Brochure Reflection

This is a trifold type of brochure. This brochure is very well put together with its line, visual and design. All of the text is consistent throughout the layout design, the inside of the brochure (the bottom half of the picture) is well constructed with the blue detail stretching across both the top and bottom and harmonizes all three pages of the inside of the brochure. The use of bullets consistently throughout the design to list details is a good way to give the brochure a harmonious effect.  It is also very well balanced with photos and type. There is nothing in the brochure that would throw a viewer off if they were to look at it. There is a color scheme of only a few different colors to this design which helps with visual effects that won’t overwhelm the viewer when reading. To improve this brochure I would make the headline (“Discover…”) of the title page bigger and bolder to give it a more catchy effect or attention grabber. I also might add the logo or another image to the back of the brochure where the big blank space is since, when closed, the front and the back are the only parts showing, I wouldn’t want either to be left with much blank space.

Advertisement Reflection

This is a meta-advertisement. The line, is “We’re so in the mood for Christmas”, which is a very subtle yet catchy and blends well with the overall add. The pencil distorted to look like a tree and glowing effect at the top as well as the colors (green background and red pencil) all create a great visual effect for the holiday season. The simplicity of the add with one main image is a great visual design and easy on the viewer’s eyes.  The only thing I would change about this add design would be, I would make the font size of the line a bit larger because I found myself straining to read what it had to say.

LAYOUT AND DESIGN EXAMPLES

    

This, in my opinion is a bad example of a layout because it’s just chaos. There is so much going on in this layout you don’t really know where to start. There are many different fonts which is an example of bad typography. It also has really bad balance problems, all the color on one side of the layout really creates uneasy tension to viewers and makes the layout seem unstable.

I would categorize this as an example of a good layout design because it provides good balance and is easy to follow with your eyes. The pictures are placed appropriately for good visual interest. Typography is on key as the font stays the same throughout the layout. The page tone is also very pleasant for, unlike the first layout, there’s not enough color to overwhelm you and the whitespace is balanced throughout the layout as well. Altogether this layout is easy on the eyes which will spark a reader’s attention.

Differences and Similarities between InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator

InDesign is used to organize text, images and design layouts that are used in magazines, newspapers and newsletters. Illustrator is mainly used to create shapes or texts for vector graphics. Its best used is for making graphics or logos usually of solid colors and sometimes with gradients. Photoshop also can create vector images but is mainly used for editing pixelated based images such as scanned images or photo’s that illustrator cannot do. When enlargeing or reducing the size of an image in Photoshop, you will reduce the quality of the photo. Whereas, in Illustrator, altering the image size will not reduce the quality of the image. InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator are all Adobe programs and are used for graphic purposes depending on the project.

This was my attempt to rebrand youtube.

o   Type on a Path - http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0046

This tutorial helped be to design this logo.

Target’s symbol is red, which could trigger increase adrenaline flow and could also make you become excited. They probably chose red because they want the customer to feel happy while shopping at their store. This logo has both a symbol and text to market this company. Target has a very well-known logo which reflects good banding.

Comparing Photoshop and Illustrator

Both Photoshop and Illustrator were produced by the same company. Photoshop is for taking images and transforming them into something different or maybe to just polish its look up. You can create unique graphics with Photoshop, but you must start with a base image and your tools are limited compared to adobe illustrator. Illustrator is a completely different program that allows you to create your own unique image from scratch. Illustrator is used for drawing and is a vector based program, whereas Photoshop uses pixels and is more for tweaking and modifying images. Both are very easy to use as you can find tutorials on both programs in no time.

Tutorial

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/04/50-stunning-photoshop-text-effect-tutorials/

JPG - Joint Photographic Experts Group

• The JPG file is "perfectly small".
• It can be compressed to as small as 1/10 of the size of the original data.
• The aim of Jpeg compression is to take full-color (and gray-scale) "real-world" scenes and reduce the file size of images for storage and transmission.
• This format is used for images that must be small files
• websites
• emails 
• JPG uses lossy compression.
•  meaning, some image quality is lost when the JPG data is compressed and saved, in which the original quality can never be recovered.
• JPG modifies the image pixel data (color values) to be more convenient for its compression method.

     
The picture on the left, various grey-scales A to E, represent gradual changes in brightness and is in GIF format, as you can see the color changes are smooth. After several Jpeg compressions are applied, the image loses its smoothness and quality as seen in the right hand image.

SOURCES:

http://photo.net/learn/jpeg/ - "Visual Perception" and "History of Jpeg"

Photo Composition

This picture of The Great Wall of China is an example of framing beacuse it was captured looking through a window, as if the window were the frame. It is a jpg image, therefore it is a lossy image.

The dominate lines the pencils create catagorize this image as a leading line image. This is a good example because the lines create a backbone for the image. This is also a lossy jpg image.

This is a lossy jpg image and a great example of centering. The angle enhances the symetrical appearance of the image through the refection on the water.

Balance

Above, is a good example of balance. The images and text are evenly distributed across the layout, which is easy on the eyes.  Below, shows a bad example of balance, as the image on the right overpowers the entire layout. It could be fixed by evenly distributing the text throughout both the left and right side of the layout and by adding an image to scale to the adjacent side.