Post 20

Being that this is my last blog post, and today will be our final critique, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the semester over all. I started this class with absolutely zero background using indesign, illustrator, or photoshop. At first, I found these programs challenging, because of all the different things you can do on them were very new to me. Yes, I let myself get frustrated sometimes, but I have definitely seen an improvement in not only my work, but my ability to use these programs and try new things.

In the first project we did, the initials one, I found that I used very basic techniques on indesign. Infact, the only tools that I used was the rectangle tool, and text boxes. I found that as the semester progressed and I learned more and more techniques, my designs were coming out better and better. I now have confidence that I could use those programs to create practically anything. I've learned how to make a poster, magazine layout, brochure, or simply a creative design.

This course is definitely an important one that any communication major should take. You learn many skills that are going to be very helpful to know throughout our careers. I am happy with what I learned during this course, and I'm also quite impressed with my creations.

I should also add that in the beginning of the semester I thought blogging was going to be something I did not enjoy doing, but I must admit, 20 blogs in, it's a good way of taking everything we've learned and applying it to real life. I also enjoyed reading other people's blog posts, to see how they took in their com graphics experience as well.

I look forward to our last critique session today, and seeing everyones final brochures.

Post 19

So I'm sitting in the library... REALLY REALLY hungry. And all I can think about is food art. I have seen some of the most creatively designed foods. One of my favorite pieces of food art would have to be those deliciously beautiful Edible Arrangements. Not only does your fruit come in a perfectly arranged basket, but each piece of fruit is either perfectly dipped in chocolate, or put together with other fruits to make a new design. It's really incredible to see what these people can do with a basket and some fruit.

Now how amazing does that look? Don't you want to just bite into one of those pineapple flowers? I do!

Anyone who knows me, knows I have a serious sweet tooth. So maybe its just me who sees beauty in chocolate, but I truly believe I have seen some beautifully designed chocolates as well. On Valentine's Day last year, Russell and I went to this little chocolate shop on Elmwood, where they make their own chocolate on site. Not only do they make their own chocolate, but they make it into such beautiful artistic designs! They literally truffles in the shapes of different things. It was so cool! I really find it amazing when people can take something as simple as chocolate, and using the aspect of design, can turn it into something beautiful.

One of the main things I see as I scroll down my Instagram feed, are pictures of people's meals. Not only are companies turning their food into pieces of art, but everyday people that I follow on Instagram do too! Some people post the most amazing looking meals ever, so when I'm hungry, Instagram is not the place to be! One day I made the horrible mistake of searching #foodart. Oh my gosh, the number of amazing looking things that came up is unexplainable. Even when you search that in Google, the most beautiful delicious looking things come up. Here are a few of my favorites:

People usually say "don't play with your food" but I'm glad these people did!

Post 18

I just came from my com401 class, which is communication research. All semester long, we were working on doing different research projects, in order to come up with a final presentation, involving recommendations for a specific organization or client. I was sitting there for about two hours, and watched maybe seven presentations. Something I noticed that a few groups mentioned, was improving the logo for the company. This made me think a lot about the com322 class, and how important a well thought out and executed design is. It's not only important to have a good idea, but you need to make sure you execute your idea to its full potential. For example, one group was doing research for the Adam's Mark hotel. A recommendation that they came up with was to update their logo. When they showed us the logo that they currently use, I completely agree with them.

This is the logo that the Adam's Mark currently uses. It is literally a mark. Yes, it's literal, but does it make any sense? No. This logo does not serve much purpose to the hotel. It's not something recognizable, that if someone saw it, they would immediately know what its for.

When designing a logo, it's important to keep in mind that you want this logo to identify with the organization itself. Many companies like to use the letter that starts off their name. For example, Dunkin Donuts, has a very simple logo, that if seen driving by, you would immediately know what its for. In many cases, a simple two letter design is more effective then trying to recreate a mark.

Doesn't it make you want to go grab a coffee?

Post 17

After seeing the final brochure I created, I have to say I am quite pleased. The non-profit organization that I made a summer day camp brochure for, I actually went to as a camper, and counselor, for a large portion of my life. I have seen a ton of brochures, flyers, and posters to say the least. I must admit, mine is something that I believe would incline a parent or child to find out more. I used many fun pictures that would make any kid want to go to camp. The only thing I can think of that I might want to have done differently, would be to use even less text. However, I don't believe that text is a bad thing on a brochure, because after all, the point is to inform people on this summer camp. And if you read the text, you're likely to want to enroll! The whole point is to get someone to want to read it, and I believe the inviting colors, fonts, and pictures do so.

Creating this brochure opened my eyes to many more opportunities. I really enjoyed doing this for an organization that means a lot to me. I actually spoke with an old friend from the Sam Field Y, who works in PR, doing the advertising mainly through social media. He told me about all of the things he does for the Y, and all the job opportunities that are available. I don't know if that is necessarily what I want to do, but it's refreshing to see that there are options out there. Besides, it would be pretty cool to work for a place I practically grew up at.

Post 16

There have been many incidences, where Disney, has been accused of putting inappropriate messages in their designs. When I first heard about these, I wasn't convinced, but after doing some research I found that their are in fact some inappropriate images in many of their films. The most talked about, is the cover of The Little Mermaid. The controversy is that there is an oddly shaped structure on the castle, closely resembling a penis. Disney, and the designer of the cover, insist it was an accident, resulting from a rushed final product. Ironically, (or not), this was not the only instance where Disney did something like this.

As mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, I am always interested in hearing about conspiracies in the world. I read about the "Disney conspiracy". I found so many different accusations against the images that have been used throughout many of these children movies. It really makes you think, were the designers really that careless to make these "mistakes" so often, or were these inappropriate images placed there on purpose. Below I will show some of the most obvious "mistakes" I found.

This is from the children's movie, "The Rescuers". If this is a film rated PG, why are there a women's naked breasts in the window?

This is the cover to "The Little Mermaid", and as you can see, this outlined part of the castle, doesn't look so castle like.

Here is a scene from the Lion King, where the stars clearly say that word sex.

Here is the cover for the Lion King, and you can see that the shape of his head is resembling the back side of a woman.

Now, it's up to you to decide if these are people coming up with crazy conspiracies, or if this is really a poor design job on Disney's part. If it is, Disney definitely needs a new graphic designer!

Post 15

A great way of expressing yourself through art, are tattoos. This is a fun and beautiful way show people who you are. Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew wanted tattoos, I just didn't know what I wanted. After all, this is a piece of art that is going to be displayed on your skin, forever! Most people think long and hard about what they are going to get, before they actually go through with it. I made the mistake once, of getting a tattoo that wasn't thought out, and I covered it up. Trust me, I'll never make that mistake again!

However, the first tattoo I got, will always be my favorite. When I turned 18, I came up to Buffalo to visit my sister Rebecca who was already a student here. We went and got butterfly tattoos, for our grandma who passed away a few months prior to my 18th birthday. In my family, the butterfly symbolizes life. After my uncle died in the tragic attack on the World Trade Center, my family, especially my grandma, believed that whenever we saw a butterfly, it was him saying hello. Then, after my grandma passed, we found the butterfly even more meaningful. I got four butterflies going up my side, representing each person in my immediate family; myself, my sister, and my parents. My sister, got a butterfly on her foot, with my grandma's name, Evelyn, on the outline. My parents were never a fan of tattoos, and definitely didn't want their two daughters getting them, but they loved our butterfly tattoos, as they will always be a reminder of the loved ones we've lost.

Throughout my life, I've seen some great tattoos, and some not so great ones. Either way, tattoos are a fun way of expressing yourself. Whenever I see people who have them, I always stop and look. I like when they have meaning behind them, and tell a story. This is a great way to tell the world who you are, through images.      

Post 14

After learning how to use photoshop in class, I realized how many things are probably done with Photoshop that many people don't notice. For example, we all know many models are photo shopped for magazine spreads, etc. Before taking this class, I had no idea how to use photoshop at all. Now, I see how much can be done to a picture using this program. The exercise we did involving putting Emilia Airheart's face on someone else's body, really opened my eyes to this. It made me wonder if any of the recent pictures we've been showed involving the Boston bombings were photoshopped. I've always been interested in hearing about conspiracy theories, and my poetry class is always a place where people bring up crazy things. One day in class, my professor was talking about recent news he heard about the Boston bombings. He saw a video, regarding the backpack the alleged bomber was wearing. In one photo, the boy was wearing the backpack, and in another photo, there was no backpack! This could be easily done using photoshop. Now that I understand a little about how the program works, I wanted to do a search and see if I could tell if the backpack was photoshopped or not. I couldn't find this picture anywhere, but I did find something else interesting regarding that day. I found a bunch of copies of a photo of an injured woman. In some copies, the woman's leg was in tact, in other copies, the woman had a broken bone popping out of her leg.

Here you can see for yourself, this is the same exact image, just showing a different wound on the leg. Based on my knowledge of Photoshop, I believe that the image on the left was the one photoshopped. It is very simple to add something like that to any image, but I'll leave that for you to decide!

On a lighter note, I found some other funny photoshop fails, here they are

If you're gonna use photoshop to add muscles to yourself, don't forget to do both arms!

Post 13

While I was doing my brochure, which was for a summer camp that I used to work at, I was searching for the perfect typeface to use. I thought about using Comic Sans, but then I remembered Amy saying in class one day that she hates that font. Before taking this class, I had never heard anyone say they hate a typeface. This was interesting to me, so I googled it. I got 5,070,000 results. I couldn't believe how much was out there about a typeface.

As I am sitting here reading and blogging about Comic Sans, my friend Kristen told me that there is a poster hanging in her classroom that says, "Every time you use Comic Sans a baby gets punched". It's kind of funny to me, but there really is hatred out there for this font. One of the main reasons people didn't like it was because of its widespread usage, particularly dealing with serious or formal subjects. People's biggest complaint about it was that it portrays a childish and informal mood.

I started thinking about when I was in middle school and that was my favorite font to write in. I guess everyone is right, Comic Sans is a childish font. So maybe I was right too, and I could have used it for my brochure on the summer camp. I found another typeface called Rockwell, that I ended up really liking, so I used that one and I think it worked really well.

Something interesting I found while researching Comic Sans, was the "Ban Comic Sans" movement. Supposedly, it was started by Dave and Holly Crumbs, graphic designers from Indianapolis, after a job insisted they used the font in a children's museum exhibit. Their main point is that a professional designer would typically think about the overall impact a font would have on a project, and an amateur, would just pick something they like, disregarding the fonts impact on the final design. This is the main reason that people use Comic Sans, because they think its visually appealing to the eye.

Post 12

My Tuesday and Thursday's class schedules are by far my favorite. These days, I have a fine arts class, and then this graphic design class. I did not purposely make my schedule this way, but I love the way it turned out! I get a break from the 400 level classes, and horrid math class that I have on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. In the beginning of the semester, I had no idea I had any artistic ability at all, now I feel completely different.

Many things that I learned in my art class, have helped me in the design class as well. The first week in fine arts, we learned all about color. Primary colors, secondary colors, shades, and much more. I learned that yellow is opposite purple on the color wheel, blue contrasts orange, and red and green.

All of this information has been very helpful in creating powerful designs. When creating any sort of design, you have to think about the message you are sending, and to whom you are giving it to. All of this information is relevant to what you are going to put in your design. If you want something to POP, you would probably use two colors that go well together. Such as purple and yellow, or even the primary colors, red, blue and yellow.

We did two projects in fine arts using the element of color. The first, was a representation of a color wheel, including every color, and its shade and tint. Also, along with that assignment was to take the contrasting colors, and blend them together. The second project involved mixing all your basic red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white, to create new colors that go well together. After we had our new colors, we had to dot them on a square 5 inches by 4 inches. This project helped me realize which colors go well together, and which do not.

I find it ironic that unknowingly, I had two classes back to back on Tuesdays and Thursdays that would directly correlate with one another. Even more surprisingly, I found out I'm somewhat good at art and designing my own projects! This opens up a whole new group of career options for myself. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to take both of these classes this semester.

Post 11

After seeing everyone's poster designs in class, I have a much better understanding on what works, and what doesn't work. There are a few different ways to make a successful poster. You don't need alot of information, to get your message across. All you need is a simple slogan, or design, and your point will be more than clear. Some of the best posters in class didn't even have many words on them. I loved the one about the slut walk. That was a relatively simple design that was created using indesign itself. She showed four different images, and had very few words. I believe it said, "the size of the dress doesn't mean yes". Very simple, yet very effective message.

Another poster that I thought had a very strong message was the one about lung cancer in response to cigarette smoking. This one, used words, but in the shape, colors, and form of an actual cigarette. Getting a point across to people is simple. Use words or images that will catch the attention of your viewers. All of these powerful posters, had some things in common. Many posters were black, white, and red. These colors go well together to stand out and catch someones eye.

Something that I noticed that didn't work so well, was a lot of text that is difficult to read. Although it may make someone want to get up and read what your poster says, it is not powerful enough to hang up on a billboard and hope that someone driving by will be able to understand your message. If all you're going for is the effect of many words, then this might work. But if you have a message you want to convey, make sure it is big and bold enough for people to read from a distance. Since this project, I have been critiquing all of the posters I see hanging around. I find myself doing this with many aspects of communication.

Post 10

Growing up in Queens, I was exposed to the art of graffiti at a very young age. Yes, I called it art. I believe that graffiti is a beautiful form of art. I'm not talking about what people "tag" their names on walls, although, I have seen some very artistic tags up on buildings, but throughout my years, I have seen some truly beautiful murals.

I started noticing graffiti in an artistic way in middle school. One of my friends, who still does graffiti to this day, painted me my name on a canvas for my birthday. It was so creative and beautiful, that I wanted to see more. I started noticing all the street art that is all over my neighborhood. There is one piece in particular that I've always loved. It's nothing special, but for some reason, every time I drive down Bell Boulevard, it catches my eye. It is a simple reminder to me that the simple things in life are beautiful too.

Many people think that graffiti is just vandalizing trains and bus stations, but there is much more to it then that. One of my favorite graffiti artists, is Caine 1, who is actually also from Queens. His work was done almost exclusively on the 7 train which runs through Queens. He paints in a cartoon like way, which makes for interesting images. One night, Caine was responsible for painting ten whole cars, which is one out of the two entire train cars ever painted.

Below are some murals in NYC that i love, I hope you will too!

Post 9

After taking this class, I've come to look at all aspects of graphic design in a new light. I find myself critiquing different ads and posters I see around me. For example, some of the posters I see hanging around campus really bother me. They don't look like they were created by anyone who has taken this class. What I mean by that, is that often the color schemes are all over the place, fonts don't speak what the poster is trying to say, or even as obvious as a horrible kerning job.

In the beginning weeks of the semester, we watched the film "Helvetica". At this point in the course, I thought this was a huge exaggeration. Turns out, its not! Helvetica is used more often than any other font out there. Many companies use this font in their logo, or even as the awning of their store front. Once you are aware of something like this, you begin to see it over and over again. This gets a bit repetitive. I get that there are many properties of Helvetica that make it a good font to use in many situations, but sometimes I'd like to see something else.

Personally, I've used Helvetica in only one project this year. By using InDesign, I was able to test out many different fonts, and find the one that best fits my objective. The project in which I have chosen to use Helvetica for was the poster. The reason I thought Helvetica was a good choice here was because of the bold statement I was making. "DRINKING AND DRIVING ONLY LEADS TO A DEAD END". What better way is there to make this statement, other than the infamous...

Helvetica!