Lesson 12

Photoshop level up!

So in a blink of the eye, a whole term has gone by and I find myself at the end of week 6. Throughout these 6 weeks, I have learnt many valuable skills in Graphic Design. In this lesson, we learnt and practiced more on photoshop. 

Here I have a man scratching his butt. I did this using Puppet Warp which allowed me to twist and turn the image to whatever position I want.

Here is another example of the Puppet Warp, the fabulous Statue of Liberty leaning to one side as if drunk. 

Here is my product on one of the exercises we had to do. I took 3 images from Google, one of Spider Man, one of Iron Man, and one of the Avengers' symbol. I then removed the superheroes from their background using the Magic Wand tool and Lasso tool and placed them in this picture. I then re-scaled their size using free transform. After that, I changed the opacity and brightness/contrast of each superhero to make them fit in nicely with the background. This poster shows Spider Man, who isn't part of the Avengers movie getting chased away by Iron Man. Poor Spidie, excluded from the group of superhero friends in the Avengers.

The last exercise we had to do is to make a replica of any of the posters we were given. I chose the hamster one as I found it quite cool. This was the hardest exercise on Photoshop I have ever done and I stumbled a few times in the process, not knowing how to carry out some instructions. I had to install a font, make the text into an arc and changed the gradient of the colour. That's the part where I had the most difficulty. However, after some time, I managed to work it out and got the end product, feeling quite accomplished after a long lesson at work on Photoshop.

This is it for this entry, signing off for the last time this term. Thank you. 

Lesson 11

Typography

In this lesson, we learnt about typography. Typography is the art of arranging text, so that language is visible. My opinion of Typography is font, size and placement of words used to make the ad more interesting and help to emphasise the purpose of the ad. The basics of typography consists of the Bar, counter, bowl, shoulder, ascender, Serif, stem, descender and X-height. 

We also have to watch our kerning as bad kerning can make a word very annoying to read. Here is an example of different kernings. 

Font selection is also important. Different fonts conveys different types of messages and feelings. 

We have to align our text properly. If you have many lines to put, you shouldn't align your text in the center as it makes that is the weakest and hardest to read. You should put it to the left side. However, if you have only a short sentence to put, you can align it in the center to make it more attention-getting.

Choose a good secondary font. Choose a font that goes well with your primary font, not one that goes against it. This way, the secondary font will compliment the primary font and the text will be pleasing to the eye.

Next, Size Matters. Big text are more effectively at grabbing a reader's attention. Making certain words bigger also emphasises those words and helps attract the attention of readers. Here, 'YOUTUBE' is made bigger than the rest of the words to emphasis it and catch attention.

Use typography as an art so that it is enjoyable to look at and people will stop and admire it, making it effective as it captures the readers' attention. 

Lastly, find good inspiration for your typography and people will get what you're trying to tell them more easily.

Here are examples of a good and bad Typography in Adverts:

This is an example of good typography. I like the typography in this ad as it shows not only the name of the country, Paris, but also the Eiffel Tower, which is an iconic building of Paris. It is able to get its idea of ‘Travel with words, meet the world.’ to the audience easily just with this simple word by showing the Effiel Tower in the word ‘Paris’. It is well aligned in the center of the ad, making it very eye-catching. The letters are well kerned to have fitting spacing between each letter, making the word easy to read and pleasant to the eye. Lastly, the letter ‘A’ is bigger than the rest of the letters and of a different colour, making the imagery of the Effiel Tower easy to spot. 

This is an example of bad typography. Its words are aligned in the center and fills the whole space, making the whole ad look crammed. And we can see the kerning is not done well as well. The letters in ‘Thrill show’ are too close to each other as compared to the ‘Dare Devil’ above it. There is no art or inspiration in the typography and it is very plain and overloading with information.

This is it for this entry. Thank you.

Lesson 10

PHOTOSHOP

In this lesson, we continued from our previous self-learning Photoshop to do more practice with the different tools and functions. I think its really cool to be able to edit pictures like this into anything you want and I had fun with it. Here are the different things I did during class, see if you can spot the difference:

Blurring

Layering

Healing Brush

Find and Replace

Colour Replacement brush

Liquify 

(Supposed to make him smile but this is just too funny)

Healing and patch tools

Many different tools and functions

Here are 2 of my current ideas which are different from my old one. I think I'll be going with either of them:

This is it for this entry. Thank you.

Lesson 9

LAYOUT IN PRINT ADs

In this lesson, we learnt about the layout in print advertisements. The basic elements of a Print Ad are the Visual, Headline, Body Copy and Logo. You have to be clear of the goal and the written content of the ad for it to be effective. The elements have to be figured out before you start. Also, keep your layouts simple. Keep in mind that the Principles of Design, such as Contrast and Proportion, apply to Print Ad as well. 

This picture uses a nice contrast in colours:

We learnt about the 'Golden Rectangle' which is the usual gaze pattern of people in an ad. To have a good ad, we have to make an easy path for the eye to follow and use our white space well. Use strong lines to hold your graphics and body copy together so that your ad doesn't look messy and all over the place and light-dark relationships to make the layout interesting.

Black and white ads sometimes looks cool and makes good use of contrast, but it can get boring. Using colour in your ads are exciting and a good change from black-white, unless you use it excessively. We can use colours to help create desired emotions by harmonizing, balacing or contrasting colours. Here is an example of a good harmonizing of colours:

Using various lighting and the rule of third are other ways of making your ad look good. Always remember the purpose of your ad and place your logo at the upper left hand corner or bottom right hand corner of the ad. Lastly, don't make your ad look like all the other ads. Make your ad unique and special to your own purpose. 

Next I have my first idea and rough sketch of my ad. This is just my very first and simple idea and I will most probably add on or change it. 

The mouse shoots our cool looking lights towards the targets and meets them all to show that the mouse has high precision. 'It is your best shot' in shooting gaming, and also in becoming a professional gamer. 

That's it for this entry. Thank you.

Lesson 8

Welcome to PHOTOSHOP

This lesson was an e-learning tutorial. I was introduced to Photoshop, which is somewhat similar to Illustrator. I watched many videos on the different functions of Photoshop and was introduced to a few new tools. These tools included the Marquee tool, Lasso and Magic Wand tool, Quick Selection tool and Pen Tool. Other than these tools, we also learnt other functions such as the Content Aware Scaling. It was a different experience for me as Photoshop deals with real life pictures and images, of people or objects, unlike Illustrator which deals with cartoon like images such as the dog sketch I did. 

Here are all the exercises to be done:

1. Layers: I changed the blending option of the godzilla and background to make it look cooler, as if the godzilla is firing up and wrecking destruction on the whole place. I also enlarged the godzilla to fit the whole image.

2. Marquee Tool: I dragged the rim out and made it as big as the whole tire itself.

3. Lasso & Magic Wand Tool: I used the Magic Wand Tool to select the white area, added the area between the men's legs, used the lass tool to add areas that have been left out, inverse selected and gave each man a colour. Now they are no longer just men. They are the Green Man and Red Man.

4. Quick Selection Tool: Quick Selected the woman and dragged her to the bottom. 

5. Pen Tool Selection: I used the Pen Tool to select out the pail and removed it from its number guidelines.

6. Content Aware Scaling: I followed the video given and lengthened the beach to the left side and also slightly to the right to give it a slight one-third rule kind of look.

These skills will be put more to use in the 10th lesson and will be covered more on then. 

Thank you.

Lesson 7

CONTROVERSIAL ADVERTISEMENTS

This lesson we discussed about controversial advertisements. Controversial advertisements are ones that are seen in different ways by different people and hence spark off debate. Companies come up with controversial advertisements to draw attention to the ad, making it more well known and memorable. These advertisements have different effects on different people. In this lesson we looked at some controversial advertisements and analysed it using a graph with the 4 headings 'Shock', I'd buy it', 'Funny', 'It's disgusting'. Here is one of the analysis I did of an ad we discussed: 

I gave this ad a 3/5 for 'Funny' and 'I'd buy it'. I find it amusing that the undergarment smells so good that the man is stuffing it in his face. It stands out from other ads as you don't usually see one with people smelling underwear. It is able to catch my attention, make me laugh, and get its message to me, therefore I'd buy it. This is how I see the ad. Many of my classmates did not have the same opinion as me, some thought it was disgusting, some didn't find it funny at all. This shows that this is a controversial advertisement as people have different views on it and hence is a cause for debate. 

Companies also make ads that are shocking to capture the attention of the public. Here I found an ad that most people would find shocking though I find disgusting, and debatable:

This hand soap advertisement depicts a patient being fed by a hand full of maggots. To many, the image will shock them and make them think about how dirty their hands really are and of how much they need good sanitisers such as this hand soap to help them keep hygienic, hence making the product appealing to them. However, that is not how I look at this ad. Though I get the message, I do not like this ad and I will not buy the product. I personally hate bugs, and cannot stand the sight of them. Not matter how strong or shocking the message is in this ad, the sight of bugs is more than enough to make me crinkle my face in disgust and look away immediately. This also shows that not everyone will find one thing shocking. What could be shocking to, for example, old people, may not be shocking to children.

That is it for this entry. Thank you.

Lesson 6

Dog Sketch

In this lesson, we did our dog sketch and also talked to Mr Cheo on our idea for our individual assignment 2. 

Here is the dog sketch I did:

It took me some time, but I finally figured out how to trace, colour what I traced and move the different layers. Doing this exercise made me much more familiar with Illustrator. I now use the hotkeys to change from tool to tool with ease and can trace quickly now. 

Moving on to my talking to Mr Cheo, I showed him the advertisement I created on the worksheet 'Elements of Advertisements'. 

He took a look at my idea and accepted my proposal to do an advertisement for Razer, promoting one of their gaming mouses. He then searched for good advertisements on gaming products and showed me a few really cool ones that used concepts. For example,

This ad for Call of Duty: Ghosts effectively showed that everyone has a soldier within them by depicting a male nurse standing confidently on a battlefield. He then gave me a few ideas on how I could go about doing my assignment, whether I wanted to do it based on a concept, or really cool designs, etc. 

That's about it for this lesson. Thank you.

Lesson 5

Advertising for dummies

In this lesson, we learnt about the elements of advertisement.

Here are the 5 common elements of print advertisements:
1. Headline:
The first words the audience reads on an ad. Usually in larger font and is unique to the product.

2. Image:
A graphic which can be in the form of a drawing, photograph, illustration that is designed to affect the audience with a purpose to appeal to them.

3. Copy:
Text of the ad where claims are made and facts stated with the intention of persuading the audience to buy or be interested in the product.

4. Slogan: 
Motivating and empowering catchphrase that evokes in the audience a positive feeling about the company and product.

5. Logo:
A symbol that is unique to the company which allows audience to identify the company visually.

Out of these 5 elements, I feel that the logo and headline are the most important. The headline is the first text that the audience reads which should capture their attention, making them want to know more about the product, and the logo is the company's identity and allows for quick recognition of the company by the audience so that they will know where to get the product. 

Here is an example of a bad ad. There is no slogan or logo. Not having a slogan is still alright, but without a logo, audiences will not be able to identify the company easily! There is also no image except for a monkey holding a cup of alcohol which is a poor representation of what they sell. Not to mention that it doesn't help with affecting the audience with the intention of appealing to them. The whole ad is full of copy, making it cram and hard for the audience to derive information from it. Moreover, we can barely say that there is a headline as there are no larger text which will draw the audiences' eyes to and they would have to look at all the text to get an idea of what the company is selling. This makes the ad a very non-attention-grabbing ad and people will not dwell to look at it for long. Thus this is a bad advertisement.