Team Separation- Final video: Lauren, Jessica and Justin

the truth..

Truth of the matter is that in the beginning of the semester it was kind of mandatory that we do all those silly little exercises just so we could learn new things and start using new programs and all that nonsense. Well, it was like the internet gods came down and granted our wishes that we didn’t have to do those exercise anymore due to issues with the books site.

I couldn’t have been any happier when I found this out. I honestly thought there were a waste of time and for the most part stressing me out. I felt as if I was losing focus on the actual main projects that were due for a grade. When I was told that I didn’t have to go back and fix anything after the site was up and that if I didn’t start anything it was fine was almost like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

For the whole semester it might have been more worth our time to work on small actual projects like the brochure and poster to help build our skills for a grade instead of silly exercises. Even if we still just kept the main projects, didn’t add anything new and got rid of the silly book nonsense the semester could of went by a lot smoother and we would of got a bigger bang for our buck.

Between the projects and posting these blogs I feel as if that would have been more than sufficient for the course (which ended up happening anyways).

stormbraining!

First, a definition of brainstorming: a group creativity technique designed to generate ideas and solutions for a problem.

Brainstorming is a great tool, whether you are on the job or in school it’s an amazing way to get together and share ideas and bounce them off of other people or just with yourself. Another benefit of brainstorming is the ability to see more clearly why an idea may not work or why an idea is better than the first. With your mind working in over time thinking about a solution for accomplishing a goal it might be found more easily and quickly if you think it out.

Even if you don’t come up with a solution right away the idea is to get all your creative ideas flowing. If you come into a project with a blank slate and absolutely no clue on what you might want to do you are basically screwed and not being productive. If you are having issues with making a decision don’t be scared to ask someone else for an opinion, you never know what they might say could help you and get you on a better track.

By writing things down or creating a diagram you are helping yourself get the best ideas on the table and opening your mind to figuring out what would be the best ideas to try out. Also, when you are brainstorming don’t be afraid to keep and open and welcoming environment to people who want to help you and give you a little criticism and teach you new techniques.

There is always going to be something that is unavoidable but if you find yourself getting off track just re focus and start writing things down again to help get you back going in the right direction.

magazine layout say what?

When it comes to magazine layout I feel that cosmopolitan does an amazing job catching the reader’s eye and attention.

They do an amazing job at using bold colors and bold font choices. Everything and anything to capture the reader they do it brilliantly; especially if you are just in the store and you’re waiting in line and a cosmopolitan magazine and sitting there you can’t help but want to pick it up and see what is inside. The cover is always covered with bold color and bold font choices; the articles that are the juiciest always stick out the most and there is always an amazing celebrity on the front of it that just draws you in. It’s very admirable when a magazine isn’t scared to take chances.

Every issue is always different than the last; they aren’t scared to try new things and use different set ups for each story. You can tell that everything is chosen with such precision to make sure that each article goes along with the pictures and that the color scheme also makes complete sense. Cosmopolitan also isn’t scared to push the envelope especially since they are a racier magazine with their sex tips and all.

It’s a nice mix of a lot. Each page is filled with a wide variety of different articles which keeps the reader guessing on what will be next; whether or not you are interested in the magazine or just reading it to check out one story, you want to keep going to the end just to see what else could pop up and that in my mind is an amazing magazine that knows how to get their name out there and to stay out there.

When dealing with a successful magazine everything that goes into it is very important. To be on top and to stay on top you can’t be scared to take chances and use things that others would be scared to even think about. The design and layout can make or break you, this is why cosmopolitan is the number one woman’s magazine, because they know exactly what the reader wants and won’t stop till they get it right.

FIN.

Ohhh project number four how dare you give me trouble and creative block. Well as any normal person some things just don’t come as easy as others; I had created a first version of my brochure and just felt ok about it, it wasn’t anything great and didn’t really impress me, sooo I got rid of it!

I Completely started over and designed something that was 100% better than the first and really pleased me. Its colorful, very nice to look at, the right amount of text to get the camps point across, and overall looks like a real brochure. I am a perfectionist and wasn’t going to stop or give up until I felt deep down I had made something that others would like. Also I had an image of what the camps actually brochure looked like and I must say the one I made is way better and easier on the eyes.
Coming up with the topic was easy. Everything else was the downfall; as soon as I started going on the new brochure and pulled better colors from the logo and the grass graphic I used everything started to look amazing and how I originally wanted it. Everything I had written on the brochure we’re things I had already known about the camp from working there for 8 years! Working on things that are near and dear to you are way easier to portray. Sometimes I’m very indecisive and picky but in this case it really made a difference and I’m very happy with the outcome of the second brochure.

My main goal for this brochure was to make something that looked inviting that gave you the feel of summer and shows how happy this camp makes people.

c'est la vie

The semester is finally coming to an end, and I feel that I have learned a lot about many different things and accomplished many tasks. Ive learned different aspects of indesign, photoshop,as well as illustrator. When class first started it almost felt like a task to want to use these programs and actually learn all the different tools, but not its almost second nature when I open up the program I am very familiar with using them.

Every project was different from the last. I enjoyed learning new things and new ways to portray what I wanted to come out of it. Everything we designed I loved the task of doing, as a whole this class was a great experience and hope that everyone gets out of this class what I had. In my future my dream is to be part of an amazing marketing team where I can explore, learn and design more things. I will take everything learned from this class into my future. I have just received an internship with After Dark Events working with the marketing department. I am very excited to start working with them and learn many new things. Everything designed in this class will be put into my portfolio to show other future employers so they can get a feel of the things I have worked on.

This class truly helped to open my eyes to things I never thought I would be doing.

merp

At this point in the game everyone is finishing up their project four. I missed one day of class when we all started due to me forgetting I had traffic court (oops) but I was able to think of a concept I wanted my brochure to be on and think of how I wanted to design it. This wasn’t my first time making a brochure so I wasn’t worried about not getting it done in time. I did my brochure on the summer camp I work at in Rochester for kids with disabilities; it’s a place that is near and dear to my heart so it just made sense. I used direct information and pictures from the camp as well as tied in colors from the logo by using the dropper took to pull those out.

So far I have loved everything that I have created. It’s a relaxing and good feeling to love what you do and know that what you have done is done well. I have really enjoyed just making everything from start to finish and having someone beautifully printed out from FedEx and getting good feedback from their employees also.

As I said before I love just being hands on with things and creating things and being creative. It gives me a sense of relaxation to just play around with different software.  I have so much to show from my college career here at Buffalo State and many different things to show future employers which is exciting all in itself since many people can’t show one piece of work that they can truly say they worked hard on and having that show.

do the damn thang

This semester is coming to an end very shortly; with the work on our last projects everything has really come together. I’ve learned a lot about the graphic design process; some people just get it and can instantly create the picture they have in their head and others might need a plan.

When you are designing, whether in real life or in a classroom there is always a criteria that it pointed out. Requirements are a huge deal when designing whether or not you have all the freedom in the world there will always be some things that are always required (could be a logo or a deadline).
For some it helps them to draw everything out and really get a feel of what they might want; they might draft a few ideas before they come up with something they actually want to do. Me personally I just like to jump in and play around with different ideas on the computer because I never know what could happen just from the top of my head.
Deciding the look, font type, colors, wording, pictures, structure, layout all comes in time; I’ve seen many people just rush into that part before they even have come up with a concept (this is a no no).

People need to realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day; you can take your time to create something amazing and something that you and others will truly love. Everyone needs to learn to just relax and stress about thee small things. Everything always comes together in the end.

Last but not least always be creative and have fun with what you are doing; in the end it truly shows what person actually enjoyed what they created.

how Lauren got her creativity back

This class has really broadened my horizons and really brought out my creative side that I haven’t felt since high school. I am learning new techniques and having fun doing it; my head it filled with tons of ideas and things I just want to create and make come to life. My eyes I feel have been opened to seeing new designs around in the world and seeing how beautiful things are and seeing how they were put together and knowing that I could accomplish something like that. There are so many thing that I have never noticed before; I find myself stopping and looking at different things often and try to take things apart and try to figure out how that person designed it.
I have a new found appreciation for all the hard work that goes into everything we see on a daily basis from signs, to magazines, and posters. As a class we all have worked really hard on everything that we have created; not as serious as blood, sweat and tears but some things were harder to overcome then others. We have come a long way from where we all first started off.

To design something you have to have creativity and some heart in what you are trying to produce. Hopefully my designing career is only going up from here and I improve on all my skills that I have learned and will one day create something amazing.

project three

This was my poster for project three. My original idea was to do a poster for the American Diabetes Association; this was going to involve the silhouette of a hand with a blood drop coming out of a finger with facts inside the blood drop. I felt that a lot of people were doing posters on different kinds of illnesses and such so I decided to do something that was not quite like anyone else’s.  I chose to do a pro smoking marijuana poster with a link leading to facts and statistics about it; I figured with the amendment in Colorado and Washington being passed recently it was good timing. I used the silhouette of a girl smoking a bowl with the common red, green, and yellow Rastafarian color background along with the saying “who says I can’t get stoned”.

Each project we do I fall in love with the creative process of it. Once again having the creative freedom to do what I want and have it represent someone that I believe in makes it that much better. My design for this came to me when I was taking a nap actually and made it that much more clear that I should do this when I was smoking with my roommates (real fact, had to put it). I have had my head wrapped around these projects pretty well; it’s a good feeling that you can do something on your own with little to now help.  It’s a powerful feeling to do something you are learning to love more and more every day.

Everything that I put together almost happened by chance; from the text and font type, to placement and everything else (sometimes just playing around with different things something beautiful comes out of it) I feel that if someone was walking by my poster they would definitely stop to look at it.

I feel that the words are really powerful and to the point; “who says I can’t get stoned?” its direct and sticks and makes you want to think about it, like “psh yea who says I can’t!”

mmm project two

For project number two I really enjoyed working on it and having freedom in what I want my topic to be. We were told to write something and find pictures that related or make our own. I am not one for writing down my ideas and the same went with this project, I just let things happen. I knew when I started I wanted to both draw something and use my own pictures. I wanted to do more of an abstract feel with using a minimal amount of words and pictures to paint the picture; everything from then on came together on its own.  I used the chorus from the Kendrick Lamar song “swimming pools” and created my own designs using indesign to represent the words; then I took pictures of myself and what a weekend with me would look like which consisted of working and parting, and the words I used on someone of those pictures were words that related to drinking.

I feel that I did a really well. Obviously there is always new things to learn and what not but I feel that I delivered exactly what was due. I could of probably worked on the lettering more in the text and such but all the pictures and the design work I did I feel came out great and I expressed exactly what I was looking to do. In the end I love what I did and love what I came up with, and it was fun to do. Day by day I learn more about what I am capable and finding a bigger love in being hands on and creating things.