Journal 9

After watching video after video on the server and youtube I have found that many of them look the same. When viewing them without music or words the first round, there were only a couple that actually caught my attention. The motions that did not have much variety or hierarchy in them were boring without sound and I found it difficult to read them and stay interested. Adding sound to the animations changed them completely. Those that were already eye catching and attention grabbing were amazing while those that were boring became tolerable but still not too interesting to watch.

The Suberbad video was funny to watch and it sets the mood for the movie. It is so simple and it is amazing how much something can be described when only a silhouette is used. The two main characters are the ones dancing and the entire introduction does a great job of setting the mood for the movie.

The Casino Royle intro has been used a great example in one of my other classes. The very first scene when a gun shot is fired through the tunnel and blood drops down from the top of the screen is just so eye catching and memorable. The whole animation flows well and relates to the movie. The viewer is interested in seeing what is going to happen next as the main character fights with people. The end of it is also very interesting because the man is covered and created into a silhouette and tying it all together.

Spiderman 2 has an eye catching opening. It begins with comic book pages flipping fast to reveal the maker. It makes the viewer want to know what is going to happen and what are the comics about and how do they relate? The use of diagonal lines that are constantly moving and creating shapes and transparency's is interesting. The viewer does not want to look away because they do not know what is going to be shown next and don't want to miss it since it will soon be swept away by the other lines. The music plays along with the graphics very well and the suspension grows towards the end. The scale throughout it is pretty much constant with the exception of the title and the production company.

Address to France

General John J Pershing

"Three thousand miles from home, an American army is fighting for you. Everything you hold worthwhile is at stake. Only the hardest blows can win against the enemy we are fighting. Invoking the spirit of our forefathers, the army asks your unshrinking support, to the end that the high ideals for which America stands may endure upon the earth."

Importance: This is a speech given by John J. Pershing about Americans fighting in France in World War I. The soldiers need support.

Tone: Serious, meaningful, inspiration, dedication, support

3000 miles from home, fighting for you, at stake, fighting, forefathers, high ideals for which America stands

3000 miles loud, you should be paused, stake should be loud, forefathers paused, high ideals paused

It inspires me and informs. It gives me a sense of pride for America and is patriotic.

The audience was probably inspired by it and went out to celebrate the army and show support for the troops.

John Pershing was born on September 13th, 1860 in Laclede, Missouri. He spent some time as a school teacher at Prairie Mound. In September 1891, Pershing became Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the University of Nebraska. In 1906, he was promoted to Brigadier General. On April 6th, 1917, America declared war on Germany. In 1921, Pershing became the US Army Chief of Staff. In 1924, aged 64, Pershing retired from active duty. Prior to this retirement, Congress had awarded him the title 'General of the Armies'. In 1931, his autobiography 'My Experience of War' was published. It won a Pulitzer Prize for history in the following year.

Journal 8

Designing Under the Influence
The article raises the question "Is anything I create as a designer truly my own/ purely unique to me?"

The brain works in mysterious ways and holds so many different memories. According to Michael Bierut, designs which we just pass on the street without taking a double look are stored in our minds. When we design we could be copying something that at once caught our eye.

It is important to know about past and current designers and their styles. We are still young in design and are trying to create a style of our own that is unique. It is hard to do this and not be accused of copying someone else's work, instead we should look to them for inspiration.

I am not sure that I could say that i have created something that was purely unique to me. I am trying to experiment and see what I can create and what style I am good at. With all of our exercises in type and graphics I feel that we are encouraged to branch out and try different ideas. If we are going to far or too crazy we tone it down and can create something.

Alternatives for Futura:

One possibility would be Gill Sans or Rotis Sans. They are similar in the characteritics. Or Frutiger could be used because it has sharp edges, a stem structure close to Futura's and large circular bowls.

Journal 7

Spring break was full of recovering from sickness and working on homework. I was able to get out of the house for one day and go to downtown St. Charles and walk around Main St. I love going down there because it is right next to the river and full of little family owned shops. The roads are cobble stoned and the atmosphere has a small town feel.
Here are a couple of the pictures that I took. Most of the signs had an old feeling to them and the last picture is of a poster I saw. I thought it was hideous and decided to take a picture for a bad example.

Journal 6

Sean Adams - I thought it was interesting what he thinks about design and I continue to think more about design as solving problems as well. The most influential piece of design for him was the Declaration of Independence, which I was not expecting. He said that he thought it was the biggest accomplishment to design a government and after he put it this way I began to understand it more.

Paula Scher startled me when she said that she did not have a single example of design that would be the most inspiring. She is interested in many different types of design and likes thinking of the relationship of time vs. designer and how problems are solved differently according to time. Her ideas conflicted with Sean Adams in the fact that one of her main points was that design doesn't solve problems. Instead, think of ways to do things better.

Steven Heller made me laugh when he said that the Michelin Man is the most inspiring because it is a hugely successful logo/spokesperson. I definitely do not see the Michelin Man being the most succesful logo so am surprised he said this. There are many other logos such as Apple, McDonalds, NBC, and others that are able to be recognized around the nation and some world wide.

For Erik Spiekermann the alphabet is most inspiring. Gutenberg invented the printing press and created the first typeface that was not just handwriting. It was the beginning of typefaces. -- like Meta. The alphabet is art.

Chipp Kidd said the most inspiring example of design is identity. He said that in order for a designer to not lose their passion they must take credit for their work and when we are recognized we get paid more. He also mentioned that designers need to take themselves seriously and you should be inspired by all of their surroundings.

Final process

From these, I minimized the layering and added pictures of sand and the ocean to the background. I changed around the color scheme to be more beach like and complement the color of the dates.


















For the final version I got rid of the diagonal title and made all of the text black except for the dates.

Process for Timeline

Sketches to begin with...























































Originally I had planned to do a rotating pie chart to display both the image and type in an interactive way. After some experiementing with how it would rotate, I did not think it would be as strong as I had hoped. It would have been mostly image based with little type and that was not a good direction to go in.

I changed to a long composition that displayed the dates in a 3d manor. They are color coordinated to fit one of the 9 categories. The date is much larger and creates a sense of hierarchy with the contrast of small and large typefaces and the eye is moved down by the arrangement of dates.

Below are the first compositions that I came up with and one seemed to empty without a background which is why i added a texture in the other. The problem with the second is there is too much going on. I like the effect of layering and really wanted to play around with it but it begins to get difficult to read.