IDT 507: Module 5: Final Project & Memo

Link: My final design (Downloadable PDF) for Module 5: Mod5_CBELL_Final_12218

MEMO:

To: Professor Lizardi & IDT 507 Class

From: Charles Bell

Date: 12/2/2018

Re: Module 5: 21^st Century Information Technology

I intended to relate this project to some of my personal and professional experiences as a production artist and graphic designer, and also as a user of digital applications and social media. In the following memo, I will discuss the experience and the process that I took, as I created this design.

Audience:

I wanted to try and give this design a fun, creative look, but also something that was professional, and more slick than some of the other projects that I have done this semester. The audience that I was aiming for was made up of creatives, graphic designers, undergraduate college students, and anyone who would be interested in social media, graphic design and technology.

Message:

The message that I am trying to convey concerns the use of applications, smartphones and digital cameras for visual communications, and how they have had a profound effect on society. I wanted to discuss how these tools have positively enabled society with an easy way to communicate visually, but not always in a way that is based in graphic design principles or following the technical rules of the graphic design and print industry.

Platform:

For this project, I decided that I would create my entire design using just Adobe Photoshop. This is not something that I usually do, and thought it would be beneficial for me to limit myself to just one program and use as many features of that program to build my design.

Design Considerations:

My focus for this design was to work on my masking skills within Photoshop. For this design, I cut out the cellphone picture and the child using the laptop. I also added in a shadow for the girl on the laptop, in order to make it look similar and consistent to the shadow of the girl who is standing up. This was excellent practice for asking in Photoshop, and something I wish to get better at in the future. I also decided to use a more horizontally based document size for this project, as opposed to the more vertical layouts that I have used on my projects that were done earlier in the semester. Finally, I wanted to include some handwritten font styles into the design, in order to keep the feel consistent between the youthful photography and the text.

Design Challenges:

One of the biggest challenges of this design was to keep the text legible and easy to ready. I wanted to have some large focal points to break up the text, and it became difficult to fit all of the writing in with the imagery. I was able to break up the text in smaller sized chunks and at a size which is not too small for a poster (18 points).

In summary,

I have enjoyed this project and seeing how it relates to the earlier material and theory that we have covered in class. The Adobe Photoshop skills that I have used will help me in the future, and any chance that I have to refine my skills in this area is a positive experience for me.