“I welcome new technologies. My mind is capable of easily learning new things and grasping new concepts.”
It is taking every fiber of my core to channel Bob Ross tonight, looking for anything resembling Joy. First it was the Daily Create that stumped me because I couldn’t figure out how to flatten a file–layering a bubble on top of the image then making it one .jpg file. So I reached out to some folks and while waiting for a response I decided to work on this assignment, #210, called “Based on 1-Quote-A-Day Project!!”
The object is to record a quote you read out loud, and with feeling! So I read it with two different emotions. The first reading is how I currently feel about my ability with technology (especially tonight as I tackle Twitter); and the second reading in the spirit of Bob and his effusive joy at his work and in life. I do need that joy in my life; it’s what I’ve been thinking about since August. Perhaps I’m meant to be here, in this space, reading this quote, and gaining joy in this way, with electrons. Who knows.
As you can see, I’m behind on my calendar since today is Thursday, Jan 20. Or you might say God has a sense of humor and left it there for me to cogitate during Week Two of DS 106.
Got the Twitter problem solved, so got this recording done using the Voice Recorder on my laptop. After writing up a quick script–I never go unscripted, I cleared my throat, had some water, did a little vocal exercise, checked the volume and did the recording. I played it back to see how it sounded and I realized I used the wrong word twice, was too close to the mike and needed a do-over. No worries, that’s what scripts are for. I made a couple of notations on the script where I messed up so I wouldn’t do it again then did the recording again. This time it was better and good enough.
I uploaded it to SoundCloud. This is my first time uploading to SC and it took awhile to figure out how to do that, and figure out that my file is a “stream.” Then I needed to embed it to WordPress, so I opened up the embed here on the draft post so I knew where I was going to put the URL. After that, I went to SC to create the URL and I got confused. I found where I could “Share” and there was both a URL and a button to Embed. So I clicked on embed but that URL was wrong so I copied the other URL and that seems to be the correct one, at least it looks fine on the Preview. But nothing happened. After over an hour of trial and error, I finally remembered that I cut and paste the URL where the audio file resides, and paste that into the embed box at WP. Finally.
Before publishing, I think it’s important to write the quote in the text of the blog so everyone can see it when they are listening to the recording. I didn’t do a close captioning for this one, and my enunciation may not be perfect so repeating the quote in text is important. Also, it’s redundant but makes the point to have the photo of it next to my technology. Does that make it “tongue in cheek”??
I made a stickie note to remind me in the future to cut and pasted the URL where the file is located for embedding. Maybe that will save me a lot of minutes and frustration in the future. It’s now after midnight and I tried SO hard to beat the clock tonight. So just a quiet Namaste, and to all a Good Night.
https://t.co/pKDZYUKsP7 the perfect song that encapsulates the confusing the feeling of missing someone, but hating them for everything they did to you all at the same time. it's going forward and moving backwards simultaneously. #ds106
This is the map of my solo road trip I took last summer from Richmond, Virginia to Mt. Vernon, Maine. The black line shows where I drove to on the first day of my trip, and the orange shows the last day of my drive. Continuing scrolling to see more details about my East Coast road trip!Here is the map of where my road trip started–my home. I left early in the morning and stopped for gas in Pennsylvania. One of the most stressful but cool parts of my trip was driving through New York City. I drove through Yonkers and the Bronx and got to see a beautiful view from the George Washington Bridge. I did get lost a couple times, but it was a cool drive and I am proud of myself for conquering this drive. As you can imagine, the traffic in NYC was absolutely insane and I had never experienced driving on a highway like that before. Here is a map of where I stayed the night of the first day of my trip. I stayed in an Airbnb in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was my first time being in CT and I loved driving around and look at the stereotypical New England homes and the coast. Here are two pictures of my final destination of my two day long solo road trip. I got to camp in the early afternoon and was immediately thrown into the hustle and bustle of it. I really did enjoy my trip and it felt like a major step into adulthood. After this summer, I have had the bug for roadtripping even more.
This is the first in a series of 3 posts with the same assignment, but the assignment is done differently each time.
As per the title, first up is a set of Christian contemporary music.
When I saw the assignment “10 second song mashup” in the ds106 assignment bank, I thought, “Huh. That sounds like it could be cool.” Here are the instructions:
“This is some sort of variation on Katy Chase’s The Contest That Nobody Could Win assignment, but instead of clips from a TV show or movie, do clips from your favorite songs and see if anyone can guess what they are. Or at least the artist. Do two or three second clips using 4 or 5 songs. Make them all different. Use SoundCloud to post!”
3.5 stars
My modifications:
Make the mashup about 30 seconds long
Do it by topic or genre
Don’t use SoundCloud
Not enforcing the “can anyone guess” thing
When I was first considering what to do for this assignment, I thought of all different songs and genres. I didn’t want to only do favorite songs. So, I decided to do three different versions of this assignment: Christian contemporary music, Christian rock music, and rock music.
Here’s the first mix.
30 seconds of Christian contemporary music
Songs
Write Your Story by Francesca Battistelli – “They say You’re the king of everything / the One who taught the wind to sing”
Joy by Newsboys – “If life’s a battle, the invasion is complete / if it’s a rhythm, I have found the perfect beat”
Shout to the Lord by Hillsong Australia – “I sing for joy at the work of your hands / forever I’ll love You, forever I’ll stand”
I used Audacity to make the mashup. I first had to convert the songs to a .wav format because Audacity was not a fan of my iTunes files and insisted on another format. So, once I had them in Audacity, I quickly clipped the parts I wanted and stuck them together. I realized that including all of the clips would be more than 10 seconds, so I decided to make it 30 seconds (or 28, if you’re being picky). I followed the same format for all of hte
Before I get into explaining why I picked each song, I want to note that I created a mashup of Christian songs because my faith is a key part of my life. I did not create it to shove my beliefs down anyone’s throat; I made it because both music and my faith as a Christian are important to me, and I wanted to invite people into those parts of my life. If I chose to only create a mashup of rock music, I’d be holding back out of fear of disapproval. I want to share things I make without that fear. (I talk about this a little more here.)
“Write Your Story” is a song by Francesca Battistelli—an artist I’ve seen in concert and whose music made up a lot of what I listened to in my preteen and early teen years. I love many of her songs, but this is one of my favorites. The lines “They say You’re the king of everything / the One who taught the wind to sing” are beautiful and so poetic.
“Joy” is a song I first heard on the radio and instantly fell in love with. I remember replaying it over and over again for weeks after I first heard it. I still absolutely love it. Newsboys infuse their music with a earnest sense of, well, joy, and that very evidently comes through in this song. The lyrics “If life’s a battle, the invasion is complete / if it’s a rhythm, I have found the perfect beat” refer to the freedom, peace, and happiness found in Christ. Not only do I think those lyrics are amazing, but the music at that point feels very catchy.
“Shout to the Lord” is a song that I grew up hearing in church. There are several others like this that stir up feelings of nostalgia and a desire to truly worship God in song. I don’t really know how to describe it. The lyrics and the people singing them are so worshipful and passionate, and even just listening without singing along makes me feel so much love for the Lord. The words “I sing for joy at the work of Your hands / forever I’ll love You, forever I’ll stand” ring with steadfast trust in Him, and this is a song that reminds me that He is king of all and that He is all-powerful and loving.
I saw this option for assignments we could pick and I knew I HAD to do it. This is just some. I am always on TikTok so I always see workout videos like this. However, I never see them using Mini Bands though. So I knew it was my Time to shine.
This certain exercises I got from one of my favorite Orange Theory Coaches for her quarantine edition workout package. They are KILLER. I normally do them a lot with this exact set and reps so it was fun.
Again I used TikTok to make the video. I added the Title describing the workout and what you needed. Then had how long you were doing everything for. They showed all the certain exercises and how to do them.
It is a Mini Band workout.
4 Rounds
20 Reps
5 Different Exercises.
1st Donkey Kicks
2nd Squats
3rd In & Outs
4th Glutei Bridge
5th Glute Bridge In & Outs
I do this a lot and really love feeling the Burn of the Mini Band!
Howdy! This is Sterling, back with another week of content. This assignment began as one and kind of turned into another. My original intent was to do a modified form of “Exercise And Socialize” by Jeremy Hillberry, which has the following description: “Neighborhood walks used to be a good form of exercise and a good way to meet your neighbors. Nowadays, exercise is at the gym and socializing is online. Record a video of yourself taking a neighborhood walk and play a song in the backgorund of the video that your neighbors would enjoy. Get out there, exercise and socialize!” It is rated 2.5 stars.
I’m pretty camera shy as you will find out from the video, though I needed to get out of the house for a bit and figured I would record it. This lead to me doing a bit of narration, which made it morph a bit into “VLOG ONE DAY” by Eric, rated 3 stars. “For one day, attempt to vlog your day! What did you today? What was your favorit part about today? Who did you encounter? Let’s hear all about it!” Of course, this is quite abridged since it only centers on one walk. It also deviates from the ‘socialize’ part of the first assignment because, well, I’m practicing social distancing. And I don’t know my neighbors well enough to play music for them.
In brainstorming this assignment, I had some clear, cinematic ideas as you can tell by the clips of me getting ready to leave and opening doors. It took a lot of revisions because half of my in-house clips I had recorded in portrait mode rather than landscape. Eventually, though, I made it out the door and I found myself stumped. Vloggers don’t seem to have it as easy as I thought. I consider myself a pretty decent conversationalist, and I knew I had a lot to talk about regarding COVID-19 and my feelings on social distancing. However, as soon as I pressed the record button, I was lost for words. I was suddenly hyper-aware of the people around me even though they were several feet away.
I didn’t want to make it obvious I was recording, so I recorded my feet as I walked. I got to greet a neighbor as well. I had to delete and speed up a lot of clips of my shoes since I imagine they get quite boring after a while. Finally, I arrived at the plaza that has the grocery store. It was alarming to see so many store closures: they weren’t like that last time I was out. Marty’s (a restaurant) is only doing takeout. The beer shop is leaving. The nail salon has clearly closed. It isn’t shown, but the Great Clips that is always open has closed its doors. That is why my family and I are doing our best to support local restaurants when we can. I hadn’t considered the impact on cosmetology businesses: those involve close contact and tools used multiple times.
Then, I went into Kroger. There was a surprising number of people there. I found that the best solution was to make it into a montage of sorts so as to avoid filming people directly. The toilet paper carnage was interesting to witness for myself. Practicing social distancing was difficult: it was quite packed, and as I remark in my video, I couldn’t maintain six feet between myself and others. I also saw quite a few people I knew, and it would’ve been impossible to talk more then 4 feet apart. The end of the video tends more towards this “vlog” format as I attempt to gauge in conversation (but keep looking in the distance anyways). Definitely turned into word vomit at the end, but I hope you could garner something from it.
While I enjoyed my massage, I worked on editing the video with my phone. My first step was to delete all of the clips I messed up on (I’ve locked the door more times than I have unlocked it). After that, I still had about 60 clips to combine, crop, and edit. The app I used was YouCut: a free phone app that one can use to edit videos. It features all of the basic editing functions one might need to put together a decent video. I separated my clips into 5 sections: getting ready, walking to the store, inside the store, heading home from the store, and final words. Each section was between 1 and 2 minutes.
As you can see, YouCut offers quite a few editing options. My first step was to trim the cut down to omit the parts where I am turning the camera on or off. Then, I muted the audio if it was a montage clip and sped it up (walking was 1.6x). In clips like the one where I say goodbye to my big gray cat, it was all in that one recording. Therefore, I had to split the walking part from the cat part in order to speed it up as I wished. Finally, I combined all of my parts and put a brightening filter over all of the footage. Overall, it took around two hours to edit. It probably would’ve been easier if I used something like Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere, but I wanted to curl up and make a day out of this.
My next step was to edit the audio. I uploaded the video to my computer and then used a MP4 to MP3 converter to allow me to edit it in Audacity. I did a quick little clean-up where I took out some wind and unnecessary background noise. I did not edit my voice much since it was difficult to eliminate some of the background sounds. After that, I layered Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi on top (from a YouTube to MP3 converter) since it matched my video length exactly. I made sure to de-amplify the sound a little bit whenever I spoke. Then, I returned to YouCut and muted the sound from the original video, replacing it with my new mix. This part took another couple of hours since everything took so long to download
There you have it! Overall, the exercise portion of this assignment was certainly beneficial given our current circumstances. It allowed me to think of ways I should take care of myself physically, mentally, and socially. I feel like it would be a very fun assignment otherwise if someone is more familiar and comfortable with their neighbors. The vlog part was certainly a new experience. I completely recommend it; we watch YouTubers daily, but do we ever put thought into what work goes into their process? I have a newfound appreciation for them after completing this assignment. Can I advocate that this project is worth at least 5 stars?
Oh, and my message at the end of the video isn’t very clear: I mostly wanted to say that it is hard to socialize with others, so we should use this time to socialize with ourselves. Please note that I do intend to privatize this video at the end of the semester since it advertises my location.
Pop Art – Roy Lichtenstein WHAAM! (diptych), 1984 (1963) | Lithograph | Sold for $21,250
Graphing A Story
Every great story has a rise, a fall, and a conclusion. But not every story has them in that order. Some stories have characters starting off poor and end up wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Some stories follow the demise of powerful individuals or regimes by incredible ordinary people. Stories are designed to sell you on an interaction or experience someone has encountered and make you feel as though you were with them every step of the way. Feeling every emotion they felt, breathing every breath they took. good storytelling is more than starting from nothing and gaining everything. Good storytelling should invoke feelings of great empathy, true fear, and never-ending wonderment.
Kurt Vonnegut’s “Story Shapes” help facilitate a visual understanding of how stories are told. This conceptual idea of graphing the ups and downs of important story moments is not new, but nevertheless fascinating. when taking a look at the graphs of Cinderella, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, they are similar, yet different. Each movie begins with a nobody, that nobody finds a purpose, discovers something about either themselves or the world around them, and makes out victorious in the end, triumphing over evil.
For my chosen additional article to read, I chose The History and Evolution of Pop art by Heritage Editorial. The art of the 80s has always been so captivating. From the bright, bold colors to the subtle glances into the dark, capitalistic mindsets of Americans nationwide. Founded through an obsession with consumerism and POPular culture, Pop Art paved the way for new artists to expose the American people’s true habits and beliefs. As far as the article structure goes, the Kurt Vonnegut Shape Graph would look like a high frequency waveform. Bouncing up and down quickly between history lessons on certain artists and locations of new art styles.
When asked to analyze similar 1980s concepts, Pop Art influenced the entire decade. Glorifying popular movie stars and painting soup cans displayed America’s ever-growing interest in mass-produced goods and the entertainment lifestyle we consume. Storytelling through pictures and collages (Rauschenberg, Johns, Rosenquist) helps sear the idea of combined realities into the everyday American citizen. The 1980s were a time of freedom and bold thinking. For every citizen living their day no differently, there were 4 others trying to live life on their own terms. It is my opinion that I believe in the 1980s, we were more likely to take care of one another. neighborhoods could be walked alone at night with no fear, parents and kids lived happy and ignorant to the world around them. In today’s age, every single aspect of how America is run is being shoved in your face, no matter your age. The 1980s had James Rosenquist, we have Banksy. Both artists represent a side of the country we do not want to see or hear about.
The article did an excellent job providing historical storytelling with real examples of the artists’ work; Not being bogged down by artistic lingo or droning anecdotes about irrelevant information.
Writing Done Right
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius
Another Day
When faced with another day, we grow with anticipation or anxiety. Excitement or dread. What could happen today? Anything. A dog being walked by their owner could walk right up and demand love from a complete stranger. The love of your life could be having breakfast on the same street you decided to take your car to for an oil change. I see a world of endless possibilities. I see a cloudy day filled with endless sunlight just waiting around the corner. Trees, flowers, old brick buildings; they all remain stagnant, waiting for an outside force to change them. Maybe change comes from within. Maybe growth lies in the realization that with every new day, you will experience excitement instead of dread.
– C.M.
Facing Your Fears
How many people can you name with a fear of heights? A lot, right? What about spiders? Way too many. Hell, even snakes or crawl spaces. We all know someone that can stand any of these (rightfully so) terrifying things. But I believe I have a fear that is quite unique. Would you like to know what that fear might be?
Moths.
Yep. Moths. The tiny, little, rejected butterflies that live off that delectable lamp light. Here is what I think goes through a moth’s head when they have the audacity to be in my presence…
Ah, what a beautiful summers night it is. All my friends are flying around, having the time of their lives, smacking their heads against the Johnson’s newest porch light. It really is the nicest on the block, let me tell you. Oh, what is that? That person opened their door to let their dog out. It has some weird perm haircut. I don’t understand this whole “1980s aesthetic” these people are doing these days. It’s the perfect opportunity for me to see what the ~inside~ lifestyle is like. Fantastic, flew right in with no problems at all. It’s so strange how my flight pattern is so sporadic and uncomfortably fast compared to the other bugs that I’m friends with. Oh well, its what makes me unique I suppose.
Wow! He has ANOTHER light on upstairs in his tiny mirror room, I want to go check it out! OH MY GOD, HE LOCKED ME IN HERE WITH HIM, WHY WOULD HE DO THAT??? I HAVE TO ESCAPE! The only way I know how to escape is to continuously fly into him until he agrees to open the door! Why is he swinging at me??? I’m just trying to leave this terrifying predicament I have gotten myself into!
Oh hey, he’s grabbing a 1985 GQ magazine to hit the door open w-
Poem Parody
An 80s rendition of The Door in the Dark by Robert Frost:
In going from street to street at night, I rode hastily on my Schwinn, But little did I know what I would win, Getting to a friends for an overnight. An Atari game system lay untouched, And hit me with a feeling as though I got punched, My body posture quite crunched. Time and space doesn't matter
when the level I need to beat requires a ladder.
- C.M.
That Bucket List Though
No better time then now to create a list of things I’ve always wanted to do…
Visit a new country with my wife
Exploring new places is fun regardless but when you have someone special with you to enjoy it with, that makes the entire trip more memorable.
Get a tattoo
I have always wanted a tattoo in honor of a special person to me and hopefully one day I will pull the trigger and make an appointment.
Start my own company
Whether it be a clothing company, inventing a new product, or building new homes out of crazy materials, it is a dream of mine.
Design my own custom dream garage
I love cars and having a dream garage completely outfitted with workbenches, cabinets, and car lifts would be amazing.
Go to a drive-in movie in my Jeep
I’ve never been to a drive-in movie and my vehicle would be perfect for it.
Weekly Summary
This week has not been easy. Many personal things have come up, hindering my ability to work on any of my school work. But once I started it, I really got the ball rolling and finished it all within a days work load.
First, I started the readings and watched the assigned videos. I really enjoyed the Shapes of Stories video by Kurt Vonnegut. It was an excellent visual tool to better understand iconic story structure. These readings and videos better helped me understand what makes a story important.
Second, I applied what I learned from the readings and videos to the Pop Art article I read. Breaking down articles by story structure was new to me but it was fascinating learning about the history of Pop Art and how the artists shaped art as we know it today.
Third, I started on my four written assignments for the week. My first assignment was “Another Day” where we had to talk about going outside and observing what is around us and what it could mean. I took that opportunity to look into what a day can provide for you mentally, rather than physically. My second written assignment had me write a story from the perspective of what I fear most. That fear being moths. Moths terrify me because they have no expected flight path and that terrifies me. I need to know what bugs and animals are doing or else it sketches me out. They also love to only touch me when they fly into a crowded room. Nobody else.
My third assignment was to parody a famous poem. I perused the internet for a little bit to find a great poem that wasn’t too short and wasn’t too long. I finally decided on Robert Frost’s “The Door in the Dark” poem. I put my own 1980s spin on it with my favorite old video game system, Atari.
This week had its ups and downs but it ended on a good note and I am thankful for that. looking forward to what next week brings.
I’m still working on getting out of my comfort zone for this class, and as a transition, I decided to do a writing assignment for one of this week’s activities since I’m pretty comfortable with writing. After a little bit of browsing, I saw the Emotional Lyrics assignment and was so excited.
I absolutely love music. In the fifth grade, I started playing the viola and I played it until I graduated high school. This opened a whole new world for me. I was able to play some cello and some violin as well, and I wish that there was more I was able to play.
Music was and has been my outlet for years. I can’t draw, dance, paint, or do anything artistic. I don’t even have a hobby. Playing music was something I finally felt good at doing. After starting to play an instrument, I got really into listening to music as well, especially now that I understood what went into it.
Music has a huge influence on my mood. A bad mood can always be helped or resolved to me simply by listening to pop or uplifting music. If I want to spend some time doing some healthy self-pity, I turn on some sad music until I gradually get into more upbeat music (without realizing) and the feelings resolve.
So, when I saw that this post asked for you to relate an emotion to three songs and explain why, I was super pumped. This is what I live for. And to make it even better, I got to use 80’s music to fit our theme.
Sidenote: I think music from the 80’s is totally awesome. I grew up listening to the 80’s pop hits radio whenever my mom drove us somewhere, and I would listen to my dad’s 80’s rock whenever he drove us somewhere or just wanted to jam out at home. A lot of these songs bring back good childhood memories.
I chose to do a happy emotion, specifically elevated since most music makes me feel that way.
This assignment was difficult in way because I had so many things to choose from. One of the harder things as well was not choosing my favorite songs, but songs that always make me feel uplifted.
Song number 1: Thriller by Michael Jackson. A huge hit from the 1980’s that I would watch kids dance to in school when I was younger. A song that is played at every school dance and wedding.
1. Thriller by M.J. This is one of those songs that makes you immediately think of the music video, which was so influential. I love the energy and the dancing in the video. I can't dance well, but I sure try my best and enjoy myself when it comes on. Instant mood lifter pic.twitter.com/wBlaoRGo2v
Song number 2: Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. Another classic, but in its own way. This song always makes you want to sing your heart out and is a great motivator for whatever you are doing.
2. Don't Stop Believin'. A classic, and maybe an unoriginal choice. This song is so great because no matter what mood you are in, it can always lift your spirits and push you to keep going. Something I listen to a lot when I'm stressed about school!
Song number 3: Come on Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. I first heard this song in Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I really related to this movie because of my emotions of going through high school. Because of my experience in orchestra growing up, I loved the instrumental in this song and how they made it into a pop song that makes you want to dance. (Another similar song – Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli).
3. Come On Eileen. I first heard this song in Perks of Being a Wallflower and fell in love. This song has a strong orchestral component mixed with pop – two things I really enjoy. The orchestral intro always lifts my spirits and then the later pop makes me want to dance.
? In touch with the ground UPS I’m on the hunt down I’m after you FedEx Smell like I sound I’m lost in a crowd And I’m hungry like the wolf ?
Duran ‘Melody’ Duran
I have been hungry like the wolf waiting for the right time to parody that song! My last design assignment was A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing, which tasked designers to:
“Imagine your favorite company whether it be food, clothing, or any other company. Now imagine their enemy or competitor in the business. Your goal for this assignment is to take your favorite company’s trademark image or logo and reinterpret it in a way that reflects the design of its enemy. Look for the elements that make the competitor’s logo what it is. What is the color scheme? Is there any metaphors or hidden meanings? What is the form of the logo? How can you use its balance, proportion, or rhythm? The important thing is to still have the original company’s message and essence within the new design, but masked by the competitor’s look.”
For this design challenge, I decided to use my favorite logo example, FedEx! Why FedEx? Because whomever design the FedEx logo thought carefully about the message that they wanted to convey.
FedEx
Color scheme:
The FedEx color scheme is Purple and Orange. But why those colors? As it turns out, our brains tend to associate certain feelings with certain colors, and designers know this. The purple is a soothing color that conveys sophistication and high quality products. The contrasting orange is an energetic color. These colors together mean: we’re going to get this package to you fast, but we aren’t going to compromise on quality. (Fun Fact: the orange in “Ex” used to designate ‘express,’ while a red “Ex” designated ‘freight.’ The colors were a way of separating individual businesses within the company. But the Purple/Orange combo has become so widely recognized, that the company decided to use it for all FedEx sectors).
Form and Hidden Meanings:
The other great thing about the FedEx logo is in the way that it uses negative space to convey hidden meaning. Take another look at “Ex,” but look at the white space instead. It’s an arrow! Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. The logo designer for FedEx came up with a way to convey expediency by using the letters ‘E’ and ‘X’ to form an arrow. Taken a step further, you can even see that the ‘d’ creates a dot of white space, which makes it look like the arrow is going from point A to some point B really quickly. Our eyes naturally flow from left to right when viewing this logo, and our brains unconsciously think, “hey, that FedEx is pretty fast! I’ll use them to send my package.”
So what about FedEx’s arch-nemesis, UPS?
UPS
Color scheme:
The UPS color scheme is brown and a dark yellow. Where FedEx wanted customers to think of speedy, high quality products, UPS wanted customers to associate their company with reliability, security, and confidence. UPS developed the phrase, “What can brown do for you?” as a play on their brown logo. Seeing that sturdy brown color gives customers a sense of dependability. When we see this logo, we unconsciously think, “hey, that UPS is pretty reliable! I can feel safe knowing that my package will arrive at it’s destination.”
Form and Hidden Meaning:
The UPS logo is actually a shield if you look closely at it (or not closely, the shape is pretty shield-like). But, what you probably didn’t know was that UPS has had 4 iterations of it’s logo throughout the years! (Fun Fact). The first version of the logo was designed in 1916 and was of an eagle carrying a package across a bronze shield with the words, “Swift, safe and sure” as their slogan. In the second version (1937) the eagle was scrapped (aw) and the letters “UPS” were stamped across the shield. The slogan changed to “The Delivery System for Stores of Quality” to reflect their growing customer base. The third logo was designed by the famous Paul Rand in ’61. This version was a simple black and white design of a string-tied package over the shield with the letters “UPS.” (Extra Fun Fact: Paul Rand was so confident about his design, that when UPS asked if he had other design options, he said, “That’s it”). The latest version is just the 2003 version without a gradient and is the brown shield that we all know and love. This current version reflects the company’s newest slogan (“What can brown do for you”)?
Now to combine the two logos! FedEx is clearly more clever in their design, so I decided to make them the wolf in sheep’s (UPS’s) clothing. I brought the two logos in to Illustrator and did an image trace so that I could delete the “UPS” letters in the UPS logo and the background on the FedEx logo. I placed FedEx on top of the UPS shield and changed the colors to the UPS yellow. I couldn’t make all of FedEx yellow though, since “Ex” had to be separate yet connected to “Fed” for the logo to work and the FedEx orange felt too out of place with the UPS colors. Making it white though fit right in! I had my wolf.
FedEx hiding in UPS clothing:
FedEx really does look like it’s lurking where it doesn’t belong. This assignment plays tricks on your brain. We normally notice color first, so my first instinct is that this is the UPS logo that I’m looking at. We are so conditioned to recognize brands via shape and color that we may not even notice that something is up with UPS! But I see you there, FedEx! Hungry for mail like the corporate wolf.
? A wild ride, over hallway ground Such a lust for school, the circus comes to town We are the hungry ones, on a lightning raid Just like a river runs, like a fire needs flame, oh I burn for you to get out of the way ?
Def ‘Melody’ Leppard
Animals! For this assignment, I created a PSA Billboard to address one of my pet peeves (which I believe I mentioned in a previous post). The task for this assignment was:
“Using Gimp or a similar program, create a public service announcement billboard on something that really aggravates you about people, society, the world, etc. It can be serious, goofy, but not offensive. Use a 680 x 300 work space in order to mimic the space of a billboard and have fun with how your positioning, font, colors, and images can help get your message across in a small space. Take it to the next level but superimposing it on a photo of an existing billboard!”
I had fun conceptualizing one of my biggest pet peeves: when groups of people block the hallway or walkway! Admittedly, this was a bigger issue at GMU. I swear it was like everyday that students would take up the entire width of a hallway with no regard for other students just trying to get to class. At UMW, crowding is more of an issue under the walkway near the nest. If it’s a hallway, UMW students are more likely to bowl you over in their rush to get to class in the too-brief 10 minute time span in-between classes than they are to crowd the space.
So how could I represent this annoying occurrence? I knew that I wanted a school hallway, but crowds of people didn’t feel attention grabbing. One way of thinking about design is to exaggerate an element, and/or use a play on words. If you like making puns, design could be for you! The punnier, the better. So what’s the exaggeration of crowds? Ah, what if I had a huge elephant blocking the hallway? But then how do I connect that to crowds of people? Well, a pack of animals is like a crowd!
Once I had my idea, I started playing with taglines while I superimposed animals onto a school hallway (This can be done a multitude of ways: you can select the background and delete it, or just use the eraser tool if the contrast isn’t high enough to accurately select areas). Additionally, I wanted to include an image of a ‘stuck’ person trying to get past the animals, and for this I used an image by Ivo Mayr, who has a whole photo series of people stuck to buildings. I even toyed with the tagline of “Feeling Stuck?” but decided against it because that message would have been aimed at the person trying to get through, not at the people who block hallways.
I decided on “Crowds Belong at the Zoo,” and “Keep it moving.” The hardest part of design is usually playing with type, and this was certainly the case with my phrase. It’s difficult to keep text readable when you are placing it over top an image. To make the text readable, I first turned the image into bold colors and simple shapes by using the cutout filter on the hallway, and the dry brush filter on the animals/person. I then set the type to be around the 100-200 pt range, and moved them around to create a nice flow. I decided to put “at the” vertically next to “zoo,” because the text has to live in the dark green space to be readable, and also because I wanted to keep the reader’s eye at a certain height, which limited me to 3 lines of text instead of 4. If you look, there is a little stair case of eye flow: text to animals to text.
For the text itself, I needed a simple font because the background is quite busy! If you have a simple background, that’s when you can embellish fonts. I chose ITC Avant Garde Gothic Pro and set it to a pink color to contrast with the green. I played with the levels of the hallway to make it darker, and used the stamp tool to make the whole top left corner dark. Lastly, I added arrows to increase eye flow and to emphasize my taglines.
Final result:
Superimposed onto a billboard:
Et voilà! My pet peeve in billboard form! It’s a little too busy to be practical in the billboard world, but I think that it gets the message across. Keep it moving, peeps!
This assignment was fun to complete. I decided to take a movie from the 80’s and add a quote to it from the movie showing how space and design play a role where they eye looks initially. This assignment was to take a picture from the movie and add a quote to it over the image for 2.5 stars. I decided on the Princess Bride because I really like the entire movie and there are some good quotes in it that are true or just funny. I started by looking for pictures from the movie that I liked, then thought of quotes that I like online and added them together just using word and their formatting tools. I had a tough choice between which quotes I wanted to use that would make the least sense with the photo. My goal was to mismatch the picture and the quotes. I decided to find a quote that made some sense with the picture but still funny.
I think I did a good job at using the space I had. I made the background of the text white so it would stick out more on the black shirt and the space I used is still rule of thirds. I enjoyed working with it and figuring out the spatial part of this week and design of the entire picture. The mini version of the buy in black in the corner I think is a cool artistic side, feels like he’s showing how the bigger version is feeling, like a mini me version. I just am a fan of the movie, I think the 80’s produced some really good movies, and scenes with quotes that will last forever.
Just extra because I still like the quote
This was going to be the other quote I was going to do with a different picture because it is so iconic and from the 80’s revenge feeling.
