MiX is trippin’ on acid

Happy late Earth Day! 

MiX decided to get in on all the ‘environmental action’ and publish a Green Issue. 

So, copying from the best Fillmore artists (as I usually do) the MiX cover was created! 

Victor wants to turn the cover into a pet so he give it warm and tender care. 

Web 2.0

The artist formerly known as Allison Doty finally meets Web 2.0! (Apparently she also writes in third person.)

My buddy Victor, a fellow Evergreener, decided to pass the time one night making names into Web 2.0.

The nickname driving this logo was created after one of my photographers, Tyler Tjomsland, started calling me A-Dot.

Thus Allison Doty—> A-Dot—> Web 2.0= this

Victor is a genius with a huge afro and his blog is hilarious! Check out Victor’s blog for more Web 2.0 logos here.

APE VECTOR MOM

Yesterday I was struggling to finish a project for my Advertising class where we were instructed to design something that incorporated three elements about us.

Barf.I came up with a concept to take my favorite era of design, the late ‘6os and ’70s, and incorporate things about me into a vintage Fillmore poster.

Besides the fact that the project was indeed due next week (instead of today like I thought), this was a large challenge for me from concept to finish.

My original inkling was to swap the profile of this woman with a profile of my mother from a photo taken of her in the ’70s. I tried and tried to make her look “chic” but all my efforts failed miserably. Two little birds on my shoulder (Victor and Dan) kept updating me on my “vector mom” journey, describing her first as “vector mom” then as “ape vector mom.”

So, the moral of this story … I have learned I suck at vector faces. So I wimped out (and since I THOUGHT I was running out of time), just traced the original poster’s face, and that was that.

My final project is shown above. NOTE TO SELF: Add Victor and Dan to my hate list.

Visualize this: Sex education

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This was a hard one.

For my J431: Advanced Editing class, we were tasked with creating a sexual education poster (11×17).We could use any message to promote any specific sexual health topic. I decided to address teen pregnancy.

When I conceived the idea my first instinct was to create a visual that looked like a teenager could draw, so the doodles were born. Most of my notes looked like this while I was in high school, so I thought it would be a good idea to use a simple concept to make my statement.

To make this poster, I first found an outline of a pregnant woman, took the inverse, and printed it out on a 11×17 (so the figure was blank). Then I took the drawing home with me for the night and spent a couple hours filling in the shape with doodles to scan for the next morning. Once the image was in the computer I formed the font by simply using the brush tool in Illustrator, and saved the image with bleeds to be printed.

On a second look, if the poster was for a business of a specific location, I would go back in and add a call to action to finish it off!

NEWSPAGEDESIGNER.COM

Like collegefrontpage.com, this site is another way to post your design examples up to the Web.

Newspagedesigner.com is a professional resume site that hosts work from news page designers around the world. Portfolios are available to browse by specific journalist or by section category.

This site is a little harder to upload images because the site only supports .Jpeg files, where college Front Page can also upload small-sized PDFs. However, after exiting college, switching to a more professional site is probably the best way to go.

News Page Designer is hosted by the Sun Journal in Lewiston Maine.

Both Web sites are free to join. All you need is an E-mail address.

COLLEGEFRONTPAGE.COM

This site is a great resource for students to post their samples to an online database.

Though the site is primarily used for news design, photographers also upload their images, and reporters upload PDFs of their stories.

By uploading your clips, employers can go to your site and see your recent work. This makes it easier when submitting job applications online, and it’s also cheaper because there is no need to pay for color copies and postage!

I have to admit, that I have a biased opinion of the site because it was created by students at WSU! Brian Immel and Joe Barrantine, both former staffers at The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at WSU, teamed up in the fall of 2005.

Because it is privately ran, Brian and Joe are both available if you need help with the site. Currently you can only upload 15 clips to your site, but with a quick E-mail request they can bump up your space.

Job posting and internships are routinely updated and the site offers a great opportunity for networking. Check it out!

NEWSPAPER REDESIGN

With newspaper readers becoming more and more visual because of the internet and interactive media, many papers are finding it necessary to redesign to keep readers interested.

This article by Ron Reason talks about how to know if your newspaper needs to redesign, and how to go about it.

Though, obviously, not all people work at a newspaper, these same principles can be used to redesign an art portfolio, or even a resume.

WATERMARKING IMAGES

If you post images on the Web frequently, whether they are on a personal site, or for a business site for newspapers or design firms, you might want to consider posting images with a watermark.

If the business owns the rights to the photo, you might find your picture on other unauthorized sites.

This tutorial explains the photoshop process to give your photos a watermark.

RGB AND CMYK COLORS

Learning the differences between RGB and CMYK colors is something all designers should know.

Designers need to know this information to correctly work up photographs to be ready to print, and to accurately predict how the photo will look after printing.

This article explains the logic behind the different colors that the human eye can see, and how different colors are processed on photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop.

After you have read through this tutorial, read the differences between bitmaps, channels and the CMYK process in a more advanced article.

To take color one step further, read this article about different color systems, and how printers process color information. It also mentions how to layer colors for optimum printing.

CREATE YOUR LOGO

Logo design is a great knowledge base to have, in that newspapers are becoming more visual by adding elements like story tags, or photo illustrations that draw attention to particular stories.

This article offers a step-by-step guide to creating your own logo that will fit the needs of your specific newspaper or magazine.

This artist designs logos for commercial businesses, but if you look at the design of newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, The Virginian-Pilot, USA Today, or the Hartford Courant, you will see that they use small logos to promote story series and steady weekly features or columns.

This visual element, though small, can draw the reader to your particular story, and also serves as a way for the reader to identify the type of story easily in the future.

SCANNING AS A LOST ART

With the increasing pressure for newspapers to dazzle and draw in readers using design, page designers should start thinking outside of the box.

This article brings up a great idea that many graphic editors do not consider: scanning.

Scanning can capture the true textures and colors of an object that a camera cannot. Plus, it’s easy.

When scanning using Adobe Photoshop simply click file – import – and then pick you scanner. A preview window will pop up showing your previous scan. Make sure to preview your object before you scan, in case you need to make any adjustments. Then press scan, save your picture, and you are done. No captions needed.

Check out this article for great examples of newspapers that used scanners to capture an image.

DESIGN TIP FORUM

This article explores the thoughts of six design experts, and transcribes their answers to basic design questions.

The article is a virtual discussion on design with a diverse group of designers from cities ranging from Florida to Toronto.

The six designers discuss such topics like the links between readership and design, laying type on top of photos, and rules and boxes.

Click here to read the complete article.

Design job opportunities

The Society for News Design, SND, is an international organization made of editors, designers, graphic artists, publishers, illustrators, photographers, and even advertising artists and Web site designers.

SND holds annual news design workshops, exhibitions, and they also hold competitions.

The SND website is a great place to find news design job postings (internships are also searchable), and design training tools.

Start your search with the SND now!

Fun with Photoshop

Many Photoshop users alter photographs to be made into abstract images, or even jokes. Worth1000 holds Photoshop contests, and users can enter and vote on the winning entries.

Click on the “contests” tab in the upper right-hand corner, then scroll down to find contests that have already ended to get some great creative ideas for ways to play with Photoshop.

Basic Photoshop Skills

Whether you have access to Adobe Photoshop regularly or not, having skills in this photo editing program is a great knowledge base to apply with your design skills.

Many times a good design can turn into a great design with just a simple illustration or graphic element, both of which can be created using Adobe Photoshop.

There are many Web sites that offer Photoshop tutorials, such as www.good-tutorials.com. Here you can search for photoshop tutorials, and, if necessary, be redirected to different sites that offer what you need. I have found some tutorials that are quite useful to make graphics and editing photos in the past. If you have no prior experience with Photoshop, read through these tutorials in order from first to last, as these skills build upon each other.

Setting up your workspace.
Beginners should start with this tutorial. This site literally explains ALL of the basics of how to set up, and customize your Photoshop, from the time you start the program. It goes through what each tool does, and the uses for different types of windows.

Layers.
Learning how to use the layers pallet is vital to navigating through Photoshop. This tutorial explains the basics, and also some information about selections tools.

Levels.
Using levels can improve the quality of a photo, or help you reach a desired color effect. This tutorial explains the basic terminology of the different options in levels such as exposures, tones and histogram.

Document sizing.
This site is actually a video demonstration of some resizing and document size tips.