Adventures at eMagine

   My school has a program that specializes in the communication arts that is called e-Communication. You get to learn video, graphic design, web design, and animation while focusing on one strand for your junior and senior years. We make a lot of really cool art. Of course we can enter our creations into well known contests, for clients, and for our own school and community, but wouldn't it be nice to have a local contest? That is about how eMagine was born. 

   eMagine is a contest where students enter their art into subcategories of the four strands of e-Communication. Winners receive the "pixel award" and everyone gets to see the top five entries. Over the years the talent is increasingly impressive. It's amazing what opportunities can do for people. It is also really rewarding to see people seeing what you have done.

   I entered a few things I made in my graphic design and video class. The commercial that I entered ended up being a finalist, and everyone got to see a clip of my video. I didn't win, but I made a whole audience laugh, which is awesome.

   My graphics could be better, but I personally think that the typography fox I entered was better than one of the finalists. Oh well. I have two years to sweep the board.

   It's fun seeing the talent of everyone in our area. Even the schools who don't have the opportunity of joining e-Communication enter very creative art. Until next time.

Saul Bass

You know those posters that have only shapes and colors? That is an art form called minimalism. Saul Bass is pretty famous for his minimalist movie posters. His posters usually only include 3-5 colors including black and white, 1-3 elements, and the font Hitchcock. In his movie poster for Rocky, you see three colors, and 2 elements. There is Rocky running, the stairs, and  you can also see Rocky's victorious shadow which makes the stairs. What more do you need to say "Rocky"?

I chose to make a minimalist poster for West Side Story. Hopefully you can see that there are two opposing sides of a city, and that it is keeping love apart. Gangs, forbidden love, that's West Side Story. I created this poster in Illustrator with 3 colors and 2 elements. As simple as it looks, this ended up being kind of challenging, and of course there is still much to be improved. Sometimes the pen tool just doesn't want to listen to you. It still ended up looking nice, and it definitely conveys what I want it to. Thank you for the inspiration, Saul Bass. You inspire many teachers and artists alike.

Googleing Google

Isn't it funny how virtually everything around us was designed, even with a purpose, and half the time we don't even notice we are noticing those things. Google has become the number one search engine. Need to know something? find something? Google it! We encounter their logo every day, but when is the last time you actually thought about what you are seeing?

If you look into it, you will find that the Google logo has five letters, four different letters of the alphabet, and four colors. You will also find that the font Catull is used, and that Google is a play on the math term Googol.

Catull is a serif font made by Gustav Jaeger in 1982. It resembles calligraphy used in the late 1400s. Every time you see Google's logo it is quite possible that somewhere in your subconscious you are thinking about calligraphy, ancient text, and the fact that the internet didn't used to exist and  that those that could read would have to find answers by reading those ancient texts. The search for knowledge is shown even in their choice of font.

Googol is a math term for a 1 followed by one hundred zeros. There are only about one billion websites currently, but it seems like you get a googol of results. It is supposed to resemble the vast amount of information available to you through Google.

Google uses the three primary colors red, yellow, and blue. This gives a kind of simple, and colorful feeling. Those colors make up all colors. Those colors also tend to encompass the logos of popular websites. Green, the only secondary color, was included to make a statement about Google standing out from other search engines.

All of these elements combine to make Google. So next time you look at something, remember to look. It's amazing what you can find.