Button Assignment

A button is something you touch or push to make something do something. I feel like in this time with so much emerging technology the design of a button is very important as is the design of the entire website to maintain a businesses image and perceived quality. It is very obvious when you come across an old or outdated website with design similar to websites of the 90s and it definitely changes the way I think of the company. Buttons now-a-days usually have a 3D look with a glossy finish to make the button look modern and realistic.

Great buttons in history...the one that comes to mind is the "LIKE" button on facebook! Everyone knows what it is because there are over 500 million people using facebook. I always see business ads on facebook saying ".."LIKE" this ad to receive coupons" or something like that and we automatically know what it is. You also see facebook "like" buttons on many other websites besides facebook so you can "like" the website and it will publish to your facebook for your friends to see (free advertisment for the website!).

Assignment 3 - Animation

I have had so many amazing interactive experiences in my life it is hard to pick just three. But one of my favorite interactive experiences I've ever had would be swimming in the lake here at Emigrant Lake, more specifically skinny dipping in the lake. I am obsessed with swimming and water and i just have never felt as free as when jumping into the lake with nothing but my own skin and swimming straight out into the middle of the lake. It's like flying! Just to be out there in the middle of the lake and looking at the tiny shore far away knowing I have no life jacket or anything just myself freely swimming! I love it! I can't wait for summer!

My second experience has to be sitting on the couch at night in front of the Christmas tree at my parents house during the holidays. I have always loved Christmas but there is just something about that smell of a Christmas tree and the subtle light form the Christmas tree lights at night and just the vibe of holidays and family and loved ones and no worries!

My third is one of my all time favorite things to do when I go back home to Brookings to visit my family. I have always loved driving down to the beach and just sitting in my truck listening to music and watching the ocean breathe! It's usually cold out so I don't always get out of my truck but i sit in my truck alone and just watch the waves and people and dogs and surfers and birds! I'm so thankful for being able to grow up on the coast and on the water and around boats my entire life because my dad owns his own commericial fishing business. The ocean is gorgeous and delicate on the surface on a calm day but it is also so rough and deadly and viscous and full of secrets, it's amazing! I miss my ocean :(

Collage assignment

Using instances made the collaging process go much faster. I was able to quickly create duplicates without copy pasting each time.  Though I did have some trouble editing the individual instances.  The first collage I did was the one with the heel sitting in front of the circle of feathers.  This use of spiraling the feather dingbat definitely changed the identity of the feather but I liked the way it turned out.  I tried not to focus on what the dingbats actually were and just abstracted most of them.

I left the first collage I made in the size it came out as with the instances extending over the edges of the white space.  When I saved it I thought it looked a bit like a Christmas card which worked well with the red/white background.  I also used instances in the purple purse collage but chose to crop it down to the original size without any images extending over the edges.  My favorite collage turned out to be the sunglasses one because it just looks so 3D which happened when I made the background bright green and blue.  I loved the way that one turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

Project 1- Dingbats

I started out with the theme of fashion when beginning this project.  My life basically revolves around fashion so I try to incorporate it into all of my school assignments as well.  I work at a designer clothing boutique and I am currently going to school for business because I am going to start my own boutique eventually.  To me fashion is just another form of art and a way to express yourself.

Some of the drawings I did completely from my own mind and some of them I had to look up pictures of the items to better draw them.  A lot of the items are actual accessories and clothing I own which made it easier to draw them from memory.  A couple of my drawings are based off of the ideals of some of the fashion industry.

I was not familiar with Flash before this class but I have had a lot of experience with Photoshop so it was fairly easy to figure out Flash.  I am already impressed with Flash and glad to have found a program that somehow makes crappy drawings look very professional.  The lines of the basic paint brush tool are great and the ease of selecting and changing specific lines in a drawing is also helpful.

Inspirational images:

Final Reflection - Post Up Book

I chose to do an avant garde book with the theme being fashion trends of Fall 2010.  I wanted this book to be a high fashion lookbook of trends.  Each page would be a different trend.  I had originally planned on using mainly a collage of images but Professor Arellano pointed out that I should probably include some sort of description about what the book was for those less fashionable readers who would not understand immediately.  So I decided to make each spread into a trend with the image on one side and description the other side.  I used to same border, colors, and heading on both sides to help the two pages flow together.  I think using the same border was very effective.  I used the same font for small text throughout the entire book which also made the book more cohesive as a whole.  I also stuck with a similar layout for each page.  The layout was 1 image of a celebrity, 1 image of a runway model, about 4 images from the Urban Minx website (my current place of work) and 2 images of accessories from the Urban Minx website.  The accessories are all completely cut out with a black shadowed edge.  I believe this similar layout kept the book from looking too messy.

The production schedule for this assignment was everything this term.  I have learned a lot about time management in general this term because I have been so busy.  I am just grateful I have Photoshop on my computer at home or this term would have been a disaster for me.  It took me a long time to complete this assignment because I kept realizing I had more to do and I actually had to redo two different trend pages for different reasons.  I felt like I was on schedule all term with this assignment and our other assignments because of my time management skills.  I ended up getting the book all pulled together and put into Indesign and printed during the last week of class and it came out really nice.  I am definitely satisfied with my book although I wish it was bigger.  I had to use a 6x9 inch template in order to keep my pages going the direction I wanted.  I had originally planned to print my book on 8.5x11 inch pages but it still came out nice.

I plan on keeping my book in my living room on an end table for guests to check out.  I am also going to take it to work with me to show the owner and my manager.  I know they will love the book since I used all Urban Minx images.  I wish I had more than one copy to give to my parents and the Owner of Urban Minx but they were so expensive to print I will probably just keep the one for myself.

Book Assignment-rough draft

I started out wanting to do this book assignment as an avant garde fashion lookbook of 2010 trends but I have modified it a bit.  I am now doing this as a part of my job and being paid for it so I incorporated clothing from my work Urban Minx in order to make a lookbook for our website urbanminx.com.  So each page will be a different trend of fall 2010 which will be featured on our website either as a look book or as home screen ads or as blogs on our website.  Each page will have photos our Urban Minx merchandise along with a couple photos of celebrities and runway models sporting the latest trends.  I am having a lot of fun with it already but only have 3 of my lookbook pages so far but I have planned out what the other pages will be.  The cover is not finished and neither is the back cover or 3 of the trend pages.

Page 1 Cover:

Page 2 Military trend:

Page 3 Glam Rock trend:

Page 4 Black/White trend:

Page 5 Animal/fur trend:

Page 6 Sweater trends:

Page 7 70's inspired trend:

Page 8 Back Cover:

Book Proposal

My book proposal is to create an avante garde book depicting 2010’s hottest fashion trends.  It will be a large book about 12 inches by 16 inches tall so it could be displayed as décor in a home or boutique.  My book would be mostly pictures but also a few designers’ names and styles randomly placed about the pages to create interest.  There will be pictures from runway fashion shows from 2010 as well as single pictures of clothing items and also pictures of celebrities wearing this year’s hottest trends.  I will use Photoshop to enhance each photo and make them look interesting and edgy to go with the high fashion theme.