"A line is a dot that went for a walk."

This is my interpretation of the phrase above. It represents different emotions and how I interpret them as lines. I mostly have curvy lines because I think I am a mellow person and rarely get angry or irritated. That is why I only have one set of sharp edged lines. I chose the borders to be curvy as well because it represents my current mood. The colors are pink, yellow teal and black because I think they represent my girly side.

Illustrator Activity

I followed a tutorial on how to maneuver through to Illustrator. As this is the first time I used this program I needed extra time to familiarize myself.

I'm very pleased with what I did which is a mock logo which was random. I looks very nice, neat and clean. In the future I might use Illustrator more in creating vector works than Photoshop.

Peer Review

Kayla Lethlean's Blog

Kayla is very thorough and precise with her designs and written activities. She explains her design style and methods very well. Also, it is good that she posts images of her works while they are still in the working stage along side with other aspects like the layers in Photoshop. This will help her remember how she has edited these designs and maybe somebody else if they stumble onto her blog and wish to try out what she has done. It is nice that she also puts up images of her inspirations which helps her and anyone who reads her blog, review her design style and maybe in the future, would also help her improve on her design skills.

Storyboard

The Emperor's New Clothes



For this activity I chose The Emperor's New Clothes because I think if made in today's time, a bit of comedy and quirkiness could be added to spice up the storytelling. I also tweaked the story a little so it would be fitting to turn into a series and add more characters and conflict.

So in the beginning a song that narrates what is happening in the opening credits, plays in the background. An establishing shot of the Emperor, his daughter and their castle is in view. It will be shown that the emperor is a bit naive and gullible and like a child so his daughter is the one who looks after him. Then the emperor sees a clothes shop and is amazed by everything in it. The shop owner however is a greedy and sees an opportunity to make more money and con the emperor. The magical clothes are set up on a special place and the princess and the shop owner struggle in a game of tug of war for the emperor. Then it transitions into the title of the whole show.

It is supposed to be a cartoon and very colorful. The series will be made for children and will probably be shown in Cartoon Network.

CD cover

The band I chose to make this CD cover for is Reel Big Fish. Their song Drunk Again was my inspiration for making the design. I just expressed the emotions I felt when I listen to the song and this is what I came up with.



The style I used in designing this cover is "avant garde". It is setting a new definition for things, that has been defined by the society, trying new stuff out which would not be in the norm. For the past 5 years or so, it has been used in french and italian exhibitions.

Retro Activity

This is the second activity in which we used Motion to create a video, not only in editing but also in animating a Photoshop psd file as a part of the video. This is activity was a bit more advanced and showed us more capabilities of Motion. I felt like such a pro after I had done this and am pretty pleased with myself and my product. Motion relives the user of the tedious tasks in editing and just lets you choose from preset options so your work can be easier.

Photoshop Animation

Though I've been very familiar with Adobe Photoshop already and have been using it for quite some time now, I was still very much amazed and surprised as I discovered that I can do animation on it. It has pretty much the same principles with any animation program having the timeline and all. It is easy to use too because, along with the other Adobe programs, the principle is pretty much the same.

I am now looking forward to using and discovering more about animation in Photoshop.

Presentation: Tara McPherson

I made this video of Tara McPherson to showcase her works, instead of just posting photos because there was a lot of awesome artworks that she made and I couldn't decide which ones to pick.

Tara was born in San Francisco on th 7th of April in 1976 and raised in Los Angeles. She received her BFA from Art Center in Pasadena, CA in August 2001 with honors in Illustration and a minor in Fine Art.

Tara McPherson is an artist based out of New York City. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work.



Tara exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Her array of art also includes creating toys with companies like Kidrobot, Dark Horse, and Toy2R, painted comics and covers for DC Vertigo, advertising and editorial illustrations for companies such as Wyden+Kennedy and Spin Magazine, and teaching a class at Parsons in NYC.

Some of her clients include DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Dark Horse Comics, Kidrobot, Strangeco, SXSW, Spin, Pepsi, Fanta, Goldenvoice, Penguin, Harper Collins, Bloomsbury, Revolver, Knitting Factory, Playstation 2, House of Blues, Punk Planet, Dogfish Head Brewery, Nike and Wyden+Kennedy among others.



I found out about Tara McPherson through Graphika Manila 2011, she was one of the speakers there. I instantly fell in love with her and her design style because I could relate so much to her. The cutesy style with a hint of dementedness and the candy coloured palette for her works creates a world that I want to live in. Her digital skills and traditional methods inspire me in both styles. She inspires me a lot as her works communicate such emotion in them and yet tackle issues on a more serious note. Her craftsmanship and skill continues to amaze me. One day, I want to be able to create both digital and traditional versions of my works, just like her.

Designing with a Social Conscience

Globalization: the new Imperialism


As my mind has been opened to different concepts that run in this world through my education, one of the topics that has ignited my curiosity is consumerism. This topic hits close to home because I myself know that I am a slave of consumerism as my culture has brought me up to be. Though as I dig deeper, I further realize that a whole lot of other concepts intertwine with it. I discover that it is actually one aspect affecting a greater issue which is globalization. Consumerism and commercialism are just pawns compared to globalization. Though no one can deny that it has its benefits and it does help move forward the human race, but globalization also promotes a negative impact on those who are lower down the food chain.

As the desire of humans to buy things, grow rapidly, so does the need of companies to keep up with this demand of goods and services. Thus, a never ending cycle of "more" is created. Now, as companies expand and use tactics to produce the most with the least amount spent, it is inevitable that someone will get hurt in this vicious cycle. Third world countries whom have no choice but to take on deals with these large companies to produce export processing zones, is the sad bit in all of this consumer joy. Though the hired laborers seem to be happy because they'd at least have a means to feed their families with, but they get underpaid, overworked and left without benefits.

I used children's photos in my designs because they get affected in two ways: One, is when their parents are whisked away onto work camps or relocated somewhere near the factories which leaves them without the attention, nurturing and guidance that parents provide. Two, is when the children themselves are hired in the workforce regardless of the work hazards and the low pay, just so they could help out their families survive.

Below is a list of a few companies who have export processing zones to produce their products:
Target
IBM
Timberland
Liz Claiborne
Nike
The Gap
Intel
Wal-Mart
Ralph Lauren
Calvin Klein

These business conglomerates are like bullies who take advantage of poor countries and use their desperation for their own benefit. Very much so like the concept of colonization and imperialism but in modern times with the companies representing the bigger, more powerful and richer countries.

Design Brief: "The London Guide"

The London Guide

Project Background:

The London Guide is an application that can be downloaded and installed into smart phones which familiarizes the user with the city of London. It is created for international students studying in London so they would know the city as easy as with the touch of a finger.

Since international students oftentimes do not have any support group or people that they do know when they come to London, they would find themselves having a hard time to adjust to the city and may even experience the probability of having culture shock. Though having a map and guides for different places and purposes do help, it is such a hassle carrying around a lot of folded paper all the time. Also, unfolding each one still has to be done, to pinpoint where to going, which train to take and then getting out a brochure to see the museums or coffee shops in that area. The student wouldn’t even have an idea if where he or she is going, is budget friendly. Add to that, it also presents the person to be susceptible to robbery because the maps would give off the idea that they are vulnerable, unfamiliar with the place and probably carrying cash.

This application would provide assistance, information and familiarization to international students all the while, which can be accessed conveniently.



Design Specifications:

The whole design interface of the application would have a minimalistic style and a sleek, modern and clean feel about it. Pictograms of the basic and necessary classifications would have the same style as well. This is to allow it to be user friendly and very understandable so that cultural biases would not affect the user to have problems. Basic shapes, clean lines and basic colours (ROYGBIV) will be used to depict the necessary information covered by the different categories in the application.



At the first page of the app, there is a home page consisting of different buttons for different categories (e.g. transportation, food, entertainment, shops, etc.). Then, as the user clicks on the button of their desired category a new set of sub categories will appear (e.g. TRANSPORTAION: train stations, bus stops, taxi stands etc.)




Different maps will be provided for the different categories and sub categories. The style in Henry Beck’s London Underground Map will be adapted all through out as a base design. For the other categories excluding transportation, as the user clicks on the shop/museum/café/restaurant that they want to visit, it will open pop up box with a thumbnail photo of that place and a few basic information. If the user wants to know more information, another clock would show the entire information about that place along with the website for it.



All information and photographs to be used in this application will be collaborated with the private and public owners and authorities to make everything as accurate and official as possible.