The assignment in my design class over the weekend was to construct three different static designs for a website I am going to build.  For those of you that don’t know what a static design is…basically I had to make the home page of the website without writing the code, so we use Photoshop just so the client has a visual to select their upcoming design from.

The task was only to create the home page…but I got so lost in it all, that while watching movies, I just kept going and ended up doing all the pages in all three different designs.  I took movies back last night that I didn’t even really watch.  I was having so much fun creating my designs…it was almost intoxicating!!

by:  Laura Golden

This morning at the Morning Leak for the AIGA, Varick Rosete presented a website he designed for college fashion.  I thought the design was awesome, and the color scheme was extremely pleasant.  He noted that he was not the designer that created the logo, and that he wasn’t really fond of it.  He did express his opinion on it, but commented that since he was not the designer, and it wasn’t part of his job, that he didn’t spend much time pleading his case, but did try to work with sizing and placement to make it a bit more suitable to his layout.  This I fear will be one of my problems I will have to tackle. Separating my ego from the job!  If I had created a nice layout like Varick’s, I would have had a very difficult time not “forcing my opinion down the client’s throat!”  This is something I need to work on.  As an artist I do tend to be sensitive, especially when I have put my time and energy into creating something I am proud of.  Thankfully, my professor, Mr. Downs, has us regularly participating in critiques.  This practice has help me not only recognize my weakness in this area, but has helped me begin to be able to control my impulses to let my ego do the talking.

Varick’s ability to humble himself and separate his opinion from his client’s opinion is a skill I hope to acquire no matter how much practice it takes.

Before CSS hit the industry, the layout of one’s web page was difficult to manipulate.

Arranging images, coloring fonts, changing font size, and positioning involved lengthy and tedious coding.

CSS, through mark-up language has allowed us to control our entire site using the link to one simple style sheet in CSS.

Complicated tables can now be accomplished easier by using div tags that divide the page into sections.  Headings can be controlled with proper markup that controls size, font type and color.

Images can be arranged in anyway the designer chooses with ease now.  

The book states that everything in life is a list.  Lists, ordered, unordered and definition lists can be easily organize and arranged with CSS markup.

The most important factor however, is that the markup is correct.  The semantics, which is the meaning of an element and how that element describes the content it contains.  Semantics are key in designing and keeping one’s page organized and ordered.

CSS makes it possible to visit a webpage, click on a particular image, or even part of that image and instantly retrieve information pertinent to the chosen image.   

In short, a good markup will create a meaningful, well-ordered flow of “contents”.  Life has become easier with the use of stylesheets.  I wasn’t in the industry before CSS came along, but have talked to many who were and they all agree that CSS, is “golden”!  We did initially learn to code without the use of stylesheets, and once I get a firm grip on CSS, I’m quite sure I’ll feel the same.

The purpose of our beloved site “FACEBOOK” is social networking.  By social networking I mean finding old/new friends, keeping in contact with their day to day events, keeping abreast of where the good places are to go, fun things to do, and often what not to do or where not to go.  Facebook has also became a spring board for businesses to promote their goods, a place of job search, and sadly sometimes a place of stalking and character defamation.   The targeted audience for Facebook is really anyone….anywhere, and they do a great job reaching that audience.  Even pets can have their own Facebook page to keep in touch with their fellow felines, canines, etc… Having such an open policy and user friendly interface, along with the fact that it entails all of our coveted pastimes including gossiping, joking and flirting could account for its huge success.  This site has allowed me to reconnect with many old, long lost friends, keep in daily touch with my niece and nephews and stay up on what they are doing, make business aquaintences, and display the work I am creating in school.  I found it interesting when I joined that the issue of security for each individual page was addressed, and could be customized to suit any particular need.

My professor got me involved with Facebook as a class requirement to learn to network.  I in turn have recruited many others to join in on the fun.  I think it would be pretty cool to have more real time video chatting on the pages, only I would like to have a heads up so I can look my best…lol!

Chapter 8 in DESIGN ESSENTIALS covers the all important topic of Communication. The word communication means the transference of information from one point to another. As Graphic Designers our job is to communicate visually through different forms of media and the various formats.

Visual Communication is made up of different components beginning with the story. Theme unifies the design. Symbolism can be used to convey a particular thought. Of course another component is meaning. It is important to get the correct meaning across to the audience. This can be done using literal meaning,using an image that literally depicts your message, ambiguous meaning,using images that can mean two different things like an optical illusion, and abstract meaning, which of course would use images that imply feeling rather than words. Conforming to the rules in design is important and can produce great works, however, sometimes going outside the box and rebelling have produced masterpieces and gave a fresh take on things.

This chapter also discussed different learning styles, pitching styles, resumes, etc.. The new and all powerful form of communication lies in networking. Social media such as FACEBOOK, TWITTER, etc., along with blogging has become the rage today and a very effective way to communicate within your social realm.

Chapter 7 in our text book “DESIGN ESSENTIALS”, authored by Angie Taylor, deals with the topic of Video Editing, a not so bad, but tedious task we dealt with in PREMIERE and AFTER EFFECTS.  It’s amazing how much editing goes into even a short 1 minute clip.  there can be 15 to 20 takes, sometimes more in any give scene.  Some takes are just discarded, then after you narrow your selection down to takes with possible usable parts, those parts are edited out.  Then the already edited clips are married with others and evaluated for their effectiveness.  sometimes, these are now tossed away also and new sets of clips are reviewed. We actually had an incident where after days of shooting and editing we had nothing useful and had to reshoot a scene. Video Editing programs such as PREMIERE PRO provide easy to use tools such as the razor tool that bascically allows you to dissect footage as many times as you want, where ever you want.  This chapter covered tools such as the ripple tool, for trimming, the roll edit tool, also for trimming, the slip tool used for controlling the potion of the clip, and the slide tool used to control the gaps in footage. I haven’t had the opportunity to explore these tools as of yet, but am looking forward to working with PREMIERE PRO again.

Chapter 6 in DESIGN ESSENTIALS focuses on color, and it’s treatment in motion graphics.

Interestingly enough, yesterday morning at the MORNING LEAK, a Designer named Doyle Haynes, asked one of the speakers, another Designer, Russell Quadros, about color and if there was a book or a site we as Designers could refer to to tell us if there was information on what color sets would relay certain messages, and the answer was no.  Russell Quadros noted that colors like red could imply power and strength, but also is used as warnings, blood, and other scary things.  Jeff Spears also pointed out that black, represents darkness, and death but is also used in elegant ads.  So, there is no set rule for the way colors make one feel.  The book notes that yellow is a very calming and bright color, but Jeff Spears also said that he read that yellow only affects us positively for a few minutes, and that if viewed beyond that can have the negative affect. The book refers to bodily fluids such as urine and pus that are actually of yellow color.  All in all, if used correctly with the right typeface, color can move the emotions of one’s audience. The hue, the pureness of the color, the brightness, and saturation, the intensity of the color, can be played with to adjust the color to get the exact color desired.  Another thing I found interesting, is the author tells that everyone sees colors slightly different, something that has been obvious in my life during several arguments over whether something was blue or purple, red or orange, etc…

Chapter 5 in DESIGN ESSENTIALS deals with Typography and the treatment of it.  It discusses kerning,the spacing between the letters, serifs, which are fonts with feet, sanserif, which are fonts without feet, italics and obliques, and when to use them. decorative typeface, line spacing, where to buy good fonts, and where to find free fonts, just to name a few. All the elements of typography that we had learned about previously. Handmade type is also discussed and it is said that it is a way to “revolutionize your design, and make it stand out.” I would like one day to design my own font, although there is so much to take into consideration. This chapter discussed when purchasing or using a font for a particular project, to make sure all the characters needed are included in that font. This is something I never took into consideration until I used a particular font and found when I used the number “6” it dropped down like an accounting type number, so this is something I look at before I choose my font these days.

Something new this chapter touched on was the treatment of type for use on the screen, and how color and luminance are affected by the resolution.  Fine and compact serifs don’t do well on the screen, while typefaces like Helvetica, Arial, Univers, Futura and Gil Sans work well in motion graphics.