TYPOGRAPHY

This week we learned how crucial it is to choose the right typography. Different typefaces give the image you are viewing different messages. It is important that you pick the right typography for the message you want to convey. If you are making a horror movie poster, you aren’t going to use a font such as comic sans. The following examples are of DVD covers that use typography effectively.

Toy Story: 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKKzIv0RM6UHnluahdjduadKRv_EUZO7jDKxqTKv70GzroNhSPbiYFwA8yX3qekAaO1ch2DodLIB42UPAVreuTUx1fgCYMearwIEhxuSGE4MFmd0yBDCeymEM5Zfv_5SQf1fq5rriO3Y/s1600/toy-story-3-dvd-cover.jpg

Since Toy Story is a movie for children, it is important that the typography is simple and easy to read. The typography used in this poster works because it is big, bold, and colorful. The typeface jumps out and is the first thing that the viewer sees. Yellow, red and blue are primary colors and contrast well with each other.  This typeface is very effective for the target audience of the movie.

LOST

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3612927911_bbd68c33e0.jpg

LOST (aka my favorite television show) effectively uses typography in their DVD cover. The name of the television show is very important because it explains what the show is about, which is why they used a bold typeface. Since the show is one word, it is important to have it stand out. Also they put cracks in the inside of the font that reflects the mysterious and distorted part of the show.

The Simpsons Movie

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/stillsx/2007/11/simpsons-the-movie-dvd-cover.jpg

The typography used in this cover successfully demonstrates the central theme. Viewers of The Simpsons know that the show’s characters are yellow and that the main character, Homer, likes doughnuts. These aspects are clear in the typography. They creatively turned the “O” in “Movie” into a doughnut. The font is very bold and yellow, which shows that the movie is fun and a comedy. By identifying the word “MOVIE” in big letters, the poster promotes the movie rather than the television show.

MOTION GRAPHICS!

The past two weeks in BDC192 we have been talking about motion graphics. We have watched many different videos on YouTube of some awesome motion graphics.  The time and effort that goes into creating such an amazing piece of art really amazes me.

            During my BDC192 lab, my TA Lisa Young showed me some of her favorite motions graphics. She showed me many that blew me away and left me speechless. There were many that I loved, but the one I want to share is called T-Shirt War.

This video was created in two days, and used 222 t-shirts! Crazy! What they created is funny, original and extremely creative. I love the use of color they use in the video because it really helps it to stand out more. It has a nice flow to it and you can barely tell that they took a bunch of pictures instead of filming it. You can tell a lot of planning was done before to create all of the different t-shirts. This video has given me a lot of inspiration for my next project!

ARTIST STATEMENT

I decided to create a CD cover for the artist Jack Johnson whose genre of music is soft/alternative rock. To make the CD cover appealing, I made sure to follow some of the rules of C.R.A.P.  Because I wanted the cover to reflect the type of music that Jack Johnson plays, I picked very soft colors that contrasted well with each other. The green and the blue go well together and focus the viewer’s attention on the main part of the image, which is the blackbird.  I also followed the rules of alignment by aligning and organizing the text in a top-down manner.  I didn’t want the viewer to get lost while looking at the cover.

I needed to overcome many obstacles when creating the CD cover. Before I created this cover, I had a totally different concept in mind.  I was going to do a jazz CD cover, with a silhouette of a person on a white background and the artist’s name and the CD title in a bold font.  The image I created did not express the genre of the music well, and it looked unorganized and visually unappealing. I commissioned my work and was given a lot of feedback on how to make the design stronger.  I redesigned the cover based on this feedback, but I was still unhappy with how the cover looked.  For this reason, I started again from scratch with a different concept and image.  While looking through my hard drive, I found a photo that I had taken at a park and decided to use that for the CD cover.  Because parts of the image were unnecessary, I cropped a selection of the more effective parts of the picture to include on the cover.  I then manipulated the image on Photoshop to make it stand out more.  To do this, I adjusted the levels, brightness, and contrast.  I had difficulty choosing the right font to go with the picture. I didn’t want it to be too bold to take away from the actual picture, and the font needed to have a softer look in order to reflect the genre of music.  I chose a font that was thinner and gave it a drop shadow to make it more visible.  I chose “Do You Remember” as the CD title because the image reflects the uplifting, calm, and happy mood in this Jack Johnson song.  Because the original background was white and too plain, I added a blue background and changed the opacity so it flows well with the rest of the picture.

Overall, I believe that the final product turned out to be very strong. I am happy with how it looks, and I believe that it could be a possible album cover for Jack Johnson. 

Photoshop!

In our digital media lab we have been focusing on Photoshop. I have been using the program since I was in grade 10, and have loved it since. Photoshop is an excellent program and is easy to use. Photoshop can do many different things to a photo. It can change the color, opacity, lighting and much more. I have enjoyed using the different tools in Photoshop to create cool images by using multiple different effects. I created an album cover that I think shows my Photoshop abilities. I am excited to share what I created in my lab class on Tuesday.

Many magazines use Photoshop to alter the appearance of their model, which I believe is a downfall to Photoshop. The media shows us images that we come to accept as true. When female see pictures of thin models on magazines, they feel that is how they should look. The medias message is that being thin and beautiful attracts the opposite sex. In reality, pictures are photo-shopped to take away all their imperfections. These images, though, become the standard to which others compare themselves and other people. When people don’t live up to the standards it makes them feel negatively about themselves and others. We all have our imperfections, but shouldn’t we embrace them, rather than hide them? Through the use of Photoshop, we can hide our pimples, take away unwanted fat on us and so on.

  

For example take a look at this picture of Blake Lively on Seventeen Magazine. There is a strong glow to her face, her arms are thinner, her chin is more shaped, her neck is more defined and so on. Photoshop can do a lot to a photo, and make it seem so unrealistic to what the person actually looks like.