Culminating - Written Report

     *Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pardykerr/electroswing/
     My original concept was to do imagine I'm working for an Electroswing band. Electroswing is a twist of 'old-timey' music and new-age remixes or electric (hence the 'electro' part of the name). I began listening to hours and hours on end of this genre of music. While doing that I was sitting down and looking at photo and photo of electroswing, and jotting notes. I made sure to pay close attention to the clothing that males and females wore, the patterning and accessories they owned. I also doodled out concept sketches of their two-person dances. When looking at posters for electroswing concerts I paid attention to the line of each poster. For example, a popular band had a lot of lines that created emphasis to their iconic robot character. I looked at colour, and realized the colour palette were all very limited to a certain colour and kept monochrome. Sometimes they even added a splash of colour, but nothing too drastic. I wanted to keep a lot the same.
  When it came to typography, a lot of the font was 'old style' so I stuck with that. I also wanted to keep my lettering level and have some form of symmetry, but I ended up reversing the one side. The text in posters was laid out very simple, but effective. I wanted to keep the line in which the text was going to be laid on centered but the text itself off to each side. I think by placing the '~' it helps the space between the band name and album name seem less empty and very purposeful - which it was.
  For the technical side of things, I used Adobe Photoshop and went on google to look up silhouettes of men and women in clothing that seemed to fit genre I was looking for, I masked each silhouette and began to add a few things to them. For example, I took an eraser that resembled a leaf and used it on both silhouettes. I made sure to add 2 blocks of brown and actually lower to opacity to get the brown effect and even added a film overlay for a 'old timey' effect. I made sure to use a lot of masks to my advantage and a lot of layers, naming each layer really helped me too with making sure I was working on the right one each time.
  Finally, when I was finished I was pretty proud with what I created. I was a little iffy about it, and didn't really want to present but I knew I had to. After getting up there and having so many complements about my work I was beginning to really like it. In general I'm happy with it and I think I accomplished what I wanted, and think if "Scaunt Dassen" were a real band, they'd be happy.






























 

Composition Photos

Rule of Thirds
I decided to pick this photo for Rule of Thirds. I'm a fan of the lighting and the way the smaller plants are placed, both are not placed in the middle even the stem of another plant. The lighting in this picture is really nice and in my opinion, draws me to the two plants the most.

Pattern
This is the photo I picked for my pattern photo. The straight lines of the pathway lead your eyes down the pattern of squares. I like the simplicity of photo yet it's effective (in my opinion) in keeping looking at the pattern.

Framing
I picked this photo for framing since when my partner and I took the photo we found this wooden frame to use as a literal frame for the photo. Out of the few photos that I picked this was the best out of them all. Though the portrait half of it could have been better the framing itself for the most part was executed fairly well.

Leading Lines
For leading lines I was originally going to pick my 'pattern' photo, but after I saw this one I stuck with it. I think this photo shows leading lines the best because of the way the wood slowly blurs out as it travels down the photo. Following this line, you look at the small stems of the growing plants inside of the line. I also think it was effective that the background was blurred and the focus isn't in the middle.

Fill the Frame
This was a photo I picked for filling the frame. The leaves of the plant are scattered across the whole image, some are blurred and some are in focus. I think the fact that some are blurred while other which are off to the side are in focus really helps move the eye around to really take in the fact it fills the frame. I like how that follows along with the rules of thirds while it still fills the whole frame with plant life. The lighting isn't bright and to me that adds a little of a more relaxing feel, I also really love how the lighting leaves small white touches to each and every leaf.

Selective Focus
This is the selective focus, the flower was obviously the main focus of the picture. I like this one the most because most selective focus pictures are with the subject of focus in the foreground, not the back. For example, the flower is behind the fence, not in front. Usually it would be the other way around. I also like how the fence is traveling on a angle instead of being straight across and the flower is somewhat hidden behind the fence. Almost like it's a mystery on maybe what the rest of it looks like.

Zoom Blur
I really like this Zoom Blur photo, and zoom blur in general. It makes it look like you are possibly running as fast at the speed of sound and everything around you just can't keep up. This makes me think it could be part of a video game, running through the forest to possibly outrun someone or something. If the lighting was changed then that could even count as a horror game or horror genre for a movie poster or screen capture of a movie with someone running for their lives. Maybe even the suspect running after their victim. I think this turned out great fir a zoom blur because of the fact it looks like everything is zooming right past you. When I think of Zoom Blur I picture everything zooming past you at fast speeds and I can see this in this particular photo. The lighting in this photo also helps the whole entire piece 'pop'.

Portrait 1
This portrait was one of my favourites. I had an edited version but sadly that did not save. I really like this photo even if the background may not be in focus. But this is a photo where the background is very simple - a brick wall. There was no reflector used in this photo from what I remember, but the lighting itself worked out. I like how the camera lens is one of the focal points, I think it adds uniqueness to the portait.

Portrait 1
I do love this photo even if the 'nikon' camera holder does seem a bit off. I really love the lighting. I used the reflector to help get rid of the 'raccoon eyes' on my model. I really like the lighting from behind and the small lens flair since it makes little circles which gives the whole piece a very warm feeling to it. The background is blurred out which puts more focus on my model. I also want to thank my model for having the hair and eye colour she had because I think it works well with the warm lighting!

My movie poster

     This is my movie poster, it all started with gathering the background which was simply dragging and dropping the image from a file. Afterward I went out on a adventure looking for each image. I knew I wanted to have a love story but I wanted it to have a cute side, which I decided to use animals for. Mainly people find dogs or cats cute so I figured why not combined the two and a plot twisting well known love story? So that's what I did. I found photos of dogs and cats and began to place them in my poster. I made sure to create masks for each and every image I placed in, and labeled each layer the best I could to help me keep everything organized. I blurred out edges to try and give it a more "love story" feel. I decided on add a balcony, since in "Romeo and Juliet", a VERY well known love story, the balcony scene is a very popular piece of the play. So I took it upon myself to find a balcony good enough for the little kitty, and placed it on the image as well, creating masks and blurring edges. The final step was making sure all of my layers were named properly, then I began to type the title and credits. It took a few tries to get the colours right, but once I saw this colour with the poster I knew this was going to work. I made sure everything was in place a few times before deciding everything worked well. Then I saved a .psd file and a .jpg so I could post to my blog.

Slow & Fast Shutter Speeds

Slow shutter speed of car lights on a highway
This is an image of slow shutter speed. Slow shutter speed can be identified by smooth lines within the photo. Some photographs with slow shutter speed could be a stream of water, stars or sparklers. This image is of cars on the highway, you can tell it's slow shutter speed by the smooth lines created by fast moving cars. I like this image because I think it's very appealing, the red and white lines on a darker background really pop, and the lines all seem to flow in unison.

Fast shutter speed of a cat being startled by milk splashing out of a teacup.
This image is an example of fast shutter speed, fast shutter speed can be identified by the crisp edges on moving objects or the scenery. For example, some photographers use fast shutter speeds on waterfalls to get each and every last drop. You can tell this is a fast shutter speed photo by the crisp lines of the cat's fur, and you are able to see every last drop of the milk. I like this photo because of the choice of colours and the way the shutter speed was able to capture the splashing milk and get every drop into the shot without them becoming blurry in the final shot.
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Logo designs

The "original" logo.

My pages of logo practice.

My typography roughs.

My combinations of both the typography and logo designs.

Final logo design

My company is a graphic design company which is directed to any company that needs a graphic design done whether or not that's a logo or just a design for something like a business card or bulletin board. I choose a cat because it fit with my personality, but I wanted to express creativity, cats come in MANY shapes, sizes, heights, weights and more. Since cats can be so diverse they can be "creative" in their looks. Originally the cat was going to be a solid colour but after playing around I noticed adding multiple lines added to the "design" or "creativity" side of my company. each line had about the same thickness but Each line creats a different shape throughout to come across as a cat. In terms of colour it's just a solid white, I thought a solid colour worked better rather than multiple, not only that but the logo itself I thought worked better either black or white. I really do think the cat stands out first because of the diverse design. My eyes begin at he cat and scan around the lines until I reach the graphics which is a flow of an arc as I read it. I had a few complications, at one point in time I completely restarted because the pen tool is very hard to learn, but after our exercises I had gotten the hang of it. The lens were actually a mistake, but after looking it over I thought it made the logo more unique. I learned a few things with this assignment, one of the most challenging was getting the hang of the pen tool, but after a while I was able to. Another important thing I learned was sometimes mistakes can bloom into amazing creations. it was a huge mistake on my part when everything other separated, so I decided to role with it and the design looked even better than the original.

Raster Formats vs Vector Formats

A raster and vector defined:
    A raster can be defined as an image that is composed of a wide arrange of coloured pixels which when placed together in a certain order create an image. This image could range from just a doodle, to a sketch, to even something that a company may want from a Graphic Designer. Many people do not recommend using a raster for creating a logo for, example because when an image is too big or to small it must be re sized. When resizing a raster, the pixels may become blurred and the image loses it's quality. If you were to create a logo using a raster and need one image on a billboard and the other on a business card, you will lose the quality on the image you did not scale to be that size.

    A vector on the other hand is an image composed of lines or 'paths' like in Illustrator that are either straight or curved. A vector must have paths that have a start, and make their way to an end to create a shape. The shape is usually coloured in or completed as a silhouette. Most, if not all Graphic Designers will tell you to use a vector format as apposed to a raster format. If you need to rescale your image from a business card to a billboard, your image will not lose its quality. The image will look the same on the business card than it does on the billboard - just bigger. It's very easy for a graphic designer to use a vector format, especially when the company who you're working for wants a business card, billboard and maybe even t-shirts or sweaters with their logo on it. You can simply re size everything and not have to worry about losing the quality of your work.


The Common uses of a Raster format and Vector format:
  When you take a photo of someone or something and decide to zoom in during editing you may notice the closer you get, the more pixels appear on the image. This is an example of a raster image! Photography - along with raster itself can also be called a bitmap image because of all the tiny pixels it's made out of. Photography files are usually a lot bigger too because of it being a raster. A raster's image are usually bigger since the software must be able to render and keep track of every pixel, which usually means a much larger file. People may also use a Raster as an "OUTPUT file" because it's an image that is mainly only meant for online screen display since fooling around with the size of the image will ruin the quality. The file types of a raster format are: .jpg , .gif , .png , .tif.

  Talking about the uses of a Vector format is a lot easier than explaining the uses for a Raster format simply because more people use Vector as apposed to those who use Raster formats. The biggest usage for a Vector format is for logo creation, whether that is for a clothing company or a car company. Most charts are made using a vector or any hard-edged graphic. A vector can be used as a "SOURCE file" since it can be sent to any printer. Some of the file types for a Vector format are: .ai , .eps , .pdf , .svg. The best part about working with a Vector is that you do not need to worry about quality decreasing when you decide that the image needs to be bigger or smaller based on what the client wants.

The advantages of a Raster and Vector format: 
  The advantages of a raster format is that colour editing is a lot easier than a vector format. Not only is it easier, but there is a lot more options when it comes to editing, which opens new doors and windows for many opportunities and ideas. A raster can also display the natural qualities of a camera, unlike a vector which cannot.

  A vector is "scalable" meaning it can be printed as both a business card or billboard. Majority of vector files are lightweight which leaves room for more storage! More storage means more art!! If you were to increase the size of an image by a great percent, we all know a raster would just turn to blurry pixels. But with a vector, we can be rest assured that our image will stay the exact same no matter how many times we re scale it.

bibliography:

https://designshack.net/articles/layouts/vector-vs-raster-what-do-i-use/
http://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/vector_and_raster_graphics
https://www.psprint.com/resources/difference-between-raster-vector/
https://modassicmarketing.com/understanding-image-file-types

My personality and the images that correspond with them.

I decided in order to show who I am through images, I needed to think outside the box a little. I want to start with cats, Maine coon cats to be exact. Maine coon cats are cats that turn out to be way bigger than most cat breeds. Though I may be on the shorter side, my personality can get pretty big once you get to know me. Maine coon cats can be a little mysterious, or super open and playful based on their mood and how you treat them, a lot like myself. Aside from being big, they also have long, fabulous fur that scatters along their body, the fluffiness of the fur hint kindness, warmth or even love. I try to make sure everyone I'm around gets that feeling of happiness and warmth in their lives.

Next was the decision to pick a rose/flower. Roses are my favourite type of flower, not because they have a romantic tone to them, but because of the way they look and some of the things roses are tied with. Roses seem to be very recognizable, but can also be fooled for other flowers because of their vast diversity within the species. I feel like this works for me, normally people can tell me apart form others so easily, but sometimes if I change something I'm unrecognizable! Roses come in many shapes, sizes and even colour like everyone else on this world. The final point I want to make is that a rose itself looks harmless, warm and sweet, but under all of that is its stem which is lined with spikes that can hurt you. Sometimes people see me as the delicate rose, but once they get to know me, I can be as crazy and hard to deal with than the spikes on the stem.
Next up is a batch of buttons! Yes! Buttons! I am obsessed with collecting them, buttons are just so much fun and have a childish ring to them. You can make so many things with buttons as long as you have the buttons the possibilities are endless! People make art out of buttons, use it in photography or and more. But what do buttons have to do with my personality? I think the fact that buttons are childish is something buttons and I tend to have in common. I can be a bubble of childish laughter when I want to, as well as colourful. Buttons do tend to come in many shapes, colours and sizes, which I really have been over the years.
Now we have the gemstone Amethyst! I'm born in February, which makes my gemstone Amethyst. That's not the only reason, though. I do like the colour purple, but that isn't the only reason I chose the amethyst. Amethysts have been symbolism for a lot of things, since it's a quartz, it's been depicted as a strong, courages gem that was sometimes worn as a symbol of strength. I can be a little chicken, especially when confronted with certain things. But in general, I try my hardest to be brave for the people that I care the most for.

Finally is my favourite breed of dog, the corgi. I did not pick the corgi simply because it's my favourite dog. A corgi is a very energetic dog, I can be a very energetic too. From just being very active to talking non-stop talking all day long. Corgis also smile a lot and I tend to smile a lot too. When I'm crazy and energetic I tend to move a lot, juts like a corgi does.