Graphic design and art have never
been a strength of mine, but they have always been something I have had an appreciation
for. As someone who loves to shop and
look through magazines, I have always been drawn to articles, ads, and websites
that are aesthetically pleasing, but I have never been able to pinpoint why they
look so good until learning about the different design elements and principles
in our readings, particularly in White
Space is Not Your Enemy. Now I
cannot help but point out well designed (and not so well designed) ads and
websites.
For me, the most important aspects of
design that I learned about were regarding layouts and images. I never realized how important cropping an
image was until the 3rd Mini Art School (Blog #5) assignment on this
topic. I had a great time trying to
change the focal point and orientation of the images. My peers did a great job with this too. I remember looking at Steve and Erin’s
cropped images, which were fantastic!
Previously, I almost always took pictures with the focal point directly
centered. Through these activities and
readings, I discovered the rule of thirds, which has been very helpful in
changing the perspective of the images and making them less boring and
monotonous (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010).
When reviewing still media tools for the MDMC, I discovered FotoFlexer,
which I have used many times since to resize an image without distortion and
edit or add certain features to the image.
Layout was
the other feature of design that I have never given much thought to but now is
always in my mind. The works every time
layout has been extremely helpful for quickly designing something and making it
look great. I also always try to keep in
mind using a good amount of negative space and breaking up large amounts of
text with images or columns to make it more inviting. The first Mini Art School assignment (Blog #3)
was very helpful in forcing me to play with different layout options for the
redesign assignment and my 90’s Toys Ad.
Getting the
feedback from my peers has been extremely helpful. Whether it has just been for reinforcement purposes
and encouragement or suggestions that can help me with my Multimedia Project
(or in general). For example, Mae Lin
suggested playing with the sidebar on my blog to group apps with similar
content. This is something I am looking
in to.
My
understanding of design principles and layout sins have definitely improved
from the beginning of the semester. I
look forward to continuing to make my work better!
