Peanut Butter and Jelly

2009-06-04T01:13:00.001-07:00

Website Rationale

2009-06-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

The website that I designed for the EcoGen company includes many of my previous projects including the logo, the slogan, the advertisement and the color scheme that I designed. The homepage was the first page of the website that I designed. The homepage consists of a banner with y logo on the top of the page. Every banner has a different title for each page of the website. So, on the homepage, the title is obviously Homepage. Underneath the banner is the menu bar of which includes all the secondary pages: about us, contact us, projects, products and links. Underneath the menu bar, there is a picture of the advertisement I made for the company. Additionally, there is a copyright statement on the bottom page and underneath that there is a statement, which shows when the website was last updated.

The secondary pages are very similar to the design of my homepage. The only main difference is that instead of having the advertisement, I have the main text for the pages. Every secondary page also has pictures. Furthermore, the alignment, and construction of the texts and pictures are all the same on every page.

I only created 3 tertiary pages for my website, which originate from the projects page. The tertiary pages are called wind projects, solar projects and other projects. The design and construction of the tertiary pages are different to the homepage and the secondary pages. The tertiary pages have no pictures and therefore the text has a much wider width than the secondary pages.

To create the pages, I simply used tables to make it easier for me to align all the text, banners, menu bars and pictures together. Every page has a blue background . The banner, the menu bar and the background of the text boxes are all the same green. The text itself is black, since there is no better color to create a stronger contrast with my color scheme.

Tertiary Pages

2009-06-03T05:25:00.000-07:00

Secondary Pages

2009-06-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

Homepage

2009-06-03T05:14:00.001-07:00

EcoGen website design plan

2009-04-30T01:53:00.001-07:00

EcoGen website explanation

2009-04-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

My website homepage design is quite simple and fits perfectly to the company, since EcoGen is a company which sells simple environment friendly products. The main colors that I used were blue and green, the colors of my color scheme. On the top of my website, there is a horizontal bar which include the company logo on the left, and the words "Welcome to EcoGen" in the middle. This would make the website more user-friendly. Underneath this horizontal bar, there is a tab bar, with six tabs including, "Home", "Projects", "Products", "About Us", "Links" and "Contact Us". Underneath this tab bar, there is a huge picture of my advertisement I made for EcoGen. On the bottom of the page, there is a copyright statement in yellow. That is basically the general website homepage design. All of the headings and color of the font for the tabs are black. The banner and the bar are green. Overall, there is good contrast of colors and the colors that I chose are not too hard on the eyes, but attract the eyes instead.

EcoGen Website Design

2009-04-29T05:07:00.001-07:00

EcoGen space summary

2009-04-22T05:04:00.001-07:00

For my EcoGen space, I decided to create a small boutique in Google Sketchpad. The main elements of the boutique include having the colors of my color schemes, blue and green. In addition, I added my advertisement poster for the company on one of the walls of the space. Some of the furniture of the space include a green sofa couch, a counter, two transparent desks for the laptops and surveys, a water fountain as an icon and four plants to set the mood of the whole space. I also added a few photos of nature to hang up on the walls. I believe that all these elements and features would attract people to come and visit the EcoGen boutique.

There are posters and pictures all over the room walls to both advertise the company and set the mood of being in "nature". There also a lot of plants and the sound of the water coming from the fountain in the middle of the room also gives this spiritual and calm feeling, which can have a very positive effect on the people who enter the boutique.

One of the posters include the EcoGen advertisement that I made for the company. This poster is quite large in size and is in the perfect place for people to come and look at it, since there is a lot of space around the poster. The carpet of the boutique is looks like grass, since the carpet has the grassy color and texture.

The laptops on the tables are very user friendly, since they basically have the EcoGen website and slideshows about the company available to look at. Laptops definitely attract more people to come and see the slide shows than having brochures or anything on paper.

As a result, I believe the boutique could be a great success for the company and it could promote EcoGen a lot by attracting people to the room and allowing to learn about the company and what it does.

EcoGen space

2009-04-22T05:01:00.001-07:00

Weekly Post 23 (Magazine)

2009-04-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

Graphic (e)motion

This article from Matt Woolman demonstrates how motion graphics has changed the universe of multimedia. What I found interesting about this article is that he compared a graphic artist to a painter. With this comparison, he is trying to show that in the modern world both the painter and graphic artist are hesitating and are asking questions about what tool to use instead of asking the question what is possible. A painter has to choose between the water colors, the paint brushes and paint palettes while the graphic artist has to choose which software he is going to use for animations. The author of this article explains that the methodology is more important than the tool. No matter what software or paint tool is used, the design has to attract the attention and have a meaning behind it. With this article, the author is trying to promote his book called Motion Design, which is all about the concept of motion graphics design.

Weekly Post 22 (Magazine)

2009-04-01T05:13:00.001-07:00

And yet it goes round…

Basically, this article shows us how movement has influenced the world a lot including the graphic designers. In the world of designing, anticipating movement, bodily movement and translating mobility have always been challenges for designers to tackle. In our world, transportation system is the challenge. The author gives the RATP as an example. RATP is the public transportation system in Paris and the author uses this system to show how many different ways of movement there are from just one location, Paris. There are subways, buses and the RER (high-speed train services). These systems are all provided and open for us to use by just purchasing a ticket or a pass. The author, who is also a designer, presents some of his work which represents movement. His main characteristic that he uses in all of his designs is the use of light. He believes that light is a very important quality of movement and expresses the impulse of movement very effectively.

2009-04-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

Weekly Post 21 (Magazine)

2009-03-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

One image is worth two!

This article, which is also the introduction to this edition of idPure, gives a brief description of how motion graphics are presented and how it gives us more artistic freedom. Since this edition concentrates mostly on motion graphics and animations, Thierry Hausermann, the author, gives a feeling of how and where motion graphics are used. The author believes that motion graphics were created to please and hypnotize us, since it appears everywhere. For example, when watching television, the news, video clips and on the hand phone. These animations have to be imagined which is how our brains see these pictures. Consequently, this opens up a more fulfilling dimension and this is one of the reason why motion graphics dominated the graphic arts environment ten years ago.

Weekly Post 20 (Magazine)

2009-03-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

Humor, Zombie and Donut

Han Hoogerbrugge who graduated from the Rotterdam Art School illustrated animations using Flash animation tools to design a very dark and disturbing digital world. These animations of this dark universe reflect the current world to him. In his animations, he draws zombies instead of people. He illustrates them really carefully and cleverly so that you can figure out that they are zombies. Furthermore, Han Hoogerbrugge tends to concentrate on the zombie’s faces to represent their emotions. Some of these animations are filled with and if you combine all the animations and look at them sequentially, these animatronics can be formed into short stories.

Weekly Post 19 (Magazine)

2009-03-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

idPure Magazine Article – Graphic Art In All Its Aspects

This enlightening piece of writing demonstrates the effect of graphic designing in the world today. The author of this article is informing us that the progress of digital technology in the recent years has given graphic designers options and new tools for their work. Even though the author believes that the technology has been quite beneficial for us, he also lists the negative points of the advanced technology in the world of graphic designing. He states that the designer is not the thoughtful designer; rather, a useful replacement of the machine. In addition, he tells us a story once when an applicant visited our school. This applicant asked him if the school was more “pencil” than “computer” and he replied “brains”. With this word, he is trying to say that whatever is produced with the fingers on a piece of paper or on the computer actually originates in the mind. As a result, the author is trying to present to us that no matter what we use, computers, pencils or paint, the idea is always invented in the mind, which is the most valuable thing to take into consideration in graphic designing.

EcoGen Letterhead

2009-03-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

EcoGen Advertisement

2009-03-10T07:37:00.001-07:00

Rationale for EcoGen Advertisement

2009-03-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Sakktivel Elangovan

Digital Design

Mainly using Photoshop, I managed to create a well-designed advertisement for the company that I chose, EcoGen. This advertisement is a basic impression of what the company is and what its goals are by including the slogan, a picture which fits to the company’s brief and my own design of a logo. This advertisement which is in a format which can appear as a billboard or as a magazine advertisement tends to be very clean and well spaced out in terms of its organization and proximity. The logo and the poster that I made were all in Photoshop. Playing around with many different tools in Photoshop and making sure that I follow the principles of design, I tried to make the poster as eye-catching and appealing as possible by using bright and strong colors such as white and blue. In addition, I also referred to many magazines, like the New Yorker and the Economist, as a sample and basis for my work. The picture that I chose as my main image and center-point of the ad was a photo of a small and peaceful hut in the middle of the Swiss Alps and by the side of a lake. The water gives a reflection of the mountains and the house. Basically, this image is supposed to represent the serenity and calmness of the environment which is what my company is supposed to promote. This is definitely the main goal of my company. I amended the picture so that there would be more contrast with the colors. I also changed the view of the picture so that the hut would be the center point even though the photo is not extremely zoomed into the hut. Consequently, my poster expresses the ideas of EcoGen and fits to its brief by supporting the peace of the environment and saving the world by buying the company’s products.

Weekly Post 18

2009-03-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

Mirror’s Edge Review

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/927/927781p1.html

The feeling of the movement and leaping through the air in this game is just so realistic that you can actually feel yourself in the air. The graphics and the idea of making this game in first-person view is just incredible. Even though, the storyline and the characters are not really interesting, the main purpose of the game, which is to explore the environment is very fun. It is quite interesting to roam around the city and jump from building to building. This is new style of play, guiding the character on the journey of leaps and bounds, is called Runner Vision. This is the main highlight of the game which makes it so unique and revolutionary. In addition, there are so many different types of ways to move (jumping, climbing up buildings, swinging on poles, use a parachute, etc.), however these ideas were not well developed in the plot and storyline of the main single player campaign, which is why many gamers are hoping that there will be a sequel to this first game of Mirror’s Edge.

Weekly Post 17

2009-02-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

The Design of the Manchester United Football Site

http://www.boagworld.com/accessibility/two_sites_are_better_than_one/

This article shows why the Manchester United Football Site might have a problem with accessibility. The author demonstrates why accessibility is so important when it comes to web designing. He believes that the Man Utd website has a hard accessibility, maintenance issue and is criticizing the idea of having a separate site after accessing the main Man Utd webpage. The author believes that the web designers are seriously alienating their target audience.

Fonts for the Company

2009-02-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

1st Font: Asenine

2nd Font: Dream Orphans

3rd Font: Eurofurence

4th Font: Geosans

Weekly Post 16

2009-02-10T07:37:00.002-08:00

South Africa World Cup 2010 Logo

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn20060722084852450c455144

The producer of the logo believed that it was the strong African identity of his logo that appealed to the judges. The footballer doing the kick was done in a San or rock painting style to bring the focus back to South Africa and its identity as "The Cradle of Human Kind". The convergence of lines towards South Africa in the continental image is intended as a metaphor to represent the diversity and energy of African soccer flair. The South African identity was further strengthened by incorporating the South African flag colours into the design. This is the reason why many people believe this logo will really enlighten the World Cup 2010.

2009-02-10T07:37:00.001-08:00

Logo Idea 4

2009-02-10T06:44:00.001-08:00

Logo Idea 3

2009-02-10T06:43:00.001-08:00

Logo Idea 2

2009-02-10T06:42:00.001-08:00

Logo Idea 1

2009-02-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

Weekly Post 15

2009-02-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Vancouver 2010 Logo

http://agonist.org/Learning-Center/The_Vancouver_2010_Logo_and_Campaign.htm

The The Vancouver 2010 logo was a big part of a campaign to win the 2010 winter Olympics. Its design features the two-dimensional representation of the traditional sculpture made up of block-like shapes in colors that represent the different geographical regions of Canada. The blue and greens of the design are meant to represent the unique coastal regions and forests of the country and its surrounding picturesque islands. The red symbolizes Canada’s maple leaf flag, and the yellow is meant to represent the famous Canadian sunrises. The block-like construction of the logo also symbolizes images of hockey player uniforms, making it an even more perfect symbol for Canada and for the winter Olympics as a whole. In my opinon, this is what I call a good logo since the colors and shapes all have to do something with Canada. Unlike the Adidas logo or the London 2012 logo, this logo actually fits the purpose of the campaign and is a very eye-catching emblem for the grand Winter Olympics.

Explanation of the Fonts

2009-01-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

Font: Aervias Brasil NF

This font could be used for the slogan because of it is decorative and is sans serif. This means, that it is attractive and is easy to the eye. In my opinion, this font is the correct type for the slogan of EcoGen since it fits the brief and the purpose of the company.

Font: Last Ninja

This font is a lot more different than the first font because it is a serif font, but in away. This font is called Last Ninja and has a very medieval look, however I think if I could manipulate it a bit using Photoshop, the slogan could be quite appealing.

Font: Eldorado

This serif font has a script type look, but is actually a Western and old style font. I think it fits with the brief and speaks well to the idea of the company even though the font is mean to represent the Old West.

Font: Trading Post NF

This font is sans serif too and is also very modern. It could be very effective when I use it for the slogan. This font is very clean and has a good look and organization in general.

Font: Metal Lord

In my opinion, this font is very eye catching and serves the idea of the company. It could be very effective when it is put with the logo. In addition, this font is very sophisticated and modern.

EcoGen Schema Poster

2009-01-28T04:50:00.000-08:00

Weekly Post 14

2009-01-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

The Analysis of the Design of the Apple Website

http://www.intowebmarketing.co.uk/website-analysis-apple-mac.html

This article is very useful to use when designing your own website and when entering websites. People normally websites without realizing the graphical design of it. This article shows why the Apple Website is such a good example of professional graphical design. Firstly, the main page loads up in less than a second. This is quite fascinating when considering the amount of graphics used. In addition, the menu page is very well organized and is very attractive. Secondly, the colors were also very well chosen since the grey and white background gives a neat and professional look and provides a good contrast against the readable text. Thirdly, the length of the pages is well balanced and rather than having endlessly long pages, they have given more options when entering the main categories. In addition, the online shopping facility is comprehensive and easy to use. The Apple website gives a clear indication why Apple Mac is a leader in innovative technology.

Weekly Post 13

2009-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Fifa O9 Review

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/913/913467p1.html

The latest Fifa console game has been improved quite dramatically comparing it to its previous games. New animations, sound effects and graphics were added to make the game as polished as possible. For examples, players in open space will call for the ball while defenders will raise their hand to alert the referee that is an offside-ball. As a result Fifa 09 is seen as the most realistic football game to date.

Tips for Designing

2009-01-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

Law of Thirds - design is divided into 9 boxes

The subject of the photo/design has to be where the lines intersect. The subject should always be on the left side of the design, since we read from left to right. The positive subject should be on the left. For example, if there is a transition of beauty to darkness then the beauty has to be on the left and the darkness on the right.

Weekly Post 12

2009-01-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

Gears of War 2 Review

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/926/926305p1.html

This review article presents all the cool features in the new and exciting video game, Gears of War 2. This game, which received a 9.7 rating from IGN, contains a lot of modern graphic designs. The producers of this game did their best to improve the game play and design of the video game and making as flawless as possible. By doing this, they improved the sound effects, the visual graphics and of course the story-line of the game.

EcoGen Brief

2009-01-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

Eco Generation (EcoGen)
The company will import environmentally friendly products, we would sell the Eco Ball, Dryer Ball, Magno Ball and the Eco Stapler. Our target consumers are the low income families who want to save up to Fr500 every 1000 washes they do. We will also target people who are environmentally conscious and want to help the environment. With the Eco Stapler our target audience are companies who want to become environmentally friendly and people who want to save resources. We envision selling the products that we import in established Swiss stores and to assist people to become more environmentally conscious by offering them Eco friendly goods.

EcoGen -Things for the Company

2009-01-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

Pick fonts

create logo

create banner

letterheads

EcoGen -Design Ideas

2008-12-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

Weekly Post 11

2008-12-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

LG Cyon - Environmentally friendly phone

http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/lg_cyon_-_environmentally_friendly_phone.html

Since the company I chose was EcoGen, a company that produces and sells environmental friendly and environmental conscious products, the design and characteristics of this phone will help and be a guide for me when I am thinking of ideas for my company. This phone doesn’t not contain any harmful components like lead and mercury. This shows how committed the company of LG are to the environment and how much consideration they put into their products.

Web 2.0 Logos

2008-12-04T02:17:00.000-08:00

Weekly Post 10 (Special)

2008-12-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

5 Articles I read:

http://tape-jessy3513.blogspot.com/2008/11/design-of-week-5.html

/tape-jessy3513.blogspot.com/2008/09/design-of-week-2.html

http://blog-on-blogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekly-project.html

http://hungryravers.blogspot.com/2008/11/design-article_04.html

http://hungryravers.blogspot.com/2008/09/shapes-article.html

3 Articles I chose:

http://blog-on-blogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekly-project.html

From this article, I learned that graphic design plays an important role in music album covers. Contrast and proximity are the two most important elements when designing an album cover according to this article.

http://tape-jessy3513.blogspot.com/2008/11/design-of-week-5.html

I liked this article a lot because it is very interesting and shows me a lot of about designs of today. For example, the bookshelf is looks quite strange and has a weird structure. However, people still think it is cool and is fashionable. It shows how the designs have changed throughout the past decade or two decades.

tape-jessy3513.blogspot.com/2008/09/design-of-week-2.html

This article concentrates more on web designing and is presenting the new of design of Facebook. In addition, this article proves that Facebook has achieved its goal as being a social network. Even though it is a great design, there are a few negative points. This shows that there is no such thing as a perfect design since there is always something to work on on a graphic design.

Description of Logo 2

2008-12-03T04:41:00.000-08:00

The red and orange colors of the flame represent the warmth and the energy of the company. The black background symbolizes the sophistication and efficiency of the company.

Logo Design 2

2008-12-02T06:49:00.001-08:00

Description of Logo

2008-12-02T06:25:00.001-08:00

I chose the main colors to be white and blue because white represents the sophistication, clarity and the efficiency of my company while the blue represents communication, intelligence, trust and logic. Altogether it will reflect the whole reputation of the company with these positive colors that will give a good impression to people, especially customers, who will look at this logo.

Logo Design

2008-12-02T06:19:00.001-08:00

Weekly Post 9

2008-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

The Google Phone

http://gizmodo.com/5062977/t+mobile-g1-google-android-phone-review

This review of the Google phone is seriously tempting me to get on during Christmas. The pictures of the phone that are included in the review are great and give me a good impression of this "Smartphone", which is a big competitor with Apple's Iphone. The characteristics of this phone that impress are that it is multi-tasking, solid and simple. This phone has plenty of applications and cool tools. For example, more than one program can run on the phone. The phone is just like a computer since it has tons of apps including Google Maps, browser, a music player, IM Messenger and mail. In addition, the body of the phone looks like a HTC is just incredible. Different to the Iphone, the Google Phone has a keyboard (just like a HTC). However there are a few minor problems with the keyboard, since the scroll bar tends to be very sensitive and the keys on the keyboard are not raised high enough. As a result, it is very hard to type text messages on the phone, since it is not easy touch-typing. Overall, I believe the Google Phone will be a hit as soon as it comes out.

Smiley

2008-11-27T02:19:00.001-08:00

It was quite tricky creating the smiley, since we had to follow steps on a video which lacked clarity and explanation. However, I managed to create a similar smiley than the one in the video. As the smiley kept developing, the harder the steps became. The hardest step was probably creating the teeth. I had trouble putting the teeth behind the outline of the mouth. Another difficulty I had was creating the eyes. Using photoshop is not really my best thing to do. I couldnt copy the eye after creating one completed eye. As a result, I had to repeat the step without making the eyes 100% identical. At the end, I managed to make a fine looking smiley with a hat. I was happy with my achievement and this lesson will guide me when I am creating my logo for my company later on.

Smiley

2008-11-27T02:13:00.001-08:00

Weekly Post 8

2008-11-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

The Apple Logo

http://www.logoblog.org/apple_logo.php

I learned a lot of fascinating things about the apple logo in this article. This is probably one of the most interesting articles I have read so far about graphic design. I learned a lot of things such as the first apple logo, which was also called the "rainbow apple" because it had multi-colored stripes. The designer of this logo, Rob Janoff, wanted to honor the discoveries of gravity and the separation of light with this logo. As a result, Isaac Newton plays a role in the logo, since he was the scientist who found out about the gravitational force when he observed the apple falling on his head. Rob Janoff might also tributed the "Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge" from the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Other people believed other things. For example, the multi-colored logo was used to advertise quality of colors on the Apple computers. This article also talks about the other apple logos like the polished chrome logo and the famous white and raw aluminum logo. This article might also be handy to me during the next topic in Digital Design, logo designing.

Color Codes

2008-11-25T06:03:00.001-08:00

Color Schemer

2008-11-20T01:41:00.000-08:00

Color schemer is a brilliant program for building cool and new color schemes. It is a very easy program to use and can build new color schemes very quickly. It is a very helpful tool for designing.

Color schemer can also edit the colors of picture and manipulate the hues and the contrast of the colors. It is quite fun to play around with.

Peter Piper's Palette Picker

2008-11-20T01:35:00.000-08:00

Triad Relatioship

Analogous Relationship

Split Complementary Relationship

Color Shades and Tints

2008-11-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

Using a color wheel divided into various shades and tints is one method of identifying possible options for color schemes.

Color and Contrast

2008-11-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

Every visual presentation involves figure-ground relationships. This relationship between a subject (or figure) and its surrounding field (ground) will evidence a level of contrast; the more an object contrasts with its surrounds, the more visible it becomes.

When we create visuals that are intended to be read, offering the viewer enough contrast between the background (paper or screen) and the text is important. If there is not enough contrast between figure and ground, a viewer will squint to view the text, causing eye fatigue.

Color Wheel

2008-11-20T01:24:00.000-08:00

Primary Colors: Colors at their basic essence; those colors that cannot be created by mixing others.

Secondary Colors: Those colors achieved by a mixture of two primaries.

Tertiary Colors: Those colors achieved by a mixture of primary and secondary hues.

Complementary Colors: Those colors located opposite each other on a color wheel.

Analogous Colors: Those colors located close together on a color wheel.

The color wheel can be divided into ranges that are visually active or passive. Active colors will appear to advance when placed against passive hues. Passive colors appear to recede when positioned against active hues.

Color Basics

2008-11-20T01:21:00.000-08:00

Color is the perceptual characteristic of light described by a color name.

Chroma: How pure a hue is in relation to gray
Saturation: The degree of purity of a hue.
Intensity: The brightness or dullness of a hue. One may lower the intensity by adding white or black.
Luminance / Value: A measure of the amount of light reflected from a hue. Those hues with a high content of white have a higher luminance or value.

Shade and tint are terms that refer to a variation of a hue.

Shade: A hue produced by the addition of black.
Tint: A hue produced by the addition of white.

The Meaning of Colors

2008-11-19T05:17:00.000-08:00

Every color has a different meaning in every culture and religion. As a result, colors play an important role in our lives since they represent different characteristics. In web designs, colors are essential and should relate to the purpose of the website. However when designing websites, colors should not be extreme. Using tints, tones and shades of colors will make the design more interesting. Rougher surfaces can make the color darker and smoother surfaces can make the color brighter. Therefore altering colors are important in web design.

Colors

2008-11-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

Red : Energy, strength, passion, eroticism, cheerfulness, courage, element of fire, career goals, fast action, lust, desire, blood, vibrancy, driving forces, risk, fame, love, survival, war, revolution, danger, aggression, strength, power, determination, emotional intensity, sex, provoking, dynamic, stimulating, courage, bravery, good-tasting, force, leadership, drama, excitement, speed, heat, warmth, violence, attention, generosity, romance

Pink : Romance, love, friendship, femininity, truth, passivity, good will, emotional healing, peace, calming, affection, emotional maturity, caring, nurturing, sweet tasting, sweet smelling, ethereal, delicacy.

Orange : warmth, energy, balance, enthusiasm, vibrancy, vitality, expansiveness, flamboyance, excitement, business goals, property deals, ambition, career, goals, general success, justice, legal matters, selling, action, attention-grabbing, the sun, friendly, inviting, intense, joy, strength, endurance, steadfastness, tropics, quick movement, wealth of the mind and knowledge, charity, growing things, fascination, friendliness, happiness, beginnings, heat, creativity, autumn, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, courage, earth, mental and appetite stimulatant, emotional lift, assurance, social force, health, warmth, attractiveness, cheerfulness, mood-lightening, uninhibited, independence, amiability, constructiveness, self-assuredness, cheap, low-budget, fun kids colour, youth

Brown : friendships, special events, earth, materialistic thoughts, hearth, home, outdoors, inexpensive, reliability, credibility, comfort, endurance, stability, simplicity, comfort, longevity, intimacy, tranquility, masculine, nurturing, contentment, strength, sensuality, productivity, passivity, fertility, generosity, dirt, substance, practicality, hard work

Gold : wealth, god, winning, safety, masculine power, happiness, playful humour, prestige, wisdom, love of spirit, meaning, purpose, awe, spiritual love, quests of the heart, desire for power, mystic powers, higher mathematics, sciences, attainment, concentration.

Yellow : sun, intelligence, light, accelerated learning, memory, logical imagination, social energy, cooperation, organisation, breaking mental blocks, sunshine, joy, happiness, intellect, energy, cheerfulness, optimism, purity, enthusiasm, warmth, honour, loyalty, mental force, clarity, perception, understanding, wisdom, dishonesty, betrayal, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, disease, weakness, caution, cowardice, follower, curiosity, mellowness, confidence, humour, dreams, creativity, desire to improve, action, idealism, optimism, imagination, hope, summer, philosophy, uncertainty, restlessness, glory, enlightenment

Green : earth mother, physical healing, monetary success, abundance, fertility, tree & plant magic, growth, food, hope, personal goals, resurrection, renewal, youth, stability, endurance, freshness, nature, environment, tranquil, refreshing, quiet, hope, immortality, health, healing, good luck, renewal, youth, jealousy, inexperience, trees, grass, vigour, growth, harmony, responsiveness, generosity, safety, envy, misfortune, quietude, compassion, renewal, moderation, nurturing, diplomacy, calm, contemplation, joy, love, abundance, balance, self-control, inexperience, hope, good omens, soothing, sharing, dependability, friendliness

Turquoise : calming, emotional healing, protection, refreshing, sophisticated

Blue : good fortune, communication, wisdom, protection, spiritual inspiration, calmness, reassurance, gentleness, fluidity, water, sea, creativity, peace, calming, higher thoughts, mystery, sky, formality, travel, devotion, progress, quiet wisdom, freedom. betterment of humanity, love, trust, loyalty, intelligence, reassurance, artistry, compassion, inner strength, devotion, depression, sadness, tranquility, stability, unity, truth, understanding, confidence, acceptance, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, comfort, cold, technology, devotion, harmony, depth, faith, heaven, piety, sincerity, precision, intellect, sadness, consciousness, speech, messages, ideas, sharing, cooperation, idealism, sincerity, empathy, relaxation, affection, inspiration, friendship, patience, contemplation, infinity, harmony, non-threatening, dependability

Purple : influence, third eye, psychic ability, spiritual power, self assurance, hidden knowledge, dignity, high aspirations, royalty, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, mystery, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, sophistication, cruelty, arrogance, intuition, dreams, unconscious, invisible, telepathy, empathy, imagination, deja vu, universal spirit, spiritual connection, deeper truth, nobility, wealth, extravagance, dignity, independence, magic, creativity, energy, self-confidence, ego, ambition, fame, luxury, big profits, richness, sensuality, elegance, contemplation, meditation, majesty, lesbianism, Wicca, New Age spirituality, paganism, conceit, arrogance, nausea

White : spirituality, goddess, peace, higher self, purity, virginity, reverence, simplicity, cleanliness, humility, precision, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, cold, clinical, sterility, clarity, perfection, innocence, virginity, goodness, light, fairness, safety, positivity, faith, coolness, charity, successful innovations, union, self-sacrifice, holiness, feminine divinity, pristine, chastity, positivity

Silver : glamous, distinguishment, high tech, industrial, graceful aging, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychometry, intuition, dreams, astral energies, female power, communication, goddess, ornate riches, sleekness, modernity

Grey : security, reliability, intelligence, staid, modesty, dignity, maturity, solid, conservative, practical, old age, sadness, boring, practicality, professional, sophisticated, durability, quality, quiet, conservativeness, gloominess, sadness

Black : protection, repelling negativity, binding, shapeshifting, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, classy, wealth, power, mystery, fear, evil, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, underground, modern music, space, high quality, bad luck, formality, reservedness, dignity, elegance, secretiveness, fear of the unknown, night, emptiness, dirtiness, sophistication, strength of character, dramatic, authority, prestige, grief, anger, reliability, strong, classic, strength, anti-establishment, modernism, serious

Rationale of Poster

2008-11-13T02:24:00.001-08:00

Sakktivel Elangovan

Digital Design

My poster was designed in the style of the iconic graphic designer, Peter Saville. I utilized the main principles of his work including using a vast variation of colors, large amount and variation of forms, especially circles and ellipses, and contrast. The text which is included in the poster explains the style of Peter Saville. The font of the text that I used was a very modern font, since Peter Saville was a graphic designer during the modernist movement and was a strong follower of Modernism. Furthermore, I also warped the text because Peter Saville didn’t believe in order and alignment. Consequently, I made sure that there wouldn’t be any straight lines existing in my poster. I used Adobe Photoshop, definitely the best software to use for graphic designing, to design my poster. The main tools that I used were the warp tool, to warp the shapes. These warped shapes in my poster come from his designs “Color and Form” and “Waste Painting”.Using my knowledge and the skills that I learned with Photoshop, I created random shapes and added as much color and contrast as possible. My poster had a dark background since most of Peter Saville’s album covers have either a black background or another dark color. In my opinion, this dark background plays an important role in the distinctionof colors and the contrast that Peter Saville so often uses in his designs because all the other colors on the poster are light and neon. For example, yellow, light green, light blue and orange. In addition, most of the posters and album covers of Peter Saville have a body or body part of a woman included. As a result, I took the simple shapes of hands and feet that were incorporated in the Photoshop package.The multi –colored (rainbow) beams coming out from the bottom of the poster were added because this was one of the techniques that Peter Saville used in his designs to show contrast. Moreover, he always used these beams (basically just rectangles) when there was text included in his designs. Since he mainly designed album covers, most of his designs didn’t contain a lot of text. My poster follows most of the principles of neo-classicism too. In my opinion, this is very important since Peter Saville also designed his works using the principles and was deeply inspired by Jan Tschichold.

Weekly Post 7

2008-11-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

Graphic Design Using Color

http://ezinearticles.com/?Graphic-Design-Using-Color&id=16

This article caught my eyes the first time I saw it. This article is very useful for anyone who has trouble with choosing the correct color in any of their designs. This article shows what color represents what characteristics. For example, blue represents "dependable" and purple represents "dignity". In addition, the article provides with recommendations and tips about what colors you should combine. In this article, they said not to use black and green together since black means to mourn and bad luck and green means sick. Therefore having green and a black background for an advertisement would be the worst choice since anyone who reads the ad will just have negative opinions about you. This is why this article is good and since we are creating posters ourselves as a part of our projects, this will be quite handy to me.

Bibliography of Project

2008-11-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Bibliography

Peter Saville Talks About Design

This site was definitely my most useful source since it contains a lot of valuable information about Peter Saville, the graphic designer I am researching about, including quotes, dates and pictures.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/arts/2004/01/22/saville_iv1.shtml

Facts about Peter Saville

This website plays an important role in my bibliography because it’s filled with statistics and pictures that I can use in my poster.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Peter-Saville

The Graphic Design of Peter Saville

A very reliable and important resource since this website is specified mostly on the graphic design of Peter Saville and explains where he got his inspiration from and how he has influenced the industry of design.

http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/biography.htm

Peter Saville: A Graphic Designer

Consisting of very limited but unique information, this website presents the history and the general information about Peter Saville and tends to be quite handy.

http://www.showstudio.com/contributors/335

An Interview With Peter Saville

In this one-on-one interview, Peter Saville expresses a lot of his thoughts and ideas quite descriptively and gives me a better understanding of his genre of designing.

http://mocoloco.com/ambient/2005/10/interview_peter_saville_1.php

Factory Outlet: Little White Lies (Interview with Peter Saville)

A very long but informative interview that provides me with important statistics and explanations about the graphic design style of Peter Saville.

http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/interview6.htm

Weekly Post 6

2008-11-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

Google Chrome

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_offer_its_own_browser_chrome.php

This article about Google Chrome is not very informative and fairly short. However I still think it is quite a good article. It explains all the features of Google Chrome, Google's own web browser, in one sentence. In addition this article is also trying to persuade us to choose Google Chrome instead of any other web browser, especially Firefox.

Some of the new features on this browser include, having quick navigation, gears integration, open sources, smart memory management and crash-free app browsing. This article definitely gives me the interest to download this new web browser and use it as my default browser. However, after hearing about the problems about Google Chrome lately, I have completely deleted the application from my computer.

Weekly Post 5

2008-10-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

First look at Windows 7's User Interface

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-first-look-at-windows-7.html

Windows 7, the successor of Windows Vista, is supposed to be something that is out of the ordinary from what we have seen so far from Windows. Windows 7 changes the way people use computers. The main new tool that everyone will be excited about is the new taskbar. Instead of having text descriptions when you open the taskbar, big icons will appear. Another big difference is the desktop. The desktop is where all the gadgets live. Windows 7 doesnt not have a sidebar like Windows Vista. Instead, gadgets can simply be put onto the desktop. As a result, there is less space taken on the desktop than having a big sidebar. There are many other differences and very cool new tools including the "Jump Lists" and the new Internet Explorer.

Weekly Post 4

2008-10-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

The New Apple Macbook

http://www.apple.com/macbook/design.html

This article explains how well designed and engineered the Macbook was. It is a fabulous innovation and is different to any other type of notebook, since it is made out of one piece of aluminum instead of many different parts. As a result, the laptop is thinner and lighter than any other. Everything about this Macbook is revolutionary. This is why this new Macbook has introduced a new era in engineering and technology to mankind. The overall design of the Macbook is just a masterpiece. In addition, it saves battery life, is environmentally friendly by using LED display, which conserves a lot more energy than any other kind of lighting. In conclusion, I truly believe that this new Apple Macbook is the next generation of notebooks.

Cool Photoshop Application

2008-10-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Warp Tool

The warp tool distorts the picture and completely transforms the way the picture looks. To get to the warp tool, you go to Edit > Transform > Warp. After you click Warp, a grid will appear and you can click and drag any point of the grid and it will distort the picture.

Notes on Video

2008-10-02T01:24:00.001-07:00

The counter culture movement of the 1960’s overwhelms the modern movement before. Rise of flower power movement. No more straight and clean lines in fonts. The movement of hand drawn fonts (the result of the counter culture movement). This was the response from Helvetica. Post-modernous font creation results in the design of the environment. In the 70’s it was out of control. In the 80’s people were affected by the post-modernism ‘disease’.

Subjective perspective – post-modernism approach to design.

Modernism

· Functionalism

· Utilitarianism

· Objectivist

· Simple

· Clean

Post Modernism

· Subjectivist

· Free form

· Chaotic

· Complicated

Now is the time of the Retro Modernism (Post post modernism). It is the return of modernism.

Examples of Fonts in the Environment

2008-10-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

Notes on Fonts

2008-10-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

Helvetica is used for:

1. corporate names

2. logos

3. informative signs

Helvetica is used in the McDonalds, IBM, Fendi and many other famous brand.

Helvetica is:

· easy on the eyes.

· Simple

· Sans serif

· Perfect spacing

Helvetica is modernous font which represents modern movement.

Helvetica is ubiquitous and is used too much. Therefore it is not cool since it is too simple and is nor perfect.

Helvetica is used for corporations and is therefore corporative and is institutional. Therefore it is a negative quality of this font.

Creating a Font

To create a font, you have to start creating letters with a straight line and a curve (i.e a ‘h’). Then you start creating an ‘o’ and then a ‘p’. Once you have letters, you can build words with them. This is a very important step in creating a font.

Horizontal slicing off of terminals.

Car brands use Helvetica in their logo. (Toyota, BMW, Jeep, Kawasaki, Saab)

They are authoritarian, bureaucratic, and oppressive, they can be more accessible, transparent and accountable. Font gives a corporation a corporative tone. Using Helvetica, it makes the corporation looks more accessible.

A real typeface needs rhythm and contrast. Helvetica has neither rhythm nor contrast.

Helvetica needs a lot of space around it. All the letters look the same.

Typeface is a part of branding. When choosing a typeface, you are branding. Branding is projecting of qualities.

Weekly Homework 3

2008-09-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

article: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-5-strangest-ipod-cases

This article is quite bizarre, since it illustrates all the different ideas an ipod case. It is crazy what people come up these days just for a case for an ipod. One really cool design was the bulletproof ipod case. It was quite big and didnt really look that attractive. However there were other clever ideas that I am very sure other people would like and fall in love with. For example, the 'Fluffpod', which is a furry ipod case. Another example is the 'iKitty', which is a case which is the shape of a cat. I think it is quite cool and I wonder how much it would cost. It would be something very revolutionary and would definitely draw a lot of attention. Therefore this article shows the weirdest ideas of design that people can up with these days. Design has just become such a wide interest worldwide that no one actually realises it.

Examples of Helvetica

2008-09-30T09:34:00.001-07:00

Weekly Post 2

2008-09-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Article: http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/web_graphic_design_tips.asp

This article is basically a guide for how to edit photos and use effects by using photoshop

and simple graphic tools. In addition, it also shows us how to use the fireworks effects,

which one of the formatting tools that we are going to learn how to use during this year.

Therefore this article teaches us and gives us valuable tips on how to make any designs

more eye-catching and attractive. If you look into this article more deeply, all these effects

and modifications that you can make to pictures relate to the principles of design (contrast,

repetition, alignment, etc.) All these new formatting tools that we have these days simply

use these principles of design to make the design look better. Very very useful and interesting!

Font

2008-09-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

Categories of Type

stress - a line through the thinnest parts of the curved strokes.

There are six main groups of types: Oldstyle, Modern, Slab serif, sans, serif, script and decorative.
Oldstyle - serif, serifs on lowercase are slanted, moderate thick/thin transition in the strokes,
Modern - has horizontal instead of slanted serifs. Modern font tend to have a cold and elegant look. Has a vertical stress, serifs on lowercase letter are thin and horizontal and a have a radical thin/thick transition in the strokes.
Slab Serif - has serifs on lowercase letters are horizontal and thick, vertical stress, very little or no thick/thin transition, or contrast in the strokes.
Sans Serif - "sans" means without in French. (Therefore sans serif fonts have no serifs on the ends of the strokes. No stress and no thick/thin contrast.

o thick/thin transition in the strokes.
Script - (fonts that appear tohave been hand lettered with a calligraphy pen or brush.
Decorative - these fonts are fun, distinctive and easy to use. Their powerful use is limited.

2008-09-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

The last change I made to my ad, was to remove the white background of the picture of the burger. I removed the background by using the transparency tool. It was quite useful and changed the ad quite dramatically.

Review

2008-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Don't be a wimp.
Don't be afraid to create your design with plenty of blank space.
Don't be afraid to uncenter your format - it often makes tthe effect stronger.
Don't be afraid to make your graphics very bold.

Proximity

group related items together and vary the space to indicate the importance of a relationship.

Alignment

To keep everything unified on a page, align everything on the same edge.

Repetition

repetition helps strengthen the consistency on a page.

Contrast

add contrast by using rules, typefaces, colors or spatial relationships.

Weekly Post 1

2008-09-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Article: "The Design Environment" (http://www.wpdfd.com/issues/87/the_design_environment/).

It was quite interesting since it was describing how a design environment should be like. It compares both a virtual and a realistic area to each other. Therefore the writer was finding similarities between websites and with realistic rooms and locations. Both the organisation of a house or a room and the organisation of a website can affect the persons perceptions and behaviours in the same ways.

Websites can be basically seen as a house. It is a simple analogy. An easy escape from the house is actually the back button on the webpage and the pages are analyzed as the rooms. To make a guest feel comfortable at your house, you have to make it attractive and comfortable at the same time. This goes the same for a webpage. For visitors to be attracted to a site, it has to be eye-catching.

Basically this article was summarizing the main principles of design. However, these principles seem to be different to the ones we learnt in class (proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast). The main visual elements of a desing that were described in this article were: color, typography, imagery, content and navigation.

In summary, a peaceful home and a nice webpage is the result of a good design. Busy and crowded websites makes it hard for people to look for information. Websites that are "sticky" and appealing are seen as an organized enviorenment with logical organisation of content. This helps visitors search for information easily. The basic goal of an organised home and webpage is to allow visitors to find what they are seeking for.

This article is actually quite helpful and I believe it will help me and guide me when its time for me to create my own webpage.

2008-09-11T02:14:00.001-07:00

Fireworks, logos, banners, cards, front desk, notes, fax sheets, memos

I made the title of this advertisement completely black. Therefore there would be a repetition between the title and the motto at the bottom and there would also be a better contrast of the title, the background and the text. In addition, I also I added two thick lines underneath both the title and the motto. With these two lines, there is a very good contrast in my advertisement.

Contrast

2008-09-11T01:59:00.001-07:00

Contrast is one of the most effective ways to add visual interest to a page.

If two items are not the same, then make them completely different.

The basic purpose of contrast is two-fold. One purpose is to create an interest on the page and the second purpose is to organize the information.

The best way to have a contrast is to change the line thickness, colors, shapes, sizes and space.

2008-09-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

To have a fair amount of repetition in my advertisement, I adjusted all the writing to the same color. I made the title black and bold so there would be a repetition in the title and the motto on the bottom. As a result, the font and the color of the writing present the repetition in this ad.

Repetition

2008-09-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

REPEAT SOME ASPECT OF THE DESIGN THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PIECE

This repetitive element can be anything from a bold font, a thick line, a certain bullet, color, design, element, format or spatial relationships. (anything that a reader can recognize).

Repetition can also be seen as "consistency".

If there is no repetition in a design, it loses its cohesive look and feel.
With repetition, visual elements in the design unifies and strengthens the design.

The purpose of repetition is to basically unify and to add visual interest.

Avoid repeating the element so much that it becomes annoying. Be careful about the value of contrast.

2008-09-10T04:37:00.000-07:00

I completely adjusted the alignment and proximity. Firstly, I made the font size smaller and had adjusted the spacing between each line so that overall the advertisement would have more space (resulting in a better design). I changed the alignment, so that both the picture of the burger and the text underneath it would have the same alignment.

Alignment

2008-09-09T05:48:00.000-07:00

NOTHING SHOULD BE PLACED ON THE PAGE ARBITRARILY.

Every element should have some visual connection with other elements on the page.
Unity is an important concept in design.
Even if the separate element are not close, they can still appear to be connected by alignment.
The purpose of alignment is to unify and organize the page.
A strong alignment creates a sophisticated, formal, fun or a serious look.
Find elements to align with each other, even if they are physically far away from each other.
Try not to have a centered alignment, unless you want to have a very formal piece of design.

2008-09-04T01:56:00.001-07:00

The Four Basic Principles

2008-09-04T01:22:00.000-07:00

1) Contrast - avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If they are not the same, then make them very different. (often the most important visual attraction on a page. (Main reason to grab people's attention).

2) Repetition - Repeat visual elements of the design. It develops the organization and makes the page more united.

3) Alignment - Every element on the page should have visual connection with one another. This makes the page clean, sophisticated and have a fresh look.

4) Proximity - items, which are related together, should be grouped together. This makes the page one whole unit rather than separate units. This also makes the page clean and organized.

Proximity

2008-09-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

The main principle of proximity is: Group related items together. (related items are seen as one cohesive group rather than a bunch of unrelated things). Proximity gives the readers an instant visual clue as to the organization and content of the page. When item are close to each other, they become one unit.

When adjusting the proximity, you have to make some changes in the size, weight or location of items.

The basic purpose of proximity is to organize.

Avoid a lot of separate elements on a page.

Don't group elements that don't belong together.

2008-09-03T05:29:00.001-07:00

Discussion: What is graphic design? Why is it important?

2008-09-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Graphic Design is the art of visual presentation and communication using graphical elements. There are a lot of different types of graphic designs, including: advertisements, magazines, and of course web design. Graphic design officially began and was used in the late 20th century and advanced into the early 21st century, however if you actually think about it, it began way back in history during the age of the cavemen.
Technology is the application and the process that helps human beings modify nature to meet their needs and wants. In simpler words, technology is a creation from science and engineering. Design and technology definitely have a very significant relationship. Looking at innovations, both technology and design are needed to produce an innovation. In the past century (mostly in the last two decades), both technology and design have been combined to generate brilliant foundations like all of the new electronic devices (IPods, phones, laptops, cameras, etc.) Even though design and technology can be seen as the same thing, they have to different definitions and often get mistaken with one another.
Whenever I see or hear the word design, I think about art, pattern, color and all the elements of fine art. But, when referring to digital design or graphic design, the word has a new meaning. Graphic design, in my opinion, is actually quite an interesting topic and shows us what we can do with the availability of technology and innovations.

	Research method	Design process
Preparation for research	Literature review	Study historic and contemporary examples, media
Information gathering. Goal: to limit variables and identify problem	Collection of preliminary field data	Experimentation with materials and visual ideas
Identification of problem and hypothesis	Information correlated; problem defined; educated guesses made; hypotheses stated; research design prepared	Design problem identified through visual analysis and recognition
Exposition of facts and interpretation	Research plan is carried out; results are analyzed, plan is modified as necessary based on results; experiments are replicated	Work is created in a series, with each work suggesting problems to explore in subsequent work
Presentation of results and findings	Publication of findings	Exhibition of work or production of design

What is Graphic Design?

2008-09-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

The ability to experiment, to value and to learn from mistakes and build on the experience achieved is the hallmark of a successful and creative individual.

Creativity is often mistaken with originality because there are very few original ideas. Creativity is actually the ability to see connections and relationships where others have not.

Design Process: 1. collect ideas and skills through reading or experimentation.

2. Formulate a tentative problem, and begin to explore the topic.

The Design Cycle

This cycle is very useful since it shows all the processes and steps you have to take when you are designing something. It guides you through all of the work. Planning, Investigating, Creating and Evaluating are the four main steps of the cycle. Then each section is divided into two sub sections which defines each step. If you actually think about it, you can start from anywhere and end from anywhere because you will definitely have to come across each step when you are designing.

Upper School Design

2008-08-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

Upper school features:

the triple gym (the unique feature of the building)
new furniture (modern)
"coreways" (wide and spacious)
architectural design (industry-looking design)
very little colour
environmental friendly
sound proof walls

2008-08-27T05:16:00.000-07:00

Design Videos

1st Video

Graphic design can sometimes be too revolutionary.

Designs need a lot of drafts and planning to make it the best. However, the final design is not perfect and will always need more improvements.

Diagrams do not have to be exact.

The London Underground diagram was easy to use. No one ever changed it because it was a success.

Form follows function.

The design is timeless.

2nd Video

Revolution in technology of materials for new shapes.

New designs were created. This revolution took place during the Post war in the 1950's.

These new designs were exciting and surprised people because of its revolutionary designs and its use of material.

Modern design is identified with an independent spirit, liberation and playfulness.

Well designed goods should be available to all.

Interesting and influential designs include organic and human related designs.

My Company

2008-08-27T04:45:00.000-07:00

I am interested in designing clocks. I believe clocks are very useful and they can be found everywhere around a building. With an interesting and revolutionary design, it could have a better effect to the building, making it look more decorative and interesting.

Pre-course Survey

2008-08-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

I have had quite a few big design projects in the past. For example, last year I had to create a movie with some of my classmates in German class . This was a very successful project and I believe that I spent the most time and had the most fun working on the design section instead of concentrating on the German vocabulary or grammar. Planning was definitely the toughest step of our project because it took a lot of time and a lot of thinking. Our movie did not need any researching or evaluating, but our second toughest step was editing. However, it took less time and you dont have to do a lot of thinking to edit. I simply had to adjust the movie to make it perfect.
Another example of a big design project was my Grade 9 English Culminating Project. This projects was informative. Therefore the teacher cared a lot about the content and also the presentation. However, we also had to focus on the organisation. This was quite a tough project, but I had three other classmates working with me. We all had different roles, for example I had to research, the other classmate had to find pictures and charts and the other one was responsible for the organisation of the poster. After we were finished with our rough draft of the project, we each had a turn to edit the poster. I decided not to have a lot of bright and contrasting colours. Therefore I changed the colours and I also decided to make the title bigger and change the position of it. Another classmate decided to check the spelling and grammar of the information and also check if the information is all correct. Another classmate added the Works Cited and added the source underneath all the visuals. In this case, editing was probably the hardest job and I think that this project was more important and valuable than the German movie.

Digital Design was very eye-catching when I saw it as an option for a school elective. I was also very surprised when my teacher told me that we were going to have a new Mac Lab in the new school. So, I thought for a while and then decided to select this subject for this year. I thought as much that this subject was going to involve a lot of technology and computer. This course also seems vey useful for me because I can learn how to design websites, blogs, and other digital features. In general, Digital Design sounds like a whole lot of fun.

Great Design

2008-08-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Great Design 1

Some products like the home entertainment remote control are fabulous inventions but have buttons that are not easy to understand.
Gadgets with great design have to be easy to use.
We need gadgets that are useful
In the past, new technology designs were very useful but now gadgets are getting more complicated.
There has to be a value in a piece of design.

Great Design 2

When you are designing something, there will a lot of problems and limitations to create a perfect gadget. (Conflicting constraints).
Having a cheap design is the only requirement that does not cause problems.
“Good design adds value faster than it adds cost”. As every product is being sold, the higher the value becomes.
Designing needs a lot of planning and close thinking. (To decide what kinds of buttons should be on a remote control and the limitations (e.g. space, size, value))
Artistic beauty is irrelevant.

Great Design 3

As the design gets better and the more the people need it, it is more likely that the design will be purchased.
A design can be seen as perfect and fabulous, but there are still obvious problems in the design that have not been identified.
Usability is probably the most important feature of a design.
Even if a design is better than the top best-selling product, it would never overtake the product in being #1 because the popularity, the value and the desire for it is already way too high.
The fewer the features a product has, the more popular it becomes. However, all of the features have to be easy to use and is important or helpful.
Every product has a special flaw.

Form and Function in Design

The shape of the design has to be based upon its function and purpose.
The product’s designs are bounded by functional limitations of math and materials and logic, but their acceptance is constrained by social expectations.
“Form follows function” can be problematic and needs a lot of close planning and analyzing.
Ornaments are only functional in some cases. (Mainly in architecture)
Ornaments can be used as a signature, a brand or a symbol.
Anatomy will be structured according to functions associated with use.
Decorative elements are superfluous.
Linking the relationship between the form of an object and its intended purpose is a good idea for designers and architects, but it is not always by itself a complete design solution.

My design: My Shoes

Shoes keep your feet comfortable. (In article 1 it says that design has to be useful)
Give the feet proper support and prevents the feet from becoming sore.
Simple. (In article 3, the fewer the features, the more popular the product has become).
Keep them warm during a cold weather.
For everyday use. (Some people use shoes the whole day). (Article 3 says that the most important feature is usability).
They are light.
Fairly cheap. (Article 2 says that having a cheap design is the only requirement that wont cause conflicting constraints).
These shoes are not water-proof. (Article 3 says that every product has a special flaw.)
Is not eye-catching or appealing. (Article 2 says that artistic beauty is irrelevant.)
It doesn’t have any decorative elements. (Article 4 says that decorative elements are not required in a design.)
The shape of the shoe is based on its purpose. (Article 4 says the shape of the design has to be based upon its function and purpose).
The shoe has an ornament which is used as a brand. (Article 4 says that an ornament can be used as a signature or a brand).