Everyday Design Inspiration

This is my first example and it is a convenient store chain, but I do not like their design. I find it too simple and plain and boring. The colors are weird because they are two primary colors and lighter than the actual colors. The typography is not inventive at all and has a generic feel to it. I'm pretty sure this is their logo and its all just cramped together with random shapes thrown in, and as I said I don't like this design. The target audience is obviously the people getting gas but they are gearing it towards people who are out at all hours of the day and their purpose or call to action is let people know that they will be open when other stores won't be and to make them come in. I think that they had a designer create the image in a program and had it printed up on a sign and started a chain for this type of convenient store. But I think they could of done a little better.



  This is a cool advertising bit Long John Silver's did when we stopped to eat there. They were advertising their new fish meal that they had come up with. They colors were very unique and used well with their contrasting colors. The typography was very well incorporated in the design and added to the appeal of the design to look at it. The logo for Long John Silver's wasn't actually on the product but since it was inside the store, I guess it doesn't have to be. Their target audience is people who like fish and also targeting the people who eat at Long John Silver's a lot. Their call to action was this number on one of the back fins that you could text if you liked their fish. I also thought just the actual product itself was awesome. How it looks like a fish. They would of had to create a layout for the design and probably create a folding dummy for it to show where all the text would end up, then get the product printed, and had to do some cutting on the edges of the product where the tail fits together, and they would have shipped it back to the companies and had them distributed to all of the restaurants and the employees would of had to put them together themselves and set them up.

This is another cool little design I found in a hotel with a bunch of other brochures. Again I really like the color scheme they used. I feel it really works well with the design. The typography was well used and creative. I love how they put text on either side of the stick and on the lollipop to make it look like there is wrapping on it or something. And then having the logo design at the bottom just really brings the whole piece together I think. I like the logo. Its simple but bold, and I really like how they did that. Their target audience is I think kids who love candy. And its appealing to the adults because its free and you get to see the factory and make your own candy. It is just appealing to everyone who would like to see how candy is made and to anyone who likes candy. The call to action is their website, phone number, and address that are on the card to inform people how to get a hold of them, they also have a little map on the back of the card to show people how to get there. For this card, they would of designed it in a program like InDesign and make the graphics in Illustrator or some program like it, and have it printed up and then it would of had to had a die cut on the top to cut out the lollipop, and then packaged and send out to wherever they wanted to advertise around Colorado.

I took this picture as we were passing this little cafe on a street. I didn't like logo so I took a picture. The color is plain. Its white and even the overhang thing is a weird color so its all out of wack. The typography is script but its still boring and has no meaning for the cafe. So overall the logo design is not too good. All they have is a little graphic of a basket with a roll in it I think and not a good one at that. I guess their target audience is the local community, and people who like small little cafe's on the corner. And the only call to action I can think of is the logo itself on the side of the overhand thing. Someone just would of had to design the logo and give someone the file to have it printed or pained onto the overhang material.

So for my inspiration I  found two bad designs and two really good designs that I like. It does inspire me to try to be more creative in my designs and I hope I can get there.

Billboard Advertisement Project

 
These are my thumbnails and roughs for my billboard advertisement.



The content on the billboard differs from all of our other projects because there can't be much of it. You only have a few seconds to get your point across when someone is driving down the road. Therefore, you need to have minimal content that extends a message to the viewer.

Again, the purpose of my billboard is the same as my magazine ad because it is a campaign. I am fighting for all those kids out there who don't get to enjoy their summer break and be a kid. Most kids these days either have to go to summer school, or go to all these different sports camps, or they have to work because they think money is the only way to happiness. My target audience is to the parents, teachers, and coaches or these kids. My call to action will be a link to a website informing them about this movement.

Sources: all images and fonts came from server.

Here is my final image:

Magazine Ad Project

 

These are my thumbnails, and my two Roughs that I drew for my magazine project.

The magazine that I chose to advertise in is Reader's Digest. The specifications for the magazine ad are as follows:
          file format: PDF/X-1A
          size: 5.187" x 7.25"
          bleed: 5.437" x 7.5" or .25 all the way around
          live area: 4.687" . 6.75" or .5 margins all the way on the inside
          budget: For a full page black + 1 color is $165,900 or Cost Per Thousand(impressions) = $30.16
          how to submit: submit my PDF to the Reader's Digest Ad portal at: http://rda.adventcheck.com

The main people reading this magazine are parents or the older generation and some single individuals. More women read it than men, but still a fair amount of a male readers. I am aiming towards this generation, because they are the ones who are having kids or already have kids, or possibly coaches. I am more pleading with them, to let their kids be kids and have fun in summer instead of working, or taking up their summers practicing sports at various camps that is taking up their summer completely. They still need to have a childhood and play. My call to action will my a Microsoft Tag that I will incorporate into my design.

Here is my final image:

Adobe Tutorial 2

Start Image

For my second Adobe Tutorial, I decided to make a film strip. I used Photoshop for tutorial, and for my start image I just used a gradient background to put behind my filmstrip.

Here are the steps for the filmstrip tutorial:

1. Need a blank empty layer.
2. With custom shape tool selected, load in the new shape called film. Push append button and double click the last one twice and draw it on your layer.
3. To add pictures to the filmstrip you need to click on your background layer, open mini bridge and click on the images you need for the filmstrip. Then drag them onto the screen.
4. Place the images one at a time into the boxes of the filmstrip where you want them and click the check mark to place the next image.
5. Select all layers that make up film strip and merge them into one.
6. Duplicate the layer.
7. Drag top picture underneath the other one and do edit > Transform > Flip Vertically. 
8. Take your opacity down to 50% for that layer.
9. With eraser tool, take off the base of that image on that layer.
10. Flatten these two layers together again.
11. Go to Edit > Warp and change from custom to flag and click the check mark to apply the change
12. ALL DONE

I know have my filmstrip.

The tutorial I used was: http://vimeo.com/14250097  and it came from this website: http://creativefan.com/30-best-adobe-photoshop-cs5-video-tutorials/
All the images I used were ones that I have taken myself.
Overall I think my ending image turned out pretty good.

Adobe Tutorial- Masking with channels

Before Image

Open you image, and go to the Channels panel and toggle through the different channels to find the most contrast between the subject and the background. With the channel selected go up to Image > Calculations. It makes a brand new channel that makes the background even darker than it is before, creating a better contrast. Press Command I to invert the image. Press shift/delete which brings up the fill menu. In Use menu select black. And set the blending section to overlay. And select okay. Grab brush tool and use a small brush and change the blend mode to overlay. Then color in the image that you want to keep with black. Then invert it back so the selected area will be white. Then go back into your RGB channel and turn it back on. Go to your layers panel and unlock the background layer. Go to select menu and go to load selection and load the Alpha 1 channel you created. Load it as a new selection and press okay. Click the layer mask icon in the layers panel, and put a new layer underneath that layer and give it a different color background to make it stand out.

After Image

Sources: The Tutorial came from Layers Magazine.com and the image is from my personal pictures on my computer.

Master Image List Elements

A Bitmap or sometimes called line art is a graphic containing a scanned image that contains only black and white pixels with no shades of gray. Need to save a bitmap as an EPS with transparent whites checked.

A Reverse is where the color of paper shows through a solid color. It can be the color of the paper, and can be used in any program, as any file type. Most often it will be made in InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop.

Vector art is pixel free, scalable graphics that have a sharp edge. Most likely will be a Native Illustrator file. And can be used in any color mode you want.

A Grayscale raster is a raster image that has is just black, white and gray. You have to convert your photo to a Duotone and then to a grayscale color mode and should be saved as a flattened eps or tif image.

A Duotone raster is composed of 2 images, usually black and a spot color but you can use 2 spot colors if you wish. Obviously you will have to be in the Duotone color Mode. A duotone should be saved only as an eps.

A Silhouette raster eliminates the background surrounding the important element in an image. Usually you create a mask or path to outline the element in your image. A silhouette can be in any color mode, and is usually saved as an eps.

A Full bleed raster is an image that extends off every side of the page. It can be any color modes, and should be saved as a flattened eps or tif.

A Four color raster is an image that using the CMYK to create the image. You would use the CMYK color mode and is saved as a flattened eps or tif.

A Screen tint is a screen pattern that consists of dots that are all the same size and create an even tone. You should either use spot colors or process colors. And they should be a part of your InDesign file, and should be saved as an INDD file.

Sources: I used the textbook(Print Productions by Claudia McCue) and Angel for the definitions, color modes and file types. I used Angel for all of the images except for the pen graphic which is my vector art. 

Newspaper Ad Project

The project we are working on now is a newspaper ad for the Collegio. Our budget for this project is $97. The formula we use to calculate our price to produce is as follows:

You take the number of columns your ad takes up (mine is 3) and multiple it by the height of your ad (mine is 7). You take the number you get and multiple it by the dollars per inch amount (ours is $4). The amount you get is your Price to Produce. 

So my formula looks like this:

3(col) X 7in= 21in. X $4 = $84 to produce my ad in the paper.

This project needs to be black and white only and needs to contain a bitmap image. A bitmap image is a hand drawn or traced image using a sharpie that you scan into a computer. It needs to be all lines, black and white with no shades of gray. You use Photoshop to edit it and clean it up and save it. Line screen is the measure of halftone dot frequency usually expressed in lpi (lines per inch). The higher the screen ruling, the finer detail in the printed image, however, newspaper stock is very absorbent and coarse. If you have a high line screen you will have dot gain, which is where the ink absorbs into the paper and spreads to where it is not supposed to go. The master image list elements I plan to use are: a bitmap, my second vector art, and a reverse.

The ad that I will de designing is a job opening ad for Hidden Haven. My target audience is towards high school/college students who need a job for the summer. The purpose is to inform viewers of a job opening and to get people to respond by calling or messaging us.  Then our call to action which I already mentioned would be a phone number to call us if they are interested, and listing out face book page to message us on there if they would like to ask more questions. 

Thumbnails:

 

 

Rough

Final Image for Newspaper Ad

Sources: All information came from our book(Print Productions) and notes I took in class. I drew the bitmap and scanned it in and the Facebook icon came from the free set of social media icons our teach(Crystal Benson) gave us to use for class.