Inspiration for Project 9 - NMED 2005

I almost forgot to incude my inspirations, I hope it is not too late.

I was infulenced by the ironic illustration of this cover and the basic dual complementary color scheme.

Since I chose an article dealing with diminishing natural resources and the environment, I looked up some environmentally conscious publications and I was also pleased by the irony of this cover in respect to the environment.

Because I chose an illustrated cover for my project, I decided not too overwhelm the double-page spread with stock photography, opting instead for some basic color accents, the faucet, and one altered photograph. I like the way the page above has an illustrated image and how it looks slightly more magazine and textbook than newspaper.

Assignment 10-Newspaper Redesign-NMED 2005

I put this project off forever because I was weary about working with so much type again although once I got started, the flow of ideas remained constant. Since I used photos in many of my other assignments, I decided to make my front cover an illustration. The faucet is my primary graphical element because the feature article is about water scarcity. I wanted the background to be a map of Alberta but I had to alter it quite a bit in Photoshop before bringing into Illustrator because I did not want the city names to be confused with the headlines. I lowered the opacity quite a bit so the headlines stand out so I hope now it is not confusing to the eye. I chose no caps in the meliorist logo because it is a student newspaper and no caps implies creativity which a student body should be.

To keep the theme going onto the second page, I added the same faucet but made it smaller and incorporated the color palette of the front cover. Since the water workshop was called "Waves of Change", I used waves in the headline. I found the image of the glass of water on the web and photoshopped the poison symbol on there since the image is relevant to the pull-out quote. I added the quiz because I had extra room. The text on top is relevant to the front cover because I used he same font and drop shadow as I had used in the meliorist logo.

I didn't think I would but I actually really enjoyed this project. I really like working with illustrator and photoshop and am going to miss it over the summer unless I can find a pirated version.

METALHEADS

Metalheads are a broad subculture that encompass a large variety of sub-genres including thrash metal-heads, traditional metal-heads, glam metallers. groove metallers, nu metallers and doom metallers. Since heavy metal music began in the 1970's with bands such as Black Sabbath (shown below), Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, the traditional metallers, often referred to as the "true metallers" were the first to don the fashion (black, leather, wifebeaters, cuffs, tattoos and skulls), grow the hair out (ideally into a mullet!) and show the devil horns with the "Corna" hand gesture. (see above). Metalheads are often mislabled as goths, satanists, dim-witted (think Beavis and Butthead), or punkers but these attritibutes only apply to a few subgenres as there are many extremely intelligent, happy, and non-satanic metalheads who all share the passion of busting out some mean air guitar now and then and rocking out to Metal. Heavy Metal itself is heavy riff-driven music with lots of electric guitar and bass, often very fast (thrash metal), and usually with semi-shouting to screaming vocals.

Over the years, metalheads, like most subcultures, are becoming increasingly harder to define. There are those who listen to the music but reject the image and those who embrace the image but are not really passionate about the music. The imagery portrayed in Metal can be based upon certain interests that metalheads have in common such as horror films, science fiction, occultism, politics, blood and gore imagery, weaponry (e.g. swords, knives, firearms etc) and militaria, fantasy (with particular attention to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien), and Celtic and Nordic culture and mythology. Some metalheads enhance this imagery for show (apparently Alice Cooper is an avowed Christian) and others have either naturally or synthetically disturbed minds. Regardless of the subgenre they belong to, metalheads can be very relatable and likable. I don't know anyone who doesn't make like Wayne and Garth and start headbanging when the heavy part of Bohemian Rhapsody comes on! For more metal fun rent the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey or take the quiz on youthink.com What Heavy Metal Band are you?

Assignment 9 - NMED 2005

I created this poster based on the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The building was desgined by Frank Loyd Wright and although both Guggenheim and Wright died before the building's completion, the result is a clear testiment of Wright's architectural genius.

"The Guggenheim Museum is an embodiment of Wright's attempts to render the inherent plasticity of organic forms in architecture. His inverted ziggurat (a stepped or winding pyramidal temple of Babylonian origin) dispensed with the conventional approach to museum design, which led visitors through a series of interconnected rooms and forced them to retrace their steps when exiting. Instead, Wright whisked people to the top of the building via elevator, proceeding downward at a leisurely pace on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp. The galleries were divided like the membranes in citrus fruit, with self-contained yet interdependent sections. The open rotunda afforded viewers the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on different levels simultaneously. The spiral design recalled a nautilus shell, with continuous spaces flowing freely one into another."
-excerpt taken from http://www.guggenheim.org/the_building.html

I did not intend to go psychedelic with this design but the shape and design of the galleries (the inverted ziggurat) reminded me of Op art and this led me to the final product. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, I just hope it prints out accordingly.

This is the photograph that I based my design upon:

Nmed 2005- Assmt 8

I'm kind-of worried after seeing everyone elses assignment that I took the wrong approach to this assignment. To argue my work however, I did create a design that is clearly inspired by designer Nigel Evan Dennis and he does not really use much typology in his designs. I suppose his works are moreso art pieces than graphic designs in the traditional sense. We have been manipulating images a lot in NMED 1000 and I have been having so much fun with it that I cant seem to stop. I did invest quite a bit of time into this project so I hope it is not a total bust.

Assignment 7 Redone

So I was going to change the font on this as was suggested but every time I tried to do so the clipping mask on the characters got all screwed up and I was not willing to invest a massive amount of time redoing it as Assignment 8 took me a really long time. I hope it is acceptable. I feel as if it meets the assignment requirements better now anyways.

Assignment 7 Final Decision

So this is the final copy I decided to go with. It's a little empty but I think it gets the message across.

Visual Onomatopoeia Nmed 2005

Voila, my two attempts.

This was my second attempt at the assignment. I was much more pleased with it than the first attempt. I felt like it looks better without the feet on top but I added them anyways because I thought maybe it was too empty otherwise although maybe the white space is a good thing?? Let me know if anyone happens to read this.

I don't really like this one. It's not very legible but it definitely looks crammed which is what I was going for although a crammed design is not a very aesthetically pleasing one so it is no wonder why I dont like it.

Assignment 3 Book Life NMED 1000

I had fun doing this project. After doing the collage tutorial in class today, I wish I could have blended my images better in this project and made the design a little more compelling, but one can only do as much as they know how to, right? Overall, I was pleased with the way it printed out although the black ink started to fade quite noticably for some of the pages but it cost me 9 bucks to print so I wasn't about to take it somewhere else and get it done again. Despite the fading, I prefer the overall product of the printed version better than the screen version, mainly because it is bound together and it is just more satisyfing to look at it on paper as opposed to screen. I felt the story was kind-of cheesy, but I got positive feedback regarding it, so I decided to go with it and not be my own worst critic.

The Character of Type - Assmt 6 Nmed 2005

I chose the Futura font after about two hours of looking through fonts on the internet and then realizing that I could not install any at school. I wasn't too disapointed, though, because I had chosen a futuristic sans serif font on the internet aswell so I could still proceed with my original concept. I did a bit of research and found out that Futura was created in the 1920's, during the the boom of post-modern movements in Europe. Futura was used a lot in Bauhaus design so that is why I included those three colored images. The text is an excerpt taken from Marinetti's futurist manifesto. It was interesting because I had no idea that the orginal idea of futurism was so fascist and glorified war. The excerpt I chose speaks of the idolatry of the machine and the desire for an automated human, hence the hand image. Although the manifesto was originally written in Italian, I chose to translate all the text to german since Futura as a font was originally very popular in Germany. I chose to make the layout and most of the elements of the poster quite simple to fit in with this futuristic concept of simple geometric shapes and cold, impersonal, machine-related colors.

Body/Morph Project NMED 1000

This was my first attempt at the 25 Years+ Image. I didn't feel like going crazy with the plastic surgery so basically I just whitened my teeth and the whites of my eyes, used the healing brush, clone stamp and blur tool to omit my zits, freckles and scars, colored my hair a slight modern tint of pink, plucked my eyebrows with the clone stamp and added a futuristic background. I did not age myself because I figured that with the cosmetic surgery available in 2035, aging can be prevented even more effectively than it is now.


Because I did not make any drastic alterations to the 25+ years image, I decided to go the aging route, making this image 45 years in the future. It was the last image that I worked on so it is slightly different than the rest of the group but I attempted to tie it in by having a blue background and using an image in which I am wearing the same outfit and have the same hairstyle. I greyed the hair by desaturating it, and I used another woman's skin with the clone stamp and a low opacity. I used the burn tool around the eyes and to create more veins in the hands as well as accenting the wrinkles of the poncho that I pasted in. I wanted to find a rocking chair or a wheelchair image that I could put behind the figure but could not find one at the right angle within the time I had.


I probably spent the most time on this image. It took me a long time to find the images for the gills and the fins and then blend them with the picture. It also took a longtime to shave the head bald. I could not really find any other underwater images that worked better with the figure so I kept the bubbles but I did center the text and stamped the fish fin pattern on to the pants.

And finally, the Cyborg. As you can see, I kept it quite simplistic. I found a motherboard image to show through the face and I changed the color of the iris' as well as making the pupils red lights. I lengthened the hair and fixed up the facial imperfections. I attached some cords and an eyepiece to the head but felt as if the image was more effective without these added accessories so I cut them. I wanted to include a power button and I found an image of the Buy Now button and so I thought it would add a new element to the image so I stamped it right on the forehead.

Feb 12: Long Time Coming

Well, I haven't written any posts for a while in my blog so I figured I better get on that. This semester has been pretty laid back so far but I think that is because most of my courses get more intense in the second half of the semester but, regardless, it has been kind-of nice. I really like what I am learning in New Media, my only beef with these classes is that I find this area of Uhall (that the computer labs are in) kind-of depressing, it needs some natural light. After a five hour stint in the lab, I feel like busting a move in the parking lot or cartwheeling through the snow after being cooped up for so long. Back to the material though, my cyborg project is pretty much done, I was prepared to hand in what I had last class although I am glad to have the extra time because I am going to redo my Cosmetic Surgery one from scratch because I am not adequately pleased with it and my cyborg one is fairly simplistic but I kind-of like it that way. It was really helpful to have the critique in class and to see other people's projects. There were some really impressive projects and I think I had better buy the optional texts in the bookstore because I want to learn how to use every tool. I wish I could afford to get this software for my computer at home but I'm sure I will one day. I'm excited to design our own websites. I do not find the typography assignments as fun as the color palettes and graphics that we are working on in Nmed 2005 but it is definitely useful and probably the most practical skill that can be applied to the 'real world'. Aside from school, things are decent. I need to move out of my parents house, though, I feel like I've taken a step backward by moving back home at 21 but I guess I'll live it out until the end of the school year and then make the next move. I'm going to Vancouver Island for reading week to visit my sister and some friends so that should be a lot of fun although I don't know how much reading I will be getting in. Well, I think that's enough blogging for today. This picture is kind-of random but I love Halloween so I thought I'd show off my paper mache toad head. I'm going to photoshop a bunch of my pictures and change the background when I get a chance.

TOAD BEATING UP A FAIRY

Typographical Hierarchies

My True Colors - NMED 2005

Typology of Dog

Original Snapshot of my dog Pebbles

After roughly removing the background in Photoshop

Finger-painted rendering with black and white acrylics

Cyber-Pooch!

Assignment #3 Graphic Primitives

Composing with the Camera

Jan 21

When I was in Vancouver last year, I discovered this alley that was kind-of sketchy but had some amazing graffiti.

It has been quite a busy second week back at school, mainly due to the fact that I had to work quite a bit and I have not had an early morning schedule in a while and it takes some getting used to. I am actually enjoying this semester quite a bit, there are no classes that I hate or get extremely bored in and the prof situation is looking good, so far, aswell. I really like learning Photoshop in NMED 1000. I downloaded the trial version onto my laptop and have been playing around with it except there are certain tools that do not work and for some reason, I can only work with grayscale. I do not know if this is because it is a trial version and therefore does not let you play with every function until you buy the software or if there are settings that I can change but have not figured out how to do so yet. I rented AI as partial research for our project and because I have never seen it before. It was pretty entertaining and gave me some ideas. I have yet to finish my camera composing project for NMED 2005 but will trek over to the labs tonight and finish it. I am also taking tome music classes and a psych class so I have a good balance this semester. As far as my personal life goes, my boyfriend moved to Calgary today so I am a little bummed, especially since I dont have a car to go visit him ever but I guess now I will have extra time to focus on other things I have been meaning to do. I went to Snoop Dogg last night and that was interesting. I do not have much else to report this week, hopefully my blog will get more interesting as the semester wears on!

Rectangle/ Golden Mean Assignment for New Media 2005

Data.Body

BIO

My name is Tiffany and I am from Lethbridge. I am 21 years old and outside of school I work (I've been a service industry slave for six years now) and play. The latter involves lazing around and renting TV series, hanging out with my friends and boyfriend, going to pubs, sewing, knitting, designing clothes, hiking, climbing, swimming, dancing, painting, and singing karaoke.

ASPIRATIONS

I chose the University of Lethbridge because it is close and convenient. I can live cheaply with my parents and get discounted tuition as a benefit of my dad being a prof. I chose New Media because I have already changed my major a couple of times (from Kinesiology to English to Fine Arts Multidisciplinary) and I enjoyed the fine arts electives that I took the most and therefore have decided that New Media sounds like a fun and practical fine art to major in. I feel I am fairly competent with computers although I have minimal experience with the software used for New Media. I recieved my diploma in Fashion Design last year from the Pacific Design Academy in Victoria, BC. I really enjoy designing and creating and I think that New Media will satisfy my desire to learn more about design and that my resulting degree will greatly complelement my diploma and open me up to several career options so that I do not have to work as a cashier/waitress/sales associate for the rest of my life. In these courses (New Media 1000 and 2005), I hope that I will learn a lot of practical applications as well as thought-provoking concepts and that I will enjoy New Media so much that I do not end up changing my major yet again.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

I do not have any experience with Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Premiere. I have been taught how to create detailed clothing flats with Adobe Illustrator but my software knowledge ends there.

I have a digital still camera.

FAVORITE SONGS/MP3's

Let Me Be - Xavier Rudd
A Day in the Life - The Beatles
Wildcat - Ratatat
Paper Bag - Fiona Apple
Rough Gem - Islands
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Karma Payment Plan - Modest Mouse
Radiohead - Idioteque
Emotion Sickness - Silverchair
Sublime - Badfish

MOST FREQUENTLY VISITED WEBSITES

www.uleth.ca
www.hotmail.com
www.royalbank.com
www.myspace.com
www.ebay.ca

FAVORITE FILMS

Aladdin
Memento
Zoolander
The Riverwild

FAVORITE BOOKS

Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
Invitation to the Game - Monica Hughes
Rule of the Bone - Russell Banks

FAVORITE MAGAZINES

Nylon
Vogue
National Geographic