Extension to Man

The form of media/technology I chose to you was apple products. Steve Jobs created this company, and through the help of design teams and other intellectual individuals, several products have been created as an extension of man. The first product I chose is the iPhone 4:

I chose this product because in reality, it wasn't until the 90s when people really began to own cellular devices. Now, in the year 2010, it is more frequent to see an individual with an iPhone, Blackberry, or other smart phone device, then to see someone without it. It is actually becoming a norm in our society to have a phone that does more than just make phone calls and send text messages. Now, people use it for their everyday needs; e-mail, internet, etc. This product is clearly an extension of man due to it's tech savy features and the popularity it has generated among our current generation.

My second product is the new Apple Macbook Air:

This product is another extension of man. My reason being that once again, in the 90s it was rare to even come across a person who owned a computer. Now, people do not own computers, rather it is the focus on the individual and everyone owns a laptop. In the development of the first laptop, it was simple just a big brick, which is exactly why I chose the Macbook Air. This little piece of hardware contains more memory space than any computer did during the 90s at probably 1/10 of it's size. 

What do these two products also have in common that is an extension of man?

The iPod. The digital conversion of music from cd's to mp3 players, and now iTunes is on every apple product and you can now have music streaming from any product you own. As a matter of fact, on the iPhone, there is even an App dedicated strictly to figuring out the song that is playing on the radio or anywhere you hear it.

All these products have truly redefined technology. I can only imagine what the differences in Apple will be over the next ten or twenty years considering how far they have come along in the past ten years. 

Photoshop Actions

Dark Grungy Effect

Double Sketch Effect Action

Each of these images have original photos followed by manipulation tools in photoshop. The first picture  is changed six different times to portray the differences of a grungy effect available in order to darken the contrast of the picture. In the second image, the photo is an original from a camera and then manipulated to a sketch effect twice.

Of these two images, you can see the differences that can occur in photoshop and these are only two of hundreds of different effects you can do in photoshop. I found these pictures on stumbleupon through the website:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/33uCuB/creativenerds.co.uk/freebies/70-of-the-best-photoshop-actions-for-enhancing-photos/

This website portrays all kinds of actions you can do within photoshop including distorting color, changing faces (such as how images are distorted in magazines) and brightening images.

Type & Contrast

When I first saw this article, I initially noticed the large title, the vibrant colors and the imagery. When I refocused in on the article, I noticed the difficulties in reading each aspect of it. While the color of this article appears to be eye catching, it is more difficult to read than anything. On the second page of the article, the pale yellow titles are created to match the circles formed as a backdrop on the first page, but with the text being so small and the color being so faint, it makes the title very difficult to read. As for spacing of the article, I feel that although the imagery running down the right side of the page is well chosen for what the article reads, there should be an equal amount of space in column two as there is in column one. The eye is already suffering trying to read the pale yellow titles, it only makes it harder to try and read the article squeezed between the first column of words and the third column of graphics.

I chose this as my legible article because of the consistency that runs through it. The yellow is used in a vibrant way to attract the reader to the article to want to know what the article is about. The imagery is also well placed to create a good hierarchy between the two pages. What I liked most about the consistency in this article is that when zoomed in, you can noticed that the amount of spacing between paragraphs and indents is just right, making it easy to read and follow. The amount of spacing between each column is proportional, but also broken up enough that the eye does not get exhausted from reading long lines of text.

Concept & Manipulation of Themes

Warmth

Shock Value

Mischief

Human Element

Obscurity

Nostalgia

Practicality

Variety

Bitmap Versus Vector Photography

Photography has always been an interest of mine, specifically urban photography. In most photos of urban photography, the colors are vibrant and the images usually depict some form of emotion. For this specific blog, I felt I would take my interest and apply them to the differences in the bitmap versus vector imaging. 

The bitmap images I have chosen are the following:

I chose these two images because in both, the graphics are extremely pixelated making the detail very vivid and easy to depict. In the first image, the photography lights up the center of the picture, but through the pixels, the darker sides are still visible to the eye. Also the way in which the picture is taken shows a depiction of a long road, which lengthens the picture. If the first picture had a lower resolution or a lower DPI, the picture would not be as eye catchy to the viewer or have any type of prominence.

In the second photo, once again the way the photo is depicted lengthens the image. Although this image does not have the same amount of color and vibrancy as the first photo, it is still an image that would be even close to as well represented if the DPI was low or it had a low resolution.

Due to the fact I chose urban photography as my first two bitmap images, I decided for my vector images, I would illustrate the difference in a vector image of a building. The vector images I have chosen are the following:

I chose these two images, because as stated, I wanted to focus on urban type photography and buildings. The first vector image was the drawing of a building. I felt this was a good example because it began with the basics of how a vector image would be designed. The second image on the other hand is a lot more detailed and it is apparent the way the picture has been altered is in the graphic in the sky line. Although this may seem like a regular photo, the graphics are very detailed and it has been created to resemble the similarities of a sky line.

I found these images by first focusing on what I wanted to be able to compare and contrast in the difference of vector versus bitmap. For my first two images I searched in google: jpeg urban photography. For my second two images I searched in google: vector images of buildings.

Typography in the Form of Helvetica

"You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work."

-Massimo Vignelli





The reason I chose Helvetica, despite the negative and positive connotations in society, is because it has always been my go-to font. When I am having trouble deciding what to use for a title page, or how to make an e-mail pop out, Helvetica has always been my typeface of choice. I’ve always been a fan of type, but particularly Helvetica because as the quote above describes, you really can use all of Helvetica’s variations to get your point across in numerous ways.


According to Typophile:
Helvetica is a Grotesque sans serif face, also classified as Lineal under the Vox-ATypl Classification of Type. The strokes in Helvetica are monotone in weight and the overall forms of the typeface itself are based on Akzidenz-Grotesk from Berthold (around 1898). In 1957, at the behest of the Haas Typefoundry's Eduard Hoffman, Max Miedinger designed a Grotesque sans serif face, distributed as Neue Haas Grotesk. In 1960, Linotype and D.Stempel AG in Frankfurt decided to take the face over and redrew it for the Linotype machine. (51% of Haas was owned by Stempel, which itself was controlled by Linotype since 1941). Haas still produced type for hand composition and larger sizes. Stempel and Linotype were not fond of selling a typeface that was named after a "competing" company (Haas), so they wanted to rename it "Helvetia," the Latin name for Switzerland. Eduard Hoffmann disliked the idea to name the typeface after a country and suggested "Helvetica": Latin for "Swiss". 

Overall, this font has come a long way in history, and overtime, several variations of the font have been created. This font is seen everywhere - street signs, logos, etc. Although some people may see it as boisterous font due to it's appearance everywhere, I support the font because it has always displayed the perception I've always tried to portray.

Childhood Nostalgia

I can’t remember a time when a brisk afternoon didn’t immediately remind me of my childhood memories of playing baseball with my brother. Whether it is the scent of the fresh air or the cold breeze against my face, the settings instantaneously remind me of the hours I spent on my front lawn tossing the baseball to my brother until it was too dark to see the baseball anymore.

As a child, these times were simply pure enjoyment to pass the time, but to this day, they are the reminder of the days when my brother and I did not have a worry in the world and the time we spent tossing around a baseball was never wasted time. My brother and I would play any possible game we could think of to just spend a few more hours outside. We would create a game as we were called for dinner and yell inside “we’ll come in when we finish the game” even though we had no intentions to stop playing. 

What makes these memories so nostalgic to me is that my brother was so much older than me, approximately eight years, and yet, until he went to college, we spent every afternoon we could outside discussing anything and everything just throwing a baseball around.

To this day, I will never forget those brisk afternoons spent with my brother. The memories will forever be treasured with me and even now when my brother comes home, we always make it a priority to have a catch outside and make up excuses as to why we can’t come in for dinner.