The second time with Medium was helpful just like first time. Josiah Roe and Becca Reese had a presentation about web design process with their own examples. They pointed out the importance of sketching and grid system for wireframe process. Also, they talked about user path and how important it is for the designers to think on the users’ side. The examples were helpful and it was great to hear from them. Thank you for coming to teach us! :]
After Web Media class, the class headed to local printing company Allegra. Allegra is a small commercial shop that target medium to large businesses. They are the first printer in Chattanooga who adopted digital printing and sheet fed style printing. I was fascinated by all the things they can do in the shop. They offer design service as well as printing with various options. After the tour was finished, they gave us awesome water bottle, stickers (die cut!), and personalized memo pad. It was unexpected yet nice surprise. All the employees greeted us with smile and we learned a lot from them. Thank you!
Photos by T.J. Bowman.
Poster – Front
Poster – Back
Post Card – Front
e-Blast
Web mock up
Since Leslie had to leave for the WE Rock tour (yes. My teacher is a rock start. :] ), we got a chance to learn from local professionals. Today, we had George Bairaktaris, Alex Ogle, and Mat Turner. George and Alex are from Tubatomic [http://www.tubatomic.com/] and Mat is from Medium [http://thisismedium.com/].
They talked about their career and web design industry in general. The talk last about two hours but I learned few important things in that short amount of time.
Mat talked about his experience as a freelance designer and it was not a quite exciting job for him. He said good organizing skill is definitely required to work by yourself. Working as freelance designer could be great if you can manage well time, money, client, and many other elements. I always had this dream of working as a freelance designer but after hearing Mat I realized I should think more deeply about it. Maybe I can be an independent designer after I establish experience but for near future I think I will hold that thought.
Another thing that I learned from these guys is that I REALLY need to develop tech skills for photoshop, illustrator, and many other applications. I do not want to be someone who get hired and then cannot do my task because I don’t know much about those applications.
Last but not least, they pointed out very important things that we should do:
1. Trust yourself
2. Don’t limit yourself
3. Pay attention to detail. Always.
I want to thank to George, Alex, and Mat who took their precious time for UTC graphic design students. Thank you!!! :]
It’s an inside joke for designers. Batman saves Gotham from Comic Sans. [Please look at the movie credit. You will see 'Comic Sans as The Joker.']
The purpose of this project was using typography to create a movie poster. I was not sure where I needed to start but then there it was….my favorite typeface, Gotham. I immediately started to connect Gotham (typeface) and the Gotham City in the Batman movies.
Constructing the Batman figure in the poster was the hardest thing because I have never used typeface to build an image. I definitely needed to take a look at each letter and its form. Some letters were pointy and some were boxy. Having that in my mind, I started to build the figure from wings which had pointy ends. I used ‘N’ and ‘A’ for the pointy ends. I used wings as a basic structure and started to add more letters to it. It took me a while to finish the poster but it was an interesting experiment.
[side note- the hardest part of all was stretching the letters. I was not comfortable with stretching my lovely Gothams..]
My very first online conference was interesting. I, honestly, had a doubt on the format of the conference but as I listened to the speakers I realized it was just an apprehension. All the speakers did great job and I learned a lot from them.
The one who stood out most was Dan Rubin. The topic he had was most interesting to me since it was directly related to my web design class. He used example for each small subject and that kept me interested entire time during his presentation.
First few slides were something that I was already familiar with. Using grid, typeface, texture, and pattern were just same as designing prints. BUT! One additional thing that should be considered for interface design (or web design in general) is interaction with the users. I learned that I have to have the users in mind all the time even before the design process take place. Typeface should be legible for the users and grid and overall format should fit in the monitor setting so that the viewers have less trouble approaching the website. Most of all, the interface should be welcoming and user friendly. After all, web designers make website for people to use. There was a quote from one of his slides and it was like this; Invite people to touch your interface. I agree 100% with him and I am glad that I got a chance to think about my future users.
Kelly Goto was a great speaker. She had some technical difficulties but she pulled it off so well that nobody lost interest during her speech. I learned that I need to be a innovative thinker and need to have good work flow to be unstuck. When she mentioned about ‘facebook distraction’ I could not hold my face up because that how I always ended up being sidetracked. Also, I realized I need to think differently about myself and my work. Goto’s suggested a way to help me to work more efficiently; think positive even when I get stuck. After her presentation, I stopped checking facebook when I work and I also started to think positive way about my work.
I gained a lot from this conference. I deeply appreciate each speakers’ great presentation.
On September 17, UT Chattanooga graphic design majors will attend online conference The DIY Summit. It will be a great chance for us to absorb more web and design related knowledges outside of class. Matt Harris is one of the nine speakers and he will talk about popular blog website WordPress. Matt Harris will talk about how to manage the content in WordPress and how to plugin into this popular blogging website which has special features such as customizing options.
He is a web developer who works on IT system and network administration of schools and companies. He works with CSS, HTML, Python, and PHP. He likes to promote web standards and shares it with the schools that he works with. He is currently with a company named Tokofu in Hampshire, UK.
-will continue soon.
from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffharrison/
I thought this one is very successful logo. It is a great combination of a ring, which represents wedding, and a camera aperture. The logo is very simple yet it represents the concept well.
The handwritten type goes well with the concept of children’s museum. The hand in the logo indicate that the museum include ‘hand on’ exhibition for children. Also, scribbled tree shape is kid friendly. This logo definitely speaks to children.
www.hrgigermuseum.com/
11×17; Gotham
The purpose of this project was to improve a existing calendar which was very hard to read. There were several different way to approach this project but I decided to stick with traditional calendar form because the viewers are already familiar with it. After all, the Cadek lesson schedule is for children and parents who are busy keeping up with their daily schedule. I did not want them to put extra time to figure out their lesson time. ‘Straight forward in short time’ was my solution.
I put holidays bottom of the calendar and used bold numbers to bring more attention. Since Hamilton county schools’ academic calendar and UTC’s calendar are different, I thought holidays needed to be stand out. Scholarship info is also attached on the bottom of the calendar along with the holidays. I did not want them to miss the good scholarship opportunity.
On the colored schedule, I introduced a simple spiral form. I personally did not want to add complicated from since the calendar was visually heavy with a lot of text and numbers. The spiral shape added elegant feeling to the poster and I think the dark color cooperated well with the shape. Also, the negative space between the title works as breathing space.
BUT!!!! [tan tan taaaaahhh!!!]
the text was too small to read on the final print which I did not find out until the day of final class critique. Thin typeface [Gotham; ultra light] was bled in to the background. If I just simple changed the scale of the calendar the problem would’ve been solved right away.
Overall, I think the problem had solved well . It was a great chance to think about relationship between the users and the object.
