VISCOM 115: What DID I Know, What DO I Know, & HOW Do I Know It?

I think the most challenging part of creating the monograms was mimicking the tools between InDesign & Illustrator's similar keyboard dance, and Photoshop's nostalgic command-T resizing tool. (Sent chills up my spine!) If I'm honest, I think that was one of my biggest struggles, finding the resizing tool in the former, and replicating the overlapping effect tools.

Before this class, I understood print ready to mean getting copy squished between bleed margins. My experience with this is from printing magazines. I was not well-versed in things like color, vector v. rasterized... I knew these features existed, and I understood little things like pixels, but now I understand a bit more about the needs of print.

We're creating PDFs, which is why talking about how to print is so important. What will it be? A form, a document, brochure, or book? All of these encompass everything PDFs can become, and they are EVERYWHERE. In education, adverts, doctor's office, art rooms...it could be a billboard, a leaflet, or an email... The possibilities are endless!

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What's Your Type?

Typography is a vital part of graphic design. Graphic design is everywhere. It's the cover of your book, it's the meme your friends are laughing at, it's the label on your dad's daily socks. Without graphics, your dad might not be able to decide which sock to wear on Tuesdays! Thanks to to graphics, and especially to typography, your dad can not only find socks that go with his fluffy pajamas, but also match the day with the aptly labelled socks. Wait, what? Type is another way of describing the words you're reading. More so, it also describes the font, or appearance. For example, my favorite font is Times New Roman. Most known for its role in essay building, Times New Roman is a classic serif font. Its simplistic design makes it desirable for both serif and sans serif fans. Although I'm sure its thanks to brainwashing from countless hours of essay writing, Times New Roman has always been a favorite of mine. The features as I describe them ar...

Practicing Monograms for the 'Gram

Before starting the monogram project, I was optimistic that mashing two or three letters together was going to be easy and fun. Oh, how very wrong I was. After a plethora of user errors... my nice way of describing unintelligible button smashing... I was on a slow track to understanding how shape, color (and absence of), size, and font types come together. By creating what I had floating around in my head, and manipulating those [listed] features, I was able to design a line of monograms that could carry the message of one of my Instagram accounts, @lifepoorlyexplained. 1. I used one of my favorite funky (100% free) fonts, Ragg, to attempt a manipulation of stroke lines. 2. I flipped the L and mimicked the P's stroke line. I realize it looks like I jus Three letters of unusual shapes proved to be more than annoying for a beginner like me, so I went ahead and practiced a few more concepts wit...

Colorful Concepts

Color is crucial to design. The absence of it is as well, but maybe we'll get into that later. It is what makes something recognizable and pleasing to the eye. In the world of art, it documents history; eg. bright, bold colors may represent the 50s Pop Art movement. However, business takes art–I mean graphic design, to a whole other science. Quality design is make or break for businesses these days. This is because most businesses rely on their online presence... and who wants to spend their time on a busy site or trust someone with a sketchy logo? Not me! Color is symbolism. Blue symbolizes a bright sky for some and sadness for others. Ah! Good question–– what kind of blue? Well, that's where a graphic designer comes in. They're going to know what color tells the story, what shade sets the mood... On a landing page, maybe you want your social media links to be highlighted. A graphic designer will pick brand-appropriate colors to bring the l...

GRAPHICS POORLY EXPLAINED

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