Final SoundSlide

Bind In Blow In Card

Back (InDesign)-

InDesign-
Much like Quark, I like InDesign because it's fairly simple to use and is easy to get the hang of. However, it is an Adobe company, so there are fewer issues with the compatibility of certain vectors. I like it's layout assistance and easy incorporation of images.

Photoshop-
I have used Photoshop more than any other graphics software, so I think I ran into fewer problems then some of the beginners in the class. I think of it as a "one-stop shop" for design like this-- I can edit my pics and still design without leaving one program, which means fewer compatibility issues.

Quark-
I found Quark to be easy to use and lends itself well to people that are unfamiliar with design. The tools are easy to identify and it's "help" feature is more useful than in other graphic design programs I've used. It was difficult to transition away from the familiarity of Adobe programs, but Quark is probably my new favorite design program.

Brochure - Cannon Mountain

InDesign was the perfect program for making a brochure. Having three columns outlined made doing the layout much quicker and simpler than I imagined it would be. My partner, Vaughn, and I used a basic font to ensure that it is easy to read. I used images with the contrast and opacity dropped down really low as the background for Side 1. This way, I could add a little flair without making the messages harder to read. I also used a drop shadow on all of the images and headers to emphasize them and to take up negative space. We used a gradient as the background for Side 2 to keep the theme of light blue/cerulean going.

MF Doom

My PowerPoint presentation was about Hip-Hop Artist "MF DOOM". My cover slide has a baleful portrait of the artist and his name in Serif font Copperplate Gothic over a silver to white gradient background. I used the reflection effect to give the chiseled font more impact. My music sample, which is a blend of two tracks off of the Vaudeville Villain album, starts with my cover slide. For my "Behind the Music", I used the American Typewriter font in orange with a dark shadow to make the Header jump off the page. It's an easy font to read that's compatible with Mac and PC operating systems. I had each bullet point expand and fade in and then fade back out to gray when the next point appears so that the audience will focus on the new information. I used the same font and color themes for my "Vaudeville Villain" slide, which listed all of the tracks on that album. I had the track titles rise up from the bottom of the screen. I made my audio sample from two songs off of the Vaudeville Villain album, so I had the titles of the two magnify and stand out in bright orange for emphasis. My final slide contains a table which provides information about the Artist's aliases and the corresponding album releases, time periods and most notable tracks.
I was a little unfamiliar with some of the latest animation options on PowerPoint, and experienced some difficulty getting my music sample to play from the first slide to the last uninterrupted. Both issues I resolved on my own my using PowerPoint's help features and the text. I especially enjoyed engineering my own audio sample and getting familiar with Audacity, which I plan on using in the future of edit MP3 files of my own. Overall, I gained some valuable experience with PowerPoint and will be able to produce more effective presentations in the future forhaving had this opportunity.

Rhode Island Horror Film Festival (Page 1)

I first edited the Horror Film Festival banner because I didn’t like the picture. In Photoshop, I replaced it with the Vampire picture that was provided. I placed this spreading across the top of the newsletter because it was stylish and held pertinent information. I used a graphite-to-white gradient for the background to match the color of the banner. I used the Helvetica font because it’s easy to read and leaves the style for the banner. The black and white Lovecraft picture was added because it fits nicely into the color scheme.

Band Poster Design Rationale

The Omega Project is a band that formed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai and now plays in New Orleans. I tried to use fonts that are both easy to read and visually appealing. I used greek letters wherever I could in the band name, as omega is part of the greek alphabet. For all other letters, I used the narrow, sharp, seriffed Garamond font. I placed an omega with the earth in its center just above a picture of the band. The band members all have a unique look, so I thought putting a picture of them on the poster was important. To either side of the omega, I have information about the upcoming show, such as ticket prices, opening acts and show times. I put certain words in bold and stretched others out to maximize what space I had. The band members are also in other bands in New Orleans that have gained notoriety, so I placed the name of each band member below the picture, with the name of lead singer, guitarist and frontman in the largest font. The black background makes the photo and all information stand out. I added the frame around the band name to add style and to take up blank space. First using Quark was frustrating because, although it's used for similar projects, it's completely unlike any of the Adobe graphic arts software. After finding some information in the text books and some tutorials online, I got the hang of it quickly. I'll be using this program in the future for similar projects.

PowerPoint Presentation

My PowerPoint presentation was about Hip-Hop Artist "MF DOOM". My cover slide has a baleful portrait of the artist and his name in Serif font Copperplate Gothic over a silver to white gradient background. I used the reflection effect to give the chiseled font more impact. My music sample, which is a blend of two tracks off of the Vaudeville Villain album, starts with my cover slide. For my "Behind the Music", I used the American Typewriter font in orange with a dark shadow to make the Header jump off the page. It's an easy font to read that's compatible with Mac and PC operating systems. I had each bullet point expand and fade in and then fade back out to gray when the next point appears so that the audience will focus on the new information. I used the same font and color themes for my "Vaudeville Villain" slide, which listed all of the tracks on that album. I had the track titles rise up from the bottom of the screen. I made my audio sample from two songs off of the Vaudeville Villain album, so I had the titles of the two magnify and stand out in bright orange for emphasis. My final slide contains a table which provides information about the Artist's aliases and the corresponding album releases, time periods and most notable tracks.
I was a little unfamiliar with some of the latest animation options on PowerPoint, and experienced some difficulty getting my music sample to play from the first slide to the last uninterrupted. Both issues I resolved on my own my using PowerPoint's help features and the text. I especially enjoyed engineering my own audio sample and getting familiar with Audacity, which I plan on using in the future of edit MP3 files of my own. Overall, I gained some valuable experience with PowerPoint and will be able to produce more effective presentations in the future for having had this opportunity.

Contact Sheet

To change the resolution of my Butterfly image, I went to Image > Size and adjusted the DPI accordingly
To change the color sets, I went to Image > Mode and adjusted accordingly.
To exhibit different orientations, I used the crop tool to make the image a portrait, a landscape and square shot.
To experiment with framing, I took a wide angle shot and gradually zoomed in on my target by cropping and adjusting image size.
For my abstract image set, I cropped in ways that obscured what the image actually was. I gradually cropped an image of a caterpillar to the point of where it’s body resembles that of a bee or a tigers stripes.
I started with a picture of a family at Mardi Gras to experiment with artistic effects. I used the Rough Pastels effect with a Stroke Detail of 1 and a Stroke Length of 2 to give the photo a hand-drawn look. I used the Artistic Filter Paint Daubs to give the image a watercolor effect with a Brush Size of 8 and a Sharpness of 7. For my purely artistic image, I used the Glowing Edges effect to give the picture an electric look full of vivid colors.

Font Poem

My quote is full of powerful words that carry connotations, so I wrote my poem by using fonts that embody that word in style and tone. I began the poem with Stencil in all capital letters, size 80 bold to make a powerful initial impact on the reader. Stencil is font that conveys a firm, serious tone because stencils are generally utility-driven, used on military and industrial goods. It conveys a strong, “no-nonsense” tone, and let’s the reader know who is we mean business, and we are not to be taken lightly. I chose the simple italic Times New Roman for “the” and “on” as these words carry only grammatical significance and shouldn't be points of focus. Times New Roman is a common font, so readers should pass over it and should focus on the more unique fonts that are more valuable to the overall message. I used Mesquite Std, size 53 for the word “THIEVES” (I fixed this spelling error on the final draft). Mesquite Std is the font that “WANTED” posters in Wild West movies, usually advertising a reward for the capture of a bandit or a thief. Its menacing sharp angles and unusual serifs, coupled with the font’s historical significance, make it a great font for the word. The extreme transition from the previous word, “petty”, which uses a meek, simple Twentieth Century MT in size 30 to the edgier Mesquite Std also adds to it’s impact on the reader. Eccentric Std is a font that is tall, slim and has most of its intra-letter connections unusually high, causing letters with parallel legs appear to be standing. This helps to give the reader a quick visual reference for the word. “You” (the reader) is in a simple lower case to convey a sense of inferiority or belittlement to the bold “we” (the writer), as the writer is aiming to strike a subtle sense of intimidation into the reader. The message is, “You are on the writer’s turf, so maybe you’re in the wrong part of town…” Finally, “STREETS” is written in Cracked, a font that has an urban feel and looks like weathered street paint, or paint on asphalt.

I made many style and color changes for my second draft. I cultivated a 1980's era color scheme by incorporating bright colors and different textures. I colored and pixelated the word "you're", which gave it a yellow/pink polka dot finish. I rasterized the "STREETS" layer and used the Film Grain effect to give it an asphalt look. I embossed the letters in stencil to make them look like they were punched into metal, enhancing the fonts toughness. I used free transform to stretch out the word thieves to place more emphasis on it. Post to come...