Book Synopsis

The book project was probably one of the most enjoyable projects for me because it was something that we, as students, had very few guidelines to follow allowing us to have more freedom as a designer.  When I first heard about the project I was completely overwhelmed.  Our assignment was to create a 32-page book plus a cover.  Since we were actually going to be submitting this book to be published, we were given various layout sizes and binding to choose from.  The book could be about anything we wanted it to be and it had to contain some sort of content as well as some other typographic elements within the book.

At first I was completely overwhelmed with the thought of designing a 32-page book in three weeks but once I came up with an idea it was pretty smooth sailing from there.  I decided to create a book about my family.  I emailed various family members asking them to write a favorite family story that was funny.  I wanted to make sure to get everyone’s different style of writing and personality so each story would be unique.  I then went though hundreds of photos and found various embarrassing pictures to include as well.

Overall I feel that the final design was very strong. I went through various drafts until I finally came up with one that seemed to fit with the content of my book.  I am really happy with the cover and I think that it simple and elegant.

I am really pleased with the way everything turned out in the end.  I think that it has a great balance of positive and negative space as well as some good typographic elements.  And on a side note, I love the fact that it doubles as Christmas presents for everyone!

Psychogeography Inspiration

In my typography class, we were assigned a project…not just any old type project but something, I feel, was completely out of left field.  Our project was to create a psychogeographic map within the Chattanooga area.  Piece of cake, right?  Not exactly.  I love the fact that we were given something outside the normal everyday projects but when it’s something I have never even heard of, then I start to get a little stressed out.

I am finally grasping the whole concept and have begun to take steps in designing my personal psychogeographic map.  Part of my process in grasping the idea was researching and finding inspiration from other maps.  Here are a few of my favorites that have caught my attention.

http://confluxfestival.org/2009/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/julia_kaganskiy_persona1-1024x301.png

http://ischkin.com/psycho1web.JPG

http://makingmaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/wood_boylanatlas_signs.png

http://www.ff-blitz.com/ffx/sphere-grid.gif

I am visually drawn to the more colorful vibrant maps out of all the ones I have seen.  The maps that are more line based than photo based are my favorite.  I think there is something really beautiful about the lines and how the form different organic shapes within them.  I also find the maps using repeating geometric shapes just as beautiful.

I was intimidated at first by the project but I’m pretty excited about it now.  Looking forward to the final outcome.  Hope it looks as good as it does in my mind!

Web In the Wild Logo Synopsis

Our assignment was to design a logo for a possible design conference titled, Web in the Wild. All of the information was based off of an example email brief from one of our books, Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks.  From there we decided as a class the details such as the days, target audience, and the main categories that would be covered.  From there we were to use that information to create a logo for the conference.

I knew I wanted to create a logo based off the letter W since it was easily connected to the title.  My first initial reaction was to create a design that had a sort of gestural feel.  The design was quickly scrapped and I played around with different styles including modern, technical, nature, and everywhere in between.  I also experimented with designing a logo solely on the typography and the title.  That was short lived and I began playing with geometric shapes that would suggest the letter W without actually using it.

Finally after class response and personal elimination I came up with the final logo: a series of overlapping triangles put together in a way it creates an upside down trapezoid.  The final shape and lines within it create a repetition of different w shapes depending on the way you look at it.  As for my color palette I wanted to go with something mature but still vibrant and exciting.  I feel I have achieved that with my color choices of deep purples and teals.

The tagline was one of the more difficult things.  My final tagline is a play on words. Most people who attend any sort of conference are there to expand their knowledge and improve their skills in their area of specialty.  Web designers are constantly challenged to come up with fresh, hot ideas and designs.  They are constantly on the cutting edge.  With those things in mind I came up with the tagline: “giving your site an edge.”  I wanted people who were interest in attending the conference know they were going see new concepts and ideas for their website; hence, the play on words.  I am very please with the final logo and tagline.  It was a rough process, but definitely worth the work.

Class Trip to Williams Visual Solutions

Yesterday, we went as a class on our final excursion of the series to Williams Visual Solutions.  First, I’ll start off with a mini history lesson.  Williams Visual Solutions was founded in 1947 by Bubba Williams (our guide for the day) father, Levi M. Williams.  The company started out as a Linotype Trade shop and as the demand built over the years, the company expanded to what it is today.  I think the easiest way to sum up what kind of services they offer is this: you name it, they do it.  And if for some crazy reason they don’t have the capability, the Williams has connections with other companies to make sure the job is done right.  The sky is the limit.

Photo by TJ Bowman

Personally, I think we saved the best for last.  As soon as I stepped foot in the building and our guide for the day Bubba introduced himself, crazy as it sounds, I immediately felt completely at home.  To start the tour, we were taken to the design area of the “fun house”.  I say fun house because there are some many different halls and doors from the company expanding that you could easily get lost by yourself.  Anyways, when we were in the design area we met up with our other guide for the day, David Smith.  From there Bubba and David took us around the building filling our brains with all kinds of great information.

Photo by TJ Bowman

Photo by TJ Bowman

We saw design, proofing, digital print, mailing services, data capture and analysis, offset print, and believe it or not there was a lot that we didn’t get to see because of the time allotted!  I think the one thing that made them stand out compared to the other companies we visited was that even with all the capabilities, achievements, and big name clients the staff was so humble.

Photo by TJ Bowman

To end the tour the company even went the extra mile and had lunch catered for us!  Something that we never expected, nor received during our other trips.  While we were eating, we had a digital presentation of the companies goals for the future which I was extremely impressed with.

Overall, this trip was a blessing for me.  With the high demand of time and energy of  UTC’s graphic design program, I had begun to question whether I was really cut out to be a graphic designer.  The spark was gone because not only did I feel like my work was never good enough but I also hadn’t really experienced anything to look forward to in the future.  But as cheesy as it sounds, this trip immediately brought my passion back.  I can’t really describe what exactly was different there compared to the other places we visited, but it came just in the nick of time.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to David, Bubba, Jennifer and the rest of the staff there at Williams Visual Solutions for taking the time and allowing us to visit!!  The passion, knowledge, family atmosphere, and strive to constantly improve were clearly evident.

Class Trip to the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Photo by Austin Reed

Last Thursday we got to go on another class field trip, this time to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.  When you first walk into the building the first thing you notice are these beautiful original old maple hardwood floors from where the building used to be an factory years and years ago.  We were greeted by the sweetest, cutest elderly woman who gave us our “visitor” stickers and then led back to an alcove called the “Newseum” where we were greeted by our guide for the day, Frank Anthony.

Photo by Austin Reed

In the Newseum, Frank gave us a thorough history on several examples of old printing equipment including a Washington Press, Linotype, Associated Press, and a Platen Press.  From there we were taken to the newsroom where all the action for the newspaper took place.  We got to see all the editors, writers, and graphic designers in action working on the next issue of the newspaper.

Photo by Austin Reed

We were then taken up another floor where we were shown where the staff for the newspapers website worked.  We were also shown some pretty cool machines that were capable of printing silver negatives and negative plates.  Frank then took us to where the actual newspaper was printed.

Photo by TJ Bowman

The printer was absolutely incredible!  It was ten feet wide by one hundred feet long and thirty seven feet tall.  It was a monster!  The printer is so large in fact that it was build on its own separate foundation.  Everything about this thing was supersized.  A single roll of paper for one of the machines weighs about one ton and even the ink “cartridges” were huge!  The entire cost of this beast: about 12.5 million dollars.

Photo by TJ Bowman

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of the printers run but I’m sure its incredible.  Finally we taken to the room where the newspapers were organized, separated, and stacked to be distributed.  A big thanks to Frank and his staff for allowing us to see what all goes into publishing the local newspaper.

Class Trip to Allegra Print & Imaging

Picture by TJ Bowman

Yesterday we took a class trip to Allegra Print & Imaging and I have to say it was pretty dang awesome.  Todd Oates, the general manager, was our guide for the few hours we were there and I have nothing but great things to say.  Todd took us through each department and explained to us what went on there and then someone within each department would show us how the printing machines worked.

Picture by TJ Bowman

Not only did they show us how the machines worked and what they produced, they even went above and beyond and spoiled us with personalized examples of what the machines were capable of making or doing to make the final product.  I was really impressed with how Allegra makes it a point to stay up to date on all their machines and tries to stay on top of making sure to replace their machines with improved ones every few years to keep the quality of their products in top shape.  We were shown everything from the graphic design department, to digital printing, cutting, binding, laminating, die-cutting, ink pressing, to folding, and more!

Picture by TJ Bowman

I really really enjoyed everything about it and I could definitely tell that the team at Allegra wasn’t just your average printing company.  It was clearly evident that the team of people who worked there were extremely knowledgeable and took the time with each print job to make sure it was absolutely perfect.  So a HUGE thanks to Todd and his staff there at Allegra for taking the time to show us how everything works and answering our questions.  It was an incredible experience and I was able to walk away with an improved knowledge on printing.

Layers Magazine Contest Entry

This project was for Layers Magazine, a magazine dedicated to everything Adobe related.  We were assigned this project just seven days before the entry deadline, so needless to say it was a very quick turnaround.  The whole idea behind the contest was to create a fictitious movie poster and incorporating the tutorials provided.

Now this was the first time that we had ever been assigned something and it be completely resolved in seven days.  And let me say, it was rough.  Now, I know that this will happen once I am released into the real world, and I expect it to happen to me sooner or later.  But since this was the first time, I struggled to even come up with a good concept.  I ran though five or six different ideas and finally settled on creating a movie about my best friend, Josh.  I had this really great profile picture of him that was one of my favorite pictures and used that for the image on the poster.  And for a short little bio about Josh, he has been riding dirt bikes since he was four years old, and is now trying to get sponsored by a factory.  So the title and tag for the movie poster was only appropriate for his situation.  Being designed in such a short amount of time, I think that it came out pretty well considering everything we had to do.

DIY Summit Thoughts

www.DIYSummit.com

Last Thursday, September 17, 2009, my graphic design class spent the entire day watching nine speakers online through a live web feed.  Each speaker or speakers talked for about an hour each with a small break in between each one.  It was the first time that I had ever experienced a live video via internet and it was pretty interesting.  I really enjoyed how we were able to hear some great speakers yet it was also very casual since it wasn’t in a large room full of people.  Although some of the topics we way over my head I was able to gather some resources for future reference.

Matt Harris went over using WordPress for content management which was pretty helpful for me, surprisingly.  Believe it or not, before being accepted into the graphic design program at UTC I had absolutely no interest in creating a blog.  As a result, I’m not really blog savvy like a lot of people in my class.  Since Matt went over everything from the different WordPress sites, datatypes, and plugins, I was able to finally feel like I had some sort of a grasp on this whole blog concept.  Kevin Lawver gave us an introduction to Ruby on Rails, a web development framework written in the Ruby language.  This is where I was belly up in the deep end of the pool, in other words it was completely over my head.  Props to Kevin for understanding it and being comfortable enough to give a speech about it.  Kelly Goto gave us some insight in “finding the FLOW in workFLOW.”  I really enjoyed hearing about release cycles and creating manageable ones with clients.  She went over some of the challenges that we might run into and gave us a way to overcome them without causing us to miss a deadline.  Unfortunately, I had to go to work and didn’t get to hear any more of the speakers.

Overall, I was able to walk away with some great resources and also gained new knowledge in areas that I was completely unfamiliar with.  I thought the online conference was great in the sense that no matter where you were located in the world, you could attend the conference thanks to e4h, Environments for Humans.  I really enjoyed the casual atmosphere and how you were able to listen in a place where you were able to relax and not in a big conference room.  But there were some technical issues such as sound and the video freezing and slides not working that might not have been an issue in person.  I had never heard any of the speakers before so I felt like since they had to stay stationary in front of a computer screen the conference didn’t really do them any justice as far as how they are in person.  They were able to keep my attention though video, so if I ever get the opportunity to hear them in person, I know I will be impressed.  So thanks Matt, Kevin, and Kelly for taking the time to share your passion with us and everyone else who attended the series.  And if it weren’t for our amazing teacher, Leslie Jensen-Inman, we wouldn’t have been able to have this opportunity to participate.  So thanks Leslie, you’re awesome!

DIY Summit 2009

Mark Trammell is a man who’s got quite a stack of accomplishments under his belt.  Graduating from The College of William and Mary with a B.B.A. in Operations and Information Technology then moving right along to receive his M.S. in Decision and Information Sciences from the University of Florida in 2002, it is clear that he has a passion and a drive for his career choice.  Mark’s professional experience launched in 1995 when he became the Public Affairs Assistant for the USS John F. Kennedy.  During his three years spent there he designed and constructed the aircraft carrier’s web and intranet presences, produced carrier-wide television and radio shows, produced the ship’s daily newspaper, and last but not least hosted distinguished visitors and fielded on-site media inquiries.  In 1998 he moved on to become the Editor in Chief for the Chesapeake Tide. From there he became the Director of content for W&M Student Information Network (http://www.sin.wm.edu/) in 1999 where he accomplished many things including founding and serving as Editor in Chief of SIN News, the campuses multimedia news site.  Finally with a solid list of bragging rights and a M.S. degree in hand, he moved to Florida where he attended the University of Florida to receive his B.B.A.  While he was there he became the web developer for the UF Web Administration (http://www.webadmin.ufl.edu/) then went on to become the University Web Administrator until 2007.  In 2007 he became the Web Standards Evangelist for PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/).  His current job title is the User Experience Architect for Digg (http://digg.com/).  Beginning there in 2008, he shining moment has been starting Digg’s user research program.

On a personal note, I think that Mark Trammell is the man!  I am so impressed by the amount of notable things he has done in just a short amount of time.  I mean, how many people can say that while they were in college they worked for the USS John. F. Kennedy?  If you can name one then let me know.  From what I’ve read about him through interviews and his twitter account he seems like an extremely intelligent yet down to earth kind of guy.  Although he has well earned his “soapbox moment”, he seems very humble and personable.   During his presentation at DIY Summit where he and Juliette Melton will be talking about the benefits of user research, I know I will be able to walk away with ample amounts of advice and information that will help me become a more well-rounded designer.  Here are his sites if you want to check him out!

http://marktrammell.com/

mark.trammell.com/

http://digg.com/users/trammell

Now that I have given quite a load of information on Mark Trammell, it’s time for Juliette Melton to be in the spotlight.  Right of the bat we know she is extremely intelligent.  Her education includes attending Harvard University where she received her Master’s degree in education from Harvard’s Technology, Innovation, and Education program.  During Juliette’s time there she concentrated on cognitive and psychological models for developing networked learning applications.  Her reasons for bragging rights include the Solar Magnitude Forum (http://philip.greenspun.com/research/solar-magnitude-forum), a study on community discussion forums.  From what I understand, and please correct me if I’m wrong, the study concentrates on what the standards should be for community forums on a website.   She also wrote a few interesting essays while attending Harvard.   The first is titled Making the most of your Learning Management System (http://juliemelton.com/articles/onlinelearning/learning_management.htm). On a side note, if you are in the same boat that I was and aren’t sure what is a Learning Management System, here’s a little background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_Management_System.  The second essay is titled Asynchronous Discussion Tools at HGSE: Designing tools to support learning (http://juliemelton.com/articles/onlinelearning/hgse_collaboration.htm).  As Juliette explains, her essay is designed to help serve as a guide to looking at technology tools, and how they support learning.  She also outlined a curriculum to allow teachers to have the ability to use technology to help students develop an understanding of the idea of evolution.  On top of all that, she has also contributed to the online product development of photo.net, Safari Books Online, TERC, and Family Health International (FHI), Harvard Business school, just to name a few.  Oh and in her spare time, which I am amazed she is able to find, she enjoys photography.  Here are her sites for you to check out!

http://juliemelton.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliemelton

http://linoleumjet.com/

http://www.lumosity.com/

(the last one is her company)

Okay, so now it’s time for my input.  Just from this information I am intimidated.  I feel like this woman is so intelligent that she might just have the power to control things through her thoughts, like Matilda. Honestly, the accomplishments she has achieved are so over my head that I’m belly up in the deep end of the pool right now.  I think Juliette’s edge is just the amount of knowledge she has for network learning applications as well as the Internet in general.  Like I mentioned before, her and Mark Trammell are speaking together at DIY Summit.  I’m extremely interested in hearing them speak together because their personalities seem like polar opposites.  I have never heard either one of them speak before but for some reason I see them being like a brother/sister pair.  You know the kind I’m talking about, the one’s where you know for a fact they genuinely value the company but constantly throwing each other under the bus.  At DIY Summit the two of them will cover the benefits of user research, easy ways to get started, traffic and task analysis basics, how to write surveys that work, and sharing what they have learned.  Since these topics aren’t things that I am familiar with I am excited to learn from two of the best!

Museum Logo Inspiration

I think I find more inspiration from logos that have been around for a while.  There is something to be said about designs that have been around for a long time yet are always able to fit right in with the new trends and ideas that come along.  I think I would consider them classics and a set of standards that we as designers should be inspired by and strive to achieve that same sort of classiness.  But there are also those logos that are just obvious yet so unique and clever at the same time.  There are also some posters from different museum exhibitions that I also find inspiring for our next project.

This poster is very clear in showing what is going to be in the exhibit. According to the website "this very large poster was made to advertise the first ever exhibition of Titanic artifacts recovered by RMS Titanic, Inc., the salvor in possession of the Titanic's wreck site. The exhibit was held at the Royal Naval Museum in Stockholm, Sweden from the 9th of March to the 7th of April, 1991." Although the colors and the layout of the text isn't really that great, I love the use of the image and the feeling you get when you look at it.

I think this poster is really beautiful. The photograph and all the colors within it are bright and catch your eye as soon as you glance at it. It is a poster for a pearl exhibition at a museum. This is a really great design because you know exactly what the exhibit is going to be showing and there isn't anything confusing to mislead the viewer.

http://pleaseenjoy.com/project.php?cat=3

For example there is the New Museum logo which is the shape of the museum building. I love how this design is so simple and fresh. There is nothing complicated and when you see it you know exactly what it is without having text included with it. It can stand alone and also be incorporated into things.

The Museum of London logo is unique in the aspect that each colored shape represents the growth of the city of London over time. Although it might not be obvious to everyone who looks at it I think that it is naturally fitting for the Museum of London.

There is also the Leeds City Museum logo designed by Odessa Design that I also find very appealing. On Odessa Design's website it explains that the idea was "to create a design that reflected the eclectic collection" of the Leeds City Museum. They go on to explain that after going through their images they chose the shell because"its elegance and geometry reflects the depth and detail of the collections while also referencing fossil forms and natural structures." I have to agree that the shape is very organic and could be used in multiple ways. I also think that using shades of just one color instead of multiple colors was a smart solution since the image is already intricate by itself.