Melody Baker - College Q&A

We had a senior from last year, Melody Baker, come back to our web class for a visit. While she was here, we got to hear what her college experience has been like so far, and get to ask questions we were instructed to create before we started. Here are the 5 questions that were the most helpful to me

1. How much did was your total cost before scholarships?
 -Tuition - $8500
 -Room & Board: $5000
 -Books & Other: $2500
 -Total: $16000

2. Are your professors willing to provide help outside of class?
 Most of them are, but if they aren't, then there is a study hall on campus in the library where you can get help from other students/tutors.

3. How many classes would you need to take per week for a 4-year degree?
 15 credit hours/5 classes per week.

4. What have the dorms been like?
 The dorm rooms are split into girls/boys, and both are on 1 floor. The RA (Room Advisor) organize events for special holidays, or to help out with mid-term papers/tests.

5. Any general advice for college?
 Study a lot, do your homework on time, plan your weeks out, and don't drink on Sundays.

Lapis Lazuli co.

Lapis Lazuli co.

Introduction-

Lapis Lazuli is a company based off of 4 random things i pulled out of a hat, the 4 "things" I got were Elephant. Lapis Lazuli, 72, and the letters X and O. I used these various things, and based the name, design, and function of a fictional business. The business I decided on would be names "Lapis Lazuli est. 1972", or just "Lapis Lazuli", LL is a fashion and beauty retail chain, their slogan is simply "XOXO".

Logo process-

The actual design for the logo went through many phases, as you can see below, I first started with the idea of having the elephant head facing forward, with either teardrops, or an X and an O for eyes, and the trunk in the shape of an L

Right off of the bat, I didn't like the drops, so I stopped using them, and 2 eyes seemed like too much, so I instead decided to move the X into the O, I also wanted to see what the trunk would look like if it were straight, since the L-shape looks creepy and unnatural

I tried out some alternate colors

After taking a good look at these, I turned to other elephant based logos for direction, and I ended up finding that all of them has the elephant head turned sideways, this is when I made a big decision, and that decision is what brought me into the final stage of designing, and my last draft was my official logo, and for the font to go with it, I chose Lao Sangam MN

Commercial Use-

After I decided on my final logo and font, I went to make commercial uses for it, things like signs, business cards, billboards, a mobile app, envelopes, and even stationery. Each one of those uses the same elephant symbol, but they use different parts of the text logo

Conclusion-

After weeks of work, revisions, and sampling, and more revisions, I learned that it takes more than just a few designs to complete a logo, I had to do more than just look at it myself, I had to get the critique of my peers. And to go even further, I had to turn to the internet to look at other ideas, only to realize that I need to start from scratch, just so i could turn the head of an elephant sideways. All in all, I learned valuable lessons from this design project, and I'm happy with the final product of my efforts.

Steal like a artist

"Steal Like an Artist" 

  Summary-

This first chapter of "Steal Like an Artist" gave a brief explanation on the phrase "steal like an artist," it explains that there is no such thing as an original idea, every creative thought is built upon even the smallest base. It tells you to embrace stealing, to use it to your advantage, and gives many tips on stealing from art, only without directly stealing.

  Reflection-

In my opinion, yes, this book tells the truth, it is right that no idea is original, and that creativity truly comes from works that others have created. This chapter talks about following a "family tree," or a history of interests by artists to draw where their creativity, and repeating that process as far back as you can. Although I agree with the message of "Nothing is original," I really do not agree with some of the other statements this book makes. I do not agree with the suggestion that you should google before asking, because a lot of questions are too specific for google, and you should really ask the people you know before asking google. I also don't agree with the statement that you should be looking for ideas to "steal" from, I really don't like this because while it is good to draw creativity from other works, it is unhealthy to instead attempt to base everything directly off of another person's work.

  Conclusion-

This chapter has a good meaning, nothing is truly original. But, later parts of the chapter are pretty pretentious, and honestly bad advice. You should stress the human resources, rather than dismiss them, and instead see google as a more valuable source of information. Overall, you should probably just read the first few pages, and just skip the rest.

Project Proposal

The mineral, number, animal, and letters I received were:

Lapis Lazuli
Elephant
O, X
72

I used these 4 things to brainstorm 5 different businesses, and what they would function as. In the end, the business I went with was; Lapis Lazuli XOXO est.1972.

LLXOXO's logo is a small, detailed elephant, and their main products are focused around beauty. They sell their own lines of clothes, for men and women, and beauty products, all for a low price! LLXOXO's most popular product line is called 'Pinq', and is targeted towards women, this line includes perfumes, makeup accessories, shirts, dresses, sweatpants, and other similar items. LLXOXO's main customers are teenagers, and young adults, they are very popular, and keep up with current trends within those subcultures.

Senior and Junior class list!

My web design class:

Please check out my new website! It's my first senior project! I made a site compiling facts on all of the juniors and seniors in web design! Link below:

http://eravensonline.net/students/942mrp24/projects/Junior%20project/Junior.html

Glyphs panel - Photoshop CC

Intro-

  I looked on Lynda.com for a simple new feature from Photoshop C6 to Photoshop CC, and what I found was described as "long-awaited," and "added at last." This new feature is called the "Glyphs Panel," this window can be found under the "Window" tab, but it can also be found under "Type>Panels>Glyphs Panel," as seen below.

Uses-

  The image I am using Is just a picture I took of a blank table, the words on the left and right are "ありがとう！," and "Thanks!", "ありがとう" means "thanks" in Japanese! (There is  a difference difference between the word "thanks," and the phrase "thank you" in Japanese) 

  What the Glyphs Panel is, is a panel that allows you to see the entire set of symbols within a font. The reason I chose Japanese was to show the difference between the few english characters there are, and the many Japanese characters that are in it's language system (That's over 5000 characters!), It also goes to show how much is access-able within a font, so if you can't make it on your keyboard, you can just look through the Glyphs Panel to get any symbol that's in the font without copy-pasting symbols that aren't access-able on the keyboard.

EOY Reflection

My E-comm junior year experience

This yea was hectic in and outside of school. This year in web, what I learned wasn't a handful of new concepts (except for PHP), but rather, ways to build upon the main concepts of web, and make my websites look more appealing to the eye, and the way I learned it was through the help of Mr. Olson, but also a good deal of self-directive teaching. This is pivotal because before this I haven't been very self-driven, and that definitely showed at the beginning of the year, though I was strong at the concepts that I learned, and that's why this class has been very important to my life and personality, the way I learn as a whole.

 This year, I definitely wish I actually tried first quarter, and there are some other instances in the year that I wish I was a little more focused, but it is because of these mistakes that I learn to make my senior year in E-comm a much better experience, to try my hardest and use my mistakes as stepping stones! In conclusion, Junior year was about what I put in, and how I got it out, about self-directive, but also not being afraid to ask others for help, this year was great, and I just hoe next year will be even better.