony.

Style Sheet:
Opening Page Heading: Avenir LT STD 95 Oblique angled 25 degrees to emphasize the pure speed. 80 pt
Drop Caption: Avenir LT STD 65, 30 pt
Body Copy: Stone Serif 9 pt leading-2
Captions: Stone Sans 9 italic
Jump Spread Caption: Stone Sans 9

Document Grid:
Standard 3 column grid to emphasize the idea of 3 riders competing for glory. As usual, I made sure my hierarchy was inverse to my tagent body copy jump kerning so as to emphasize the line pattern of my geometric sans serif.

Current event post.4_Lucy Wang

2009-08-09T15:38:00.008-04:00

A friend of a friend told me that he noticed the logo of Delta air lines seems somewhat different. In my opinion, the new logo looks a lot better than the old one. First, I love san serif font types. The new "DELTA" looks cleaner, simpler, and more classy. Also, extra space between letters is added, which makes me feel like the seats is wider and more comfortable. (even though in reality, the seats in economy class is still quite tiny and compacted...)

I also like the new color of the letters. It's more subtle, not such much "right in your face" bright blue as the old logo. The 3D triangle adds something extra to it which I can't get my hands on yet. But the bottom line is, I like the change.

Lastly, the circle with three steam lines inside gives the whole picture a more professional look.

Артемий Лебедев - Russian designer

2009-08-08T23:59:00.001-04:00

I hope those who are interested would find this useful... Highly acclaimed Russian designer Artemii Lebedyev has over 1600 projects done in the post Soviet region (CIS) and his work ranges from typography fonts, logos, style sheets, print ads and layouts, to web sites, consumer products interfaces as well as products, and corporate visual identities. Here is a link to his works page via Google Translate service (so it can be read in English) http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artlebedev.ru%2Feverything%2F&sl=ru&tl=en&history_state0= By the way, he went to Parkville High School in Baltimore for one year - I huess a cultural diplomacy exchange program.

Following are a couple of his most recent works:

Poster for a Landcaping convention event, and type developed in the studio (used in multiple other projects as well)

Magazine add is for a luxorious residential housing development in Moscow vacinity.

Social ads billboard (orange) says "Our baby son cries when in a baby seat. It is easier for us to pay 500 rubles." - reffering to a "cost" of bribe to a police officer for a baby seating violaion, and is hightly sarcastical about Rsussians own mindset. One of the series of billboards.

P.S. I hate the interface on this service and exhilarate it is our last post! (This pictures are a pain in "Bruno" to post right!)

Vassar - Brand New: Pepsi vs. Coke

2009-08-08T23:15:00.003-04:00

I found this JPEG on Brand New's website. It's basically a chart that follows the progression of the Pepsi and Coca-Cola logos over the years. When looking at both logos, it's really crazy to see how they've progressed based on how modern we've become. It appears that at some point, mainly around the 50s, both brands attempted to make their logos more distinguishable by incorporating an image/shape into their logo. They both deviated from the traditional use of font/type-face and integrated some sort of iconic image into their logo. For Pepsi, it was the red,white, and blue Pepsi bottlecap and for Coke the signature red "fishtail" box used to frame the company's typeface. Either way, as time continued, it seems as if both companies desired to establish a more memorable brand identity; some image to be associated with words/fonts.

I have to say, after looking at the changes made to each, I like Coca-Cola's logos much more than Pepsi. They're more simplistic and applicable to any market. The current Coke logo really embodies this: the cursive Coca-Cola typeface is embedded in the minds of consumers worldwide. There's something about the simple red and white of the logo combined with the typeface that makes Coca-Cola appear much more classic and timeless. In a way, it's almost as if the Coca-Cola logo can always transcend time whereas the current Pepsi logo, while cool to look at, already seems dated.

Winton's current event

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

I found an article about the potential Microsoft Logo. It looks no different than the last one in the sense that the colors are the same. Visually, the colors are appealing. The shapes are consistent and cohesive within the design. I think the new logo couldn't help or hurt Microsoft. It looks decent. And if you look straight at it, you can see a plus sign, cross, whatever have you. The new logo works with squares, triangles and straight lines. It wouldn't bother me at all to see the new logo on Microsoft products.

Current Event 3 - Tom H

2009-08-08T21:52:00.003-04:00

This was the first entry that I saw on Brand New and I knew that my search for a current event post was over. You really have to enjoy the bravado that Radio Shack is showing us here... thinking that they, like Bowie and Cher before them, could claim single-moniker status. While I applaud their effort ( and I always appreciate a good pun like "netogether") I feel like this reeks of desperation and that "the shack" is trying too hard to appeal to a youth/hip-hop movement that probably doesn't put too much thought into where they buy their batteries. As far as the actual design, though, I think the sparse layout is a good choice in combination with the red, bold "Shack". It really makes the brand name stand out, even if that brand name is just a cheesy ploy.

Current Event

2009-08-08T21:22:00.015-04:00

There has been a lot of talk about how terrible the summer Olympics is, what do you think of the winter Olympics logo??

Personally, I don't like this logo much. Nothing about it says Olympics to me. It is a very still image and I don't get the feeling of sports or Vancouver. Maybe if the games were taking place at the Stonehenge it would make sense.

The typography is very boring, and the colors of the rings were used to create the abstract image of the person.

Tell me what you think of this, I just don't get it.

Kate's awesome Magazine Project.. Yea!!!

2009-08-08T21:22:00.013-04:00

Rationale

Kate Flaherty
Magazine Project
August 7, 2009

Magazine Identity and Readership:
The magazine is called Guitar Diddlers Monthly. It is a magazine dedicated to jam bands—hence the name “Guitar Diddlers”; it is another term for a jam band musician. The readership consists of fans of this music genre, and possibly fans of all music.

Magazine Visual Identity:
I wanted this magazine to be very graphic heavy. I opted for this look because I feel that as a fan of music, I always want to see great action shots of the band. The content is very centered on various gigs and the stories behind the albums, so pictures would work very well with this.

Article Visual Identity:
I chose to have an article that was very graphic dominant. This was important because the magazine is a graphic in nature. The stories are important, but I want the pictures of the bands to be more important.

Article Design Strategy:
I wanted to really get across the sense that Led Zeppelin commanded a huge presence on stage. I did this by making the feature very graphic heavy, but with very defined text. The copy was intended to be the secondary focus. I wanted the text to be very easy to read and simple, which is why I chose to use optima. It naturally has a kerning that is little larger, and I believed it worked well to make it very readable.

Style Sheet:
Opening Deckhead- Raphael Std 14/30
Folios- Optima Bold 8/9.6
Opening Spread Headline- Magnolia MVB Std (top line) 90/60 (bottom line) 100/120 [the bottom line had a baseline shift of 35pt]
Jump Spread Pull Quote- (page 45) Raphael Std 16/24 (page 46) 14/20
Body Text- Optima 9/12

Sources:
All of the album cover pictures were found on www.LedZeppelin.com
All of the other pictures were found using a Google image search, keyword: Led Zeppelin

2009-08-08T21:06:00.003-04:00

So this is Kodak's logo design over the years. It started out as the Eastman Kodak Company, but over the years they shortened their name to just Kodak. They switched from a sans serif design to the classic yellow and red serif font. In the 80's they switched back to a sans serif font within a large K.

The newest logo is very different from the older ones. It is much simpler and plain. It incorporates a lot of white space, which hasn't been used since the early 30's. I really like the new logo. I feel that it still represents the company, but looks newer and sleeker. I feel it works for their products. I really like this kinda thing, and find it interesting how these things change over time.

2009-08-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

For some reason the city of Melbourne decide to change its simple and tasteful logo to some nasty 3d design that looks like something left over from a mid 90's Silicon Valley semiconductor firm with a name like Megatrode. Not only does the 3d design have completely nasty colors, the multifaceted design is bound to look like crap on anything smaller or different than a webpage. I don't know why they chose a logo that would be difficult to engrave into stone or stamp on a seal, but one thing is for sure: no one is going to forget exactly how ugly it is. As far as I know Melbourne doesn't sit on a cache of precious minerals nor does it have anything to do with any commodity that has a crystalline appearance so the redesign baffles me. The best part of the new design is that the Mayor of Melbourne is using it to replace a design "created in the 1990's".

Current Event #3

2009-08-08T18:34:00.002-04:00

So this is the logo the Obama administration has chosen as they continue their effort for health care reform. As you can see, it's the circle they used for his campaign attached to that eagle wings type thing that has somehow come to represent health care in this country over many years. Reasons for which I am unaware, of course!

The reason I am putting this up here is because of the uproar the logo has created. Some people, mainly conservatives, believe that it is too similar to the Nazi swastika that is held up by an eagle. Personally, I think the fact that this uproar has even happened is ridiculous. The legislation at hand is fair game, but the logo as a political issue seems over the top.

I think as far as graphic design, logos, etc. go, this is very interesting. The power these symbols send can be felt and perceived in various ways by different people. As we talked about this week during Mary's lecture, logo changes create a lot of conversation. Some more than others. And some symbols you just need to stay away from because of what they have been identified with in the past.

I'm not trying to be political, I just I don't think that's the case here. But everyone else can be the judge.

I'll link to an article here about the uproar over the logo and the "comparison" of the two.

Williams magazine project

2009-08-07T23:31:00.007-04:00

Article design strategy:

Through this design I hope to convey the seriousness of this issue, but I also wanted it to be visually appealing so people will want read it. There is nothing fun or funny about babies dying the subject can instantly turn people off. So I started the opening of the spread with a beautiful image of a silhouette of a pregnant woman’s stomach. It is a large stunning image of new life. I attempted to link the stark reality of infant deaths with the text on the page. Having the shape on the next page conform to the protruding pregnant belly was also an attempt at unifying the design and playing up the great shape of the opening photo.
On the second page I used the copy and color to convey the seriousness of this health crisis in this resourceful nation. The “words babies die early stop cradle to coffin” are all in different sentences or different parts of sentences. But they are all highlighted in red to show the dire state of health of American babies. It is a subtle yet strong design element to unify the copy and underscore the critical nature of this topic. Then I went back and made the headline red to make the page stronger.

On the jump I have a photo of a gravestone that reads “baby goodnight” in capital letters. This is a powerful image which shows readers the disturbing reality of American babies dying too soon. The pull-out quote on this page is in red to unify the design with the front spread and to underscore this health problem.
I put the sidebar in a red background create a separate visual element for that section.
I used red again to also unify the opening spread.
The photos, one of a man gripping a cross as his 5-month-old brother’s grave and the other workers at the same cemetery burying eight babies at one time, are arresting images. They tell an element of the story, the deep loss families experience, in a way that only photos can. But the images are really small but I had to use them. So I placed them next to some statistics about the racial disparities of infant deaths. The photos show the people behind the numbers affected by this health epidemic.
The logo created for the magazine also has a touch of red in the logo.

Sherri Williams

Morris_Magazine

2009-08-07T16:44:00.001-04:00

Magazine Identity and Readership: China/Bridge. Serious news and analysis on Chinese politics and culture, aiming at both people casually interested in China and professionals engaged with or in China.

Magazine Visual Identity: Simple and straightforward, but with enough visual elements to draw in casual readers.

Article Visual Identity: I wanted the first 2-page spread to convey a sense of violence and anger, and the second 2-page spread to be straightforward and newsy.

Article Design Strategy: As noted above, I wanted the first spread to convey a sense of violence. This brings people into the personal reality of the story, which provides a good framework with which to then enter the serious analysis provided in the second spread. I chose Big Caslon as the body font because of its readability and because Caslon is a classic news-magazine font. For the first page and the sidebar I used Futura for the title and Helvetica Neue for the body. This provides a strong but easy to read contrast with the main article. The folio is Optima because, frankly, I just thought it looked cool.

magazine spread

2009-08-07T16:40:00.001-04:00

Magazine Identity & readership
Punk is the name of the magazine. It is a magazine that covers underground musicians and main audience is people who are interested in music.

Magazine visual identity
The group Yeah Yeah Yeahs was the topic of this magazine article. They play punk rock and alternatives so I tried to convey their feel to the spreads. Their music is very bold and vivid. Boldness is the main concept I wanted to present with the spreads.

Article visual identity
As Yeahs music, I tried to use pop-art like colors as many as possible but not too much even in the article spread. This was because I believed vivid color blocks show the edgy feel of Yeahs music. I think it was a bit risky, but I am glad with the final outcome.

Article design strategy
With the feature spread, I tried to make it look like a poster. Punk is a music magazine so most of the time, in my opinion, even images have to contain the musical feeling. I believe the colorfulness of the spreads gives a strong impression to readers and based on the spreads, I think readers can even assume what kind of music they would play.

Style sheet
For the headline: ITC Anna Std (200/240, 160/192, 120/144, 72/86.4)
For the subhead: Bauhaus 93 (20/24)
For the body text: Tw Cen MT (12/14.4)
For the pull-out quotes: Helvetica Neue (20/20)
For captions: Andale Mono(12/14)
For folio: dates and page numbers (Myriad Pro), magazine title (Wide Latin) (8/9)

Document grid
I divided the body texts to two columns. I relatively had a heavy volume of texts so I tried to make it look simpler particularly because I had many color blocks. Also, the margin between the texts is one pica.

Barron magazine

2009-08-07T16:34:00.003-04:00

Here are the opening page and jump spread for my magazine project. It is about a cyclist named Mark Cavendish, who at the time the original article was printed was heavily favored to win the sprinting competition at the Tour de France (His biggest competitor was banned for testing positive for cocaine, but later he was allowed to race). I created a design that was supposed to display not only how arrogant Cavendish is, but also that he really is talented and dedicated. He is the fastest sprinter in the world and has an excellent team behind him. I think I portrayed this image quite well.

Barron current event

2009-08-07T16:30:00.002-04:00

Radio Shack has officially changed their name to only "The Shack." It seems kind of weird and takes the electronic niche element away from it, assuming that it really was to begin with. I never really shopped there, and I don't think changing their name will help much. In fact, it might just confuse people as to what is sold there. Supposedly, it's an incredibly expensive endeavor as well. I doubt dropping the "Radio" will increase revenue and/or profit margins that much.

Still cannot post my logo project -- file is "corrupt"

2009-08-04T23:50:00.001-04:00

"b_card_final_.pdf : Your image is corrupt or is in an unrecognized format."

This is the message I keep getting when I try to post my logo project, envelope or stationary.

Drew, can you help me tomorrow in class please? I don't know why I can't upload anything, sorry...

Logo post - Rosalind Dean

2009-08-04T14:28:00.003-04:00

So this is my stuff...

It's a work in progress, but I think I'm off to a good start. I'm probably going to change the font to a sans serif so that when they're printed the serifs don't fade into the black background. Also, I might take some of the pearls away (Greg said there are too many, but Mary liked it so I don't know!)

Visual message:

My stationary is supposed to be classic, elegant and chic, all at the same time. I want people to focus on my name and style. The black color of the card is supposed to standout from other business cards that are typically white. The font is a script at the top to convey a necklace, the body copy is supposed to be straight, classic and stylish.

Audience:

I’m not sure exactly what type of public relations I’ll be going into, but I would really like to do something in fashion, so I would be handing these out to people who appreciate good style. Incase I’m handing my cards out in a more generic setting, I have that first cream/plum/sage design as my back-up.

Design strategy:

As I said earlier, I wanted my stationary to communicate a chic, classic, and elegant style. I think black is a timeless color, always in fashion, so I don’t see this stationary looking dated anytime soon. The black stands out among other cards, so hopefully I’ll stand out. I chose “Linoscript” for the “R” on the necklace because I wanted it to be elegant. I wanted the body type to be chic, but not too detailed or curvy like the “R” so I used “Didot”. I didn’t want my business card to be black on the front and back, so I flipped the colors on the other side. In a way, doing that created a new logo. I wanted to keep the white pearls across the board, so I made sure to have a black envelope flap and header.

Style sheet:

Logo – Linoscript

Body – Didot

VASSAR Business Card/Logo

2009-08-04T12:57:00.005-04:00

Yay - I am seriously happy to post this entry because I almost thought I lost these documents. My thumb drive is "corrupted" but I was able to retrieve my old work off the desktop I was on last Friday. So here it is:

VISUAL MESSAGE OF LOGO

My logo’s intended to communicate my career interests in music journalism while making my initials distinguishable. When I was designing my business card, I thought allot about the multiple cards I’ve thrown away from various people – I wanted to create a card that was memorable and worth saving. The logo uses a record as my middle “D” initial. I chose to do this primarily because music is an integral part of my life but also my career interests. In designing the record, I was extremely undecided about the color orange. I flipped back and forth between orange and red; however, I ultimately decided on orange because it’s more subdued (so it doesn’t overwhelm the logo) and it’s also more retro. This logo combined with the use of Gill Sans as my font type for my name/information attempts to communicate simplicity, a love for music, as well as originality.

AUDIENCE

I’m hoping that one day this business card will say “music journalist” across the top of it – my work is for employers/colleagues in music journalism.

DESIGN STRATEGY

I’ve always loved music and writing – through this design I was hoping to make that apparent. As noted earlier, I used a record as part of my initials to allude to music, particular oldies/classics. Vinyls were popular during an era of music that should be an essential part of any aspiring journalist’s collection; I designed my logo with this idea in mind. I chose to use a gradient to give the record the appearance of volume.

After designing the record, I decided to use an orange rectangle to make my contact info distinguishable. It was a deliberate choice to not clutter the entire business card with color or images but rather maintain a simple white parallel line above/below my logo; the symmetry of negative space is what makes my card look simplistic and well organized.

The font I used was Gill sans regular and light; this font has strong presence that’s suitable for my personality but it’s not too overwhelming on the page. The hairlines of the letters are the perfect width – they’re easy to read without being too ornate.

STYLE SHEET

Name in Logo: Gill Sans Regular

Name on business card: Gill Sans Regular

Contact info on business card: Gill Sans Light

SOURCES AND INFLUENCES

My influences have been previous projects/lectures from class (particularly regarding the idea of using negative space effectively). I also researched old vinyl records on Google images for an idea of how to design my logo.

Logo-Winton

2009-08-04T08:56:00.004-04:00

Ok..this is my logo but there's supposed to be a shadow underneath it and the cylinder is supposed to be orange. I want to get into sports media. So, I let the cylinder resemble a basketball without actually being a basketball. I want this logo to appeal to employers in some kind of sports media. Took some planning to do, but I think it came through.

2009-08-04T08:53:00.002-04:00

Here is my logo. I wanted something simple using my initials, so I decided to have the neck of the "a" come off the "p," with the circle acting as the circular part of both letters. In order to make it more clear that they are separate letters, I put the color you see in the center. I used the Myriad Pro typeface throughout my whole stationary set, including the logo. I cut apart pieces of each letter so that they fit together as I wanted them to. I put up the business card version so that you could see how I used the color inside the circle of the "a" and "p" to draw together the different pieces of stationary.

Logo project_Lucy Wang

2009-08-04T00:13:00.002-04:00

It didn't take me too long to come up with my logo. The yellow frame represents boundaries, limits and conventional restrictions of society. The blue spiral seems to be trapped inside, the little stroke sticking out means that the frame can't block it. I'm a person who often live outside the box so I thought I'd create a logo with a more metaphoric feeling.

The chose of colors is simple. Blue is my favorite color, and I chose the contrast color (I'm not sure if this is the correct term. Anyway, I'm trying to say that it's the two colors on the color wheel that's directly opposite to each other.) of blue, which is yellow. I played with the shade a little to make it a little softer so the frame looks less "aggressive".

I know it looks quite plain, but I'm really happy with my work.

Current Event Post -3

2009-08-04T00:01:00.002-04:00

Ok -- I was talking about this thing I saw a week ago from my roommate in class last week.

This website called ijango, is suppose to be some new technology to save the world, apparently.

Like the social networks available today -- twitter, facebook, myspace, etc. -- ijango offers a homepage, or a "portal" for users to list everything they want on one page or website.

I don't see how this is much different than having a bookmarks section, but that is just my opinion.

Check it out, I told the professors I would post it up on the blog for everyone to see.

Let me know what you all think -- professors, what do you think as well?

Until next time --

Current Event Post - 2

2009-08-03T23:47:00.004-04:00

So I was doing some research on current events and cool website design stuff -- and I found this website called www.remotecontrolz.com

This company won a design award in 2009, according to the Graphic Design USA website home page.

This company interested me not because of the fact that it was listed as a design winner, or because it was posted on the GD USA website, but because of the logo of the company -- and the fantastic home page.

Remote Controlz web site -- has a great color, with the logo lodged in the top left corner, with a excellent merge of the text into the logo. The logo is simple, by putting this illustrated figure in a circle. However, there is movement of the "o" of remote, and the movement is in a circular motion. The color of the header text, matches the logo, and is a strong, yet a simple san serif type -- looks like Helvetica.

Check out this website, it is cool design work in my opinion. This website has I believe a Flash program introduction, so check that out too. I know I always post current news about websites usually -- it's only because web design interests me a lot, and I want to learn more and more.

Until next time --

Morris_Logo Project

2009-08-03T22:20:00.004-04:00

Visual Message

I wanted a logo that was eye-catching but not too flashy, something that can spark someone’s interest without appearing gaudy. For this reason I didn’t want any colors, staying in gray scale, and I also wanted only type and abstract images. The boxes on the business card direct the reader’s eye past the address on the bottom right and to my professional interests on the upper-right. The logo is flexible and can “fall apart” in different directions (on the envelop and back of the business card I used a version where the ‘m’ is stable).

Audience

Magazine executives and potential clients for free-lance journalism/translation.

Design Strategy

As I mentioned in “visual message,” I want the logo to be eye-catching and simple at the same time. I think it succeeds in this. I chose Helvetica because its simplicity and universality matches the plain geometric forms of the squares in the logo. I chose to alter the logo on the stationary and the business card to help direct the reader’s eye across the page and demonstrate that these are for show; the logo on the envolope and the back of the business care is more like a stamp.

Style Sheet

Everywhere: Helvitica. In some places I used Helvetica Bold.

Sources

None? I didn’t use anything online and this time did not have to rely on Drew to make the gray boxes.

Logo Post

2009-08-03T16:41:00.003-04:00

This is my logo. I wanted to firmly express my identity, in this case my family/history. I wear a family ring that has my family crest and motto, so I used that as inspiration. I wanted the tone to be fairly formal and elegant, but also bold and strong. I did not want too much clutter on any of the stationery items that would distract from the logo.

I decided to make my logo a personalized version of my family crest. I played up the red square and white, crossed lines in the middle, and I placed my initials in the four red quadrants. I included the roman numeral for two with my initials because I am a “Jr.” I added a light gray background within the crest to really make the other shapes and letters stand out. For the stationery letter, I included my name in a more elegant font (Apple Chancery) that I thought would match the formality and tradition of the crest.

Current event 3-Williams

2009-08-02T22:54:00.005-04:00

While clipping coupons from the Post Standard today I noticed that Glade has changed its logo. This jumped out to me because my mother has been using their clean linen scent for about 20 years and I noticed the can looked different.
I'm not a fan of these products but I'm glad they changed their logo. It's a more modern look.

Sherri Williams

Morris_Current Event: Fontplore!

2009-08-02T22:43:00.006-04:00

Using Suitcase on the Mac is not fun. In fact, exploring fonts in general is not really fun at all. That's why I hope Newhouse will invest in one of these things before I graduate:

Fontplore Showreel from Mphasize on Vimeo.

According to the developer, Fontplore combines past methods of searching through fonts (either in print or on the web) into one, so not only can you search electronically for different font faces, you can also see how they look immediately on paper. The user interactivity functions also look amazing. Here is how the developer describes it:

We have a primary navigation object (round shape), which can be placed, dragged and rotated on the table. Rotational movement cycles through the fonts in the current search result, while dragging is used to select a tag or undo a selection.

The pyramid-shaped objects are used to commit actions, like preview, save, print and reset. Any number of these objects is supported, although we feel that more than three or four would be more confusing than helpful.

Alright, I guess it doesn't sound that impressive in writing, but check out that video. If I had one of these things I could probably search through fonts all day.

Logo System - DY

2009-08-02T22:13:00.003-04:00

Visual message:
The logo system has to be first of all simple and un-invasive, considering my audience, with plain shapes and lines and easy to read fonts. The idea is to represent Public Diplomacy as message transmitting field to the publics, so I drew a logo based on something that you would see in info-graphics with regards to broadcasting and radio waves in air. Logo is clean and conservative, with a bold statement.

Audience:
Audience would include governmental and international agencies, as well as multinational corporations, that require conservative approach to correspondence.

Design strategy:
The logo having to represent message transmission has to be simple to understand and yet less like info-graphics and more an icon. The lines of waves were filled in with a simple color – black, and the circles of waves were skewed aside (in a direction opposite to our reading direction, creating a stronger image) to make sure there will be no mistake with a well branded logo of a retailer (the choice of which circles to fill black and keep white was also inversed to the potentially confusing retailers logo). The logo was replicated identically yet in different sizes on all items in the set, thus maintaining coherence of the system. The backs of business card and envelope however show and oversized version of the logo, making a printed item stand out and at the same time giving an impression of vastness of the message transmission process. On the envelope back it also looks like an opened envelope that contains it –message in transmission.
Fonts are same as used in my wordmark on the Resume Project, to maintain my overall style consistency.

Style sheet:
Typeface -- Lucida Grande same as in resume wordmark. At the bottom of the letter stationary the letters are spaces out by 150 to fill the width of the paper.

Sources and influences:
No specific images were used for inspiration, however Target logo was in mind with regard to filling the info-graphics broadcasting waves to avoid similarity as well as skewing to separate from a “classical” illustration of radio broadcasting.

2009-08-02T20:10:00.002-04:00

So LendingTree recently changed their logo. For those who are unsure, LendingTree is an online mortgage broker. They recently expanded their services to include auto loans and the like.

I think this new design is horrible. I don't think it is nearly professional enough for a mortgage company. The prior serif font was much more appropriate for a financial company.

The newer logo is trying to be more modern and stand out. I think in those respects, it works. I can definitely identify the new logo with the whole online, computer-type font, which could work for an internet service company. I just don't think it works for a financial company; it just sends the wrong message.

2009-08-02T19:10:00.002-04:00

Cirque du Soleil is coming to town! Their shows are always so creative and the creativity is reflected in this poster.

The word type is so beautiful, perfectly centered on the page, the mirrored "A's" make the title very symetrical.

The hierarchy is very clear, 'Alegria' is the largest and placed above Cirque Du Soleil. The text is the brightest image on the page and stands out more than the photo.

Current event2 _ J Sohn

2009-08-02T14:48:00.003-04:00

As Firefox updated its software, it updated its logo as well. There was no major change in shapes but small details in color and contrast created a very different look. With a little bit of detail added to the tail of the fox, I think it represents that it has become a more powerful software. Also the slight intensified contrast makes the logo look more lively. I think it is amazing how these small changes empower the impression to viewers. To me, the earth seems to be the online world and the fox represents the software. Now that the fox embraces the earth more stable, it almost feels like I can trust the program with less worries.

Current Event 2 - FontGenius software recognizes fonts for you

2009-08-02T14:44:00.001-04:00

I just read about a new program released by "FontGear". It's called FontGenius, and if anyone has iTunes, you can probably guess what it does. It's a program that will recognize a font from a picture that you select and find other fonts like it. So it's basically font recognition software. Tomorrow, I'll post the image that the website had up. I think this program is AMAZING because there have been countless times at which I've seen a font and wanted to know what it was, but had no idea how to even begin to figure it out. I guess the next thing will be a collaboration with that iPhone app that recognizes pictures of stuff and finds it online. Could you imagine? You see a font you like on the street, take a picture of it with your iphone and this software tells you what it is. That would be hot. But I digress. So the program costs $40. It can recognize fonts from jpeg and gif files and can also recognize fonts that aren't installed on the computer. Saves a lot of time that's normally spent looking through that extensive suitcase!

New Nickelodeon Logo

2009-08-02T08:36:00.005-04:00

OLD

NEW

Variety just confirmed Nickelodeon's upcoming logo change. After 30 years of being known for the orange spatter-and-splat that marked all of my childhood, the network has finally decided to move onto a bigger, better, and more digital-looking logo.

I honestly have to say that I HATE this logo. In fact, I'm wondering why they changed it at all - the orange and white "slime" has been a trademark of Nick's for years and I just can't seem to understand why they'd want to part with it. According to Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami, "In asking ourselves if everything could live under the splat, we decided that the splat was dated," she said. "It just couldn't be done in a streamlined way."

Based on that comment, it makes perfect sense that the logo looks extremely sleek yet unoriginal. The design successfully maintains the orange and white from the original logo but fails to include any character in this new one. It seems as if this new logo has been divested of any playfulness. The slime mark on the original logo was playful and connected to an actual event that's been broadcasted on all of Nickelodeon's shows: getting slimed. If anything, this new logo's font and design reminds me of FACEBOOK'S logo which is a very sad, disappointing reality. It makes sense that it does remind me of Facebook's logo being that this new one was designed with the intention of being more digital/useful online. But still, we have to wonder how much character a logo has to compromise to keep up with technology... I guess alot.

2009-08-01T21:50:00.002-04:00

Kraft foods changed its logo several month ago, and recently they changed it again. The thing is basically rearranges elements but the new execution is far better with fonts being more "soft" without using bold, and more consistent throughout the logo image. It feels more up-to-date and in line with the modern trend to make companies logos more subtle in the face of economic downturn.

Current Event Post

2009-08-01T21:43:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of MTV's "new" logo. Essentially it is the same logo, just without the neon overload of graphics past. I'm not sure if they were trying to come off as being more professional, but it seems like a massive failure/waste of money. They should instead focus on better programming and perhaps playing music again. MTV can redesign their logo all they want, but unless their content changes they will be never be able taken seriously. I think it would be more fitting if they incorporated drunk chicks on spring break into their logo, or perhaps make it a gif of some of the moronic 20 somethings that taint our airwaves with their endless stupidity on The Real World.

current event_Lucy Wang

2009-08-01T21:10:00.003-04:00

I was searching for ideas about what to post for the current event when this logo caught my eyes. It reflects the energetic and active side of kids in junior high school. With just four strokes, readers can easily tell it's a man/woman running.

Although the running figure is kind of cliche for an athletic event, the wave of the blue arm and the long hind leg made this logo stand out.

The use of color really brings out the happiness and excitement of an athletic event.

Current Event 2 - Tom H

2009-08-01T21:05:00.002-04:00

I don't know if anyone else has commented on this, but I just found out that the 76ers are reverting back to the logo of their Dr. J - fro-wearing glory days. The progression is seen above. Now, I'm not exactly a fan of the sixers, but I would put myself in the traditionalist camp when it comes to sports logos. I sit around my house, pining for the days of the powder-blue Blue Jays and Chargers, and I don't even mind the old, brown and yellow Padres jerseys. At the same time, I am constantly finding myself being bored to death by some of today's over-designed, modern, supposedly hip logos (I'm looking at you, Washington Wizards). The sixers, until recently, definitely fell into the latter category. I think this new/old logo is a great nod to tradition and the beauty of simplicity. My only hope is that this is the kick in the pants that Washington needs to bring back the Bullets of my youth. Enjoy your weekend.

-Samuel Dalembert

Current Event-Winton

2009-08-01T18:26:00.002-04:00

I found an article about stunt cars creating fonts. On the page, there's a picture of an O or a Q, which ever you prefer, created as the car is making turns. There are two men that are a part of a group called "pleaseletmedesign", who are appartenly trying to work on a new font called "IQ" font. They hired a professional race car driver that was driving a car tagged with four colors. I think it's creative. Check out the link http://www.geek.com/articles/news/font-gets-created-with-stunt-car-driving-20090729/ and the video on the website that talks more about it.

Logo Post

2009-08-01T16:10:00.000-04:00

Visual Message

Since my career tracks at Maxwell are Global Security and Economic Development I wanted my logo to illustrate my career specialty. I would like to be a consultant for the risk management division of economic development projects, so I had to give off some element of my specialty and position. I chose to make the W in my last name into a line graph since it conveys a sense of analysis that will remind people of the analytic nature of my job. Its large, bold and summarizes the nature of my skill set and personality.

Audience

My audience is hopefully private and public entities that are going to hire me to analyze things for them. Big money spenders, doller doller billz yall.

Design Strategy

We discussed Bauhaus in class so I googled it and found out that the Bauhaus movement began in Germany when my grandparents were children. The movement survived the war in many ways and is still evident in much of the architecture and art. My Mom is from Germany and made it a point to share her German culture and heritage with me when I was growing up. A lot of my designs are very simple and bold, just like Bauhaus art and font. Right away people know its me from my initials, they know I am involved in analyzing something and they have my contact information right there. It doesn’t need fancy art work or really anything else to emphasize that I am takin’ care of business, just like that song from the 80’s. Working Overtime. My design does not vary exepct for size so there is a sense of coherency. It looks professional and means serious business, which is all I need. Technically I did exactly what I was not supposed to do, but I wanted my design to accomplish different things and give off a different message.

Style Sheet

I used Folio Medium to create the outline of the K and then Myriad Pro for my name and information. The W is actually not a font and was created out of shapes. I did no kerning or leading of any sort, just color matched it and sized it to make a block.

Sources and Influences

I think that I am influenced by the Bauhaus art mentioned above, Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon III, Taco Bell, most dogs, the color plaid, America and the Maury Povich show. Don’t ask me how, but these things all combine to create my sense of design. I based my image on some random idea that I sketched on paper and as far as I know it doesn’t exist anywhere on the internet.

SyFy

2009-08-01T14:28:00.005-04:00

This is sort of silly, even for people hanging out in basements and talking about geeky TV like me. But apparently some fans are up in arms about renaming the SciFi channel. The new name, "SyFy," looks like a website begging for start-up $. Or maybe like an appetizer plate. Who cares, I don't think there's anything really remarkable about the change. But some nerds are upset.

What I do like enough to talk about are these set of ads that show the re-branding in motion graphics. Kind of subtle, but I realized after watching the series of them (4) how consistent they are in creating a new identity. And at the same time it leaves room for a new audience that maybe doesn't typically identify with science fiction drooling.

Here's the link to the vid:

http://motionographer.com/theater/blind-syfy-idents/

Williams logo

2009-07-31T19:59:00.008-04:00

Visual message:
I hope to play up my vocal ability with this logo. Although most of my experience is as a print newspaper reporter, I want to move away from that medium and incorporate my voice into my work as a journalist. I also want to highlight my radio experience. I'd like to explore doing news radio and voiceover work. I tried to give the logo personality by making it an abstract silhouette of myself in black. A red microphone is strategically placed where the mouth is. I hope this image conveys a strong vocal presence and personality that I bring to the newsroom.

Design strategy:
My design communicates my message by using simple recognizable images.
I think using a red microphone grabs the viewer’s attention. Red is a power color. I hope it gives the viewer the idea that there is a strong voice there that would be an asset to their newsroom. The microphone is centered in the middle of the face of the black silhouette to also symbolize lips. I chose the ITC avant garde gothic std font because it is big and full like my voice.

Sherri Williams

Logo project -- Business card, envelope and stationary

2009-07-31T19:21:00.005-04:00

I will have to re-post my logo project Monday because for some reason, my business card and logo will not upload. I will try and re-post it when I can -- I am not sure why it is happening, but I will try and find out this weekend and into next week.

Below is my rationale -- will try and have my project loaded up on the blog as soon as possible.

Michael Masucci
Project: Logo System
7/31/09

Visual message

My visual message is what makes my “simple”, text logo work. I know that in this project I was suppose to make a logo as an illustration, to show that I can make illustrations – but this idea I thought was too good, not-to-mention, I tried making about 5 different actual illustrations to coincide with my idea, but it kept ruining the simplicity and creativity of the idea.

I used a name that I have acquired as my logo, “snooch”. Masucci, my last name, has become altered into many nicknames, and masnooch, snooch for short, is on of them. People asked me, “How do you define snooch?” I responded to that question in some ways with my logo. Due to a few small mistakes and not leaving myself enough time at the end, I couldn’t explain snooch as much as I wanted. But it is about being different and original. It’s new. It’s different. I thought it would be one of the “logos” and business cards that everyone remembers, because it is different.

Audience

I have an open audience in my opinion, because my business card, letterhead and stationary all have my logo and phone number for contact information. All three items will cause a response, most like something to the likes of, “What is smooch?” or “Who is smooch?”

Design strategy

My strategy was to define my name as a dictionary would. The same spacing, pronunciation section, noun and verb section, font type and symbols. I thought, how else can I define snooch without giving an actual definition? So that is what I did. I tried to make an illustration to go with snooch, but I kept running into clutter problems. I tried a man illustration pointing to snooch, a character with glasses that my best friend gave the idea for and showed me the other night, and a design with eyebrows reading that my best friend come up with as well. Yet, I didn’t like any of them, not because they were bad ideas, but because I thought they took away from the idea of a dictionary entry. Some may look at my logo and think, “This is just type.” But it is much more than that. I spent more time trying to figure out how to actually make a dictionary entry and size up the type and words, than any illustration designs I tried to work with.

Style Sheet

Business Card: Helvetica on back and Century Schoolbook on the front.
Stationary, and envelope I used Century Schoolbook.

Sources and Influences

Like I said prior, I read up on some dictionary entries and did my research on the setup and text of a dictionary, and that is how I thought of my logo. My roommate was a design student at SU, and he thought that my nickname “smooch” was a good trademark and logo idea to work with, and I thought he was exactly right! So snooch is what I went with.

Barron Logo

2009-07-31T16:27:00.004-04:00

Here is the front of my business card. The back just has the "JB" logo on it but with a light shade of gray as opposed to black. I know that it's kind of plain, but that's what I like in business cards. I sort of got my inspiration from the movie American Psycho, which is a great movie/book if anyone gets a chance to see/read it. The clip is here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y. My card is supposed to be simple, professional-looking, yet classy and visually appealing. My stationary and envelope have the same exact logo and block of information on them. I felt it was necessary to maintain some type of consistency in this project. I know it may not be very flashy, but I think it gets the job done and still looks nice.

Barron Current Event

2009-07-31T16:23:00.003-04:00

Here is the before and after logo for the University of Waterloo, which is in Ontario, Canada. I think that the new one is pretty abysmal and abandons any sense of tradition that a university should have, which the old one accentuates. Also, moving from a serif typeface to a sans serif one loses its formal sense. Is this a new playground for kids to go to or a higher learning institution? It's hard to say. That might be a good logo for a lasertag facility, but not for a university. I probably wouldn't attend school there just because of the immature and hideous new logo.

Current Event-Numero Dos

2009-07-31T09:57:00.004-04:00

The whole issue of re-designing logos manages to confuse, interest and annoy me all at the same time. After thinking about sports teams that change their logos and then the lecture we had this week about company logos, etc., I realized that logo re-design happens all the time and I just haven't noticed before. Some changes work and some don't. That's why I put up this image. It's a list of prominent companies that have all gone through logo re-design. It's interesting to see how many of them use some sort of circular image. It seems like it's more modern and "in" to use some sort of image like that, which doesn't always work. That brings me to the last one on the list: Xerox. I've lived in Rochester, NY for a long time now and that is where Xerox is based. But I had no idea they went through a logo re-design. Interestingly enough they went from something simple to the typical 3-D circular image. Frankly I liked the original better. I guess some companies get it right and others over do it.

Current event 2-Williams

2009-07-31T00:32:00.005-04:00

This month's issue of Italian Vogue includes a special supplement which celebrates black Barbies. The cover is great because the title of the magazine, Vogue, is spelled out using black Barbie dolls. This is great use of specialized typography to unite an iconic image with an iconic magazine. It is a really clever way to bring two fashion staples together. The cover also includes a photo of a black Barbie in a retro 1950s-style striped bathing suit. Barbie turned 50 this year.

Sherri Williams

Current event 1-Williams

2009-07-30T23:43:00.006-04:00

Last month an Australian company, Toko Design, created a new typeface that looks like the numbers from the old digital clocks from the 1970s. When I first saw it I thought it was kind of interesting because of the retro look. But the closer I looked the less I liked it because the way the letters disconnect is distracting.
But I do think it's amazing that in 2009 people are finding new shapes for old letters.

Sherri Williams

Red cross - class follow up

2009-07-29T14:15:00.001-04:00

here is a pretty cool thing regarding what we covered in class

VASSAR POSTER PROJECT

2009-07-28T23:52:00.007-04:00

EVENT DESCRIPTION

This poster is for the Maasai Women’s Fair Trade Center, a shopping center located in Arusha, Tanzania. The center is part of the Maasai Women’s Development Organization (MWEDO). I had the pleasure of working with MWEDO while in Tanzania where I saw the jewelry that is sold at their fair trade center. Each week – the day of this event varies depending on the demands of MWEDO’s office -the Maasai women hold a showing of their beaded jewelyry in the Fair Trade Center for local tourists. Here, people are able to shop and buy the jewelry made by women in the indigenous Maasai community. All of the proceeds go towards putting the women’s daughters through school. Selling jewelery is their primary form of micro-financing and a way for the women to gain more agency. This poster is intended to highlight the significance of traditional Maasai jewelry and encourage the audience to go online to make purchases.

I chose this organization because I’ve met the Maasai women personally and know that jewelry-making is their primary way of sustaining their their families. Maasai women are often at the disposal of their husbands – their jewelry-making projects are really the only opportunity they have to gain economic independence from their partners and a sense of autonomy within the community. I was particularly intrigued by the concept of consumerism actually being a POSITIVE thing for developing countries; hence the poster's saying “when shopping actually matters.” Too often, American consumers make aimless purchases that never benefit the people who actually manufacture the products. I wanted to make an advertisement/poster that takes a more altruistic angle on consumerism.

VISUAL MESSAGE

Visually, I really wanted my poster to be simplistic while highlighting the significance of the Maasai jewelry. I tried to use negative space effectively to create a contrast between the Maasai woman and her jewelry. Also, I used color to organize the image and emphasize the product for the audience.

AUDIENCE

My audience would be American consumers who (ideally) have daily access to the internet.

DESIGN STRATEGY

I chose to convert a photograph of a traditional Maasai woman into a silhouette. I found this more effective than putting a photograph of the woman on the poster. The silhouette offers a black image that really highlights the jewelry. I also decided to highlight the black of the Maasai woman’s skin to emphasize the beauty in being African rather than Americanized. In addition to color, the negative space was designed to really organize the poster. I didn’t want to fill the poster with useless graphics that were distracting from the main image. Lastly, the logo was made to be extremely small as a way of not interrupting the negative space on the poster. I did my best to use the contrast between black and white to create balance in the image while utilizing color to highlight the design of Maasai jewelery.

STYLE SHEET

Event name: Aventir LT Stf

Slogan beneath event name: Microsoft Sans Serif

Current Events Post -- Sorry it is two days late Drew

2009-07-28T22:25:00.003-04:00

I was doing some research about current events and I found on the Graphic Design USA Web site about this new product a company by the name of Evolution Bureau is working on.

The picture below is a new product called the A2B Metro electric cycle -- a product by the company Ultra Motor I believe.

EVB just took on this product and is doing some really cool campaign work for the bike -- EVB is doing what they call a social media campaign to promote A2B, according the news article they had listed on their Web site.

The bike is really cool --

Everyone should check out EVB at www.evb.com and some of the different companies and products they work with.

Also, the Web site is awesome, with a really great logo at the top of the home page that moves and does all this cool stuff!

If you decide to look up current news on the Graphic Design USA Web site, you will find that there are tons of stories about Art, design and different forms of design companies all over. Whenever I want to find out what is going on in the design world, since I know so little about it, I check out the Web site to get inspiration or just to see what design companies ideas are.

ABCA Poster- Delante S. Thomas

2009-07-28T17:27:00.001-04:00

Event & Issue
The poster is centered on the American Baseball Coaches Association. Each year they hold a convention sometime in early January. Next year, the event will be held in Dallas, TX. During this event amateur baseball coaches and professionals gather to discuss issues in collegiate and amateur baseball, and to come up with solutions to potential issues.

Visual Message
I wanted to display a professional message that appeals to more than just those involved with the organization.

Audience
The audience for this poster will include the members of the ABCA as well as those in the Dallas area. I would also want to appeal to collegiate and amateur athletes who would be interested in meeting professionals from around the world, while enjoying Dallas, TX.

Design Strategy
I decided to go with the Dallas skyline as a background image, which the clean cut of it and the fonts I chose sends out the professionalism. I included a flying baseball that looks like its coming from the city because it is a sporty feel that brings the message forward. The initial reaction that my poster makes is “GET THERE,” the ball really makes the message come forward so you cannot miss it.

Style Sheet
I only used one typeface in my design: Trajan Pro Bold

Extras: I chose the colors that I used based on the logo of the organization, red, green, and black. Also, from what I understand from a student in class from Dallas, is that green is sort of the color of the city. With that in mind, I thought it was a good tie-in to the organization.

Poster for Fresh Air-Winton

2009-07-28T17:11:00.004-04:00

I was trying to come up with a creative way to illustrate what the Fresh Air Fund does. Basically, it gives children from the inner city a chance to spend time with a family that lives in the country. That's what I was thinking when I had a tree coming out of the sidewalk. The event is a Half-Marathon that raises money for the children and the program. The thing that stands out is the design of the "breath of fresh air" and how it resembles movement of air. The poster has a fresh feeling and that was what I was going for. The audience that I'm targeting are families primarily in inner cities to show that there are alternatives to their current conditions. Once again, that's where the tree growing out of the sidewalk comes in. Visualy, I think it's strong with the blue background and it fades at the bottom to highlight the organization's logo. Moreover, the design could've been a little different. Maybe some footsteps could've been included on the sidewalk. But I made something out of nothing so I'm content.

Moving on To Logos

2009-07-28T13:09:00.004-04:00

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?

Ad Project -- Rationale -- Christmas in July

2009-07-28T12:57:00.003-04:00

I tried to upload my rationale, but it said my file was "corrupt", or couldn't load.

I will try and re-post it later tonight and see what the problem is.

For now, I can explain my ad project.

The idea is "Christmas in July" -- it is a program through the Salvation Army and is basically what it sounds like, Christmas in July.

Salvation Army gives presents and a Christmas day during the month of July on every Tuesday.

For the design of my project, I stuck to my roots -- keeping the assignment simple and narrow, with a message that people understand quickly.

I used a Christmas red color for all the space behind my phrase, "X-mas in July".

I left some room at the bottom of the page with a green color, like color of pine trees and such. And I used that space to talk about the program, next to the Salvation Army logo.

That is my project in short -- I will try and have my actual rationale posted by the end of the day.

Ad Project -- Christmas in July

2009-07-28T12:51:00.002-04:00

Kate F's Current Event- Sorry this post is so late!

2009-07-28T00:01:00.002-04:00

Many people have probably noticed that Tropicana tried changing their logo earlier this year. They did a whole re-branding effort for their orange juice.

They changed from the original design with the orange and straw to a close up of a glass of orange juice. The logo type changed from the fun Tropicana with the i using a leaf for the dot, to a much more simple sans serif.

The new logo type, to me, just looked too plain and boring. It seems too common and plain (it looks like helvetica to me). The new design was generic looking. It was hardly noticed on the shelf, and it turns out other customers didn't like it any more than I did. Tropicana wound up pulling the redesign and going back to the original design and logo.

In order to make the most out of their billion dollar mistake, Tropicana opted to continue the new design for their new low calorie line of orange juice. This make a lot of sense to me. The new design with simple graphics and font type screams "less", which is exactly what low calorie oj is--less.

Poster post_Lucy Wang

2009-07-27T23:47:00.003-04:00

Since cancer is always a serious issue, I wanted to ease the tension when I was designing the poster for this walk by having these goofy-looking footprints walking across the page. The chose of color wasn't that difficult, since the pink ribbon is the symbol for breast cancer.

The egg-shell background creates a softer mood which I think would make people feel more comfortable and relaxed.

Overall, I an happy with what I did. With so many events held in the name of fighting against breast cancer, I thought keeping the poster simple in design and color might grab more attention than putting warning slogans or depressing facts on it.

Walker Poster

2009-07-27T23:15:00.003-04:00

For some reason I didn't save a Jpeg of my poster so I will post it tomorrow when I have it. I did my poster on the Livestrong Challenge that took place in San Jose, California recently. The Livestrong challenge consists of a running portion if you're into that sort of thing and bike rides of various distances. The proceeds go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which actually donates a lot of money into cancer research even though most people only know them for the yellow wristbands.

The design of my poster was simple. At the top is a set of mountains with the word "Cure" rising over them in the background. Leading up the the word is a winding road with a biker on it. Following what we learned in class about eye movement across the page I tried to make my design flow in line with the natural pattern of visual recognition. At the bottom of the road is the event logo, the location and date. Its pretty simple, which was the point. The poster uses the colors of the Livestrong Challenge, but I made them small so that the attention would be focused on the message of the graphic. I think it rules pretty hard.

2009-07-27T22:14:00.003-04:00

Just to clarify, the colors are all messed up in this post. The bell on the side is actually a bronze color. The background is a lime green, and the stripes are a slightly darker green. The burst in the middle is yellow, as is Philly. The rest of the copy is actually white.

Rationale:

Event & Issue:
I chose to do this poster about the annual event called Greenfest Philly. It is a festival that the city puts on every September. It is a daylong street fair that helps to promote sustainable living and other “green” practices. This is very close to me because I used to intern at one of the city commissions who sponsor the event. I wanted to pick an event that I am interested in, and this is one that I feel is very important to the city of Philadelphia.

Visual Message:
At the event is very open and lighthearted, despite its educational purposes, and I wanted the text to reflect that. I also knew that the primary color of the poster needed to be green because of the nature of the event.

Audience:
This poster is intended to reach Philadelphians who would be interested in learning about sustainable living practices, and for that reason the poster would be placed on billboards in community centers and places like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. It is also appropriate for families who like to attend free events around the city, so flyers would be available in the museums and parks around the city.

Design Strategy:
I immediately knew that I was going to do this event, and I wanted a visual very pertinent to Philadelphia to be there. I originally thought about using the skyline, but realized that not everyone knows what it looks like, so that is where the Liberty Bell came in. I wanted to make it look like the text was coming out of it, like it was ringing, so I decided to turn it sideways. The strips are there to make it bolder and look louder. I knew I needed another element, to jazz it up because it looked a little plain, and that is why the rays in between are there. I think it conveys the bright and open atmosphere of the event.

Style Sheet:
Event Name: Gill Sans Ultra Bold Regular
Body Copy: Gill Sans MT Bold

Extras:
I wanted green to be the main color of the piece, in order to tie it into the nature of the event. I opted to keep the Liberty Bell as close to the real color of the bell to better help convey the reference. I wanted Philly to stand out more (in case the bell wasn’t as obvious as I tried to make it) and I originally had grey, but I feel yellow works much better. The rest is white to make it stand out better and keep it “happier” than black would have.

Grameen Village Phone - "Micro"

2009-07-27T20:42:00.002-04:00

visual message

The Grameen Foundation has a strong, simple message: the world's poor will pull themselves out of poverty when they have access to the same systems as the developed world. To this end, I designed a poster that shows an idea so big it doesn't quite fit on the page. There's dissonance and tension in the word "MICRO" as it spills out of bounds. I'm not crazy about my de facto tagline, "small adds up." I went for brief and memorable over precise, but I think the meaning gets across -- that a community powered by very small loans can achieve large goals.

audience

Humans in developed countries, because we all use technology and we all interact daily with money.

design strategy

I tried to abide hby the "2/3 vs. 1/3" split, while employing a little gestalt to get across the "bigness" of the idea while not entirely showing the word at the heart of the matter. The fonts used were the ITC Franklin Gothic family (distorted to achieve the effect on top) and Futura. The substitution of the phone for the letter "I" anchors the image in familiarity, and draws the reader down to the text from that point of reference.

influences

Grameen's Village Phone program is an inspiration to me, combining cutting edge technology with an ethos that is so basic it's a wonder no one thought of it before.

Watching the Shepherd Fairey video this week got me thinking about text again, and about using each letter for maximum impact. I admire the works of artists like Ed Ruscha and Barbara Krueger and their ability to impart so much meaning into just a handful of letters. This is a distant cry from their work, but their guidance is here nonetheless.

Lupton response - "Grid" (whoops)

2009-07-27T20:39:00.003-04:00

Grid:

Alignment by grid seems intuitive and natural. So on reading the Lupton chapter I was underwhelmed by the grid as an organizational concept. It was everywhere, and so it recessed into the background.

But then Lupton explains its effectiveness on exactly those terms (as does one of the section’s notable theorists, Derrida, maybe) – the power of the grid is in its ability to blend into its surroundings in order to make them salient. I see that now.

Chicago is my favorite city to walk, ride, and drive in. There are situational reasons – I moved there right after graduating college, had my first apartment, and developed my professional career mostly within its friendly confines. The key to my experience was the nearly unbroken grid of streets and highways, a perfectly logical and consistent framework that allowed me to explore and create my life in a way that wasn’t encumbered with the burden of feeling misplaced.

The structure of the grid creates freedom. It’s paradoxical, sure, but in Chicago it is self-evident. The discussion in the Lupton chapter of Tim Berners Lee’s concept of the WWW as an outgrowth of grid practice really brought this home. In these contexts, as in my experience, the grid takes on nearly mystical qualities.

Williams poster

2009-07-27T20:38:00.009-04:00

My design expresses my message through the simple use of a recognizable image (of a rural African woman balancing a basket on her head and a baby on her back) and sparse use of color. I used black, white and red because I wanted the message to be powerful and not be eclipsed by color. I used red because it matches the logo of the group and it adds urgency and importance to the message. The woman is faceless but women across the globe balance family work and life while making the world a better place. Her arm is extended offering her gifts to the world. Her arm is open to also accept lessons to improve her life and the lives of her children who will empower future generations. I hope the use of this image shows that this group and this event supports critical work that makes a difference that women journalists do across the world.

I chose the International Women's Media Foundation because they hold seminars and leadership workshops to improve the professional development of women journalists across the globe. Many of the women they work with are employed in conflict nations where it is difficult for all journalists to operate, especially women. The group and this event, the Courage in Journalism Awards, both reward important work that women reporters do under dangerous conditions.

Sherri Williams

Barron Poster

2009-07-27T20:06:00.003-04:00

Here is my poster. For some reason, the JPEG made it the exact opposite of what it is supposed to be as well as removed the text. It's supposed to be half of the symbol for the Red Cross with a drop of red blood dripping from it. To the left, there is text that simply says "give." Along the bottom is the information. I was having trouble at first coming up with ideas that could work for a blood drive. I always found myslef thinking of things that were too complicated to do with long sayings. After hours of frustration and being unable to find the right image, I was reminded that keeping the project simple, really simple, was the point. I think in the end I presented a poster that would stand out due to its dichotomy of colors. Furthermore, I present a simple message for a simple activity. Giving blood is an activity that takes all but half an hour (or maybe longer if you purposefully hang around and take advantage of the free snacks and juice/pop). Therefore, I think that this would be an effective poster and would result in drawing attention from otherwise overly ornate posters.

Poster

2009-07-27T19:57:00.003-04:00

I have been trying for way too long to upload my image onto this blog. It is just not working on this computer so I will have to post the image tomorrow.

The event I chose was the World Naked Bike Ride. It is an event that happens all around the world to protest oil dependency and bicycle safety. The Sunny Nekkid Ride is just one of the few naked bike rides that happens every year in Portland, OR. Many organizations sponsor the ride and combine it with other events, such as food and clothing drives.

My image is of a silhouette of a naked female riding a bicycle. I tried to mimic the art nouveau style by putting curls in her hair and flowers in her bicycle. The colors are very natural and peaceful. In front of the woman I used text to create the sun. The mona lisa font stays within the art nouveau style and the colors that are used for the sun are reflected in the flowers.

*finally posted it but these are not the colors...

Poster, Kiss-A-Pig!

2009-07-27T18:36:00.006-04:00

So this is my poster. It took me a while to decide on what organization and event I wanted to do (partially because, until wednesday, I thought we were supposed to create an event). I decided to do an American Diabetes Association event because a close family friend has been really sick because of his diabetes. Having seen what it can do to someone, I really wanted to do something for the ADA. I looked at their traditional events and I saw that they host "Kiss-A-Pig" around the country at different times of the year. The idea is, whoever raises the most money at the fundraiser has to kiss the pig. Apparently it's a big honor. Who knew? I thought it was just a silly fundraiser, but then I found out that the whole event revolves around the pig to honor it for playing a big role in the advancements of diabetes treatment. The pig played an integral part in the discovery of the effectiveness of Insulin in diabetics. So, I started thinking... how could I make people who don't know all this want to come to a Kiss-A-Pig event? Who better than Miss Piggy? Now I know what you're thinking. How can she use a copyrighted character for this event?? That's not fair!! I know, I know! For the purpose of this assignment, Mary said it would be okay as long as I changed enough about her appearance.

Anyway...so I put a sexy pig up there and I figured it would make people stop, look at the poster and wonder what it was for. I think it accomplishes that I used green for the part about Kermit for obvious reasons and pink for Miss Piggy with the "Giddyup" font because it looks like pig tails and I wanted it to be a fun novelty font to reflect her personality.

poster_J Sohn

2009-07-27T18:03:00.003-04:00

This is my poster for the group "Women Build," which is an affiliated program of Habitat for Humanity. It is a group of women who volunteer for building houses. Habitat for Humanity, Syracuse Chapter, is recruiting more volunteers and they are meeting every second Wednesdays every month.
Basically, I mimicked the look of Sex and the City. I tried to create the “martini look” to appeal to young women because people usually do not get attracted to volunteering jobs involving hammers and paintbrushes. The image of stiletto shoe is followed by its reflection made with tools. My intention was to encourage young women to explore beyond their femininity because I believe even the girliest girl in the world has potential toughness to volunteer for Habitat. With hot pink and stencil font, even Habitat works can look chic and stylish.

Poster post - Tom H

2009-07-27T17:11:00.003-04:00

My poster is for the Polar Bear Plunge, an event that is held every year at Sandy Point Park in MD (as well as other places). I actually participated in this event last year, so I knew that it would make for a fun and interesting project. I chose to draw a polar bear actually participating in the plunge and to have the polar bear be overly concerned with how cold the water will be. I knew that this event is one that people do to have fun for a good cause, so a little bit of humor is very fitting. I found a picture online of a polar bear jumping off of an iceberg and I traced it in Illustrator. I added some goggles and a funky swimsuit and was well on my to fulfilling my vision! I made sure to make the catchphrase short and bold, with an emphasis on "plunge!". I placed the event, sponsor and charity information at the bottom left and right, so the reader will take the pertinent information away when they finish looking at the poster.
-Tom Huddleston

PS... I have no idea why it's yellow

Event Poster

2009-07-27T14:23:00.005-04:00

Apologies for the problems with the jpeg image of my poster. Half the poster is missing and all of it is in the wrong color. Not quite sure why this is happening.

Anyways, my event was the Reach Music Festival, which is raising money for a variety of charities, but specifically Kick for Nick. They send soccer balls and related equipment for children in Iraq based on the passion and life dream of a U.S. soldier who was killed in Iraq.

In order to incorporate the music and soccer message I have the neck of a guitar coming in off the page, with soccer balls as the tuning knobs (of course you can't see any of that in this image). I also put a Purple Heart medal as a charm on the guitar to tie in the military theme since Nick Madaras, the soldier who died, was honored with one.

The slogan is "Play for Peace," which ties in both playing soccer and an instrument, as well as Madaras' hopes for peace through the game of soccer. The type matches the same type used in the Kick for Nick logo, called Impact. If you know what Impact is, then you know its strong and bold, yet simple. It seems to get the message across in a short and sweet sort of way.

Again, sorry my image is so messed up and it is impossible to see what I am talking about.

Current Event: @font-face

2009-07-26T21:39:00.004-04:00

Online fonts are usually pretty bland (like Arial). I remember back in the day a lot of sites would use graphics made in photoshop or even paint for their navigation and logos, making them big, bulky, and slow. CSS has made websites much smoother over-all, but there has since remained a huge problem with rendering fonts in browsers: for a website to display a font, it needs to be installed on the users' computer. Since most people can't be bothered with downloading a thousand designer fonts, graphic designers have been extremely limited in their choices for online projects. The folks at Mozilla have fixed all this in Firefox 3.5 with the @font-face CSS rule.

@font-face allows developers to host their own fonts and then reference them in the code, so that the users never need to install them on their own computer. Pretty cool. This opens up a lot of new creative avenues for designers, and also further pushes IE into the irrelevancy.

I can't really demonstrate this with a simple screen capture, so take a look here to see just how pretty typography can now look in the new FireFox.

VASSAR Wolda (Worldwide Design Competition)

2009-07-25T23:32:00.005-04:00

The event that I chose to focus on was Wolda (the Worldwide Logo Design Annual) from EULDA (European Logo Design Annual). The competition is for any logo designed, printed, published or visible online between January 1 , 2008 and December 31, 2009. EULDA is still accepting entries for the competition and will allow student submissions. In searching for a graphics competition to post, I was surprised to see that the majority of the competitions offer no money as a reward and they charge submission fees. Wolda does the same; however, they also have an extensive 3-tier judging system that makes receiving a Wolda award a great privilege and huge strength to future employers. Based on their extensive lists of sponsors and affiliates, it seems as if this is really a great way for designers to get recognized while building a strong portfolio.

I really liked some of the student work I saw displayed from previous competitions. Here are some of the logos I liked:

This is a logo designed to reference a record label called 38 degrees. The label primarily deals with DJs - i thought the circles did a great job of referencing this. Something as simple as circles conjure the idea of a DJ but also the 38 degree radius which is fiting with the name of the company.

This logo is for "Neo Tokyo", an exhibition of contemporary Japanese electronic art. I think this logo really does a good job at fusing the concepts of art and electronics into one image. The image of the woman here is definitely artistic but the design of her hair suggests some sort of electricity/movement which fits the exhibition.

This logo's designed for a company founded by two twin brothers in Norway. They used a bold typeface to "reflect the boldness of their [business] approaches." I really like how well they integrated the number 2 into the typeface. I at first didnt notice it, but on second glance I think it's a very clever play on words that fits their business concept as well.

ALSO while i was going through some of the blogs, I found this page with SPOOFS of LOGOS after the recession. It's really funny and definitely worth checking out - I think these logos take a very comical spin on the downward turn in our economy. Check them out here.

2009-07-25T23:23:00.003-04:00

Team Milram is a new pro team sponosored by a German dairy manufacturer. For being realtively young they rode strong and will be back next year thanks to a strong positive response to their sponsorship and easily identifiable spotted kits.
Team CSC last year:
Is now Team Saxo Bank this year, same leading riders

The 2009 Tour De France influences design in several ways. Versus, the network that covers the Tour for the U.S. audience redesigned its website for the event. Sponsors have had to rebrand their entire teams and product lines to shift attention away from all of the recent doping scandals. Three years ago Team Liberty Seguros was implicated in the blood doping ring Operacion Puerto and this year they had the best team in the sport, including Lance Armstrong. By changing their sponsor logos and redesigning their outfits and bikes, spectators have no idea that Team Astana has the same management, equipment sponsors and trainers. These days its hard to keep sponsors so teams constantly have to come up with ways to attract companies and make sure the sponsors get good visibility and remain happy enough with the team to continue funding it. During the late 1990’s the United States Postal Service saw a tremendous increase in customer satisfaction and revenue by sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his team. Today banks, car part manufacturers, dairy companies and outerwear companies all sponsor teams hoping to capture a greater share of the market by putting their logo in front of millions of spectators. Designers have to come up with readily distinguishable logos and color schemes so that spectators can easily identify their favorite riders and subconsciously form a bond with the products they are promoting. Every year the riders need a new design to accommodate sponsor and product changes. Many European banks rely on the pro Tour teams to do a substantial part of their marketing so logo designers are under constant pressure to come up with new and visually appealing ways to appeal to the public.