Week 3: Colours

Many interesting things have been happening in the Digital Media course by now. This week in the lecture we mostly discussed colours. As it turns out a "hue" is the exact same thing. While saturation is more about the intensity of said colour.

We learned a lot about how the colours of the design influence it and who the target audience is. For example, primary colours usually suggest that the product is for children. However, we are not supposed to make any assumptions, as colours can be used for anything if paired with different typefaces and designs.

Certain colours do look better together though. A "triad" is when there are three colours used that are equally far away from each other on the colour wheel.

Then there is the monochromatic style, which involves a colour being shaded with white or black.

There are analogous colours which are two colours on either side of another colour.

I already knew about complementary colours; they are opposite on the colour wheel. They just look really nice together and are very often used in design.

It's actually insane how the colour of something can change it's appearance so drastically.

It can give things a crazy flair.

Or some emotion.

Colour changes everything.

More Photoshop Tutorials

Week 2: CRAP

This week's top secret assignment: Explain how four different images follow the "CRAP" principles.

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity


These lovely images of flowers from this website for instance, use contrast to enhance the image. Particularly, they use complementary colours which are opposites on the colour wheel to really add to the polarity.



This next image, found here, uses the technique of repetition to add to the design. All those lights gives it a nice effect, don't you think?



This image from this website, is an example of alignment used in an image. The diagonal lines really connect the picture and make it very visually appealing. This image also has some nice contrast.


The image above, found here, is a demonstration of the design principle, proximity, though it encompasses many others as well. Related items are grouped together to give the viewer something to look at.

This blogpost was just FULL of CRAP, wasn't it?
But in design that's a good thing apparently.

Until next time, Agent Sarah out.

Postcard Tutorial!

Bask in my photoshopping skillz.

Week 1: It begins.

As per the assigned question, this post is my reaction to the Digital Media lecture.

Let me first say, that coming into this program, I know very little about anything to do with digital media. Yet, I was startled to discover during the lecture, that the whole thing sounds incredibly interesting. Before the first class, I wasn't even certain what the term digital media encompassed. Because of my utter lack of knowledge, my impressions did indeed drastically change after the first lecture. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this class at all, but the lecture has got me all pumped up to start learning about Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. I only know a small amount about those programs, so this is definitely going to be enriching experience. These skills will be useful outside of the workplace as well.

Digital Media, it turns out, is everywhere. It's on billboards and posters and album art and pretty much, as said, EVERYTHING. This makes it a key component for any Radio and Television Arts student to learn about, even if they don't plan on doing anything in that field. It is incredibly beneficial to know about other areas of the industry, but it is also very important to learn about digital media, because, as was taught in the lecture, humans have a tendency to judge a book by its cover. Or anything by its cover, really. I know that even I have turned away from a CD or even something like a store, because the design of it was just plain mediocre, or unpleasant looking. Our work needs to look professional on the outside too, if we ever want people to take us seriously. An intriguing look will make people interested in a product.

A good part of the lecture focused on Marshal McLuhan, the man most famous for saying, "The medium is the message." I happen to think that McLuhan was right in a sense. The way you portray your ideas, influences what you are actually trying to say and becomes part of the message. Communication is a key factor in shaping out ideas. McLuhan also believed in "technological determinism," that we are living an age of growth and advancements. McLuhan also predicted a "multisensory community experience." Maybe it's just my love for science fiction, but the video we watched in the lecture really got to me and I completely believe that McLuhan's ideas are possible for the future. The way we live our lives, McLuhan kind of predicted right. We are constantly being bombarded with various types of media, often many at the same time. We have grown accustomed to it, and often people don't even notice the experience.

This is going to be an interesting semester.

Well, we get really bad internet reception around the rings of Saturn, so I'm gonna have to check out. Until next time, my alien friends.