Assignment 7: Slideshow

For this one, I used my audio that I had recorded on my trip to Starbucks and used photos that I had taken while I was there. I also used some found images -- online -- to supplement and tried to play with a variety of the different transitions and animation options in iMovie. (Although I did feel that iMovie was a bit restrictive with photographs, as far as some of the effects I would've liked to create.) I thought I had taken enough photos, but with the clip being longer than anticipated and several of the images being unusable -- I was trying to take them sneakily as to not freak people out in the coffee shop -- I ultimately did have to find other images to help illustrate.

Honestly, as I did not feel like I had a real creative conceptual idea for this slideshow, it was difficult for me to find a definitive artistic direction. In lieu of that, I basically just tried to experiment as much as possible and just get comfortable with iMovie. This was my first foray into using photo on iMovie (I've only ever used it to edit quick video interviews for work), so bear with me.

Concepts Slideshow link here.

Assignment 6: Audio Project

For this project, I used all recorded sounds that I got while recording people's conversations as well as ambient noise at a nearby Starbucks. I wanted to contrast the background noise with non-sensical excerpts of a conversation that I captured two men having. I played with repetition and equalizing -- but to be honest, I am not entirely happy with the quality of the sound. I did record with a recorder from the Equipment Center, but audio is not my strong suit. Here is the link to my Soundcloud recording.

Assignment 5: Photoshop

Image 1: Moving Cabs

For this Photoshop manipulation, I really wanted to play up the blur, so I did using the "Iris" option, as well as enhance the color to make it richer and deeper. I'm not one to really play up the cartoon-y aspects too much with Photoshop (that's likely a curse of using it at work a lot!) So, I wanted to enhance images more than necessarily adding too much noise to them.

 

Image 2: Bird
I wanted to play with color more on this one -- adjusting saturation levels, colors, and then also playing with contrast. I first turned this into a black and white image to get a base, then began to play with various adjustments.

Image 3: Couple in the Park
I really loved this photo just as it was -- the way that the foreground was so sharply in focus and the background a bit less clear. So, I decided to just really try my hand with new filters and opted for the liquify option. I had never used it before and ultimately, when I was finished, it reminded me of looking through a (distorted) window.

 
Image 4: Pig Street Art
This photo was already very bright and incorporated a lot of color, so I wanted to play that up even further with a sort of pop-art/cartoon-y element (very out of aesthetic character for me.) I changed the color composition, the saturation, the exposure -- just about everything you could think of -- to create a very fake, harsh looking image. And I actually really like the way it turned out.

Image 5: Melting Candle
For this image, I wanted to play with the color, as well as the Quick Select tool and inserting other images into the frame. I felt like the foreground and background were too orange and almost blended into one another, so I changed the color balance and saturation to get it looking more like two distinct things. Using layers, I copied the image of just the candle and pasted it back onto the photo, relocating it for a feel of many candles. Then I add curve to change the gradient -- and voila, three candles for the price of one.

Assignment 4: Narrative Photo Essay

 

Assignment 3: Digital Photography

With very little experience with photography (read: none), I tried my hand at landscape/nature, street, and action photography.


Landscape/Nature

 

 

 

 (But I also liked this one that I took without the people, so I added both!)

 

 

 

Street

 

 

 

Action/Sports

 

 

 

 

Assignment 2: My Advertisement

For my advertisement, I decided to use a great deal of white space — anchoring the image and text to the right side of the flyer. I thought that the minimalism and contrast was most representative of the fashion editorial world and thus reflective of the work that I do — perfect for marketing myself as a fashion freelance writer! As far as colors, I opted for a more "high-end" color approach: gold, black, and white. Again, I felt that these colors best represented a fashion editorial feel. The text that I used, Bodoni, is one of the texts most often used for fashion magazine titles and logos. In fact, ELLE uses a modified Bodoni font, and I think that that typeface has come to be associated with quality, high-end product, which is something that I hope any viewers of this ad will then come to associate with my work.

I also tried to use an element of direction with the pen, prompting viewers to draw their eyes upward toward the top right-hand corner, where all of my contact info and career highlights are listed.

The pen is a stock images that I found on Google Images, but I cropped the watermarks off of it so that I could use. Then I drew my own "ink" squiggle going up to the text at the top, which took a lot longer than one might think in order to have the "ink" fade off in the way I was envisioning (and even then, I am not totally happy with it.) I used the real ELLE, FLARE, and Latina logos — those are images which I just essentially copied and pasted into Adobe and then cleaned up a little, as they had some of the magazine background around them. And the text, as I said before, is one of the classic fashion editorial fonts. I thought that by using the same all the way through, it gave the ad a more streamlined look.

Looking back on it, maybe I would have centered the image and made the ad perfectly symmetrical, but I kind of liked the idea of leaving the ad looking like the notepads that are often found in magazine offices with just the header of the name of the magazine and some sort of minimal design (if any) on the pad of paper. If in fact then this were to be a flyer, it would leave room for whomever to potentially take notes on the project they were hoping to have a freelancer complete.

This ad is one that I, theoretically, could use for my real life, as I have freelanced (and continue to write for) the titles listed on the flyer, but since editors/writers rarely market themselves or their services through flyers, it's more likely that I would incorporate this sort of design on a website background or header.

Assignment 1: Analyzing Ads

Billboard Ads: Balance
The composition of both of these ads is unbalanced. In each example, the design is weighted to right side of the billboard—and intentionally so. The girl's Lonestar State shorts are intended to draw the eye to the right side of the first billboard, and in the second, the billboard is emphasizing this unbalanced weighting so heavily that the board itself is even weighted to the right. It seems to be illustrating an unbalanced scale to prompt weight loss—effective and memorable.

10Steps.sg

10Steps.sg

Subway Ad: Direction
So, this Mad Men season 5 ad is originally just the falling man, which illustrates direction by drawing your eye on a linear trajectory as the body heads downward to the right. The ad is also a great example of using a great deal of white space to draw the eye to the falling man and to the premiere date: March 25.

I've also attached the subway ad below, which was 'enhanced' using graffiti art of an image of Superman coming in to save the day. I think, in this case, the graffiti actually enhances this element of direction, as now the two images appear set to collide on their given trajectories, leading the eye upwards and to the left.

Season 5 ad

Season 5 ad with graffiti art

Online Ad: Repetition
For this ad, which was to promote a boyband competition in the U.K., sponsored by Coca Cola, the online ad uses an element of repetition to illustrate the three potential competition winners. But what made this ad truly special for me (and which is difficult to illustrate on this blogging software) is the interactivity of this ad. Users can pull the levers (as advertised in the bottom corner) to get rid of each of the boys, who then plummet down through the trap doors that each are standing on, thereby eliminating the repetitive design element in a piecemeal fashion.

Adage.com

Print Ad: Symmetry and Contrast
This is an ad that I came across in my most recent issue of Glamour. I loved the symmetry of this image: centering the lips in the middle of the bag, highlighting them with a bold red shade (a contrast to the porcelain face and blue background), and balancing the rest of the page so that the lips take center (excuse the pun) stage.

Because the page (and the face they are illustrating) is symmetrical, the ad seems particularly stable. Although Lupton believes that "symmetry does not hold the audience's attention"—and maybe this only grabbed mine because I was looking for specific style elements—I actually like how clean and precise this ad is, especially opposed to other beauty ads, which tend to busy up the page with images of products, multiple people, etc.

Glamour, March 2013

Print Ad: White Space
Another great example of an ad utilizing white space, this Volkswagen ad combines elements of size and space to illustrate just how small their new car really is. The text and "Think Small." caption seem large in comparison to the illustration of the car itself, which is effective in prompting the viewer to imagine just how small the car really would be for them. The large expanse of white space, with an image only taking up the tiniest part of the top corner, likewise serves to reinforce this idea even further.

Google Images