My life as a college junior

I ended up making this for one of my college classes, but after that specific class is over, I think I'll have some fun with it!

[famm95]

Halftones/Duotones/Glitches

Halftones: Halftones are all about the dots. The point of halftoning is to create an effect on an image and if the dots are big and close together, the image will have a darker feel. If the dots are smaller and farther apart, the image will appear lighter and more detailed. A lot of people use halftones for screen printing work. http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/multiple-methods-to-halftone-images-in-adobe-photoshop

 Duotones: Duotone is grouped in with tritone and quadtone. Each are similar, but duotone refers to turning an image to grayscale and then applying only two colors to that image. The two colors can be tweaked to how the user wants the image to look, and then when it’s printed, the image shows those two colors and nothing else. Some of the common colors that get used are spot colors, such as Pantone Solid Uncoated. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/duotones.html

 Dithering: This one was a bit tricky to find. Dithering can be used two different ways in Photoshop. The first is selecting a dither option when creating a gradient, so that the gradient is smoother and has less bands. The second is “…the process of using two colors to simulate the shade of a third color by placing dots of the two colors close together. The application using the dithering process can use several strategies of placing the dots over the region showing the third color”. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/dithering-photoshop-45674.html

 Halftone Aesthetic: A big part of halftoning is to create an effect where images or posters look retro or vintage like, even in the 21st century of technology. This site not only offers free patterns, but he also explains how to use them in various projects. http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/freebies/free-pack-of-12-distressed-halftone-pattern-textures

 Glitch Aesthetic: Glitch art is when digital or analogue errors, like ‘snowy images’ or rainbow pixels get aesthetized. People can create this by physically changing code, or can simulate it with Photoshop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLf2TXNyvV8

 I think that all these effects can relate to one another, because they’re all forms of photo manipulation, but overall I think that they’re different because they all have different purposes.

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Identity Standards/Style Guide

Style guides, sometimes called style sheets, are instructions that use style and serve to maintain or improve communication. This ensures that everything is consistent no matter who is using the document. If someone were to make their own style guide, they would have to include all important information such as guidelines that tell future viewers of the document how to use the specific colors and typography if they wanted to use a certain logo for marketing purposes. You should also include examples of what shouldn’t be used in any future logo uses, because that shows that the company that created the style guide is proud of their identity and it comes with strict rules if the ‘common people’ wanted to use it as well. Style guides are beneficial because they allow for easy repetition for companies to keep recreating their brands on multiple platforms.

 The first style guide that I looked at was Instagram’s. Their rules and regulations aren’t as strict sounding as some of the others that I came across. Instagram states that if you want to use them for marketing purposes, you can’t “use the Instagram brand in a way that implies partnership, sponsorship or endorsement”. And if you want to use their logo for anything, you have to get the logo from them, and not from anywhere else.

The second one I looked at was for Twitter. Twitter’s identity standards included segments on color, typography, and the actual shape of the bird from their logo. They describe how the logo should look, no matter what platform it’s on. When it comes to typography, the only font family they use is Gotham, because they describe it as “ elegant and approachable”.

The third logo branding I looked was Disney. I found this one to be the strictest of all. But that’s a good thing. Disney needs to protect their logo and their identity. If you want to use something Disney related for your own purposes, you have to use your own fonts. You can’t use their trademarked “Disney font” for any purposes. Even fonts that look similar to anything that Disney has trademarked can’t be used. Lastly, “ The use of Disney-related clip art, illustrations, cartoons or other graphic elements not found on DisneyCopyright.com is prohibited”. 

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Intake Forms

Intake forms are used to gather information from someone, whether it’s a new patient at a doctor’s office, or a client that needs some sort of design work done. These forms can provide useful information to the person that needs said info, but only if the design of the form allows for the information to be gathered. 

If I were to make my own form, I would make sure that all the lines for writing on are an appropriate length, because some email addresses can be longer than normal.

Another thing that would be important to have on an intake form would be a font choice that is neutral enough to use for all future forms even if they’re for different people.

The same with colors. If there will be colors on an intake form, they also need to be neutral enough to repeat in the future. If there aren’t any colors at all, then I wouldn’t need to worry about it.

A section on the form that would be really important are any objectives that the client wishes the design work to portray. Or a patient to write down why they are there to see the doctor. 

I would also include any kind of contact information sections. Phone numbers for work and home, email address and maybe even the physical address where the person lives, if the design work has to get mailed for any reason.

 Intake forms used in the classroom need to have all possible/prospective due dates on them. I personally like to have a concrete form where I can see the dates for different assignments. 

Classroom intake forms also need to be on Canvas as well. If I lost it, or if any other kid lost their’s then we have a way to get another copy ourselves, instead of asking the teacher for a new one.

Another important area for classroom forms would be a section detailing all the smaller information such as the naming scheme for files and folders, the amount of points that the assignment is worth, and what the criteria for grading is. All of these items would be repeated on any other assignment form, they would just be tweaked a little bit to fit with that particular assignment.

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Naming Conventions

The one website that really spoke to me about how to organize lots and lots of files was the one about how to organize said files into folders (http://www.damlearningcenter.com/resources/articles/best-practices-for-folder-organization/). I love folders a lot. And this website gave lots of good ideas for how to name and organize the folders.

One of the tips the website gave was to avoid “floating”. If a person puts an underscore (_) in the front of the folder’s name, that folder will “float” to the top of the list. But if someone else were to access the file system, they wouldn’t find the folder they were looking for because it wouldn’t be in the proper alphabetical location.

Another tip was to completely start over with a fresh folder naming system if the one someone has is too complex or disorganized. That way, once everything is in its proper location, they won’t be searching longer than they have to for a single document in a folder somewhere.

This next website (http://www.digicamguides.com/store/file-naming.html) is all about how to name photo files. The author suggests that a person names their photo files after they transfer them from the camera card to the computer. After all the photos are visible on the computer, they can rename the files, one at a time, until everything is in a cohesive order that makes sense to the person who took the pictures.

I structure my own folders by alphabetical order. What I type in is how the folders will stay, until I decide to rename them. The photo included is an example of one of my folder pathways.

[famm95]

No Longer Controlled By You

I read an article recently (go here), and it was a story about a young lady, only a few years younger than myself, who wrote an open letter to her verbally and mentally abusive ex-boyfriend. Any type of abuse is horrible, and no one should have to endure that in a relationship that's supposed to be loving, a relationship that's supposed to have mutual respect for both individuals in said relationship. This brave soul, who's also super adorable, has inspired me to write an open letter of my own. 

You never treated your mother very nicely, at all, and whenever you got into arguments with her I'd always feel uncomfortable and tried to go into another room to avoid hearing all the f-bombs you said to her.

You got so angry at me for not having enough money to pay for movie tickets and food that you punched your steering wheel repeatedly. This was our first date.

You were never really concerned whenever I had a panic attack and all you told me was to 'get it together' or something like that.

You would always complain to me that I never cleaned the apartment enough, so I always made it a point to tell you what I had cleaned that day when you got off work.

You didn't seem that worried when I had to go to the ER and when I got back to the apartment after being released, you asked one question and then continued playing your computer games.

You got annoyed with me when I asked you if you had watched porn even though you were in a relationship with me. So I never brought it up again.

You told me to my face multiple times that I was lazy and that I was a sheep instead of a shepherd.

You always got physically and scarily angry for the stupidest things. Losing a game on your kindle and you throw it on the floor. Dropping a plate full of eggs and you head butt the wall.

You would never let me sing in the car, or anywhere, so I just stayed quiet most of the time.

You always laughed when your pet duck bit me and left bruises or made me bleed.

You were a large part of why one of my treasured family vacations was such a wreck, and I was the other large part.

When I was home with my parents during a small weekend during the summer, my mom made me laugh really hard and I told her "Wow, I haven't laughed this much in a long time". And then I realized that you were the cause of my lack of laughter.

When I finally came to my senses and realized that you were a toxic thing that I needed to get out of my life, I asked my parents for help. We drove to your apartment and packed up everything I owned and I left you a break-up letter.

You called me a coward. But I felt empowered by my choices.

Without you I had a wonderful summer. I signed a lease for my own apartment. I had a great family vacation. I got a tattoo. I got highlights. I got my permit. I got my first car.

Without you I felt less stressful and I slept really good. I wasn't surrounded by a really smelly apartment. I did more photography. I had my birthday with people who actually cared.

Without you I felt more confident.