Completed: Instant Book

Last Wednesday was our critique for the instant book project. As I previously wrote in another post, my book was pretty personal, so I was a bit nervous about sharing it with the class. I've always loved expressing myself through poems, song lyrics, and writing in general, so I was excited for the class to read one of my little poems. I was definitely pleased with my final project because I felt as though the images I incorporated brought the poem to life.

Professor Greenan mentioned the fact that images almost took us away to Paris and made it seem as though this story was happening elsewhere. She also commented on the fact that I wrote the story in third person. To be honest, it happened quite subconsciously and as I look back, I think I wanted to tell the story as though everything that I was talking about had happened to another girl and not necessarily to me. One of the main themes of the book was also the importance of numbers. I know for a fact that I will never forget the time that my Dad passed, his age, my age at the time, or the date. Those numbers are burned in my brain and I think that by emphasizing them, I was able to make the readers realize just how much losing someone can impact your existence.

Here's how my book turned out:

*There is spelling mistake (clock), but I did correct this before the final printing.

Here's the inside poster:

 

I wanted the font that I used to tell the story/poem to look handwritten and give the reader the sense that they were maybe even reading a personal letter or journal. Everything from the photographs to the text is original, except for the final quote on the inside poster. I wanted to include that specific quote because it describes my Dad and the fact that he never told me what to do with my life or how to carry myself, he merely set an example and I learned from that. 

Any thoughts or comments are more than welcome! Thanks for checking this out. :) 

I would also like to dedicate this post to my Dad. Thank you for being such an amazing person and teaching me to love who I am and never give up on any dream no matter how massive it may seem. You were the best and I hope to make you proud. I love you, dearly. 

Importance of Color

I'm noticing more so now with the election right around the corner, that news shows feel very strongly about the colors they use to design their sets and graphics.

I'm currently watching the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, which airs at 9pm ET, and is a political opinion/current news program. I usually tend to watch CNN, but over the last few months I discovered Maddow and really got hooked on her interviews and commentary. Until now, I hadn't realized just how american pride her set and graphics were!

The studio is adorned in all red, white, and blue. The graphics that appear when the show turns to a commercial are red, white, and blue. The headline designs, the poll graphics, the news ticker, and even the cup on her desk, are all RED, WHITE, and BLUE.

Coincidence? I'm thinking not.

Rachel Maddow, whom I would consider to be a liberal individual, is pretty aware of the importance of displaying the fact that her program is meant to bring serious and vital information to the American public. No matter her political positions, we automatically associate the program with the country and the governmental aspect. Who knows if Rachel is even that massively proud of being an American, but her program's design seems to speak volumes. Could the point of all the american pride color schemes be to attract "channel flippers," who might otherwise mistaken the program as something more boring and lackluster?

Here's a promotional graphic for The Rachel Maddow Show.

Thoughts?

Instant Book Update!

Today I officially completely my instant book. It differs in a few ways from the draft I created last week, but I'm pleased with those changes that came along as I designed it. Instead of including hand drawings, I opted to select some photographs I took recently and not so recently.

Two of the pictures I included are images I captured on my trip to Europe back in the summer of 2010. I went overseas for two weeks and spent time in London, Paris and Rome. Needless to say, it was amazing and I would love to go back in the future. Who knows, maybe even live there for some time.

Anyway, the pictures gave the book a more "dressed up" feel, in my opinion, but with the fonts I selected, you can still tell that the book is meant to be personal. I honestly love that we had to do this in gray scale. It challenged me at times. At one point I was designing the cover and thought that only using black, white, and RED, would be a great look for my book, unfortunately, red is not black or white. Whoops.

I'm honestly a bit nervous about the critique on this project because I took a few chances and decided to be slightly less conservative with my design, but I'm truly happy with it. Fingers crossed that it's well received!

I'll be photocopying the final product tomorrow, then spending some time folding for Wednesday!

Look for my final product sometime on Wednesday or Thursday evening. Can't wait for everyone to see it!

Book Theme

Ever since Professor Greenan introduced the class to project two, I've been mapping it out in my head. I almost immediately knew I wanted my book to revolve around losing my dad to cancer three years ago. Losing him was one of the hardest things I've ever gone through, but it also made me a better person. I experienced severe depression, which caused me to fall behind in school, ruin a few relationships, and even turn to self harm and an eating disorder. When I look back, it's almost as though I didn't even live for those few years, I merely existed.

It wasn't until March of this year that I actually felt like myself again and was able to discontinue using anti-depressants. As of now, I have a truly good quality life. I have become an even better version of myself and that's due in part to my dad and what he has inspired me to do and be.

The book will surround the idea that time isn't always on our side and we should never hesitate to say things like "I love you" to the people that mean the most to us. Today in class I began writing a poem that will act as the text of the book and I will start sketching out the images tonight or tomorrow.

Here's a quick sneak peak of the first stanza of the poem:

The world froze at 7:18.
The tick tock of the clock stopped,
Just as his breathing.
He was 59 the day that he died. 

Thoughts?

Using FedEx to Print

I wanted to share my experience using FedEx Online Printing to print my magazine layout for the in class presentations last week. A few classmates faced some obstacles when it came to printing their final designs, so I’m hoping this will give them a little guidance.

Once my project was completed and in PDF form, I accessed the FedEx site and navigated to their online printing page, which can be found here: http://www.fedex.com/us/office/index.html

I then clicked the “start online order” option and proceeded with the “set up a document” option that allows you to upload files to the site directly from your computer. Once uploaded, you can set the print options for your document. I would recommend selecting the “set your own options,” considering the fact that our projects need to be within a certain set of guidelines. By setting your own options, you can select the type of paper, print color and much more. The best part of this option is the fact that you can add in special instructions that will be sent directly to the person printing your document. When ordering my magazine layout, I made sure to reiterate the fact that it was indeed an 11.5 x 17 document and I also wanted it mounted onto a foam board.

Once you have done that, you can then entire in your information and select which FedEx you would like to have your document sent to. I selected the FedEx Kinko’s on McKinley Parkway in Blasdell, NY.  If you did indeed include special instructions, you will receive a phone call a few hours after placing your order from a worker, who will go over your order before they finalize and print it.

When I went to pick it up, the worker was extremely kind and allowed me to look over the layout before I paid. In total, the layout cost me around $8.

I hope this long and in-depth explanation will help some of you the next time we have to print a project out for this class!

Best of luck!

Trouble With Exercises

I decided to dedicate this blog post to the exercises we have to complete on a weekly basis. I want to share my struggles with the assignments, but more so, I wanted to know how everyone else was fairing.

Throughout the first month of the semester, I was able to complete each exercise without much trouble. The instructions were clear and concise, and I was submitting each exercise early or on time. Once the October rolled around, I started to fall behind and find the tasks a bit more confusing and intense. I felt as though I had to designate entire class periods to work solely on exercises in order to stay on track. Today was actually going to be one of those days. Unfortunately, when I came into class, I found out that the online version of the textbook was out of service.

However, the news turned around in an instant when Professor Greenan announced that she wasn't too concerned with any of the leftover exercises and would rather us focus on our remaining projects. I can honestly say that relief washed over me and the word "HALLELUJAH" flashed in my mind, which instantly caused me to start singing that song to myself. I'm a music nerd, there's no denying it.

I'm beyond excited to work on the next project and am so very happy that I can pool all of my energy into one thing.

Everything will work out in the end, I suppose!

P.S. If you haven't heard Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah," you definitely should give it a go. One of my top five favorite songs of all time. Check it out.

Project One: Magazine Layout

On Monday we presented our first graded project of the semester, the magazine layout. For my layout, I decided to work with "The Great Pumpkins" article because I am a massive fan of the fall season and I felt I could be fairly creative with this specific theme.

Being a fan of simplistic and modern design, I tried to create a layout that was innovative and yet somewhat traditional. I really enjoyed working with line and color, which you can see when you view my final project. Due to the theme of pumpkins, I consciously chose to use the colors; orange, black, white and a few neutral shades that were featured in the selected photographs.

As for the use of line, I originally had each column sectioned off, but with some guidance from Professor Greenan, I removed two of the thicker black lines to make the layout less structured.

The idea of layering a text box on-top of the two featured photographs came from one of the magazines that the Professor brought into class a few weeks back for us to skim through. I thought it gave the piece a more dimensional look and even allowed me to only use two images without it looking too simple.

For the font choices, I wanted to incorporate more than one typeface. The text is in Garamond, while the title is in Helvetica and the font size increases. I decided to do this to emphasis the title, considering it is indeed the "The Great Pumpkins."

Here is the final product: