Blog 10 Senior Project: The Holiday

1. Over the break, I worked on updating my blog and thinking of answers to my EQ.

2. The most important thing I learned from what I did was coming up with one possible answer, white space. It was the most important because it gave me something to find research for. The source of what I learned was the Class of 2014 Best & Most Yearbook spread.

3. The person I would talk to for my new EQ would be Paul Ender if I could get in contact with him. He is a self-taught designer and a yearbook advisor. If I could not get in contact with him, I would talk to Mimi Orth, a Herff Jones Sales Representative that assists in the yearbook design process, or Ron Martinez, a self-taught graphic designer.

The New New EQ

So I updated my blog to show my new EQ. With it comes new answers and new research. Without doing any actual research though, I think I have one answer that I can find research for.
Designing a spread is hard work. Not everything looks good. For example, would you buy a yearbook when every page looks like this?

I wouldn't. I prefer when it looks good; something more along the lines of this.

The quotes from Seriah and Pinto are missing here, sorry about that mistake.

So, by implementing a bit of know-how and some design, you can make a mess look pretty good.

What is the answer we get from all this? White Space. Having some empty space helped this page out A LOT. That is one possible answer to my new EQ.

Upgrade!

An extra post just to get it on the board that I now own Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator CC for the very expensive price of free. I am now one step ahead of everyone in yearbook that only has CS6 and two steps ahead of our school that only has CS5.

EQ

1. I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2. State whether or not the following EQ's follow the rule of three and why.

a. Yes, it follows the rule of three. It is a question that requires research into the topic to find different ways of losing weight, It allows you to back up those answers with information, and the format is fine.

b. No, it does not follow the rule of three. The formatting of this question is wrong and it doesn't make obvious sense.

c.  Yes, it follows all of the criteria for the rule of three. The formatting is great, there are several different hairstyles and different types of people, so it is open ended, but finding research might be a little difficult. Not impossible, but not easy.

d. No, it does not follow the rule of three. This question is not open ended and it seems like there is only one answer to it.

3. What aspects of graphic design as a whole are most important in making an everlasting impact within am audience?

Vector Art vs Pixel Art

So, I found this article that basically told me the pros and cons of pixel art & vector art. In case you don't know the difference, pixel art is normally done in Photoshop and is what pictures use. You manipulate little pixels to your liking. Vector Art is better done in Illustrator. You use the pen tool to manipulate lines to the shape you want.
The biggest con when it comes to vector art is that adding in little details is strenuous work. My latest piece for my Independent Component 1 blog will show it soon when I update it. Making a flat image requires almost no effort, but when making realistic objects, prepare for a long journey of blood, sweat & tears.
The biggest pro for vector art is that no matter how zoomed in you are, there is no pixelation. Since vector art is just mathematical lines, you can make it as large or as small as you wish since no matter how zoomed out or in you are, you can always go further.
Pixel art is basically swapped in that its biggest pro is easy manipulation of realistic objects whereas its con is that if you zoom in too much, depending on the DPI of the photo or file, you will eventually hit pixelation. Here's an example of one of my designs in pixel and vector form.

PIXEL

VECTOR

The New EQ

So when I first came up with my EQ, I thought up of a really shallow question: "What part of a design is the most important in making an impact to the audience?" Not only is it very wordy, it's pretty shallow. After thinking over it a bit, I came up with a new working EQ: "What aspect of graphic design is most important in impacting the audience?"
With this new EQ, I have new answers which is what my presentation foundation is all about. Hopefully this new EQ will be my final one or will be close to it since I really like it.

Research and Working EQ

1. What aspect of graphic design is most important in impacting the audience?

2. Two possible answers to this working EQ are:

• Typography is the most important as readability is necessary or else a misunderstanding can come across and void your entire design.
• Visuals are the most important aspect of graphic design since they are what the eyes are drawn to. If the type is legible but there are no visuals or they are not pleasing, no one will even give your design more than a quick glance.

3. A book that I have not cited yet has helped me in understanding design a bit more. It is titled Design Elements, Typography Fundamentals: A Graphic Style Manual for Understand How Typography Affects Design. It has taught me how important Typography is which is why it is one of my possible answers for my EQ.

4. My first mentor is Mimi Orth and my second mentor is Ron Martinez. With Mimi, we are working with the yearbook to see what we could improve on our design, see what works, what doesn't and how every aspect of the spread just works in unison. With Ron, I have showed him some of my designs which he has critiqued and help me improve them.