"About Me" Poster

This activity involved creating a poster that represented "you" using Photoshop.  I am personally not the best when it comes to creating things in Photoshop.  I have some basic knowledge, but I would love to acquire more.  To start my poster, I began with the image of Long Island.  I used the selection tool to choose the parts of the picture that I wanted.  Originally, there was water surrounding the island, but I decided to only use the land part.  I also added a bit of softness to the edges by using the feathering tool.  After playing around with the "island" I decided to make that the focal point of my poster and add smaller images around it.  Because Long Island is my home, it does make up a huge part of who I am.  I decided to include the image of the state of Virginia because it has been a second home to me for the past three years.  Obviously an icon representing JMU was necessary!  The next image, the beach, is a big part of me too.  I work at the beach and live very close to it so it plays a big role in my life.  Lastly, the "I Love NY" sign, speaks for itself!  I included my name by using the text tool on Photoshop.  This poster was created with very basic skills of Photoshop.  I would have liked to included a few more details or experiment with different tools, but overall, the poster definitely represents who I am.   

Principles of Visual Design

Before

After

Visual Design 1: This design entailed grouping, coloring, and rotating shapes into our own creative graphic.  At first, all of the shapes were randomly scattered and set at a basic color (green).  I added the "glow" effect to each shape to give them a bit more dimension and changed the colors to be more appealing.  I feel like these colors "pop" when you look at the shapes.  When rotating the objects, I was not sure what direction would look best for each shape so I decided to play around with it and eventually come up with the design above.  I believe that the end result is an interesting, unique design.   

Before

After

Visual Design 2: This design entailed making a poster.  We were given a basic outline (seen above "before").  The only object that we were given was the watering can, everything else we had to name ourselves.  I chose a simple title "Garden Sale" to go with the picture.  Making the font bold allowed for an eye-popping title. I decided to keep the color scheme simple, black and white.  I did not want there to be too much going on on the poster.  The location and website are also clearly indicated on the poster.  By simply rearranging the picture, lines, and words, a balanced, appealing poster was created.  

Research Design Arbitrary Graphic

    The instructions for this assignment were pretty simple: "A researcher is asked to create a visual that depicts her research design.  The design includes strategies, data collection methods and a sequenced timeline.  Using just PowerPoint, create a visual that depicts each of these elements as indicated." 

    This was the first visual the we designed in class.  Everyone was on their own, just create what comes to mind.  I knew there had to be eight separate stages of the visual because the study was composed of eight steps.  I personally took the approach of using pictures to describe the study.  If one were to look at the graphic that I designed, they may say that I targeted a young or child-like audience.  I believe because of the clip art that I used to describe the study, it does primarily focus on a younger audience but with the small amount of words used, it may be hard for kids to understand.  I could see teachers using this graphic in their classroom to help their students learn.  It also includes a variety of bright, eye-catching colors.  The arrows are bold enough where they clearly indicate the sequence of events.  I tried to use the same pictures to convey similar messages, for example, the students were always portrayed by the image of the boy sitting at his desk.  One of the main goals that I focused on was to use as few words as possible.  I wanted the art to communicate the study to the audience.  

    This assignment was challenging at first, because I had never participated in an activity similar to this.  Once I started and got a few ideas down, I began to enjoy it and really focus on what graphics would work best to execute the final product.  Not only did this activity allow me to become more familiar with aspects of PowerPoint, it made me realize how much you could do with basic software.  I look forward to creating more visuals.