Blog Entry #5

Mini Art School #3
* Required Activity

*Design Basic Index: Cropping Exercise (p.193)*
       note: First the before picture is posted followed by the cropped version      
I really enjoyed this activity because it allowed me to experiment and utilize all the tools that the still media tool (PixLr) in which I critiqued for my Mixed Media Digital Critique has to offer. The biggest conflict I had about this activity was selecting the pictures to perform the cropping exercise on. I felt like this was a big aspect of this part of the project because there had to be specific elements that allowed this picture to really pop and being meaningful to the viewer when it was cropped. Overall, I am happy with all the results and I actually am finding that this may be a great aspect to incorporate in the future to help highlight key aspects of a picture that may be forgotten otherwise.                      

                   

 

• Any Two Activities

Design Basic Index: Color Echo Exercise (p.219)
        For this activity I needed to take an image and incorporate 3 colors pulled from the image itself into the background, text, etc. I found that utilizing the eyedropper tool for this exercise came in handy because I was able to select the exact colors from the photo in order to have the colors of the image echo throughout the final product. I enjoyed this activity because it allowed me to experiment with the gradient tool and see what does and doesn't work when echoing the colors of an image. Throughout this project I noticed that some colors I was more inclined to utilize more so than others. I am not sure if this might have been from the coordination of colors or because I was targeting a St. Patrick's Day theme. I also tried different fonts and the positioning of the font to see if this had any effect on how the overall image looked and whether or not the background took away from the viewers perceptions of the font. Please let me know what you think. 

Design Basic Index: Logo Variations Exercise (p.221)

For this activity I was to select a design/form that I created in my Mini Art School #3 and add typography to the logo to create a logo design. I was to imagine that this logo has been accepted by a client, and that they are asking for four different designs of the logo in order to cover all of their media needs. On the right hand side are my four different designs. I was to incorporate color into 3 designs and leave one design simple with black and white. When deciding on the color scheme I decided on these colors because they were very neutral and with a brewery it can be referring to either a coffee brewery (fall/winter) or a beer brewery (spring/summer) so I felt like these colors covered both aspects depending on what the company is serving that time of the year. I found that the hardest part of this part of the project was since on my mini art school #3 this design/form was welded together I had to find a way to un-weld it which had an effect on the shape when I filled the shape with a new color other than black. It was challenging to incorporate a lot of pictures but I think the coordination of the colors and the design really accent each other.