Final Adventures

This is my final creation of this year in my graphic design class. It is the cover for a brochure for the e-Communication program at my school, which includes graphic design, video entertainment and broadcasting, animation, and web design. I have enjoyed being in this program, and am excited to continue in it over the next two years, and maybe beyond. e-Communication is a program where you can learn and be creative. Story telling is the art of the human race. Today we tell stories through the things we write, create, show, and tell. e-Communication has been a great opportunity to do just that.

Adventures in Logo Design

My adventures in graphic design this school year are coming to a close. At the beginning of the year, we were challenged to create a circle and square logo for ourselves (mine displayed top right), and having come full circle we were challenged to create our logo once more (my new one top left). Learning from Lynda.com, I found that circles can be used to unify, and encompass your logo, that stars symbolize excellence, and that logos should be memorable, and simple. I tried to use those elements in my design by using circles and stars, while including signature elements of myself; the red fox, and the star I put after my name. Next came creating a mood board. Next school year most of my adventures will be in video entertainment, although I will continue exploring the vast world of graphic design, so I explored the logos of movie producers. Movie production company logos tend to be more complicated, because their audience consists of people who watch movies, and thus allows their logos to be complicated and animated, yet memorable in those senses even to those who haven't watched their movies. However, circles, and stars do appear in movie logos, and some of them are very simplistic such as Summit Entertainment's logo, which gave me hope that my logo idea could work. I went to the drawing board, and from there to the art board (seen to the left). Experimenting with the elements of my signature, love of foxes, circles, stars, and story telling, my new logo was created. It is simple, recognizable, and encompasses who I am well. It works on different colored backgrounds, in different sizes, and on black and white. It is amazing to see how far I have come since August, and it is amazing to imagine how far I can go. This is not the end; my new logo is only a beginning.

Adventures in Kerning

   To kern is to adjust the space between characters. In a world without kerning, kerning is spelled "keming." It is a world where "r" and "n" combine to make "m". It is a world where "L" and "i" combine to make "U". It is a world where graphic designers cry themselves to sleep every night.
    Kerning is necessary to make type readable, and pleasing. However, bad kerning might be used in artistic, and satirical circumstances.
   Fonts are usually auto kerned, but when you change the size,  boldness, tracking, or another aspect of the type, the computer's algorithms for kerning might not work. Characters then have to be manually kerned. Lastly, characters can be optically kerned, which is based on the shapes of the letters. Manual kerning usually provides the best resulsts.
    Kerning and tracking are actually different. Tracking adjusts the spacing between all letters. Kerning adjusts spacing between letter pairs such as "AV".
    If you would like to test your spacing capabilities click here: http://type.method.ac/. This is a game called Kerntype, that challenges your innate sense of spacing.

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.

10 Things I Can't Live Without

My life is just beginning, and my story is starting to form. As of now I am dedicated to my religion, I spend a lot of time on my phone, and red foxes are my favorite animal. The things I love have a way of making me who I am. I am a flute player, a designer, a thinker, a teenager, and a Mormon. These are the things that inspire me. If it weren't for my religion, I would be the unkind person I was when I was younger. If I didn't love red foxes, who knows what kind of art I would be making. Music is my talent and love, what would I do without it? There was a time when I didn't love these things, and now I have grown into the person who loves these 10 items. I am Heather Smith.