Me and My Website

Websites are a crucial part for any business, person, school, anything. They are going to be that first impression of what you do, what you are, and an insight into you not only as a person, but as a designer. Your website has to be interesting, easy to maneuver through, and give all information needed for the viewer. My website is going to promote me because it shows the work I have done for our class, that shows off my creativity and what I can bring to a work place. It also promotes me because of my picture and my bio. This way potential employers can put a face to the name and get to know me and what I like to do and what degrees I got from where I did. Finally, it promotes me because you can see my resume on my website and see everything that I would like potential employers to see.
Social media projects, like blogger, tie-in with the website because people can see how you write, think, and get ideas across. We link other social media sites so people can see what you are like on other sites and see if you keep up that look of professionalism throughout everything and not just putting up this front for them.
To promote yourself to the full potential, linking your other websites are essential. They show you throughout all of your social media and can help or hurt you, depending on the level of professionalism. Employers will not hire you if on Facebook your have pictures of you partying all night and making rude and vulgar statuses. But if you keep that level on professionalism throughout all social media, link it to your website to build yourself up to everyone.
At first, I was worried designing the website. It seemed like so much and that one wrong move would destroy the entire site and that would be it for my website. Building my own website has always been something that I have wanted to do, but never knew where to start. Now, I know it seems less confusing and scary (Still can be both confusing and scary), but I am much more comfortable with it. Keep everything organized was essential to linking my work back to my website for all to see and luckily, I had no problem getting them on the website. Dreamweaver, itself, is an interesting program and I have enjoyed it because it reminds of a MySpace page back when I had that. The look of it is fun because everyone's will be formatted the same, but everyone has their separate work that brings out your own uniqueness.

Importance of a Postcard

The postcard is an essential exercise in design communication because the postcard says a lot about you in not so many words. The colors you pick, the graphics you choose, the words you type, the fonts you pick all reflect you as a person, which will tell someone looking at it much about you.

I used the color to try and make the words pop. Because the background of my post card was a clapper used on film sets, it was black. So the words really needed to stand out against the black background. As far as fonts go, they have been my achilles heel this semester. I can never seem to pick out the right font that is me. Eventually I found the a good font that shows more of the creative side of my filming and not so straight edged or looking like wedding invitation fonts. 

I wanted my postcard to show my love for film. I wanted people to see my postcard and know right off the bat that film is my passion and they can also get a quick glimpse into what I have done. This way I can make a first impression without meeting anyone. This would put me ahead of the game.

Using the pen tool to cut yourself out to put on the postcard was difficult at first because I still do not think that I got close enough and you can still see some of the wall. I knew that we would have to try and cut ourselves out of a photo, so I staged a photo against a solid background to make it a bit easier, and it was still difficult for me. I do think that getting the clapper and the reel of film as graphics was a good choice for my postcard because movies, films, and television have been my passion for as long as I can remember and I think that it truly shows and reflects its importance to me if someone were to see it. 

Using all three applications, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop was essential for this project because one, we should know how to use all three and prove we can to the best of our abilities. Two, all three applications do something different to photos, images, and designs, to perfect our postcard we need to use all three to come up with designs and fix our photos. If it be changes the levels on our pictures, to tracing graphics and images, to putting it together in one template, to see how it looks all together.  

The postcard was about us and who we are as a person. I usually hate talking about myself because I think I sound dumb describing myself and talking about my dreams and aspirations, but putting it down on this postcard that people can look at and get a good idea of me was a great way to almost introduce myself. As a person, employer, or anything. This project was not just essential for class participation, or an exercise in the applications we have been using all semester. It was also essential to as for the future. We can show this to potential employers and they will have a picture of us, where they can put a face to a name, and see what we are like before an actual interview.

This was way more than a class project, it was a learning experience, especially in the amount of time we had to do it, and it was a push forward for resumes, which is why I really liked this project. It is something that is going to stand out and that should be shown. This project showed that we can make something great in a small amount of time and that we know what we are doing in with these applications.

The postcard project is supposed to tell you about a person. The designs you create, the images you use, the photograph of yourself is all important because it is a first impression. It is an essential for design communication because it is all about you. What does this circle shape mean? How does it match you? Why did you choose that photo? Does it let someone know something about you? Communication is a critical point in anything that we do in life, just because we see something as an image and not verbal communication, does not make it any less important or impressive. First impressions are always key and I truly believe that this is what the postcards are really going to push towards.

5 Strong Logos

The first one is McDonalds logo of the "Golden Arches." What makes this such a visually strong logo is that it is simple. It is one letter and three colors. These things together have a picture in your head. You know it is McDonalds. That specific color yellow in the "M" always made me think of french fries, which may have been done on purpose being one of the many prominant things Mcdonalds sells.


The second logo is visually strong for branding the name right in front for all to see. Branding it like that and then having in connected to the check mark. It becomes one. Now, when you see a checkmark on a shoes or anywhere you know it comes from Nike, the name doesn't have to be there anymore because we know Nike is the checkmark.


The third logo is the Playstation logo. This is visually strong because of its minimalistic design and it has the initials as it's logo. Its design is clever and thought out of the box, there isn't much to it, but the P and the S are locked, but not touching creating, to me, an excellent logo design and an excellent market scheme.


The YouTube logo has changed a few times throughout its years of being active. Originally, it had the words YouTube in red and white colors, like the one above. But in recent years, they have updated the logo to this one. It's a clever logo design because it still has the same color scheme as their old logo had, but removed the words. So now when you see the white play button on the red screen, you know it's YouTube. When we begin watching a video, we click the play button and watch it on our screen, it almost represents what we are doing when finding a video, exactly what YouTube is for.
The last logo is one of my favorite designs for many reasons. The firefox logo has it nailed down to perfection. It is a browsing engine that connects you to the internet, which connects you to the world, which is what they are showing you in that globe with the "firefox" wrapping around it. The Fire fox can go anywhere in the world, this is the most clever logo design, with the perfect mix of colors. The fox isn't just orange, he is a mix of dark orange, light yellows, some dark reds, and so on. The earth isn't green for land and blue for water, it is two different color blues indicating land and sea so there isn't too much drastic colors throughout the logo. This logo was well thought out and definitely one of my all time favorite logos.

3 brochure topics

1) How to choose the right President

This topic would be interesting because it seems now more than ever, this millennial generation, my generation, wants to vote and have a say. But I think people do not have time to sit through debate after debate. Most of the information they hear is from other people and posts they find on Facebook. For example, I think most students my age want to vote Bernie Sanders because they know he wants to help college students and even marched with Martin Luther King, but do students know how he is going to do this or his plan? I think a brochure on what to look for in candidates and how to narrow things down so people, mostly students, know how to vote and are less afraid to vote. Most students hate Trump because they think he is a joke. But do they know why he is a joke? Do they know what he is saying?  Having a brochure with a brief breakdown of what to expect when voting and how to narrow down candidates would not only be a great topic but helpful for any student who feels lost in this voting world. This will bring out the importance of voting. Once we know what we are doing, we will feel more comfortable with politics and choosing a new president.

2) Video games

I am a big supporter of video games. I believe that they can be relaxing and important to the mind of each person. Someone can find any kind of game they would like. If it's a puzzle game, RPG, action, whatever. After completing a mission or a part of the game, your brain registers it as accomplishing something, which ends up making you feel better. People can say that video games are lazy, but if you break it down any aspect of video games, like storytelling, design, or even creation of characters, it can move the mind and get your brain flowing. I am a big believer in needing to take a step back and relax when a problem becomes too big and/or complicated. Get your mind off of things and keep yourself distracted is always a big help. And with video games, you get that sense of accomplishment when finishing something, which ends up making you feel better. When you get away from things for a while you actually help yourself. Video games have many artistic values to it that most people over look. Many people don't see how helpful they are to the human brain and human life when you need a break or something fun to do.

3) Daily Life at Buffalo State

A brochure about the daily life of an average Buffalo State student would be interesting to show. You could use this brochure for the school itself to show interested students thinking of coming to Buffalo State and give them an idea of what they might be stepping into. We all have something in common and it's being a Buffalo State College student. To show that unity would be fascinating and give a reason for people to even read it. Students can see what other students are doing and can even join things when they find something of interest. If we are creating this brochures, we should give people a reason to read them and check them out. I think the best way to do that is to show unity and a common ground between all of us. Which is being a Buffalo State College student. Let us show our common ground and things we do and show incoming students how nice of a place it is and what we do everyday. We can all talk about what we do and we can discuss things we have in common and show it in the brochure. It is important to show connection in a school with some many people and that there is always some similarity between you and anyone else.

Good (design) Vs. Bad (design)

Just by looking at the business card you can tell that it's a business card for a photographer. The simplicity of making the card looking like a camera is genius. The clear design to see through the card. There's little color to it to keep it as simple as possible and not take away from the design itself. It also has all the information neatly at the bottom in white to contrast against the black. It's not too much and just gets right down to it. Giving you all the information you need to contact this person.





Now, this business card is awful. There is just too much going to. It becomes way to distracting. The lightning in the background serves no purpose and relates no way to what the business is about. There's too much color going on and while it does give you information, it's still confusing. There's two phones numbers. How do you know which one to call? There's too much red and dark colors.




This brochure really appeals to me. I think the colors really pop out and contrast nicely with the one on the opposite page. Where it says "About us" the kurning is really well spaced between each other and I like the the About and the Us are different colors and one is bolded. They are different, but not too different. It catches your eye and very clean and sleek. The leading is really nice in the about us section and the services on the other page. The colors pop and teh neatness of it really appeals to the human eye.





There's a lack of color. It's not even a white background it's more of a dirty white. It reminds me of an old sock color. This has a lack of color and becomes very uninteresting. It even says on the middle page "To make your visit more enjoyable" But who wants to read it when it's this boring. The illustrations are lacking and boring. The light pink color throughout does not mix well with the old sock color. The fonts are all different and do not match at all. This is just way to bland.







This flyer is done brilliantly. The mix of mic for the karaoke and the ice cream cone for the summer is very creative and photoshopped well. There isn't too much information but just the information you need. Each section of information is a different font, but mix well with this theme. The way it is designed, you move your eye from the top to the bottom. The eye tracing is excellent in this flyer. The boarder dark brown color is a nice touch when being compared to the blue sky.














This flyer has way too much going on. Whoever designed it wanted everything they wanted to say on it. The fonts are too strange giving off a weird color scheme. They were trying to go for a scary or spooky feel to it, but it just doesn't make sense. The dark background doesn't work the bright colored fonts and the green writing in the left hand corner, you can't even read because it is too small and hard to read with the lighter color coming from the skull. The images jsut seemed to be copy and pasted on and just look like they do not belong.

Thoughts of Visual Communication

                 For me, personally, the best kind of communication that I respond to is a mix of visual and written forms because I am able to picture it clearly in my mind when trying to remember what was said or what was taught to me. When writing things down I feel more comfortable being able to go back and reread what I need to do or how to do something. I am the type of person who always second guesses myself and wants to double check that I did everything correct. Especially when it comes to saving projects, I save things at least two times and to a flash drive, just in case. Being able to see what someone is doing makes it easier on myself to redo what they do. So teaching a lesson on how to make something comes easier to me by watching the professor do it and then doing it myself and seeing where I go wrong and doing it again.

                As far as visual communication goes, all of it, type, images, symbols, color, what have you, are all important tools. But when it comes to a specific style or a certain criteria you have, you being your own visual communication and what works best for you and maybe a client might differ. That’s what’s nice about visual communication. People will differ about what is an important tool what looks too much or too little.  Visual communication can be a mix of some or all of these things. Different things work for different people and that’s why all these are important tools to visual communication.

                Companies should always have strong visual communication and if it is done right, strongly plays in their favor for advertising. For example, Starbucks. You do not see commercials for Starbucks. You never see the word “Starbucks” written anywhere. The only form of visual communication you get is the weird green mermaid on the cover. What makes it weird is that it may, or may not, be a mermaid. It's an almost clear design that is very interesting and known by everyone. In your head, when you see that mermaid, you know it is Starbucks. It’s such a good self-promotion with no words or text and just colors and an image.

                Another company with good visual communication is Amazon. They have a simple logo with their company name on it in big bold letters with an arrow under it. Almost making it look like a smiley face. But when you look closely, the arrow doesn’t go across the entire word, just from A in Amazon, to the Z. When you think about it, Amazing has, “everything A to Z”

                Finally, another company with great visual communication is FedEx. I always found FedEx logo to be genius because it is so subtle. The Fed in FedEx is blue and the Ex is red. Simple at first. It seems to just be a way to make their logo jump out. But when you take a closer look at it, you see there is an arrow inside the logo in the E and the X. Which is a clever logo style to have.
                For me, the best kind of communication is a mix of both the visual and the written forms because I can picture it clearly in my mind when things are being taught to me. I can picture one or the other, making it easier to remember. I like being able to see what someone does and redo it for myself. Communication is important in every aspect of life, whether it is a communication course or any other class because communication is how we impart wisdom and share information.