Self-Promotion Signatures

Using Illustrator we were asked to create a series of signatures using our initials and full names. The idea was to create something that could be used as a means of self-promotion. These are a few of my favorites.

Midterm- Illustrator/Photoshop self-portrait

For our midterm we were required to create a self-portrait using the Illustrator trace technique and the background for it had to be done in Photoshop. We were suppose to use our letters of introduction from the first day of class as inspiration. For my background I combined a few different things that I felt were important in my life or had some sort of impact on who I am today. I included a photo of the Eiffel Tower I took in Paris when I visited Europe the summer after my senior year, a map of my hometown of Harleysville, a photo of Tyler as well as the seal of Temple University, a couple figure drawings I had done as well as the invitation to my high school art show. In Photoshop I mainly changed the opacity of the pictures and in some cases the exposure and color balance to get to a point where every photo could be seen and was not being obstructed by or obstructing the view of something else. I created the self-portrait in Illustrator using the trace technique we were taught in class and treated it the same way I did the photos when I brought it into Photoshop. Overall I'm fairly happy with the final product. I found it difficult to create something that incorporated multiple aspects of my life without looking cluttered, and this was my third or fourth attempt at it. I'm interested to see what it will look like printed.

Text Drawings

Using Illustrator and only the text tools, we had to create four text drawings: a six word autobiography, expressive, representational and non-representational.

Vector Portrait

Using a picture of myself taken on a scanner in the lab, I had to create a vector portrait using Illustrator. I actually really enjoyed this project despite the amount of time it took to finish.

Cardinal

 

For my first time using the pen tool I was required to recreate a cardinal using a photograph found on the internet. I used the pen tool to create all my basic shapes, the eye dropper tool to match coloring, and opacity mainly for the background and different parts of the bird.

Pattern

In Illustrator we had to create a pattern which would then be laser cut at the Tyler printing center.
For my pattern I created a basic anchor shape using the basic geometric shapes and direct selection tool in Illustrator.

Illustrator homework 1: Self-portrait and interest

For our first Illustrator homework assignment we were told to create a self-portrait and illustrate one of our interests relying on the geometric shapes and tools available in Adobe Illustrator. For my self-portrait I create a basic outline of myself and tried to highlight some of my more obvious characteristics (i.e. my brown hair, the type of clothing I typically wear) using basic shapes and colors. For my interest I chose to create an iPod playing music since listening to music is one of my biggest hobbies. Once again, I kept it simple and tried to use only basic shapes to create the image.

Photoshop Ethics

Upon doing some research online regarding photoshop and ethics, one question seemed to be reoccurring: when is it okay to digitally alter an image, and how much is okay? These days, photographers seem to have a set of rules and guidelines to follow as far as digitally altering images goes. But how much altering is too much? I continually came across the story of a man named Brian Walski who lost his job in 2003 after combining two photos of the war in Iraq and passing it off as one. There were several other similar stories of photojournalists who had been fired or suspended for altering their images too much. But just how much is too much? We live in a world based around our computers and now that photoshop is here it isn't going anywhere. Asking a photographer to take a photo and leave it 'as is' without any editing at all isn't going to happen. But the problem is figuring out where to draw the line.
It's not just in photojournalism, either. Ad campaigns all over the globe are getting into trouble for digitally altering either their products or models to the point that what is being advertised isn't what really existed at the time the photo was taken. Is it okay to edit out the blemish on a model's face but not okay to shrink her waistline? Everyone knows that the models you see in any advertisement for any product have been altered in some way, but we still continue to do it and companies continue to get in trouble for not only over-editing their ads, but setting a bad example for the young boys and girls seeing these ads.
Personally, I think we too often go too far with photoshop. It's gotten to the point that when we take pictures instead of focusing on the composition or trying to get the best shot possible at that time, we instead go "Oh, if it doesn't turn out right I'll just edit it later." It's one thing to fix a blemish on a model's face or alter the color of a tree to make it brighter, but it's another thing entirely to change the photo to the extent that it represents something that was never even there. If you're going to use photoshop to that extent, then at least make it completely known that that was the case. But passing off a heavily edited picture as something that was completely natural and untouched by computer software is dishonest.

The Brian Walski photo:

Five articles I found on photoshop ethics:
1. http://sundial.csun.edu/2010/03/the-ethics-of-photoshop-and-photojournalism/
2. http://www.all-things-photography.com/photography-ethics.html
3. http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/post.php?id=425
4. http://digitalnewsjournalist.com/2010/04/21/photo-ethics-in-the-age-of-adobe-photoshop-cs5/
5. http://lauri-the-artist.com/ethics-of-photoshop/

Homework Collage #2

In-class Collage

My First Collage Attempt via Photoshop

Final Collage


Original Photos used in collage...

The Suppression of Creativity: A Response

When I first glanced at the video of Larry Lessig I immediately thought that I would be bored. Pretty much anytime a professor gives me a video to watch it consists of some professional lecturing about a subject using terms I don't understand. I wasn't really expecting much different of this one. But I am happy to say that I was wrong, and made that judgement a bit to quickly. Not only does Lessig bring up great points about the relationship between creativity and today's technology, but he does it in such a way that is easy to understand and humorous.
The main point behind the presentation was to discuss how today's laws regarding copyright are inhibiting creativity among people, mainly today's youth. He brings up the point that today, instead of encouraging kids to use amazing sites like Flickr, Youtube and other creative outlets, we're taking the things they do create and using our laws to turn them into internet pirates. If a 10 second clip of a cartoon is used or a 30 second snippet of a song is played as background to a video, the law is jumping on these people and calling them thieves for using a piece of media protected by a copyright.
I am an avid Youtube watcher. I enjoy perusing videos in my spare time (and when I should be doing schoolwork) and I know many people my own age who use the site to upload their own videos. Personally, I think the entire idea of Youtube is amazing. The fact that you can take your webcam or camera and use it to create whatever you want and share it with the rest of the world in just a simple click is astounding. But there have been many times when I've watched a video that someone my age has put up, bookmarked it and gone back to watch it again later, only to find it was taken down due to copyright infringement.
I understand that the artists who create these pieces of media want to protect their work and they have a right to that, but at the same time I find it very hard to believe that a 14 year old kid using a song in a homemade video is really out to rid that band of their earnings. In order to create anything anymore you have to jump through countless hoops and hurtles to make sure you're not breaking the law. I think Larry Lessig made a great point when he stated that we're taking today's youth, who just want to use this amazing technology to create something of their own, and turning them into pirates.
Now, more than ever, we have so many tools and outlets at our fingertips that we can use to create whatever we want. This freedom of creativity should be encouraged, not stifled. We should be telling kids to use the cameras, microphones and computers available in almost every home in this country and get to work creating whatever they want. We shouldn't be telling them to let it go to waste in fear of breaking the law.

Larry Lessig

A Walk Through Philly

This past Sunday I went a walk through the Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia. One of the great things about going to a school like Temple is you're only a short subway ride away from the heart of the city, with all of it's best features at your fingertips. After a bit of uncomfortable walking through the rain (next time my roommates and I will remember to check the weather forecast before we leave the apartment) we meandered our way down Walnut, wandered over to Chestnut and stopped for a quick bite to eat in the park.
The walk itself was fairly typical of any stroll throughout the city, but the fact that I knew I needed to photograph it definitely changed the way I looked at things. Feeling a bit touristy, I had my camera clutched in my right hand for the duration of the trip and I found myself searching for things I deemed interesting enough to photograph. I found myself looking up a lot more, trying to find good shots of the buildings above and looking at the scenic park below. The objects I collected are things that I acquired throughout the day from shops I visited and places I stopped by.
This is my second year at Temple and I've lived less than an hour's drive from the city my whole life but I realized while going on this walk that I kind of take it for granted. This was probably the first time out of the hundred times I've visited the city that I actually bothered to stop and take a picture of something. Typically I'm too busy chatting or moving about or planning my next step that I never really think to document the experiences I have in the city.
The pictures themselves are nothing crazy. I don't have an amazing eye for photography so most of what I came up with were scenic views of the park or views of the buildings and sidewalk that I found interesting. But looking back on them it's definitely cool to see a picture I took and think, "I remember exactly when I took that, why I took that, and what I was doing when it happened." To me that's the best part of photographs. The images themselves are nice, but more often the memories associated with them are even better.

Good Intentions: Are they as good as we think they are?

Does creating a goal help us work harder at the activities we engage in? Or does it really have a negative impact on the entire experience? The article "How Goals and Good Intentions Can Hold Us Back" by Christian Jarrett explores the notion that making a long-term goal can make any activity less enjoyable. 

In a study done by The University of Chicago and the Korea Business School, experts looked at various groups of people engaging in various activities and measured their amount of happiness after doing that activity. People who participated in exercise, yoga and origami were all observed and at the end of each trial it was found that those who went into each activity with a set goal in mind were not only less satisfied with the overall experience than those who had no goal, but also did not perform as well.

People who exercised with a goal in mind not only were less happy by the end of their exercise, but were also found to have exercised for less time than those who had no apparent goal. Women who engaged in yoga for sheer pleasure were found to have a much better experience than those who went in with a goal in mind. The same thing occurred with those doing origami just for the joy of it, and those who did it to reap its benefits.

The study explained in this article raises an interesting idea. Thinking back on the goals that I've made for various things, I believe that there is some merit to this idea. When I make a goal, whether it's in school or some outside activity, I usually spend more time thinking of the goal than I do the actual task.Will I accomplish my goal? When will I accomplish it by? Will I accomplish it at all? I'm always focused on these questions more than what I'm actually doing. These questions can be stressful and can in fact take away from any enjoyment I could have in whatever I'm doing.

For instance, when I am drawing or painting at home I'm typically quite happy. It's relaxing and I work well. But when I have an assignment for school that I'm working on, I find that I'm much more stressed and less pleased doing it. This is because I have a desire to succeed and a goal to fulfill on that project that I don't have working on something at home or during my free time. The pressure to do well on that assignment and get a good grade and create a piece my teacher and classmates will approve of ends up being detrimental to my work as a whole.

Creating a goal creates a pressure to follow through and achieve it. We fear that if we do not follow through and achieve what we set our goal to be that we will be dissatisfied and the time and energy put into that activity will be wasted. I personally believe that goals are an important part of life. Having something to strive for can be a great thing. But maybe we just need to take some of the pressure and stress off of achieving these goals and be content to do the best we can.