Practice with photoshop

For this assignment, we were asked to draw a variety of shapes using the Photoshop shape tool. We had to experiment with shapes, color, style, and filters/texture. We also had to select part of a photography and remove the inverse to create colorful shapes. 

 This is the before and after of an explosion symbol. I changed the color from black to purple.

The black flower on the right is what the symbol started off looking like. I then added a style to make the flower more colorful on the left. 

I used music symbols for the last part of the assignment. I had to use a texture and in order for the texture to show up, I needed to change the color. This one is a little hard to see but I hope it is noticeable enough that I changed the texture on the right.

For this, we had to get a picture inside of a symbol and so I used oranges inside of a heart and again here is the before and after pictures.

Answers to Krause Questions: 

Connotation: Because these images didn't have to give off a certain meaning, it is hard to answer a lot of these questions. The colors I chose though were not completely random and do give off the colors as if the shapes were real. For example, the color of the explosion I changed to purple, which can come off as a firework. The fun colors of purple and pink that I made the flower reminds me of spring. Music notes aren't typically a pink texture so it is hard to say whether this gives off a meaning. With a pink texture, I think of a girls night of singing and dancing. For the oranges in a heart, I think of an advertiser trying to sell oranges to an audience. If I was thinking about meaning before doing this assignment, I would have changed my color choices, but overall I do think these colors, styles, textures, and inverses' could give off a certain meaning.  

Attributes: I am satisfied with how my shapes came out. The audience can easily see my shapes and it is readable on a white backdrop. These designs can be presented in a wide variety of sizes and in various sorts of media because they are simple designs. The heart with the oranges though would only be able to be used for a fruit advertisement or a summery drink. They are not too funky where they wouldn't be able to be used, but they all can't be used for the same thing. 

Placement: The shapes that are not black should be the most noticeable in this assignment. If these were to be placed within a layout, the elements should not be further cropped or rotated. They are a good size unless they are to be the main focal point or a smaller focal point. It really depends on what the layout would be for. 

Gesalt Assignment

The Gestalt theory was develobed by Wertheimer, Koffka, and Wolfang in the 1920's. It is related to visual perception, which is the study of shapes and patterns. The concept is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For this assignment, we were asked to portray four principles. The four principles we had to make using shapes include closure, proximity, similarity and continuity. 

For the principle of closure, we had to attach meaning to visual displays. I decided to use the sun shape in PowerPoint with a circle overlapping the sun to make the triangles stand out. If I wanted to, I could have used only triangles to create the same display. This shows closure because the triangles are touching and closing up on a circle.

For the principle of proximity, we had to group things that are physically close to one another, in a meaningful way. I decided to use hearts that were aligned evenly and equally all the way around. The first group are spread out more than the second group of hearts, but they both create a square.

For the principle of similarity, we had to group similar objects together in a meaningful way. This one is my favorite. I decided to use the squiggly shapes to connect the shapes. I used the same shape, but made the middle row larger and connected compared to the top and bottom row that are separated into four shapes. 

For the principle of continuity, we had to look for unity in objects. I decided to use a line that connects a square and then another line. This makes the objects flow together as one. 

Answers to the Krause questions:

Connotation: Each design I made ties in with the principle that I wanted it to convey. I didn't want to overcrowd any of the designs, so I tried to keep them simple. By looking at the designs and knowing the principles I had to do, I think everyone would be able to match up each principle to each design. The closure design uses two symbols to create a boundary. The proximity design has perfect alignment that is equal all around making it meaningful.  The similarity principle is cool because it uses the same shape, but they are different sizes. They align evenly as well, but the rows are different in that they 1st and 3rd row are aligned equally from side to side and up to down while the 2nd row is the same, but there aren't extra spaces in the middle of the shapes. The continuity design reflects a continuous motion. The line connects to a square, which connects to another line. This gives a flowing motion. I do not think any of the designs are projected in a way that could be seen as too specific or overly broad.

Attributes: I am satisfied with the visual weight, structure, color and presentational style of my graphic elements. I haven't thought about adding color to this assignment because I needed to portray a principle and did not think it was necessary to add color, but I'm sure I could have made my designs more interesting if I did. If these designs were placed in a larger layout, each design could fit in well with the color scheme because black goes with mainly every color. Placing these on a backdrop with a dark color though would not work best. The size is easily readable for the audience, being my classmates and teacher. I could make the size of these images larger or smaller depending on what they were going to be used for and have them still be readable.

Placement: All of the images I have placed on each principle are their for a reason and are where I want them to be. Each shape should be noticeable and they align in a certain way to portray the principle. I explained why I have my shapes where I do under my connotation answer. Each shape is aligned and grouped together in a certain way for a reason. For example, in the proximity example each heart is surrounded by another heart equally, unless it is on the edge. They are all grouped together to help convey the meaning of proximity, which means being near. Each of my designs can be rotated, moved, sized or altered in any way to be placed in a layout and still give off the same meaning. 

Alignment

For this assignment we had to create a flyer using the same layout and alignment strategies found at the bottom of p. 85. We had to locate one or more images in the "object" category at http://stockvault.net or elsewhere and then generate fake text at http://www,lipsum.com/ to use in this assingment.

I decided to follow the example in the book. Instead of chairs and furniture, I decided to make a flyer for cowboy boots. I changed the colors for my objects and stacked them on top of one another. I then decided to use the same colors I used in the boots in the title. My text is aligned in a clean fashion. 

Emphasis

Before

After

For this assignment, we had to use color or value to create one similar image. We had to emphasis in a way that is meaningful. I decided to emphasis the ace card in the pile of cards. This is the most valuable card to have in most card games and figured it would be a good idea to make this card stand out. 

Harmony

 For this assignment we had to do the following:

•choose a subject like history, math, language, technology, social studies.  Pick a simple concept to teach someone, in that area.

•Locate representative imagery at http://stockvault.net or a similar site (avoid watermarked imagery); or create your own.

•Design a visual “lesson” involving the concept.

•Demonstrate harmony using repetition (p. 53).

•Demonstrate harmony using visual echo through at least one of the following: Color, Style, Content, Typography

For this assignment, I decided to use the concept Photosynthesis. I made sure the colors I used were very similar and I used repetition for the arrows and the font I used in my texts. 

What's my word?!

The assignment asked us to: 

• Create a poster with at least 10 components (text and imagery).

• Convey your descriptive word using techniques like grouping, size, color, unequalspacing, etc.

• Swap your design with someone else and guess what their one word description was.

• Be sure to give and receive a constructive criticism
• In your narrative be sure to state who critiqued your work as a “peer reviewer.”

The word I wanted to portray is playfulness. Having to add ten components made my poster seem a little bit busy, but I think that also helps show playful. I swapped my design with Carly Goodwin and she guessed that my word was fun or happy. When my poster got critiqued by the class, I was told I could fix my text to be in the middle of the poster and to have the words up top be touching the corner to help frame box. I tried to frame my work well, but being new to photoshop I forgot how to move the text when I was making this. 

Grouping Assignment

For this assignment, we were to create an image using the same shape ten times to convey a word. We were allowed to change the size and color of the shape to help us further explain the specific words. I will explain in more depth the way I chose to set up my slides. 

For the word unity, I decided to use the the same color to make them more unified as well as enclosed all the circles inside each other. This represents unity because they are all the same and show togetherness.

For celebration, I decided to show balloons. This one doesn't look like I used the same shape as much as the other ones do. I used one shape and moved them all around by rotating them and changing the size of the same shape. I used the colors red and orange for the balloons because to me they are bright and represent fun.

For isolation, I wanted to show that one shape was being separated from each other. The shape I picked was already separated and shows the distance between the half circles. I wanted to also show another isolation that was more obvious and so I created a larger distance between the same shapes.

I had a little bit of trouble with escape. After I thought about it I made all the same shapes enclosed in one another. I tried to make it look almost as if the bigger shape ate the smaller shapes. I then decided to have one escape out of what looks like the mouth of the shape. I hope this one conveys escape well enough for others to understand. 

For intimidation, I decided to use the stop sign shape. I made one of the shapes larger than the others as well as used a glow effect to make that shape seem superior to the other smaller shapes. The red shape is facing the smaller shapes to show that it is not afraid of the other shapes.

When I first thought of the word logic, I thought of mathematical symbols. I decided to use the equal sign because it just shows how similar the shapes are and how everything equals each other. They are lined up in sync to show their similarity with one each other.

For the word anarchy, I wanted to show chaos. I decided to pick a shape that has arrows on both ends of to show the confusion of where everything is going. The lines are in all different sizes and I decided to use the colors blue and black because they are dark and not as fun as the bright colors. I hope this conveys the mess that I tried to make it look like.