This is the interactive ad agency digitas’s website. I really like the concept behind it; using different boxes that only give you a vague picture of what it could be about so you have to find out for yourself. It’s very creative, and I’ve noticed that most ad agency’s have cool, creative websites to showcase what they are all about. This one is probably my favorite. Check it out here.
For those of you using fireworks for your web design project, here are some tutorials that you can use to help you with your project. I looked at some of them and they seem really cool, I’m sure they’re helpful as well. Enjoy
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I actually enjoyed working on this magazine. The reason is mainly because I have a burning passion for the band that I decided to base it off of. The band is called Mumford and Sons, and they are an awesome folk alternative band from the UK. I thought it would be a really cool idea to feature them in an article about how they’re taking over the U.S., since I just recently saw them in a sold out concert in Philly. At first, I had to decide what kind of magazine I wanted to do, and I came up with an indie music/lifestyle type of magazine. It has a very sophisticated, almost retro feel to it, and I think it works perfect with the band and their image. I named the magazine Parlotone. The word Parlotone doesn’t actually mean anything, in fact, I’m fairly certain it isn’t even a word. I know a band called The Parlotones, and the word felt like a perfect name for my magazine, considering it had the word Tone in it, and that’s a very musical word.
I decided to use my favorite image, one of them in a barbershop, as my cover image. I scaled it down and I think it looks great for the cover. I picked fonts that I thought would go really well with my sophisticated, folky magazine. They’re older fonts, and they seem very gentleman-like, which is perfect for the band and the magazine. I picked high quality images of some live playing, and added another image from the barbershop photoshoot because I thought it fit well with the article. I changed the colors into a more sepia, tan because I thought it went well with my pull out quotes and my overall magazine color. I wanted it to be very uniform and simple and I think that comes across when you look at it. I tried to use big, dominating images, and I really liked how my first spread turned out. My sidebar goes really well with the article because it shows their North American tour dates, and the article is all about how they’re taking over the U.S. The colors all match and it’s a very earthy, old style which is exactly what I thought of when I first started. I used an advertisement for scotch whiskey, because I thought it went perfectly with my magazine and its gentleman-like quality. All in all, I think I really accomplished what I set out to make my magazine to be, and that is a very folky, sophisticated and stylish music/lifestyle magazine featuring an amazing unique band.
Because I’m an advertising major, I thought it was really interesting when I found an article on the best magazine ads of the year. While looking through the ads, I noticed that all of them had stunning, high quality visuals that really stood out and grabbed my attention. This just reiterates how important it is, especially in magazines, to have great visual images. There is a reason these are considered the best ads of the year, because all of them draw the reader in with a great image. Check out the rest of the ads in the article!
For my poster, I decided to use a benefit concert called Sound Relief. I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to do, but I know that I love music, so I decided to look for some benefit concerts that would be cool. Sound Relief caught my eye because it’s in Australia and I knew I could do something different for it. It’s a benefit concert that helps to give money for the brushfires that destroyed lots of areas all around Australia. Since the fires weren’t good things, I figured I would stay away from the idea of fire in my poster, and that’s when I came up with the idea of an Aussie kangaroo just chillin’ with some headphones on jamming to an ipod. I decided to make it outside on a nice day with some orange grass because the colors on the website were blue and orange and they really stood out to me. Also, I always think of Australia as a pretty dry continent for some reason, so I thought the colors fit well. I worked on a couple of tutorials to make clouds, but I finally came up with the idea of having the name of the concert in the clouds. After that I made my grass and started on the kangaroo. The kangaroo was the toughest part and I really wish I knew some ways to make it more realistic. I used a tutorial to make it look like it had some fur, and I did my best with the face, although it was very tough to make it look clean. I thought I did the best I could with making it look cool, and I think the headphones and iPod came out pretty well. After that I decided that some of the blank space on the side would be a great place to put my type for the event. I browsed some fonts and came up with Neuzeit because I knew I wanted a simple readable font that would go well with the poster. All in all I think it’s a great idea that turned out pretty well and it puts a lighthearted fun spin on a fairly serious issue.
I figured that since this is the best place to find information about photoshop, I’d add another great website to go to if you’re looking to use cool filters. These are 10 great filters that can be used for your posters, and I hope that they’ll help anyone who needs it!
Because we are starting the poster project, I figured I’d show my favorite movie poster. I have, and have seen, a lot of cool movie posters, but I think this one takes the cake. Not only is this an outstanding movie, but the visual really gives you a feel for what it’s all about. I love the dark colors and intimidating fonts. I also love the way the antagonist’s face transforms into the dusk around the main character as he’s running. To me everything about this poster is visually stunning, perfect, and badass. I just felt that I had to share it.
Because I am inspired and in awe of music and film, la blogotheque is one of my favorite websites. It combines both music and film in such a beautiful way that it often evokes an emotional response from me. This french website is a must-see for anyone who loves folk/indie music and appreciates the amazing filmmaking that goes along with it. This picture is a link to a video of one of my favorite new bands performing a couple of songs in the alleyways of Paris. To go right to the songs go to 2:50 in the video.
