I have an infatuation with the quick little animations in between commercials/music videos/shows on MTV. The total obscurity of them are effective in getting my attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMhkmcvO4Qk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovLLp6qmPjY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jbdWepq24&feature=related

I really enjoy things that 'grow'. For my interactive flash assignment I'm going to try to create some graphics like this. I will also record some music to go with the animation. The work will be a commercial for some product - a TV show, or maybe a drink or food. I think it will be a fun assignment and I am looking forward to learning new techniques in Flash to make what I want to make.

Beez be buzzin'

For this project I chose to design a CD cover. I wanted to make an interesting piece of art that attracts viewers, and is indicative of the type of music the artist plays. I've seen a lot of digital art with spirals and trees and nature and I wanted to experiment with that. There is a mixture of bright colours and dark shades to create contrast.

My target audience is anyone into indie or alternative music. This demographic would be anywhere from 16 – 35.

To make my cover, I drew from my experience with Illustrator and used some new techniques in Photoshop. I drew most of it in Illustrator (because I find it easier to draw in Illustrator). I then imported it into photoshop to do some touch ups (blur, shadows). I made good use of the rule of thirds, as nothing is in the middle of the page. It feels balanced. I incorporated an interesting use of typography. To the left of the tree is the band name (Drenkelly) in a random type format. I thought the type looked neat so I used it to make a design. I think the silhouette effect of the black tree is effective in bringing out the bright colours behind it. The tutorials given out in class and ones available on the internet helped me greatly to enhance my CD cover.

There were a number of challenges I had to deal with throughout production. Firstly, placing objects on the wrong layer was a big issue. Objects would be behind or in front of other objects that were not the way I wanted them to be, so I had to do a lot of cut and pasting to fix that. Another challenge was trying to keep image quality when exporting from Illustrator to Photoshop. This really confused me. I would export at the highest quality from Illustrator, but it wouldn't look the same in Photoshop. However, whenever I zoomed in at 100% on photoshop, it would be just as sharp as Illustrator. Any more or less and the image looked rasterized. In the end it was just an exporting issue; my settings were off. The biggest challenge in the actually design process was figuring out where to place the band name, and what type format to use. I tried putting it all over the canvas. Next time I will start with the band name in the beginning and build the design around it.

Overall I feel I accomplished my intended goal. I am satisfied with the work I did. I learned some new techniques for making spirals that are easy and fast. For future reference I will be sure to label layers. I think there is always room for improvement, and with more time I could add more things to make a more effective CD cover. I feel it is an enjoyable piece to look at, and that I would pick up the CD and have a listen. I think the target audience would be inclined to look at the CD.

I didn't learn too much from the in class critique because the professor said he didn't have anything to critique. Personally, I'm still not 100% sure about the font and placement of the band name.

So after I discovered virtual applications I did some experimenting with photoshop and illustrator. This is just one image I produced. Note the 'sans serif' font use on the word love. I also used the gradient technique for the background.

On a completely unrelated note, I can't resist posting this hilarious monologue by Dan O'brien that I found thanks to the internet. If you followed the US election campaign last year you'll find find this awesome. http://www.cracked.com/blog/an-interview-with-mccain-and-obama-in-the-year-2012

This poster uses the CRAP principle of alignment effectively.

The text is pulled to the right side of the page. This makes it easy to read and follow.

Blog Entry 2 – CRAP Principles

Photo 1 – Contrast found at http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5759256

This photo is a great example of contrast. The photographer has used complimentary colours (blue and orange) with the ice and horizon. The use of contrast in designing in ads can be used effectively. They can make certain things stand out on a page. Contrast can also make a design more interesting to look at, which ad designers want so that viewers are drawn in and read the content of the ad.

Photo 2 – Repetition found at http://adland.tv/ooh/carrefour-malaysia-flasher-flood-red-red-stars-print-malaysia

This is a very repetitive ad. Looking at it close up each of those red dots has a yellow price inside it and an item beside it (yellow and red combination is commonly used). I think it may just be a little TOO crazy for me – my eyes get kind of lost in the image and I'm not sure where to look. If an designer is going to use repetition they should make it so it is still easy to look at.

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