Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Typeface examples



These are six groups of typefaces that we learned about in class.  They are listed above, and an example of each kind is given.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Four basic principles of an ad that I chose

 
 
The ad that I chose to asses the four basic principles of was a 1970's Life cereal ad.  Although this ad was before my time, it appeals to me, because like me Mikey the subjectof the ad is a picky eater. The contrast in this ad is related to all of the bright colors on the cereal box and on Mikey's shirt, against a white background.  The black text also contrast against the white background.  Repetition in this ad that is noticeable are the two cereal bowls, and there is ceral in the bowls and on the box.  The use of the same type of text is also repeated in both sections.  The alignment of this ad is centered, everything is focused on the picture of Mikey and the box of cereal.  There are a few proximities in this ad. In this ad the statement "If you have a kid like Mikey, you need a cereal like life." is close to the picture of Mikey and the picture of the ceral tying them together.  Then the paragraph explaining why Life cereal is a great ceral is close to the box of cereal, tying them together.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Notes from class

Proximity:
Proximity is grouping things together that are related.
A lack of uniformity can cause confusion.
Proximity in a design will usually overwhelm color.

Alignment:
When items are aligned on a page the result is a stronger cohesive unit
"Nothing sould be placed on the page arbitrarily. every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page."
When aligned elements are physically separated from each other, there is an invisible line that connects them, both with your eye and in your mind.

Repetition:
"Repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece."
consistency

Contrast:
A way to make things stand out
"If two things are not exactly the same, then make them different. Really different."
Large type vs. Small type
Thin lines vs. thick lines
Cool colors vs. warm colors
Horizontal elements vs. Vertical elements


Four basic Principle of a soup ad


When analyzing this ad I saw many things.  The contrast in this ad is very dim, you have the light color of the crane against the shadowy background of the picture.  The repetition in this picture is very small and almost unnoticeable, it is through a use of color.  The color that is used many times throughout this picture is yellow, but it is in several different shades.  The alignment of this picture is slightly off center.  The proximity in this ad is that the crane-home and the soup bowl are tied together by the tagline of the ad.

Four basic principles of a guitar ad



In trying to analyze the principles of this ad I saw several things. The contrast in this ad is the several different types of texts that are used throughout the ad, and the red, blue, and yellow colors.  Repetition in the ad are the red, blue, and yellow colors. The alignment in this ad is centered, and I think that the creator of this ad did that to prove that when you play a real guitar you can take "center stage".  The proximity of this ad is that the guitarist is close to the amp and the tagline about the ad is overlayed on top of both of them.   

Four bascic principles of the Mystique Tissue Ad



When looking at the basic principles of this ad I saw several things.  The contrast in this ad is the blue and white colors against each other, and the two different fonts one that is used to write Mystique and one to write the tagline for the ad.  Repetition in this ad is the use of the many airplanes all over the ad.  The alignment for this ad is to the left of the page, the creator of this ad more than likely chose this position to make room for the use of the airplanes that are coming out of the box.  The proximity in this ad is that all of the "airplanes" are very tightly grouped together coming out of the tissue box. 

The Four Basic Principles of this ad


When analyzing this ad for the four basic principles of design I had to think about a few things.
There isn't a lot of contrast in the picture, as far as text or size.  There is however a color contrast between the brightly colored clothing of the workers and the dark background of the picture.  Repetition in the picture comes from the same use of text and from the same use of color.  The color in the uniforms are repeated on each person from their shirt and pants, all the way down to their hat and gloves. The alignment of the picture is slightly to the right, but the purpose for that is to show the big mountain of trash in the background.  The photographer would have missed the "shot" if they would have centered the men in the photo.  The proximity in this picture is that the men are grouped very close together, along with the mountain of trash, and the tagline for the ad.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Second Publication- A flyer that I created

Rhetorical Analysis of a McDonald's Website

I visited two McDonald's websites, one from the United States and one from Australia.  I did a rhetorical analysis of both websites.  Both websites had things in common, in that they were very colorful and easy to navigate, and that they were both produced by the McDonald's company of course.  The signature red and yellow colors that McDonald's chooses to use to be associated with its company, are symbolic of several things.  The yellow symbolizes the friendly service that you will receive when you walk inside and the red symbolizes   . Another thing that both restaurants and all other McDonald's franchises have in common is that they are involved with helping donate money to the Ronald McDonald House Charity.  This shows that the McDonald's corporation isn't about making money all of the time, they won't to help out people in need as well.

US McDonald's
Verbal Signifiers for the US McDonald's website are the famous words that most American people know, "I'm lovin' it" and  "Meet some of the hard working people dedicated to providing high quality food everyday. And get the story behind your McDonald's favorites."

Visual Signifiers for the US McDonald's website are the Golden Arch "M" symbol and a picture of all of the farmers that supply McDonald's with food.

 McDonald's is trying to use the farmers as a way of relating to the "regular" people of America, and they are also trying to show that they get all of their ingredients for their food fresh from farms not out of factories somewhere.


International McDonald's-Australia
Verbal Signifiers for the Australian McDonald's website are the famous words, "I'm lovin' it", and "It's Lamb, Seriously."

Visual Signifiers  for the Australian McDonald's website are the Golden Arch "M" symbol and a giant hamburger.

Things that are different in Australia than the United States, are that they have a lose change menu instead of a dollar menu, and they are adding a lamb burger to their menu, in the United States we would never be able to do that.  The Australian McDonald's ad for their new lamb burger uses whit, with their caption of "It's lamb, Seriously" because just by looking at the picture you wouldn't be able to tell if it was lamb, or beef.  Therfore, I think the ads creator meant for it to be a little sarcastic and witty.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Microsoft Publisher Project

Color In Motion

I visited the Color in Motion website and the first thing that I clicked on was get to know the stars.  In looking at this section of the website, you get to know what positive and negative aspects of each color are and what they represent around the world. You also learn what each color's complementary color is. When you click on the movie section of the website, you get an even better understanding of the symbolism of each color.  You watch the animations and see the examples and it helps you get a better idea of what to match each color with. The last section of the website was a color lab, where you could work on various activities to learn more about color and symbolism and have fun.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Long Tail

In class last week, before we had our Labor Day holiday we looked at a comic called the Long Tail.  It portrayed how the world has changed and how technology has influenced it.  In two particular slides it shows the typical teenager and how they spent time in their room. Today's teenager had every gadget imaginable, a computer, gaming system, and a flat screen television.  The teenager of days gone by had posters hanging on their wall a stereo, and a "regular" television.  In today's world we have hundreds of channels to watch and all we have to do is punch the number in on the remote, years ago people only had a few channels to watch.  We have whatever we need at our fingertips, if we need a song, we can look it up, if we missed an episode of a tv show, and we didn't DVR it we can check it out on HULU, todays world is all about technolgogy.  Since our age group grew up with all of the new technology such as iPods, laptops, and Playstations, we sometimes wonder how the older generation lived without these inventions.