Campaign, take 2

The personal crit from Alison and Stephanie went OK but I missed the class feedback. Alison liked my wavy lines. Relief. Stephanie, not so much but, Alison's the design person, right? (No offense, Stephanie.)

I changed some things up. New image for the postcard. Yay, I have my diversity back. Moved the black eye girl to the poster, since she's the more impactful image. Changed the copy quite a bit. Went with a story telling approach. Kept my curvy lines and treated all images the same with the curves.

Enough talking (I should be working anyway). Here are the new pieces.

By the way, I've decided I don't like Blogger's interface for images. It's nice you can put the images here for free and not host them elsewhere, but the html is horrendously ugly.

Punchy

The newscaster just said, "Someone's targeting moving cars with unsuspecting motorists."

I sure hope so! A lot of people should target cars if being driven by unsuspecting motorists. What's the crime in that?

This reminds me of a hilarious "stupid" video.

My shows are back!

And my grades will show it! ;)

LIVE...it's Dancing With the Stars and Top Chef Chicago.

I used to record DWTS and watch a bunch in a row because I can't stand the wait from week to week. That stopped when people I liked started getting kicked off. My votes do count, darn it.

Top Chef takes mercy on me and kicks someone off at the end of each show. And I love the head judge, Tom Colicchio. You could serve him up with a side of anything, any day of the week...

Speaking of spicy numbers, what's up with Maxim (not that I read it), naming Sarah Jessica Parker the unsexiest woman? Another inexplicable honoree on that list is Sandra Oh. The list was rounded out by Amy Winehouse, Madonna, and Britney. From the inception of Maxim, I've always been a skeptic, thinking it was one thread shy of being an actual porn magazine. Now I know they're morons also.

As my husband said, "Right, find me an average guy who would not want to sleep with those women if given the chance."

Good or bad, here are my comps for proj3. Glad they're done but not happy with how they look.

Finding the right photos was difficult and my basic skills with PhotoShop don't allow me much flexibility. Saturday and Sunday I made an awful decision and wasted massive time and paid for it the rest of the week. Benetton produced an ad for domestic violence with a bruised woman wearing a purple shawl. It was perfect---shawl shape was the same as the ribbon. Couldn't use that same photo though, right? Decided I'd put the head of another woman on the photo. Difficult because the hair of the original model was long and cascaded onto her torso. Had to edit the torso out and make a shirt. Ugh. You can imagine how all of this went badly and wasted huge amounts of time. I didn't step back and say 'this is too time consuming, think of something else.'

Made another similar mistake with taking a photo of a woman with sleep bags under her eyes and accentuating them to appear as black eyes. Neither of these photos made it into these pieces. In fact, the postcard girl was a last minute decision yesterday. I'd found her earlier in the week but kept her on the back burner. But by picking her, I lost some of my ethnic diversity.

The only thing I really like about the photos is I wanted to go for a progressive emotion to parallel the stages represented by the headlines. Silence = bruised and head down. Words = improvement. Empowers = confronting the camera.

Haven't even fussed about my design elements! I had a very basic, straight layout. Wasn't happy, but the intended audience is a workplace so they need to have a professional look. Had something going Wednesday night but got off track and ended up with a bad execution of ribbons running through the design.

Grabbed an Urbanite for inspiration. Saw an ad for Hamden. Top was solid color interrupted by another solid color--the shape of a straight bullhorn--and bottom was solid color. All straight lines. Got me to the curvy, softer look you see here. Rough going and I don't love it.

Lessons learned: if something is taking a long time, reassess it's worth; don't spend too much time trying to find the perfect image--if you can't find it within an hour, it doesn't exist; don't leave your laptop security key with your husband.

More stock photos

The other week in class, I wanted to offer my stock photo find but couldn't remember the name. 123RF has become my friend when istock doesn't have what I need. Some of the other places--shutterstock is the only one coming to mind right now--have overlap with istock. Haven't run into that as much with 123rf.

• Their smallest credit package is $15 for 15 credits. You get more credits for your dollar if you buy more at a time.
• From what I've seen, the photos are consistently 'priced' with credits. All print quality photos cost 2 credits. I think istock charges more for certain photos.
• Also has lightboxes, zooms photos on the thumbnail screen, and allows you to add a photo to your lightbox from the thumbnail screen. Nice if you want to flick through a bunch quickly and later come back to study a smaller group of photos.

Another option if people are looking for something different.

hot off the presses...

Copy for Proj 3 - Campaign

Silence Hurts.
Imagine someone telling you a co-worker was murdered last night by her boyfriend. Now imagine you suspected she was being abused but, unsure of what to do, you said nothing. No one is saying it would be an easy conversation, but it could be a life-saving one.

Small changes made by every day people can have a big impact for victims of domestic violence. Make it your business to end abuse by creating a supportive environment, where victims will be comfortable to open up and reach out for help.


Words Heal.
A little kindness goes a long way, especially for someone treated like dirt by the one who supposedly loves her. When domestic violence victims go to work, so do their scars left by the physical and emotional abuse. Expressing your concern for a co-worker’s well being may be all she needs to start believing in a better future.

Small changes made by every day people can have a big impact for victims of domestic violence. Make it your business to end abuse by creating a supportive environment, where victims will be comfortable to open up and reach out for help.


Support Empowers.
No one is asking you to stop a fist in midair, take a bullet, or knock a knife out of his hand. Yet the support you offer a co-worker suffering domestic violence could have the same effect.

Support starts with awareness of a problem and this problem touches everyone. In one year, Maryland recorded over 22,000 domestic violence crimes with an estimated 5500 going undocumented. When one of these victims goes to work, so does her physical and emotional scars. Maybe she’s sleep deprived after spending the night awake, worrying if this set of bruises will be covered by makeup. Throughout the work day, her abuser could still make his presence known through harassing phone calls or emails. A powerful reminder that even from a distance, he can keep her down. Towards the end of the day, she may be consumed by fear about going home. Meanwhile, she still has a job to do while she’s at work.

What support can you offer a co-worker suffering this degradation? Become familiar with signs of a victim or an abuser. Learn about resources available for a victim. Understand policies about domestic violence and the workplace. All of these are simple steps everyone can take to end abuse.

Small changes made by every day people can have a big impact. Make it your business to end abuse by creating a supportive environment, where victims will be comfortable to open up and reach out for help.

Call To Action:
Make It Your Business to End Abuse
Domestic Violence and the Workplace
What can you do to help? Visit www.ubalt.edu/endabuse

Potty?

fun yet freaky series of these little people. i love the feet positions.

this is from koun on istock.

Do you miss me?

My office moved across the street from Brewer's Art back in January. Since then I've been once. That singular visit ended with a singular beer.

I wonder if the taps miss me as much as I miss them?

All alone?

Gee, no one's kickin it with me in the graphics labs?

;)

Rougher writing week

Stephanie sent her comments to me for the profile draft. This assignment was more difficult for me and, again, the tension about the assignment ended up on the page. More specifically, I need focus.

There is much I want to say about the subject. The small group crit helped me realize I was unfocused. I thought I tightened it up but it's still ...meh.

Time to edit again. Might be time for me to wipe the slate clean. Identify my story and start from there, as opposed to starting from the draft.

A funny thing happened on my way to putting my copy into my design. My copy had subjeadings. I took them out in the design. In her comments about my (original) copy, Stephanie said 'nice job on the subheadings.' Ooops. : )