Newspaper Ad Project

Hello dear readers! For this project, I am to create an ad for something specific. I chose Baker Studios, a fictional acting and film  company that teaches people how to act. The purpose is self promotion and to attract a demographic of young adults ages 18-25. The call to action is the first three lessons for free (ideal for young college students studying performing arts, or just wanting to become more outspoken).

Thumbs:

Rough (tentative):

For this project, we also needed to utilize a scanned original creation of ours. I opted for a logo and this was the end result after scanning and touch-ups:

Project Specifications:
- 7 x 5
-.125 bleed
-grayscale

Price to produce: The cost of the ad space which is a column width of 4 ( 7.71 actual inches) and a height of 4 inches. Multiply the parameter equvilant (16 inches) by $4 and it equals out to a cost of $74 in ad space, keeping me in my $97 budget range.

Final ad image and pricing to come after creation!



Master Image List

In this blog post we shall cover all the things that encompass a master image list. What is a master image list? It's a list of the different kinds of images that cover various layouts such as color schemes, tints and shadings, vector to raster art, etc. So I figured a good breakdown of the master image list would be most beneficial:

Bitmaps: An image composed of pixels that contain color values per pixel. They are primarily comprised of two main parameters, which are color depth and number of pixels used. For color depth, the pixels can be formed by either the generic 1 bit (black and white), 8-bits (varying levels of greys), or 24 bits (utilizations of RGB). The name bitmap also comes from the association that the image is a "map of bits" much like a pixmap is a "map of pixels". Bitmaps are also generally created in the form of JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and GIFs.

Reverse: This is generally a form of light type on a dark background. This is considered different than black on white type as the type color for a reverse is simply the color of the paper showing through the inked over black background.

Vector Art: Art that is unpixelated and as such can be scalable to almost any size. This is because they have solid resolution, unlike raster images who's sizes are predetermined by the amount pixels they have. These images can be enhanced to almost any size and will print without problematic blurring of the image and can even be edited as well as scaled.

Grayscale Raster: This is a type of image that consists mainly of the 8-bit pixels that can be use varying degrees of grey and transposing it onto the image. Basically, you can transform a full color image into different shades of grey (saving on colored inks and bitmap pixels).

Duotone Raster: You may have already seen some of my previous blogs talking about duotone and my VDP was composed of of both black and red (185 C) as the spot color. A duotone in short is a type of raster using both generic black ink and a spot color for the only other color in the image (duo = two, no way!). This style of coloring can add interest to a file with minmial amounts of color. It's like staring at a black and white photo yet there are sparks of color that add an ocular shift to the image. However; don't stress about finding the black as a spot color since it can simply remain the regular black from CMYK.

Silhouette Raster: This form of image is most identifiable as a black image pressed against a white background. The black images give interest to the blank white of the background and give the viewer a focal point in which to admire the work. This style of raster is seen on many picture formats such as ClipArt. Primarily consists of black and white, a silhouette can be used for other colors as well. The point of a silhouette is to provide the outline of a shape and to give it a different background, adding a sort of mysterious interest to the picture.

Full Bleed Raster: A raster image that is displayed when a color exceeds the margins set by the trim size. A full bleed can happen with most any raster or vector. The difference is that vectors are still able to be changed or scaled down without compromising the quality of the image.

Four-Color Raster: This type of image is usually made up of the 4 basic color swatches CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). This image can only be composed of variations of these 4, so if the color is of a specific set not located in the swatches, then the color must be switched to a spot color. However; without the proper number of the spot color, this image is useless. Luckily, the four colors that can be manipulated and intermixed can work for most any kind of rastered image.

Screen Tint: As defined on PrintingTips.com, a screen tint is a "screen pattern that consists of dots that are all made up of the same size and created on an even tone". This means that it acts as a type of shading, where compiled dots of equal size are slapped together and formulate lighter or darker tones to the image it's imprinted upon.

Hope this gives you some snazzy insight into the different forms of images there are in the digital world and that you can use these examples to formulate your own Master List. Big thanks to the following books and sites:
Claudia McCue's Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications
http://www.printingtips.com/email-term/t--2080/screen-tint.asp
http://creativebits.org/

Chapters 11 & 12

Hello again! This blog post concerns mainly the chapters 11 and 12 out of Claudia McCue's Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications.

Microsoft Tags

This post is all about Microsoft Tags and their significance design, product marketing, and acting as a bridge between the physical world and the virtual one. A Microsoft Tag, or a High Capacity Color Barcode is very much like a colorful and triangularly-pixelated version of the QR Code. They can be found on essentially any packaged products and are used as a connector between the receiver of the tangible product to the sender of the product via their representative website.  It can use as many as up to an 8-color palette and can be stylized into a designed artistic format much more aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching for the viewer. It is a translatable code for any consumer who utilizes smart phone internet technology. By simply downloading a Microsoft Tag Translator app for these phones, the consumer can translate the code and uncover the data hidden within the code. Like the QR Code, the 2D Tag is often used to connect the viewer to a URL of the tag's originator website or type of online media.

To generate, one can easily go to a Microsoft Tag generator website such as http://tag.microsoft.com/ and type in the URL they wish to transform and hit enter. You can track how many use scan this image as the tag records the data in Microsoft thereby also allowing you to see how many times the code is scanned.

The below example is of my own blog site transposed into a Microsoft Tag (this one for facebook):

Thanks for reading! Hope this helped you gain some insight into the age of Digital marketing and into the uses of Microsoft Tags.  All information was received from the following sites:
http://tag.microsoft.com/

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/hccb/about.aspx

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 summaries

In this entry, I will disclose the information I've learned from Chapters 8, 9 and 10 of Claudia McCue's Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications.

Chapter 8 is primarily concerned with teaching you how to prep your designs in the various design programs like InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. In terms of working for a printing company, most companies will direct you to a salesperson. They will assist you with the information you need such as estimates of production cost and a breakdown of the steps one takes necessary to print your product. Some steps included are talking with a CSR, or Customer Service Rep. Their role is to help you as the creator with any special needs for the project that you need such as special varnishes or coatings, unsual content and any kind of mixed inks crucial to the final product. The CSR acts as the primary contact for the job and is supposed to be well-versed in all aspects of the project so it's best to give them the information specs for the project as early as possibler in order for them to have your product ready by your due date.The next step is talking with the printer and making your plans for print.  Make sure when you are ready to print, you communicate properly with your printer the various details of your printed project. When consulting with a printer make sure that you have already collected all the information for the product to print that you need such as artwork size, interactions with folds, any specific trims or perforations, and correct number of pages and inks. the next thing to do according to McCue is to check out your raster images/vector artwork. It's important to save the image in the right format and color space so that the resolution of the finalized image will not become compromised or pixilated. Often these images have basic requirements such as a resolution of 300ppi, any retouchings, rescalings, rotations, file name editing and one of the five major color spaces: CMYK, RGB, monochrome, duotone and grayscale. Chapter 8 also taught me that by making sure these specifications are correctly filled out, your image should be crisp when printed. Just to be safe, it also says that pre-printing a few proofs of your image will benefit you in order to make sure the image is the way you want it. There are two kinds of proofs: image and page. Image proofs are proofs of just the image itself, with no page layout attached to them. They are also called scatter or random proofs and can be done in photoshop whereas page proofs are done in InDesign.

Chapter 9 talks primarily about Photoshop and how to use it for graphic design and printing. In terms of scaling and rotating the image, certain things to take note of when going about this is whether or not the image will be printed in multiple sizes, if the image will be rotated in final size, if the image will be coupled as both an image for print and an image for Web purposes, among other factors. To rotate the image, the easiest rotation is at a 15 degree angle in order to prevent any wavy lines along the sides of the image. To scale, proportion is key in image's visceral appearance. When scaling the image, the size of it previous to being brought into Photoshop may be adjusted to 300ppi in order to to get the most beneficial to printing. Since a printed image only operates in CMYK or grayscale, you'll want to convert the image to one of these two even though RGB is also accepted in Photoshop. When posting the image to the Web however, it is important to make the image RGB ONLY. These tips are to ensure that the image's resolution will respond well to whatever medium it is being posted or printed to. With color space, it is important that if you use an Illustrator file, it must be converted to CMYK or else printing the image will be impossible. When it comes to flattening or layering an image, keep an original copy of the image so you can go back and re-edit if necessary. For printing, make sure the image has been flattened using the merge layers option in the layers panel in CS4 but not CS5. To use in CS5, you can choose to flatten the image simply by clicking flatten image in the layer panel. Either way the image is flattened. Transparency is also covered in this chapter which is the opacity percentage in Photoshop. Essentially it used to decrease the fade of the background or foreground of the image. When it comes to creating a path in Photoshop, it can be created using either the Wand or Pen tools. The Pen tool works better as the clipping is much more concise. Duotone images (previously worked with in the Direct Mail Project) are images consisting of only two colors: normally either black or white and one spot color. It gains the viewer's optical attention and gives interest in the minimalist quality of the image.

Chapter 10 covers the various uses of Illustrator. To kick off this section, I shall start by talking about Arboards and their uses. Artboards are used like an extra layer to place the image, even though this layer does not actually exist, but is used more of a practiced guide (fun fact: you can make up to 100 artboards, using the artboard drag tool). With Bleeds in Illustrator, you can adjust the settings by going to File and selecting Document set up, even if the bleeds for the document already existed. These settings are used in Illustrator within the document itself. To simplify complex art within Illustrator, try going to choose object, click on Path then select Clean up to get rid of any excess pen clicks or miscellaneous text paths or objects without fills or strokes. In the Effects menu, there are two main types which are Illustrator and Photoshop, respectively. In the former, effects are applied to the insides and edges of the vector, even the Clipping Masks. Photoshop Effects mainly work with the inside of the image and you don't have to modify the image, Clipping Mask or otherwise. Types of Effects included are shadows, glows or distorts.
Transparencies in Illustrator is much like Photoshop in that it can lessen the image's concrete appearance and can be blended. According to McCue using spot colors are OK in that the image will be converted to CMYK anyway. The results may vary if you transfer the image from Illustrator to InDesign though because the spot colors may be different depending on the color chosen. You can also flatten the transparency of the image, making it easier to transfer or print the image. Finally, I will touch upon Illustrator's Linked and Embedded images. A linked image is smaller than an embedded image because of color corrections or retouchings done to the file. The benefit to Embedding a file is that it keeps all the image components together, rather than Linked files that require you sometimes to backtrack into Photoshop to clarify the existing file specifications. Unfortunately, Embedding also complicates any edits made to the image whereas linking the image can be easily edited by Re-Linking everything.

Variable Data Direct Mail Project

Hello again! My next project is to create a direct mail with two target audiences. My direct mail will be an invite to join the summer theatre programs at Christian Youth Theatre (CYT for short), a real theatre company in Kansas City, Missouri. It appeals to two demographics: kids and parents. For kids, it's an invite to come perform in their productions. For parents, it's an invite to see their child perform.
The project specifications:
7x 5 inch horizontal postcard
.25 inch margins
.125 bleed
Duotone raster image (black and Pantone 185 C)
Price quoted for 250 postcards was $145 or $.58 per postcard. Quoted from http://www.modernpostcard.com/
Pictures of Thumbs and Roughs will be posted tomorrow when working with a legitimate camera.

 Thumbnails:

Roughs:

Front

Back

Chapter 6 and 7

This blog entry will summarize what knowledge I garnered from chapters 6 and 7 of Claudia McCue's Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. For starters, chapter 6 elaborates more on the different types of fonts, types, and issues that can occur with fonts when paralleled with other fonts. The three major types of fonts are Open Type, True Type, and PostScript. Open Type is a single-file,cross-platform font that lacks a separate and trackable screen/printer font. Open Type is also very compatible with RIPs. PostScript is a bitmap composed of two files. It is considered a "screen font" type and has a printer component composed of pixels. As such, this component poses problems for the overall resolution of the file, so keeping the printer font will allow for you to maintain the font you want. True Type is a single file font with printer and screen components combined. This poses as a problem to press operators as RIPs can't decipher between the two.  The next bases to cover are over glyphs and font families. Glyphs are usually noted to be a type of symbol such as a letter or  an ampersand (&). Glyphs allow for swashes, fractions, and other such add-ons to possess the same font as your type. Font Families themselves are a designed typeface that can specify text. Dfont is a lot like True Type for Macs is stored in the data fork instead of the resource fork.

Chapter 7 breaks down the basics of file titling and licensing, as well as extensions, Multiple Master Fonts and formats that can cross platforms. It purports that, to name a file, one would do best to use an underscore between each word so as to decrease problems in the file search. Words with hyphens,  numerals, and spaces can also work. Now this works for the majority of the file, but at the end of the file, there has to be some type of extension. Types of extensions include: .pdf, .rtf, and .tif. The period is necessary as it keeps the file name divided from the extension. Without the afforementioned extension, the file cannot be opened. Simple as that. Finally, I'll close this entry talking about cross-platforms and licensing. Licensing in terms of fonts are very important as it keeps any specialized or personalized font created by the user as a legally bound font. Cross platform fonts are the types of fonts that can be utilized from software to software such as TIFFs, PDFs, and JPEGs. So long as the extension is used, these types of files along with PSDs, AIs and PSDs can be utilized across different platforms.

Copyright for Designers

This blog post will cover the importance of copyright parameters for Graphic Designers.
First of all, copyright of an image itself extends only to the artist. Any one who goes under the nose of said artist and uses their images are doing it illegally and if caught, the illegal user is definitely at worst going to be sued. At best, everything is fine and the artist doesn't care. Secondly, when it comes to intellectual property (created works by some form of artist), this includes more than just a graphic design: poetry, video, music, writing are all mediums of creativity designed by an artist and as such, they are all protected under U.S. copyright laws.
So yes, that also includes content and fonts and online as well as offline content. Now, that isn't to say a person can't just ask the creator to use their work. Honesty is by far the best policy in terms of copyright, and most users can buy a copy of the image for some kind of royalty that would go to the creator. Or depending on the site (and the diligent hunting skills of the user), images can be found online for free but often require joining the site as a member.
In conclusion, there are a multitude of reasons how copyright benefits the graphic designer. By copyrighting an image, you as the artist can better protect your produced works from being stolen and used without permission and keeps it so that whatever intellectual property of yours remains just that: your property.

All information was gathered from www.copyright.gov, and online excerpts from Tad Crawford's "American Institute of Graphic Arts" 2008.