Final Slide Show

What I was hoping to achieve with my design was a beautiful slide show that told a story. I really wanted unique, high quality pictures and an interesting narrative. Also, I wanted them to blend together.

First I wrote my narrative. Then I found pictures to describe the narrative on Flickr. Then I edited my narrative and added music and sounds to it. I have a lot of songs instead of sounds because I think it is appropriate for what my slide show is about. There are not that many sounds in dance besides music.

Finding nice pictures I could get online for free was challenging. I had the same problem finding free sounds. It also took a while to edit the audio and it was awkward to record my narrative but all and all I think the end product turned out well.

This is probably because I just kept at it. I searched for a while until I found all of the perfect raw materials. Then I just spent a lot of time putting everything together and it ended up not being that hard at all actually.

I am proud of this whole project, I think it turned out really nice. I like the look of it. I also like how it flows and how the pictures and audio blend together. I am also proud of myself for getting it online!

If I had more time I might have edited audio more carefully. Or I might have done fancier things with the slide show as a whole. I might have touched up the timing a little more too.

Bind In - Blow In Card

In my design, I was simply trying to to achieve a similar look to the original. I wanted to be able to use both Quark and InDesign to create almost exact copies of the actual card. Realistically though, I ended up just trying to have them come out similar instead of exact because this was really difficult!

I decided to start with Quark because originally I disliked it. However, when it came time to use InDesign I realized it was much more difficult for this particular project. (The card from InDesign is at the top. The other and the back were done in Quark.) I decided that these two programs both have their pluses and minuses, choosing comes down to what kind of project you are doing. For example, I found making shapes was much easier in Quark which was very helpful because my card is filled with circles.

This circles were a pain and took forever to do over and over again. What was also difficult was finding the exact same fonts as the one in the original. I am not sure how often I was even successful with this. Also, getting everything to fit in the right positions was very difficult. One thing I do not like about InDesign is the way it works with pictures, it is much more difficult than Quark and this took me some time. One thing I found impossible was making an arrow like the one in the original card. I could not find a single easy was to make a triangle! Also, all of the little lines on the back are not straight because this would have taken an hour all by itself.

Like many projects in this class though, with enough perseverance most of this problems fixed themselves through time and effort. I just had to search for fonts, move things around over and over again, and play around with the photos. Although, I could do more with more time.

However, I am proud of finding good images and mixing accurate colors. I am also proud of myself for sticking with this project, it was very frustrating. One of the things I am most happy with is that I am starting to master not one program but two because of this project.

I can not even image all of the time I could spend on this if I had forever. I would definitely touch up everything actually. What I want to fix most though are the arrows, the fonts, and all the little lines on the back.

Flickr Powerpoint

How to Use Flickr

View more presentations from Clara Moses.

Soundslides

Webpage

Brochure

In my design, I was hoping to achieve a look that really fit the company. I wanted to use their colors and make it something they would appreciate. I also wanted to create a brochure that gives just the right amount of information.

The first decision I had to make was the overall look. I choose pink and black for my color scheme because those are the colors that the company always uses and I think it is appropriate. I choose the font for the front cover because that is the font that the company uses. I choose my other fonts because they were my favorite for this company off the list that was given to us in class. Then I had to choose what information and pictures to use. I basically just picked what I believe to be the most important information to have in a brochure and then choose pictures that sort of illustrated what I was saying and made the layout more interesting at the same time.

I found making a gradient very challenging. I needed a lot of help and time to figure out how to use the tool in InDesign. Also, simply deciding what information was the most important was difficult.

The main problem I had to solve was making the gradient. First, I just played around with it for a while. Then, when that did not work, I looked up how to do it in the help menu and in our book but I still could not do it. Finally, I just used the help of others in class and that did work!

I am most proud of the overall look of my brochure. I think that the company would be very happy with it. It is cute and it gives a lot of information in an interesting way.

If I had more time I would work on the pictures. I am not sure if the program is just doing strange things to them but some of them are kind of blurry even though I edited them in Photoshop first. On the other hand, this happened to others as well so I just let it go for now.

Concert Poster

I wanted my Concert Poster to be easy to read and informative first of all. I also wanted it to be visually interesting though. Plus, I tried to make the design reflect the band and the other graphics they have used before.

I choose red and black as my main colors because they really reflect the band's taste and style. I choose my font because I think it looks a little rock and roll which is perfect. I decided to make the time and place information a different font and color because this information needed to be really clear. All of my placement decisions were based on trying to create the ideal Z shape we discussed in class.

The hardest part of making the poster for me was deciding on the graphic. Since this is a small band they do not have many good pictures to use on posters. I also tried to use the magic eraser tool in Photoshop but it ended up looking unprofessional because I could not get the background to leave completely. I also had trouble deciding on the placement of things. I wanted to create a Z without leaving too much white space and this is difficult.

I think I solved both of these problems though. I like what I did with my picture. When it comes to the positioning, with the little information and graphics I had I think I filled up the space fairly well.

I am most proud of myself with sticking with the project. It was difficult, and I do not think that I really like the program we worked with. Quark was very frustrating to me for some reason but I just spent a lot of time with it and made it work.

If I had more time I think I would tweak almost everything. I am not completely satisfied with the placement. Also, I really wish I could have gotten the magic eraser tool to work with my photo.