Last blog for this quarter

The end of the Fall Quarter 2008 at CSULA what can I say? This has been challenging quarter for some odd reason. I really enjoyed working on the past advertisement assignments in Prof Moss Advertisement Design class. My favorite project was when we had create a series of ad's for CS4. I especially want give my partner Kevin props for helping execute this idea. Overall very happy with the results. What do you think? Having took this class I would love to pursue Advertisemetn more seems like fun

Look what I found

Well I was driving on the freeway and I saw this ad. It caught my attention and the layout was quite simple. I still questioning what the ad was trying to see though. It made me curious on the product. In the end the bear ad got my attention but left me questioning on what is was trying to sell because there was no logo only a call to action. I just had to take pix of it. Yeah I hear that bear roar don't you. I also found this funny ad online. I thought the imagery was clever and made sense to the "Slim Fast" call to action. Hope you liked them.

In honor of our new presdent

I was at home when watching the election coverage when I heard the announcement of our new president. I sat there wondering all the graphics portrayed in his honor. I went on the web and remembered how much I enjoyed mosaic art. I enjoy seeing multiple images make one. I came across these mosaic of our new president Obama and just thought they were outstanding. The topography one really caught my eye, the whole idea of many objects arranged in such matter to make one complete image became very relevant. This idea is used in our daily lives, where many cells make one human body or many marble tiles make one complete floor plan.

Missed blog on ThinkLA event

About two saturdays ago I attented the thinkla.org event on Advertisemet Design. I am glad I went at least one of the days of two available. It really gave me insight on a potential field in graphic design I will like to take on. I learned about different kinds of Media, Account Planning, Interactive Design, & printing process. I really enjoyed this event because I got to learn first had on what it takes to be a succesfull advertisement designer. One of the usefull links that was given to me was that of : www.linkedin.com. For those of you who have not join or do not know what it is about; its mostly a networking site for business professionals. There is strong emphasis in graphic and communication arts networking. Some of the employers even said they do look for potential.

Overall it was a successful and insightful carrier day and I hope that most of you will take time to check out www.thinkla.org. Thanks to my professor on providing information on this event, I am now very exited to pursuing a career in advertisement design.

In all things comic books regain supreme?

I know that design is not just limited to poster of movies or promotion of product. Let us look at the some other types of design, like that of comic books. Comic books are one of most oldest types of design out there. The whole comic book world revolves on interesting images and characters. I wanted to mention the new upcoming comic book movie based on the best selling novel "The Watchmen." The movie itself looks quite appealing to the eye. But, for comic book lover we all know this movie can be better. But, unlike other movie poster this one seemed catch my eye. The tradional smiley face caught my eyes. At first I though, oh its an animated movie. Up until I found out who the "The Watchmen." I thought this comic book movie is worth mentioning. The design on these posters is simple but is eye catching. I especially like this one. I like how well the vertical typography fits the whole movie poster. A grid approach was used here as well, very well noted in the borders around the main image.

For those of you who are comic book lovers, dont worry here is an actual novel cover, which is in my opinion typical of comic book covers yet great to look at.
So I think we should take some time to appreciate comic books more often these days. By far one of the most blockbuster movies have been based on comic books. Take for instance Batman Dark Knight movie. This movie was huge blockbuster. The whole concept of a new Batman just gave way for new and old type of movie audience. I just wanted share some movie posters from this blockbuster. I do enjoy low budget movie posters as well I wanted share my hidden admiration for comic book design and movie posters















Oh and heres just a comic book cover I enjoyed too. Those are my thought. Seems like movie and comic book covers have strong resemblence these days. Something in these characters and covers work very well together that it keeps captivating us.

Old Design versus New

As of recently I was making trip to my local target I spotted this kind of funky retro 70's looking tissue boxes. Needless to say I got 4 of them for 2.99. Once again I saw same tissues box I bought in a traditional old school looking bathroom. The tissue box has a better design in comparison to the horrific flowers on curtains and the wallpaper. The flowers are just bad in design. Only thing I like about this bathroom is how it photographed: yellow and green are harmonious colors but design wise not appropriate for modern bathroom This box that Kleenex has is available in green and orange colors. I know its an over use design but its caught my attention. The vibrant colors and simple geometric forms makes this box appealing compared to a typical. This got me curious on who was designing these boxes. I found that consumer can design their own kleenex box. It was not too surprising considering how many items can be personalized these days. This site where one can design a personal tissue box:

http://www.mykleenextissue.com/canvas

It's pretty limited because you have to settle with their design and can only upload images. Not to mention the available fonts are so typical. I would love see a tissues box with only typography. But, for the use of tissue boxes, its seems that most of them look the same. Most contain floral design and pastel colors. I did find some hello kitty ones and nature scene ones but so far I liked these series of boxes because they reminded me of the 70's (peace and love design) and vibrant colors. The simple shapes say it all: Mondern design.

If any of you know some graphic design history there was a period called rococo. I found this nice tissues box on the net and thought to myself, "how times have changed in design," and they sure have even in tissues boxes!

Take look at this Rococo tissues box (somebody actually had this in their car).Nice!
How many of you have tissue box in your car? I know I do, the vibrant retro Kleenex box.

Same sex marriage Prop 8. Ad. project

In our advertisement design class with prof. Jimmy Moss we were given task to come out with two different campaign poster for propositions set forth this upcoming November ballot. The proposition me and my partner are developing is same sex marriage elimination. Voting yes on prop 8. will have marriage only between a man and woman. Voting no will keep the current law and allow same sex couples have same rights (civil) as heterosexual couples. I have in between feelings about this issue. I feel that marriage right should be available to all humans wether heterosexual or homosexual. On the other hand growing up with christian beliefs and traditions I also feel that marriage for same sex couples defy "God's intended nature" for humans to not only procreate but also obey his laws. This conflicting because of religious and civil reasons. For now I have no strong position on either side. Rather I will examine both sides and develop ideas for and against same sex marriage.





This is quite controversial issue but the developing ideas for this proposition have been fun. I find myself trying to think out box more so in this project. Advertisement design has always appealed to me because of sense of control of people opinion on product or service. So far my developed ideas have been a bit complicated. I was thinking of sense of political cartoons I seen in my history books. However, I'm trying several different approaches for variety from photography to illustration and even emphasis with only designing with type.

I did some research of the types of images out there now on this issues and posted them here. I'm trying sway away from any negative imagery. The images above caught my attention and think God is strong argument use for and against both "yes" and "no" on prop 8. The cartoon I found quite funny because of two men who speak marriage in terms of sex. Just thought it was bit funny. I'm currently developing 20 more ideas for this project and will be posting them here. I hope I can get you guys feedback. Until then, there is more work to be done, plenty of more work for this project to be successful.

Underdesign Aftermath

After completing the booklet project for art 413 I realized how much type can take a form of its own. Where speaking with type can communicate ideas in a dynamic way. The binding of the booklet was the most difficult. However, I do recommend that those of us who have not checked out Peter Bilak work to take a good look at his use of type, and experimentation. I really enjoyed his speech and though I did good job in communication what his text was about. I actually managed find his layout and its so different than what I envisioned. As a type designer he also had this funky type called Holy Cow (shown above).

After completing this project I was satisfied with my interpretation of Peter Bilak Underdesign. I figured I do something different and just make a small booklet where the type does stand out. I did experimented with smaller type but since it was such a short text I decided emphasize it more by enlarging the type a bit (not exagerrate). I think sometimes as a designer like Jimmy mentioned we tend to over design a piece with decorative elements where type is obsolete and unimportant. This text and project helped further my development in type design. Furthermore, I think we should all attempt more projects like this keeping in my our critiques so we can become better designers.

When to use Sans Serif? or Serif

After Jimmy showed us the ten commandments of typography I knew there was more to it than this. In our textbook we are encourage to use classic typefaces such as Bodoni and Garamond. I looked into what other typographers have set. I came across this rule:

"Serif type is easier to the eyes than sans serif."

There's an old principle in the graphics world that goes "Serif type is easier to read because the serifs draws your eye from character to character." Hence, sans serif type is oftentimes used for headings and short quantities of text.

Truth to tell, all fonts can be made readable (except, well, maybe for Wingdings) with the ideal design. With sans serif, although it needs more leading than serif type, it can give your documents a very modern look, and is the popular body text in Europe.

This rule make sense especially since most textbook are written in serif typefaces. But, the majority of websites use sans serif in body text. So my main concern is should sans serif mostly be used for headlines because of clarity purposes? I find that sans serif as just as easy to read in comparison to serif typefaces. Of course with proper leading they can flow just as easy as serift typefaces. Variations in thickness and strokes of letters at least to me sometimes make serifs typefaces the ideal for body text. I I purposely made this paragraph in serif Verdana to illustrate another example as our text mentions as well with respects to serif typefaces.

On a different Note

Outside typography I tried to embark on the Monster software called: Maya! boy Im glad I am studying to be a graphic artist. Two quarters ago(I know this is not Typography) related but I curious to know if any other Graphic Artist has been through this. I took a computer graphic class and it was nothing to what I expected. There is so much in 3D design I did not know up until I took Computer Graphics 2. For those of you curious to take this class I do recommend it but it will be challenge if you are not open minded. In the end I made a subdivisional character. I took the easy way out in this last project...What do u think? 

Designing with Type, the challange

Up until I took Jimmy Moss Typography class I never knew the challenges that one has to embark when making an interesting composition made mostly of type. I choose to use the Random composition using large letters. I choose Optima for this first project. I wanted the letters to stand out so I used complementary  colors. Slight brush strokes underneath some letter are used to emphasize more importance to some directions.  The challenges in this project are making the typography interesting to look at. I am still working on this first project  and hope it will help further my creativity. I am still waiting for my textbook to arrive from amazon.com until then I simply must say this first project... is a design challenge.