Kismet Arts Tangent

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  • Bike To Italy

    I’ve started to design this final project of typography. It is a 12-page brochure explaining an Italian Bike Tour. I approached this style by first looking up travel posters. I wanted to convey the sense of tourism, sights to see, open air, emphasizing the locale. I saw a poster that collaged elements of the locale with the silhouette of the place and thought that would be a good style to be inspired by. Along with the copy, the instructor provided some photographs. I used those to create this collage using Photoshop (clipping masks! Thanks Jason). I am no doubt subtly inspired by the Swiss Beach travel posters in my choice of type and by Schwinn’s branding. Slanted Sans Serif screams bicycles now. It can’t be undone.

    Whenever I design something like this, (derivative) I think to myself if that’s what design is. At the heart, it is repurposing elements. Putting together something new out of the cultural symbols we’ve all agreed on works. Sometimes when I design, I am ripping a page out of more obscure books and therefore feel more creative, but at the end of the day, that’s what education is. If I done this for a client they would say, job complete. They have something compelling, crisp and functional. If someone did this for me, I would look at them and wondered if they had a soul, a unique thought in their wormy brain. Are all just remixes at this point? In this supersaturated culture of ours where everyone gets the same jokes from the same places, can’t we come up with ideas totally uninfluenced by our environment? Or is that what design is in comparison to art. Design is the sign, the frame of reference to something we already know to something we’re trying to figure out.

  • To Mom

     

    My mother takes mother’s day very seriously. I opted out one year and she didn’t like that at all. This year I made her a video (because I am currently so in love with video). She gave me a camera and only this year did I take advantage of its video capabilities. For some reason, my PremierePro program doesn’t recognize the video as files no matter how I reformat it to be an avi or a mp4. So, I used Microsoft Live Movie Maker (and yes I pressed the Automovie button again). I feel like this program (perhaps it’s my laptop) is slow, clunky and clumsy, so I try to fuss with it the least amount possible. I used PremierePro to edit the audio at least.

    My original concept for the movie was to have my sister in it, but due to some scheduling issues, it’s just me. I think it makes the shots a little weird because I am playing in a playground by myself. It was going to be interwoven reasons (my sister’s and mine) as a voiceover and then us playing together (which my mom loves—perhaps because her sisters and herself had some tension, so she’s always looking out for sisterly harmony). I used Nora Jones instrumental music because my mom loves her. I originally tried Dixie Chicks but country seemed weird for the tone of my voice in this project.

    Mom, I know you’re out there reading this, and remember that I love you and I do all these things, paintings, video and this blogging, too because you’ve encouraged me (among other reasons which are that I am me, which is because of you, too.). Happy Mother’s Day!

  • Don’t Be Intimidated by Software

    Through this graphic design program at Seattle Central, I am mostly learning (by “mostly” I mean, I value this a lot) what should and shouldn’t intimidate me as a person going into this field. The software I will have to learn and relearn is structured similarly in a sense. The tiers of styles (i.e. character styles and paragraph styles) are the same, but what they affect are different. Same with the cursors. There are features that I didn’t know existed. The software is here for me. They allow me to proceed with speed, consistency and ease of editing. Column break is cool. Frame break, even better. Each day when a shortcut is learned by my motorskills and not just my brainskills, I feel like I am closer to my goal.

     

  • Beyond Label

    It never ends. I think that we’ve said everything there is to say about packaging. Design not for designers, but consumers. It’s about making something for a total stranger and making them fall in love with it.

    Define your product on the front. Make the display type unique, challenge the edges, perhaps. You have to ask yourself, “Does this look like a student did this on a computer?” Go for friendly and approachable. Don’t let your product be shy. Embellish the meaning. Have your label reflect the quality of the name of the product. Take some risks and experiment. Do things with your market in mind. And lastly, avoid black type. It makes a package seem dead.

    As for my label attempt (sandwich bags), he had a few things to say. Mostly, he emphasized no character. I think it’s because for the second time, I churned out some unlovable illustrator-vector-Franken creature whose features aren’t exaggerated enough to be endearing and aren’t realistic enough to be convincing. These guys should get together and form a family of icky misfits that should be on a cereal box of malformed apple jacks.

    (Future reference: “When developing a character or hiring a spokesperson, consider the following traits: 1) appearance 2) likeability 3) trustworthiness 4) Expertise 5) Credibility” -Margo Berman and Robyn Blakeman, The Brains Behind Great Ad Campaigns p.140)

    He said to use type. Keep pushing it. He said exaggerate perspective and make it all caps.

    My product’s name is “Beyond” and with that should come some special feature that sets them apart. Ah, yes. I was going to add a snipe that extolled some lovely technology that the bags possess.

    As for the finishing process, I advise all of you working along at home, when cutting out your die cut for the folding dummy: 1) score on the print side 2) trim 3) fold 4) glue.

  • Pen and Pencil

    I’m making a calendar for Jason’s InDesign Class and we’re allowed to do illustrations.

    For Jason’s next assignment, I am working on building an identity system. The goal is, as with any branding system, to make sure these pieces look like they are married. I pitched my concept to Jason last tuesday and he seemed to get it right away.

    Pen and Pencil seems like a government agency to me. So, I wanted to take cues from currency to make the brand feel official and authoritative. I made some vector art (spirographs) in illustrator to convey that complicated pattern that is found on money. For the calendar piece, I wanted to keep a consistency and frankly, I don’t know how to engrave. I had this idea on the bus that I would make sheets of this spirograph pattern with different densities, then using Photoshop I would create layers of them and make an illustration of a bust. I used the artistic filter cutout (four levels) to get the value blocked out and then used the magic wand tool to select certain sections and make the layers clipped to the contour section that matched the value. My first two attempts, I used photographs with lower contrast, so the portraits came out muddy and unrecognizable, but this one of Dali worked really well. I don’t feel like I can use this one. The copyright has not expired yet. I’ll go into art/english history and see what I can find.

    I was really excited about this method of illustration. I turned to my classmates and smiled, practically yelling “I’ve just done something I haven’t done before.” I’m excited.

  • Jill’s Unauthorized Checklist for Paragraph styles

    _kern the headline   _optical/metrics   _look for the challenging letters (inclines are problematic   _go word by word   _match the ones you’ve solved (i.e. if there’s an od -lowercase- that you’ve got down, the same kerning measurement works for ac-in some fonts)   _kern body text by going to your menu, see justification   _start with letterspacing   _then wordspacing   _and rarely when the situation calls for it, itsy bitsy changes to glyph scaling

    Jason says: you can “fake justify” by manually balancing through kerning line by line.

    As a note: Never double return. There’s a button to do the heavy lifting, making the spaces between your paragraphs as much as they need to be.

    Jason also says: In the real world, save everything. There will be a time when the Client says I liked it better two weeks ago and it’s always when you’ve written over the document and never when you’ve saved every step of the way.

  • Web Design for the Daily Astorian

    (Above: My designs, first attempt and Final)

    Tim’s Tips for Web Pages (At least what I could glean from all the friendly teacher-y snarky.)Create a header-create icons-you have levels to help you with your hierarchy- Mockup, don’t put ads in- also consider ways to overshadow ads, like color- typography- tutorial… ew.- make it your own- grouping- continuity- drop shadow, also ew. – Color scheme! – Define rules for yourself- get as much content on the home page as you can so people don’t have to go digging for it someplace else- colors indicate links- keep in mind size translation during creation. Fonts look big when you’re zoomed in, but remember screen size is what you’re looking at in the end- widows happens in web design, don’t worry, there’s nothing you can do about it. – Centered type disrupts the flow off the grid- integrate color- subtle rules help define space- indicate navigation

    For some reason or another, I thought this design a web page thing would be easy. Bevel some boxes and label them and you’re half way there. I was very wrong. I was trying to squeeze more minutes out of the morning to finish these main screens, but perhaps that franticity was the thing that made me miss details. I had trouble because the text box was set to All Caps and I didn’t even think that could happen without my knowledge. I had trouble because I didn’t start with a grid. I tried my best to integrate my horsey looking wireframe, but as Jason says, crapola in, crapola out. When I sat there, with a thumb drive full of bevels and inner glows and drop shadows (with a sprinkle of a calendar and news headlines) I realized I couldn’t present this monster I thought could pass for design. I went back and started over using all the tips from Tim’s remarks on the other students’ work. Its more fun and a lot easier when you have guides and “snap to guides” to make something look professional and design-y.

    (Earlier Post Relating to This Project)

  • Wire Frames

    Wire frame

    View more presentations from basementcat

    I presented these wireframes made from last week’s task flow items.

    Post-critique:
    Always funnel information. The scope should get narrower as the user continues his search for information. I made the error of giving options at a certain point. The time for options is in the beginning as a way to direct the user to what they are looking for. I will put the “advanced search” options on the event page directly instead of only as a calendar modifier. I’m eventually going to make checklists as a way to better self-critique. “Does the information narrow in scope as the task flow progresses?” If that’s not checked then that means that this is not user-centered design.
    Also, Tim said I should have event categories so you can see all of one kind of a event, like community events.

    There’s a feature on this wireframe where you can see the details of the event, push the review button and then you can see the reviews and push that button again (it toggles from being a See event details to a See Reviews button) and Tim said that was confusing. A ToggleTab uptop of the window would make more sense there.
    Our homework for today is to design the main screens, as Tim says, “ready-to-click.” He also says to use Photoshop because it’s pixel-based. Any other software would be the wrong tool. Never use IndEsign he says because it’s not made for web design. The graphics aren’t readily cut from the file as it is in Photoshop. We should use vector shape tools. And control their size using vector shape tools. Using good ol’ command T will distorted rounded edges. And rounded edges seem to be the way to make some delicious buttons.
    I always do my Tim assignments the morning of his class. I think doing them in an intuitive and simple quick way is a good solution to the particular structure of this class. So far it has been presenting the homework and then receiving feedback on improvements and then getting the assignment for the next week. I like this class structure because the edits you make after the presentation matter. Some assignments we critique but then don’t get to immediately correct our work and then present again. We’re presenting all of this material again in a cohesive overview presentation of the project. I’ve noticed a lot of students getting frustrated with the teacher when he corrects their task flow designs acknowledging that smart people might get it, but this is a Dorrito-eater kind of world. That has been the theme of this quarter so far (as Tom will tell you) sometimes it can be too Design-y. Something you don’t notice because you were there since its inception. You’re not approaching it like a newborn lamb, but rather its mother who has seen it gestate and birth and know that it’s a lamb.
    I’ve never had classes like that. So explicitly, see what you do and then we’ll teach you how to do it. I think it works for my brain and as art classes go I think it allows for the pressure to be a little lessened. It gives the student a little breathing room, knowing that it’s not going to be perfect, and a little playing room because the teacher is not expecting perfection. You can experiment with weird shapes and strange characters and make a made up assignment kind of fun. I realize that I won’t have so many opportunities to design without worries like I do in this program.

    (Earlier Post Relating to This Project)