Sketches Round One Video

These are my first round sketches on my motion typography speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CoIJXO1Xzc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLczhaXvRRU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2jLIEUbhoQ

New Project

Check out my Behance!

Graphic Design: The New Basics

Rythmn and Balance: Balance is a fundamental human condition: we require physical balance to stand upright and walk; we seek balance among the many facets of our personal and professional lives; the world struggles for balance of power. In design, balance anchors and activates elements in space. Relationships among elements on the page or screen remind us of physical relationships. Visual balance occurs when the weight of one or more things is distributed evenly or proportionately in space. Like arranging furniture in a room, we move components around until the balance of form and space feels right. Large objects are a counterpoint to smaller ones; dark objects to lighter ones. A symmetrical design is inherently stable. Yet balance need not be static. A tightrope walker achieves balance while traversing a precarious line in space, continually shifting her weight while staying in motion.

Designers employ contrasting size, texture, value, color, and shape to offset or emphasize the weight of an object and achieve the acrobat's dynamic sense of balance. Rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern: the beating of drums, the patter of rain, the falling of footsteps. Speech, music, and dance all employ rhythm to express form over time. Designers use rhythm to construct single images as well as to create books, magazines, and motion graphics that have duration and sequence. Designers seek rhythms that are punctuated with change and variation.

Type in motion: Time and motion are closely related principles. Any word or image that moves functions both spatially and temporally. Motion is a kind of change, and change takes place in time. Time and motion are considerations for all design work, from a multipage printed book, whose pages follow each other in time, to animations for film and television, which have literal duration. Motion can be implied as well as literal, however. Diagonal composition suggest movement, while rectilinear arrangements appear static. Cropping a shape can suggest motion, as does a sinuous line or a pointed, triangular shape. Designers today routinely work in time-based media as ell as print, and a design campaign often must function acoss multiple media simultaneously.

Animation encompasses diverse modes of visible change, including the literal movement of elements that fly on or off the screen as well as changes in scale, transparency, color,layer, and more. These alternative modes of change are especially useful for designing animated text on the web, where gratuitous movement can be more distracting than pleasing or informative. Film is a visual art. Designers of motion graphics must think both like animators and filmmakers. A motion sequence is developed through a series of storyboards, which convey the main phases and movementsv of an animation. A style frame serves to establish the visual elements of a project, such as its colors, typefaces, illustrative components, and more. Such frames must be designed with the same attentiveness to composition, scale, color, and other principles as any work of design. In addition, the motion designer thinks about how all these components will change and interact with each other over time.

Just Some Questions

How do you think the audience experience will change based on the media? I think a lot of things will revolve around the speech you pick. Personally I find my speech interesting, so if others do too then they should be intrigued to watch it. If people don't find the speech interesting then you need to draw their attention some other way.

What will the audience exprience in print? In print you can actually touch it, turn it, and see how it feels without sound. It should be able to be understood and felt, without sound or effects.

In Motion? You can feel the speech more I think in motion. The way the words are being said and how they "act". I think being able to animate things will draw more people's attention in rather than just be able to see it in print. A lot of people would rather watch something than read it these days.

What can you do in print that you can't do in motion? In print you have the power to make words feel more important rather than just making them as important as the speaker is making them. I know it is difficult for me because my speaker is very monotone and it is easier to make it in print rather than in motion.

What can you do in motion (in aftereffects) that you can't do in print? I think here you can change the volume and tone of the speaker in order to address attention to things. Also just being able to make things move and have sound effects makes the speech seem more real life.

Journal 13

After watching Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity, I picked out some quotes that I found interesting.

"You should love for the love of culture, not for the love of money"- I completely agree with this and think that people should love what they are doing and not because it is making them money but because it is what they want to do in their life.

"These tools of creativity have become tools of speech, it is a literacy for this generation. It is how our kids speak and how they think, it is what your kids are as they increasingly understand digital technologies and its relationship to who these kids are." - I also agree with this because I think that technology and its changing ammenities have also changed the people who we are today. Kids usually have a better understanding of technology than adults and I think that it makes it our right to teach others. Our adult figures in our lives have taught us so much and I think that it is only necessary for us to teach them.

"Rejects copy-write and believes that the law is nothing more than an ass to be ignored and to be fought at every opportunity possible." - I do think that some laws need to be changed and altered to our world today, but I strongly agree that copy-writing is not right. I think that people can twist others words, which only leads to more damage. Damage that can be avoided. However I know the common saying that art is never your own idea, and I agree with this. I know I personally before every project and during it spend hours looking for inspiration, but even though I find things that I like and might use them, I always make them my own in some way, shape or form. I think that there are a lot of ideas out there that have just not yet been thought of and it is our job to think of them and create them.

Overall I thought this talk was very interesting. I have never heard of an adult complaining about the rules of copy-writing and suggesting that it be legal in some way. I can not however say I completely agree with him but I think it is something that I would definitely be more interested in listening to him talk more about it.

Journal 12

I watched three videos from http://www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/view/artist_series/.

Paula Scher made many points about process and how she works by instinct. I know that I always struggle with process and tend to make a lot of last minute decisions, this has gotten me in trouble and I know it is my biggest problem. I have been trying to fix it, but it is hard to break a habit.

David Carson spoke about designing through self indulgence. I tend to never like things that I design. I think it is a mix of always seeing the mistakes and just wanting to keep working on something and also the fact that I don't have as much process as I should.

The last designer I watched was Milton Glaser, who talked about loving what you do with your life. I really enjoy everything there is about Graphic Design and I love learning more and more each class. I think as cheesy as this sounds, I enjoy doing our homework, yes I know I don't like the time it takes or the money it costs, but I can never see myself having a "normal person" major. I really enjoy creating things, learning more and more after each project and being in an environment where every knows everyone and there are always people there to help you.

Journal 11

Debbie Millman is President of the Design division at Sterling Brands, New York, host of the radio show "Design Matters" on DesignObserver.com, the Chair of the new Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts , a contributing Editor at Print Magazine, and a design blogger for Fast Company. She is the President of AIGA and the author of three books: How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, 2007), Essential Principles of Graphic Design (Rotovision 2008) and Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design. (HOW Books, 2009). How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer is currently in its fourth printing and has been translated in four languages. Her fourth book, Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits, will be published by Allworth Press in Fall 2011.

Design Matters is a show that takes you inside the provactive world of design and branding as it intersects with contemporary culture.

I listened to the show with Jessica Helfand, I think the most fascinating thing that I learned from her was basically trying to make your mark on the world. She talks about how things are changing constantly throughout the world and we need to try and make them slow down and keep ahold of the older version of life, and not forget what we are in the past because the past makes us who we are and we cant just forget about it. Seeing as technology keeps changing, I think it is interesting how she wanted to sloe it down, most people these days are looking for the next best thing and she is just trying to hold on to the great things of the past. It makes me want to look back through pictures and things from my past and see what I have forgotten and try and realize what things have changed. I visited my grandparents tonight for Easter and my grandpa made me watch this documentary that was made on him. He had a high rank in WW2 and a person from the government came and made a documentary on his life. I found it fascinated about his life and how things have changed so drastically and all of the things that I have never known about my family. It all seemed to tie into some of the main points she was talking about and I liked how I could link things in my life and her life.

Journal 10

After watching a view of the videos on Good is.., I realized that there is still a lot about After Effects that I don't know and would like to learn. I am very interested in the program however also very frustrated with it. I think that I need to just sit down and mess around with it for hours, I tried to do this in our last project using it, however just ended up getting frustrated and gave up. I know I am not at the level where I need to be with After Effects but am trying my hardest to do whatever I can to figure it out.

The video that I was the most taken with was the "State of the Planet". Not only was I interested by the facts in general but I also found the transitions and the effects to be intriguing. That is what I am trying to accomplish with my video, I want it to be intriguing for others to watch. I know I can only use my speech as the sound so I need to make the effects and graphics going on more interesting... now the question is how do I make my ideas come to life??

Journal 9

Jakob Trollback as a self-taught individual has done wonders with motion graphics and design in general. In his three part talk he covers a lot of ground speaking of anything from the work he has created to his personal beliefs about design and creativity. Many of his motion graphics were very powerful in their use of type and sound.

Journal 8

"Type Means Never Having To Say Your Sorry"

After reading this article, I was really interested with the content. The author talks about how people overuse Futura. I actually could not agree with this because I think I have only used Futura once or twice on a project. But after reading this I kind of explored a little and started using it a little bit, haha I know I went to wrong way on this.

Michael Bierut also comments on similar issues in his "Designing Under The Influence." He discusses the possible influence that prominent designers have on the work of others, and also questions what can be considered "influenced by" or just plain copying.

I think Univers can be used in exchange for Futura seeing as it is also a sans serif font... and I just love Univers

Address to the Nation about Tearing Down the Berlin Wall

You have been hearing and reading reports that nothing was really accomplished at the summit and the United States in particular came home empty handed. Well this was my seventh summit and the seventh time I have heard that same chorus. You know it might be appropriate, a noted

bull-fighter wrote a poem, a few lines of which do seem appropriate, “the bull-fight critics ranked and rose, fill the enormous plaza full. But only one is there who rea

lly knows, and he is the one who fights the bull.” The truth is we came home from this summit with everything we had hoped to accomplish. And tonight I want to report to you on decisions

made there that directly affect you and your children’s economic future. I also have a special message, one that’s about our own economy. About actions that could jeopardize the kind of progress we made towards economic health last week in Venice. As well as the prosperity that during the last six years all of us here in America have worked so hard to achieve. But before beginning, I must make a personal note about something we saw on the last day of our journey when we stopped in Berlin to help celebrate the 750^th anniversary of that noble city. I know that over the years many of you have seen the pictures and news clips of the wall that divides Berlin,

but believe me, no America who sees first hand the concrete and mortar, the guard posts, the machine gun towers, the dog runs and the barbed wire can ever again take for granted his or her freedom or the precious gift that is American. That gift of freedom is actually the birth right of all humanity, and thats why as I stood there, I urged the soviet leader Mr. Gorbachev to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall.

Speaker: Ronald Reagan

Why was the speech important to society: informing the American public that they tore down the Berlin wall

What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech? Important and powerful, very informative tone and nice spacing and meaning

What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses... pauses are all emphasized by multiple spaces if they are not paused on a period or comma. Most of this speech seems not extremely different in the words he emphasizes.

What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed? Underline words so be loud. Rushed are italics.

Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/em

phasized words? Could animate the things he sees at the wall before it was torn down or the word tear down could be animated.

How does it make you feel? Like you just listened to something that is going to have a great impact on the world

How do imagine that the audience felt? Inspired and informed

Could there be another interpretation of the speech? It could seem that the Americans forced Berlin to tear down their wall

Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech.

Innovative president Ronald Reagan was born to parents Nelle and John Reagan on February 6th of 1911 in Tampico Illinois.

Ronald Reagan spent his high school years at the school in the nearby town of Dixon and spent his college days working his way through Eureka college. While working his way through school Ronald Reagan studied economics and sociology, was a star football player and took a great interest in the theater community of the school.

After he completed college Ronald Reagan began a career as a sportscaster before a successful screen test in 1937 brought him to Hollywood. Over the course of the next two decades Ronald Reagan appeared in over fifty motion pictures. Disagreements over the communism involved in the movie industry raged as Ronald Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. It was during this time of turmoil that this future presidents political views turned from liberal to quite conservative.

Ronald Reagan's first marriage was to Miss Jane Wyman. The couple produced children Maureen and Micheal. Unfortunately the marriage ended in divorce. In 1952 Reagan married fellow actor Nancy Davis. Their marriage produced children Patricia and Ronald.

In 1966 Ronald Reagan was elected the governor of California by a huge margin of one million votes. He won reelection in 1970. Ronald Reagan soon became the Republican nominee for president and choose then Texas congressman George H. Bush as his running mate. They won by a decisive amount over President Jimmy Carter. Sixty-nine days after taking office Ronald Reagan was shot by a would be assassin.

Ronald Reagan would probably be considered one of the most popular presidents in history. He strengthened relations with the Soviet Union and made the United States a strong world power. His graceful manner and warm humor where often the reason his popularity soared and will also be one of the many wonderful things this great leader will be forever remembered for.

Journal #6

I watched the video Thirty Conversations in Design where they asked 30 different designers two questions, What single example of design inspires you most? & What problem should design solve next? Here are 5 peoples answers...

Kit Hinrichs- Typography is the thing that most inspires him. The way in which

the letterforms are expressed, not the actual alphabet. They can be portrayed in many different aspects, bold, delicate, descriptive, etc. It is an art form and not just a hassle. Design should solve the problem of airplane secruity next. Having to take of half your clothes and put them on a conveyor belt that was built in the 40s is not exactly up to the 21st century. Some sort of design should be made to not have that process seem so painful.

Michael Lebowitz- The iPad is the example of design that most inspires him. Ho

w it is so interactive and easy to use. Its more human and more natural than things in the past. Software is the most flexible face of design. The problem we should solve next is how to create order and context out of things we have stores. We need to create meaning out of the data we have. Basically like an updated version of Google.

Tony Hawk- Apple products are the most inspiring to him. How they made a business only

product and transformed it into a product that is useful and fun and something you are proud to own. They made the idea less intimidating. That is what he sees as a problem that needs to be solved. Making the newer technology that has been coming increasingly more advanced into something that an be made fun, exciting and beautiful.

Tina Rothe Eisenberg- The swiss have an eternal need to arrange thing meticulously. That i

s what most inspires her, how they have influenced design. The problem she thinks need to be fixed is somehow providing safe drinking water to the world. Some engineers and designers to need to come together and fix this problem.

Ze Frank- (He was the most inspiring to me) The thing that was most inspiring to him was social design. It takes advantage of the immense complexity of our social interactions and simplifies it just for a moment so we can look at it through a different lens. Simply rules can get layered on top of interactions you think you understand but make you totally revaluate what you believe, how your manipulated and the way you think you can design the communications that your listening to. The problem he thinks needs to be fixed; all of the problems. "Even design should be redesigned." We need to see how choices affect how people can see our work. Everything should be exposed to the process of being interested. He thinks it would be interesting to see many people come together to try and fix one problem. He said that it would help him pay more attention to the world we live in.

My Thoughts- The thing that impresses me most is that fact that technology is increasingly getting more and more useful. Things you think you dont even need or realize you need are being created. Yes you can live without most things, but the fact that they are being created fascinates me. I think the problem we most need to redesign would be that fact that most people are just taking their own inputs and using them to create objects. I think everyone should put their ideas together because the more minds you have together, the more problems and ideas you can fix. Using this strategy you could eventually solve some of the worlds biggest problems.

Journal #5

Jonathan Harris is a internet artist and designer who has created many different works that aim to explore and explain the human world. One of his most famous projects was building the worlds largest time capsule. Some of his most recent work includes projects based on online dating, and news and language. I found this video very interesting because I think he talked about topics that we can all understand instead of making it impossible for non-artists to get.He made a good point in saying anybody can have ideas, do not be afraid to dig deeper to finding meaning. All of his talk about technology made me realize how much technology has an impact on our lives. It is really fascinating to think where we would be in this world today without things like the internet or god forbid blogger.

Questions

_ How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line? 40 to 50
_ Why is the baseline grid used in design? It gives a nice horizon line across the page and makes it clearer for the eye to look across your page.
_ What is a typographic river? The lines that the leading makes across your page
_ From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean? Line across the top/bottom/ middle of the page that all the paragraphs hang on.
_ How can you incorporate white space into your designs? connect the text and title together or vice versa.
_ What is type color/texture mean? Using different bold, italic and size of text. Also the tracking, leading and weight of the text.
_ What is x-height, how does it effect type color? The height that the lowercase x meets. It makes it easier or harder to differenciate between capital letters and lower case which is what has to do with how you read the page.
_ What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules? Dont indent a the first paragraph, the size f the indent matters it should be less than 1/2 inch. There should be no space between the paragraphs if indented.
_ What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text. There should be no two letters left behind, no words shorter than 5 letters should be hyphenated. dont hyphenate names or proper nouns.
_ What does CMYK and RGB mean? cmyk- cyan, magenta, yellow, and black rgb- red, green, blue
_ What does hanging punctuation mean? The quotes or other punctuation that stand outside the text box.
_ What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? foot mark- straight two lines apostrophe- curved two lines
_ What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)? Inch mark is straight while quote mark is curved
_ What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used. en dash- opt. shift, hypen-, em dash- opt. shift -
_ What are ligatures, why are they used, when are they not used, what are common ligatures. legability, using ffi, fi ffl, to be one letter. but they dont use when they are tracked out.

Journal #4

Who is Bruce Mau? He is a visionary and world leading innovator who has several huge clients that he designs for. Not only does he have several large clients, but he also does work for children's books and even founded a company called Institution without Boundaries. This company does work to promote change in the world today.

Why is he interesting to us? His motto is, "Now that we can do anything, what can we do?" I think this a good motto for us to follow because it not only gets us to think about what we are doing with our project but also makes us think about the bigger picture and where our spreads will be seen and what sort of place they will be seen in.

What is the mantra you have chosen and why? Go Deep. I chose this because he says, "The deeper you go the more likely you are to find something of value." I think this is a really good idea to do when you are stuck on a project. You need to explore all possibilities of that project and in exploring you will come up with some idea that will be brilliant and original. The more time you put into something, the more you can get out of it.

Book Rebranding Finals!

Intriguing Secret

Silent Hesitation

Simplistic Mystery

Journal 3

Scott McCloud: "Comics gives you two panels to see and also something to see between the lines." I think that this could really be used in making our covers and layouts because the fact that the panels are folded under makes them, "hidden" thus giving you something to imagine that is on them. How they relate to the front and back cover will give the viewer more of a hint or less of a hint in which are on them.

J.J. Abrams: "Mystery is more important than knowledge". If people are curious about why your cover is designed the way it is or why something is on your cover they will be intrigued to figure out what it is about.

What makes a good design good? How do you know if you are designing for something that is bad?

Journal 1

Writer's Toolbox:

This article explains the need behind writing to create ideas about projects. An example of doing this would be a mind map, word web, word lists or overall free writing. Here is an example of one of my many word lists that I created in relation to my book covers

Audience Personas

Maddie lives in a small town in Ohio. She wakes up at 6:30 am to go to her small high school. Her class is only 50 people. Everyone in her town knows everyone’s names. After school, she goes to the local mall/ three stores, and hangs out with some friends. She must be home by 6:00 pm every night because that is when her mother has dinner ready for her two brothers and her. After dinner she promptly goes upstairs and does her homework, hoping to finish early so she can possibly watch the new Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on TV tonight.

Cady is from Houston, Texas and is a very social person. Everyone remembers her name and loves her. She is the class president, head of several clubs and even plays on the soccer team. She is an extremely busy person but always finds time to hang out with her younger siblings. She gets good grades, has tons of friends, is loved by her whole community, and already has four college scholarship offers as a sophomore.

Whitney is a very shy person. She is from a Copper, Colorado. Her parents are both very successful people and are well-liked by their community. Its not that she doesn’t get along well with the other kids, its just that she chooses to keep to herself. After school, she comes home, grabs a cookie from the cookie jar, and sits down to watch Without a Trace. She is always fascinated by others lives.

Journal 2

The ten most important principles for design (according to Dieter Rams):

Good Design is Innovative- new age technology offers help in innovative design and offers never ending possibilities.

Good design makes a product useful- it will emphasize the usefulness of the product making it easier for the user to understand why they would need the product.

Good design is aesthetic- Things we use everyday might be ugly but can be designed to draw the viewer/ consumer in.

Good design makes a product understandable- Hopefully the product design is self-explanatory, drawing the viewer in.

Good design is unobtrusive- It should leave room for the viewer/ user’s self-expression.

Good design is honest- It does not make promises it cannot keep.

Good design is long-lasting- It should be able to last many years.

Good design is thorough, down to the last detail- Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

Good design is environmentally-friendly- it conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product,

Good design is as little design as possible- less is better.

Don Norman on Design:

Basically He talks about ways in which functional design helps the overall product and feel. A functional design can make you happy, mad or even sad. He also talks about three main ideas on why humans like design; Visceral, Behavior, and Reflective. Visceral meaning when we are drawn to certain colors and the "feel" of the piece. Behavior meaning they are easily understood and make the viewer want to look at them. Finally Reflective meaning that the reasons behind why we buy things.

I think these theories can help my book covers by trying to keep in mind what will draw the viewer in and what will have the most effect on them in order to buy the book by the cover.

People and Branding Firms To Know!

Summerfest Moodboards

Successful logos

Book Cover Examples

I really like the simplistic color scheme of this image. The mix of the white counter and the black background really brings out the type and image. I do not really like the type, I think it could have been a more vintage style font but overall I really like this one.

I think that this concept could be successful but I do not really like the fact that you can't read what it is trying to say. I really like the idea of hidden letters and think it could be used better than this image.

I really like this cover idea. I think the fact that it takes the type and creates an image out of it is a really successful concept. I am not overly crazy about the type chosen but I do like the fact that it is cohesive together.

Homework

Sign: (last) An object, event, action, pattern that coveys a meaning.

Index: (middle) a more or lessdetailed alphabetical listing of names, places, and topicsalong with the numbers of the pages on which they arementioned or discussed, usually included in or constituting the back matter. Or something that directs attention to some fact, condition,etc.; a

guiding principle.

Symbol: (top) a letter, figure, or other character or mark or a combinationof letters or the like used to designate something.