Erin's Blog

What Did You Do This Semester? I began this semester in Graphic Design with little knowledge on how to truly design graphically. We began our time in Graphic Design this year by learning the basics of the programs we would be using. Then, after we had learned enough, we used our new knowledge to create three original and personalized projects. These projects were: The Raccoon Postcard, the Vectored Portrait, and the Infographic. Each of these projects helped me to gain new strengths and understanding in programs such as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, two applications used often by graphic designers. The Raccoon Postcard  The Raccoon postcard began with just the raccoon. I followed a tutorial given to us by our teacher on how to create the character in Illustrator, using various tools. After creating the raccoon and some accompanying props such as berries and leaves, we had to come up with an idea for a postcard and design it around certain theme. I chose "happy birt

My concept for my Feature Story was a story about my grandma's dogs and how they have affected her life. My narrative lead was a statement; there are few bonds as special as the one between a dog and owner. I think that this lead did well to set up my video as an emotional and heartwarming story.  I interviewed two people; my grandma and her daughter, Pat. Pat's interview was meant to set up the story and provide exposition as to why my grandma got a dog. She also provided quotes that helped to reaffirm the theme: why you should rescue a dog.  Shooting and editing my video was less stressful than my first feature story. Finding B-roll and interviews was much easier. The majority of the feedback I got was about the appearance of my shots and some of my voiceover. They told me to have steadier, better-exposed shots and to make my editing more streamlined.  In conclusion, I enjoyed making this project. I feel like I improved a lot since my first feature story, b

            This project was a chance for me to practice interview set ups and audio editing. The process I followed was first, getting my partner. Then, I we shared topics about ourselves that could be turned into an interview subject. Once I had a topic about my partner, I had to write up a 21-question long script that I would use to interview her with. After typing up my script, it was time to record. Finding a spot to interview was difficult, mostly because there were very few quiet and aesthetically pleasing places to set up at. After filming the interview and doing my voiceover, I edited the clips in Premiere, using sound effects to give my interview a sense of realism and immersion despite being just an audio recording. My audio/clip editing. Working with my partner was a positive experience. We were able to finish up the project quickly and well. My responsibilities for this project were mainly to be prepared with a script and questions, and to be able to finish editing

I learned a lot while making these projects in Photoshop. I learned how to use tools such as the Patch Tool, Clone Stamp, and Spot Healing Brush. These tools were very helpful to learn as I followed along in the tutorials given to me. Before, I was very confused with photoshop. I was surprised by just how easily and quickly you can mend and enhance pictures using Photoshop.  The first image I edited. The first tool I learned how to use was the Content Aware Fill tool. This tool made it possible to easily remove any unwanted objects in a photo. I found this tool to be very helpful. Another helpful tool I learned how to use was the Patch Tool. This tool also made it easy to remove any unwanted aspects of a photo, by basically copying the appearance of the photo around the unwanted object. Another tool I learned was the Healing Brush. The healing brush was used in many of the photos I fixed, and it's job was to blend fabrics and unwanted parts of a photo into the rest

Onw Procedures Video               The aim of this project was to incorporate one of the ONW Procedures into a sort of "how-to" video, including the 6-shot system and the tools we had available with our new cameras. My partner and I decided to use the ID Procedure for our video. Our original idea was for a girl to be in the library wanting to check out a book, but was unable to because she did not have her ID on her. The video would then show the 'correct' way to follow the procedure, with the girl taking out her ID to check out her book.  We filmed in the library. It was a struggle trying to incorporate all six shots (over the shoulder, extreme wide, etc.), into our video, and in hindsight I wish we would have taken more shots than what we ended up with. As we started to edit, it soon became clear to my partner and I that our thirty-second time limit was too short to create our original idea. Instead, I had to settle for only showing a girl checking out

End of Year Reflection Summary Erin Johnson I learned a lot this year in e9. First of all, I was able to gain experience in every aspect of e-Communication: animation, graphic design, web design, and video. I learned how to work applications such as photoshop and dreamweaver, and how to edit a video. I also learned enough to distinguish which strand was my favorite (video, more specifically video editing). I learned everything i know now because of the awesome e-Comm teachers. Each was fun and nice, but also great at informing their students on what to do and how to do it. I liked how the teachers also gave us informative and encouraging feedback on our work.  e9 was important because it taught me everything I may need to know for my future career, since i want to have a job that is involved with computers and/or design. Because of e-comm, I may have a bit of a headstart if i ever want to intern at a place involved with the e-Comm strands. 

Our logo. The happy hampers group! My team name was EAMA (our initials). The product we created was the 'Happy Hamper,' a hamper that "does the work for you!" It was a hamper that washed and dried clothes. Coupon and Ad page. My team was very efficient together and we got a lot done. We all were flexible and managed to work after school on our product almost every day. We also were all very creative with our product. Our animation - i was in charge of this. We struggled with not working very quickly. We took much longer to finish our product than most of the other groups, and barely finished putting our website together at the last second. I also struggled with getting frustrated and angry while making the website under a time limit, and a lot of pressure.  the meet the team page. In the next group project, i will attempt to not procrastinate and get done quickly, and manage my time efficiently.

This week in e-Comm we have been working in photoshop. I mostly found difficulty in just finding the tools I needed to do each step for the project.  My final products...

For the past few weeks in e-Comm, we have been working on making our own websites. This website was the second one i have ever made, and also the most complicated. I am pretty happy with the result, even though the layout is kind of awkward and the color scheme isn't very pretty.  The home page.  Asian Carp page.  Zebra Mussel page - the sidebar was pushed down slightly for some reason.  Africanized Bee page.  Purple Loosestrife page. Emerald Ash Borer page.

For the past few weeks in graphic design class we have been learning about logos. Simple things such as shapes and color can make a huge impact on a logo and the feeling it gives to those who view it. We learned that circles like shapes are popular because they give the appearance of nature and completion, while upside down triangles are unpopular because they look unbalanced and 'dangerous.' With my logo, I knew right away that I wanted to have a calm, blue color scheme. I also wanted to incorporate my first and middle initials - EE - into the design. I had many ideas for my logo, but i had to scrap them due to them being too difficult to make in illustrator. I designed many logos, but ultimately came down to one I really liked. Some of my logo ideas, including ones that I scrapped My final, favorite logo design I came up with was a dark teal flower design with two E's facing each other. I really liked the design of the flower (made using the ellipse tool) and t

This week in Graphic Design, we learned about the importance of logos, and what messages different shapes convey. For example, I learned that circles are the most popular shapes in logos, because they represent completion and are a 'friendly' shape. Upside down triangles, though, convey unbalance and danger, so they aren't as popular. Also, color conveys different emotions. For example, green conveys freshness while red conveys drama or romance. For my logo, I will probably use blue or green so it looks fresh. We were given an assignment to recreate famous logos in illustrator. These are some I did.

This was my second project in illustrator.  We had to 'dissect' our name in a font of our choice, using the terms we had learned about different fonts. The font I chose, Footlight MT Light, had a lot of serifs and was very curvy. There weren't any crossbars or straight lines, which made this project a little bit more difficult. The design I used for this project was based off of this image I found:

This is the first project I have done in graphic design. I combined what I had learned in the flower tutorial  and the 'ugly' color wheel to make a flower-color wheel.  This week in graphic design, we have been learning mostly about color psychology and the important of colors. For example, the color green gives a fresh, clean look, and the color red is romantic and dramatic.  I tried to make my color wheel look professional, like a a logo you would see for a business. It was my first time using illustrator, so I still have a lot to learn, but i enjoyed working in it.