All Good Things Must Come to an End (Final)

This one's gonna be a long one, so settle in.

Responses to my classmates' blog posts:

Alexa McBride: IW 8: Reflecting on the semester

Design

Alexa's post is simple in its design, and I do not think that is a bad thing. It is plain, black text in a clean font on a white background. It is very easy to read. She uses classic webpage format with her paragraphs - a space between each one and no indents, much like this paragraph you are reading. She has a list in her post, which is clearly defined by a wider margin and numbers. Her title font is slightly more decorative, but still easy to read and not too large. I do like the simple design. It portrays sophistication and professionalism - which boosts ethos. 

Alexa's links are a light blue color. They are easy to differentiate from the rest of the text, although they might be easier to read if they were a darker color. After the links have been clicked on, they become a dark grey color and blend into the rest of the text. I wish I could still easily pick them out. The colors are both gentle colors, though - nothing jarring. This may add to the ethos of the post, similar to the clean text. It may also add to the pathos by being calming. Even the colors of the links can make a person feel a certain way.

I like how Alexa arranged her images within the blog post. I pull most of my images apart from the text and give them their own space, whereas she made her images a part of the text (see below). There is a point where the images get in the way and split a sentence in half, which causes it to be difficult to read. Other than that, the images merge well with the text design-wise and that adds to the professional-look of the post. I do wish she had addressed the images in her post - or added a caption to them - so they weren't just sitting there with no context.

Alexa positions her images so the text wraps around them.
 I, on the other hand, give the images their own space
like I do with this one. I do like how Alexa's images
 blend so smoothly into her post.

The images themselves didn't seem to add to the post that much. The first one (in the screenshot above) seemed to be mostly ornamental. I didn't get anything from it. The second image was a picture of the book Creating Web Pages for Dummies, which was not mentioned at all in the actual post, so it seemed out of place. The last two images were more relevant as they were from her Unit 3 project, which she did discuss in the post. They are powerful, scary images of wrecked cars, and they use pathos. She explains that the project is about texting and driving and that is what those images represent. Those images really support her point - which is that images can be quite powerful.

Content

In her post, Alexa says, "images largely persuade an audience in that they are more entertaining to digest than a large body of text." This is a great way to word what we all seem to believe. As the old adage goes: a picture's worth a thousand words. Not to mention, it takes much less time and is way easier to look at an image than to read a thousand words. The right image can be the key point in an argument and the wrong one can wreck an argument. Images truly are powerful. In an instant, an image can make you feel strong emotions. Or, even better, those emotions slowly surface as you look at the image more and more and find subtle messages within it. Take the image below for example:

Beautiful Colorado

Isn't it pretty? I took it in the Rocky Mountains of Fort Collins, CO. It bet it makes you want to do something... probably visit Colorado since I captioned it the way I did. Maybe if I had captioned it "Our Only Planet, Which is in Jeopardy" you might be eager to start living a greener life. If I had said "Where a Hike Can Get You," you might be on your way to purchasing some new hiking gear. In any case, a good image can convince an audience to do something, and if you so much as give it a title, you have control. Now, as much as I wish this was the raw photo, I definitely edited it. I made the greens greener, the blues bluer, and those famous red rocks a little bit redder.I brightened it and increased the vibrancy. I turned down the contrast in order to make it look less sharp and... rocky. Here's the original image:

Colorado is also beautiful without Photoshop.

Not quite as pretty and, probably, not quite as convincing. One thing I believe is that color is one powerful part of an image and should be carefully considered. Many studies have shown that color has a strong effects on human psychology. Not to mention, color can leave a lasting impression. For example, when I bring up red and green, what do you think of? If you're anything like me, those colors scream CHRISTMAS to you. What about red and yellow? It's probably a little less obvious, but I can't help but think of McDonalds. And purple? Go Frogs! So colors are important, which is why I always think about the colors in my image - even if I want it to be black and white. Colorful images say more, and, like Alexa pointed out, it is a lot easier to see what an image has to say than to read a thousand words. 

Alexa also discussed Adobe - her skills in Dreamweaver and the difficulty she had with Photoshop. I'm the exact opposite. I was able to pick up Photoshop pretty easily, but it's a mystery how I managed to get my unit two and three projects done in Dreamweaver. It was a matter of changing things until it worked. I think Photoshop can be pretty simple once you figure out what each of the tools do. Here is a great blog that goes through most of the tools and what they do, but I think the best way to learn Photoshop is just to play around with it. Open up an image and edit, edit, edit until you're happy. Practice makes perfect! I'm no Photoshop expert, but I can tell you that the quick-select tool is magic and I, personally, have probably used it in every single Photoshop project I have done.

Play around in Photoshop enough and, one day, you too will be able
to turn a simple duck photo into an image celebrating your favorite
student organization.

I definitely agree that knowledge of the Adobe suite will be helpful in our future careers and I also plan to learn more about not only Dreamweaver and Photoshop, but about the other programs in the suite. After all, I bought a year's worth of the Adobe suite for this class, so I better not waste it.

Nia Brookins: Informal Writing 8

Design

I really like the appearance of Nia's blog. It's dark - with a black background and purple text. It's different, but not distracting. If I had to choose an appeal that is being used by her color scheme, I might say pathos. It's sort of dramatic and that alone makes me want to read more. Her text is clean and her paragraphs are typical web format - once again, that makes the blog look more professional and adds to ethos. One of her images came from The New York Times, which also adds more credibility to her argument. 

Nia's blog has light purple text on a black background, 

I do have a few questions about some of her choices. First of all, her links are the exact same color as her text. I had to scroll over every word in order to find the two links in her post. Second of all, her text is pretty small. Actually, it's not any smaller than normal text, but it seems smaller... probably because of the color? I really couldn't tell you. I don't have trouble reading it, but I have pretty great vision. Most of the world wears glasses or contacts and they may struggle more than me to read the small words. In any case, Nia's blog has personality, which I like.

Content
In her blog, Nia says that she now looks at the images accompanying an article before she reads the text. She does this in order to figure out what the point of the article is and get some background before she begins reading. I've never thought about this. Sure, I glance at images before I read articles - they're more eye-catching than text. However, I've never really contemplated an image before reading the text. I guess I should. In unit three, we learned how much information an image can hold. Those images put on an article aren't just there to be pretty - the writer carefully selected them and put them there for a reason.

Images can convey a ton of information in seconds.
Billboards demonstrate this quite well.

Images are powerful. They define our culture. Art reflects life. Life imitates art. It is because of images that many people have issues being body-positive or believe so strongly in their religious figures. What can you do when paintings from centuries ago depict your god or when the most liked photo on Instagram depicts a certain standard of beauty.

Another thing Nia touches on is the idea of finding a balance between images, text, and hyperlinks. Yeah, images can convey a lot of information. However, you can convey even more information when you have text. Not to mention, if your audience wants more, links can be a great way to for them to get it. However, as Nia pointed out, to much of a single thing can look not-so-great. I mean, what if every word was a hyperlink? That'd be overwhelming and confusing. What if it was only text? That'd look like an essay. How boring. All pictures? Well what on Earth do they mean. Balance is great. Don't take it from me, take it from some actual graphic designers.

Um.. yawn. Do you want to read that giant block
of text, because I sure don't.

These are important things to think about. You don't want your webpage to end up on a list of the worst webpages. You don' want poor design to distract you from your point. Check out some inspiration here, and one day your webpage might be on a list of the best webpages!

I agree with Nia 100% that balance is important and I'm with her in her learning process as well. I hope we all are able to take the skills we learned in Multimedia Authoring and take them to our future careers!

Until we meet again,

What I Learned (IW8)

A Reflection

1. Images have a lot of power. They are able to convey an argument in a very visual, emotional way. Images are the epitome of "show, don't tell." Carefully thought out and edited pictures have the ability to say something that would require many words. They allow the viewer to immediately connect with the argument, but they discover depth to it if they continue to look. A good image can tell a whole story, as evidenced by some of the most iconic photos ever.

In my very first blog post, I discussed the merits of an abstract image.
Here's another. There is nothing realistic about this image. It is no
photo. Yet, the colors and shapes convey so much energy. That's the
power behind an image.

2. Hypertext has the ability to take piece of writing and allow the reader to discover a whole lot more about the subject. If anything, it adds credibility to the argument by providing external sources to back it up. Web pages can open up a whole world where ink and paper cannot. However, hypertext can be tricky to work with. It is not enough to rely on the reader to click the text. There must be a full explanation or a compelling reason for them to look further into the argument. This webpage goes further into the benefits of using hypertext. See what I did there? Hypertext. More information for you.

Wikipedia, if anything, is known for its use of hypertext. There are entire games
dedicated to the art of clicking on links on Wikipedia pages.

3. In the Unit 3 project, not being allowed to use words meant I had to think creatively. The hardest part for me was showing the defining variable between my two contrasting pictures: the bee. It would have been easier to write "With Bees" and "Without Bees" on the bottom of the images, but I couldn't do that. As a result, I think I came up with a method that has a lot more impact than text. It shows loss, barriers, and ill-fated creatures. See an example of this below. For more, look at my final product here.

A living bee on one side of the bold, dividing line.
The mirrored shape of the bee on the other,
representing a world where the bees are dead.
 Two sides of the same coin.

4. At the beginning of the semester, I had no idea how to use any Adobe products and boy has that changed! I believe my skills in Photoshop have improved tremendously, and, although I am not expert, I have a much better understanding of Dreamweaver as well. I certainly hope to get even better with these tools because they can be so helpful to me as a writing major. Skills in design and technology are important. They can help me get a job later in life. Not to mention, the Adobe products are really fun to use!

One of my first Photoshop projects, created for an assignment in
a course called Digital Creative Writing, which complemented
Multimedia Authoring quite a bit. I hate to say it, but this project
isn't very good. I like to think I've come a long way since
these humble beginnings.

What's Done is Done

Check out my unit three project!

I really tried to unify all of the pictures concerning my argument. I made the background simple so as not to distract from the argument. I added a call to action at the bottom of the page. I'm pretty pleased with it.

I have to give credit where credit is due. I have seen images of "a world without bees" before. That's where I got the inspiration. I'd like to think I took them a step further though. I mean look at this:

The Daily Blog

VS this:

Yours Truly

I mean, for starters, my image doesn't have text. That's pretty cool. Its creative. The top image has two photographs left as they were when they were taken. My image is edited. It has colors and brightness that create certain feelings. Every part of my image was intentional.

So, yeah. I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's no masterpiece, but it's alright for a girl who starting learning Photoshop in February.

Messages without Text

To create a message using an image without a single letter from the alphabet on it requires a good deal of creativity. In my Unit Three project, I have had to come up with a way to convey something that could be said so simply with words, however, I believe the images I ended up using are much more powerful.

Here's an example of one of my images:

You get the picture, right? (Right!?) On one side of the yellow line, you see the world as it is - with bees. On the other side, you see that without bees, the rose would not be there. It would have been so easy for me to write "With Bees" on one side and "Without Bees" on the other, but I couldn't. So I got creative. I took a picture of a living bee and stuck it on one side. Easy enough. That world has a bee so they cannot be extinct. On the other side, I replaced it with a white space, put an X through it, and flipped it around. I think it's pretty obvious that the bees are diseased in this world.

So I got the initial idea across, but I was able to add more dimension to my message as well. The bees convey so much more than the idea of a world with bees vs. a world without. They are facing each other, mirror images (in shape, anyway). It is almost as if the living bee is staring at its fate. They are separated by a line - a boundary. A line I am arguing we should not cross. Finally, you get the contrast between the body of one and the emptiness of another. It adds to the whole image.

Challenges of Photography

Photography is such a cool, amazing craft and I wish I were able to take amazing, beautiful pictures. I can't. Maybe I will someday. Practice makes perfect, after all.

One of the main challenges I face is planning photos. Wouldn't it be so great if we could just start taking pictures and find a masterpiece with just a little bit of searching? Unfortunately, the reality is that we must carefully plan what our photos will look like, especially when we are trying to convey a specific message. Then, when we plan our photos out, we often find that our product wasn't what we envisioned in our heads.

Take this picture of a duck I snapped back in January:

It's alright, but it looked a lot better in my head and through my eyes. Let me break down the issue I see with this picture.

First of all, it's too far zoomed out. My eyes view the world very differently than a camera lens. Although I can see something and it looks very close, it looks very far away in my phone's camera and I have to get a lot closer to capture an image as detailed as the one I can see.

Second of all, the duck isn't very well defined. Its reflection blends into its body. It is blurry and confusing and not all that appealing to look at. In real life, this is not the case. It would take some photo-editing to make it look like it did to me at the time and how I pictured it when I was planning to take the photo.

Finally, it's a duck. And it is swimming on water. It was windy that day. The environment was constantly moving and changing. I couldn't take the time to carefully frame the photo and find the perfect zoom and perspective before taking it. A moment before this picture, the environment looked different. Maybe not drastically different, but different enough to prevent careful planning.

So, photography is an art. It has been surprisingly difficult for me during unit 3.

Irving Penn, Photographer (MP6)

In the summer of 2016, the Dallas Museum of Art had an exhibit featuring the photography of Irving Penn, called Beyond Beauty. I had the pleasure of viewing that exhibit, and I thought it was incredible.

Irving Penn spent a time working for Vogue and, as a result, focused much of his photography on fashion. His photographs are brilliant and striking. He did not simply shoot the newest trends. Instead, he focused on the form and architecture of fashion. Take this photo for example:

Issey Miyaki Seaweed Dress, New York, 1987
© The Irving Penn Foundation

The photo is so interesting because you see the craft behind the dress and the unique way it moves. It goes beyond the runway.

Another thing Penn did when taking photos was look for unique angles and ways to look at the world.

Eye in Keyhole, New York, 1953 

© Condé Nast

This is one of my favorites. Penn also took "beauty" pictures for the magazine, and he strived to take photos that would stop someone in their tracks. This particular photo is well framed. The reflection of the keyhole in the eye is right on the pupil. There is certainly beauty here - human eyes are quite beautiful and natural. It goes beyond that, though. It is so much more interesting than just an eye. I could stare at it for hours.

One of Penn's main jobs at Vogue was to take portraits of celebrities and others featured in the magazine. Penn was not about to take ordinary, boring portrait. He made sure to capture the subject's personality in each portrait. Take the following portrait:

Miro and his Daughter, Dolores, Tarragona, Spain, 1948
© The Irving Penn Foundation

What a beautiful picture of a father-daughter bond. There would be so much less personality if he had simply captured a typical head shot of Joan Miro, a painter. His daughter is not him, but she is an important part of him, so why not include her?

I personally, love this last category of photos Penn took. Some were taken for Vogue, some were personal projects. They are still lives. Penn had the incredible ability to take the most boring, mundane objects and turn them into art. They are all beautiful, but there is a particularly interesting project he did where he took trash from the streets of New York City and photographed it. How can someone make litter look like art? Take a look.

Cigarette No. 17, New York, 1972
© The Irving Penn Foundation

I mean come on. Those are just cigarettes he found on the street, but he put them in the right light and added the right contrast to make them look incredible. Penn was able to take the most boring things and turn them into the most amazing photographs. It is incredible.

Penn is definitely and inspiration, and, although I will not be able to achieve the same level of talent in my unit 3 project, I do plan to keep his art in mind while I am working on it.

If you want to see more, go to https://irvingpenn.org/ and look under "ARTWORK." There are so many more amazing photos to see and each one is unique and beautiful.

Images

This class is called "Multimedia Authoring: Image and Hypertext." One might assume that images are an important component of this class and the projects we do in it, and they'd be correct. One of the challenges I have faced in my unit 2 project is finding and taking the right pictures to put on my website to help my argument.

I can easily go around TCU and find images that back up my claims about TCU, but it is harder to illustrate my vision for the future. Fortunately I have a wonderful sister living at a university that has exactly the sort of bike-friendly things that I envision TCU having. She has sent me some really cool images to add to my site. She attends Colorado State University and the campus is cool. It's super cool that I have these images that can show my audience what other universities are doing.

My main reason for writing this particular blog post is to share these super cool images from CSU. I love how bike friendly the campus it. It is so cool. I hope that my enthusiasm for these images is something my audience feels as well. I definitely think images are beyond important when it comes to persuasion.

Coding

Coding is frustrating.

I think being able to code (or write HTML and CSS, as the case may be) is a valuable skill in the world we live in, especially for those looking into the writing field. But... it's hard. I don't understand the language. I don't know what words to use. I have a picture in my mind of what I want my webpage to look like, but I cannot bring it to life because I don't have the coding expertise necessary.

Dreamweaver makes things a little less difficult by allowing you to simply insert things into the page while it adds the code for you. That's nice, but you still have to figure out how to get it where you want it to go and how to color it a certain way and how to get words on it and how to get the words to look the way you want.

I wish I could say I knew what this meant.

I persevere. My final project will resemble the website in my head. I like a good challenge and this certainly is one.

Research

One of the hardest parts of any college assignment, in my opinion, is doing research. The best sources are ones found through the library databases: peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles that have the information you are looking for. I want straightforward data. The articles have very specific research on very specific things. For example, I want examples of bike-friendly cities in the United States... so I search "bike friendly city."

My first result is promising at first glance. It is titled Havana: A Bike Friendly City? However, if you weren't aware, Havana is in Cuba and not in the United States.

Many of the pictures I have seen of Havana feature colorful cars, 

not bikes. I haven't read the article, but there is a good chance

 the answer is no, not a bike friendly city.

The second article discusses why bike-friendly cities are safer for everybody. That's great to know, but it isn't the information I was looking for. It might be included in my "Benefits" section, but it really does not help me out in the examples department.

That wasn't a very good search term, clearly, so I try "bike friendly campus." I know from my own experience that Colorado State University has a very bike-friendly campus, so that'll be one of my examples (although I doubt I'll be able to find a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal article detailing the bike-friendly nature of CSU's campus). 

I get a result for how to promote a bike-friendly campus, which is super helpful to my rhetoric. I find an article about the liabilities a university may face with a bike-friendly campus, which might be helpful in my "Challenges" section. However, I do not find a list or even a suggestion of a campus that may be bike-friendly, so I continue to seek examples.

I'll find them online through Google no problem, but those sources are not generally as trusted as peer-reviewed articles and, as a result, my ethos may be harmed. Research is a frustrating task, no doubt.

Basic Web Designs

I found a really quick read on web design. It is very helpful for people who are new to web design. https://www.sumydesigns.com/2014/09/04/basic-web-design-principles/


Its main points are as follows:

-Make sure to plan and research your idea and design.
-Layout should focus on consistency and ease of navigation.
-Design should be consistent and prominent.
-Sans serif fonts are easier to read and should be used for the body text.
-2 or 3 main colors are best. Don't go overboard.
-Use photos to add interest and break up bodies of text.
-Make sure to get someone to proofread your website when you're done.

HTML? HTML.

Hey, hey. If you came here because you were linked from my HTML, then welcome! Here are those images I promised:

If you're here for some other reason, that makes sense. I'm pretty sure only Dr. Murray has access to my HTML.Until now. See it below. If you copy and paste it in Notepad and save it then theoretically you should be able to see the actual webpage, but what do I know?

	<!DOCTYPE>
	<html>
	<head>
	<title> Mini Project Two </title>
	<body>
	<h1> Caitlin Mendoza </h1>
	<p> for Multimedia Authoring </p>
	<p> Fort Worth B-Cycle </p>
	<p> images <a href="https://caitlinma.blogspot.com/2017/02/html.html"> here</a> within blog post </p>
	</body>
	</head>
	</html>

Mini project two was a learning experience but I like the way things turned out. As a Photoshop newbie, I had a few problems that I have now resolved, but it's too little to late. I didn't originally realize that there is an extensive gallery of filters available on Photoshop. I thought I was limited to the few filters that appear when I hit the "Filters" drop-down menu. I was wrong. I could've done so much more with these images.

I do feel like I portrayed my message well. The idea of movement is certainly present in both images, which is great because bikes are known for their movement! I like the way the text bleeds off the edges of the first image. I think it adds a grid-like look, as discussed in Ocepek's "Images." The second image is certainly eccentric, but I like it. For me, it shows the idea that the bikes of the bike sharing come and go as people use and return them. It's the beauty of bike sharing!

I did struggle a lot with the placement of the words in the second image. Even now, I think they just look like they were thrown on top of the image at the last minute. I worked with them a lot, but I couldn't make them look like I wanted them too. The problem may be that I didn't have the words in mind when I was editing the image.

All in all, it was a fun assignment and I learned a lot from it. It was homework I was excited to work on, if that says anything. On to the Unit One Project!

The Art to Arranging

Reading Ocepek's "Arrangement and Organization" and discussing it in class really got my brain juices flowing and I feel inspired to make the best promotional campaign poster for a non-profit organization ever made by a student in Multimedia Authoring: Image and Hypertext.

I have almost always believed that symmetrical is best when it comes to design. Admittedly, I haven't had much experience with design beyond designing the layout of my high school yearbook.

However, my non-profit is Fort Worth B-Cycle. Bike sharing! Bikes move. They get you from place to place. A bike sharing organization deserves a poster with a dynamic layout - something that highlights the way bikes move. That probably means I will need to leave my old ways behind and venture into new territory: asymmetric design. I'm really excited about it.

B-Cycle knows design. Look at how their logo is round... like a tire wheel. More inspiration!

So I have this idea in my head. Let's hope I can execute it. In the meantime, here is a really awful, very rough sketch I did made in 30 seconds on paint. The finished product will look a whole lot better, trust me :)

Stories

Mini project one consisted of making a collage with a variety of pictures selected from the AP Images database. All in all, it was a pretty simple assignment.

However, I found myself doing something that I think is significant and important to the class: attempting to create a narrative with my collage.

I was interested in migrants from Mexico to the U.S. initially, but after searching "Migrants" in the database I found lots of pictures of migrants from all over the world, and why not include them as well? So I attempted to tell the story of a world full of migrants with my collage. It's a bit of an abstract story. Perhaps it would be hard to see the progression. I told it through the layout of the collage.

So there's my final project. Eight pictures of different migrants trying to live their best life. I liked the idea of "FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT," as it says on the banner in the top left image. I took inspiration from that to try to tell the story not of people who have found themselves in very unfortunate circumstances, but of people who are using their legs to get them somewhere better than they were before. Sure they may suffer, but they are free.

After the "FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT" image I wanted to show such movement. As it turns out, there are a variety of ways for people to get around. Each image of people migrating is from a different country and showcases a different method of travel: by train, by taxi, by boat, and by legs.

Finally, I wanted to portray life after migration. People simply living their lives to the best of their abilities, even if they have ended up in a city of tents. So that's where the collage ends, but it's not where their story ends and I hope that is also evident in my work.

To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting to get anything out of this project. I thought I would be throwing pictures on a page and calling it a day, but I realized that there can be a purpose behind everything and images can tell a powerful story.

Getting to Know Images

I have never really considered the implications of including an image in writing.

On the first day of class we looked at some abstract images that really caught our eye. Here is the one I chose:

It took me a good minute to figure out why I was so mesmerized by it. It is hard to look away from. (Even as I am writing this I am having a hard time concentrating on my typing because the image is so distracting). I think the feature that initially caught my eye was the contrast. Parts of the image are so bright they are almost white and other parts are so dark they are almost black.

More importantly, however, this image not only caught my eye but didn't let it stray to another image. The illustration so clearly contains layer after layer after layer after layer of color and dimension. It seems to go on for miles despite being 2D. You have to wonder what is hiding behind so many layers.

At first I thought it looked like space, but, of course, it is an abstract image and it is of nothing in particular. So the longer I looked at it, the more things I saw in it. It looked like a mountain with the sun rising behind it. It looked like an angry and stormy sea.

I see how powerful a good image can be and how it can impact something. I have always considered writing to be words on a page, but one week in Multimedia Authoring as well as a Digital Creative Writing course, I have come to see that writing can be much more than words. Including media such as images in my writing can really help evoke the emotion I want to.

Images are powerful and beautiful. I have always respected that, but I also have always considered them to be a very separate art form from writing. Perhaps combining the two can create the most powerful art of all.