Baltimore Magazine has good design!

I am an active reader of Baltimore Magazine. I love everything about it! Therefore, I might be a little biased when picking this layout as "good design." I think the relevance of having a seven page "Baltimore Nightlife" spread is a pretty good idea. Its very appropriate and timely because New Years Eve is right around the corner. They decided to advertise this spread on the magazines cover: 

I love the use of black as the primary background color. It also stays consistent through-out the entire piece. Here is the cover spread where the article begins: 

I love the bright colors with the black background. It reminds me of city lights against the night-time skyline. Not only does this cover spread have a lot of C.R.A.P, the images are awesome. I love how the image of the people dancing in the background is blurry. It helps show the motion and upbeat atmosphere. The dots also seem to be working really well with this piece. 

Creating a Newsletter!

Using all of the elements in CS5 (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) allows you to create a dynamic functional newsletter.

I find the program Photoshop must useful for clipping images from a background. When I created a field hockey newsletter, I clipped an image of a field hockey stick and ball from a solid white background. I placed the images in the center of the newsletter and wrapped the text around the images. Photoshop is also a useful application for apply filters to photos in a newsletter. By using photoshop you can change a day-time photograph into a night-time photo; completely changing the mood of your piece.

Illustrator would be helpful if you wanted to create a logo for the company's newsletter you are producing. This program allows you to distort shapes to make cool images. Using the pen tool, you can easily replicate  images to your liking. Illustrator also allows you to make vector images. This allows the image to be the largest it can be. Therefore, the logo can be applied to anything as big as a billboard to as tiny as a business card. If you wish to increase or decrease its size of the vector image, the quality of the image will remain the same.

InDesign would allow you to layout all panels of your newsletter. You can bring all images/photos created in Illustrator or Photoshop into this program to create your final product. InDesign is my favorite program by far.

Breast Cancer logo

Susan G. Komen has come up with a very cleaver branding logo. The pink ribbon will forever depict breast cancer awareness: finding a cure. See below:

This advertisement/logo is universally known.  The pink ribbon can be found in several other advertisements.

I have also found that several companies have partnered up with Susan G. Komen. Recently, I purchased tennis balls with the pink ribbon designed on each ball. Although these tennis balls were more expensive then the plain Wilson tennis balls, part of the proceeds went to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation so I was more inclined to purchase them. The Race for the Cure is another way this organization campaigns to raise funds and advertise itself. 

Good Logo

This logo for Night Golf is very clever. It uses a gold ball to portray the moon. Even the texture of the golf looks like craters on the moon. 

This circular typeface work well with a circle around the text. It's simple and memorable.  

Bad Logo

The above logo from Arlington Pediatric Center is a VERY bad logo due to it's sexual reference. Do I really have to explain how this logo could be portrayed as sexual?? ok, moving on.

The logo on the left represents the Discovery Channel's old logo, the logo on the right is it's new logo. Although, I do think the placement of the globe on the new logo is slightly more improved, it's too small. With the more modern typeface in the new logo, it makes the word "channel" too small to read. The background color also washes out the globe. I like how the original logo had "Discovery" in black. Personally, I think the older logo worked better. 

Good/ Bad Color

Black and white fragrance advertisements are really popular right now. The the splash of princess pink in the Lancome ad works nicely with the black and white. The color was pulled from the liquid  in the perfume bottle and the girl's dress is a tint of that same hue. The colors definitely convey the glamorous style of the advertisement.

This advertisement was found in Style Magazine and has entirely way too much yellow (bright colors). I also think that having the text "When life gives you lemons.." in white is not a great idea against the yellow because it makes it difficult to read. This idea is very clever, but the color in this ad is it's down-fall.

Filter Fun

I really enjoyed using the filter tool for several of my landscape photos. It's very simple to use. Go to the tool bar at the top of the page that says "filter," it's really that easy. I then choose filter galleries where I was able to chose from artistic, bush stroke, distort, sketch, texture etc to add attributions to my photographs.  Here is my original photo:

Under the artistic filter I found a "film grain" application I liked. When I applied this attribution to the photograph it remained me of these spray painted portraits a street artists was creating in Mexico. 

Filters are a great way to alter the mood of a photograph. You can put color filters over photographs as well. For example, we can put a dark or grey filter over this photo to change the time of day. This can also be achieved by going to the top tool bar and selecting "image" then "adjustments." Under this tab you will find "brightness/contrast." Here is this photo as if it were taken at night:

Foldy Publications

I found this brochure online and was instantly attracted to it because of its bold colors and fonts! These colors and fonts stay consist throughout the entire brochure and create an energetic mood. I also like the use of the artistic/distorted photos throughout the piece!

Good Grid

Newspaper do a great job useing grids. This is a 5 column grid I found in the Washington Post. When I first saw the layout of this newspaper I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I believe there are 6 grids structured into 5 columns for an easier read.

Magazine layout

This article was found in Travel and Leisure Magazine. Not only does the article contain a lot of C.R.A.P, but I think the idea of the article is very creative. The headline reads "Views from the top" the article guides you through "the world's most dramatic observation decks" including: Ledge at Willis Tower's Skydeck, The Grand Canyon Skywalk, and The Shanghai World Financial Center Sky Walk Observatory. I really like the angles the photographs were taken. Its very interesting and grabs the readers attention. There isn't an overwhelming amount of text either. The text and photographs are balanced nicely. Although the layout is only a two column grid, I think it works nicely here!

How InDesign has helped me!

InDesign has really helped me create elaborate designs for PBDS 502! This week we had to create two examples of "Type as an Image." I used the words upside-down and communication. Without InDesign creating the word communication effectively would have been pretty difficult. My idea was to have lots of text running off the page and the word "communication" to appear to be shown through a magnifying class. I used kearning to create more spacing between the characters in the word “communication.” I also created a tint of black in my swatches to use on the body text surrounding the word “communication” to create a magnified feel to the word. I also used layers to overlap the text boxes. I was overall very pleased with the result of the piece.

Text only as a solution!

This advertisement is from the NYC Child Study Center and is public education campaign to inform people of psychiatric disorders. This advertisement uses words from different magazines and newspapers to create a ransom note from Bulimia.This advertisement works using text only because it easily conveys the message to the reader. 

This final advertisement is from a production company and I chose it because it’s the exact same idea I am using for my Type as Image project. The word upside-down is arranged to represent the meaning of the word. I love how some of the letters, but not all, are upside down. Instead of using a “w” the designer used an upside-down “m.” This could only be achieved by using an appropriate type face, which the designer did a great job picking! 

Creative Concepts

This ad is featured in Australia from a water safety and drowning prevention organization. I like where the ad is advertised. It is painted on the bottom of a swimming pool. The slogan states “where is your child?” The image is of a drowned young boy; it almost looks three- dimensional. It might be a little too graphic for a child’s swimming pool, but the ad is very simply for adults to understand.

This Denver Water advertisement is awesome! I love how they used an interactive object to grab people’s attention. This makes the advertisement so much more effective rather than being on a piece of paper/ billboard! This ad works so well it doesn’t even need an image or explanation. “Only use what you need,” enough said.

I think this Pepsi-twist advertisement is great because of its use of humor! So simple, yet funny. It actually made me chuckle.

BaLanCe

                          Symmetry

The above advertisement shows horizontal symmetry. If you were to fold the ad horizontally in half, there would be an equal balance of elements on each side. You can also tell this design is symmetrical because the image is in the center of the page. Most designs that are center aligned represent symmetry.

                                                      Asymmetry

This design is asymmetrical, yet still balanced because it uses lower thirds. This is achieved by dividing the design into thirds both vertically and horizontally. The most important elements are places at the intersection of these thirds. This design is aligned to the left to represent asymmetry.

InDesign... It's a love/hate relationship

I used InDesign in undergrad while working with the college newspaper. Therefore, I only knew how to layout text, create headlines, etc. AKA the basics! Even learning these basics over a two year time span took me sometime. Let’s just say I’m not very tech savvy. There are so many tiny icon in the program that do so many different things. I do not think the program’s use of semiotics is very helpful because there are just too many icons to memorize. Other then that, I love InDesign and it’s accuracy. It’s a lot easier to create fliers, invitations, advertisements, with InDesign rather then Microsoft Word (which I have used previously)!
I think this obstacle of mine can only be achieved over time, and I definitely think taking this class will improve my technical skills with InDesign. I have so many awesome ideas popping in my head, it is just difficult to get them down on paper using InDesign. I cannot wait to learn how to use Photoshop and apply that to what I’ve learned using InDesign to come up with some amazing designs!

C.R.A.P

This advertisement for Almay was found in People Magazine. This ad shows a whole lot of C.R.A.P. First, the running footer at the bottom of the ad shows contrast. The footer has a winter green box with bold text inside. This allows for the word Almay to stand out on the page against all other elements. There is a small amount of repetition in the ad, but it’s there. There are three tall makeup products on the left standing up-right. Everything is aligned under the quote at the top of the page. Overall the ad uses center alignment, but the text above the eye shadows is aligned to the left to help create proximity. Images are grouped together that are related, but things are not spread out all over the page randomly. The negative space is used effectively.

Ground/ Figure Relation

This image is an example of ground/ figure relation. When you first glance at the image you see repetition of men’s legs. The men’s legs are the darker/shaded region and represent the figure, which is why we see them first. When you look at the image again you see repetition of women’s legs in the ground, the region that is not shaded.

...And The Bad

MegaRed Advertisement

Way too much text for this publication. This advertisement was found in Housekeeping Magazine. Most magazine readers would not have the patience to read this advertisement in it’s entirety. It looks like a brochure rather then an ad, especially with the chart on the left. There is a lot of negative space. The actual size of the pill is shown in the middle of the page . There is a ton of negative space surrounding the pill, which takes up half the page!

Vera Wng Princess Perfume

This advertisement was found online at cosmopolitan,com. The font type that spells out “Princess Born to Rule” is difficult to read with that background. Also the color of the text makes the font even more difficult to read. I like the idea of the ad, I would just change the type face and make it more legible.

The Good

Smyth Jeweler Ad

This advertisement is located in a billboard in Canton. It shows two Baltimore icons, the Utz potato chip girl and the Natty Boe. This appeals to the Baltimore audience very well. The billboard is located in the heart of Baltimore and can be seen off interstate 95. I think the idea is genius! The advertisement is black and white and allows for the jeweler’s name to be the only thing in color. The designer used a bright yellow font to make the jeweler’s name stand out and be most visible.

L'Oreal Ad

This advertisement was found in Good Housekeeping Magazine. The alignment and spacing for this advertisement is very well done. The name of the product is stretched across the top of the page so it is the first thing the viewer reads. The remaining text is right aligned. The fine print explains to the reader to visit their website for more information. This is a great idea so the advertisement does not bombard the reader with too much text.

Hiii Everyone!

I am a grad student in the Publication Design Program at the University of Baltimore...and this is my design blog!  Enjoy and feel freee to leave comments!

First assignments will be coming soon...

xoxo Heather