Week 5- Outside of Class

This week outside of class, I completed the first spread of my publication for my narrative as instructed for today. It is my first computer draft, so I'm not sure how others' reactions will be to it. I stuck with the concept of having food trucks gradually fade into the spread and not have the text take up so much space. I had a bit of trouble making this work, since I wanted to include the beginning of the story in the first spread where the food trucks are still delivering food, then in the middle spread with the map have less text as a side bar, which would be the transition in which the food gets contaminated. The last spread would then consist of the end of the narrative where everyone is looking for a different source of food, and basically the situation gets worse. Since the beginning of the story I wanted to add was pretty long, it was hard to fit them into 2 columns that would not take up too much space on the page, since I was told to not make the impact spread so text-heavy. Upon trying to make it work, I made the text smaller to point-size 9, which I have a feeling will be more difficult to read especially against an orange background.

Week 6A- Sept. 30

Today in class, we reviewed the readings, which were about the grid systems and how designers can manipulate them in their own publications. The next section of the readings was how images can be arranged within a spread, and how closely they can intertwine with typography in terms of lights and darks, linear motion and volume, contours, and open or closed spaces. We also had a lecture on the different components of the grid system, which we will need to know for the midterm exam.

Then, we went over to the middle room again and posted all of our spreads on the white board at once, and went around writing comments on or beside each to critique them. I received a generous amount of comments on mine on what I can improve, and I plan to take those comments and utilize them to make my spread better, as I did not originally feel too strong about my spread in the first place but couldn't figure out how to make it better.

The rest of the class consisted of working on fixing our spreads based off of the comments we each received, which all of us were told to do.

Homework:
1. Print spread in proper format (10x16 each page)
2. Make Noticable progress on layouts from what you have done from the end of class...PRINT
3. Read Pages: 68-73-- Grid Systems and Types

Week 5B- Sept. 25

Today in class, we did a quick critique of each others' more detailed spreads, and went over our assigned readings, which were about the terminology of a layout spread, and the different layouts for structured variation and content presentation. It was suggested to me to not have as much text-heavy spreads, and to have more negative space. Another suggestion was to maybe do the scale progression by having few images and body copy on the first spread, and adding more in the second spread, to an image-heavy final spread. The map was suggested to take up 2/3 of the spread, and have the rest be body copy.  Since the narrative progresses from bad to worse, my color progression from brown, to red, then orange seemed to work, according to my group members. For homework, I was instructed to create my impact spread on the computer and print it out for next class, paying special attention to how I will render the food trucks on the first page and the body copy in the second page. Since drawing is not my strong-point, I will use photographs of food trucks and edit them on photoshop in order to create the effect of them fading into the title of the article. We were then given the rest of the class for in-class work time.
Reading Assignment: Pages 76-81

Week 5A- Sept. 23

Today in class, we went over to the next room again to critique each others' rough layout sketches and give advice on particular images to use in our publications. I received some good feedback from the two people in my group, Emily and Levi. They suggested to use my second spread as a map of a metropolitan area such as New York City, and highlight the areas in which the manufacturing facility and food truck drop off points are. They also suggested to use a more sporadic, crazier type of body copy within the map or along the side as a tab. Since the beginning is about the food truck making deliveries, and the end is about all of the food getting contaminated, I was told to perhaps put the beginning part in the first spread, the transition to the worse situation in the middle map spread, and the terrible ending in the third spread. Emily even said to possibly have a caravan of food trucks that lead into the title on the impact spread.
Homework: Finish 3 detail color double page spreads for next class
- Read pages: 58-59- Publication Components, & 82-85- Sequencing and Pacing: Creating flow among Pages


Below are the suggestions that were left on the white board.

Week 4- Outside of Class

This week outside of class, we were told to create 9 layout spreads for our stories, plus complete the narrative for next class. My idea for the layouts as far as the target demographics is for a men's survival magazine from early 20s to 40s, and the color scheme is orange, red, brown, and black. I was thinking it would be a "What If?" type article in a magazine. Below are my rough spread sketches and finished narrative.

Food Truck NIGHTMARE

Food trucks are seen all over major cities, and are a quick, convenient stop for busy people in a hurry who don’t take the time to realize how important they could potentially be. Just imagine if the one thing you took for granted is the one thing that you rely on in order to survive?? Take the time to expand your imagination and really think about how your life would be affected in a situation like this…

In a post-apocalyptic world, food trucks are the only food source after half of the world’s population has been wiped out by a deadly food virus that was injected into imported food as an act of terrorism against the United States. It eventually spread to other parts of the world as people traveled, causing the plan to back-fire. Nobody knows exactly where the virus came from, but the general vicinity is said to be Russia. When someone gets infected, they get very feverish and have uncontrollable bowel movements, and eventually end up dying from the virus shutting down their system. This usually takes around 1-2 days after becoming infected. There is no cure for this virus, so any person can see why over half of the world’s population has been wiped out by such a terribly deadly epidemic.

Our story will take place in an area that is typically abundant in just about any food source you could imagine: New York City. The normally busy, buzzing city full of multiple sights and sounds is now a deafeningly silent ghost town filled with rats and sickly people affected by the deadly food virus. The people who have not been affected live in groups in any area they can find that is safe, as people are now very greedy with their food and water since their source of food only comes around once a week. These food trucks come from the supposed “safe-land,” which nobody has ever seen, except for the people who drive the food trucks. It is rumored that this top secret facility manufactures food that has a special chemical in it that counteracts the deadly food virus in all other food. There are multiple facilities where the food is delivered to in other parts of the country in more populated areas. The main facility, however, is in New York City and the remaining residents get the freshest food. People congregate to the nearest “food stop” where the trucks will deliver a week’s supply of food and jugs of contaminant-free water, which is typically enough for one meal and one gallon of water per day, per person in a living group. These meals usually consist of non-perishable items that will last at least a week until the next delivery comes. Before receiving food, each person must be scanned with a special eye-scanner that the deliveryman or woman must use to determine whether or not they are infected with the virus. If a person is infected, they are either taken and quarantined by separate vehicle if there are children around or shot on the spot so that they don’t infect anyone else. It seems harsh, but the belief in this post-apocalyptic world is to protect the greater good so that the entire human population is not wiped out. The people who are not infected must protect themselves from those who are by keeping their food well hidden and protected when it is not being guarded, because they cannot take a risk on anyone else getting infected. Nobody is 100% safe, but people will do whatever it takes to try their best to protect themselves and their loved ones from being inflicted with this devastating virus. However, what will you do if the only source of non-contaminated food and water becomes too dangerous to consume?

No matter how many precautions are made, nobody can completely prevent a virus from spreading. In this case, the main manufacturing facility of food and water became contaminated from potentially one of the workers carrying a virus on their hazard suits, which prevents them from catching the virus. Many precautions are made to assure that the food and water being delivered, as well as the men and women delivering, are safe. Upon arriving back at the facility after making their deliveries, the driver must stop the food truck in front of the gate where people in hazard suits can come and completely disinfect the entire vehicle. The driver then steps into a small room where they remove all of their clothes and step into a decontamination shower as their clothes are also decontaminated and replaced with new clothes. After that, they put on their clothes and head into the living quarters of the facility where they and their families reside, assuring the safest, cleanest place to reside. Somehow, not everything was completely decontaminated, and the virus made its way to the main part of the facility where all of the food is carefully made, and contaminated everything. Since the main facility did not catch the contamination in time, food delivered to the other facilities around the country became contaminated as well, causing the food truck manufacturing company to shut down. People were suddenly becoming sick at a rapid rate, wiping out another huge part of the population. Once the remaining people who didn’t eat the contaminated food discovered that their only source of food was gone, it was left to them to figure out how to survive….

If the situation was thought to not get any worse, the residents of New York city and the entire United States were dead wrong. Since there is not a lot of wildlife and forests in or around New York city, finding food was a chore.  The only salvageable food left was canned goods in abandoned grocery stores, which people immediately thought to go for, causing the supply to run dry very quickly. Once that ran out, it was up to people to hunt or find their own food. Since the water carries the food- and water-borne virus, all water life is contaminated as well, causing it to smell terrible from all of the dead, rotting fish in the water. The only source of fresh water is the rain that gets caught in buckets, which hopefully neighboring people won’t steal from you when it isn’t being guarded. The only edible food available in the entire city is whatever the virus did not get spread to, such as birds or any animals, anything growing on trees or from the ground, or food that other people have. The greediness has increased, which means all of your belongings must be guarded at all times. If not, be prepared to have everything stolen from you while you have your back turned. Eventually, the virus spreads to wildlife from them eating contaminated food, causing them to die off. Winter comes, and the trees and anything else growing dies, leaving nearly nothing to consume, causing the almost the entire population of the United States to die. The terrorists have won, or at least what is left of them.

Living in a world with little to no food is devastating. Food trucks may be a convenient quick stop for one to get food that is often taken for granted, but what if one day it is the only source of food. After that, what if your only source of food is gone? What if???

Week 4B- Sept. 18

Today in class, we brainstormed our ideas on what we wanted to do for our next big project in groups of 3. We made line webs with bunches of ideas to help each other come up with what they want to do and expand their minds. For mine, I'm still intrigued by the idea of the post-apocalyptic disaster of food trucks mentioned in the previous post, as my group members were, too. They also helped me come up with some more ideas, such as:
1. How to survive in a food truck during an apocalypse
2. Comedy- article on how dangerous-sounding foods attacked people (sharp cheese, swordfish, shark-shaped gummies)

We were then given the remainder of the class to start typing up our stories and have at least one page single-spaced. For homework (Due by next class), we have to:
- Determine the target demographics for our articles on this blog
-expand our in-class write-ups and write a 1,000-2,000 word article
- create 3 different rough color sketch layouts for systems for all the spreads
- 9 double-page spread sketches

Here is what I got done in class so far...

Week 4A- Sept. 16

Today in class, we reviewed the assigned readings from last class. The questions that were asked to us today are going to also be on the Mid term exam, so it really helped to go over the readings.

For the rest of the class, we critiqued our final spreads, and to be honest everyone's spreads came a long way from our original sketches, and it was really neat to see everyones' progression throughout the entire activity. Some of the critiques that I received includes continuing the repeated glyphs on the impact spread over to the next page,  and adding another glyph on the second spread toward the middle to add a sense of continuation of the reading and to fill in some unneeded negative space. Afterwards, we handed in all ideations from the project along with our final spreads.

During the last ten minutes of class, we decided on the subject each of us will use for our next project, and mine is "Food Truck Nightmare".
Some of my ideas include:
- zombie/apocalyptic type world
-post-apocalyptic, food truck is the last type of food source in a post-apocalyptic world coming from the main "safe land" and all food gets contaminated with the virus that started the apocalypse, causing people to become infected and turn into zombies, and survivors have to find their own food

Week 3-Outside of Class

This week we were told to fix our spreads once again and print them out in color. I feel like there are still improvements that I need to make in order to improve it even more. I did take alot of the critiques on Wednesday and applied them to my final piece. Overall I am pleased with how it turned out, and I feel that it has come a long way from the original sketches.

Week 3B- Sept.11

Today in class, we set out our second black and white layouts and went around the room, commenting on a piece of paper our constructive criticism and aspects that we liked. I was given multiple comments on what to change and things that people liked, and multiple suggestions on how to make my spreads better. I was told to make a more uniform layout instead of different ideas on each spread. My goal was to not make it random as my glyph is personified as a fancy, rich British man with a big heart, so I felt that the layout needed to be more simple and uniform. I hope this will be achieved upon presenting my final spread in color. Our homework is to finish the Glyph Exercise for next class and print in color, cropped flushed, no mounting needed. We must also bring in all ideation and previous printouts and read pages 19-25 and 50-53 in our Publication Design Workbook.

Week 3A- Sept. 9

Today in class, we critiqued each others' printed layouts in black and white. While critiquing, I noticed that when the text was added, layout sketches that previously looked good did not suit the text and the story behind the glyph. I noticed this problem for mine as well, being that my character is a fancy British man with a big heart. My layouts were a bit random with the different glyph and text placements, as you can see from previous photos, and it was suggested that I make the layouts a bit more uniform. The rest of the class consisted of in-class work time in order for us to make the needed adjustments to our layouts. For next class we were instructed to print them out in Black and White once again to see how our adjustments look on print before moving on to color print for next Monday.

Week 2 Outside of Class

This week outside of class, we were assigned to pick two out of our 8 double-spread layout sketches and create either  8"x10" or 10"x16" digital versions of them on Publisher. At first I tried to make my spreads 8"10", but I was not able to properly match the layout sketches, so I made mine 10"x8" instead of 8"10" in order to properly suit the original design of my layout sketches onto Publisher. There was some difficulty figuring how the paragraphs would fit and the amount of words on each line in relation to how close they would get to the margins, but eventually it worked out in my favor after making a few adjustments of the type size and amount of words on each line. For now we had to print the spreads out in black and white just to see how they look in print. Overall I'm please with how they turned out, so I'm excited to see what these spreads look like printed in color!

Week 2A-Sept. 2

LABOR DAY--> NO CLASS!

Week 2B- Sept. 4

WEEK 2B-SEPT. 4, 2013

Today in class we critiqued each other's page layouts and chose our favorite two for part 3 of the project where we will be putting them onto InDesign for print. Mine would have to be the top left and the second one from the bottom on the right, so I might just use those for the next part of the Glyph exercise. We were also given an overview of how to use InDesign for those of us who never used it.