Author: \Gaviglio,Lisa Anne\

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/minimalist-book-covers/

I chose to create a minimalist book cover, but I decided to make it about a movie instead of a book (the directions didn’t specify which). I watched the road to El Dorado last night so I thought it would be a good one to create. I did a very minimalist version of the characters themselves on the cover so you could get an idea that it was based off the movie version. I then took the colors of their clothes and used that to create a separation between the two. I did this to show the wedge that came in between them as well as their differing personalities. The earring symbolizes the character that comes between both of them (that it is why it is faintly in the middle). I learned that in minimalist design you have to be careful to include what elements you think are the most important since you don’t have a lot of space or the ability to add more. It really helps you to strip down an idea and look at the root of something. The film was about the city of gold but it was more about the characters themselves and the bond they had with each other. In the end all they needed was a new adventure and each other.

This assignment was basically to take an image and edit it to change the mood using whatever methods you wanted. I took some pictures of my friend this weekend so I decided to incorporate that into this week’s blog post. Depending on the look I am going for I can heavily edit my photos and I figured that would work perfectly for this Switch up the Mood assignment. I don’t have any fancy lighting equipment, just one light, a reflector and a blank wall and I used all these to create this image straight out of the camera.

I went through a heavy editing process in Photoshop where I changed the lighting, saturation, contrast, hue/saturation, coloring, blurring, sharpening, etc. I did a lot to get this finished product:

I feel like all of my edits switched up the mood which I was going for. My model was sick the day I took these pictures and I was still trying to figure out where I wanted my lighting, but I liked this picture and wanted to use it. There is a greenish orange cast in the original image that doesn’t look very good and I knew that I wanted to change that. I wanted to make it look like there was more of a grey studio background (not the apartment wall I was using). I did a lot of color changing using several adjustment layers, edited her skin/lips, and dodged and burned her body to give it more depth. I added a purplish color at the end as well as a motion blur to give it a more styled look. Overall, I think the tone dramatically changed from one image to another, showing you just how powerful Photoshop can be.

 

We’re reaching a time in our lives where professionalism is key. Use Photoshop to create your own business card to advertise who you are.

I decided to create business card for this week’s blog post. I feel like I have several different parts to who I am, a designer, a student, and a photographer. I chose to create a business card for photography since I would be able to utilize them for finding new people to model for me.

I created them in Photoshop CS6 and used a downloadable font that looked like a paint brush for my name. I didn’t want to include my phone number on the front but I did put my photography website and my email in case someone wanted to get ahold of me or look at some of my photos. On the backs of the cards I included different images that I have taken in close up black and whites. I wanted to have an example of my work and a way they could look at more on my card. Overall I like the way it looks and I think that they are a good representation of my photography self.

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/create-your-own-business-card/

Create an infographic that visually explores a movie (or series of movies).

I chose this particular assignment because I wanted to do something fun with Photoshop and I’ve wanted an excuse to make an infographic for a while. As I began gathering information and looking into the Indiana Jones Trilogy I wondered if the facts I was finding were accurate. After all, with films there are always myths etc. that float around the internet. How could I know that the information I was getting was accurate? Was I okay with using information I wasn’t 100% sure about to educate others? In the end, I decided to use facts that I could find on more than one website to be safe and included a lot of personal opinion for fun.

One of the articles I used was on BuzzFeed where they had facts about the Indian Jones movies and they listed out all of their sources. Did they check their sources? I certainly wasn’t going to take the time to look at all of them and make sure they all checked out. It got me wondering how much information has been skewed or changed over time. It’s like the game telephone everyone used to play as kids. As the phrase (in this case information) gets passed from person to person (or site to site) it gets changed because of miscommunication or to avoid plagiarism.

Specifically with infographics they are made by designers who value look and aesthetics over information at times. Their job is to present the information in an interesting way which could ultimately change or devalue the information being presented. By making something smaller or harder to read it may be seen as less important. Even with color, less contrast makes it harder to read, and the information gets skipped over.

This assignment helped me to look at the delivery of information in a new way and caused me to question other infographics. I left a bunch of information out in my own otherwise it would have been too long and boring. Being selective when it comes to information is necessary but it can also be dangerous and is something that designers need to be aware of. How they choose to present the information can have a big impact on how people receive and interpret it.

Original assignment location: http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/movie-infographic/