4th Quarter Reflection

The Product, Presentation, & Team

For our 4th quarter project, we were to implement the skills we acquired from the quarterly rotations (graphic design, animation, and video). We were put into groups based off our personality types. My group was Jenna, Hattie, and Nicole, all of which had different personality types. We decided on the name "E-Team" because we were in e-Comm. Then, we designed the "Cupbrella", a unique cup holder umbrella. We made graphics, logos, animations, and videos off of this idea, and it took until pretty much the last final days that we before presenting to finish it. Some of the challenges we faced were when people were absent and might have been currently working on a certain part of the project. We just had to fill in their spot and continue the project from there. I learned communication skills and project management skills along the way. I also got good presentation skills! I was nervous before the final presentation but ended up doing better than I thought I would. Finally, I got some technical skills in from all the rotations. I was given some feedback on our graphics, so we tweaked them a little bit until they looked just right, such as the color and size of certain fonts or graphics. I also was given information on the audio in my video and fixed that as well by boosting it. Finally, people gave us feedback on our presentation, and we changed the script up a bit to fit their comments.  I really liked our work in 4th quarter because it allowed us to see how much we really learned from e-Comm and what we could apply to team skills and project management. 

The Website

Our task was to create a website that showcased all of the work we made in video, animation, and graphic design. It took about a week to make, but maybe another three weeks to actually put all the extra things in the website (like the commercial). Some challenges we faced were when the commercial wasn't showing up on the home page. I learned more about the code view and overall web design concept this way. Some feedback given was to just change the size of fonts and layouts on our website, but we fixed this by making the fonts the same size and making the website more organized. I really like our website because its organized and easy to use!

Graphics & Video

In graphic design, we were to make a logo of our team and product, as well as an ad and coupon. It didn't take a long time to make this because of their simplicity and how fast we decided on them. Some challenges we faced were getting them turned in on time. I learned more about the elements of graphic design this way and some feedback given on our colors and overall size of the graphics helped us to change them (the size) to fit the proportions of the logo. I thought our graphics were very strong and good. 

Our video was carefully planned out and we wrote the script for the voiceover to detail about the product. It took a day to film, but maybe a little less than a week to edit. Some challenges I faced were the audio quality and color grading of the video. I learned more about Adobe Premiere this way!  Some feedback I was given was to make the audio better, so I boosted the sound. I think our video is good, but could be a little bit better. 

Animations

For this project, we were to create a 2d animation in Photoshop and a 3D one in SketchUp. It took about the entire two weeks we had to plan them out and make them. Some challenges I faced at the beginning were putting the graphics onto the Cupbrella building in Sketchup. I learned more about 3D animation and design this way though. I wasn't given much feedback, but I did add raindrops later on to fit the scene. I really like our 2d and 3d animation because they explain what the product is.

Time Management

I used all of my time in class to work on whatever the group needed help with or what was responsible for doing. Even if we were thought to be done, I went into some graphics or animations to tweak some things in order to make it look better. I also watched my commercial over and over to make sure it was good. Outside of class, I have worked on short films. I have currently made about five shorts and look forward to continuing them this summer!

Strengths

I think I have strengths in the video category, or at least I hope I do. I also feel like I manage my time well in class so I can get things done on time. I maximized my strengths by working outside of class to create short films and other little projects to implement my skills acquired in e-Comm. I also help others if they need help in class.

Areas of Improvement

A definite area of improvement would be team skills and working with other people. By doing this 4th quarter project, I feel like I have boosted myself in this area and it has really helped me to learn how to work with others. Another area would be animation. To fix this, I volunteered to create the 3D animation, which turned out better than I thought.

Summary

I loved the video rotation most this semester because it was fun seeing what our product would be like in real life and how we could get people to buy it. I would change our 3D animation by making it more colorful and adding more objects to it, as well as change the commercial. I would stay away from the infomercial type of commercial and go towards comedy or something in that nature. One thing I learned, as I said, is good communication skills and presentation skills. Working in groups really pushed this concept. One goal I'd like to set for EVERY year is to win the eMagine festival in the video category. Definitely. Number one goal. This year in e-Comm has really been helpful to boost my technical skills in all areas and teach me more presentation and communication skills.

Final Graphic Design Blog

Product Logo

Our product logo of the Cupbrella is a combination mark of a logo and topography. We combined the graphic plus black and white colors that represented our company and product. I like the logo because it symbolizes comfort and stability while displaying our product and its name.

Company Logo

For this logo, we used blue as well as repetition for our company and product. I really like this logo because it showcases our company and also is easy to read and figure out. Since our name is the E-Team, we colored in the "e" in "team" to show this. The simplicity of it makes it a great logo.

Cupbrella Coupon

Our coupon was also quite simple and easy to look at. We decided on 10% off so that we could still make a profit but also have people want to buy our product. The colors yellow and blue are prominent throughout our graphics, so they are shown here as well.

Cupbrella Ad

I know I keep saying the word "simplicity", but in our ad, it was really stressed. We decided to put not only our graphic and company logo, but also our slogan. This way, the viewer knows that the Cupbrella is about "cover up, drink up" while also seeing what it is by the graphic displayed. Plus, they will find the manufacturer's name as well. 

Website Banner

This is definitely my favorite, if not second favorite. The colors yellow and blue are still prominent, and our slogan is shown as well. We decided to put the product logo on there because it had more of a rectangular shape to fit a website banner's proportions. The E-Team logo at the bottom was purposely made small to put more emphasis on the slogan and graphic. 

E-Team

Overall, I really think that we worked well together to create all the graphics, animations, and videos. Our website functioned properly and I think our presentation went well. Better than I thought it would! We were on a time crunch, so in the five minute span that we presented, we held the audience's attention. I think our work overall was good and we worked well as a team.

Animation Rotation

My Contribution

For our team (E-Team), I made the SketchUp animation of our product, the Cupbrella. Regarding graphic design, I made the web banner and company logo. The SketchUp design worked well, although I had a little trouble importing the graphics in the beginning. I put the Cupbrella logo on the doorframe, and the E-Team graphic on the building. I tried to make the other buildings more of a neutral color so that the E-Team logo would stand out. When I made the Cupbrella product in SketchUp, I made the umbrella and cup separately and then combined them into one item. One thing that I could have done better is put more rain drops (as that is the setting) and could have added more buildings, bushes, or street lights. Overall though, I think the design worked well.

The E-Team

I think this rotation in animation went good for the most part. I feel like some people in the group didn't necessarily work the whole time. The way we divided jobs up was good, as we had Hattie and Nicole working on the Photoshop animation, and Jenna and I on the SketchUp animation. Hattie and I helped with the content of the website and Nicole worked on the website. Overall, we worked well together, but there are a few things that we could improve, like time management and staying on task. Staying on task is a big one because some group members don't stay focused the whole time on the project.

Here is my SketchUp animation!

Mini Presentation Blog

The Process

Our product is called "Cupbrella". This item holds your drink while you are walking in the rain so you don't have two full hands. The cup holder attachment on the side is very useful for things like a morning coffee. For our first assignment, we were to come up with a product logo. I sketched several different combination marks for our item. Then we implemented the final sketch into Illustrator.

The Details

We wanted to target a younger audience for this product, so our target group was 18-33 years old. The reason behind this is that younger people are always walking around for work or school, so a Cupbrella could definitely be useful to them. Our slogan was "cover up, drink up". This meant that you can cover up under an umbrella while holding your drink at the same time. Finally, the product logo was made simplistic with a square around an umbrella (like an app icon) and the word mark "Cupbrella" next to it. The color blue was put into it because it serves as a calming factor for the viewer.

5 Guarantees & Presentation

First, we showed technical skills through Illustrator and designing the logo on a computer. Second, we communicated during the sketching process and the final design. Third, certain people took leadership roles to make sure everyone was on task and on time. We collaborated on the final design and the overall idea of the product. And, with project management, we made sure to turn in the product on time. During the presentation, our group dressed appropriately and made eye contact with the audience. We also spoke clearly so that everyone could hear. No one was slouching or anything. Overall, I think we did a nice job with the product and presentation. 

CSS and CARP Design

The Intro

For this project, we were to create a web design using the principles of CARP. The goal was to show the change between the starting HTML file with no color or organization and transform it into a colorful and organized page. In order to do this, we customized the settings to each element of the page (body, header, author line, etc.). So, each individual selector was changed to match the rules of CARP!

C: Contrast

To start out, the contrast of the original page was bland. There was no contrast at all. The color of the fonts in the whole page was the same! Plus, the font family was all the same. The fact that the color and font of the whole page was the same made it boring to look at. So, we used CSS Designer to change to color (using the eyedropper on the tan of the dog). We also changed the font size to vary with each other and made the title more bold. The contrast between colors and fonts was definitely better than to begin with.

A: Alignment

The original page had disorganized alignment. Most of the body was right-aligned, but one line was left-aligned. Plus, the dog was right-aligned as well, making the whole design seem disorganized. To improve this, we changed the alignment of the title to center, and kept the body paragraph left-aligned. Then, we moved the dog so it was right-aligned. At the end, the poem was more organized and each element looked good with the unique alignment designed in CSS Designer. 

R: Repetition

At the beginning, the whole page had the same settings, so I guess you could call it repetition. But it was pretty bland overall. Using CSS Designer, we made the first four lines italic to emphasize that the dog was barking. In fact, the word "barking" was used several times, but the first four lines being italic made it more of an emphasis instead of being all the same font. 

P: Proximity

The beginning page was really close together and had no room to breathe. The text was all close together and the dog was aligned with the rest of it. In fact, all the elements of the page were grouped together. To fix this, we moved the dog to the right and the text to the left to create more space between objects. This proved easier to read and all the elements weren't clumped together anymore. Plus, the title was center-aligned so that all of the text wasn't close together.

What I Learned 

I learned how to change the elements in the selectors with CSS Designer. This included font family, line weight, font size, etc. Some things that I remembered from the last project was linking each page with one another. That way, the viewer could flip back and forth between the old and new page. Finally, I learned about CARP, the design principle used in web design. As explained above, CARP can transform an otherwise normal project into an interesting project.

Personal Logo Design

3 Personal Logos

For this project, we were to sketch three personal logos. First, I made a logo that contained a video camera and "CF Films" was coming out of the lens. Yet, later I decided the design was too much and not simplistic enough. Then, I made a REALLY simple logo with "CF" in a circle and "Films" on the outside. I didn't necessarily like it though because it didn't have really anything to do with filming. Finally, I came up with the idea of a square-ish design featuring "CF Films" inside an action board. It was pretty simplistic, and only had two colors. I decided to use that one!

Putting it in Illustrator

At first, it seemed like a pretty hard task to get alternating lines with certain shapes. I used the shaper tool and line segment tool to make the alternating black and white strips on the top. Then, I filled in the base with the paint bucket tool and put the text, "CF" inside of it. Although I wanted it to say "CF Films" because I like filmmaking, I decided to shorten it and use the "F" in "CF" to start the word "Films". For this design, however, I only used two colors to make it simplistic and used white font on top of black to make the name stand out. When I originally sketched it, I used black for the "CF Films" font. But I knew I'd use white when I created it in Illustrator.

My Opinion

I really like the final design. I'm glad that I didn't use the other two designs I had sketched, because they were either too simplistic or too complex. One thing that is really good about the design is the action board in the background. It's a square object, and square logos are good for social media and other platforms. Plus, the action board tells all about my "company". It shows the viewer that my company is specifically focused on filmmaking. Plus, the word "films" is incorporated into the "CF" so it also shows the topic there. Overall, I'm pleased with the final product. If I had to change on thing, I'd try to straighten out some lines and such. But for the most part, the design worked!

My House Design

The Sketch Process

For this assignment, we were supposed to sketch a tree, bird, house, or flower twenty different ways. You really had to think outside the box on this one! Regarding my first house, I drew a simplistic cartoon house. After that, I drew a two-story home. The third, I made a tent because some people love the outdoors and practically live in tents. Then, I drew an apartment building and a hut. The hut ended up being my favorite (or most unique) so I decided to put that into Illustrator. I also drew a castle, cottage, log house, and RV. A ton of people live life on the road in their RV! Then I drew a one-story motel (because I stayed in one for a soccer tournament one time). Next came the teepee, cave, and of course, the bird house. My sister made a bird house a while ago, so I thought I'd try and draw that. I made a church, firehouse, one-room cottage, and igloo. Who would have ever thought of an igloo? Finally, I sketched a lighthouse, doghouse, and cathouse. I actually never thought in the first place that I would somehow magically come up with twenty houses to draw. It was quite a challenge!

Adobe Illustrator Design

As I said earlier, I chose the hut to re-create in Adobe Illustrator. At first, I chose to have no sky or round but just simply made the hut using the shaper tool. The door was probably one of the hardest challenges. Then, I actually decided to have a sky and ground to make it look more realistic and so I chose the "send to back" feature for the layers. For a while, I played around with sky colors to really capture the scene. I thought that the sky looked to plain and dull. So, to fix this, I added the sun and clouds, which didn't end up being overly difficult. Finally, I realized that the ground was a bunch of empty space, so I added steps leading up to the hut where the visitors are greeted with a welcome sign. I was finished! Regarding my colors used, I tried to make it more dull and old-looking, almost as if tribes had been living in it for hundreds of years. Also, the sky I decided wasn't going to be too bright in order to capture the old look as well. Yet, I still wanted visitors (or viewers) to feel welcome, so I added a welcome mat and sun to show that. 

My Opinion?

I thought that my sketches turned out to be quite alright! Definitely better than I thought I could ever do. Plus, I considered it a challenge to think of twenty different houses to make. Of course, I liked certain sketches over others, such as the hut, tent, igloo, and castle. Probably because they were unique. Anyway, when it came to Illustrator, I sort of wished I could have made a better roof for the hut. Originally, I was going to try to make it straw-looking, but I didn't necessarily know how to add textures. It still resulted in a good design though! I can for sure say that I've learned much more about Adobe Illustrator and what you can do with it, so I will always try to keep improving my designs.