Morgan's New Media Blog

A Digital Sketchbook for New Media 2005-A.

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Tingle's mishap

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InfiniFlower is a company that believes in helping the environment. Whenever you buy a bouquet, we sponsor a tree so it can be planted.

It's not about profits; it's about the future.

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My chosen word was SPRING. I used light green strokes to represent the growth of brand new life. The sqiggly lines represent tangles of plants and weeds. The pink flower was made with a circle, doctored with the scallop tool, followed by "average > both".

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This is my attempt at heavily editing my portrait to create a Psychedelic Art Nouveau image. I think the green/purple combination is a little psychedelicy (is that a word?), and the oval border imitates the Art Nouveau style. The circles around the border are supposed to represent a lava lamp but I’m pretty sure that isn’t conveyed very well.

I really like this style of art and I would like to be more proficient at it; I know my first attempt is kind of a train wreck.

I did a second version with text. I don't care for it much and I spent about 30 minutes trying to fiddle until the text was just right. I finally gave up in a fit of rage. Also, the "A" looks a little... questionable. Ahem.

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I love how the colours featured in this photo are so vibrant. Normally photos of insects are very dull and have a limited colour palette. People generally think of flies as disgusting and annoying but I think the colours in this photo help remind us that there is beauty in all forms of life.

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We learned how to create graphs in Illustrator and changed the bar graphs to depict symbols. I made up all my data because I'm a sneaky sneaky person.

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First off, I'm incredibly sorry about the quality of these pictures. I forgot to grab my camera on my way out the door so I was stuck using the horrendous camera on my hand-me-down iPhone.

Formal Erin Luchia's poster is very easy to read and uses hierarchy effectively. I like how she used the purple in her name to differentiate the word VOTE from the dates/position.

Concept This poster was on a pillar so it's very difficult to read (not to mention the camera on my phone destroyed it). Anyway, I thought the posted was humorous and eye grabbing because of the black and white. Julia Adole took a well-known image and pasted her head onto the body of Marilyn Monroe. The text was stretched and it a little difficult to read at a glance and the hierarchy is muddled. However, if this poster was done properly, I believe it would have been much more effective.

Both Emma Ladouceur's poster is very eye catching because of its brightness and the white border is pleasing because it matches the white text. The grid layout differs from the rest of the campaign posters and avoids cliches (candidate's head and bust in the foreground, university in the background). The hierarchy cleary shows the name, date, and position.

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This is my attempt at using various techniques of hierarchy to make the name of the art show be the most important. My favourite is the top left.

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Using 5"x5" art boards in Illustrator, we rotated and enlarged a letter until it became abstract art. Then we created the same image next to it, using inverted colours.

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We used four 5"x5" magazine cutouts and wikipedia pastes. We were supposed to find a common theme throughout the pictures and then use typography to tie the images together. I chose my magazine clippings at random and this is what I got. I'm not big on fashion and I was totally uninspired by my theme. I did my best, but I do not care for it very much.

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I was browsing the dashboard on my main Tumblr account when I saw someone had posted this image. I thought it was kind of neat that today's class focused on using text to create graphics and this post almost immediately popped up on my dashboard after class ended. I like how the artist used such a simple design (a silhouette of the Trifoce and the Master Sword) and then added text representing the culture of this video game series.

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Today in class we created five perfectly square boxes. We could alter the grayscale, text size, and font, but not shape. I tried to create a well balanced, yet diverse graphic.

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Chapter Questions

Why are rhythm and balance important? Balance anchors elements in space so an image feels complete when the eye views it. Without balance, the eye would wander throughout the graphic searching for a focal point. Rhythm ties an image together with patterns. Without rhythm, the image would appear cluttered and confusing. Balance and rhythm work together to create neat and complete graphics that are pleasing to the eye. Which of the images in the chapter on scale resonated with you, and why? I really liked the photos with the action figures. When I first saw the hooded figure I thought it was a real person. Then, when I saw him on the stairs next to the "giant" shoes, I did a double take and realized what was going on. I think these images resonated with me so much because they show that everything, no matter what it is, needs to be in perspective before the observer can understand it. Context is one of the most valuable things people have and those pictures show just how important it is. If you were creating a design about Fire Safety, what kind of a texture might be appropriate to think about using? I would first use bold, austere textures in the headline to command attention. Fire safety is not something to treat lightly and I believe it is important to unconsciously express how serious it is up front. Throughout the body I would use smaller, unbolded text because I already have the observers' attention. I would be sure to have all the graphics and text in unified boxes with equal negative space between everything. I believe it would create a sense of order - another thing that is important in fire safety.

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Successful Recreation

This was certainly my most challenging recreation! I don't think it's my BEST one - there's a lot of errors now that I look at it, but I am fond of it. My other recreations are rather boring so I didn't want to show them. :)

I didn't make this mark myself - I traded someone for it. My own burn mark turned out terrible!

I created this by using the draw tool to create the shapes and then used the eclipse tool with a gradient to make the burn marks.

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Today the class was asked to create a word in such a way that it represents itself. The options were TENSION, FEAR, and HOPE.

HOPE is not perfect and neither is my representation. It's wobbly and does not have unison, but it is flowing and carefree. I chose a bright colour to signify HOPE's escape, shown by the word leaving its dark double behind.

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This is the pictogram I created for class.