Graphically Undesigned

Intro to Graphic Design.
Beginning Drawing.
Photography.

Lines.
Colors.
Backgrounds.
Shapes.
Texture.

Aaaaaa!



Drawing: This is not an ear. This is a sweeping line. It is darker at this end, lighter at that end and it intersects with this shadow right here.

Photography: This is an ear. Get rid of everything else. It's clutter. Background schmackground.

Design: This is an ear. It's made up of lines and shapes and colors. It has a texture and mass. There are color values in it. All these color values mean things. It's a pinkish tan.. which means.. we haven't learned what this means yet. This ear is attached to a head which we can't see. We can see the hair, however. The hair is blonde and whispy. This implies the individual attached to the ear is carefree and light-hearted. Behind this hair that's attached to this person whose ear we're looking at is an ocean scene. This ocean scene is made up of a sandy texture on the bottom. This sandy texture is earthy tan. Earthy tan implies stability, naturalness, something organic, something wholesome. The sand is a darker value, which contrasts with the lighter foreground. This gives the background a slightly darker visual mass. The foreground is a lighter visual mass. What's the overall visual mass? The ocean is a light value of azure and above it is a light blue sky. The sky has a pattern of white puffy clouds. This gives the impression of trustworthiness, dependability, classic(ness?), loyalty, freedom, cleanliness, refinement, purity, an air of refreshment and truth. This whole picture of the ear, the hair, the ocean, the clouds, the sand and the little bottle of beer that's sticking out of the cooler is all printed on heavy weight paper. Thus, the advertisement has a heavy physical mass, but a relatively light visual mass.

See? Aaaaaa!


So yeah. I had my first introduction to Graphic Design yesterday. My head is still spinning, even though I've had two classes since then. Next week? Lines: an in-depth look. Thank God I only have this class once a week.





Power to the woman holding the pen!!

She da man.


(And notice she's cast in a red light, wearing red, her chair is red, her office is red. This ad is just screaming with red - power! vitality! energy! excitement! passion! confidence! Doesn't she make you want to take action and buy a Uni-Ball pen?

Yeah, me neither.)










This one makes you think though, doesn't it?









So first order of Graphic Design business: put together a folder of advertisements - brochures, fliers, magazine advertisements, newspaper ads, business cards, logos, letterheads, labels and packaging, book jackets, anything that advertises something.

We're going to spend a lot of our out-of-class assignments organizing these ads into categories according to their features.

These categories will be things such as: Lines, Shapes, Mass, Textures, and Colors

Here are just a few I'm going to use (of the ones I found online, most are hard print).

Awww, a soap box.








Shapes and g-r-e-e-n.......















B&W and scienc-y.......






















Tell me you're not cracking up at this one?
Well? Aren't you?
















I hate golf, but I like the colors and the lines in this.









This one simply because it had some easy shapes in it and I was having a hard time finding shapes. Maybe I'll find more and get rid of this one because I don't really like it. Although including not-so-good advertising is also part of the project.










And one of my favorites - doesn't it just scream to you the audience it's aimed at?