Communication Artifact

For this group project my group decided that they wanted me to be the one to design the logo. I got excited because I like to draw and see what type of styles I can come up with to make things look good. The purpose behind designing the logo was to help a lady out that was doing something good for sick kids, by creating a new and improved logo for her Facebook site. The Facebook name of this woman's profile is Courage Cammies for Little Warriors. Her about me section states that she is "re purposing donated uniforms to create quilts for sick children. We aim to give the little warriors shields of bravery given by our American heroes."  With that in mind I decided to come up with the best logo that I felt would grab people's attention and make people want to donate and help out for a good cause.

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Principles:

The logo follows two of the gestalt principles. 

Law of Proximity: The colors of the armed forces aren't mixed all together, they're grouped individually representing the Law of Proximity.

Law of Continuity: There is a pattern with the colors, which can give you a feeling of what the logo is trying to portray.

Figure/Ground Relationships:

The "Courage Cammies for Little Warriors" represents the ground part of the relationship as it stands out with it's white background with army and black lettering resting on the colors of the armed forces on the outside.

Mis-en-Scene American Sniper (Bar Scene)

For this assignment I decided that I wanted to take the role of the production designer. The role of a production designer is very similiar to the role of the art director.  "Production Designers are the visual artists and storytellers, who, in consultation primarily with the director, create and develop the overall look, atmosphere and emotion that move story." My group chose to do the bar scene from one of the best movies that is out now, American Sniper. The bar scene was an emotional scene and the dark scenery gives you that feeling. Chris Kyle who was played by Bradley Cooper was in a bar drinking and crying at the same time while on the telephone with his wife informing her that he was close by and he is coming home. The background of that scene was in fact dark but the camera starts to focus on his face where there is light and we are able to see the pain and hurt in his eyes. This was an emotional scene for Cooper because he felt like his time as a Navy Seal was done he had accomplished everything he wanted, however, he wanted to be home with his family it was just hard for him because he didn't want to leave his brothers that were still fighting for our country. In my opinion both Charisse Cardenas and James J. Murakami did an excellent job with the production design and for this scene the darkness and lighting represents the message that both designers are trying to portray really well.

Compose Your Frame

This picture right here is a picture of Miami Florida. I chose this picture because I'm from Florida and when thinking about what to do for this assignment first thing that came to my mind was to put up something that I'm familiar with and I thought why not put up a beautiful picture of Miami, so here we have it. When you look at this picture right off the back you can notice how beautiful of a sight this is. First, lets take a look at how this picture represents "The Rule of Thirds." When you look at this picture your eyes are automatically forced to focus on the beautiful sky as well as the water. When looking at the water and the sky our eyes draw us to look at the beautiful city of Miami and the buildings that are surrounding the water. This picture I think can fall under "Motion Vectors" because it states that "Motion Vectors take the eye and lead it through the frame. The closer the proximity of the object to the frame the more amplified the psychological context." The proximity of this picture allows us to see the ocean better and it's spacious enough to allow the boats to come through as there are numerous of boats that enter this area daily. As far as the "Diagonal Rule" goes I don't find that playing a rule here.

Favorite Director

For me this was a hard decision being that I hardly ever watch movies and when I do I never pay attention to the director of the film. However, I do remember a lot of movies that I have watched in the past, I must say I do love watching the Taken movies that has a great actor by the name of Liam Neeson, a person that shows so much love and care for his family through violent acts. The director Olivier Megaton is by far one of the best directors when it comes to films like this. If you have never watched Taken, Taken 2 or Taken 3 then you're in for some great films. Taken 3 in my eyes was by far the best out of all three. Olivier made the film so graphic and that's what I loved the most besides Liam being the great actor that he is.

Design Evaluation

What we have here is a pair of football cleats made by one of the most admired basketball players to have ever played the game, Michael Jordan. I love everything about this shoe from the way that it is designed to the way that the colors are separated and eye catching. When I look at these pair of cleats it just makes me want to buy them not only because they're made by Jordan but the colors aren't boring colors that you would see most people wearing like black or maybe even white. This cleat shows one of Gestalts principles which is Law of Continuity. The Blue is going up at an angle on the shoe showing us that it may be the smoothest path on the entire shoe. However, I do not want to take anything from this specific cleat It's not just the way that the Blue is being used on the shoe every color like the White, Red and Grey play major roles and show why this cleat is a good design.

Then you have a perfect example of a bad design. This cleat first of all has a different way of using its colors. On this shoe the colors are being blended together as the White changes to Grey and then to a full Black. The way that the colors are being used it kind of takes away from the whole shoe and just makes it look ugly. The bottom of the shoe is not as protective and doesn't give much support for an athlete. Although the middle of the shoe may be following the rules to the Law of Similarity it also makes the shoe look bad and it catches you off guard because it makes you almost wonder why is that the only part on the shoe that has the little squares and colored grey.

Contrast, Balance, Harmony

The contrast, balance and harmony in this picture is what makes it stand out the most. I love how the blue from the sky contrast with the white. The way that the blue goes from light blue to white then to a darker blue is what gives the picture that nice look. The two rocks that are being balanced on the other rock show that they're symmetrical to each other. The rocks stood out to me because never in a million years would I have thought that a rock shaped like the one that is on the ground could balance the other two rocks and show the similarity between the two due to the size of both of them. I'm sure a lot of you viewing this image are asking the same questions in your head that I asked, "how is this possible" and as we discussed that is psychological (Communication happens in our head).

Visceral Response

I love this picture for a lot of different reasons. The way that the light from the sky shines down on the kids is what makes them stand out. If it wasn't for the light we probably wouldn't even notice that there were kids there being that we wouldn't be able to acknowledge the texture of this picture because it would be too dark. The way that the kids are positioned it seems like they're enjoying themselves and running through the water as it goes up into the air. The horizontal and vertical lines caught my attention as I sat there and watched the water hit the ground. Something else that was eye catching was the building and tower in the background where the light is hitting. It's the different shapes that are in the background that caught my attention. If it wasn't for the background this picture wouldn't be as cool to me because I feel like the way the picture was taken everything in it plays a major role.