Forever Spades

Hopefully Final Revision

2009-11-04T22:28:00.003-05:00

Background revisions...lol

2009-11-02T22:56:00.000-05:00

So new post of the night. This has the background fixed, and the poem, and the placement of the word Ball. Leave me lovely comments....would be much appreciated.

Admissions poster.....

2009-11-02T22:19:00.002-05:00

Still working on the background to get it to where I like it...this variation doesn't have anything done to background...just want to make sure the pearls look okay.

Reverse Reverse....lol

2009-10-28T22:44:00.002-04:00

Another variation.
Comments Appreciated.

More Revisions....

2009-10-28T18:35:00.000-04:00

So sleepie....I'm so sleepie, but there's no sleep for me.
lol

Updates of poster....

2009-10-27T11:57:00.001-04:00

based on what LLK said and those who commented on previous post. Thank you all. I am still working on the shoes...but sending this to LLK, so she can "critique" again.

FEEDBACK PLEASE!!!!

2009-10-27T00:12:00.003-04:00

Driving myself nuts......

2009-10-24T17:09:00.000-04:00

Tell me what ya think of it....I have been working on my name for Resume.

These make me happy. :)

2009-09-29T23:38:00.000-04:00

These are two thing I'm working on in Senior Seminar.

Interest in Design Options

2009-09-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

So we had to think about what part of the Graphic Design World we wanted to get into. Most of us don't really have a clue. Other's of us, have an idea, but we all know where our initial ideas end up (usually in the trash). So it is always a good idea to have a back-up plan. My initial plan is to go into Web Design (or as the book calls it Interactivity), which is actually a better word since the Web is no longer just on a computer. The book says interactivity "is neither precise nor accurate", which I believe is highly true. We can only do so much with the Web, only put so much information out there before it becomes too much. But it is our job as designers to be able to take the middle ground and make people want to know more, to go to the store, buy the products, eat at the restaurant, to get dedicated to a cause, etc. I want to go into Interactivity because I feel that that is one of the places that will always interest me because there will always be something else to learn. It seems logic to me that I could never get bored, and I should always love what I do.
Design Firm looking into: Viget, Durham, NC

One of my back-up jobs would be to go into Environmental Design. Which also leads into the other option I would consider being classified under, authorship. Environmental Design deals with "the look and feel of signs". Whether it is signs leading to somewhere, explaining things, directing you through a place, etc. Being in Environmental Design, "demands more attention to function because of the direct impact it has on the public". I think it would be interesting to go into this field, because it's not only about designing for the public, but also for the environment around where the signs will be. It has to deal with both function and purpose, almost in the same way that Interactivity has to.
(aiming hopes high)Design Firm looking into: Pentagram

Authorship, is a option that I think I will go into even if I go elsewhere. It "is not exclusively about writing --- rather, it is about producing entire projects". It's not just about a part of a design, but about what could be done with it later. The text uses examples of books, exhibits, and a documentary film....the films I wouldn't much be too interested in. I want to learn flash to enhance my Web skills, but going into making full-length motion films (whether documentaries or not) is not a stress level I want to deal with. Authorship is about not just taking things to a mediocre level, but doing things that have a process, a set of projects that lead to an overall concept. It's like my Suicide Series. I didn't just stop at one poster, I went further, because I felt it was needed.
Design Firm looking into: Oikos Group Visual Communication

Portfolio Pieces Review

2009-09-09T20:40:00.001-04:00

Hard core....WOW! No one ever wants to go through an critique and eliminate their own things. I have projects that I absolutely love, that are mostly getting cut. I have a lot of work to do on the ones I am keeping in my portfolio. But it will all be worth it to get my portfolio to where I think it should be. I can now take the limitations that we had for some projects and change them to help me further my project. I plan on doing a lot of work to many different projects. I hope to have all my projects reprinted (professionally) by at least Nov. 15th. That way it is done before the end of the semester, and I won't have to worry about it for Internship next year. My goals for my portfolio is to get all my projects to a place where I am satisfied with them. It's crazy how we can take 3 years of working our asses off in classes and narrow it down to 10-15 items....some of us have more, but for the most part that is where our numbers lie. I'm glad I have the people in the class I do...I know that we will all help each other achieve our greatest pieces by the end of the semester...even if some of us may compete with each other for a job later. Overall I am happy with the pieces that are going to be in my portfolio, now I just have to work my ass off some more to get those pieces to where I want them to be.

Work in Progress.

2009-08-04T01:22:00.001-04:00

So I've been doing a lot of changes to my portfolio site, and will soon have something up to show about it. Once I get back to Raleigh and Peace I am going to upload it to the server. I've changed my design around some, and parts I just made cleaner, I still have photos I need to take, and projects to tweak before putting them on my site. But I'm working on it.

I have also been asked to start designing a website for my Mother....which is going to be a pain in my ass......for one, I don't know how (yet) to do half of what they want....but that will all change hopefully. :). But I've been trying to keep using Dreamweaver...and Photoshop(yuck)

I am working on two album covers for a friend that does Techno/Electronica music. They should be finished some time this week. And I'll have images of them up also.

Can't wait to be back in Raleigh.

My partially done site.....

2009-04-29T18:04:00.000-04:00

Forever Spades

The only page that has projects uploaded to it is the Print page. It gives you and understanding on what I am going to be doing with the rest of my site. Still lots of work to be done.

Mood boards: Forever Spades

2009-04-15T18:01:00.000-04:00

This is my mood board, the layout is basically the same as my old one, just changing the design up a bit.

Tutorial....yum yum.

2009-04-15T13:21:00.000-04:00

lol....can we all go out and get ice cream during class now...cuz I really want some. :D

This was really a pain in the a**.....there were times that tutorial man (or woman)....was very clear at what you are suppose to do...and other times....I was like "What!, how'd you do that....that didn't work for me....rewind damn-it" but of course yelling at the computer screen never accomplishes anything for me. Except more frustration.

Any who...here's the link to the tutorial. Have fun if you try and make it.

Annoying.....

2009-04-08T18:07:00.000-04:00

Tutorial

Didn't know if we need to post something....????

2009-04-06T01:42:00.001-04:00

So, I thought I would anyways...just in case.

Our next Project...*sighs*Redoing our Portfolios.

I'm excited and not excited at the same time.

There are things from my previous portfolio that I plan on keeping, like the 'jmf' that I created. I really like the look and feel of it, and I also think it will still look good on what i have in mind for my site. I kinda still like the whole layout of my old portfolio, but I'm thinking of making it more CSS based, changing how the links work, and the layout and content of my pages while incorporating a new concept into it all.

The colors are going to change also. I don't think I'm really going to have much color, just a little on rollovers, and maybe and accent of color here and there. But right now in my head it is going to be black and white. Colors I may use are purple, red, and orange (generically speaking, of course it won't be those true colors but variations that would fall under those categories).

For my over all design, I don't know how to explain this without going into a long big overdrawn out story, that only means something to me. But, I'm going to try. In my life there are few people that have left an imprint that will never be erased, and for some reason a lot of those people (about 3/4 of these people, if you want to put a number on it) have something in common, and that is that Spades mean something to them all. There are different reasonings that it is meaningful to them, but it has always been something that I have noticed. And so I have adapted the fact that Spades will always be in my life, (my next tattoo will represent this as well) but I want to do something that plays off that for my portfolio. I am thinking of using the little "header" that I have on blogger that is Forever Spades within my site as well. And that I think maybe when I have the money that I am going to see about buyin the URL of foreverspades.com.

But these are random thoughts, I'm still trying to work out what exactly it is going to look like, and how exactly to incomporate Spades into it all, without going overboard with them. `

Finally...... Not over with.

2009-04-01T17:53:00.000-04:00

So here is my site. It has been changed around quite a bit from the earlier versions. There is still a few more tweaks that need to be made. (like figuring out how to upload videos to certain pages, I still really want to do that).

Anyway, I'd go into a big explanation of this...but my head hurts as it is...and I just want this done with. I plan on doing more pages in the near future, and actually having the Glossary page do something (lol). But this is what it looks like now.

Web S.o.S.

For those that are Stressed...Have some Comical Relief

2009-03-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

Doing what I do best, (which is searching the web for random things) I came across two images that I thought I'd share with everyone. One, I think is just cute...the other pertains more to class....So Enjoy.

Tech Rings Words

2009-03-25T13:49:00.001-04:00

This tutorial was a pain in my butt....but than I figured out what I was doing wrong. And it was easy after that.

A good size to start out doing this with is about 8 x 8, you can use whatever size you want...just make sure that it it a square...or your rings will be oblong.

Now just start making about 6 rectangle designs that span all the way across the page. not too close to each other. These rectangle designs shouldn't be just plan rectangles make sure they have inset and "grooves".

after doing that all you do is go to

Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates(make sure it says rectangle to polar)
Edit>Transform>Distort (pull on corners till you like what it looks like)
than you can add whatever you want...I decided to just do what the tutorial did. Which is add an Outer Glow and a Gradient Background

Tech Rings.....

2009-03-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

Duct Tape Image

2009-03-17T20:26:00.001-04:00

Duct Tape

2009-03-17T19:36:00.000-04:00

Virtual Duct Tape

With this tutorial, I created Duct Tape.

The tutorial is very easy to follow and explains thing fairly well.

So How to Make Duct Tape:

Open a new document in Photoshop, mine is 540 x 300, Resolution: 72
Create New layer [you will eventually put a background on the first layer]; Name Layer: Tape
Using the Rectangular Marquee tool create the shape of a piece of tape, fill this rectangle with the color #949494; deselect object
Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white,
Choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise from the main menu. Set amount to 6% and make sure that Uniform and Monochromatic are checked then click OK.
Choose Filter>Texture>Texturizer from the main menu; Texture: Canvas, Scaling: 85%, Relief: 4 and Light to Top Left then click OK.
Go to Edit>Fade Texturizer; set to 50%
Double click to "Tape" layer name to bring up the Layer Style Dialog box. Click on Bevel and Emboss
Style: Inner Bevel
Technique: Smooth
Depth: 1
Direction: Up
Size: 1
Soften: 0
Angle: 120
Use Global Light: Checked
Altitude: 30
Gloss Contour: Default
Highlight Mode: Screen [white]
Opacity: 60
Shadow Mode: Multiply [Black]
Opacity: 30
While still in the Layer Style dialog Box, under Bevel and Emboss; Click Texture, choose the pattern from the Patterns option that looks like a grid.
Scale: 15
Depth: +250
Invert: checked
Link w/ Layer: checked
Hit OK
Use the Lasso Tool [make sure you don't have the magnet lasso tool select....makes things harder...trust me.] to take part of the outside pieces of the "tape" off [to make it look kinda torn on the edges]

Now to create the "bubbles" that always appear with Duct Tape:

Make a new Layer.
Again Pull up the Layer Style dialog box [click OK after making changes]
Make sure on the initial page that shows up to change the Fill Opacity to 0(zero)
Bevel and Emboss [again]
Style: Inner Bevel
Tech: Smooth
Depth: 140
Direction: Up
Size: 5
Soften: 0
Angle: 120
Use Global Light: Checked
Altitude: 30
Gloss Contour: default
Highlight Mode: Screen [white]
Opacity: 100
Shadow Mode: Multiple [black]
Opacity: 70
Use the lasso tool [again] and create different [non-perfect circles, lines (of different thicknesses and length) and whatever shapes you want, that look like tape bubbles. When you have each shape completed with the lasso tool, press Command+Delete, and it will automatically incorporate the style created in the last step. Make as many wrinkles/bubbles as you like.
Control+Click on layer and Create Layer Mask, this will take of the bubbles/wrinkles that extended out over the edge of the tape to disappear.

That is how you Create Duct Tape...you can add writing on top of it, just change the Blend Mode (in the Layer Style dialog box) to Overlay.

2009-03-11T18:25:00.001-04:00

Grunge Photo.....

2009-03-11T18:00:00.000-04:00

So...I kinda really like playing with different things you can do to photos. In this tutorial....I made a photo look Grunge...and it's kinda really easy.

There's a lot of filters.
And than a layer mask.
Than a gradient mask
and finally
a Selective Color mask

The site I got the tutorial from is really easy to follow.

Grunge Photo Tutorial

Fire Line_Info

2009-02-25T17:35:00.000-05:00

So...This fiery line can be used for just about anything...in the tutorial that I got it from, Anothera, they used the lines to accent an image. But since I didn't have that image or an image similar to it, I just did a little squiggly with the tutorial.

But it's easy to put around an image, and I'll explain the difference after I explain how to do a fire line in general.

To create Line [NOT around an image]
1. Open up a document
2. Use the pen tool and create the length and curve of the line you want.
3. In the Path Palette, name the path you just created [double click on it]
4. Click on the Brush Tool.
5. In the Brush Palette choose a brush stroke that has a feather around it [5 pt works great]
6. Back in the Path Palette, Ctr click the desired path, and choose Stroke Path, from little drop down menu.
7. Make sure that Brush is chosen, and whether or not Stimulate Pressure is checked is up to you. [All it does is make it look more hand drawn, if it's checked]
8. In your Layers Palette, Ctrl click on the layer that now has our brush stroked path, and click on Blending Options.
9. In the Blending Options window you will us multiple things.
a. Click and Check the Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, and Inner Glow tabs
b. Click so you are working with the Inner Shadow preferences.

Settings for Inner Shadow:
Blending Mode: Multiple, color: black
Opacity: 31%
Angle: 73 [make sure Use Global Light is checked]
Distance: 1
Choke: 0
Size: 0
Contour: [diagonal from lower left to top right] make sure Anti-aliased is checked

c. Click so you are working with the Outer Glow preferences.
Settings for Outer Glow
Blend Mode: Lighten
Opacity: 75
Noise: 0
Color: any bright red
Technique: Softer
Spread: 0
Size 10
Contour: [diagonal from lower left to top right] make sure Anti-aliased is checked
Range: 55
Jitter: 0

d. Click so you are working with the Inner Glow preferences.
Settings for Inner Glow
Blend Mode: Color Dodge
Opacity: 75
Noise: 0
Color: any bright yellow
Technique: Softer
Source: Edge
Choke: 33
Size: 158
Contour: [diagonal from lower left to top right] make sure Anti-aliased is NOT checked
Range: 50
Jitter: 0

10. Duplicate the layer you just made [making sure it is on top of your other one]
11. On that layer go to the Blending Options Panel [like before]
12. Uncheck Inner Shadow and Inner Glow
13. In the Outer Glow change your settings to:
Blend Mode: Lighten
Opacity: 75
Noise: 0
Color: same red
Technique: Softer
Spread: 3
Size: 32
Contour: [diagonal from lower left to top right] make sure Anti-aliased is checked
Range: 55
Jitter: 0
----------------------
lol...not that that is all done....you have a Flame Line...you can change any of the settings that you want, to get the desired affect that you want.

To put that around an image...just upload your image and put it on a separate layer....visualize the line in the photo that you want it to take. than you will just take your pen tool, and draw it to wrap around where you want to it. DO NOT worry about what it would look like when you "go behind" the image....because you are just going to erase that part of the line [after you create the path as a brush stroke]. but all the other steps are the same.

Also you can add other brush stokes to get your flame to have some flare, you would just add those brush strokes before you go into the Blending Options.

lol...I am done talking now.

Fire Line_Img

2009-02-25T17:15:00.000-05:00

Mock Webpages....After Critique

2009-02-23T17:43:00.000-05:00

There's are my revised webpage layouts. Still done only in Photoshop.

Mock Webpages.....

2009-02-18T18:10:00.000-05:00

Here are my first initial designs for my definition site. There are just Photoshop files to help me have an understanding of what I want to do, before I go into Dreamweaver.

The first is my homepage. The colors is not set in stone or anything, and neither are the fonts.

This second page is the page that will show up, when you click on one of the 3 major links. The Glossary page will have a different layout for this. Again colors and fonts are not set in stone.

This my initial design for the third layer of pages which will consist of the actual definitions on it. Of course with all of these, the "flamey line" is not stuck to be looking like that.

Key Commads for Photoshop

2009-02-11T18:03:00.000-05:00

So, while doing the color removal, I did some key command that I had no idea, what was...than had to figure out how to reverse it....so I decided to look up all the commands, so I figured others would like access to them also.

I printed them out and they are on the board, but here is the link also.

Key Commands

Color Removal.....is quite fun.

2009-02-11T17:26:00.001-05:00

I remember being taught how to keep color on one part of an image before, and it had something to do with creating a path, blah, blah, blah....very annoying....but this...this is easy.....

So, all you have to do.....
Click and hold on the brush tool...(So that little drop down menu appears)
And change it to the "Color Replacement Tool"
Than all you do, is use it like a paintbrush, and "paint" over everything you want changed to gray-scale....photoshop does the rest for you. You don't have to worry about shading or tinting....just paint away.

My one suggestion is to always zoom in to do around the edges of the part you are keeping colored, and to make sure all other parts get totally painted....some small pixels may be missed, and you can't see them unless you are zoomed in.

Mood Boards

2009-02-09T19:13:00.000-05:00

These mood boards are here so that the feel of my site is portrayed.
Since my site it not going to use any real images (only textual images), my mood boards do not show any images. The mood board smooth has an image of rocks but only because they emphasize the feeling of "smooth".

Smooth: Real calm, clean, and relaxing. I am not wanting people to get overwhelmed with the fact that this is a definition based site. I want people to be able to use my site with ease, and not feel that they can't find what they look for.

Simple: This site feel would be really simple. Nothing would really stand out. Just something really simple, clean, and easily navigate. No extravagant colors, just a really simple background, to "cool" colors...like blues and greens, along with white and black.

Vibrant: The last design feel that I want to try and portray is something more lively than the previous two. I want it to "pop" off the screen, but still be easy to navigate, and very clean.

Connotative Words

2009-02-09T18:53:00.000-05:00

For my site...I had to think of words to associate with how I wanted my site to look. The words I choose were Smooth, Simple, and Vibrant. I don't think I am going to use all these words and combine them together, but I will most likely use two of them together.

I want my site to be smooth, and easy to navigate.
I want my site to be simple, accessible, and controlled.
I don't want my site to be boring. This is a definition site, but definitions don't have to be boring.
I also don't want my site to be cluttered.

Site layouts/feels that I want to avoid are most clothing sites....they have so much going on, but not enough space to have breathing room.

Simple Wire Frames

2009-02-09T18:41:00.000-05:00

This is a general layout of where things are going to be on the Web definition site that I am currently creating. These are really simple, and advance ones are coming soon. The top one is the layout for the Homepage, second one is the Secondary pages (which are Basics, Codes, and Design Process), and the last one is the page layout for the actual definition pages.

Project 1-Site Map

2009-01-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

So, I am creating a website, that will consist of terms used in web design. This site is going to be easy to understand and navigate along with have some articles and tutorials on some of the words that will be provided within. This site map and the looking up of definitions of all the words was created by myself, Bonnie R., and Shamica. The rest of the site including the rest of the planning process along with the creative and production process will be done solely by myself