Wednesday March 14

Today we spent class watching our videos and getting a little bit of feedback from Jimmy. I think that my partner and I came up with a successful video and a print piece that goes with the video. We still have a few things we need to fix in the video and the postcard but overall I am very happy with the way our video turned out. I am excited for this quarter to end and for the new one to start. This quarter has been very busy and stressful and I am ready to start fresh again with 4 new classes.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone else's final videos on Monday. I think as a class we produced great work throughout the quarter and it shows in this final project.

Monday March 12, 2012

Today we focused on further developing our concepts and movies. We showed Jimmy a first cut of our video and we were told we need to come up with a clear message on what we are trying to show about the CSULA Graphic Design program. My partner and I discussed some ideas and later went to the lab where we brainstormed possible ways to make our message more obvious. We came up with a few really good ideas on how to tweak our video in a few areas to make it more affective. I think that if we can incorporate a message into our video it will be perfect.

We need to think of our video as a advertisement. We essentially need some sort of headline and copy to back up the headline and keep the viewers informed. For our print piece we created a postcard that we will keep working on until it is just the way we want it. At this point I am feeling pretty good about our movie and our print piece.

Wednesday March 7

Over the last day and a half my partner and I began working on idea sketches for our movie and coming up with the main ideas we wanted to make sure and present throughout the movie. We decided to use imovie, which is a program that I really enjoy using because it's simplicity makes it easy and fun to make a video.

In class on Wednesday we focused on talking about our ideas with Jimmy. At this point my partner and i had a pretty good grasp about what we want to create and even had a rough cut of our movie. Jimmy called our movie "cute" which made me rethink the whole idea. Did we want our movie to be cute? I'm not sure if that's the first word I want people to think when looking at our movie.

Now the challenge at hand is to make the movie more like our brief, and be able to make it more fun, and eergetic. We are looking forward to seeing how our movie turns out in the end, hopefully its something that our classmates will enjoy and other students that do not attend this school can watch one day.

Our print piece will be a direct mailer that we can send out to students in our surface area. Candy, my partner created a beautiful tree which we will use to place on the flyer and with the use of bright colorful typography we will hopefully have a really nice print piece for the final.

I cannot believe this quarter is almost over. It feels like we just started, and now we only have a week left. I am excited and nervous for next quarter because it will be my last and most intense.

Monday March 5th

Today in class we began but getting into our usual class circle to discuss our ideas and briefs for the next project. As a class we had an idea to propose to Jimmy. We thought that we could make our films as a class, one unit, instead of making individual videos in pairs. The reason we proposed this idea to Jimmy was because we thought that since we are all making a video based on the same ideas we could make one really good one as a collective.

I think that one of the main reasons we felt really strong about doing a video as a collective was because we are nearing finals and we are all getting really stressed out about our time management. I know that's my main problem right now. With 4 classes and work I find it difficult some weeks to find the time to complete everything I need to do. I usually make it to the very end with everything completed but my sanity in compromise in the process. I think that I need to learn how to challenge myself but at the same time not put too much on my plate because I am only one person and sometimes I cannot do all the things I set out to do.

Jimmy ended up shutting down our idea and telling us that we need to stop hesitating on the video and just start creating something that is fun and interesting to ourselves. We need to be having fun, because that is when our work is the best.

The rest of the class was spent talking about the pros and cons of our design program and comparing it to NorthRidges' program. Our classmate Jung a design student teaches at North Ridge so he was able to give us a little look into their program and how they do things,

My partner and I decided that our video would be fun and energetic and focus on diversity, individualism and the family aspect that we all share in common.

2/29/2012

Today we had our final critique for project number two. I was very proud of the work that my partner and I did for this project and felt great when Jimmy and our classmates enjoyed our ads. I think that our ad was successful because we took the time to work together side by side and we did ALOT of sketching before hand. Also, my partner and I were able to communicate with no problems and often, which kept us constantly on the same page. Hopefully the next project turns out just as good, or even better then this one.

2/27/2012

Today we had class without Jimmy. We continued class as normal, even moved the chairs and tables, wow! The critique was very successful. Everyone gave their input and spoke up about what they did and didn't like. I found that the critique was very helpful for my partner and I and we changed a few things based on what other classmates recomended. I think having a critique with just our peers was very interesting to see and might be something that should be done more often because many people that never speak, actually spoke on Monday.

2/22/2012

getting great photos is a really big part of having a strong ad campaign. That is what my partner and I learned today when presenting our ads for Netflix. Our headline and concept is really strong and clear but the images are not lending themselves to the same idea. In order to get better quality photos, they must first be art directed in a more careful way. The lighting and the shot must be perfect and then it is crucial to color correct everything in photoshop. I think that once we can get our image clean and crisp our campaign will be much stronger. Also, we are going to take into consideration alot of the feedback that we received from our classmates with really good ideas on how to improve the layout and overall design.

2/20/2012

Today we went over our idea comps and got a chance to look at other peoples work. It was helpful to get critique from our peers and everyone seemed to like the same concept that my partner and I came up with. We are looking forward to developing our concept further and coming up with really strong headlines because as of now we have really good images. It is exciting to be working on something that we think is humorous and eye catching. I am feeling really good about our project and I cant wait to see how it turns out.

2/15/2012

WORK AS A TEAM. That is what I took away from today. It is important to work as a group, in order to come up with the best ideas, but it's also easier said then done. Group projects are difficult especial when everyone has a million things going on in one day. Some of us have kids, multiple jobs, 4 classes to study for and just daily life activities. Finding time to be able to sit down and meet with a group is difficult but must be done in order to completely develop ideas. Time management plays a huge role in this, and that is something that I definitely need to work on. I spend many of days doing hw for hours and hours because I like to take my time, but maybe I should try setting a time limit and seeing how much I can achieve during a short period.

2/13/2012

research, research, research, that is the key to coming up with a brilliant ad. In "Letters of a Note" by David Ogilvy he clearly states that "I am helpless without research material—and the more "motivational" the better. " Until reading this ad, and actually sitting down and thinking about concepts for our ad campaign I realized that the more I had researched the more ideas came flowing into my head. It is very important to know EVERYTHING you can about your product and its competitors. I really like what David said about writing multiple headlines until he finds the perfect one after asking other people for their opinions. For our campaign we are going to take the same approach and see if it helps us discover great headlines. I really like everything about this article and will use it as a reference when creating our ad. 

2/8/2012

Pitching an ad and getting your audience to believe in it is a difficult thing to do. It takes a great layout and design, a strong copy and an attention getting headline. When trying to persuade people to feel a certain way it is important to give a strong powerful presentation. Know your facts and how to back them up with statistics and sources, think of every possible question that could be asked of you during your presentation and know how to answer it. Another important thing is to speak slowly, clearly and loud to show that you feel strongly about your ideas. I watched a few episodes of Mad Men before I pitched my ad with my partner and it gave me a few ideas of how to get right to the point and make your audience understand what they need to know as fast as possible. Practice makes perfect, and I am nowhere near that yet, so I will continue to try my best with each project that comes forth.

2/6/2012

It was nice to see everyones final comps today. After so much stress and hard work, it was interesting to see what everyone had come up with. We went over each groups ads and did a critique on how they could be improved for the final. Everyone had different issues with their own ads but I think the critique was really helpful in trying to see how we could improve and also getting solid feedback from our classmates.

Getting critiqued by classmates is the best way to learn, in my opinion. Since we are all at the same level, studying the same things it is important to see what other people think about your work and also take corrective criticism and use it to your advantage to make yourself stronger and a better designer. After our critique on Monday I think many groups will have really good work on wednesday for the final presentation. Good luck everyone!!

1/1/2012

In class on Wednesday we went over everyones ads. Each group got a chance to post their ad on the board and Jimmy went through them one by one and discussed what needed to be worked on. Some people had really good graphics but for the most part everyone still needs to improve on their work. My partner Aileen and I will be meeting this weekend to work on our illustrations, which need a lot of improving and also our typography. We need to make out copy's stronger and more persuasive as well.

1/23/2012

An effective interesting ad vs a bad ad. What makes up each one and how do we as designers spot the differences. A good way to learn about effective advertising is to take a look at ads that already exist in magazines. Just by flipping through the ad you will be able to tell which ones are the good ones because they will grab your attention, and hold it long enough to persuade you that the product being displayed is something you must have. Good advertising consist of first understanding the audience, the product and developing a campaign that will showcase the product in different ways. If the campaign is a strong one then it is easy to distinguish it from other ads and also makes it easy for the client to remember your product. A good example of a great campaign is one that was done for T.V. by FreeCreditReport.com and the singing guys. These are commercials that are memorable, fun and interesting. Same thing goes for print advertising,  it has to be interesting to the viewer, witty, clever, intelligent or even just have really good graphics and typography. There are many elements that can make or break and ad and it is very important as a designer to know and understand these as best as possible.

Foy your enjoyment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm7lhFkEijY&feature=related

1/18/2012

"Designers make connections to help others understand topics in a more simple and easy way" -Jimmy Moss

As a designer our job is to make connections, persuade people and understand issues so that we can help others understand as well. Our arguments must be supported by facts and our facts must be supported by research and credit given to those who have done the research. If our arguments are not supported by some substantial research and backed up by facts then they are merely just opinions formulated by ourselves and by the people around us. A strong idea or argument when supported by factual information can persuade people to agree with what you believe. In the world of media and advertising this is a constant battle. People are swarmed with advertisements and ideas on a daily basis and the people behind these campaigns intensions are to make you feel a certain way. A great example of this is politics. This year, being an election year it is a persuasion battle by different groups of people trying and make us the public feel a certain way. It's hard to really believe anything you hear in the media because a lot of it isn't backed up by cold hard facts especially in politics.

1/11/2012

Advertisements are created in order to get the consumer to purchase a certain product. Ads can vary in style, design layout, color, graphics and type all depending on what the product is and who its audience is. When looking at a specific ad there are certain areas that can be examined in order to better understand the ad and the message its trying to get across. These areas consist of context, audience, mood and concept. Ads also very from magazine to magazine. For example the ads the appear in a GQ magazine will be very different then the ads from a HOME magazine simply based on the type of people that read those magazines. When creating an ad for a specific product it must be placed somewhere where it's intended audience will easily come across it. Ads are placed subliminally and with intent to sell you something, sometimes without you even knowing it. The first thing that an ad must to do is grab your attention.

In class we brought in 3 ads and wrote a paragraph about each one. We then were able to look at other peoples ads and see what they thought was interesting about them. There were a few ads that were from the same campaign, one being Old Spice, and the other Honda. A company can sell its product by establishing a campaign and then a series of ads to go along with that campaign. This is something that is seen today and an effective way of marketing a product.