Tuesday, December 11, 2012

End of Class Post

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed everything I learned from this class.  It was easily the most useful class I have taken graphics wise.  Learning how to use InDesign in order to make sure something will print correctly was tedious, but after doing it for the whole semester it is the only way that I set up files now.  The only thing that I would even consider changing is the blog posts.  The blog posts were clearly present on Canvas so the fact that the first few were missed by some of us is our own ignorance, but I find it odd that the posts carry about as much weight as our projects.  Perhaps, the blog posts should be weighted differently.  I do understand that this is a writing to learn class, but I still think the blog posts could be half as many points and still cover that writing to learn criteria just as well.  That is just my two cents.  Thank you for teaching me so much this semester and putting up with our Mac disdain in the corner!  I hope to have a class from you further down the line and that you have a wonderful break.

-Nevin P. Jones

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Lawsuit Summary

A free lance graphic designer named Jon Engle received a bill from a stock art site called stockart.com for $18,000 back in 2008 for designs he allegedly used without purchasing.  Jon was being sued for 65 of his images (roughly $275 per image).  On Jon's own blog he wrote, "Once the sticker shock wore off the obvious question came to mind. Where the hell did they get these from? It seems as if most or all of them were lifted from my LogoPond showcase. They especially seemed to favor the ones that made it to the gallery."  He claims that someone copied his artwork and separated from the typography and then posted them for sale on the stock site.  After he refused to pay the bill, stockart.com hired a law firm specializing in copyright infringement that called John offering a settlement of $18,000 (not much better).  "BRING IT ON!," says John, "I have no doubt I can win in court." 

 The case caused an outrage around the blogosphere and Twitter in overwhelming support for John even to the point that a donation collection was setup for his defense fund.  Upon some investigation of the allegations, it actually appears that Jon is a blatant liar and he knows it. The Logo Factor, a graphic design blog with no relation to either side did a little investigating into the matter and came up with this: "I was also told that before contacting anyone, IPG perform extensive research into the background of any disputed images, including creation date, history and when it was added to the Stock Art site, pointing out that some of the images “in question” have been on the Stock Art website for almost a decade. Logopond, the supposed source for the designs (at least according to Jon’s blog), had only been online since June of 2006 at the very earliest. The worst point, from a designer’s point of view anyway, was the dispute involved the work of over twenty illustrators. With illustrations and icons that just happened to mirror their exact personal style. And if that wasn’t enough, Jon had previously been billed for other Stock Art licensed work, after it was discovered that it may have been used without permission. He paid that bill."  Here are a few examples of the work in question.




Those are some pretty incriminating photos with even more of them shown here: http://www.thelogofactory.com.nyud.net:8080/logo_blog/stock.html.  While the copyright dates on the Stock Art images show 2009, some of them have been around for over a decade.  This is a case that needs to be decided in court and there is definitely a strong chance that Jon would have no prayer of winning.  It appears that Jon must have agreed also because he removed his website, blog, Twitter account, and even the legal fund set up to help him.  That is pretty incriminating when you put it all together.  That man's career as a graphic designer is over, just as it should be.  These kinds of things can be easily avoided by giving people credit when you use their image or just making something completely original.  Failure to do so is just lazy and will end up making you the recipient of a surprise bill for $18,000 some day.








 Info attained here:
http://www.freelancerant.com/2009/04/13/jon-engle-copyright-infringement-case/
http://www.freelancerant.com/2009/04/07/so-you-thought-you-had-a-bad-day/
http://www.thelogofactory.com.nyud.net:8080/logo_blog/stock.html

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Final Project

The purpose of the project is to design something with a fold in it so what we are making is not just a simple flat surface.  What I have decided to do is design video game themed disc golfs that come in a box themed around the characters inside of it.  The box will come with two discs each.  The range of the disc inside depends on the order (driver, mid-distance, or putter).

The two target audiences for this project are disc golfers and gamers.  Gamers may be more likely to pick up disc golf if their favorite video game character is somehow incorporated into the design.  So with that in mind, the call to action is to buy and use these special discs.  Who wouldn't want a Mario inspired disc to help nail a long drive?

The specs is where it gets a little tricky for me. The space to contain the discs needs to be about 8.5 in across to fit the whole thing comfortably and the depth needs to be about 1.25 in to fit both discs on top of each other.  So the length of the box front and back is 8.5 but with the flaps added on it will be 20.75 in long and then each side will be 11 inches.  The bleed will be .125 as usual and the margins will be .25 on the actual layout.  To design the disc is one whole different monster.  It is a simple circle about 8.125 in in diameter all around so I just need to make some designs that will fill up that area for two discs.

I received a price quote, but I forgot to write it down before I turned it in to you.  I believe the price quote for a thousand of the box prints was $450.  The price quote for a thousand of the vinyl sticker prints was $350 for each one.  This isn't adding in the cost of a disc which would hike the cost up considerably.  The cheapest I found for buying the discs in bulk for a thousand was close to $4500.

All images were created by me with the exception of the green pipe and disc golf goal which I acquired for free use from Open Clip Art Library.  The fonts were all acquired for free use from dafont.com.

Thumbs & Roughs:

The thumbs

The roughs.
Here are a bunch of pictures of my final product all put together and the final design:

The top of the box.

The box with a view of the side.

The discs (especially the Yoshi one)!

The Mario disc.

The back of the box.
The box design.

The Mario disc design.

The Yoshi disc design.
I am pleased with how the design turned out overall, especially the discs.  I used a COB raster on this project which completed all of my requirements on the master image list.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Everyday Design: Environment Inspiration

I took three picture and a screen capture of things that I see every day.  Let's get the poor ones out of the way first.

Bad: Martin Professional Cleaning and Restoration logo

Something bad was done here.
This sits on the refrigerator in my house currently.  I believe the target audience would be their customers (people getting their carpet cleaned).  As you can see from the photo, something is very off in the resolution of the photo.  From my guess, it all boils down to not using the right resolution for the logo to print correctly.  This causes everything in the logo to be off.  They type is blurry and nearly illegible, the type gets a weird pink color to it when it clearly wants to be red, and it becomes pixelated just making it bad to look at.  The design of the logo itself isn't poor but since it was not properly printed, the outcome looks bad.

Ugly: The Morning Sun Website

Behold the horror...
I took this screen capture with my two monitor set up in my room.  I absolutely abhor this website.  I check it periodically so I can keep tabs on how kids I coach in track at Colgan are doing in football this year.  Even though I visit the site frequently enough that I should be able to navigate it, I am always amazed at how I can't find what I want and just the overall clutter of the site.  I took the biggest picture I could, but it still does not properly show how silly the front page is.  Top headlines, Sports, Blogs, Entertainment, News, Photos, Videos, and Business & Personal Finance are all headlines on the front page.  It makes everything on the front page just look cluttered.  They could easily put these things on separate pages to do away with the clutter.  There are even tabs included at the top in order to navigate to an entertainment or sports section so the need for these things on the front page is superfluous.
There are also big blank boxes of trapped white space which is a big layout sin.  The logo is fine at the top and prominent.  The confusing website design doesn't help the target audience (basically people of Crawford county, specifically older people who care about the news) navigate the website because I doubt the audience is that technologically adept in the first place.  As a technical writer, this website makes me want to yell.

Now for happier discoveries.

Good: Winnie the Pooh poster

A nostalgia punch in the gut.
 This is a poster that hangs in my room and I absolutely love it.  Winnie the Pooh was one of my favorite movies of the last year.There really is no logo or much type to be talked about (what type is there works perfectly fine), but what is here features great simplicity in design.
The colors for all of the characters pop against the white background and the yellow honey serves as Pooh's signature snack of choice and great white space.  The big amount of white space used with the honey makes the date prominent at the bottom which is easily legible with the simple type used.  This poster is basically a call to action to see Winnie the Pooh on July 15.  The year wouldn't need to be included because the poster would only be there for the time of the movie being in theaters.  The target audience I can think of is two: the kids who want to see what these adorable adventurers are up to and adults who want a huge nostalgia trip.  The printing process must have gone fine also because the poster is crisp and looks wonderful.

Great: Bawls bottle

It is a thing of beauty.
This is a bottle that sits in my room.  Once you get past the comical effect of saying something like "I'm just sitting here drinking some Bawls," you find that the design of the bottle is absolutely great and memorable.  The type is prominent with the white against the blue bottle and easily legible.  The target audience is gamers actually, but you wouldn't really be able to tell that from the bottle.  Bawls is an energy drink company that will sponsor things like LAN parties by sending you free cases of Bawls as long as you send in pics of your group playing games and drinking Bawls.  The call to action of a bottle containing a drink is to drink the contents.  What makes this bottle standout is the design.  The bottle has a unique color and grip to it.  You don't see many glass bottled energy drinks and I have never seen a bumpy bottle like this.  It gives a certain classiness to the Bawls drinking gamer over other energy drink brands.  I have to believe that the production process of everything here went fine because all the type is legible.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Microsoft Tags

A Microsoft tag is a High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) that encodes data in a 2D barcode using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels usually associated with 2D barcodes.  The data density of the code is increased by using a palette of 4 or 9 colors for the triangles.  It is a nice alternative to a QR code and the addition of color not only increases the data but also gives it a more visual appeal.

In order to generate a Microsoft Tag you must do so from this website: http://tag.microsoft.com/home.aspx.  There the aspect of the Tag is explained and how to use it.  You put in the information and url you'd like to link to by using their generator (as you would a qr code) then their site has specially made features for tracking the activity of the code called Tag Solution.  It features free reporting on the success of each of you Tags.

Using a Microsoft Tag happens for the same reason that one would use a QR code: to link the physical to the digital.  It's easy to load up a tag reader on your smartphone and instantly gain access to a further exploration of a company's add campaign.  This can easily be used for promotions and advertising purposes.  The addition of color to the tag, while increasing the data size the code can hold, also makes the code work better with the product by giving it a more pleasing look.  What makes a Microsoft Tag perhaps even more convenient than a qr code is the fact that all your generating and tracking data can be found straight through Microsoft.

This is the Microsoft Tag I produced.

All information was found at these sources:
http://tag.microsoft.com/what-is-tag/home.aspx   (Generator found on same site)
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Magazine and Billboard ad

The magazine I decided to place an ad in is Game Informer.  Game Informer is the 4th highest circulated magazine in the U.S. with a little bit over 8.1 million subscribers.  It is a video game magazine that features reviews, previews, opinion pieces and many more video game based articles.  To put it shortly, the magazine is amazing.  For a one time full page, four color ad the cost is $195,455.  The specifications are as follows:

Full Page
Bleed9 1/4" x 11"
Trim9" x 10 3/4"
Non-Bleed8 1/2" x 10 1/4"

The file is to be in PDF format. CONVERT: All Spot colors need to be converted to CYMK colors.  Can submit just as a zip file.

The primary readership demographic is video game players.  All kinds of video game players meaning console and PC based.  This age will vary but I'm guessing for gamers between the age of 13-40. 

The content on a billboard differs from previous projects because it is just absolutely huge.  The specifics for the content need to be just right so that the resolution for the pictures turns out well.  The pictures have to be able to be blown up to fit the billboard so only high res photos should be used.  Also have to switch the content to more of a landscape layout.  The billboard specs I'm going for are the 10.412 x 22.662ft live area, 10.644 x 22.894ft overall doc size, and 10.542 x 22.792ft with 18 pixels per inch at 216 resolution.  The preferred formats are PSD, PDF, and TIFF.


My purpose is to get people to discover what the next generation of consoles would be by scanning the MS Tag in the mag ad and going to the website in the billboard ad.  The target audience is as specified previously (gamers between 13-40).  The website is supposed to be a gaming community that embraces all assets of gaming albeit consoles, handhelds, PC's and everything else.  It is a place to find friends and gamers who enjoy the same things.

I used a 4 color raster for the MS tag and my second screen tint from the master grade sheet.

The thumbs.  Strictly magazine.

The roughs.  Do ignore the MS tag on the billboard version.  That will be replaced with a URL.

My final magazine ad.

My final billboard ad.

All images were created by me and the MS tag was generated at tag.microsoft.com. Spy Agency font is a free font attained from dafont.com.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

National Logo Redesign

The past logos of DC Comics.

DC Comics seems to make a habit of changing their logo constantly.  From 1940-2005 there have been nine changes to their logo.  This seems like a little too many to me, but DC doesn't seem to care because in 2012 they chose to yet again change their logo.  Behold, the most controversial DC Comics logo change yet:

The DC Comics new logo.
The new logo was a way to complement their complete overhaul of their comics (they rebooted 52 of their most well known comics back at issue #1 dubbing it the "New 52") and give them an interactive logo that would work in the digital space.  The logo is one that features a peel back design kind of like turning a new page.  The logo is also created with the Gotham Bold typeface, which cracked me up because Batman lives in Gotham and is one of their leading franchises and all (a part of me really hopes that was done on purpose and not just sheer coincidence).  The Senior Vice President of Franchise Management, Amit Desai, suggested the new logo's imagery reflected the nature of DC characters as individuals with dual identities.  "When you think about our DC Comics superheroes, there's a secret identity," he said. "When you think about Vertigo, it's this notion of good vs. evil in many of the stories. And so, in addition to flexibility, the new logo communicates this idea of dual identity: There's more than meets the eye. You have to take a closer look to understand the richness of our characters and stories."

Different versions of the logo for different characters.
 The logo has been implemented all across DC's different heroes and forms of media.  Movies show the D first then feature the peel back animation revealing the C under it and digital comics allow a peeling motion to be used also.  It is pretty neat to see the use of it with different characters that I have come across on some websites.  Overall I think it works but it is a silly logo design.  The interactive element works well and makes sense but as far as the usage on print media, I find it lacking.  The only way for it to work on print media is the inclusion of the word "DC Comics" right under it as shown in pictures.  That seems like a failure to me if your logo can't stand by itself, but compared to other comic logos the new DC design stands up surprisingly well and is a much more modern look.  The only big problem I find with it is it could be taken for other things.  One graphic designer's critique went so far as to say, "The Ugly: Things the logo also sort of looks like: A ripped condom being removed from a wrapper. A large sticker being pulled off of a toilet seat cover."  Now that I have read that, the image cannot be unseen.

Sources:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/19/new-dc-logo-images-interactive/
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/18/dc-comics-logo-design-critique/
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/17/dc-comics-logo-history/
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/dc-new-logo/

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Newspaper Ad


Create an advertisement for the PSU Collegio Newspaper. Your topic should be appropriate for newspaper advertising. You must use the formula above to determine the size of your ad, and to make sure it falls withing your allotted budget. Remember, there is a big difference between inches and column inches. All newspaper publications are designed on a column width system. You have flexibility with the height of your ad, but not your width

See Blog Assignment for criteria
Formula to determine your cost. This will also  indicate the size of your ad. Be sure to indicate the size of your InDesign document as well.

  1. 5 thumbnails
  2. 1 rough that matches your formula; either  vertical, horizontal, or square
  3. Target Audience (identified by age, race,  gender, education level, socioeconomic status, marital status, special  interests, etc)
  4. Call to Action | What you want the recipient to do
    • go to a personal url
    • call a phone number
    • walk in the store/business
    • use a coupon
    • email
 Specifications:
  • no bleeds,
  • minimum of .125 margins
  • Black and white only, no color

 The newspaper ad I have decided to design is for a fictional website called beagamer.com.  The design I'm making is going to have gaming based images with a witty slogan to try to coerce people to play video games and visit the website for more info.

My target audience will be gamers and people just looking for a new activity.  This will most likely fall into the category of people between 10-30 years old.  I cut off at the thirty because after 30, if you aren't already a gamer, you probably don't care.  The whole thing I'm trying to do is make a catchy phrase to be used to entice anyone to game.  The phrase is based off of seeing t-shirts that say things like "I was told to get a life.  I'm a gamer.  I have lots of lives," but making it sound less like a rebuttal for being teased.

The call to action for this ad is having people visit the website and play video games whether they are already a gamer or want to be

The budget for this ad is $197.  I decided to make a 5 column in x 6 in ad.  5x6x$4= $120 for the ad cost.  That's 9.67x6 for the InDesign file.

The rough.

The thumbnails.

The final product.
Note: I did not use a Bitmap in this project.  I used mine on our first notepad project so I'll talk about that.  The picture I uploaded for a bitmap was a drawing I did of my thick, black rimmed glasses.  Since bitmaps are hand drawn scans, they end up looking as such.  They aren't clean looking like an Illustrator file but that ends up giving them a certain kind of charm.  Every fiber of my being was irritated that I couldn't draw proportional glasses and wanted to fix them somehow but I just left them alone and let the little flaws of my drawing add something special to the notepad design.  To give the glasses a stronger black I used threshold on them and that made them standout strong.  It can be seen in my past blog post.  I guess I was an over achiever knocking that one out first.

All images were created by me and the Spy Agency font was a free to use font from dafont.com. Here is the url to the font if needed: http://www.dafont.com/spy-agency.font .

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

QR Code Research

QR stands for quick response so a QR code is a quick response code, mostly named for the fact that it can be scanned and identified by a phone quickly and efficiently.  QR Codes are trademark two-dimensional barcodes.  They have become increasingly popular recently because of their fast readability and large storage capacity compared to other similar kinds of barcodes.  The code consists of black squares shaped in a square pattern on a black background.  Each QR Code generated is unique and is kind of like a form of identification.

There are a plethora of QR Code generating websites that are easy to use, like http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ for example.  All that must be done is entering some kind of URL, text, phone number, sms, etc. and the website will generate a QR Code for it.  As far as tracking the code, certain sites, like Blogger for example, offer ways to tell where your visitors are coming from.  If your website is visited from your QR Code, you should be able to see it in the statistics.

QR Codes are quickly becoming more popular because of house easy they are to use and integrate into a design.  They are popping up everywhere in magazines, on billboards, posters and even more.  It is actually a clever way to produce traffic to your website or something along those lines.  Say you've created a design and wish to advertise that you made it or perhaps link to more info about the design, simply slap a QR Code on there and it can be scanned so people can be accessing your site in seconds.  This would work for any manner of ads or business cards.  It is great for advertising of any sort. 

INFO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
http://blog.redclayinteractive.com/how-to-track-qr-codes-in-google-analytics/
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/static/about
http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Copyright Basics for Designers

Copyright is a hard subject for graphic designers. Copyright is basically the exclusive right of the author of a creative work to control the copying of that work.  There are lots of subtleties but that is the gist of it.  Images, content, fonts, and intellectual property belong to the creator or whatever company the creator made it for.  Works don't necessarily need a copyright notice to be copyrighted.  In the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not.  For default, you should assume that people's work is copyrighted and should not be reproduced unless you know otherwise by means of a copyright notice and the parameters included within the notice.  If at all possible, it is easiest to just create your own new work and avoid the hassle of copyright laws.

Most of my information on copyright was found from these two sites given to me in my Document Design class: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html and http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Variable Data Direct Mail

Project Specifications

This information will be used to determine the cost of printing 500 post cards, with variable data content. You will have 250 cards for audience A and 250 cards for audience B.
  • 4 color | 2 sides
  • Trim size | 7x5 inches
  • Bleed | .125 inches on all sides
  • Margins | .25 inches
  • Paper stock: 12 pt or 80# coated cover weight | White
  • Quantity to print (for price quote only) 500 total (250 for each audience)

1) Identify two target audiences for company/service.

- The target audiences for my video game company will be two different terms that have now been coined in the industry: hardcore gamers and casual gamers.  Hardcore would be people that are avid gamers.  They play to compete.  Casual gamers would be people who don't always game.  They pick it up in a party atmosphere or every once in a while to relax and have fun.  Can also be first time gamers.

2) Identify call to action.

- The postcard is going to be an invitation to a gaming event that is trying to draw in all types of people.  Basically it wants to make gaming a more widely spread activity by getting both kinds of people in one place.  The postcards will provide a link to the website www.iwanttogame.com for more information.

3. Goal 

- Develop a concept adaptable to a 5x7 template. The same template will be used for both target audiences. The template should accommodate variable content (photo or text).

The thumbs:
My ten roughs showing a brieft layout for text and pictures.
The roughs:

The front.

The back.

Final Images:
I wanted to find an image that showed people you might not expect playing the Wii because the Wii is considered more of a console for casual gamers that everyone can enjoy.  That is where the reasoning for this picture with all of the girls playing the Wii came from.
Variable 1 Front
The reversal picture is just a pen tool trace of all the different controllers for consoles from this generation.  I used it to signify a kind of togetherness between them all.
Variable 1 back
In the video game industry, the Xbox 360 is considered a console that caters to the more hardcore crowd of gamers so I searched for a picture of people with 360 controllers in their hands.  Even though they look goofy, it shows a different crowd of gamers than the first picture for variable data 1.
Variable 2 Front
Not much changes on the back of the post card.  The picture is kept, but the text has some slight variations to name off the different games available to the hardcore crowd of gamers.
Variable 2 back
My end images came out pretty much exactly as I had my roughs planned except the front page has the top text bubble removed and I compensated for that by lengthening the bottom one.  This kept parts of the image from being blocked.

The images from the master image list used are a reverse 1, duotone raster, raster - full bleed, screen tint and vector art 2

The ending price quote from printing 500 postcards was $141.18 ($70.59 for 250 of each kind) with $12.07 tax, so the total came out to $153.25.

Copyright statement: The images for the kids playing Wii and Xbox were found at the following locations allowing full commercial use.
wii: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitch98000/3598072451/sizes/z/in/photostream/
xbox: http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigmdennis/3028922418/sizes/o/in/photostream/
The other image of the controllers was created by me in Illustrator and is usable by anyone if they simply ask permission.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Ten Thumbnail Sketches for Self-Promotion Notepad

Ten thumbnail sketches.  They are all basic picture ideas to put in the corner of the notepad except for the one that is just a box with NPJ Originals in it.  That one would run along the whole bottom of the notepad.

My rough image for the thumbnail I chose.

I went with the image of black rimmed glasses with my design name within the frames.  It's a simple design and I feel like it serves a few purposes.  It makes my name look prominent within the frames and it is almost like the glasses are looking at my name by having it within the lens.  By picking the thick black rimmed glasses I also am appealing to what I would say is a nerd/geek crowd, because usually these kind of glasses are associated with those people, which I am one of them.  The QR code also got placed in the top left corner by itself to give it more prominence and make it really pop out.
The final product.

Parameters:
  • 1 color | Black
  • Trim size | 5x7 or 7x5 inches
  • Bleed | .125 inches on all sides
  • Margins | .25 inches
  • 50 sheets per pad
  • Padded with a chipboard backing
  • Quantity to print (for price quote only) 100
Copyright Statement:  All pictures and fonts used in the design were created by me (Nevin P. Jones).  To use them, one must simply contact me.

Images used from Mater Image List are a bitmap, two pieces of vector art, and a grayscale raster.

-Nevin P. Jones