Word Portrait

The purpose of this activity was to explore how different fonts can instill emotion. First, I chose a word that best amplified the "voice" of a font. I chose "Gorgeous" and it is shown to the right. Synonyms of "Gorgeous" include: luxurious, dazzling, and elegant. I used the font Apple Chancery to show elegance, the color pink to give it a dazzling effect, and added a satin overlay to exemplify luxurious.

The second word I chose to amplify with a font that matches its meaning was "Archaic". It is shown to the left. Synonyms of "Archaic" are: old-fashioned and antique. I chose the font Lucida Blackletter because I felt it had an antique feel to it. I then made the font black and added a bevel and emboss effect to make the word look like an old fashioned headline.

The next word I chose was to be a word that contradicted the feel of a certain font. I chose the word "Bold". Synonyms of this are: striking and thick. I chose the font Courier because it is very thin; the opposite of thick. Then I made the font a light blue color and added an inner glow. This gave the word a softer image as opposed to the expected striking statement.

The last word I chose was a word that contradicted a font as well. I chose the word "Vanilla". This word can be used to describe someone or something that is plain or boring. Also, its most famous connotation is as a flavor. I chose the font Rosewood Std because it is a bold and interesting font, in contrast to being boring and plain. I also added a bevel and emboss effect in order to add something more to it to make sure it was anything but simple. Then I made the font a deep brown color. This color is to resemble chocolate; the opposite of vanilla.

I enjoyed this exercise and feel that each of my words effectively fulfills its purpose.

Emotional Design

The purpose of this exercise was to take an ordinary object and use different techniques to morph the object into an image that appeals to one's emotions. I chose to do this exercise with a partner. First, we chose an ordinary object and found a simple image online. We chose the lamp featured below.

Original Lamp

Then, we had to decide what kind of audience we would like to appeal to. After playing around in Photoshop we decided to target Women ages 16-25. The emotion we chose to portray was confidence. First, we used the paintbrush tool to create a silhouette of a woman as the lamp stand. We chose to make the woman curvy rather than super thin as to avoid the subject of negative body images. We made her head slightly tipped towards the sky and the lamp shade tilted as well to look like a hat in order to symbolize her being so confident in her self that she is not worried about others' opinions of her. We chose a cheetah print lamp shade because we felt the cheetah was a good symbol of fierceness leading to confidence. Also, we applied an outer glow effect to the silhouette of the woman as to show that she is "glowing" with confidence. This is also used as irony because the stand is the part that is glowing, as opposed to the actual light bulb. We added a text box and wrote "Be Wild. Be You." This statement is used to urge women to be unique and proud of it. We applied a shadow effect to the letters to show the reflection of the light coming from the woman. Finally, we chose a deep red background because we felt it was bold. We chose to have the image off to the right rather than in the center to make it more interesting. The final image is shown below.

Our Final Product

This is by far my favorite project thus far. This project consisted of a lot of tweaking and creativity. I am very impressed with our final image and feel it is really interesting to look how far we came from the plain white lamp we started with!

Digital Photo Story

For this assignment we were told to use simple photos to tell a story. I used the images to describe a typical morning for me. I opened all of the images into Photoshop and added a grey tint to them to make them all look similar. I then inserted them all into Powerpoint. I chose a simple grey background with a white circle in the center to draw emphasis towards the middle of the slide. I used Wordart to insert one word descriptions of each activity. Unfortunately the effects added to the slides is not shown on Blogger. However, I added effects that went along with the images. For example, I made the toothbrush move up and down to look like it was brushing teeth and I drew a path for the car to drive across the slide. I am very pleased with my final product, I just wish the effects were visible on the blog.

Hue and Saturation

Original

The purpose of this exercise was to experiment with Hue and Saturation to see how each affects an image. Above is my original image. This is a picture of my younger brother, Colby. As you can see he is wearing a red shirt and a red sweatshirt. The background appears to be a road. First, I opened the image in Photoshop. Then, I adjusted the hue to +81. This caused the road in the background to change to a greenish-blue, Colby's hair to a shade of green, and his jacket and lips to a neon green. This image is shown below.

Hue

After reverting back to the original image, I adjusted the saturation to +67. This caused the sun hitting the left side of Colby's face to become brighter and everything else in the image appears more vibrant. The image showing this is below.

Saturation

It is interesting to see how hue and saturation can affect an image. Krause defines hue as "another name for color" and saturation as "the purity of a hue" (p. 209). This idea is shown in my images. Adjusting the hue caused my image to turn green and adjusting the saturation caused the colors in my image to become more vibrant.

Color Echo

"One of the best ways to create a palettee that will complemenet the image is to borrow colors directly from the image itself."-Krause (p. 218)

This assignment was to find an image online and create a poster using colors from the image. First, I opened my image, a bowl of fruit, in Photoshop. I used the magnetic lasso tool to trace along the edge of the bowl. I then inversed the selection and deleted the background. Then, I used the eye dropper tool to select a color from one of the apples. I used the paintbucket tool to apply the chosen color to the background. I, once again, used the eyedropper tool to pick out a color from one of the pears. I used this color to create a rectangle across the bottom of the canvas. I also applied a outer glow effect to the image of the bowl of fruit and chose another color from the pears for this glow. Finally, I chose a darker shade from an apple and created a text box and wrote "Eat Fruit!". I added an inner shadow effect to the text to make it stand out. My completed image is featured below. I am pleased with the finished product. The glow of the bowl and the inner shadow applied to the text really adds something to the piece and places emphasis on these two components.

Finished Product

Legibility and Text Safe Areas

This concept focuses on combing text with images. Krause discusses the importance of making sure the text is readable. I chose an image of a field with the sun rising and flower petals floating. I then opened the image in Photoshop. First, I used the eye dropper tool to pick a green color from the grass in my image. Then, using the text tool I wrote "Happy Spring!", in the chosen color, across the image. I added a bevel and emboss effect to my text to make it stand out. My image is featured below.

Image 1

I then decided to add a thin rectangle behind my text to further help it pop. I chose a pink from the petals using the eye dropper tool and made my rectangle this color. Then, I made the rectangle transparent to soften the effect. I think this image is more appealing to the eye because it looks less busy. The emphasis is clearly on the text and the petals do not interfere with the letters as they so in the first.

Image 2

Second Life Prims

Second Life Image

In class we made Second Life accounts and experimented in the virtual world. One class we each created our own prims. I chose to create a cylinder. I adjusted the dimensions to my liking. I then chose to add a texture. In the fabrics folder I found a zebra print patter. I applied this to my cylinder and then added a purple overlay (JMU pride!). Then I duplicated the cylinder. I edited this new cylinder by adding a water texture to it. I thought this was a really cool effect because it is aesthetically pleasing and interesting because the cylinder is transparent like water.