PRINT IS BIG

This blog post was inspired by Sarah Dunegan reminding me of a very important inforgraphic we have in the Graphic Technology department here at UNI.

PRINT IS BIG
Print is an original technology and brought knowledge to the masses. Believe it or not, today print is one of the largest industries in the world. Print eclipses auto-manufacturing and is over 18 times bigger that video games. Not only is the print industry still growing worldwide, but technology and applications are certainly transforming as well. Business printing grows at 6.8% annually worldwide. $640 Billion is spent in the print industry each year, compared to the online advertising industry at just $47 Billion. Along with those figures, 45 Trillion pages are printed annually.

PRINT IS GREEN
The myth of print not being environmentally friendly has been very well promoted. The print industry is, in fact, environmentally friendly. It is also one of the most sustainable industries. The print industry makes wise investments in applying renewable energy sources. Their goal is to create environmentally friendly supplies. Only 11% of cut forest trees are used by the paper industry and there are more forests in the U.S. today than there were 50 years ago. In addition, spam email wastes 33 Billion kilowatt hours annually.

PRINT DRIVES COMMERCE
In the last decade, print has appreciated an awakening of increased conversion rates and marketing return on investment, unlike the digital marketing space that has just gotten noiser. A lot of consumers, like myself, appreciate getting a nice postcard, well-designed catalog, or personal thank you note in the mail today, and 3.5 Million jobs in the Unites States depend on advertising mail.

PRINT IS SOLD ONLINE
In the past few years many innovative companies have created impressive businesses combining the online world with the physical printed world. Some have even learned ways to tackle the cursory concept of social media in print form. Now, a large variety of companies are quickly moving online to keep up with their customers' 24/7 expectations and take advantage of the extended reach that the internet offers. In 2001 only 3% of print orders were being placed online. Compare that number to the 18% in 2011 and the projected 30% in 2014.

If you take one thing away from this blog post, just remember PRINT IS BIG!!
Until next time bloggers,
Kels :)

HALLOWEEN TIME - Personal Project

In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to post a personal project I did last year for my graphic design class.

Objectives
The goal of this assignment was to understand simplicity and clarity of symbol design. We were to learn basic theories and methods to create new symbols based on the subject matter. Through this assignment, we were to explore design methodology for reconstructing, manipulating and simplifying symbol design. We were given a matrix table and the purpose of the matrix table was to experiment with the creativity and design process. Our goals of the project were to understand how to create symbol sets that achieve both unity and variety in a harmonious way, to create symbol sets that balance simplicity, density, and complexity to demonstrate the use of figures, to learn how symbols represent ideas, concepts and abstractions, and to understand how meaning is constructed and understood in symbols.

Design Principles
For this project we had to use the following design principles:

• Figure/Ground
• Line/Mass
• Size
• Direction
• Similarity
• Repetition
• Gradation
• Organic/Geometric
• Radiation
• Symmetry
• Asymmetry

I hope you all enjoy the spirit of Halloween and my personal work as well.

Until next time bloggers,

Kels

Color YOUR World

In account of the fact that I am currently doing a project for color theory, today's blog posting is going to be about color theory.

There are few visual stimuli as powerful as color; it is a profoundly useful communication tool. The mechanism of color perception is one of few things that is universal among humans. What we do with it once we see it is another thing altogether, and controlling it for the sake of communication depends on understanding how its optical qualities behave.

The Identity of Color
Hue is the result of how we perceive light being reflected from objects at particular frequencies. On the other hand, a color's saturation describes its intensity. A saturated color is very intense or vibrant. Colors that are dull are said to be desaturated. A color's value is its intrinsic darkness or lightness. Yellow is perceived as being light; violet is perceived as being dark. The temperature of a color is a subjective quality that is related to experiences. Colors that are considered "warm" make us feel a sense of heat; colors that are considered "cool" make us feel a sense of coldness.

Chromatic Interaction
A color model helps a designer see relationships for planning color ideas; for example, the color wheel. Designers can create interaction between different hues, independent of their saturation or value, according to where they lie on the color wheel. The closer together the colors appear on the wheel, the more similar their optical qualities and, hence, the more harmonious or related. The further apart the colors are on the wheel, the more their optical qualities contrast. Regardless of their specific hues, the colors selected for a palette will have relationships of darkness or lightness. Saturation relationships may occur independently of hue relationships, but will usually have an effect on value or temperature. Designers can establish relationships within a color palette based on relative temperature.

Color Systems
Within a complex visual environment, color can help distinguish different kinds of information, as well as create relationships among components or editions of a publication. The various parts of a system need to be distinguishable from each other while maintaining a clear family appearance; in this way, the color coding not only helps a viewer separate the components from each other quickly, but also continues to enhance the unity of the system.

Following are first drafts of some of my compositions from my Color Theory project:

The above composition is exploring simultaneous contrast.

The above composition is exploring non-boring primary/secondary using tints. 

The above compositions are 2 split complimentary color schemes; one using three colors, and one using tints, tones, and shades of those three colors. The composition on the top is using tints, tones, and shades, and the composition on the bottom is using the natural 3 colors. 

The above compositions are 2 triadic color schemes; one using three colors, and one using tints, tones, and shades of those three colors. The composition on the top is using the natural 3 colors, and the composition on the bottom is using tints, tones, and shades.  

I hope you enjoyed hearing about color theory and more importantly I hope you enjoy my personal projects. 

Until next time, 

Kels

Hierarchy: Personal Project

In my Graphic Design 2 class I am currently enrolled in at the University of Northern Iowa, we just finished a Hierarchy Exercise. The purpose of our project was to make 30 black and white compositions using the Universe Family of fonts using different variations. By moving through these variations, we explored and observed what occurred when minimal changes in complexity were made in a visual field. In other words, even in the most limited conditions there are aesthetic possibilities. We were confined to certain guidelines for different compositions. In compositions 1-10, the goal was to see how little was needed to accomplish a sound hierarchy that was also attractive and refined. We were limited to use a small range of text size, number of grid systems, and flush left text. In later compositions we were able to expand more on the alignment of text and six relationship. We were also allowed to explore the use of bar rules, swatches, and images of the UNI Art Building to help strengthen the hierarchy.

In the end we were able to take all of your compositions, make a title, and bind it in a book. I love having the work that I have done physically in front of me to flip through and acknowledge. There is just something about it that makes me feel good inside.

I learned a lot from this project. I learned how much you can do with such strict guidelines and text. When first approaching this project, I felt that the rest of the class and I were going to have such similar compositions. I soon found that I was wrong. There are so many things you can do with limited size and alignment of text. I also found the importance of grids. Without a grid system, compositions like these would be scary to look at. Grids make designs a hundred times better and easier to make. Critiques ARE IMPORTANT. It is very important to have others look at your work and say their feelings about it before you finalize a piece. Critiquing opens your eyes to numerous amounts of opportunities that you can go with your designs.

Following are some of my favorite compositions of mine from this project.

For the above composition, were had the opportunity to use bar rules. I like this composition because I feel that it creates a nice flow of white space and shows the data effectively. 

The above composition, we were allowed to use large areas of black, or swatches, to order the space in a way that strengthens and enhances hierarchy. I enjoyed this composition as the black swatch comes down from the top of the page and leads you through the information appropriately.

 The compositions above and below were had the opportunity to use images of the University of Northern Iowa Art Building as additional elements in the design, but each of the compositions had a different percentage of image that could be showing. The above image has 60 to 70% of the image showing and the below image has 85% or more of the image showing.

Should I keep posting personal projects I have done? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Until Next Time,

Kels

Super-Fantastic Fold of the Week

Hello Bloggers,

I am going to share a super cool folded print piece with you all. Trish Witkowski, an award-winning designer, puts up weekly videos called "The 60-Second Super-Cool Fold of the Week" on foldfactory.com. I like to watch these videos in my free time to see all kinds of different ideas for folding print pieces. While trying to decide what video to share/ talk about with you, this one jumped out at me.

This piece is a capabilities brochure produced by Ryder Dickerson in Chicago and designed by Faust. The first thing you notice about the designed piece is the custom envelope. It is a square, large format piece designed very nicely with an eye catching color scheme.

This capabilities brochure demonstrates so many different things, such as, a soft touch uv coating, a gloss uv coating, digital printing, sheet fed, etc.

As if this brochure did not have enough different things incorporated in it, it is also a carrier piece. This brochure has three inserts all printed on different paper. They used utopia, gpa colored sheet, mohawk superfine for these three particular pages.

As you open the brochure and take out the inserts, the inside is a metallic laminate with a uv coating. This piece also has score and handfold.

Not only does this brochure have a unique layout and fold, but it has a very nice color scheme and design to it. The front design is very simple but very effective in my opinion and it goes very well with the rest of the piece. So not only are they representing what kind of ink and paper they can use to print, but they are also showing some design they are capable of.

I hope you all enjoyed this video as much as I have. Just remember everything you see or receive in the mail, for instance, has to be designed by someone! Designers love to have their work appreciated!

Until next time,
Kels

New & Improved Social Media Advertising

Social Media is now one of the most profitable resources through which you can reach consumers. That is, is someone knows how to maintain it. This is very different from recent years of profitable advertising. I am going to discuss why these tactics are used now and how they are different than previous years. 

For affective advertising it is important to have user participation and social media allows you to do this.  Users can now comment, share, ask questions, etc., to interact with the company and make their voice be heard. This leads into the next point. 

Companies need to take more of an active role in their social media rather than just simply placing advertisements on the web, to be the most effective. 

Making it possible for users to comment, share, ask questions, etc., means that companies will also have to listen to what consumers are saying. If a handful of consumers are all asking or saying similar things about a companies product, businesses must listen and answer/take comments into consideration. If businesses do not listen to users comments, this will not make consumers happy and will make them feel as if the company does not care about their consumers or even make them turn away from the product.  

A downside to online marketing is all of the constant ads popping up in your news feeds. It irritates consumers when 90% of their new feed are advertisements and only 10% are personal interests, even if the products are things that the user is interested in.  

Another way social media advertising is different from old advertising ways is the fact that you can interact more. Instead of old advertising, like watching a commercial on tv, you can view and comment on products that other people can also view and comment, and people are allowed to feed off of each other's comments. 

Social media has been said to have made our attention spans shorter. This means, when advertising on social medias, the point of the ad needs to be seen and understood quickly. It needs to catch the consumers eye and make them stop and take the time to look at it while scrolling down their news feed.

Another factor of social media advertising is that businesses can not just put their advertisements on social media sites and be done with it. They need to see how affective their advertisements were and feed off them in one direction or another, whether the results were good or bad. 

More traditional advertising was not able to tell what kind of people were viewing their advertisements. Social media allows companies, to a certain degree and for a fee, to know the name and details of every customer that interacts with them. This allows companies to advertise in a whole new way, sending ads your way that you are actually interested in. 

Another aspect of social media marketing is that an ad that is made to go on twitter, would not work as affectively on Facebook. For the companies, this means that they need different advertisements for different social media accounts and that is where I, a designer, come in!! 

Although social media advertising has come so far and is being very affective, it has some flaws. The goal of my blog posting is that people that are in marketing see it and try to take some of my thoughts into consideration, and maybe, just like advertisements, social media marketing can be edited. I want to know what you think about social media marketing. Do you love it? Do companies need to cut back a little bit? Or would you suggest to stop social media marketing? I would love to hear your opinions. 

Until next time bloggers,

Kels

Adobe Creative Cloud: About & What Do YOU Think?

Hello bloggers,

Recently I have been able to work with the Adobe Creative Cloud software while working on some class projects on campus. There are new features in this software, however, I have not been able to take advantage of all of the new aspects of the Creative Cloud software, so I decided to research it. Adobe Creative Cloud allows consumers to keep their creative world in sync without your applications living on a browser or in cloud; your applications still live on your desktop. Having your design world synced allows you to be organized across multiple devices. Creative Cloud now features Behance to bring your work and creative community together for the first time. This allows you to update your portfolio and bridge with new opportunities. Adobe Creative Cloud allows you to have access to ever Adobe creative tool and service. They now offer the ability to work in teams. This allows everyone to work with the latest version of the tools and share files from any device. An advantage to working with the Adobe Creative Cloud is that it's simple and fast to have access to new products and features as soon as they're released. All you have to do is download the latest version when it is most convenient for you.

 

Price is also a factor of the new Adobe Creative Cloud Software. It costs $49.99 per month, as opposed to one flat fee, like the other Adobe software.

Not only does the software have new features, but each of the product icon designs are new. These are amazing designs that bring a whole new feel to the applications. I am personally, totally in love with these new icons.

Now that you know a little more about the new Adobe Creative Cloud software, what do you think about it? Is this idea of the creative cloud better than just buying Adobe CS6, for example? Do you think it's worth it? Let me know what you think.

Until next time bloggers,
Kels