Week 5 Out Of Class: 1 Color Print out

Above is the screenshot of the spread I created for the in progress color print. I added a pixelated texture to relate back to the internet theme with help from the binary code. I added the blue bar to help ground the illustration on the right side. I only put three of the questions on this page for content because I felt it worked best with the illustrations. If I had added more content the illustrations would not match up on the next page. I decided not to create pullout quotes because I stylized the questions larger so I felt they would compete.

Week 5B

Before Class:

Below are the rough illustrated layout I created for class. This idea morphed from the idea of a horizontal layout. Since I did create the content and illustrations as Calvin being a real cookie, to bring the internet aspect back into the spread I brought in lines of binary code. The most is on the impact spread and it lessens throughout because throughout the story the reader will feel like him becomes more human. The middle spread will (ideally) have the work and family questions/content and the last spread will have the questions/content about his hobbies. The questions will be in the light green color and the body copy will be the darker brown and in a serif typeface.

During/After Class:

Overall my feedback was good they enjoyed the color scheme and types of images. The main thing my group decided is the push the two images that are not in bounding boxes into the copy a little to make the layouts more dynamic. After talking to my professor I am going to try to work in the text without the blue bar so it is less restricted. For next class I am recreating the middle layout page on the computer and printing it in color.

Week 5A

Today in class we gave feedback on everyone's rough layouts. Feedback I received was leaning towards less copy on a page, maybe organizing from busier to less depending on his day, and it was suggested not tilting the text because it does not go with the type of article I am designing for. Based off this feedback I am going to refine my layouts for next class. I am going to research different illustration styles, horizontal layouts and implied components. I am also going to try to define the illustration style more for the layouts.

Week 4 Out Of Class: Cookie layout, Content and Demographics

Content

Below is the content I created for the topic I decided on, "A day in the life of and Internet Cookie":

Did you ever wonder about those Internet cookies you always get notification messages about on your desktop? Do you ever question how those websites know your name? Or how those ads know exactly where you shop? Is there more to a cookie than just that? Well here’s your chance to find out! Read on to find out about the life of an internet cookie!

How about you tell our readers a little about yourself. Well, I’m Calvin Doe, a typical cookie of the chocolate chip variety. I grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania and am made up of the finest chocolate. I am thirty-one years old, and I am an internet cookie.

Great! Can you tell me more about your occupation? Why sure. I am an internet cookie. I have been working as one since I got out of college, so for about nine years now. My main purpose is to detect users and possibly arrange personalized web pages for them. I am also capable of saving log-in information, if the user provides personal information and would like it saved for that site. Then I package it and send it to the browsers, and they store it for later use.  If the user does not need me, I usually can be found sitting in the break room on their computer’s hard drive drinking a cup of coffee. I am an avid coffee drinker, especially if I have to work late nights. When the browser asks for your preferences again, I will be there to help them out. I personally store a small amount of text that has information about the browser in its context.

Now you are not one of those evil cookies, right? The professional term for that title is Malicious, and no, I pride myself in my work and stay on the legal side of the career. The amount of cookies in the malicious field is spreading though. In this career, a cookie just sits and tracks their chosen user’s online activities and surfing habits. As time goes by they build up a consumer profile about their user and eventually sell their information to an advertising company on the cookie black market. Users are learning through and are starting to download spyware for their systems so they can be aware of suspicious activity. Sometimes, spybots get in my way on the job but I have learned to work around them. Nosey things they are.

I am sure you have a life outside of your job.  Is there a Mrs. Doe you come home to? Yes there is! She is a spunky snickerdoodle named Cassidy.  We have been married for four years this November. We met in high school but did not start dating until the beginning of our college years. Together we have a wonderful, rambunctious son who just turned two this summer named Chip. We also have one more on the way that is due in the spring. So it is a very busy time right now in the Doe household.

That’s fantastic! So with all of this busyness in your life do you have down time? Hobbies? Somehow along the way I do manage to fit in some downtime here and there. I am a real computer guy at heart. I love to just sit on webpages and read article after article about technology and the newest gadget on the market. I often find myself commenting on posts and debating logistics with other cookies.  They even get pretty heated sometimes; we cookies can really debate! I am also a huge fan of human sports; Cassidy thinks it is ridiculous, but I find it fascinating! I mainly enjoy baseball and hockey, but I can watch anything. Being from Hershey, I love the Phillies and Flyers. I watch every game I can when I get home from work. I could never imagine actually going to sporting event though; too afraid I would be mistaken as a snack! I’m a big social media cookie too!

So are you saying our readers could friend you on Facebook? *chuckles* I don’t know about that but yes I do have a Facebook. Once Chip was born, I was on more than ever, posting pictures and videos of him growing up. I also use it to stay in touch with family like Grandma Oatmeal Raisin and Uncle Macadamia Nut. They always comment on my posts. I am also very addicted to Candy Crush, ever since Auntie Sugar sent me an invite. See, I can have fun on the computer too! I am not just a normal internet cookie.

You said you are a big social media cookie, what other sites do you frequent?

I am on a vast number of sites all the time because anytime I see something new on the job, I have to go home and check it out. I can constantly be found tweeting. I follow all my favorite athletes and all of the best techno geeks. I do follow a few famous cookies, but I try to refrain because they always clutter my feed. One of my favorite things to do is re-tweet any great content articles I find about new technology.  From my job and being around computers all the time, I know that good content can be hard to find, so I want to get it out there to help users along. Instagram is something I am starting to get into. I am guilty of posting a picture of my latest coffee run on Instagram and anytime Chip does something funny, it can be found there. One of my work buddies introduced me to Snapchat, so that’s mainly a work thing. We send silly pictures of one another on the job to each other quite often. Finally, I’m…a closet Pinner. Yes, I am on Pinterest. I just kept hearing Cassidy talk about it, and she would always make these delicious recipes. Then I would ask her how she came up with this and she always said Pinterest. So I decided to give it a try. I pin a lot of geeky things, but I will also pin things like recipes or any funny pictures I see. I’m not nearly as addicted as Cassidy.

Wow, you are on a lot of sites! Well thank you for giving us an insight into your life, telling us not just about your job, but really letting our readers into your personal life.

Layouts

Below is three sets of layouts that I created to possibly house my content. Throughout the layouts I used dark brown as the body copy color to relate back to the content that he is a chocolate chip cookie. The interview questions I put in a light green to sort of reference the internet side because that color makes me think of the 0's and 1's on early computer screens. I used a light blue as a way to show where the images will go. I will be mainly creating illustrations for my layouts so they will not be perfect boxes but more organic shapes, the boxes are just layout place holders. The thin lines are body copy and the larger ones are pull out quotes. For most of my impact spreads the entire page is blue because the spread will most likely be full of an illustration.

In the layout above I tried to make it cohesive by always having the content in the corners of each layout. This is all started by having the Title in the bottom left and the attention grabbing questions in the upper right. This is the most content heavy spread.

These spreads are a balance between angled and more linear spreads. One side of the spread is always angles, on the same sort of angle and the other side is straight. As of right now this layout really does not have any pull quotes.

Theses spreads play off the focal point being in the middle, whether it be a pull quote or an illustration. The copy is also a little less than the first one, it is playing with balance and activating the white space by only using half the paper.

Demographics

I think the type of magazine this content would be in is a technology magazine that is more for hobbyists, not the hard core sort of techno person. Someone who enjoys hearing about the newest gadgets but not necessarily analyzing them. The age group would most likely be early to late twenties. I think the magazine would be online and print and would be in the computer/electronics section of a bookstore.

Week 4B

Today in class we took our topics we received last class (mine being eye on internet addiction) and got into small groups to mind map the ideas out. Below is pictures of how mine looks.

The idea I ended up taking from all of this was the idea of "the day in the life of an Internet Cookie" so it is going to be an interview format talking about his job, family, and hobbies.

Week 4A

Today in class we critiqued our final color glyph layouts. Overall I received positive feedback towards my final layouts. The final portion of class was spent learning about the next project. As a class we decided who was getting each topic put on the board. The topic I ended up with was eye on internet addiction, so the assignment is to think about that topic for next class.

Week 3 Out Of Class: Glyph Color Printouts!

Below as the screen shots from the final InDesign file that I printed from.

Changes I made to this spread: the purple glyph is even smaller than the last draft, the body text is now purple so each text box compliments each respective glyph, and I did change the pullout text, I pulled it farther away for the body copy, and put it in a black sans serif font.

The only real change I made to this page was left aligning the column on the left page and I made the overall column lengths about a word longer to aide in readability. 

I made no changes to my final spread.

Below is a picture of the actual printouts for class.

Week 3B

Below are the photos of my most recent printouts with the feedback comments written on after our quick critique.

The main comments on my impact page was to make the top glyph even smaller which I agreed with. So suggested to get rid of it but I disagreed because then it would not display the polite to angry narrative as affectively without the smaller purple glyph. I feel this effect will read much better once the prints are in color.

The other comment was about the bolded text which was the main change from last time. This is something I am still working to fix for the final print. As of right now I have made the body text purple to connect to all the rest of the body text which I realized was all purple. The bolded text will now be black and possible a sans serif font. I feel that this is a beneficial change because now even the text speaks to her polite side (purple, small, serif) and her angry side (bold serif and black). 

The overall comment on my communication page is that the column on the first page (third page) is difficult to read. To easily remedy this I switched that column back to left aligned to match up with the column on the right page.

There was not much feedback about this page. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and believe it worked well as a closing page. The comments on the actual feedback page mirrored what was written on the layouts.

I spent the rest of class applying these changes and getting ready to print the color copies.

 

Week 3A

Today we spent the main part of class critiquing our black and white print outs. 

The main feedback I received on the one above was to adjust the line length and make the top glyph smaller.  Also to go into illustrator and clean up the lines on the larger glyph. The feedback on the one below was more about fixing the rag.

It was discussed and I decided to create three spreads instead of two. So I am currently choosing what the third spread should be and I am planning on lengthening the columns on the spread above for Wednesday's class.

Week 2 Out Of Class: Glyph Layouts

Above are both glyph spread together to show how they flow. I feel that they work well together because both spreads have multiples. Also the smaller once on the first page is almost the same size as the rotating ones on the second page, so that could almost be a foreshadow/recall element within the two spreads.

Above is the first page, the impact page. I consider this one the impact page because the larger glyph demands such a presence on the page the way it goes across both pages of the spread.

The second page, communication page, is toned down more. The graphic is smaller overall on both pages which activates the white space on the page. 

I think the content on both pages is about the same with the impact page possibly carrying a little more than the second page. I was able to fit almost all of my blog post onto both pages and had to omit only a few sentences.  

Week 2B

Today in class we critique our layout sketches. Above is a picture of all of them together on the white board. Overall I received many positive comments, my classmates felt they were well crafted and enjoyed the color scheme. Everyone had their favorites but layouts that got the most votes were the top right, bottom right and second one down on the right. I am leaning towards the top right as my impact and the one below for continuation. 

Then we discussed body copy fonts and correct ways to set it up, like the line height should be 2 more then the copy size and the tracking at +10. Then there was a quick overview of InDesign since that what program we need to do our homework in. 

Week 1 Out Of Class: Glyph Layouts Sketches

Once I figured out placement for the sketched images I printed them out and traced it onto tracing paper as seen in the above images. Then I transferred it onto the final paper.

In this first layout I used the principles of Symmetry and Asymmetry. I chose the color purple to use throughout all of my layout because in the write up I stated that it was her favorite color.

The layout above is using the principle of scale and contrast to show the glyph's personality during conversations, 

            "She does speak knowledgeably and can be very polite but if she is ever corrected, 

                 it will surely lead to a disagreement."

The smaller purple glyph represents the polite side, while the larger one is showing the darker , which is why it is black, in-your-face side.

Using the figureground principle of putting the shape within itself I tried to display that she is the "apple" of her father eye because she is an only child. The purple text is placed to lead the reader's eye towards the small purple 

This layout is suppose to representhow, she is "always knowing what was happening everywhere, with everyone, at all times". I displayed this through rhythm and pattern of the glyph rotating. The anomaly on each page could be the text since it is there instead of the final rotation of the glyph.

This angled layout represents her home life, with her parents away always working (the two smaller glyphs), it has left her to be independent. I decided to have a text box by itself to help represent the independent quality.  

This diagonal layout represents how she is a leader and blazes ahead in all directions. It can also talk to how she does not take direction well. The text framing it could represent followers or people she is refusing to take direction from.

This layout represents her need to be the center of attention in her home and social life. The purple text is suppose to mimic and compliment her position as the purple glyph on the left.

Using cropping and scale I wanted to capture her charismatic, in your face sort of personality. On the right I was trying to show her opposite side, her more calm, collected side through the justified text.