My Campus Calendar

This project was focused on coming up with an mass media innovation for "Beyond 2010". My group came up with a website which combines google calendar, blackboard, and facebook to make a college students life easier to organize. Each of these sites have its ups and downs, our goal was to combine all the helpful attributes of each of these sites and make a very easy to use website. The brochure for the competition is shown below. Check out more to see it all!

Zoosk- Triplet and Cousin Ads

For this project we were required to find an ad in a magazine and create a triplet and a cousin ad to go along with the original. I chose Zoosk.com a free spirited online dating service.

Cousin:

Starbucks Identity Design

Illustrator Project

This project practiced different skills in illustrator. I took a picture of a building and used it as a template to create a similar photo in illustrator. The house I chose was located across the street from where I used to live. I always thought it was an interesting looking house and had a lot of details that i thought would be a challenge to experiment with in illustrator.

Typography Portraits

Grid Exercise

This exercise was to use a grid on an 8x8 canvas and establish hierarchy with the specific criteria. The copy was given.

First Layout: Same 8 point font, use positioning to establish hierarchy.

Retro Magazine

For this project I was required to create my own magazine. I chose to create a fashion magazine called Retro. I took several images and merged them, added drop shadows, and edited lighting effects to make this image look as though this is the way it was originally taken.

Facebazaar

Today marks the one week anniversary of the deactivation of my Facebook account. Originally, I saw the deactivation as a trivial decision, certainly a time saver at the very least. As the week progressed this mindless act seemed to evolve into a major life decision. The first time I mentioned the deactivation to someone, the reaction was priceless. I was treated as though I were a recovering alcoholic. I was pat on the back for the courageous move by my peers. My friends however, acted as though our actual friendship had been deactivated with my Facebook account. The thought of losing the ability to post photos of their cat to my wall seemed to devastate them. My family took it the worst. My Mom insisted that I replaced my Facebook addiction with some other sort of narcotic and my Dad questioned my “anti-establishment rebellion”. There was no particular reason for this apparently shocking decision. I thought Facebook was a childish entity that eventually needed to be left behind. At times I even felt nostalgic as I glanced over my roommate’s shoulder and got a glimpse of the san serif font I had actually grown to miss. Social networking, not even a thought a mere decade ago, now is the basis of many relationships.

Cintron Energy Drink Re-branding

For this project our objective was to choose a product, re-brand it, and come up with an advertising strategy. We had to apply for group positions the same way we would as if it were a real job.

My group chose Cintron, a fairly new energy drink. Here is their original logo:

We wanted to give Cintron a more hip look. The new logo we came up with looked like this:

A “Super Vicious” World

Why do I do what I do? What a question, a very broad one to say the least. Immediately I thought of the obvious things that I do. Well, I undoubtedly check my Facebook before getting any actual work done on the computer, I have an irresistible urge to press large red buttons, and I sing the alphabet song every time I need to put something into alphabetical order. Why do I do these things you ask? I’d love to respond by saying, “I JUST DO!” however I believe Nike has copyrighted the words JUST and DO in the same sentence so the question lingers. Finally I found the best way to describe why we do the things we do is to think of life without doing the things we do.

First I thought about all the nights my peaceful slumber took a sharp turn for terrifying. The only way to protect myself from the Boogieman, the thing under my bed, or the monster in my closet that was terrorizing me was to hide under my blanket head-to-toe making sure not even a strand of hair was left exposed. It would be insane for anyone not to protect themselves in this way. You would be mulled to death.

Then I thought about the day I learned why we say “God bless you!” or, if you are someone who enjoys getting dirty looks, “Gesundheit”. I was told the heart of a sneezer would stop if someone did not bless them. To my surprise, not only is dismissing the ritual of blessing a sneezer impolite but it’s criminal! We would be murders if we chose to ignore this duty we have been given.

Next I started thinking about something a little more recent. Yesterday I simply told my roommate that I’ve never broken a bone. She screamed, “Knock on wood three times or else you will break a bone!” I diligently complied and thanked her for the heads up. I’m just lucky I didn’t break a knuckle before I completed the knocking sequence.

Next time you are in a small hallway and you approach an open latter, rather than complaining about having to squeeze and climb around the outside, think about how much worse the world would be if you just simply walked directly underneath. It would be a Super Vicious World.

Wendy would not Approve

I'd like to reflect on a particular commercial that has been troubling me everytime it airs. It is the new Wendy's commercial promoting the new two items for 4.99 deal. I tried finding a clip of the commercial but the shame has been hidden away from the internet like an embarrassing sixth toe. Incase you have not had the misfourtune of witnessing said commercial I will exlpain. The commercial begins with two middle aged women on lunch break enjoying their Wendy's that now gives you 2 items of your choice for roughly five dollars. In the midst of indulging in their fast food feast the women spot a man across the table. They notice this man only has one container of food in front of him. This amusses the women and they laugh and point at the man and his healthy unAmerican rationing of food. At this point I am completely turned off by these women and I want nothing more than for the man to simply remind them that that they are no longer 20 years old and they would be able to stop bitching and moaning about their big thighs and bulging gut if they weren't so keen on eating fast food in large portions. However my feelings of disgust quickly take a turn...
The man instantly becomes embarrased by the mockery being made of him. Obviously this man is feeling inadequate, and he decides he must one-up the hysterical women across the table. He quickly thinks of what he can pull out to impress the women or at least make them leave him alone. The man grabs his cell phone. Immediately, I've lost all respect for him. I'm not sure if he has confused food with electronics or if he is just unaware that it is 2010 and everyone has a cell phone, but everytime I am left stumped by his logic. Of course the women find this amusing and giggle at his pathetic attempt. To make matters worse the cell phone begins to ring. The ringtone was an electronic synthesized tune that was supposed to be untraditional and unpredictable for a grown working man to have. This would have been really humorous except for the fact that it is just not. Not only does noone laugh when they see this commercial, but Geico already did the "funny" ringtone bit. It wasn't funny when they did it either. The women at the table however found this once again hillarious and I was once again left confused and unamused.