Month: October 2022

The theme for our project was to highlight the parks of Seattle. We decided to utilize earth tones for our png designs. For my individual portion, I decided to focus on the current and upcoming events at Volunteer Park. To build my panels, I used Photoshop. I also spent some time seeking out the appropriate typography using the Adobe Font database. Initially, I was going to utilize Figma, but timing became an issue. For the animation, I wanted to focus my imagery on the main subject matter for an event happening tomorrow: the Evergreen Chrysanthemum Association Fall Show. I shot a video and took selected frames to build the gif. The audio was created by converting a YouTube video into an mp3 file. I used this site: https://ytmp3.cc/6d042/. I found that sweet vintage map of the park online as well. Maps are so cool.

Attached below are the panels for the project, as well as a video of the VR experience using my phone. I’ve also included the gif (seen above).

Credits:

Music: Hilary Hahn – J.S. Bach: Partita for Violin Solo No. 1 in B Minor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBX_ouEw1I

Map: Olmsted Brothers’ revised preliminary plan for Volunteer Park, Seattle, 1909 Courtesy National Park Service Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (02695-43). https://historylink.org/File/20839

When I first began to explore my creative tendencies, it was shortly after my dad died. I remember feeling lost and depressed. Being in Seattle, so far from the family that I love and adore, I started to dabble in photography. As a way to help reconnect me to the memory of my father (who had a deep love for photography), I purchased my very first DSLR. Together with my best friend (who is an amazing hair stylist), I began to plan and shoot fashion photoshoots. With each project, my love for art grew. And my subject matter widened. Portraits, events, families, and soon wedding engagements. Some images from that period of my life are attached below.

As a popular hair stylist, my best friend helped to connect me to potential clientele. One such client was a couple looking for wedding photos. My initial inclination was to say no. After all, weddings are such important events for couples. If I messed up, that would be huge. But as is my go to intuition, I decided to dive in, reading everything I could get my hands on, watching youtube tutorials, visiting Glazers to ask a million to one questions, doing mock shoots with models to test light and different lenses. It was a time of much growth. Thankfully, I was able to successfully photograph their wedding. I remember how happy they were. Despite my initial anxiety, I’m grateful that I said yes. And on a funny note (at least in retrospect), directly following the wedding, I ended up feeling broken, both in body and in spirit. Photographing for 10 hours straight, without a second shooter, I was spent. Looking back at the experience, I am proud of myself for taking on the challenge. I’ve gone ahead and attached a couple of my favorite photos from their wedding.

It was the summer before COVID. I remember it clearly. One of my best friends and I went backpacking along the Olympic coast that year. We had just arrived at the halfway mark of our journey, Third Beach. And while sitting amongst the stars, eating our rehydrated meals, we stared up to the sky in quiet wonder. A blanket of stars seemed to envelop us. To warm us against the chill breeze of the coastal night. Prior to the trip, I downloaded the Night Sky app, thinking for sure there’d be no way I’d get to use it, no cell signal and all. But lo and behold, Third Beach turns out to be close enough to commerce that my phone was actually able to locate a cell tower. Pointing my iPhone into the sky, and seeing the systems of stars and planets come to life on the screen of my outdated phone, was in a word mesmerizing. Sipping our cold IPAs, we played games, incorrectly guessing the numerous systems, enjoying the experience of testing and increasing our knowledge of astronomy. A night for the books, to be sure.

Fast forward to today, and still the Night Sky app has this way of making you feel a sense of wonder. I think it’s what the app has going for itself most. Everyone is fascinated by the night sky. The app pulls you in, makes you feel like you’re right up there with the stars themselves. I’m so excited to see how VR develops in the near future. We’re off to a good start, I’d say.

Having said all that, the app isn’t without its obvious issues. Foremost, perhaps, is that the screen is extremely cluttered. It also uses a difficult to read font. Pair that with a lack of contrast between the font used and the background, the user experience can become difficult and frustrating. Another pet peeve of mine is when an app constantly sends your screen a popup reminder to buy its rather expensive premium plan – $40 a year! Ouch. Every time I zoomed in on something I wanted to learn more about, I’d get a pop-up reminder. It would happen sometimes repeatedly on the same object that I was currently reading up on. Needless to say, it was pure annoyance. I also found it difficult to select items on the screen that I wanted learn more about. Not sure how that can easily be addressed as it feels like a hardware issue (maybe?), but perhaps due to the cluttered nature of the screen your interaction with a specific object is hindered.

The good news is that it feels like most of these issues are simple fixes. It’s an app that most definitely feels like it was created by science people, which likely didn’t include much feedback from designers. Decluttering the information, choosing a better font, paying attention to the readability of the screen are all ways that will help to increase the pleasure of the user experience instantly.

During Joe’s guest speaker session, he spoke about his reasoning behind transitioning from Amazon to Microsoft. Although both companies offer substantial financial gain, that was not at the core of his rationalization for leaving Amazon. It was more about the intrinsic value and meaningfulness behind the work that he was engaged in, sensitive to the purpose and function of his job title. And at Microsoft, they create goods and services that help a person realize their greater potential. That resonated with me.

As I develop my skill sets and learn more about my place in the world of graphic design, my sincere hope is that I will be able to focus my efforts in the areas of my life that bring me the most happiness and satisfaction. Aligning those interests with my career development with be paramount. One of the benefits to being a bit older in this program is that I know what I can live with and what I can not live without. Passions matter. For me, that includes food, travel and the great outdoors. Below are examples of the kinds of work I hope to be involved in throughout my career. My guess is that each of these examples fall within the low information density and specific audience quadrant.

This project took me a bit to figure out. Meant rereading the lecture slides a couple times. But after I played around with Aero a bit more, I think I started to pick up the unique characteristics of this mind bending application. It’s wild seeing how quick technology seems to be moving these days. Frighteningly fast.

As I type, my project is still attempting to load on my phone. I can’t figure out if that’s because I may have made my shapes and characters too large. Oh, scratch that. You just told me it most likely due to my old iPhone 7. Time for an upgrade!

Below are some images I was hoping to use in my iPhone screen recording preview. The sun rise this morning really was beautiful.

This was a challenging assignment. But a lot of fun too. Trying to figure out how to approach the project, and coming up with an idea to work towards, as well as the inevitable hardship of learning new software along the way.

Idea

Bliss asked that we put together a mash up that represented our time thus far in the program. When I think about design school, one thing comes immediately to mind: STUDYING. The sheer amount of work required to not fall behind is intense. And no amount of smart working can eliminate the number of hours one must invest daily to stay afloat. But this is what I signed up for, and I’m dedicated to succeeding no matter what. Habits, the good kind, are absolutely essential.

Process

The video is a compilation of 20 or so clips, taken from a variety of angles, trimmed and then pieced together in Premiere Pro. I gelled a light behind me to give my scene that pinkish hue. During the week I tried to take notice to the music I was listening to, taking screenshots every time a song played that moved me. To start and end the clip, I created a couple design pieces to help with the general flow of the video.

Mediums

This project used several different mediums as well as software. I shot videos, trimmed music files, created the lead and end design elements in Photoshop and Illustrator. Edited the video in Premiere Pro. Uploaded it to Youtube. It’s a short video, but I took me 2 days to finish.

Where to now?

I want to better my working knowledge of Premiere Pro. To be able to create much more beautiful and cinematic footage. Perhaps there are links or videos that my instructors could point me to. I’d also like to know how to create more cinematic footage in general. The process. The approach.