Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Page Design
Page Design has three perspectives: Perception, culture, and rhetoric.
People like to look at documents that have consistent figures on a ground. Having clean, consistent edges on the pages identify the text within our line of vision. We also see figures on pages. there's a design object we recognize as where text goes, text field. We recognize smaller areas like paragraphs and headings. we also see some areas in the text field that take as separate graphic elements. We also have to consider someone's culture. For example, now-a-days the sender has to pay for the postage and the amount of papers in the envelope doesn't really matter. Back in the day, they charged per paper and the receiver had to pay the postage. People got clever and would use a technique called crossing. This is where they would make a grid by writing on a page normally, then turning it horizontal and write more. Another example is people in foreign countries. American's read left to right, where China reads right to left. Also, when deciding on page design ideas, we need to consider the rhetoric. For example, page design can promote an ethos that reflects well on the client, matches the purpose, sets a tone for the document, and encourages users to use it. As designers, we need to figure out who our target audience is, and design the page around that.
People like to look at documents that have consistent figures on a ground. Having clean, consistent edges on the pages identify the text within our line of vision. We also see figures on pages. there's a design object we recognize as where text goes, text field. We recognize smaller areas like paragraphs and headings. we also see some areas in the text field that take as separate graphic elements. We also have to consider someone's culture. For example, now-a-days the sender has to pay for the postage and the amount of papers in the envelope doesn't really matter. Back in the day, they charged per paper and the receiver had to pay the postage. People got clever and would use a technique called crossing. This is where they would make a grid by writing on a page normally, then turning it horizontal and write more. Another example is people in foreign countries. American's read left to right, where China reads right to left. Also, when deciding on page design ideas, we need to consider the rhetoric. For example, page design can promote an ethos that reflects well on the client, matches the purpose, sets a tone for the document, and encourages users to use it. As designers, we need to figure out who our target audience is, and design the page around that.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Assignment #2- Valentine's Day Google Logo
For this redesign, I decided to do a Valentine's Day Google logo. Google is infamous for changing their logo on the home page for holidays or just random facts about that day. Valentine's Day is on Monday so I found this redesign to be fitting. Here is the classic Google logo:
Here is my new Valentine's Day logo:
Contrast- I looked at some older Google logos that they have done just to get an idea of what they look like/do for design. I noticed that sometimes, the lower case "g" is the only letter that is completely different. I think it's obvious that the hearts are "O"s because that's a common thing people do in cutesy designs for Valentine's Day. The "g" takes a little more imagination. I think Cupid is very symbolic part of Valentine's Day and everyone thinks of Cupid. So, I made Cupid stand out more by having him be other colors besides shades of red. I will say that Cupid turned into more of a pain than I was expecting. He was originally black and white and I figured that would be a quick-fix by just using the paint bucket in Paint. Wrong. Doing that, made the paint blotchy and I had to go into Photoshop and color in every pixel around every edge. Then, when I shrank it down, it made it pixelized and I had to touch it up, yet again. I have a copy of the originally colored Cupid. If you zoom in on this one, it is very pixelized.
Repetition- I looked up past Valentine's Day logos for Google, and I found one that was in all red. I cropped out the "G" and "e" so that I would for sure get the right font and size for the logo. I then took the same color of the hearts and put them as the color of Cupid's tongue, and edited the arrow to match the same one that Cupid is holding.
Alignment- I made sure to keep everything in-line, down to the pixel. I drew a line from the bottom of the "G" and lined the bottom of the first heart, and the bottom of the "e." I would have lined up the bottom of the rose too, but I think it would have made it awkward looking sticking up past everything else so far. I like that it is in the center of everything and makes Cupid look like he's not down as far. Also, I tried shrinking the rose down and it made it really pixelized again and if I tried filling it in, it would be a black rose. I then lined up the top of the hearts with the top of Cupid's head. Again, I thought lining up the top of Cupid's bow would make it look like he was hanging down too low.
Here is my new Valentine's Day logo:
Contrast- I looked at some older Google logos that they have done just to get an idea of what they look like/do for design. I noticed that sometimes, the lower case "g" is the only letter that is completely different. I think it's obvious that the hearts are "O"s because that's a common thing people do in cutesy designs for Valentine's Day. The "g" takes a little more imagination. I think Cupid is very symbolic part of Valentine's Day and everyone thinks of Cupid. So, I made Cupid stand out more by having him be other colors besides shades of red. I will say that Cupid turned into more of a pain than I was expecting. He was originally black and white and I figured that would be a quick-fix by just using the paint bucket in Paint. Wrong. Doing that, made the paint blotchy and I had to go into Photoshop and color in every pixel around every edge. Then, when I shrank it down, it made it pixelized and I had to touch it up, yet again. I have a copy of the originally colored Cupid. If you zoom in on this one, it is very pixelized.
Repetition- I looked up past Valentine's Day logos for Google, and I found one that was in all red. I cropped out the "G" and "e" so that I would for sure get the right font and size for the logo. I then took the same color of the hearts and put them as the color of Cupid's tongue, and edited the arrow to match the same one that Cupid is holding.
Alignment- I made sure to keep everything in-line, down to the pixel. I drew a line from the bottom of the "G" and lined the bottom of the first heart, and the bottom of the "e." I would have lined up the bottom of the rose too, but I think it would have made it awkward looking sticking up past everything else so far. I like that it is in the center of everything and makes Cupid look like he's not down as far. Also, I tried shrinking the rose down and it made it really pixelized again and if I tried filling it in, it would be a black rose. I then lined up the top of the hearts with the top of Cupid's head. Again, I thought lining up the top of Cupid's bow would make it look like he was hanging down too low.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
3 Major Concepts
Repetition- I think this is an important concept because looking at a document that has a million different colors and fonts going on is a bit confusing and hard to look at. Having words the same font and boldness can create unity between them. Like in the example on page 52, the business card has the name of the business and the phone number bold to unify them and amplify their importance. Repetition helps with grouping things together, which is also an important concept. Repetition can include bullets, numbers, boldness, fonts, colors, etc. The purpose of repetition is to unify and add visual interest
Contrast- This is an importance concept because it makes your document stand out from the rest. Using colors and lines to help group things together makes documents more easy to read and understand what is going on at a glance. Using different fonts and colors make the document more fun to read and people will be more willing to pick it up and read. I really like when the examples used washed out images in the backgrounds. It really makes them look better and stand out from the boring examples. The important concept about contrast is to create an interest on the page.
Alignment- This is important because it helps keep documents organized and together. For paragraphs easy to read, keeping them left-aligned is best. making things center aligned makes the reader have to go to different points each line, making it unpleasant to read. One of the few times left-aligned is bad is when there is a picture on the right, making awkward spaces between the edge of the picture and the text. The basic purpose of alignment is to unify and organize the page.
Contrast- This is an importance concept because it makes your document stand out from the rest. Using colors and lines to help group things together makes documents more easy to read and understand what is going on at a glance. Using different fonts and colors make the document more fun to read and people will be more willing to pick it up and read. I really like when the examples used washed out images in the backgrounds. It really makes them look better and stand out from the boring examples. The important concept about contrast is to create an interest on the page.
Alignment- This is important because it helps keep documents organized and together. For paragraphs easy to read, keeping them left-aligned is best. making things center aligned makes the reader have to go to different points each line, making it unpleasant to read. One of the few times left-aligned is bad is when there is a picture on the right, making awkward spaces between the edge of the picture and the text. The basic purpose of alignment is to unify and organize the page.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Assignment #1- Business Card
Well starting this assignment, I thought about making my own business card for when I go on interviews, but I kind of think that would be cheesy. My friend recently got business cards are her job at an apartment complex, and I didn't really understand the design on it. Here is a picture:
Before
I don't really understand the man/statue thing and it has a lot of different colors going on. Just for the text, there are 3 different colors: yellow, red, and white. I think it would be better to condense it to one or 2 colors. In my redesign I did one color. I don't understand why the URL is a different color from everything else. Seems kind of random. It might just be the English major in me, but I hate when proper names are not capitalized. I'm sure that was a style they were going for, but I don't like it.
After
Front
Back
I liked this design because of the grouping of content. The blue at the top blocks off to show that's the name of the apartment complex, which is one of the most important parts on the card. The pale green that covers most of the card is carried up to the font color of the apartment's name. Then the rest of the card is grouped nicely with the pale green color and is staggered into 4 groups: name/title, URLs, address, and phone/fax numbers. Anything that is on the left or right is aligned to whichever side it is closest to. My friends name and the name of the apartment complex are the same size because they are the most important parts of the card. Then, all of the rest of the card is the same size. Everything is the same font which is nice repetition. Also, everything that is grouped together is not more than 2 lines long. The logo on the top left corner is very simple and kind of goes along with the apartment theme; it is suppose to be buildings. I like on the back of the card that they stayed with the same colors, size, and font. I just kept it simple with the name of the apartment complex and the URL to find more information about the apartments. Overall, I like this template of business cards because of it's grouping, colors, and fonts. Everything is easy to read and flows well together.
Before
I don't really understand the man/statue thing and it has a lot of different colors going on. Just for the text, there are 3 different colors: yellow, red, and white. I think it would be better to condense it to one or 2 colors. In my redesign I did one color. I don't understand why the URL is a different color from everything else. Seems kind of random. It might just be the English major in me, but I hate when proper names are not capitalized. I'm sure that was a style they were going for, but I don't like it.
After
Front
Back
I liked this design because of the grouping of content. The blue at the top blocks off to show that's the name of the apartment complex, which is one of the most important parts on the card. The pale green that covers most of the card is carried up to the font color of the apartment's name. Then the rest of the card is grouped nicely with the pale green color and is staggered into 4 groups: name/title, URLs, address, and phone/fax numbers. Anything that is on the left or right is aligned to whichever side it is closest to. My friends name and the name of the apartment complex are the same size because they are the most important parts of the card. Then, all of the rest of the card is the same size. Everything is the same font which is nice repetition. Also, everything that is grouped together is not more than 2 lines long. The logo on the top left corner is very simple and kind of goes along with the apartment theme; it is suppose to be buildings. I like on the back of the card that they stayed with the same colors, size, and font. I just kept it simple with the name of the apartment complex and the URL to find more information about the apartments. Overall, I like this template of business cards because of it's grouping, colors, and fonts. Everything is easy to read and flows well together.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Assignments
Throughout the class I will do five assignments. I have picked (not in a particular order) to do a redesign of a logo, brochure, flyer, business card, and resume.
For the redesign logo, I am going to do a redesign of the Google logo for Valentine's Day. Good is notorious for changing their logos often. I was thinking of having two hearts for the Os and cupid shooting an arrow through them for the smaller G. Then a long stem rose for the l and keep the G and E regular.
I haven't found a particular brochure just yet. I think I'll go to the sub and pick out a brochure there.
I play lacrosse for Tech and I am going to do a flyer for a home game we're having soon. I'll include the place, time, and advertise some shirts that we are going to sell, too. then, put a big double T in the middle to catch people's attention.
I am going to make a business card for myself that I could hand out to employers. I will probably use that site you were talking about in class, but I forgot what it was called.
The resume I am going to kind of double up for Dr. Barkers class, too. We have to make a resume for our portfolio, so I will perfect all of the information that goes in it, and then jazz it up some. Not too much, like you said, but I think it needs to have something special about it.
For the redesign logo, I am going to do a redesign of the Google logo for Valentine's Day. Good is notorious for changing their logos often. I was thinking of having two hearts for the Os and cupid shooting an arrow through them for the smaller G. Then a long stem rose for the l and keep the G and E regular.
I haven't found a particular brochure just yet. I think I'll go to the sub and pick out a brochure there.
I play lacrosse for Tech and I am going to do a flyer for a home game we're having soon. I'll include the place, time, and advertise some shirts that we are going to sell, too. then, put a big double T in the middle to catch people's attention.
I am going to make a business card for myself that I could hand out to employers. I will probably use that site you were talking about in class, but I forgot what it was called.
The resume I am going to kind of double up for Dr. Barkers class, too. We have to make a resume for our portfolio, so I will perfect all of the information that goes in it, and then jazz it up some. Not too much, like you said, but I think it needs to have something special about it.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
1st Day Of Class
The class met on Thursday, January 13, for the first time. We all made decisions to pretty much plan out the semester. We have to write weekly blogs to reflect our discussions in class.
When I graduate, I would like to be a technical writer/editor. I have looked at some job descriptions on websites such as, monster.com and jobsearch.com. I saw some of the requires for jobs is that they want to make sure that everything on a page of a website or paper is set up right and is looking good. I was thinking we could do an assignment on making a brochure/flyer or really look into the set-up of websites. I think it would also be fun to learn how to design products and sharpen our photoshop skills because that is a skill desired in my work field. I would also really like to learn how to make our resumes stand out more. I have knowledge in InDesign and I think it is a great program for everyone to learn. It works well for resumes I think instead of just using a boring template on Microsoft word. I really do think that if a resume stands out and looks different from the rest of the stack, then I have a greater chance of getting that interview.
When I graduate, I would like to be a technical writer/editor. I have looked at some job descriptions on websites such as, monster.com and jobsearch.com. I saw some of the requires for jobs is that they want to make sure that everything on a page of a website or paper is set up right and is looking good. I was thinking we could do an assignment on making a brochure/flyer or really look into the set-up of websites. I think it would also be fun to learn how to design products and sharpen our photoshop skills because that is a skill desired in my work field. I would also really like to learn how to make our resumes stand out more. I have knowledge in InDesign and I think it is a great program for everyone to learn. It works well for resumes I think instead of just using a boring template on Microsoft word. I really do think that if a resume stands out and looks different from the rest of the stack, then I have a greater chance of getting that interview.
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