Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!
Once again we have made it to the end of another thrilling week!
As usual, a lot of stuff has happened this week, so let’s begin.
The Wire
Okay everyone, I have seen a bunch of wild stuff in The Wire, but this week really took the cake for me. I will start with the first thing that took me by surprise. 1) WTF with Ziggy! If you saw my scene poster, I kind of went into it, but here is basically what I said. I knew he was an unstable character, but I did not see that coming at all. He just walked into the place and lit the place up with gunfire! When I saw that, I thought he was going to begin a darker route, but he immediately showed remorse for what he had done. However, he completely gave his family the push that was needed to basically put the family in a bad situation. I’m curious to see how it all ends for the Sobotkas. Currently, because of Ziggy, they have broken the number one rule for international dealings: Do not ef with international dealers; they are hardcore!
In other news, I have found my new favorite character in The Wire. Brother Mouzone was recently introduced and it does not appear that he is going to disappear any time soon. To make matters worse, I believe he knows he was set up. The look he gave Stringer had the, “I know it was you,” look. If that is the case, I have a strange feeling him and Omar are going to be going after Stringer together. That is double guns for what person; that is not going to end well. I’m slowly beginning to see that the Barksdale organization is going to come back, but in what shape or form, I do not yet know.
On another note, seeing Prez hit the major was priceless. I had to watch that at least three times before I moved on in the episode. It was completely warranted! He’s all worried about getting Sobotka, he is not even seeing the full picture! Furthermore, it came from a character you did not expect it to come from. Daniel’s unit is shaping up to be more interesting with each episode. Unfortunately, I feel as though the time they have together is coming to a quick end.
Speaking of ends, I have a feeling that The Greek and his main associate are going to get out of this without being caught. I also have a feeling that they will tie back into the Barksdale organization somehow. They seem somewhat closer given that Stringer has a connection with Proposition Joe, but that might just be me.
Those are my main thoughts on The Wire for the week. I can’t wait to see how this season ends!
Doin’ them Dailies!
In case you missed it, here is what I’ve been up with my DC’s
So this here is my empathy map!
Here is a short explanation of each field:
Hear?
T.G.I.T. – Thank God it’s Thursday! Since I don’t have classes on Friday, this is always being heard from me. It makes the weekend so much sweeter!
Say & Do
I can do this (say) – I say I can get things done in an orderly fashion, and finish them early, but the reality of it is… no I can’t!
See?
Too much work- nufsaid 
Think & Feel?
How am I suppose to do that? – This ties in with the say and do; it comes after I recognize that I can’t do something.
I feel tired… – Don’t we all to be quite honest?
Pain
Overwhelming at times – It happens to us all
Gain
Work hard now; do nothing later – It really pays to do the work now so you can chill later!
Additional Thoughts
– This one was pretty fun to do! It made me think for a second about my average day/week. I think I summed it up pretty well.
Well, you all know I am not an artist!
But here is an attempt from me, to draw a silhouette of me. It is roughly about 72% accurate, which is pretty darn good coming from me!
It ain’t pretty, but it is some form of art.
Happy 1000th TDC!
I figured I’d make a whale in a window, going for money for this TDC! I also added an additional shape (which now that I look at it, it looks more like a painting).
This was a fun one to create.
Additional Thoughts
– I really felt this was my best one. I merged three pictures well and even added something else to it for some flare. I don’t know what else to really say; I just really like this one!
On the Topic of Design
Alrighty, if you did not see it, you missed out on my opinions on the design booklet. Here’s the blog post:
Thoughts On: The Vignelli Canon
I feel like I learn something new in this class every week. I took a read through the Vignelli Canon expecting to read yet another bland article, but I was surprised by the creativity that was shared.
The biggest part of this booklet that stuck out to me was when the author talked about the use of fonts and spacing in books. I had to literally stop and think about it for a moment. After thinking about it for a moment, I began to grab various books that were in my room; textbooks, on-line articles, guide books, novels, and a few more books were grabbed from around my room. I began to take a look at how things were sectioned off to reveal importance or in some books they were sectioned off to go off on a separate tangent. Seeing how fonts were arranged was also interesting, especially with how they were centered on the page.
Another thing that I found interesting in the article was the idea of scale. Scale is something that I actually look for, especially since I am a builder. The fact that he stated that it is something that must be continually tweaked for each instance it is used was something I can really agree with. Usually, scale is important because it allows certain things to be examined more closely or it can lessen the importance of some things. It really made me think as I considered the scale of certain builds I have made.
Color was also another aspect that he touched on that I had to agree with. As I stated in my design blitz, I found that color itself was capable of conveying certain messages that everyone could relate to. For example, something that is suppose to be scary is typically not going to use rainbow colors (unless it is a clown). Likewise, happiness it typically not conveyed through dark and scary colors. In some ways, the omission of color tells us a lot. For example, when someone wants to design something that appears to be from the past, they might use black/white color scheme or a sepia like color scheme.
Texture is also another concept that I found interesting. His points on the differences between smooth and rough textures is something that I really found important in design. Again, as a builder, when I designed a cliff or a rocky pass, certain pieces helped create that texture of rockiness. If I had not had used those pieces, the space would have come out smooth, which was not what I was looking for. It is something very important that needs to be examined when designing something.
Time to Blitz Again!!!
Blitz happening again! That was terrible… I’m sorry. This week we had a design blitz, which was just as cool as the last blitz! If you missed it, here it is:
Alright folks I’d like to tell you all about a recent trip I had across campus.
I read online that I had to do this little thing called a “design blitz.” Seeing as how I enjoyed the last blitz, I decided to go on a walk across campus. I searched up and down to see stuff that really stuck out to me, and it was not until I made it to my car (because I was thinking of going to Five Guys, and later did) that I saw this:
Typograhpy
– I’m certain many of you have seen this tag on the back of cars, but today I really stood still and took a look at it. This tag spells out the word coexist, but it uses the different emblems of religions/philosophies to spell out the word. Now, I know this holds more symbolism, but the way they are all used to effectively spell a word, and more importantly a powerful word, makes the arrangement and use of them far more effective in the word. I mean think about it, if they had just used some cool font for the word, would it really make much of a difference? Would it really mean that much?
Anyways, I continued my walk out of the parking lot, but then found myself stopping in the same parking lot to look at something that we all see, every, single, day, of, our, lives:
Color
– Now, I bet you are wondering why there is a picture of a “DO NOT ENTER” sign. Well, as I was leaving the parking lot, I had a quick thought about the color of this sign, and all signs for that matter. I had to ask the question, “Why is this sign red? Why isn’t it blue or white?” For that matter, I stopped to think about other signs that were similar to this; stop signs, yield signs, and stop lights are all red. Somehow, we associated the color “red” with a warning. These kind of signs effectively use colors to convey some form of a message that we all can recognize.
After thinking about a sign for a while (which I would not do in the middle of a parking lot, people look at you strangely), I made my way up the hill (I’m not a real fan of the hill still), and stopped once more to look at a very famous structure on campus:
Balance
– Have you ever noticed that this structure is the same on all four sides? It is the same no matter which side you look at it from, and all the characteristics of it are the same. It is not darker on some sides, or lighter on some sides. It holds the same features and creates a balanced look. I had never stopped to look at the bell tower, but I saw it today and it really stood out. I’m not sure why.
Now then, after my little observation at the bell tower, I decided to make my way back to my dorm. All sorts of objects, posters, and other devices began to to really stand out, but then I found something in my hall that was perfect for the next category:
Symbolism
– This is a poster for a play. It is really simple, but take a look at the background and focus on the word doubt. The poster is literally an expression of the word doubt. Furthermore, the background is a black mist, which gives a strange sense. When you focus on the word and the background alone, all you see is doubt with nothing else around it. Sure you could have added some picture or object, but the lack of an object and the word alone + the background really create a good advertisement that focuses on the symbol alone.
With my trip now at an end, I stopped to look over each picture and make my final thoughts. I felt like they accurately explained several elements in design, and I hope you enjoyed reading this.
Now You Try It!!!
So, after all this stuff on design, it was time to start designing my own stuff. So, here is what I designed this week:
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/scene-poster/
This is my poster design for the Scene Poster Assignment.
After seeing the picture of Omar with a gun, I immediately recall this scene and said, “LET’S GO!” I grabbed a picture off of google and booted up powerpoint to make this. A couple of text boxes, comic sans font, and BAM! This picture came out as a poster. I added in at least two of his quotes followed by a couple of remarks that might be made during this specific scene.
I really wanted to use this scene because this one caught me off guard. I somewhat knew Ziggy was unstable, but this one took the cake! I was expecting him to rage and throw a tantrum with a lot of fowl language, but when he came in, I was like, “Whoa, I have to remember this scene!”
I think it turned out pretty well! Let me know if the picture needs to be resized and I’ll definitely look into resizing it!
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/professor-groom-poster/
The Wire and Jim Groom… what do they have in common? Well they are both famous!
I wanted to make Jim telling a character in The Wire to make art, so this worked out perfectly! I just wished I had a more ridiculous picture of Jim! Anyways, I made this picture in powerpoint as well, and used the crop features in the software. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to round it off so the picture of Jim is still rectangular.
I figured it would be funny for Jim to say make art to Frank Sobotka, seeing as how he is the most tense character in this season (at least to me). Again, if I knew how to round off the picture, I would have loved to have done that. The other reason I chose this picture of all things is because it just seemed out of place. If I know one thing, making out of place pictures can be really entertaining!
Alright here is my take on a READ poster. I created this with powerpoint like all of my other pictures. If the picture is of lesser quality, it is because I resized it. The process of creating this was fairly simple as usual.
On the other hand,
The inspiration for this is more of a story. I originally wanted to find a picture of Brother Mouzone (my favorite character now) reading. However, I did not find a picture of him with a book after searching for about thirty minutes, I stumbled upon this picture. Where Lester was seated looking at this device and everyone else had a strange look on their face. When I realized that the person did not necessarily need to be reading a book, I had my picture!
The second part of my inspiration came from the Boondocks comic strips. The whole phrase, “READ DUMMY!” was inspired by Huey Freeman and his campaign to get more people to read. It generally came with him yelling that at someone and throwing a newspaper or article at the person he was yelling at. I figured this would be perfect for Lester, since he is the one sitting at the laptop (as I called it).
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/bumper-sticker/
For everyone who hates getting cut off, this one is for you! It was made on powerpoint using shapes and textboxes. I originally had this as a striped yellow and black, but it was difficult to read, so I stuck with black borders and a large warning.
I created this because I wanted to give the person behind your car a quick message about cutting me off. I have to say, I thought about this for a while. There are so many good bumper stickers that could be designed, it was hard to choose from.
However, given the fact that we all have had that asshole who cut us off, this is the perfect sticker to have on your bumper. I personally have not had many of these moments, but it has happened plenty of times to people I know (or have ridden with).
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/take-a-picture-of-something-interesting/
This is a picture of the light in my room. This picture has not been modified and this is the actual picture. I started taking random pictures of interesting things in my room and then this happened! Randomly, this looks black and white, but it has not been modified by my camera or any photo editing software.
I just naturally got this picture from my room. The reason I actually took a picture of it was because this is a strange looking light. More importantly, this is the only time I have seen a light like this on campus. To make it even more interesting, that is the only light in my room that was here from the beginning, and it is not even centered in the room to provide the most light.
This is just an awkward light, and that is why it originally caught my interest. The fact that the picture was naturally black and white in color just made it worth posting even more.
Additional Thoughts
– I found these assignments to be pretty fun. One of the more interesting things about these assignments that I liked was finding the perfect things to design. I found myself putting a good amount of time into each one to try to convey the right message to the viewer. I really hope I managed to do that in each one.
————-
In Conclusion
This has been a fun week and I really hope that more weeks bring more fun. I’ll have to give making my own assignment a shot!
Wrapping up loose ends!
Now then, if you recall last week I put up a subtle change picture. While I have not managed to get a new picture showing the difference I will explain it here.
The difference is the waist band in the orange pair of legs. It is a color difference between dark-blueish gray (bley as many LEGO users call it) and the old fashioned grey color. It is hard to spot to the untrained eye!
That’s all for this week; thanks for reading!
