Portfolio website

My cojodesign web site is finished, It pretty much looks the same to the first version with a few face lifts. Most of the changes were in the code and the slideshow pro. I ended up making an external style sheet so all my pages are the same and code is much much cleaner. Over all it made a big difference maybe not visually but behind the scenes in the code it did.

PARTY!

So its Thursday and I have one more class Friday and and the semester will finally be over for me. I am so excited I will be able to finnaly get 8hrs of sleep and even more if I choose to HAHAHA cant wait for it. Part at my place FRIDAY!!

Thailand International CDAC journal

Country(ies) of choice -
Did your issue directly relate to your first country of choice?

My did somewhat relate to my first countries of choice, I had my mind set on doing a country in southern Asia. My issue related because the majority of the southern countries in Asia have no universal health care system. I had two countries in mind when starting the international campaign, Thailand or India. During one of our class group discussions someone mentioned that may take their campaign to India, so that help persuade me to take mine to Thailand. It worked out on my behalf, after doing research I found that Thailand had a bunch of specialist hospitals but very few normal clinics and those they did have were very un-accessible to the general Thai people.

Cultural Issues -
Did your project easily translate culturally to its new target audience?

Yes I think it translated decently well, I did have to change a few words but overall I feel my message was transfered to Thai well.

What new issues came up when attempting to bring attention to your subject matter in this new cultural setting?

One issues with my campaign in Thailand was that about a century ago traditional medicine was outlawed, so I was a little unsure how the Thai people would feel about my campaign.

Research Issues -

What stumbling blocks did you encounter in trying to find information on the subject matter in this new cultural/country setting?

The most major stumbling block I encountered is the whole translation issue. I found it difficult to translate what I was trying to say, and I ended up have to translate the text back and forth to get it as close as I could. Another thing is in Thailand they read right to left so I then had to break down each word so that I could break apart the sentence properly. One other issue was finding up to date statistics, that statistics I did find were from 1999 which may possibly be okay. I just worry because today with the world moving so fast and technology 10 years can be a dramatic change.

What media and methods did you use to try and obtain information?

A big help when looking for inspiration or just information was looking at different types of Thai art and designs. Looking at their art really gave an idea of what the people of the were about and what their style was. I also looked at Thai sculptures, most of them being of Buddha which helped me out because most people think of Buddha as being a jolly fat man and that you rub his belly. In Thailand Buddha was not that popular image at all, he was a thin normal looking man.

Final Resolution -
How did your project change from where you first started with the domestic application of the Creative Strategy?

What changed in terms of subject matter?

My subject changed slightly, my first campaign dealt with younger college students not having health insurance and the impact it can have on them. My international campaign stayed with the theme of public health in a sense, except when it moved to Thailand it changed into use the available traditional medicine to get help because hospitals are not that easily accessible.

What were some changes in terms of visual material?

I went with a more artistic approach with the international campaign, I looked at Thai art and tried to mimic it in my designs.

What other changes did you have to make?

The way I present I message, my first campaign I used scare tactics to carry message across. For the international I went with more of an understanding way to show the benefits of traditional medicine and how they are close by.

Did you attempt to translate any text into the local vernacular? 

Yes I did, I translated  into Thai.

Summary & Conclusion -

I learned a lot from this experience, things do just translate over to another culture like you would think. There are many obstacles you need to consider when designing, the size of the document, how the text read, colors, you have design the whole composition carefully. It does change your view of how the world communicates, there are so many things that need to consider if you want to design and communicate effectively. Overall it was  valuable experience that I learned from. It will not just help me with design for something international but it will also help with design domestically.

Hard Sell vs. Soft Sell

Hard Sell vs. Soft Sell dealt more with advertising posters on the west side and dealing with clients. Where as Bus Shelter Posters dealt more with the east side and how posters were designed to handle the New York bus stops. I found it very odd but interesting that Dreyfus decided to only accept clients who could be billed a minimum of $50,000 annually. Kind of unbelievable to hear some one say, “he was wasting his time and talent on the $10,000 accounts”. I would not want to turn down any business, but I guess now is a different time and Dreyfus has way more experience. Also what was interesting was that back those days the west coast was mainly serviced by small advertising agencies. It is really inspiring to hear about dealing with accounts that are billed in the hundreds of thousands, and that was just in those days.

    Living here in Michigan and have never taken the bus, I have been exposed to many bus stop posters, especially ones comparable to the ones in New York. Reading the article introduces a new issue that has to be dealt with when designing. You know have to design for the elements and vandalism when creating designs that will be outside in the public. I wonder how the weather and vandalism to these posters effects the pricing compared to inside posters? The reading stated that Gannett calls for a 50 percent overage on printing quantities for replacement. I thought NYNEX’s ads were very clever, especially how they started out with just images then through out the year elements were added such as type. The idea worked so well because probably the same people use the same bus stop every day. The riddles and puns would grasp the audience and keep them anticipating what text will follow. I think that its a brilliant idea and was thought out very well. Both articles provided useful information, I hope one day to be able to handle such big money accounts and be able to creatively solve problems like the bus stop posters.

Disney World Signage & That Pesky Television Test Pattern

It was very interesting to see how the two visual problems were solved in each article. Both designs needed to be functional over all, but the Disney World Signage allowed for  more artistic freedom. Where as the t.v. test pattern was designed mainly for function not to be appealing. After reading the t.v. test pattern article I realized that I have never gave much though to that pattern. I had seen the pattern on few rare occasions but just thought of it as an old design. Thought that there was no function to it. It makes me wonder if other people, especially the older ones that were in the time of the pattern really knew its function. After reading the article it is pretty amazing that the design could be used for so many different calibrations.
As for the Disney World signage I was a little lost until I saw the picture of the road sign. I have never been to Disney World so I was not quite sure what it was talking about. Looking at what they were designing at first I thought It would be simple and did not understand what was so hard about it. After thinking about it and finishing the article, I realized just how difficult it would be, especially when designing it for a big corporation like Disney. When you realize all the information that needs to be presented in the design and yet how it still needs to be simple and functional you realize how challenging designing the signage is. I personally feel the signs could have portrayed “Disney” more, to the me the signs resemble the regular boring normal road signs.

Both designs had something iconic about them. The Disney World signage incorporated Mickey Mouse, the icon and Disney. While the t.v. test pattern in its self became an icon. “...who anonymously designed it could never have predicted that, decades later, it would become a nostalgic icon.”.

infected by typography

So I just noticed that during the lecture Courtney and I while we were waiting were critiquing a Mott flag in there. We were discussing the bad type used on the flag, then it hit us and realized what we were talking about....a flag and the type used on it.

Kathleen Glynn Lecture

So I was invited to Ballenger Lecture Series with guest lecturer Kathleen Glynn who worked with Micheal Moore, and after the lecture I was invited to a private student event with her after the lecture. The lecture was pretty interesting, she had went to Mott and started out studying graphic design which I thought was very cool. The was she explained how she went after work instead of waiting for it come to her was very inspiring, especially to me being a young designer trying to break into the field and get my name out there. Also what was very cool was how she wasn't ashamed to be from Flint and didnt talk bad about it or how happy she was to get away from it, which is something I respect very much. The private talk was neat also, we were able to ask her questions and talk to her. It was a little intimidating at first because the majority of the people there were film students, but then she called me out and asked what we did. And I explained how I am a graphic designer and that I am into web and etc. It was sort of an ego boost being one of the two graphic designers there.
Thanks for inviting me Jim.

Flash Catalyst Beta

So Jim showed us the Flash Catalyst beta last week, and I was stunned. Finally a way to do flash with out having to know the code! The video makes everything so simple, you start off designing like normal in photoshop or illustrator then just import it into flash catalyst do a couple of points and clicks, add your actions and wha laa your done.
Well I was wrong about that, I am hoping it is just because the program is still in beta that it is such a pain in the ass. First I had to flatten many layers of my psd file to get it below the max import file size of 15 mb. Once I got that done things seemed to move easily....well for a lil bit at least. I put together how I wanted my site to animate and appear and it played great in flash catalyst. Then as soon I wanted to add my scroll bars, the trouble began. I figured out how to make the scroll bar parts, but how to define that content that would scroll wasn't as easy. Not to mention that when you make something into a scroll bar you lose all the animations you previously created. Once I got that figured out somewhat, I still had a lil faith that this might work. Like I said the flash played great in flash catalyst, but when you previewed it live it didn't work. I guess I need a code so it will transition from the first state to the next. That is all I was able to get done for today. After thinking it through Ill probably cut the flash site, the point of doing a flash site was to make an easier web page, that would change colors easier, and I would only have to edit one file instead of three for each color. I was hoping flash catalyst would achieve that and I had so much hope for it. I guess Ill just have to learn flash because my site will be a flash site someday, fo sho.

cs5

So Jim showed us a video of the new CS5 and the new features. It was really cool, they really focused on the new power of content aware. That feature is really amazing and the stuff they showed and what could do was insane, it almost makes you wonder why we are going to school for graphic design. The tool cold make tree disappear, move mountains, clear roads, and create clouds. It will defiantly make taking things out of photos much easier.

Web page classmate critique

Jeff T webpage

Well starts off page by page and go through the critique that way. Jeff's main page is a very simple and clean design with an orange background with an illustration of himself. The page content contains a heading and various links to his about me, projects, and so on. The links are green and are a pink roll over. The page is laid out very nicely and in a organized way, very easy to understand where everything is and and to find what you need. As for the color choices I am not a big fan of them. I guess the orange and black is ok, but with the links being green with a pink rollover, it really ruins it for me., but to each is own.
Now onto Jeff's bio, ummm not to sure where to start on this one lol. I guess I will start off with the first thing I notice that is wrong with the page, the page is missing a title! As far as the effect goes, it is pretty trippy and Jeff did a good job on it. But for a webpage background I dont think it works out too well. The background is very eye distracting, especially with all the colors on the page. With the pink and black, and the white text and each ring changing colors it is very difficult to read any of the links and the very short about me info. Though I am pretty sure Jeff was going for all of this when creating it, so good effort on that part Jeff.
On to his project page which is basically an orange background with green links to his projects with a pink rollover. How come this page does not have a better design or layout? What I dont get is some links have a thumbnail rollover and some do not, why is that? Also again the project page is untitled.
The blog is very different too, Jeff has an orange them going for his website but his blog has a purple them. Why not have a carry you color choice to your blog? Maybe Jeff was going for a complementary color scheme...?
I think Jeff just needs to work on his color schemes more and keep in mind readability and functionality. I know his site was fun and experimental and he did a good job on that. But when it comes to a normal site and that needs to attract viewers and bring them back everything needs to be fluid and readable in order for the viewer to have a good experience.

The History of the Internet

The internet was created by none other than the manpigbear hunter himself, Al Gore... NOT!

"the first large-scale Internet was created — a set of interconnected US military computers. The idea was simple: if an attack was laid down on one part of the system, the rest of the system would still be operational enough to blow the hell out of whoever was attacking the country"

Back then computers were huge bulky machines, primitive compared to computers we have today. Between the 70s and 80s Usenet was developed, a bulletin board system a simpler version of email. Universities were connected all across the United States and used the early version of the internet to trasmit experimental date and other educational resources.

"In 1973 the first international (and indeed intercontinental) connection was made to the University College of London in England."

Finnaly in 1991 the World Wide Web was released by CERN developed by Tim Berners. From there the internet caught on and people quickly began creating web pages using basic HTML. The internet encountered a big boom and has formed into what it is now with online shopping, games, video streaming, pr0n, music, and much more!

Links:

http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/starthere/historyofthenet.html