Saturday, April 25, 2009

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!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

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! 


Sunday, April 19, 2009

..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.



Tuesday, April 14, 2009

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


Sunday, April 12, 2009

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. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

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





If you liked all my examples, tell me so!


Monday, April 6, 2009

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.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

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