my revisions

in my first flyer (with the two boxes) i mostly changed the bottom section because i still really like the top, with the picture and the title and the little bit of text. i moved the boxes around because someone told me it was hard to know where to start reading. so i moved the condensed the three sections of text into one section and placed it right under the photo in the upper left corner so it'd be obvious to start there. i wanted all of the top stuff to be seen as one element, so after that top section, the eye moves to the block of text, and then on to the two boxes.

i was told that my second flyer (with danceworks across the center) was hard to understand because everything had equal weight. again, i condensed the text on the right side and spread it across the bottom, and moved the times up to the right corner under the picture. i also removed the stripe because i thought it looked too much like a racing stripe.

the final flyer has turned in to my favorite, which is kinda cool because i made it at the last second just to have a third version! i was told that the white box of text was competing with the black boxes and the picture, so i manipulated the picture to make it whiter and deleted the black boxes. i was also told that the "trapped white space" was distracting. i had trouble fixing that problem because if i left open space it was distracting, but if i made the text boxes bigger it all had equal weight. i'm really happy with this revision, the only part that's still kinda bothering me is the dates and times, but i do think they complete the visual path nicely.

design brief #3

i have two major concerns with this assignment. the first concern is the amount of text we need to fit on the flyer, it's a lot! also i started to play around on photoshop today and it's really difficult! can we continue to use indesign or illustrator?

reading about type

all of this information was very new for me, from what the word "color" means, to leading (pronunciation, how it can be changed, that's it's a real thing...), to the different families, everything was new.

i really enjoyed the historical tidbits of upper case and lower case letters, and how the romans had to chip the letters in to stone and so created serifs.

i also found it interesting that "modern" fonts look way less modern than the oldstyle fonts.

my favorite reading was the "designing with type" page. the three c's; concord, conflict, and contrast are all discussed and explained, but contrast seems to be the most important c. contrast creates interest and makes people want to read more. the strategies to create contrast are pretty simple and will probably be useful in most-- if not all--of the rest of our assignments.

design brief #2

it was really difficult finalizing my designs without any feedback from the class. i don't the either the handout or the form changed much from my first draft to my final draft.... well there were lots of little changes. but no major differences. i'm thinking that's probably not good. in the end though, i'm still happy with my final designs, but i would have felt more confident throughout the process with more feedback.

my final tiles

figure & ground

the figure may be the most obvious object on the page, but to someone else the ground may stand out more than the figure.  for that reason, it's important to notice the ground as well as the figure.  in my work, i'll try to use this as an advantage, and try to use the ground in a more subtle way of expressing the intended feel of the document.  

in three of my tiles for class today i used the letter B and wanted to create tiles that are playful, fun and carefree.  in the first tile, the ground shapes are all very different sizes.  it makes the tile seem more chaotic than carefree.  in the next tile, the ground is shaped by lots of horizontal lines, which feels carefree but more sleepy than playful.  in the last tile, the figures are all playfully spaced throughout.  they're placed randomly around the tile, but spaced evenly enough to not be chaotic.  the figures are playful and the even spacing between them makes the ground feel carefree and playful as well.

three design contexts

the first design context i chose is the poet's kitchen.  i think the audience for this context would be mostly the friends and family of the poet.  these friends and family may also be writers of some kind, or at least they appreciate the poet's work.  the tile should mostly express the interests of the poet.  i don't think future home owners would be a problem because i see the poet as very old and settled.

my second context is the tile for the children's hospital.  i think everyone who walks through these walls cares mostly about the comfort and happiness of the kids.  so the tile should make the children smile and feel safe.  the tile should be dreamy and invoke creativity.  that creativity will keep the spirits up of even the sickest child.

the third context is the tile for the transit station.  when i think of a transit station, i mostly think of business people rushing around to get from one office building to another.  between those stuffy office buildings, it may be nice for the business people to get a glimpse of scenery to remind them of the bigger picture, or maybe remind them of home.