A Conversation Unfinished
I had to upload to YouTube because of size constraints, please go here to view the video

*There is an "error" at the beginning of the YouTube video and I'm not sure why. I'll bring an error free copy to class

Audio Project

I created an audio story, in which a room is discovered, filled with the sounds of conversations that have never been finished.
soundcloud link

Photoshop Project

For this assignment I edited 5 images, looking to create some that are fun(ny) and some that brought the images closer to where I "saw" them in my minds eye.

Lackawanna Terminal
Original image with spots and porta-potty

Edited images, spots removed, cropped and green enhanced.

 Original image, bad lighting and vague details.

Fixed! I was able to adjust the white balance, then boost the detail and soften the image as well to create a surreal effect, especially around the rosemary.

Original image, I didn't really have any things to "fix" so instead I tried to create an image that would look as if it came from a sci-fi landscape.

I swirled the individual blossoms to look alien, played with the exposure settings to wash out the color and then overlaid a grainy layer, to me evoking a La Jetee feeling.

 Again, I didn't want to fix this image, but repurpose it. In this case, I was trying to create a concert poster feel. I took quite a few steps, cutting out the background, using a watercolor effect to make the statue more intense, then adding in the color fill, text and finally the gradient layer over the color.

 The original was a still life, in the new version I went crazy! I added in some lens flare on the tomatoes and then used the curves tool to create a Psychedelic Salad. 

Dinner. 

For this assignment I combined my love of cooking and my near pathologic urge to photograph food. Starting with shopping, I wanted to create a series of still life shots of the components, finishing with the plated meal. Bon Appetit! 

Photo Assignment

On Monday I took a photo-walk around Prospect Park, which was really beautiful, even with it's winter cold on. I refrained from editing any of the photos...which was difficult when I realized there are a few spots on my lens filter that I didn't catch until I was working on the computer. 
Landscape/Nature

Street

Abstract

Week 3 Advertisement Project.

I created an advertisement that I hope to actually use for my website. My fiance and I have a small craft business, the website for which has be languishing in "Photoshop scares me" purgatory. For the ad, I used one of my existing photographs and created 2 layers, one for the text and one for the backdrop to the text. 

Assignment 1: Advertisments

Subway/Billboard Ads: This Roku campaign is interesting to me as it uses a very simple text message, told using direction in it's composition. The ad message "Keep Streaming America!" takes on a sense of movement as it shown bursting out of the red background in the upper add, and flowing like a ribbon in the second ad. The trick of the directional composition works well with the tagline, as the ad itself is "streaming" to the viewer. (pardon the terrible pictures, the PATH train wasn't cooperating)

                                     

Print Ads
Le Creuset (in Saveur magazine).
The ad here uses elements of figure and ground coupled with a repetitive images. The repetition in the background is used to support the warmth and trust brought forth in the text. The large image of the Le Creuset oven is a warm color, leading the eye to the center, again supported by the repeated images seen "below".

Apple iPad mini (back cover of Wired and Saveur magazine)
 I was struck with the simplicity of the this ad, with it's unbalanced, heavy use of white space, anchored with a life size image of the product. In a perhaps stroke of genius, the size of the product (mini) is emphasized with the image of the actual magazine cover. In essence, the ad designer uses the work of another designer to do the more intense graphic work, while at the same time selling the viewer on both products (same magazine, just smaller!).

 

On-line Ad
I had a really hard time finding an actual ad online that wasn't a video or a motion graphic. I tend to avoid websites that heavily advertise as well, so I was a bit stumped. Then I logged out of facebook and found this travesty of graphic design. The image is fine, offset to provide a heavily weighted sense of importance to the product, similar to the iPad ad. Then, everything seems to go out the window. There are, by my count 4 different fonts used, each one leading in a different direction. The lower right 1-800-flowers.com is cartoony and candy colored, while the "Wow Rule" logo and font are warmer, a heavier serif font that lends a sense of vintage to the ad. None of these are placed in an interesting way.