Monday Night Visual Rhetoric, Feb 17th, 2014

FEBRUARY 17, 2014

TODAY1) Let’s do one more icebreaker2) Quickly: how’s it going with the logos? 3) The publicity assignment4) Graphics: how do they work? 5) Let’s make teams6) The Literary London Brochure7) Homework

IcebreakerSay your name, of course. Then today, let’s all share our favorite cartoon character.

Logo check-in…Remember that your logos are due on the 24th.

Any questions or concerns as you work on those?

Here are some tips to make the best possible logo (look out for a slide color change, too)

Four keys for a good logo

1) Scalability2) Can survive the loss of DPI on screen3) New audiences: new expectations4) Different purposes, multiple purposes

Scalability

A good logo can be done in color and black and white and can be presented in multiple sizes. Like so:

Loss of DPIFine line work can be lost while scaling online (and in print, honestly). Be careful with detail in these logos. You want to create a logo that is high resolution and is “clean.”

From: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/25/10-common-mistakes-in-logo-design/

New AudiencesWe are working with sports now, which means we have a specific audience; those same styles wouldn’t work, for example, as a website logo for me. Gaze in fear at the Pacers logo mated with the LA Angels logo!

Multiple PurposesYou need a logo that can be on many things, in many environments, and look correct.

GOOD NOT SO GOOD

Remember, too…Usually a great deal of time and money is put into professional sports logos. They’re meant to be identity markers for teams, to sell merchandise, to create instant brand recognition, etc. Look at the two best selling logos:

And now back in black.Back. In. Black.

Flyer assignmentOur second major assignment is to make a flyer, poster, or post-card for some event that needs publicity. It can be ANY event; the goal here is to figure out how to make effective flyers, so the event itself is just “fuel” for what we’re doing.

You can look around…

For events.If you end up in a bind, unable to find something, I have a few PW club events that I will put information about on the course website. You’re welcome to make fliers for those.

These documents should be submitted to me, when finished, as both PDF files AND packaged InDesign files. I will walk you through packaging if you’re not familiar.

More on flyers and such in a moment.

First– some image discussion.

Working with Photos

There are a few key things to know about photographs. The first, which I bet you’ve been exposed to before, is the rule of thirds.

Rule of Thirds

Basically, the rule of thirds states that everything exists on a nine x nine grid. You want your important elements on, or close to, lines of the grid with the most important thing at an intersection between two of the lines.

Let me show you.

A bad picture.

This is some poor guy I found on Google.Well, not poor guy, but poorly framed. See how he’s in the middle of the frame?

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

Look at all this wasted space

A good picture.

Why?

Because our eyesgo to the intersectionsand grid lines

I bet that girlis glad she tagged her photo withRule of Thirds

Good rule of thirds framing ona terrible slide :

Also key…

We talked about this briefly a while back, but now is a good time to remind you: for a print project, your photos need to be 300 dpi and set to CYMK and not RGB color.

Photoshop…

… is your friend for that.

But, of course, this means that not every single photo you locate will work. If it’s too small, we cannot gain/add resolution. Always aim/go bigger. You can size down.

Also remember…

… Adobe made their software to work as a suite.

Don’t resize photos in InDesign. It will let you, but it does weird, weird stuff to the compression and the resolution. Size your photos in Photoshop.

As important as “good” pictures is that your

pictures have the right rhetorical impact.

Dr. Phill presents: the 6 things we do with

graphicsIn a society so intimately tied to the nature of the visual, we use graphics to do all sorts of heavy lifting in our design (and in our rhetoric). The following slides enumerate some common ways that we use graphics and offer examples of each.

Use 1: to EnticeYou will find that many graphics do more than one of the things on this list, but one of the most visceral uses of any graphics is to entice the audience, to give them something pretty, interesting, or awe inspiring to look at while considering your document.

This can take many forms.

Use 2: to Illustrate

Perhaps the most obvious use of an image is to illustrate something that is being written about, or literally to show the “thing” being shared.

Use 3: to InformSometimes graphics exist simply to offer information that the text either cannot share verbally or which is more user-friendly, or more dramatic, to be seen in image form.

Use 4: to Brand

Graphics– particularly here logos– are one of the most powerful ways to brand a product. In a world currently obsessed with marketing (even on the level of the individual), branding is a key element in current visual rhetoric.

Use 5: to Visually Enhance

Sometimes graphics are present because they “spice up” a design that is otherwise bland. It’s from this particular use that we get the terminology “splash” art. These images usually do one of the other things as well, but their primary use is to enhance a layout or otherwise make the visual presence of something more pleasing.

Use 6: to Unify

Nothing pulls together a design like the use of a nice, crisp, clean graphic that can span the majority of a document or can through color or shape draw together what seem like disconnected elements.

Back to flyers.Let’s take a look at an

article.

Click on the photo for a link.

Make teams! As we start to think about our work with the Literary London project, we’re going to need for form teams.

I’d like you to take some time– and I’m serious, take some time to talk to people and negotiate and such. Find the team that is right for you. No team can be larger than 5 or smaller than 3.

As a group, pick a name for your team. Email me

that name, and the names of your

members.Alexanp3 at Miami OH

dot edu

Design Task Four:

For this week’s design task, I want you to take a look at the posters I’ve put up. Using any resources you can find, make a “better” version of one of the posters based on my criticism.

For Next Weekread for class: Hegemonic Visualism, this study on sexual imagery in advertising, and this related piece.

Remember your logos are due next week!