I'M DONE!!!

HERE WE GO: http://ramsites.net/~willsea/

I have finished my website. The finished product's link is above. I am so happy with it! Everything I hoped to include in the site is there.  The colors, the texture, all my artwork. I took everyone's comments the other day in class and switched things up a bit. 

On the About Me page, I made it a little less "busy." I got rid of a few of the images that I was using as inspiration pictures. I really enjoyed them, but they just didn't have a place on the website. I think that if I ever go back and work on the site then I may include  inspiration and contact pages. I backed the information on the About Me page with pink and changed the font to a more readable text.  I think it looks a lot simpler and better now.

I also fixed up the guestbook page! I really enjoy this one, the vintage postcard went really well with the theme of my website.  I even made a stamp, repeating my home-page image on the postcard. I linked a free guestbook page on the postcard as well.  

After slicing up all of my pages, I had a lot of trouble linking them all together, but that was because I couldn't recall any of the steps in the right order or with the correct information. After frantically trying to read tutorials and decipher my notes, I went to the computer lab and received Gerry's help. Everything worked out and I love the final website! I'm definitely going to keep this up and use it as references on resumes and other important papers.

The Guestbook Pageeee

The Portfolio Page

BENDING OVER (like in yoga) to give this critiqueeee

I LOVE CLEVER ADVERTISEMENTS! 

They are so adorable and eye-catching. Yes yes yes, this may be the lack of sleep talking, but I really would love to receive that straw. I would drink out of it AND I would think of going to the Y. Really, I would think about it.

The body is positioned on the straw in the area where it would normally bend. It is there to show the flexibility of the body, especially perfect for advertising a yoga center. Of course, this bending over backwards seems a bit extreme, not something everyone could do. This could be a subconscious message to the viewer- "The Y will bend over backwards for you," or "We will teach you how to do this... or something pretty similar." How convenient, the straw would be placed right near something you would eat or drink. This is promoting a healthier life style. Starting with what hits us hardest- our diets.

The colors are simple. Black, white, skin tone. Nothing stands out too much, the girl's body does enough. The text's font is very clear, and sharp, not too bold. It attracts just enough attention, after looking at the body. All capitol letters, eh, is okay, but it makes the Yoga Center a bit more outgoing.  

Simple and too the point. Good job, YOGA CENTER! 

Yoga!

Weekend Update with, Betsy Wills

Okay, so I have done a few of the pages of my website and have uploaded a couple to this blog.  I'm really happy with everything that I have done so far. I love the color choices. Everything is pretty subtle. 

The only thing that I am not sure of is the alignment. I wanted to keep it all right aligned, but after showing my roommate, she said that it was too confusing.  So, because of this, I returned the alignment to the left side. I think that the About Me section is now easier to read, especially with breaks between every few sections of text. I'm not sure if I should back the writing as well. I have tried and it looks to "block-y" and I really enjoyed the natural flow of all the elements. 

I was also unsure of the spacing between my inspiration pictures on the About Me section. Is there too much room? 

These are just subtle changes that I keep going over and over. Everything else is going really well. I just took a lot of new images of my artwork and am currently updating them in Photoshop.  Once I put those with the other images on my portfolio page, I will be in really good shape. Tuesday's class should be full of more updates, I'm sure! And questions!

The About Me

Website Update

I've finished my home page! I really enjoy how I put this together. I wanted to include subtle colors, floral elements, texture, and handwritten fonts.  I pretty much changed everything that I had decided upon before. I'm currently working on collecting images of all of my work and placing them in an organized composition. I am continuing the same background, font, and color choices. I'll update again once things look good!

UPDATE!!

Allright, I have decided to intensely read every tutorial and blog there is available on the internet on how to make a website. Or maybe on how to use Photoshop. My website ideas are going great, but once I bring all my stuff into Photoshop, nothing is working! I just have to read about how to use things, no big worry.

On to other things- I love all of my sketches and they are helping out so much when I play around in Photoshop. Its nice to have something to look over rather than a blank screen.  I made the flower that I plan to use on each of my pages in Illustrator.  I like it, but I am not sure if I positively want to use it. I may use a real image that I recently took. 

I want each of my pages to be really simple and not have a lot of places for your eye to wander to. On all of the websites that I have gone to in the past, a non-busy home page was what got me. I like to have a familiar idea on each page that you travel to because then it appears to be more cohesive and organized. I think I will change my layout to the rule of thirds. I didn't realize I was putting everything halfway! Yikes! 

..Crit time.

Okay, I have been craving cereal all morning and by no means do I like Kix, but for some reason my eye was drawn to their boxes when I looked  up cereal online. 

I really like the vintage Kix box the most! It offers minimal information and leads you straight to the point. KIX. The orange color captures your attention. The dark blue color of the font is complimentary and works well with the orange.  The font itself is playful; the big bubble letters, reminiscent of cards I made in the 4th grade. "Corn" of course in cursive. I think this is playing more towards parent's eye. Kids don't exactly know how to read cursive yet; it is the healthy information and not necessarily something that the producers want to stand out (for sugar-craving little children, at least).  The logo and a promotion is kept simple with muted colors and inconspicuous locale. 

The next Kix cereal box contains an image!! Now the buyer can see what they are getting. You know that the producers of this cereal box are playing toward healthiness and appealing to the eye. Not everyone is going to be attracted to a bowl of little yellow, starchy-looking balls, but throw some strawberries in there, and you've got a real meal! The yellow of the box is still bright and brings you in to read. The font is still playful but much larger! The text takes up two thirds of the cover, leaving little white space. the alignment in the first box was all left-sided and here it is all to the center. I think it creates something soft, boring, and unappealing. Its barely a step-up from the last box. 

Finally, the most modern of them all! How much have these boxes changed over time? A TON! Arrangement of all the elements are jumbled. Kix is slanted across the box in huge, uppercase letters. It looks prominent and semi-kid friendly. I don't understand why the text is moving diagonally, it is doing nothing to help but add a little more movement for the eyes. The image is much more updated, the food looks crunchy, colorful, and.... good. The milk coming up at the sides of the bowl gives it a more lively feel. General Mills offers their logo for Kix on every box, "Kid tested, mother approved!" Here it is much more pronounced on this box with a red background. This feels more like an advertisement than a product box. It will attract children with the bright colors and mothers with the "no preservatives...." information. Oh, how times change.

KIX! I Really want cereal.

Background

I want to use this image as a background for my website. I am going to make a flower shape in Illustrator and use this creation as well as my background in each of the pages. Each will be one of the following- home, about me, portfolio, and contact. 

Design Ideas for my Website

Update

I have been collecting images that I would like to include in my personal website. I have uploaded a few from each category that hopefully will become each separate page of my website once I learn all of the basics.  I have also chosen my text fonts and color choices.  My next step is to find 3-D surfaces and items to scan in to use as background material.  I also want to use one common element that is the same on each page, which is the next main concern of mine.

Artwork

Family, Friends

Inspiration 2

Inspiration

WEBSITE IDEAS

Vroomm..

When making our logos and art show advertisement posters, Gerry always said to make sure that it will stick out in a newspaper. Granted, most newspapers are black and white, so our grayscale requirement made this a slightly different case, but how creative is this advertisement? Pretty eye-catching, eh?

I don't know what any of the text is saying because it is in Spanish, but I can imagine that it is something of cleverness and car-salesman swagger.  

The image is pushing into other editorials. It is showing strength, power enough to push other competition out of the water.  There is no need for an eye-catching phrase! The car alone does this for you. Though tiny in the newspaper, and probably pretty compact in real life, you don't receive this impression early on. 

The color red attracts your eye even more.  On a page where everything is black, white, gray or blue (which naturally always stands in the background) the red car pops! Just as on a highway, you see the red car in your rearview mirror; cops see the red cars. Other's blend in. This is appealing to the extrovert. You want attention, you'll get it with this car. Its already causing a ruckus in the newspaper!

The text is simple, to the point. They aren't overdoing it with extra fluff. "This is the car. This is what it does." The information is near the car, so that you eyes will naturally graze over the price and "important" stuff when you're done with the fancy image. But what appears to be the slogan of the campaign is aligned in an interesting way. It looks as if it is trying to be the smoke coming from the exhaust. Even more playing up the fact of speed. 

MORE HTML!!!

I could really go for some strawberries right now.

don't they look good?
wanna see more? go here!

You know how some stores ask for your e-mail when you are checking out? I never like giving mine away so I've grown accustomed to providing my friend, Anna's. She had no idea why she kept being put on various mailing lists. I thought this was hilarious until I started getting a weekly newsletter from Toys R Us.
Have fun!

One. This is the first cell. Top Left.	Two. This is the second cell. Top Right.
Three. This is the third cell. Bottom Left.	Four. This is the fourth cell. Bottom Right.

table time.

Mozilla

Safari

Other

Pepperoni PizzaCheeseburgerClub Sandwich



If you liked all my examples, tell me so!

Gary's Critique.

I thought that I would choose a short movie to critique after last week's presentations.  Especially after making a movie of my own, I can only imagine how much work was put into this. I thought filming my roommate, putting together clips, and adding jingles in the background was difficult.  

Here, the artist named Gary, made a short animation film.  It had gotten a number of hits while it has been uploaded to the internet so far.  The capture is a classic scene from the movie.  It shows a sneak preview into the world of Gary. Will this be about love? What do the semi-warm colors suggest? His gigantic frame to her tiny stature? 

It opens to a little boy, Gary, fantasizing about what seems to be his babysitter.  He wishes to just kiss her after watching her giggle and galavant around the backyard in a bikini.  Here the colors of the animation are warm; you feel emotion towards both characters.  You want Gary to win.  Gary returns to his room to show off his shadow muscles and proceeds to make a teenager version of himself, in hope that it will come alive. Here he is shown in blacks and reds. This shows lots of emotion- black (the shadow, what he wishes to be, his inner desire) and the red (a yearning, compassion) 

The shadow becomes real! The older Gary is kissing the babysitter!! Little Gary wishes it was him as he watches from a tall tree.  Things get rough.  Little Gary is dropped from the tree into the babysitters long, red hair which is shown as water, an ocean.  Gary struggles to swim to the surface.  When he comes up, he sees struggling and tries to stop Big Gary from causing a ruckus. Big Gary eats little Gary and he is stuck in a black hole of himself.  He isnt struggling anymore (the water) just dealing with the consequences of the monster that he created. 

Gary pushes and pushes and finally is released free from Big Gary.  Big Gary begins to disintegrate into blackness in a red night sky. His eyes are red- this suggests that Big Gary was evil.  Telling us the theme of the film- the desires may always get the best of us and if you do not keep yourself in check, you may turn into a monster. (In the simplest of terms, ever.) the movie ends with Little Gary returning to his old self with warm colors and friendly faces playing in the summer heat.

I think that this animation is very well made!! I can only imagine the skill and time that it took. I assume that illustratoror flash software was used.  The shading and color choices were excellent in setting the mood of the piece.  The personification of shadows, hair, etc. made it ten times more exciting! I even enjoyed the credits and the opening title page. They were very simple yet used repetition of images, font and color to bring about out the continuity of the film. I also really liked the audio clips. It was difficult for me to make such decisions, and I feel like each of the clips in here were on point.

Gary

Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

HTML stufffff

Here, this is bold!
Now, it is purple and big!

My name is Betsy. I like flowers. That's a joke! But, really, how were you _supposed to know ^that?

I always thought that it would be really cool to
be a writer! I would lock myself in a room overlooking a park for hours upon hours and write novels that were like giant fairytales.

But dreams CHANGE . Just like a lot of things. Now I am a Craft and ArtEd major! Who knew!
I also wanted to be an engineer/math teacher/dolphin trainer!

On another note, I like when advertisements are forced to the right.
Doesn't it just look better?

• My favorite color is purple.

• I like sleeping in.

• I WOULD REALLY LIKE A NAP RIGHT NOW!

Podcast Demo

Without Heinz

I love humorous advertisements! Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yum, yum, yum, but not in this advertisement.  Here, the common first meal of the day is shown as bland as ever.  Literally as boring as a piece of cardboard.  It is lacking everything from vibrant color to its customary, lively (and tasty) looking shape. 

Each element in this ad is neutral toned. Ranging from grays to whites to brown, it is, for the lack of a better word, BORING. It is set up in a conventional manner.  Plate, fork, knife; everything is ready for a real meal. The table is just lacking the main attraction- real food. 

Heinz did a great job with this advertisement. Immediately you wonder, "Why is this fake food? Why does everything look so blah? Why does everything look so normal but so not real!?" 

Simple and to the point.  Without Heinz, this is what you are eating.  The text and tiny image of the Heinz product speak.  Everything is center aligned here, but it works.  Your eye is drawn from the table setting downward to the bright red. Though the important elements are tiny, they are immediately understandable.  The usual font used for the Heinz product is introduced, "WITHOUT." And the color! Red always attracts attention and here it is doing no less.  The contrast is used to its full potential... "Go big or go home."

EVERYTHING about this ad is boring to the max, but once the ketchup bottle is shown, energy flies out the roof! Your meal will be amazing! Your food will taste ten.. no, a million times better then a crummy piece of cardboard bacon! (It will actually be edible.) Proximity is playing some key points as well.  Boring, blah colors stick together. Red! exciting tones bring life to a meal.

New and Improved.

Nutru-Grain

That's different, right? It seems that so many products are changing their packaging and labels. Its crazy!

I kind of like this new box.  I feel that it could still use some work, but overall, I think it gives a fresh kick to a semi-bland product.  

As common as it may be, I love when the flavor is advertised via color choices.  Obviously, this flavor is apple.  Here, I just see sour, maybe the lime green hue is doing that to me. 

The composition is okay in my eyes.  I think its hard to use angles but here it is so subtle that it doesn't look bad.  The different shades/boxes of green allow the information to be separated and therefore more easy to read.  The text is simple and easy on the eyes.  Nothing is blaring about this box, except for that sticker.  I don't like it.  I do not think that it "fits" at all It just looks like an afterthought, throw on the front to capture attention. And it does, but I don't even care to read it so its not that useful. 

The images are nice and repetitive.  The bar with green filling... the bright green apple. The dew drops add to the freshness of the product.  There isn't that much contrast, but I don't think that that is hurting the ad.  In conclusion, I want a nutri-grain bar. ASAP.

PEPSI.

I love this advertisement… my eye must be drawn to Pepsi products, though I hate soda.

The large fingers frame the tiny ice cube tray. You immediately wonder, why is this tray so small? Or, why are these fingers so big? Pepsi does a great job showing contrast in size. Like in the Non-Designer’s Design Book, “Go big or go home.” In this case, Pepsi isn’t a wimp. The giant -like fingers crack the tray and let the allow the baby ice cubes a chance to gather the viewer’s attention. But why?

Your eye finally travels to the bottom right corner of the advertisement. Pepsi uses their text-logo to show what product the ad is marketing and then provides a visual image of the new can. The new “mini can,” specifically is written in all lower case letters, to even further the idea of small, compact, miniature.

There is a repetition of fonts- Pepsi uses a specific font whenever they type their product name. They also use a repetition of color. When used over and over again, that common blue becomes associated with the soda. Using it in the background is repetitive and purposeful. All text is also aligned to the right, creating an organized and simple layout.

Newspaper Advertisement

mini-Cans!

...Actual Final Logo

New final logo!

the CAN

Decision is............

            To begin this project, I followed the advice from the reading earlier this week; I wrote down multiple lists of words that had to do with my school of choice.  My school was Battlefield Elementary School, home of the soldiers!  Our colors were red and white.  I decided to list and use other words such as stars, stripes, and the color blue to just play up the “America” feel of the soldier.  Our logo was an extremely pixilated image of a soldier in black and white.  I redrew him in my sketches making him a little bit more playful, adding height, color, and somewhat of a smirk.  In a lot of my designs I wanted to incorporate the letter B for Battlefield.  I think I used all of my elements pretty successfully.  I choose my first listed logo because I think that the soldier is highlighted in the oval nicely and the other elements only add little pieces of flair.  It flows well together.  I would like to go back and fine-tune it a bit though.  I also really like the third one; if I were to go back and make the letter B 3-D then I think it would be more successful.  Overall, I just used the line, arc, shape, and fill tools.  Illustrator was very hard to figure out, so I stayed with the simple tools.  

4 Finals

8 Sketches

This is Battlefield Elementary School's Logo

A Soldier

Learning Illustrator

RE-Do

I decided to add some more doodles in the car window and darken the letter on the left side of the image.  

02.15.09

I love advertisements that give life to inanimate objects; their eye-catching charm always leaves you wanting more.  In this ad, Pepsi ‘oh so nonchalantly’ claims that a red and easily recognizable cola beverage is not as appealing as Pepsi.  The straws are each diving into the can for a sip, but the straw on the right is given hands that are forcing itself away from the opening.  The opening of the straw is made to look like a frightened mouth. How clever.

The repetition of the soda cans, straws, and actions are evident. The label from the cola product is notably taken out in order to not send consumers in the wrong direction; only Pepsi is noted. It is product placement at its best.  The tiny Pepsi logo in the bottom right is one of the last things that your eye grazes over; even more reinforcement thanks to the proximity rule. All of the lines are parallel to each other (straws, sides of can) showing alignment.  The left straw’s animation is vastly contrasting the right straw’s still action.  The background is blue, once again subtly referencing the Pepsi product.

Oh Pepsi...

Final Self-Portrait

Here it is, my self-portrait.  I tried to incorporate a lot of day to day activities, ideas, emotions, inspirations, and thoughts. It probably won't be understandable to everyone or anyone, but I think it displays me as a person pretty well.

Digital Self-Portrait

Marta Mattsson

Here is Marta Mattsson's self-portrait. She is a jeweler from Stockholm, Sweden. Mattsson attempts to integrate biology and art into each of her pieces.

This portrait depicts her wearing a piece of her own jewelry- a necklace made of eels. Her current project draws inspiration from wearing your fear. She is investigating whether making your fear part of your attire may possibly reduce the phobia. She has interviewed seven others and has created a jewelry piece for each.

Mattsson’s nude back presents a blank canvas for not only her piece of jewelry to stand out upon but as a projection of her fear. Nothing exists there to retain it. The ocean setting in the background enforces the natural eel environment. Marta placed herself in a locaton fit for her demised sea creature.

This photograph brings about emotion. Immediately upon looking at it, you sense something, a fear radiates from her eyes. Mattsson doesn’t show a sense of relief or contentedness with her situation. You can feel the intensity through her body movement; her muscles appear to be tense. Though all of this stands to be true, Marta seems at peace.

The black and white creates drama. The eel’s dark tones bring about great contrast to the gracefulness of Mattsson’s pale skin. The gray-scale background draws little attention, plays to the content matter, and acts purposeful to subtly outlining the importance of the image. Using the rule of thirds, Mattsson’s eyes hold the viewer 2/3’s of the way up the page and the bottom 1/3 is greatly focused on the eel's black bodies.

I think the concept behind Mattsson’s work is courageous and inspired. I enjoy the dramatic tones and subtle uses of props to enforce her ideas. I hope to bring honesty like Mattsson’s into my work.

EWW

Forged Business Card

I'm not sure if this screams perfect C.R.A.P., but it caught my eye among other business cards. I, for one, have never seen a card made of copper and especially for a fine artist, a piece like this does scream, "this is what I do." Is there any better way to put yourself out in the business world? Lately I have been working in forged metals; I just finished a spoon and I know that work like this is tedious. I have never successfully hammered in a straight line, it is difficult to find the control. So although these text lines are crooked, the piece is given more character. The majority of the alignment is left marginalized- the important information, who, what, where, how. The bottom right design creates a focus on the artist's craftsmanship. The hammer blows, patina, and rugged edge also create contrast. The text and design's colors are darkened, made important to the viewer. All text is kept in the same region of the card- the top left. The image in the bottom right is greatly emphasized, and find that to be a success of this piece. After-all, this is beckoning creative forgers and it is best to show off your skill and technique where need be.

The Talker

Here is my first time using a tablet. Dana was my subject. Pretty decent, eh?

The Cookie Monster

My roommate Liz is in love with cookies. Every night after she eats her dinner, she undoubtedly opens up the refrigerator and breaks out our packet of cookie dough. Obviously, she (and her actions) is what inspired my photo essay.  I decided to follow her throughout the process of "cookie making." I attempted to get some interesting angles (ex. standing on my kitchen counter, putting my hand in a hot oven, etc). As for the editing process, I brought each image into photoshop and cropped them to my liking.  I really wanted the cookies to stand out, so with each image I cut out the cookies using the magic wand tool.  Then I used the inverse tool and turned the background black and white. On some of the pictures I did choose to blur out the background to make the main images stand out more.  I wanted some sort of alteration that would connect the images even more than I already had, so I decided to use a film grain filter.  I really like how everything turned out.  I think that the compositions and color choices work very well with each other. Liz, of course, was also very pleased with the results; its just one more shrine to her favorite food.

Photoshopped!