Oh, the Frustration

Alright, boys and girls, today we have something a little different. Yes, we have a first world problem. I went to to the local drug store to buy conditioner, went home to use it...and it was shampoo. Naturally. Now normally I would have blamed myself, had it been an honest mistake. However, when I looked at each of the bottles in a sea of shampoos and conditioners, I realized that they look the same, save for one is upside down. The size, label, colour, everything is the same.

To someone like me, who just grabs things according to colour and label distinction, this is somewhat frustrating. This is also the second time this has happened to me. The last time was with herbal essences, I thought I was buying conditioner, and when I brought it home, it was a 2 in 1. It had the exact same label, colour and orientation on the bottle as the regular conditioner, save for the microscopic sized "Shampoo and Conditioner" under the label. As designers, we should be able to communicate to an audience what the product is quickly, or in some way that the people shopping for the product can tell it is different somehow. Making the label a pastel blue instead of a deep blue, or making the bottle a different shape. Putting it in a different kind of bottle, perhaps (clear vs opaque).

Herbal essences had a system where the two bottles would fit together, and were easily distinguishable from each other.

This is a much better system for telling them apart. You could walk by, and without a second thought, grab one or the other. And that concludes this first world problem rant. Now the weather.

pictures from google

Technically Speaking

Now that we're making books again for a project, we have certain rules we must abide by. Font sizes, page sizes, line lengths and type conventions must all be taken into account when designing a book. Unfortunately, I don't like to get too  technical, so naturally I mess this up sometimes.

However, I found this particular web page I can glance back at between my Indesign file. It shows all of the conventions in one page concerning page sizes and the golden ratio. These aspects of a book are important because they make for an easy-to-read book as well as a comprehensible sizing for digital media (ebooks). Though these rules can be broken from time to time for different effects, unless such an effect is intended or warranted, they should be followed.

• Page size: Golden ratio
• Body copy must be no smaller than 7pts and no larger than 11 pts
• The font you choose for your body copy should have at least a regular, bold, and italic weight for different effects
• The headings, subheadings, and titles should be in (golden) ratio to one another
• Margins should be appropriate to the sizing of the book
• Book copy should flow easily for the reader and not be too text heavy. In other words, topics should be broken up in such a way that the reader's eyes do not strain

Hope this helps some of you that have the same issues getting technical!

http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/contents/grid/

Job Application

Though I am still a student, I'm currently in line for a job offering for a full time graphic designer for my school. I thought I would share the process as it goes, and see what becomes of it. So far the job description was presented to us by a student life representative, and we were told to send in a resume and cover letter.

I had never written a cover letter before, as all of the jobs I've had were simply through connections. But with a little help I got through that one. Phew. With that out of the way, I designed a graphic designer-type resume and handed it in to the secretary at the student life desk.

So far no one else, including myself has heard back from the student life office as of yet, but I will keep you updated, as I still have to put a portfolio together and present it to them!

Paper Waste vs. E-Waste

1. One of the issues that come up with design is sustainability and being environmentally friendly. As such, there are different waste types to look at. E-waste and paper waste. In the end, however, I would have to say that e-waste is much worse than paper waste for a number of reasons.
2. Though e-waste is only 2% of America's trash in landfills (20 million to 50 metric tons), it is responsible for 70% of the overall toxic waste. Extreme amounts of lead can cripple several organs in the human body. Metals such as copper, gold, and mercury can be found in any electronic device, and these metals-once refined- are not safe to go back into the earth. Paper, however, is 100% biodegradable, can be reused up to 7 times, and is recycled 70% of the time, where electronics are only recycled 18% of the time. 

There is also the matter of how much energy goes into making these items. It take the same amount of energy to make a computer and monitor as it does to make a small car. None of the products can be harvested or replaced naturally, and therefore take even more energy.  

In the end, it should be stated that paper waste does not even compare to e-waste, both in harmful effects, energy consumption, sustainability and the amount that is actually recycled.

Strengths vs. Weaknesses

When we attended interviews for this program, we were all chosen based off of a few things:

1. Talent
2. Personality
3. Grade Point Average

My portfolio was dominantly illustration work, with there being little to no type at all. My illustrations were of many traditional and digital mediums, and as such I showed variety. However, when it comes to certain things I can't seem to get my mind around it. Type is one such example.


Anything type related always gets the better of me. Choosing fonts, kerning, and layout always seem to take me the longest to iron out. I can't wrap my mind around it. I try to focus more on that aspect of my work now, as it is something I have to give strict attention, lest I forget something very important. However, I learn a great deal from others in my class who are more dominant in that area, and the dynamic of the class allows us to learn from each other as well as from teachers and books.

Design By Humans

Sometimes amazing artists go unnoticed. Whether it's bad work conditions, or they don't have enough experience in their field, sometimes the most creative work comes from those who are not bound to the restrictions of the daily grind.

Design By Humans is a website where you can buy artistic t-shirts made by your average human beings. You submit your designs to the website, and you gather votes on your designs. If enough people vote for your shirt design, you get it printed. When people buy the shirts, you get a fraction of the profits.

The website also holds contests, such as the Dark Knight Rises contest they had before the movie was released to theatres. Chris Nolan and the DBH judges chose these winners. Each artist submitted work in progress snapshots as well as the design, and were rewarded respective prizes for their designs.

All photos from designbyhumans.com

Kings and Queens

There is much inspiration to be found in music videos. However, music videos nowadays usually consist of no concept, it's simply said artist trying to make themselves look as good as possible while they "perform" their song. It's unfortunate, because you can communicate so much in a music video-even if it's not right in your face. There can be an underlying story or concept that the viewer can derive from what you show them. "Bartholomew Cubbins" AKA Jared Leto, the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, understands this completely, and when he directs the music videos for the band's songs, the end result is always awe inspiring. One such example is the video for Kings and Queens, their debut single for the album This is War. 

The video for this amazing song is all about concept and story, not featuring models in bikinis and bottle service in a club. The video is shot with atmosphere in mind, not necessarily to "showcase" the faces of the band itself, with hundreds of average people riding bikes down the abandoned streets of Los Angeles. This is in respect to the meaning of the song itself, and fits it very well.

the best part about this video, is perhaps that it is filmed in a natural setting. There are no studio lights, no fancy cars, no bells and whistles. It's simply the core cinematography of real life people, all uniting together toward a common goal. This, included with subtle political imagery makes the video a cinematic masterpiece.

Watch it here! You won't regret it, I get goosebumps everytime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTMrlHHVx8A

Critiquing

Just to give a second look at a topic, I am going to revisit the topic of my recently finished whisky package. I had a classmate critique said package:

"The Molotov Cocktail package imitates the label to a tee. The design focuses on a strong typeface with a tall, sans serif that looks almost burned in. The design is a pure type solution, and works very well. However, It might have been more engaging had the package contrasted the label as opposed to mimicking it completely. Perhaps carrying the back panel's design through the rest of the box would have added some contrast.

I really like the addition of the aged photograph to the inside of the package. When the bottle is removed, the photo is revealed, which adds interest.

Overall I believe the design works for the intended audience. Other criticism is minor things, mostly on the bottom of the package. The word 'distributed' should be capitalized, and the recycle icon may have been nicer if it were applied with the same burned-in effects as the type, as of now it appears to be slapped on as an afterthought."

Overdesign to Minimal Design

Seeing as I love illustration as well as design, it can be a little difficult to not over design something. What I mean is, it is not necessarily a good design simply because a lot of space is filled up, or has extremely detailed aspects such as photos or type. Sometimes the most effective design is the simplest. Trying to stand out can be as simple as dialing it down to it's absolute base design in order to be clear of  the design clutter. Here are some awesome examples that I think could be very successful given the chance.

Game Interface Design

The one thing all graphic designers know is that above all, despite all the bells and whistles, it is our core  job to send a message of some sort. Communicate if you will. Whether it's the price of something, a product's functions, something new about a business, if someone is hiring, that a gathering of some sort is going to happen, etc. That being said, one of the applications of said communication can be found in video game design, mainly interface design.

This aspect of the project-I find- is very important. If it is difficult to navigate your weapons and gear in a game, it is easy to just give up or get frustrated. This can make or break a game. Here's a few examples of what I mean.

As a huge fan of Assassin's Creed (the second on being my favourite), I thought it appropriate to show the interfaces of the continuous games. I found the weapon interface from the second instalment to be the most comprehensible and simple. The two wheels are arranged to correspond to the L and R joysticks (PS3). When you bring up the interface, you simply rotate the L or R to which weapon you want. When you close this interface, a button correlates to each weapon (primary and secondary).  Simple!

Another well-designed interface is that of Bioshock and Bioshock 2.

Much like the AC2 layout, each hand correlates to a different thing. Right hand (R)=weapon, Left hand (L)=plasmids. You never have to open a pause type menu like the one above, but can simply rotate through if you please. For each weapon there is the ammo type dial in the corner, if you run out of one kind, you simply switch to another until you're empty. Simple, to the point, and quite easy to get ahold of right off the bat.

Coding

It is important to try to constantly learn new things. Why? Because otherwise you will be stuck in the same old routines and never try anything new. Learning new things opens up your mind to what is possible, and the more efficient you are as a person, the more someone will want to hire you.

This being said, I have been doing research as how to create a website from scratch. No templates, no predetermined parameters or anything like that. While doing said research, I found a website that gradually teaches you how to code, starting small at first, but gradually becoming more complex.

Check it out!

http://www.codecademy.com

True Colours

If you're anything like me, you love unity in colours. If I'm choosing an outfit for the day, it all has to be one colour, very rarely is it two or three (I'm known to be obsessed with blue so it's not that difficult). As such, I thought this site was kind of interesting,  considering it's a sort of search engine for finding images with one particular dominant colour. Considering I'm currently working on a survival guide, this saves my life slightly. Now all of my images will be different, yet be the same in core colour, creating an interesting sense of unity, which, of course, I love. You can select up to five colours as well, with varying percentages.

http://labs.tineye.com/

Whisky Box WIP

As a project in the graphic design program, we had to create an alcohol label. We also had to create a poster, as well as a package for the bottle(s). I decided to create a controversial whisky label called Molotov Cocktail. This is the label, and the ad.

 Now, between the poster and the label itself, I wanted to include an older look combined with a modern twist. As such, I decided to incorporate the two in the box design. But first, I had to create a dieline. I measured the dimensions of my bottle, and decided I would make an opening for the label to show through. This is my completely professional and accurate sketch.
I put architects to shame. Now using these dimensions I created a dieline for my box, but a mini version to make sure it works.

After this step, I realized I forgot tabs for the lid (hence why it won't close in the picture on the right), and made some modifications, this is the result.

(My tech teacher will kill me for not putting dotted lines where you
fold instead of cut, but that's our secret.)

Now I work on the graphics on the package itself. I came up with a few variations, as I got pretty conflicted at this point. I was debating whether to have a very contrasted package, or very similar. These were the rejects.

After a while, I decided that I wanted the box to be a continuation of the label, and stuck with the original colours. I then had a consult with my teacher for some type adjustments, and came up with the final composition.

This is the final result! 

What Do you Wanna Do?

People who know what I'm studying always seem to ask me:

"What do you want to do when you're done school?" 

Now, I've always been a go with the flow kind of person, but isn't it better that way? I don't want to make plans for the future when anything could happen. However, I always thought it would be ideal to combine my favourite things together to guarantee my lifelong happiness. One thing I'm passionate about is video games. I'm that girl that loses it when game releases are pushed back, and as someone who also likes to illustrate, I naturally fall in love with concept art and the story and atmosphere behind everything. In a perfect world, I would work for a gaming magazine. That way I could always be in the know about new games, and be designing at the same time. In a euphoric world, I would own a gaming magazine, as well as illustrate concept art for video games of the future. I'm getting way too excited about this, I should really stop.

New Photoshop Function

As a photoshop user/junkie, I was ecstatic to find out that there was a new photoshop trick in town. You can now share your screen with other people while you're working. This makes it possible to have live tutorials around the world, and you can invite anyone to join you who has an acrobat.com account. I'm beyond excited about this, seeing as I am a photoshop enthusiast, and when other people struggle with it or hate on it, I always want to help them out, considering I know it's potential and all that it can do when you use it properly.

This can also be an invaluble teaching tool. I assume one would be able to set up a photoshop class and only invite the "students" into the seminar. This allows anyone with an internet connection to learn, or collaborate over distances that would otherwise make it difficult.

In short, this is amazing. I'll let you know when I'm raking it in.

To do this, go to Choose File>Share my screen>log in

Enjoy :)

The Genius of Riccardo Tisci

For a packaging project we're currently working on, I decided to base my design off of a perfume box. The point of the project is to package something intangible, and be able to sell the package, without there being anything inside of it. While looking at some perfume boxes, one link led to another and I stumbled across the work of Riccardo Tisci. He's a fashion designer, but between his life and his career I found him to be extremely inspirational.

Riccardo was born in Taranto, Italy, and attended London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and worked for companies like Puma, Coccapani, Ruffo Research before working for Givenchy's men section. He gets inspiration from his home, which is mythologically associated with marines and mermaids.

I find a lot of his life more inspirational than the work itself, however. Living in a smaller town in Ontario, it's somewhat difficult to find inspiration, as terrible as that sounds. Living in the same place my whole life makes it a little difficult to find anything that will get the creative gears going. Riccardo inspired me to look into the history of my city, which proved very interesting!

The other aspect of his life that stuck with me was that when he was offered the position as head of men's wear at Haute Couture (Givenchy), he almost declined. However, his mother called him to tell him that she was selling the house and moving into a retirement home in order to support her daughters, who were having financial difficulties. Heartbroken, he took the job and helped her stay at home, sacrificing his dream of starting his own fashion line, and helping his loved ones in need.

Though not on the same scale as his situation, I find inspiration in his ability to put others before him despite his desires, and did what he had to do. Though I enjoy graphic design, it is my ultimate goal to help my parents for all of the good they have done for me over the years. Riccardo learned a lesson in selflessness (very loose term considering how much the guy makes, but money does not make people happy, right?) and did something he didn't want to do in order to help someone he loves, and I hope I can do the same if necessary.

I realize in hindsight this blog was barely design related. Whoops.

App Coolness

Now, if you're anything like me, you love technology. I love all the new gadgets that come with new phones, glasses that record video, etc. I always thought "what else can they do?" and I get surprised every time. Over the weekend, I discovered a really cool (and free) app called Internet Map (by peer 1 hosting). This app is all about the internet itself, and on initial startup it shows a globe, and for every internet connection on the planet, there is a coloured dot.

This is absolutely amazing, seeing as I can click on any one of those dots and see where they connect to in the world. We can see what countries are the most active on the internet, and the colourful little clusters show this visually. You can also search individual connections, such as "Conestoga College", and i'll get a little dot showing all the connections.

There is also an alternate view, called "Network view", where it breaks up the connections from most prominent to the individual people on their computers. On top of all this, you can see the density of the internet connections change under the History section. Milestones in history like the launches of Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, etc. show the multitude of little dots grow exponentially.

In short, this app is very cool, and I recommend you get it.

Images from google

Homer Watson-Street or Feat?

Dear Internet,

As I live in Kitchener, Ontario, I thought it may be nice to reflect on the local historical buildings. One such building is the Homer Watson Art Gallery on Old Mill Road, right down the street from my school (Homer Watson is also the street that my school is off of). When reading up on the history of this  place, I found out a few interesting things about Homer Watson and his art career.

• Homer Watson was a founding member of the Canadian Art Club
• While touring Canada, Oscar Wilde met with Watson and sent him letters, his name for him being "the Canadian Constable" comparing his style to the famous painter
• In 1880 he sold The Pioneer Mill to Queen Victoria, and it is still in the royal archives

Culturally this house is a piece of local history, and in the memory of the late Homer Watson, all manners of art classes are taught here, and the house can be rented for photographers seeking a more vintage background. I find it amazing that they continue his tradition in his old home as he would have wanted, to carry on the spirit of Canadian arts in a cozy environment rich with history.

Photos from http://www.homerwatson.on.ca/

Toasty

Dear Internet,


I love little things that make my day a little cuter/funnier. I love how a car's lights and grills look like faces, or how electrical outlets look like a surprised face. When these things can double as something useful, you got me. One such example is the Toasty USB hub and 4 GB sticks.

Each of these toasty little buggers is 4GB, and the hub has 4 ports as well as a micro SD card reader. Perfect. The hub being $29.99 and each of the toasties being $24.99, it was a little pricey. However, when I headed over to thinkgeek.com I found them on sale! I am now the proud owner of a toaster hub and butta toast, which will make my long days at school that much toastier.

Buy them while they're still on sale! http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ee91/

Favourite TYPE of Music?

For an illustration book I am currently working on, I am taking a series of my favourite Metallica songs and creating a storyline from the lyrics, and illustrating the story. But as such, I needed to come up with a typeface that would adequately represent the sinister tone that most Metallica songs seem to be imbued with. This is what I came up with:

This font is called ladanse-but I particularly think it reflects the song captioned for a few reasons:

1. It is handwritten-I find handwritten fonts are ones that have a more human feel to them, and can convey the emotions of the "writer"
2. The scrawled quill and ink appearance of this typeface gives it the appearance of an old-time sailor or scientist, which directly relates to the lyrics:

"Hybrid children watch the sea, pray for father roaming free"

3. The higher ascenders and irregularity in the weight of the font shows a sense of urgency-as if the person writing it is afraid or in impending danger.