analyzed ad

I tend to lean the “less is more” attitude when it comes to anything, except money of course. I worked at the agency in New York that designed these pro bono ads for gun control. I was always amazed at the impact they had on me. This one in particular is very clever and gets the point across simply.

Reading the word ” JAIL” centered on the white space creates an immediate interest and automatically engages the viewer. The “JAI” as large simple black type is appropriate because when you get to the “L” it is represented by the menacing handgun. This is a simple yet, ingenious solution to what the ad is communicating. The handgun, also, creates an uncomfortable feeling, which for me strikes my curiosity. Though it seems obvious that guns and jail go together I think it causes the consumer to wonder, “what EXACTLY does this mean? “of course people who use them are bad and go to jail.” Thus, the text that follows explains it simply, “caught with an illegal gun go to jail for
3 ½ years.” The blocked text of grey tone with GUNS = PRISON in white type gets the point right across.

This entire ad has a lot of white space, but none of it trapped. There is clearly no need for fancy or crazy use of type, as the “L” for JAIL creates enough impact. The “GUNS = PRISON” is the logo for the campaign which makes it easy to identify. I have also attached another ad that has impact visually with out the use of type for the same campaign.

2nd ad

this is the 2nd ad i was referring to within the same gun control campaign.

SHARK ART SHOW AD

This is my ad for my art show. Though it doesn't literally depict my logo, it goes along with the shark theme. The points of the triangular teeth draw you in to the center of the sharks mouth as to the most important information, what the event is. The font for "Art Sharks 3rd Annual..." was outlined, enlarged, and "tweaked" to give it an edgy "shark bite" look. The black right and left edges are two arcs. The bottom of the mouth is a distorted semi-circle. I drew the teeth my self with the paint tool, for realism.

The additional info at the bottom is non-pertinent information. The font was reduced and to the point with so no real attention was drawn to it, but it keeps your eyes reading once viewing the main content of information as the text is flush left. The entire ad has a basic black border all the way around the ad space to have a cohesive well defined space.

FINISHED LOGO

Ok so it seems a little cheesy, but it's for a middle school. i used the fin as the "A" and and added a waterish element for color......the fonts are the same, for shoal lake and middle school, i just scaled the middle school part to make it a little bigger, a whole different font and whole different font size did not look right. overall i like the idea, i used the warp tool as my watery wavyness. The fins were the arc and line tool with a color fill and some transform "bring to front" for the type. I reflected the fin in "lake" for consistency. my first attempts (in the sketch post) i tried the swirl tool for the water, and i liked the effect, but it seemed a little too complicated for a middle school logo. this i feel is simple and can thus be expanded on, as you will see in the upcoming newspaper ad assignment. also, this is a good way to keep it simple stupid. who doesn't know a shark fin.

logo ideas

The four pics here, 3 sketches and one attempted in illustrator, are my ideas for the school logo. I thought about using an actual shark as in the original piece that inspired me, but it seemed too trite. so i tried a more simple approach as you will see in my final piece.

this is my first play around/sketch for my new school logo. scarrrrry.

so i found this online and this is my inspiration for the new school logo.

apples illustrator

ok so this was my attempt at a still life fruit bowl, i will try harder next time. thank gpd for 2-9 lab hrs on wed.

improved (hopefully) self portrait

ok so i took some criticism into mind. i moved the text to the bottom third of the page and flushed left. and added an enlarged strip of the cover. to help it be more readable. i also removed all curtains from each pic and kept everything very simple. thanks for the comments guys!

PHOTO ESSAY

this is my photo essay from before....again another late project. so anyway its about washing my bed and how happy it makes me. a clean bed is one of the the best and simplest things in the world. i took the idea of nature v. technology approach for my essay. though convenient, the washing machine is so ugly. in the first and last photos are my bed in "proper" settings dirty and clean. the first one shows my bed in a dump setting, the 2nd is a painting of washing clothes by a river, with my electric machine incorporated, next is my dryer "hanging" from a clothes line, and finally my clean bed in a field of beautiful fresh flowers.

working self portrait

this was an idea i was going with for my self portrait, i tried to incorporate my face, but just wasn't feeling it. i was going for a theme that represented aging, these are photos of my mother when she was pregnant with me....her 7th and final child. as i continue to get older seeing that i am getting chin hairs and used my actual hair and cut and pasted it to my chin. i tried some coloring of the eyes for a bluer effect, the 70's stereo system i thought could make a cool repetitive element, but just wasn't feeling it, so i finally ended with the photo below. ENJOY!

MY FINAL SELF PORTRAIT

this is my final self portrait.....i tried my face, as you will see in my other posts, but i thought this was a good representation of me. i am the youngest of seven and as you can see my mother could never stay awake when she was pregnant with me, i carry her love for naping........sans kids. i was born in the 70's so the color scheme is disgusting. i scanned all four pics using our in class scanner. the pattern from the couch cover was used to create the pattern for the background using the pixellated option. i cropped the photos and erased some of the edges to give it better flow and erased some areas in the photos to include the patterned background. repetition with the pattern is obvious, using the pattern from the couch to the pattern for the background. i numbered each photo representing her progression to sleep. i didn't change the colors at all because i think the representation was perfect. after looking at the print out tho, i feel i could have adjusted the numbers so the brown color i used would have been consistent once printed and to add a little more contrast. i printed at the graphics lab in pollack rm 217. the printers have a default setting for the type of paper i used so i did not have to make sure it printed in cmyk. my mother will probably kill me for using these photos, but i couldn't resist.