Blog 4: Swatchy Schemey

 

Cars and Swatches

Introduction

I have chosen to look into cars in particular for my brochure assignment because cars are often great displays of color combinations, tints, and hues. Each car often has colors that contrast well or that work well with each other which is why I thought it would be a good theme to follow. One car in particular in which I have decided to run this blog post off of is the Ford GT which I recently saw at a body shop and had to take a picture of. Although the colors may look generic, the way in which they were placed strategically throughout the car add for a great look.

The Photograph

Color schemes, Contrast, and InDesign

For this blog in particular I had to read up on color schemes and contrast and one thing that stood out to me in particular is that you can evaluate how well you do with contrast by converting it to grey scale to see if the design is still easy enough to read. (Beachy, 2007) By converting it to black and white it gives you a better idea or a marker to know where you are currently and where you should be moving towards. I think contrast and color scheme go hand in hand because often you may think colors go together, but the true test is putting those colors together on paper. The Adobe video went into detail on how to save different tints and how to create them which I also found interesting. I never knew that you could create tints but now seeing it I see it more in what companies do. For mine I liked the color of the car and saw the potential in the different tints that I could create. While I avoided black, I did so because I thought there was more potential in the light brown of the floor. 

Swatches

As you can see for my swatches I pulled two of the colors from the car and the third from the coloring in the floor itself. I thought that these colors went well together and contrasted well which is why I chose them.

Nameplates

Sources

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/create-edit-save-colors-tints-as-swatches.html

https://gomedia.com/zine/tutorials/rule-three-contrast-contrast-contrast/

Blog 3: Meme Idea

 

 Blog 3: Meme Idea

What I learned?

I learned a lot while make a rough draft of this meme from how to import various images into photoshop, to create smart objects, and creating adjustment layers. I learned the basic way to change the name of a layer which according to Adobe is to double click on the layer, rename it, and press enter. (Adobe, 2017) To resize layers there is an easy way to do it which is how I made a lot of my images fit to scale, simply click edit and free transform to make the image the scale you would like. (Adobe, 2017) This is how I made the tweets fit into the White House tv screens and make them to scale. 

I did outside editing in another photoshop window and then imported the images into the main work area. This was so that I could do the correct adjustments such as changing the headline to what I wanted it to be. Below is my rough draft of my meme idea;

From my screenshot above you can see that I have a couple adjustment layers to play with the hue/saturation of the tweets that I put on the tv screens. There are also layers for the news headline, and the question marks above the media reporters heads. 

Sources

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/ps-layers-basics.html

Blog 2: Business Card

 

Business Cards in InDesign

How to format documents in Adobe InDesign

With all of the various websites out there to help with document design, not many of us see ourselves designing our own documents from scratch. In particular, business cards are often ones that we use previous formats and designs for because it saves us the trouble. Working with InDesign is a fun way to create your own business cards and other documents. The biggest thing for me to understand was the bleeds and placing the image so that it will print the correct part of that image. Because the focus was not as much on the content but how to get there I did the best I could to show that work. 

Because I am currently the Chairman of College Republicans here on campus I decided to create a business card that represents that. I learned many things about setting up a business card, first of which was the bleed which for business cards is supposed to be .12 on both the width and height. (Vistaprint) This was an easy task as in InDesign there is an option to set the bleed before you create the document itself. One of my biggest challenges while trying to get my photos in the correct place would be the content grabber which is there to select the content within the frame. (Wood, 2018) Adobe confused me with this feature until I began to play with it and it actually came in handy on this project. I was able to move my portrait around to stay within the bleed and margins while framing it correctly. 

Another important feature that I learned from playing around was the place feature. From this feature you are able to drag the image and make it the size that you want. (Wood, 2018) This was a feature I was unaware with because previously I would try to drag the image or simply import the image. The place feature allows for more control when inserting an image and I will certainly use this in the future. 

Sources

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/add-work-with-graphics.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/get-started-indesign.html

Blog 01: Composition

 Working the "Golf" shot

There are many people in today's day and age that love to photograph their lives and often we are seeing our daily lives through a lense. This is because of the advances in technology as well as our desire to show off our lives on social media. With the advances in phone cameras, it has become easy to photograph moments and feel as though we are all "professional" photographers. For my specific theme I decided to stick with golf and the different aspects of the game. I narrowed it down to the golf ball itself while also taking some pictures of the golf cart. I may decide to take more photos and work the shot more but I got some good photos that show I "worked the shot." 

Negative Space

I used the example of taking a smaller object, in this instance the golf ball, and focusing on having negative space around the ball to make it the focus of the shot. I really like how your eyes are drawn to the golf ball itself because that is the one thing in the photo that catches your eye. I also played with up close shots of the golf ball but I thought that negative space best represented the golf ball and brought light to it. Such as in the reading I tried to employ the negative space and put emphasis on the object itself. (Bray, 2011)

You will see in the photo below how your eyes will be drawn to the golf ball because it is what stands out in all of that negative space.

Angle

For angle I used the hole as a way to layer the photo and give it depth. Having the ball in the hole gives it depth and creates a 3D appeal that you would not have otherwise. Normally if you were to take a picture of a golf ball you would take it at the angle you see it when you set up to the ball. Here I took a twist on angle and added that depth. 

Simplicity

For this shot I decided to focus on a simple photo with the focus on the golf ball and the hand holding the ball. I wanted to focus on having the viewer be drawn to the golf ball without being distracted by everything else in the photo. I have always found the simpler photos to be the nicer photos because there tends to be less going on which doesn't take away from the photo itself. 

Photo Card Assignment