Assignment 1

For assignment one I deiced to design a business card. In class on Tuesday I started story boarding ideas that could become possible designs. Doctor Rice informed me during class that I should make a card for a company I could see my self-working for. I thought about this for a while, but decided to use my idea for my resume design for this one. Pretty much the idea was to design something geared towards photography. I went with a freelance nature photography idea, something original where I could use one of my own nature shots.

Now when you are designing things, it never turns out the way you want it to. This is where the notion of having a few different drafts comes into play. The strategy that I usually use is making a few drafts, all with a purpose. With each draft I look at what works and what doesn’t work and improve on what I have. For this assignment I developed four different drafts. I believe using this process is very beneficial because you learn from experience and eventually designing becomes second nature.










As you can see from above this is what I came up with. The last image is my final design. From reading in the books and from past experience I could tell that I needed to align all my text in order to not confuse the user/reader of the card. I decided to left align because I wanted to capture my users attention with the photo before they noticed the text in order to add an unconscious question of ‘why is this photo here.’ I used a drop shadow on the photo to movie the users eyes towards the text. When the eyes move towards the text the reader notices my name. I used larger text and drop shadows on the uppercase ‘C’ and ‘N’ to enhance this movement. The next thing that is captured by the eyes in the text ‘freelance nature photographer.’ I used papyrus text because it is more rustic and connects visual to the word nature. I then added a line of slashes to inform the mind that this is the end of one section of information and that another section of information is about to begin. As you can see the slashes match with the slashes on the top and bottom of the card. A simple repetition that might not be noticed at first but adds to the over all design. I will explain the reasoning about the border aspect of the card later. The new section of information is written in simple text that does not pop out as much. I used a bold effect on the last line of my personal website in order to keep the users eyes moving back in forth on the card. This is a design aspect that I did not know about before this class, but I now see the importance of keeping the users eyes moving around.

The next part of the design was to incorporate a border to enclose the information. My thought was why not design a card that simulates an actual photo real. Although most photos are digital in this day and age, the imagery is not gone. Most people will recognize that the border is similar to film reels. Doing this adds a connection to the purpose of the card. A users mind will unconsciously think about photos before they read a single line of text. I also wanted the user to notice that the card itself is photo in a film reel it self.

For the border I started out with an orange gradient to correlate with the sun in the photograph. When looking at this first design, I found myself over whelmed with the amount of orange in such a basic design. I decided to change the borders to a solid black to represent an actual film reel and to add some sophistication to the card as well. As the “non designer’s design book” describes, if it’s not the same, change it completely. It is a simple contrast that adds to the appeal of the whole business card.

I used in-design and photo-shop for this assignment. Everything except the photo was designed in in-design. The photo was saturated in photo-shop to add more vibrant color to capture the users eyes.

I hope you enjoy what I came up with.

Colin Niebergall

Artifacts

Artifacts:

Resume:

A hobby of mine is taking photos. It has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid, using basic cameras. For a year or so I have been taking photos from my Android phone and thanks to some friends who own DSLR's, my friend Clayton, and Tarryn who is in this class, I decided to get my own DSLR for Christmas. Anyways, I kinda want to redesign my resume geared towards photography. Although I do not see my self making a living as a free lance photographer, it would still be neat to have a photo resume on hand.











Business Card:

I have never had a business card, but I do remember as a kid looking at different kinds of designs and picking up business cards from the printers with my dad when he owned his own business. I was looking through some examples online and this one caught my eye. I do not know what I want mine to look like yet, but it will have design in it.





Movie Poster:

Like I said in class, I want to make a movie poster for my own movie project. If it turns out that I can not film the movie for my rock & roll and media class I still want to make a movie poster. Either a redesign of a film that I like, or I might go ahead and make the one for my own project, the film just wont be done. Possible redesign could be the poster for dazed and confused. I love the movie, but I do not like the poster.














Advertisement:

I think it would be amazing to work for national geographic, so I am thinking of maybe designing an billboard or what not for this section. If not national geographic, maybe discovery or some company that deals with the natural world.

















Brochure:

I have to design a brochure for the Association of Fund raising Professional - Collegiate Chapter - since I am the communications chair. Here is an example of something that I found online that I liked -not a AFP brochure. The brochure that we have now was made in publisher...blah...so it is my job to make a new one.







Other options:

I really liked Tarryns idea of cd covers so I might switch that idea with one of mine.

I also liked Kalas idea of designing a sports calendar. If i deiced to switch one of my ideas with this one, I would do it over the Dallas Stars because I could possible see my self working in their organization.


Four Basic Principles of Design:
1. Contrast- It is what makes the reader look at the page in the first place.
2. Repetition- Develops the organization and strengthens the unity.
3. Alignment-Creates a clean, sophisticated, fresh look.
4.Proximity- This helps organize information, reduces clutter, and gives the reader a clear structure.

Assignments

Hello fellow classmates. Many of you in this class already know me, for those of you that do not, my name is Colin Niebergall and I am a senior Public Relations Major, With a Minor in Technical Communications. My hope is to be able to find a company that offers educational benefits so I will be able to pursue a MBA after I graduate with my undergraduate in PR. This plan seems like the most efficient to expand my professional career. As all of you should know, plans never seems to go the way you plan them out, for better or for worst, so I always go with the flow of things. I Actively think about my future, but always keeping an open mind to different paths in life that seem to creep up. Saying that, I really don’t know what to expect in the next few years of my life after I graduate in December 2011, but I do know one thing – I do not want to be stuck in a career choice where I will be unhappy. Easier said than done, most would say, but my goal is to wake up in the morning and be excited about my work/profession/job.

Now, for this class, my goal is to expand my knowledge of design. Design is something that interests me because it is a way of communicating with visuals, at least in this class. Let it be through text, or images, etcetera, we see design at almost everything we look at. We never really stop and think about the procedures and thought that go into the actual design of a product though. What works, what doesn’t work, principles, the usual, and outgoing ideas that come forth. What can make or break a company, a team, or an organization. Even while you are reading this blog on your own personal computer, think about the time, money, and effort, that the company put forth to make the design of your computer. It just didn’t pop out in one single thought. It took teams of people, with different skills and abilities, to produce the unviewed communicated tool of design that is at your hands right now. Design is sneaker than one might think, but the power of it is amazing. It affects both the conscious and unconscious mind at the same time.

On to the assignments in this class, I could see myself doing everything that we came up together in class on Thursday. Seeing that we have a total of five assignments though, I think we could split the semester up into two sections. Section one would be geared towards designing stuff for our own professional selves, for example, resume design, business card design, things that we can use when we all get out into the job market. The second section would be geared towards our own majors. For my major, I could see myself designing advertisements, brochures, flyers, and most importantly logos. I want to focus on logos because this is an area of design that I lack in knowledge. I have designed logos before in other classes, but I tend to judge my own work to the extreme and can never really be satisfied with what I have come up with. They seem to have held up pretty well for a grade in those classes, thank goodness, but I know that they would not be implemented in a professional environment for public view.


Sum everything up in an easy view:

• Section 1 – Two assignments
o Resume Design – Non basic – Creative design
o Business Card Design – American Psycho anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
Have an open mind people…it’s funny.

• Section 2 – Three assignments
o Advertisements – Company that one might work for, maybe advertising plan: Implementation, design, setup, pricing ect.
o Brochures – Company that one might work for, Same as above
o Logos – Redesign of a current company, or self made logo