Poster Assignment (Week 5)

“Support Our Troops”

The concept of my poster is to take a traumatic image of a soldier’s return home in a casket to emotionally gain the attention of my cause. The objective is to promote awareness of our soldiers in Afghanistan and to provide them with support through the reality of what can happen. The quotes that were added into the poster are motivational quotes for people to reflect upon why our soldiers are there and to support the individual, brave troops currently in Afghanistan. My target audience is aimed at all of the Canadian citizens whose rights and freedoms are being defended by their soldiers overseas.

When starting with the initial image, I wanted to emphasis the casket, as that was the most important part of the poster. It is what gives the viewers the emotional touch and allows them to connect to the poster’s message. To emphasis this, I created a clone of the picture, allowing me to keep the colour of the casket, and grey scaling the rest of the background to provide a more gloomy, and depressing feel. To emphasis this even more, I decided to decrease the brightness of the image, which then allowed for a darker colour to come about in the image, especially underneath the casket. Additionally, I wanted to have the text stand out because there is an important message being expressed in the text. To do this, I slightly blurred the grey background and added a white and yellow text, which contrasts the grey colour of the background. The alignment of the text is different because I wanted the viewer to look closely at one text and allows it to be easily distinguished from each other. I wanted to space out the proximity of my poster’s elements to prevent clustering, allowing for an easy read.

Some problems that I encountered while creating my poster was trying to select the casket using the polygon lasso tool, especially around the area where the fingers of the casket barer. To achieve a better cut using the lasso tool, it was more accurate to zoom in and magnify the specific area of the cut. If there were further cuts that I needed to make, I would use the eraser tool to erase some parts of the casket layer so it would blend in accurately with the grey scale background. I also found it complicated to change something I had done at the very beginning. For example, I had made a few cuts to the image that I wanted to keep, but it was done near the very beginning of the image editing. Unfortunately, Fireworks’ history only can undo a certain number of steps before it is erased from the history.

I learned that Fireworks is a very powerful image editor and has many features that we have yet to learn. I feel that my piece met the original goal of my message, which was to increase awareness of our soldier’s sacrifices overseas and it can connect to its audience emotionally.

Typography (Week 4)

(http://www.thy.com/images/skylife/8-2007/497/26_497garantigaleri2.jpg)

This image as you can clearly tell just by looking at it, seems like it was a drawing made by a child. The letters are all over the place, and look as if they have been drawn as a child would with a crayon. It is a child trying to share a message to children and other living things that war is not healthy. The typography is very effective as it tells the readers who's actually behind this drawing without actually telling the reader. I find that this is very effective because children are always the most vulnerable in war and their innocence create guilt to soldiers at war, and this is one effective way to address that.

(http://www.fullhalloween.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/silent_hill.jpg)

This poster was for the thriller film "Silent Hill" which can already be described through its use of typography in it's poster. The text of "Silent Hill" provides the audience with a curious outlook as to what this movie may be about. The text is very different from the ordinary as it is not entirely solid, and somewhat distorts it's own solid letters, leading to little sharp points sticking out from the side of the letters, creating a feel of something unexpected. The Courier font above which states "Welcome to Paradise" is useful because courier is used for scripts, which makes this "paradise" seem scripted, almost as if there's an ironic scene going on where the audience can sense what is going to happen, while the character in the movie is clueless. I think this typography is effective in creating an overall theme of the movie, at the same time making us want to watch the movie to know what this movie is actually about.

(http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/posters/poster2b.jpg)

This poster shows how effectively BOLDING and Italicizing can further emphasis your points and make a huge difference in representation. It makes "VIOLENCE" and "ABUSE" stand out without the use of the caps lock button. Bolding gives a word a stronger, more ... for lack of a better term Bold look. In regards to "free" it's italics create a more softer feel, yet emphasising how important it is on the poster (Because if it wasn't there or emphasised, it would be a Violence and Abuse facility - the exact opposite message). The font used is Ariel, a professional looking font, and standard for professional looking posters, as this is not trying to make any creative point, but to show that this is a violence and abuse free facility. I think the bold and italics allow it to stand out of the poster, and one of the very first things you notice. Which is of course, effective in every way.

File Types/Compressions (Week 3)

Before the third lecture we had on file types and compressions, I've only heard of one picture format... .JPEG ... and for me being a computer geek, it's pretty bad that I didn't even know..... till now!

Maybe it's because I was always used to images that required millions of colours. I've never really worked with vectors before because I personally am not so great with visual design. It turns out that .GIF is pretty useful for vector drawings! I didn't know what PNG was (a working file for Adobe Fireworks), nor did I know the difference between them, which one was better, etc.

With that said, it will allow me to export images professionally depending on which type of compression exports the highest quality of my image while saving as much data as possible.

The CRAP Principles. (Week 2)

Yep that's right! The CRAP principles of visual design! Although, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's "crap". But it is, one of the most useful crap you'll ever use in graphical design. What is crap?

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

----------------


Image #1: Pay Per Click Offer Advertising Platform
(http:/payperclickoffer.com/tag/business-plan/)

This image was found on a site which is an article about an ad platform which offers advertising to both advertisers and publishers . First, we'll look at the contrast of this image. There's not much contrast in this image, as the author is trying to express a message of online users who all use computers to connect to different people on the internet. (Hence, all the different green network connections). The biggest contrast would be the green lines which so no pattern whatsoever, and the different sizes of each manikin to create a depth perception. The main colours used go very well together, and emphasis certain elements of the image. There is no trouble at all when glancing at this image. There is no text however, but it does attract someone to wonder what this image is trying to express.

Repetition in this image is seen easily. All of the related content all have a standard colour. For example, the manikin are all in the same colour (with different shades however), and the connection, which looks somewhat of a computer circuit board, is what connects these individuals together. The repetition of the lines and the rings around each "user" help us understand that these are all similar people who are all unified in some way.

There is no identifiable alignment in this image. All of the different "users" are scattered throughout the image and there is no pattern available.

In regards to proximity, every "user", they are all spread out with enough space between them to not interfere with each other. If that was true, it would be a very messy image, confusing those who are looking at it. Everything is spaced out enough to not interfere with the main point of the image, which is connecting users to unite electronically through something like the internet.

----------------
Image #2: Condom Ad
(http://www.geckoandfly.com/2007/10/25/creative-condom-ads/)


This image was an advertisement which promotes safe sex, and making an analogy of having unprotected sex as dangerous as fighting a fire without proper protection.

The contrast in this image is significant. As the colours which stand out most are the most important messages in this image. The fire which contrasts the dark background makes it the first thing people will see when looking at this photo because it attracts so much attention. Then the contrast of a white suit on a dark background allows us to easily identify protective suits and the contrast of a naked man which stands out from the ordinary.

The repetition of the individuals behind the hose allow for us to identify what is out of the ordinary. You see three individuals, two are alike but one is different. It allows the viewer to quickly and easily see the message of what is being emphasized in this image, along with the alignment of the individuals to the fire. The alignment of the logo is placed in the right spot, where it is easily discovered and not distracting or covering any of the important factors used to express this message.

The proximity of the individuals from the fire was done in mind by the creator to keep everything close together but still far enough that visuals aren't blocking each other. For example, the fire rages right beside the first firefighter rather than behind him, allowing for the contrast to work and catch the attention of the viewer.

----------------

Image #3: Vibrant Design
(http://www.highonart.com/services.htm)

The contrast in this image is significant. It uses various colours that stand out from each other. It doesn't use different shades or variations of colours, but uses main colours which can be easily distinguished from each other. Making the contrast very significant. The text stands out greatly as there is no white in the darker portions of this image, allowing the colour of the text and the text itself to stand out.

The reptition and alignment of the way these colour ribbons are laid out shape what looks like a fan of colours. The reptition of the colours and the alignment of where they are placed create a shape for us so that the picture looks like something more than just a bunch of random colours. Rather, it looks more artistic as there is a message of "vibrant" and the shape repeats itself expressing the "vibrant" design of this image. The proximity of each set of colours are great enough that we can identify that there are 3 different sets laid our one behind another.

----------------

Image #4: iCyt Visionary Bioscience
(http://www.blakeharvey.com/blake_portfolio/icyt_journal_ad.htm)


The contrast in this image is mostly used through shades of black and white, along with the different shapes of what looks like air bubbles. The contrast of brightness throughout this image gives it the meaning of something related to "a new beginning." The contrast in the bubbles and brightness signify something mysterious and is very effective in advertising by playing with a consumer's curiousity.

The repetition of the idea of these air bubbles flowing towards the light emphasis the fact that something big is coming and it shows no alignment or uniformity through the way the bubbles are on the poster. The text however, is aligned symetrically and is centered, which provides it with a neat and professional look. The proximity of everything, especially the air bubbles is laid out far enough to be identified as such. The text is spread out neatly and can be read with ease and only with a moment's notice.

Digital Media Lecture Reflection (Week 1)

Welcome!

So this is my first post here as a Radio & Television Arts student with Ryerson University. This is actually going out for marks... so, this is why I'm here! Haha, that's not all... I'm also here because I need a place to reflect... on something like, Digital Media!

Ok, so Digital Media... it's nowhere to be found in the program's name, but this program is like millions of years old, so it hasn't been updated to Radio & Television & Digital Media. So we've advanced so far ahead of technology, that all we need to communicate is through 0s and 1s. Amazing isn't it? We (as in, us humans) can't speak that language though, but that's why we have computers! So if I went 00101001010001010110110 (P.S. I have no idea what i just said), computers would translate that for me to read. I guess you can already tell that I knew quite a bit about digital media before actually going to the class, but there's still so much more to learn. That's why I'm here. This blog will allow you to learn with me, in my journey through RTA!

Digital Media is taking over the world. That's why we must know about it to be in this industry. Look anywhere. There's digital technology everywhere. From your cable box at home, to your computer, to your cellphones, etc. It's everywhere. That's why we need to learn about it in order to be able to produce content that will require these skills!

Anyways, enough blogging for now, afterall, I paid a good amount of money to Ryerson in order to open up this up for school! And get marks for it! :)

Til then.