Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Photo Realistic - Photo Decision

Cupcakes!
Hopefully, I'll have time for a process of three separate cupcakes, but if not, I may just finish the first whole one.




Visual Explanation Project Statement

The Project Statement

1. Background
What is the background for this intervention? Why are you doing it?
I am doing this visual explanation illustration to accompany an article that is featured on The Nest's website, called Budgeting for Baby. 

2. Target Audiences
Who do you want to reach with your communication? Be specific.
With this illustration, I want to reach the Nest's readers who may not want to read an entire article that talks about budgets, but would rather see a visual explanation of the article instead to help them get an idea of how much to budget for a new baby. 

3. Objectives
What do you want your target audience to do after they hear, watch, or experience this communication?
I want my target audience to be able to get the information that they need to effectively plan (or decide not to plan) for the addition of a baby into their household. 

4. Obstacles
What beliefs, cultural practices, pressures, and misinformation stand between your audience and the
desired objectives?
An obstacle could be the fact that there is such a difference in price of the various items on the list. I am going to try and make it more assessable with lower budget couples. 

5. Key Benefit
Select one single benefit that the audience will experience upon reading the objective(s) you have set.
A benefit that the audience will have is having a more clear and concise idea of how much money it will take to raise a newborn baby during it's first year. 

6. Support Statements/ Reasons Why
These are the reasons why the key benefit outweighs the obstacles and the reasons that what you are promoting is beneficial. These reasons often become messages.
The reason why this project would be to show a more clear view of budgeting for an addition to your family. This will also make the information that the Nest has a lot more approachable to readers and may earn them more readers due to the easy accessibility of information. 

7. Tone
What feeling should your communication have? Should it be authoritative, light, or emotional? Pick a tone.
I want the tone to be fun and home-y. I want it to have an illustrative, cartoon feel, not so realistic.  
8.  Media
What channel(s) or form will the communication take?  Television? Radio? Newspaper? Poster? Pointof-purchase? Flyer? All of the above?
My goal would be for this illustration to replace the article on the Nest's website. 



Friday, August 26, 2011

Troubles in Infographic Land!

Go figure, I chose a topic with barely any reliable statistics, just because it is so broad (all about money-winning statistics). So, I think I might have to adjust my topic to be a little narrower. I liked the idea of sticking with something money/budget related, and I found some cool stats from one of my favorite websites (my favorite because it's designed beautifully) The Knot (theknot.com).

I found some stats about wedding budgets and some about baby budgets (as in, how much babies cost their first year of life). I liked the wedding one, but there are already a bunch of infographics having to do with that, so I'm not sure. I couldn't find any baby budget infographics, so that one may be a little more original. 

I'll figure it out and hopefully have something going by Tuesday! Just wanted you to know so that you weren't totally confused next week!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Sketches for Project 3 - Infographic

I choose two ideas, one being a recipe/facts about a food (I picked Pizza, but could be something else too) or another idea that I came up with this week about what a million dollars means to people (as in, what would they spend it on, what could you buy with it, how much is it worth today vs. twenty years ago, how to people acquire it, etc).



Type Illustration - Project 2 - Final Case Study

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ideas for Informational Illustration - Project 3

I am completing this post early on in the week because I am very inspired and excited by this project, and also because I do not want anything to distract me from finishing my type portrait!
I have some ideas for what I would like to do, and what I think would not only make a kick-ass infographic, but will also be informative and have a related application.

My ideas are:

-A step by step guide to a recipe
Not sure exactly which recipe yet, but I could illustrate various ingredients, as well as demonstrate the actual cooking process. This could be applied in any cooking magazine, website, or book.

-The Newspaper Production process
Newspaper is where I got my design origins and I think it would be really interesting to illustrate the process how a newspaper actually gets printed. Taking the paper to the printer was my favorite part! Plus, I could illustrate a really cute little boy in a bowler hat screaming "extra! extra!", which would be pretty awesome.

-Facts about Amusement Parks
I found some facts online about amusement parks (their attendance, favorite rides, favorite foods, prices, etc.) and thought it would be a fun topic for a traditional infographic.

Just some ideas for now, I am trying to think of more, but I am really interested in all three ideas, so I think it would come out great!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Preliminary Case Study - Type Project

DISCLAIMER: I was gone last week, and didn't get as much done on this as I wanted to, I had some trouble with the tools and could not get them to work. But I learned a little more about how to use them from my pal Whitney so I have a more defined direction now, and I will have my project ready next week!

I don't have a lot of progress on my actual illustration, so I made a case study out of what I do have.


Project Statement - Type Project


1. Background
What is the background for this intervention? Why are you doing it?
I am doing this type portrait of Taylor Swift because I feel that there are many words that can be used to describe her and her music, and I feel that using type for her portrait would be appropriate because she writes her own music, and that is what she is known for. This illustration could be used to accompany a magazine article about Taylor, or else as an illustration on one of her CD's or website. 
2. Target Audiences
Who do you want to reach with your communication? Be specific.
I want to reach Taylor Swift's fans and those who like and respect her music and songwriting. I also want to draw in listeners who may not have heard her music that may see this illustration and decide to listen to her music for the first time. 
3. Objectives
What do you want your target audience to do after they hear, watch, or experience this communication?
After seeing this illustration, I want my target audience to want to go listen to Taylor's music and learn more about her and her songwriting. 
4. Obstacles
What beliefs, cultural practices, pressures, and misinformation stand between your audience and the
desired objectives?
I think that there may be a few obstacles related to doing this piece, and most of them stem from the fact that people seem to think that Taylor Swift only sings country songs, or only sings pop songs. People let their prejudice of the type of music that they like determine what they listen to. With this piece, I want to show that Taylor sings music that any genre would enjoy and will focus more on her songwriting, which is what makes her special as a musician. 
5. Key Benefit
Select one single benefit that the audience will experience upon reading the objective(s) you have set.
A Key Benefit would be that more people are exposed to Taylor's music and will then become fans of her music. 
6. Support Statements/ Reasons Why
These are the reasons why the key benefit outweighs the obstacles and the reasons that what you are
promoting is beneficial. These reasons often become messages.
I am doing this illustration to show that Taylor Swift is a songwriter, singer, and guitar player, and has a lot of musical skill that people from all walks of life, with different musical styles, will enjoy. 
7. Tone
What feeling should your communication have? Should it be authoritative, light, or emotional? Pick a tone.
I want the tone to be emotional and powerful.
8. Media
What channel(s) or form will the communication take? Television? Radio? Newspaper? Poster? Pointof-
purchase? Flyer? All of the above?
Experimental type illustration.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Final Case Study - Editorial Illustration

Gone away on vacation this week, so I will not be in class, but here is my case study for my final illustration!


Monday, July 25, 2011

Project Statement - Editorial Illustration

The Project Statement


1. Background
What is the background for this intervention? Why are you doing it?
I am making this illustration to accompany an editorial that was printed in the Seattle Times that was about the possibility of bars in Seattle being open late, past the current limit of 2 AM. The article talks about how bars in Seattle could stay open as late as 4 AM, or else be open at the bar's discretion, which could lead to some bars being open 24 hours. The only other cities that allow this are Atlantic City and Las Vegas. This is an interesting article because it is the mayor himself who is advocating this, and he is saying that it will allow for an urban social atmosphere. Others think it will cause more drunks to be out on the streets at all times, or else turn Seattle into a party city like Vegas. I think that it will be interesting to pair this article to an illustration because it is such a unique situation and bar closing times is not something that mayors usually bother with. 
2. Target Audiences
Who do you want to reach with your communication? Be specific.
With this illustration, I want to reach the readers of the Seattle Times, because this editorial was not in favor of the mayor's proposal. This article will receive more attention if there is an illustration accompanying it. 
3. Objectives
What do you want your target audience to do after they hear, watch, or experience this communication?
After reading this article and seeing the illustration, I want people to have the knowledge to form their own opinion about possibility of bars being open late, and looking past the "fun" aspect of that possibility and making a decision about whether or not that would be good for everyone. 
4. Obstacles
What beliefs, cultural practices, pressures, and misinformation stand between your audience and the
desired objectives?
I think that a possible obstacle would be that people may think that it is not up to the city to decide when and where people are allowed to drink, or when they need to quit drinking and go home. Seattle is full of very independent people, and I think that this would be the biggest obstacle. 
5. Key Benefit
Select one single benefit that the audience will experience upon reading the objective(s) you have set.
A key benefit that the audience will experience is that through seeing a funny illustration paired with an article, it could make them aware of something that they may not have known about before. 
6. Support Statements/ Reasons Why
These are the reasons why the key benefit outweighs the obstacles and the reasons that what you are
promoting is beneficial. These reasons often become messages.
The reason why the benefits outweigh obstacles are because this issue is not receiving a lot of attention. If people really care about this issue, then the word needs to be spread to the masses. Although people may not believe that this issue is a negative thing, at least they will have an opinion and word will spread. 
7. Tone
What feeling should your communication have? Should it be authoritative, light, or emotional? Pick a tone.
I am going to keep the tone light and humorous.
8. Media
Digital Illustration 

Ideas for Type Project

I found a few ideas for the next project, which is creating an illustration out of type. I wanted to do a portrait because I thought that those ones tend to look the best. I also wanted to do my illustration on someone who has influenced others with their words, because otherwise, it seems silly to do a type portrait if that person didn't have something to say!

Here are my ideas:

Taylor Swift (Don't hate, I love her.)
JK Rowling 
Lady Gaga? (It could be fun)

Those are my ideas for now, but still not totally sold. Going to do some more research before I decide.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sketches for Editorial Illustration

I ended up choosing the editorial about the possibility of Seattle's bars being allowed to stay open past the hour of 2 AM, and the article even suggests that the bars could be allowed to stay open as long as they wish, even 24 hours a day, which is only allowed in "party cities" Las Vegas and Atlantic City. (This article was not in my original post, but I included its link in a comment to that post).

Here are my beginning sketch ideas:

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Editorial Research

I have found a few VERY different possibilities for editorial articles to use for my editorial illustration, including coffee shop strippers, the living conditions of egg laying hens, the amount of exercise needed by babies, urine obsessed killer goats, the United States' obsession with the death penalty. I haven't decided which to go with, but they are all very interesting and could be taken many directions.

I also found some cool editorial illustrations:

This one about BP gas and it's effect on the environment
This one about being successful in this bad economy
And this one about the lack of action within a occupation.

I still have some thinking to do before I start my sketches!