One of my #ds106 projects is in development and is growing larger than I had anticipated. I have added on staff for help. Their full bios and details will be part of the 4LC site launching soon. It was just so fantastic that I was able to hire these experts that I couldn’t wait to announce their joining the team! Having a public announcement hopefully will keep headhunters off their trail for a while so I don’t lose them too. They are my Dream Team!
From left to right:
Who says #noir is about cats! These boys prove otherwise!
Jaxin: The older, but wiser of the bunch. He keeps things in line and makes sure we all know what is important. Making sure we drink, eat, and sleep. He also keeps the other 2 in line. 14 years of experience.
Teddy: The youngest of the team. He supplies the energy and attitude, keeping us fresh and relevant. His antics open up new directions that we never thought of, but sometimes can get in the way of staying on task. A good balance. Still an intern status – but moving up fast after 1 year.
Sam: The lover of the group. Strives to please everyone by supporting through continuous tail wagging and “going upside down” for belly rubs. Makes sure that all are attentive by using squeak toys to get everyone’s attention and get back on task. Mid career and top of his game at 8 years.
As a team they can sniff out details and find things no one else knew existed. They are ready to support and serve you in 4LC.
Design work for Unit 6/7 – Create a Poster/Logo for character and radio show
Working on a design poster for announcing the audio creation of learning units 6/7. My audio event will be a part of the story of my character – Jerry. Location of the story is on the Eastside of Milwaukee. I chose this photo for a few reasons – he looks handsome and alluring – who wouldn’t want to tune in? It helps keep this short chapter of the story somewhat in a #noir theme. Something about cigarettes isn’t it?
I brought the Eastside colors in thru use of orange and gray/black. Enough to add some punch, but still keep the black and white feel of the photo graph. I used the heavier saturation for the large E to balance out the orange block on the other side. The lower edge of the E is eye level with the subject to take the viewer’s eye from title to face. Teh eye then should travel down the arm to the ds106 radio tag. Any feedback on placement effect or tweaks welcome.
This next shown version I added a noise filter to soften the photo. Playing with filters yet as another extension of PS. May need to go in and brighten the orange again for this to work.
Prior to feedback from others, the poster had a halo effect and still looked a little choppy and should we say – “photoshopped”. Using some input from others I was able to go in and use more tools, broaden my depth into PS and come up with the poster at the beginning of this post.
Here is the first keeper that was put out for feedback.
Another version I considered was to make it bold and use a stronger background – but I am leaning towards the above example as more effective. Some edge work needs to be done to clean up if the one below would be used. I abandoned it at this stage and began work on the above option when it didn’t feel like it was working.
Now time to start focusing on audio. Intro and exit bumpers and theme song.
The open course version is to do a photoblitz. I may still do the photoblitz. With a heavier concentration on design in the noir syllabus I preferred the direction of assignments that were suggested.
The challenge was to find at least 4 photo ops that would illustrate the design concept out of the 10 principles listed. When you are looking for design principles they are actually harder to find. You search for one and miss the ones that were right in front of you because you had a different search going on in your head. At one point I thought maybe it would be better to do it photo blitz style and just take a whole load of pictures and then go back and analyze them for design. Each method has its pluses and minuses. The other challenge is to post only one for each concept. For someone with over 7300 pics in my Flickr Photostream – you can see narrowing down is not a strength!
Here I the ones I chose to share here:
1. Form and Symmetry – or Balance
These are 3 concrete painted white forms as an art piece in front of a TJMaxx store. With our winter snowfall around them they take on a new look and the forms begin to take on another dimension. They attracted my attention with being white and the snow that is round them at this time. The snow adds texture but also emphasizes the forms through contrast. Symmetry is part of the original design, and the snow emphasizes that even more by not being symmetrical.
Balance is evident and created by the symmetry. This one picture is an example of how many design elements can create a design and a viewer may see one over another.
2. Symbolism
I went with this image for symbolism. The neon gives color, shape and light -but also symbolism by identifying a motorcycle. I am in Milwaukee – home of Harley Davidson. Motorcycle symbols come in several flavors. This is on display and actually for sale at a local lighting store. The store itself is unique and provided for some fun photo ops while I was there.
3. Rhythm
This is cardboard inserts stacked next to each other. Rhythm and pattern happen in the repeat of the layers of the cardboard. Looking at them as multiples instead of separately repeats and creates the rhythm.
This is an example of a Regular rhythm: A regular rhythm occurs when the intervals between the elements, and often the elements themselves, are similar in size or length
4.Typography
This just struck me as Noir time. The typography is part of the advertising. It actually is an original. Another find at the lighting store. The use of the outline and capitals easily puts the type as the focus and the graphics of the people as support.
5. Scale
Scale is the dimensional element defined by other elements of design size relative to art, its surroundings or in relation to humans. Scale is the size of an element as it relates to its usual physical size. I chose to take this picture mostly because I liked the idea of a large and small paperclip and how huge the one looks compared to the other. It is 5 years old – but what came to mind when I couldn’t find anything to photo shoot. We are experiencing winter right now and getting around especially outside is a challenge. Too cold! (minus 30F).
6.Another one from the files.
Going out and finding design elements, taking a photo of it and then describing why it is an example is not as easy as it sounds.
One thing about design is that the more simple it looks, the more complicated it probably is!
To view submissions by Noir and ds106 participants. use the tag designblitz in Flickr to see submissions.
Create a tv/movie poster that captures the essence of the story with minimalist design/iconography.
Based on my character Jerry and the adventures and daily activities of growing up on Milwaukee’s Eastside in the early 50’s.
This was 2.5 stars, however it seemed easier for me. Having done professional work in websites, learning systems, professional development promotional brochures – the idea of a minimalist or any kind of poster or flyer seemed like another day at the office. Although the days doing this kind of things were anything but “another day” – they were the fun days of being able to create.
Design principles in play are:
Color – keeping to one color and shades/tints.
minimalism and use of space – framing and using the rules of thirds was helpful in framing for visual impact and effect.
symbols – using the icons of the football helmet and the buildings.
One can make a case for many design elements but focusing on a few brings the result into being.
Using PhotoShop for image creation using layers and beginning with 3 rectangles of color each a little smaller to make the frame. Icons and text were than added. The image flattened and exported as a jpeg for publishing. The icons were selected and edited to add or change color for this poster. The E was lime green when found. The helmet was only a black and white icon. Times Roman is the font.
Queen Tillie and the Rabbi were the class president and the class thug turned businessman in life who narrate the story of the neighborhood and the adventures, antics and life of those who lived on Milwaukee’s Eastside in the 1950s.
Post Script: It is really bugging me that I didn’t align and make the borders even! Every time I see this I want to go back and adjust. And if you didn’t see it – thank you….! I will go back and fix that….just not sure when…..balancing learning and products yet. 🙂
Visualize a blog post, TED Talk, Class lecture or even dense text from a book- through drawing. Use the pictures to symbolically represent & concretize abstract concepts, and to make connections between ideas. Try to use words sparingly and only to reinforce your imagery.
Doodle it in your notebook, use your tablet, or scribble it on the back of a napkin. Just be sure to digitize it and then blog about the process, including citing where your inspiration came from.
I decided to follow another ds106er path (that”s you @spencer_cscott) and take an assignment and tweak and create it into an assignment of my own. Learning by Design is creating a doodle or sketch of a complex topic and making it into a visual with design principles.
I have been interested in sketchnoting and been reading the work of Sylvia Duckworth. (Sketchnotes for Beginners) And for years now RSA style videos have fascinated and tempted me to discover how to create. The next thing that came into play was all the mystery around Dr. Groom this week. It is hard to not want to jump in as you are doing the assignments. The adventure actually creates a thread of connectedness in the community. (Probably designed that way don’tcha think!). As we each explore digital media and how to use it, a common thread helps as we approach our own content in learning new ways of creating and expression.
PROCESS
After reading about sketchnoting and downloading a few apps for my iPad. I settled on Paper 53. I liked the way it handled and the quality of the sketch. It makes scribbles, and bumps and jumps, look like a style and intended.
At first I thought I would use video and make it more of an RSA kind of presentation. I used an IPEVO document camera which captured my sketching in video format. It is cool and it worked and I will definitely go back to it for another assignment or creation. For my intent here, the distraction of my hand drawing (it looked HUGE) was not an example of thinking of design.
I refocused on the topic of the week – design and then decided to use photo shop instead, but add the audio and animation features as well. So here is the tweak – I did a design, of still images with audio to produce a video. To keep it manageable and an assignment not a project – I used only a part of the weekly videos to sketchnote. The reasons were that this was not to actually create a product of the content and it will be old in another few days. I wanted to understand the steps and process and create something short enough for feedback from others.
I downloaded the Groom Week 4 Video and the Intro to Week 5 video to extract audio. This was a good follow-up to week 4 and pushed me to stay with Audacity and audio editing. Another plus to continue with audio from last week and build.
I worked on the audio portions that I wanted to include in my story. From there I needed to now listen and do my sketchnote of those portions. I used the Paper 53 and created a full image just as the original assignment had suggested.
After saving as a JPEG I moved to Photoshop and opened the image.
The next steps:
Create 22 duplicate images and name each in sequence of sketchnote graphic and context.
Create a first layer of a white background to act as the whiteboard.
Start with the first of the sequence and erase all but the one image.
Continue with the next 21 layers.
Export from Audacity and then Import the edited mp3 into Photoshop
Use the Timeline feature of PS and set all images at END of audio clip. I needed the story to stay within the audio so I worked backwards first to prevent running out of room at the end and having to continuously go back and move all the layers around.
Added transitions to layers when needed.
Locked position on each so that they would float in without jumping.
Created and added a last image for closure and identification, then added it to the timeline.
When satisfied with placements and flow I went to RENDER VIDEO and exported as mp4.
So sounds not too bad. BUT – I had to do this more than once – I stopped counting after #3. The first time I started on my desktop machine. As evening rolled around, I decided to switch to my laptop and at least be in the same room as my family and a little more comfortable. By this time it was mostly just the grunt work of moving layers a fraction of a space etc. Thought all was going great – it played in preview just great! I rendered and when I opened it NO AUDIO.
Okay – go back and try again. But then I found that after rendering and saving – the timeline turns into something flat and you really can’t go in and change much. So I had to get rid of the timeline and replace all the layers before rendering again.
Done – rendered – NOW IT HAS AUDIO BUT IMAGES ARE TWISTED! I needed to redo again! And this time I stressed out my laptop and it ran out of memory and froze up! Now I had to do machine maintenance and repair. Time for bed!
The next morning – I just went right to my desktop and worked there. I had saved some copies- but basically they had too many edits in them and it was faster to begin again. I had this down now – back to the Next steps above. Followed them and YEAH!!! It rendered and it came out fine!!!
LESSON LEARNED: Before exporting or doing a major change to the file – save at least 2 copies. This way I will have a master copy of a place in time to go back and not have to start completely over. I will need to remember to update that file as I go along as well. Next would be to get rid of all the copies that won’t make a difference anymore if you have to back so that I am not eating up memory and storage.
The original assignment was 3.5 stars. I am bumping it up to 5 stars on my chart – but I’m not tracking stars as an open course participant anyways. 🙂
The Boys of 4LC – The Dream Team
This next shown version I added a noise filter to soften the photo. Playing with filters yet as another extension of PS. May need to go in and brighten the orange again for this to work.
