design blog 4

for this design i wanted something that drew in the reader and grabbed their attention, i thought that both of these pictures did this on their own, and both of them are from new mexico also. i added the logo for the NMDOT but faded it so it would not stand out too much, but would be more a reminder of what the picture is promoting. i really liked the balloon fiesta picture becase it captures two distinctly new mexican things, the balloons and the rio grande, and i think the blue color would stand out well in a magazine against the white background of the other pages. as for the other picture, i wanted something that showed a bit of the history of the state, and again stuck with the faded NMDOT logo. i think both adds do a good job of creating interest and giving an example of the product.

Rebecca Cavalier's Group Design Blog #4

NMDOT is the New Mexico department of tourism, and is essential in attracting tourists to our state. In order to advertise what a wonderful place New Mexico is to visit, my group and I thought we should focus both NMDOT ads on the land of enchantment. There is no emphasis placed on the people of New Mexico, but rather the scenery and major attractions such as the balloon fiesta and the beautiful adobe style sites to see. Those are the major selling points and are used to appeal to the audience since people everywhere are looking to escape to an enjoyable and peaceful destination. The type of audience which is most likely to be interested in the serene beauty of New Mexico is in all probability going to be an older audience. These advertisements will run in magazines such as Readers Digest and Time. Such magazines generate an older audience which will appeal to the type of vacation they are looking for. Both NMDOT advertisements get right to the point and do not waist any time giving explanations, the images tell the reader everything they need to know, the beauty speaks for itself and that is what will appeal most to readers.
Group Member #1

Apollo Davenport's Group Design Blog #4

Group Member #1

These ads would best work in "Albuquerque the Magazine" because the tone that is set by these ads would best fit the mood of the magazine. This particular magazine sets a contemporary mood and these ads fit into this sort of genre because the background does not have a whole lot of action because of the direct absence of people and the busy city life scenery. These calm images are a point of pride to the residents of New Mexico because they value the hot-air balloons as well as the rich Pueblo history in New Mexico. These images work together to show the recognizable trait of New Mexico for tourists and the culture of the residents of New Mexico. The point of these ads would be to appeal to the tourists of the state of New Mexico by the New Mexico Department of Tourism. These images would be appealing to the tourists and also the residents. The residents are indirectly an attraction for the tourists and should they ever be asked about tourism, they would have an idea on what to say to the tourists, although this is only a minor accomplishment from the ads. These images make New Mexico look like a place of paradise as well as keeping the appeal to the tourists who enjoy the history aspect.

travis' post for design project #3

the context of use for this flyer is a paper that can be passed out, and left at places where there is high traffic flow. i think this is the case due to the fact that there are coupons at the bottom of the flyer, so it is something that people would have to pick up and bring to the restaurant, as opposed to a poster or flyer that would be tacked to a community board. this flyer reminds me of some of the stuff that gets passed out around unm, and i think that is a good context of distribution for it. we changed the color from white to red to get more attention, in the hopes that people will pay more attention to it, but we also liked the original design layout so we kept a lot of it as well.

Rebecca Cavalier's Group Design #4

In the flyer for the restaurant ABC Chinese my group and I used many textural elements such as alignment and repetition in order to make our flyer more appealing to readers. Our design was able to achieve such principles largely do to the placement of our text, my group and I chose to center all of the text in our flyer so that navigating through the restaurants information would be simple and quick. If the flyer had consisted of too much information it is almost certain that very few passersby would be interested in reading what ABC Chinese has to offer. The two main items of interest in this advertisement are the title of the restaurant and the fact that no item on the menu is over five dollars. As a group we chose to focus on the affordability and made the five larger then any of the other text and outlined the number in a bright yellow which adds contrast against the red. Do to our use of centered alignment and mentioning the key points only once the reader will not feel that he or she is being bombarded with information and will be persuaded to try ABC Chinese.
Group Member #4

Apollo Davenport's Group Design #3

To redesign this logo, we basically just changed some colors around because the previous one was too simple according to our group's standards. We continued to emphasise all the the things that looked appealing. We did nothing to change around the items but we just wanted to change the logos colors around to make it a little more appealing and have it look exciting in a sense. The tone were attempting to create was to add "personality" to the restaurant rather than it simplness before the changes.

Flyer Redesign

Apollo Davenport's Group Design #2

In terms of design elements, we knew that these flyers were going to need a theme that was sensitive to the Albuquerque area. We used the logo worked around from that logo. We continued to emphasize the turquoise color in both flyers. The colors chosen were easy to the eyes but yet keep the appealing look to attract some new people to the restaurant. We chose a font from the program that best matched the logos font as well as giving a font that resembles an old-fashioned look. The two flyers are meant to appeal to two different groups of people and the font size is bigger for the tourist group as well as more information concerning the location. The luminarias on the bottom were meant to appeal to the tourists who would most likely associate the luminarias with the New Mexico area. The purpose to the colors, fonts, and images were to attract the customer and keep the elements closely related so that the customer would associate all they saw and create a more “authentic” message. The images that were created were made to look easy going and welcoming while keeping the “authentic southwest” look. The proximity of these images uses a font that closely relates to the original logo and the turquoise color is balanced to relate to the logo. The luminarias also keep proximity by relating the other elements found in the Albuquerque area and provide a stronger message by providing a chance for association.

Rebecca Cavalier's Group Design #2

Textural elements such as alignment and repetition were major components of our group flyer for La Vida Loca restaurant and cantina. Our design for the company’s flyer was clean and simple, there were not many distractions for the readers and my group and I were able to focus the main point of the flyer on the company itself. The name of the restaurant was centered in the middle of the page which is where the eye is immediately drawn to. Information about the restaurant is also centered with sufficient space between each line which keeps the flyer from looking like there is too much going on. The flyer did not need to state the same information over and over so we kept things simple and straight to the point, making it easy for the reader to gather the necessary information. The text used in the flyer is fun and seems to flow together which makes the restaurant appear to be a cool causal place to eat. To make the flyer more successful, the restaurant’s main attraction was placed in all capital letters; the live salsa on Saturday’s immediately stands out and will not be overlooked. These choices were made by testing other ways in which the flyer could be set up. We attempted putting the address in other areas on the page and playing around with the page setup, however of all the choice the end result was the most pleasing to the eye.
Group Member #4

La Vida Loca Flyers

Flyer for Locals

Flyer for Tourists:

Group Design Blog #1

While creating a logo for Dough, the New York style pizza company, it became clear that the main focus of this particular company was the great tasting pizza that has a New York City take on it. Dough is proud of their New York roots and wants to include their Big Apple theme in their restaurant. In order to ensure that customers will immediately understand the logo my group members and I decided to make the city of New York the main focus on the logo and include recognizable buildings such as the empire stat building which is synonymous with New York. To make the New York city style pizza the main focus only two colors were used, black, white and gray. This takes away any distractions which may have occurred had a variety of background colors been used. The company Dough is posted in large bold letters and immediately catches the viewer’s eye. The main focus of the logo is the company itself and the city of New York and that is all my group and I chose to show, this keeps the logo looking simple and uncluttered.
Group member #4

travis's post for the design blog #1

The goal of this logo is to give people an idea of what the pizzA place represents. since it is new york style pizza we have the new york skyline as part of the logo. it would be used as a street sign, drawing people in as they pass by, and making it easy to locate for people who are planning to come in. the audience for it is really anyone who is looking for a place to eat. we could have gone with bright colors and symbols to really get peoples attention, but this isn't the feeling the restaurant wants to give off, its new york pizza, not Jamaican pizza, so we keep the colors clean using black, white and gray. this logo could also be used for business cards, flyers, pizza boxes, to go bags, napkins, and anything else the business gives out or puts their products in. the goal of the logo is to create a instant connection with the look of the logo and the taste of the pizza.

Apollo Davenport Group Design #1

My group took the information on the paper given to us and decided upon a theme centered around New York City. It was decided that we would use a skyline image of the city as well as the name "Dough" as well as a reference to what type of product and service we provide on the bottom. We wanted to use darker colors to create a more serious and classical tone for our product's logo. This logo was created with Gimp and the tools provided on the program is what we worked with and developed the fonts from the program. The name "Dough" was the item that has the most emphasis because it is the largest item in the image. The "New York Style Pizza" is second to largest and it states what we provide and serve. The background picture of the New York city skyline was used to help the viewer realize that the product is more legitimate and recongizable. TA detail in the the skyline is the twin towers that can give a a patriotic feeling and would help the viwers to recognize that the skyline image is New York city. he color was emphasised to give our customers a more classical feeling and appeal.

Brennan Divett Dough Logo Response

The Dough logo that we created portrays ethos by the New York skyline in the background, it gives the feeling that you are there in New York City. The description or slogan for our company is "New York Style Pizza" and that is portrayed by the skyline. In a sense the ethos is that our pizza is authentic New York pizza. The tone of the logo is a serious black and white classic tone. The dark tone also in a way portrays the New York City classy night life, giving the impression that our pizza is classy.

travis' post #6

this image is a little more detailed than those we saw in "picture this", its not composed of such simple shapes as circles, triangles and lines only. but the body and head are circles, which are described as soft or non threatening maybe, the only harsh part of the turtle is the tail, a long straight, point triangle. as for colors, the blue background is a calm color, as is the green of the turtle and the yellow rays. the fact that the turtle is large, and in the center of the picture makes it the focal point. the yellow lines are representing rays of sunlight in the water. these rays create the feeling of tropical water, warm water, not deep and dark and scary. we could have added more to the picture by maybe creating fish or plants in the background, using simple shapes to not take away from the focal point too much. the size of the turtle also helps draw attention to it, it doesn't take up the whole page but it is definitely large. had it been a very small turtle, it would have lost its importance and wouldn't have gotten its point across as well.

group member 4 picture 2

Becky Cavalier #6

In the image of the turtle swimming in the ocean, size, color and shape are all major factors of what draws the eye to the central image on this page. The picture of this turtle was taken close up and somewhat off center so that the turtle would be the main focus, while still bringing attention to the bright blue ocean which he is swimming in. Since the turtle is swimming alone the viewers eye is immediately draw to the turtle, there are no distractions from other images on this page which make the turtle the main focus. The color of the clear blue water compliments the colors of the turtles shell and really makes him stand out. The red and the white colors which make up the turtles shell immediately draw the eye to where the turtle is swimming. Even if he was not as large as he appears in this image, he would still capture the eye since his colors stand out. The turtle’s oval body shape and arms which stick out in every direction cause him to take up most of the page. His extended body makes him appear graceful as though he is swimming carelessly. All the visual aspects of how pictures work are working well in this image.

Group member #4 (picture #2)

Apollo Davenport's Blog #6

The picture we created from a picture we found on the internet was an enhanced photo of a sea turtle swimming around in the water. The sea turtle was shown in a way that its arms were spread out. In creating the picture, we took a blue piece of paper to simulate the water. Then logically were used green for the turtle by cutting out pieces that resembled the portions of the body versus drawing the entire figure and cutting it out. Then we cut out a black circle for the eyes as well as a black line for the mouth. Our image created resembled the turtle pretty well and the other group that examined our image thought it was “cool” and they were able to determine that it was a sea turtle. To further communicate the image I would say we need to add more detail to the turtle to show its color differences of the skin and shell. I would also put some detail lines in the water to make it clear that we were trying to display water.

(Group Member #3)

Brennan Divett's Blog 6 Response

The subject of our picture is the purple circle that was supposed to portray a person in an abstract manner. The mood that we tried to portray was sadness. The gray cloud shape was supposed to be just that, a cloud. The little white teardrop shapes are raindrops, and the zig-zag yellow shape, a lightning bolt. A dark cloud raining on someone is almost a universal symbol of sadness. In movies sad scenes tend to be rainy as well. Our goal in creating the rainy image was to portray an unmistakable symbol of sadness, that would be easily recognizable. The other group did not catch on to the concept so easily. Loneliness was an initial guess, and then later depression. Both guesses are close, but not the mood we initial tried to imply. Something I would change to get a better response might be make the circle smaller so it looks more overwhelmed by the storm. All things considered depression is very close to sadness, so our response from the other group was not too far off.

Becky Cavalier's response to movie poster analysis

Travis’ response to the India Jones movie poster gave detailed explanations regarding the films use of color and typography. I agree with his view of how the poster was designed to convey the movies title The Temple of Doom while at the same time giving a heroic appeal the films main character. I also noticed that this Indiana Jones poster is telling its viewers that this is going to be an action film with lost of fighting by having Indiana Jones holding a huge sword, as though he just finished or perhaps is going into a big fight.

travis' movie poster response

The Indiana Jones movie poster is designed to convey the major themes of the movie. The first way it does this is by putting the main character in the middle of the poster, and also making it feel as if we are looking up at him, putting him into a heroic stance. The fact that he is framed by stone pillars and vines convey the “feel” of the movie setting, which ties in well with the title, the temple of doom. The “boarder of stone and vines, is very dark in comparison to the rest of the poster and frames our main character who is standing in the brightest part of the poster, and it looks as if the light is shining from behind him, reinforcing the hero ideal. The typography reminds me of a 1920’s news reel, with a picture of the world and the words flying by, this is because of the way the letters taper as they go on, making it seem line they are coming towards you. The color also conveys the sense of adventure, because it is bright, and grabs out attention. The way the main character is standing and how he is holding a whip and machete also ads to the heroic picture the poster creators are trying to convey, as does his stoic look and the fact that he is gazing into the distance instead of looking down, or away or directly at you

Becky Cavalier's movie poster analysis

In the movie poster Muppets from Space color and typography are as important as the main characters when it comes to catching the viewer’s attention. Color is used perfectly to convey the image of outer space. Dark blue as well as black are used for the backdrop which also give the idea of going into the unknown. Light is used to draw the viewer’s attention into the center of the poster, which is where the action is happening. The beaming light coming from the UFO brings attention to all of the characters in the center of the Muppet movie poster. The typography gives the idea that this is going to be an action adventure movie. The font is big and bold in bright orange and yellow which bring attention to the title. Though Muppet movies are funny and silly the typography and color give off action movie appeal which is made comedic by the characters attempting to save their friend from the UFO.

Becky Cavalier

Brennan's Movie Poster

Brennan Divett's Response to a Magazine Article

The article I chose comes from a popular music magazine called Alternative Press. The audience is mainly ages 16-30, music enthusiasts, and predominantly males. A large portion of the target audience are people who play in bands themselves. The magazine is about popular music, but the underground popular music, or music that is not necessarily playing on the radio yet it has a huge following amongst show goers and those who keep in touch with Myspace, Purevolume, and the rest of the online music community. A lot of the intent of the articles is to relate to the younger generation of the music listeners, and those who are too hip to listen to the corporate music on the radio. The very name “Alternative Press” sends the message that it is an alternative to the corporate music scene, and one that creates much interest in struggling musicians who they themselves are trying to reach success in the independent music industry.

The use of images in the article really portrays the ups and downs on the rock and roll lifestyle. The article talks about the problems that nearly broke up the bands Bring Me the Horizon. The weather portrayed in the background is cloudy and the lead singer of the band Bring Me the Horizon has his fingers to his head in the shape of a gun. The gloomy message is one that kids can relate to if they have suffered from depression.

travis' movie poster

Brennan Divett Font Response

I chose to analyze font number three. Now first off the font looks like a serious font but serious mixed with fun. I could picture font number three as being a fluorescent sign for a classy night club or concert venue. Also just the way the font looks reminds me of fluorescent lights.

Other possible places where you might find use of this font could be a restaurant and maybe on a menu, on a poster or flyer, or perhaps a title of book.

I personally would use this font on band flyers for concerts. I could also see it looking good on a website, as long as it wasn’t a website too formal like an academic website or a website for a major company. It would look great on say a band website, a website for a restaurant or coffee house or any other sort of semi formal website.

The font stood out to me because it is a cool, classy looking font, but not too informal. On the other hand it is formal enough but it is not boring or plain. I chose this font because I feel it meets somewhere in between crazy and boring.

I believe that metaphor and metonymy have everything to do with how we look at a font. For example, fonts are used to generate logos for companies or organizations. From that point forward we have this connection to the company through the name and logo.

Spoof Ad

Please follow the link to the spoof ad blog for this week and read all the comments.
http://spoofad.blogspot.com

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Becky Cavalier

Each one of these ads has its own visual rhetoric and an image which it is trying to convey to its audience. In the Dolce and Gabbana ad for example, everyone is dressed as though they are extremely wealthy; and of course they are since they can afford such a lavished vacation. Dolce and Gabbana want customers to see this ad and immediately go out and get the clothes from this ad so that they too can be living a life of luxury, wealth and beauty. Dolce and Gabbana is also giving off the idea that wearing these clothes will keep you looking youthful and in “vogue” since people of different ages are featured together.
The next ad which is selling a drum set catches the readers’ attention by lighting two drumsticks on fire. Immediately the eye is drawn to the flames which will work to the drummers advantage because it is giving the idea that the first place the audience will look is at the drummer when the band in performing on stage. There is no emphasis what so ever placed on any of the other members of the band. This says that the drummer is the center of the band and therefore must look the best.

Advertisement Analysis

Please read comment section below for more analysis.

Clothes Ad.
Logos-buy these clothes because there cool.
Ethos- looking good and staying young.
Pathos- luxurious.

Drumset Ad
Logos- you need good drums to sound good.
Ethos- fire is cool.
Pathos- feel good because you play.