[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxjbF18BBM[/youtube]
So I’ve been listening to a lot of Ratatat lately, and this music video for their song Neckbrace is awesome. It’s fairly simple, most likely shot in front of a green screen. But, what they did image-wise with the bird is so different. It’s bird that has been digitally multiplied, yes, but this natural thing and it’s organic movements have been multiplied to create kaleidoscope-mimicking, inorganic shapes. Interesting. Check it out!
I chose to make a website for the Arbor Day Foundation. I chose to design a website for this nonprofit organization because I am a strong advocate for the environment (who doesn’t like trees?) and their website was really overcrowded and old-fashioned. I used simple design combined with organic colors and elements, and a breathable white background. For the home page, you have to use your imagination a bit. I envision the home page to be programmed to move and interact. The tree will change with the seasons. Right now it is winter so it is barren. But, in a few months when it is spring, the tree will bud and grow flowers, etc. Also, the twitter bird flies around, and when you click on it takes you to the twitter page. The facebook and donate sign blow in the wind, but also link to their respective sites when you click on them. Maybe at one point a small animal, like a squirrel could be animated to scurry around the trunk of the tree. On the homepage, there is also the Arbor Day Foundation logo, the motto, a copyright, and various links.
Once you click on the links, you will be taken to the more “website-y” part. Each page has the necessary information for their section, and the header and footer remain constant. All of the sections have pictures that were chosen then clipping-masked into a standard banner (except for the shop, which rotates among the various gift items when you click on the arrows). Some other cool elements are the seeds that one would click on to donate money and the map that one would click on to see where they could get involved in projects in their state.
The website project was very tedious. I chose to use Helvetica and Bradley Hand ITC for the fonts, and continuously incorporated them throughout. I switched things up by using different sizes and colors—green and brown. I used green and brown, because they are natural colors, and very tree-like. I took the brown from the tree on the homepage and the green from the Arbor Day Foundation logo. I used strong, colorful photographs. The colorful trees are linked to the “about” section because the Arbor Tree Foundation is about so many things other than just trees. The seedling for “donation” shows the growth one small contribution can make. The children planting a tree picture shows that everyone and anyone can help in ways other than giving money. The mugs and other items show the revolving store on “shop,” and the hand picture on “contact” shows that the organization is also about human interaction, humanity, and our connection to the earth. Back to the tediousness…this project involved many ruler lines, and measuring boxes, and moving things around until they looked right. And yes, I used the grid. Hope you like it!
We’ve seen a lot of Web examples in class, a couple of them being celebrities’ websites. Well, here’s another one: Goop. It’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog. Paltrow divides her blog into six categories with titles like “go” and “make.” Each category has a distinct symbol located on the homepage. When you click on one of the symbols, the symbol carries over into the header of the section. This is a good example of a website that is simple yet interesting, and an overall consistent design.
Typography. That was my main struggle with this project, fitting a lot of information about the e-waste event in a clean and precise matter. I started the clean-up by getting rid of some of the cartoon-like text and replacing it with a more read-able text: Helvetica neue. I did this for all the text that relayed the time, date, address, and website of the event. I kept impact for the event title but got rid of the color and warped letters of “e-waste.” I also changed up spacing between lines, and minimized the font size of the address. I wanted there to be a hierarchy—the cute illustration first. Then the title. Then the info. Then the website. I hope this poster is much more readable and inviting.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the design of my first draft. Fine-tuning the details was the focus of my redo. For starters, I made sure my design was properly setup to the grid. From there, I minimized the width of all the columns to make sure they are more reader friendly. On the cover page, I re-cropped the photo and increased the kerning for the cover line and issue number, as well as change the stroke to match with the photograph. On the first spread, I changed the sub head and byline to white so that the page wouldn’t read like a gold blob. Finally, I decreased the amount of boxes that made up the sideline, so that it too is more reader friendly.
I’m sure some of you noticed in class the other day how i got fired up about the ethics between editorial and advertising content while we were talking about our magazine projects–how I don’t believe the ads should have the same people in them as the stories in the magazine. I heard about it again today when I heard some of the advertising staff from Marie Claire speak. They talked about how there should be a sort of church and state division between the two. Now, in the new age of digital media, the same questions are coming up again. Here is an article from MediaShift on pbs.org (click here) about the debate over what is ethical. See what you think.
ASME, American Society of Magazine Editors, awards magazines each year for excellence in various categories including design in print. The 2010 winner (for design in print) is Wired for its, “effectiveness of design, typography and artwork in support of the editorial mission of the magazine.” For more 2010 National Magazine Awards winners and finalists click here. To look at Wired click here.
I did this extra credit a few weeks back. I didn’t realize we were supposed to post it up here:
Yesterday evening, my friends and I entered the Herg Auditorium to participate in Illuminating Oppression: 8th Annual Human Rights Film Festival. I didn’t really have any expectations. I knew I would be seeing some documentaries. I knew they would probably teach me something. What I didn’t anticipate was the intense emotional response I would feel.
The first documentary shown was called Bound by Promises: Contemporary Slavery in Rural Brazil. Every year in Brazil, temporary workers, more than 25,000, are given jobs by landowners that turn out to be modern forms of slavery. Workers are often taken into remote ranches, dropped off, and given poor living and working conditions. They cannot escape, not only because they are in some isolated part of the Amazon, but also because they get conned into debt cycles. The message and interviews were strong in this documentary. The only thing that became a little distracting, and ultimately took away from the power of the film, were the poor camera skills and overall gritty film quality. It’s interesting, I think, since I have experienced Hollywood films most of my life, I’ve come to expect a certain level of professionalism, a glossy wall between me and what I am viewing. Film has the power to beautify things we may not see as clearly and beautifully in real life.
The second documentary seemed to have a much higher production value and a clearer picture. While watching Good Fortune, I was able to get past the camera and focus on the message. And the message was impacting. This movie showed two locations in Kenya: the Kibera neighborhood and a rural farmland area of western Kenya. Both places are used to show how foreign aid and business is coming in, in an attempt to create a better life for the people of the region. Yet, it seems these businesses, especially the rice farm in western Kenya, are more concerned with their own interests and their own picture for Kenya, than what the people who actually live in these areas envision for themselves. What I particularly liked was that it showed the changing of peoples’ minds, the changing of the projects, and the environmental and political shifts. It showed that life is dynamic and human rights issues are complicated.
Here are a couple of works by graphic designer Tom Muller. I came across his website and it’s really neat (It also proves you can make a living playing with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator all day.) For more works by Mr. Muller click here. I suggest you go to the FAQ for a good laugh.
I completely redid my logo. My other logo was messy, and old-fashioned. After watching a movie called Objectified, by the makers of Helvetica, I realized I needed to resort to a clean, modern design. I began with the color. After browsing kuler.adobe.com, I found some complimentary colors that really voiced my personality. From there I thought about my logo. Before, I was trying to do something with journalism, but I realized I don’t even know if I want to be a journalist. So, I decided to create a logo for me, a heart. Perhaps a little cliché, I don’t know, I just like it.
For the font, I used Americana, the same font from my resume. On my business card, I put my info on one side and the logo on the other. I then incorporated the logo on the envelope and letterhead at 50 percent. I thought the pink to brown gradient on the envelope was really pretty for the envelope, but too distracting and less consistent with the overall image if I were to use it on the letterhead. I spaced out things according to some boxes I made.
Okay, I hope you like it. I might actually pass out this business card!
