CFP: Wordpress & Blog Updates

My Wordpress site is nearly done I'm just trying to organize my portfolio images, posts and navigations. So, if you'd like to see what I've been up to then click on the Wordpress link on the sidebar under "Find Me On..." to your right. Also, in order to create some cohesion between my Wordpress site and my Blogger I've changed the colors on my blogger to the blue on my Wordpress. I couldn't make the blue on my Blogger as bright as my Wordpress because it would make it difficult to read, but at least now there is more similarity between the two.

CFP: New Blog Layout

This weekend I had some extra time so I re-designed my blog layout, because I think I want to keep my process blog separate from my wordpress page. I wanted a simple layout with different shades of gray and a pop of color. Seamless patterns don't really suit my tastes, but I felt like I needed something in the background so I went with a dirt texture to play off of the vintage blurry feel of the header. I think things that look old, dirty and rusty are really beautiful because there is so much history behind it. The photo I used in the header was taken with a Holga camera last summer. I have particular memories and sentimental feelings tied with the image so I wanted to use it in my header as a reminder of who I am.

CFP: Color Wheels Final Artifact

Here is my final color harmony artifact entitled "Color Wheels: Life in the Fast Lane". I know it's a bit cheesy, but it works so well. The symbol on the cover of the book alludes to the motion of a wheel and the iconic Hot Wheels track. I wanted to shoot the cars in an environment and use the colors of the environment as part of the color relationship. Mounting the pages weren't as difficult as I imagined. In fact, Marty's previous bitmap project helped me learn how to mount more efficiently. It was a very meditative process and really all about preparation. Overall I'm pleased with the final artifact and I think it looks nicer as a book that I could place on my shelf rather than an accordion book.

Here's a close up detail:

CFP: Final 8 Images

Below I've attached my final 8 images in the order they will appear in the final artifact. I had to re-shoot a couple of my photos because I needed the lighting to be perfect. Perfect for me has to happen between 6:00PM to 7:00PM,  because the sun is in the right position and the lighting isn't too harsh.

Complementary

Analogous

Warm

Cool

Triadic

Split Complementary

Shade

Tint

CFP: Hot Wheels Color Story

My parents were kind of confused and angry when I told them I was spending my money to buy hot wheels, but they'll get over it. I get to relive my childhood with this assignment so I'm having a lot of fun. When I started the assignment I was trying to decide whether to shoot in studio or out in the world so I tested both out. When I was working on the images below in the studio I literally got bored and started getting sleepy. If I get bored making the images, I can't image how the viewer will feel looking at the images. I can't deny that they don't look good in the studio, there's just not extra flavor. Also, as a side note, the images below desaturated when I uploaded them.

My next step was to take the images into the field. I really respect photographers, because they have to exhibit a bit of boldness and not care what people think. This is also why I believe I would be a wimpy photographer, because I'm not very bold. While I was shooting these images, there were a whole lot of cars driving by and people walking around, it was hard for me to tune them out. It took awhile, but I eventually loosened up and got some nice shots. For example, the orange and blue complementary shot below is probably the best shot I got that day. I saw the red car coming from the right and I intentionally waited for the car to pass to get it in the frame. The shoot outside put me in an uncomfortable position, but it was kind of a thrill. I love rust and graffiti and I'm really glad I found a way to incorporate all of it.

CFP: Color Emotions

I enjoyed this assignment and trying to come up with names for the colors. I had issues picking colors for some of the emotions, but I tried to be particular with my word choice to help sell the idea. The biggest issue I had was figuring out the color harmony for each group of color emotion.

CFP: Postive & Negative Color Emotion

In this assignment I spent four minutes brainstorming words for each color, 2 minutes on the positives and 2 minutes on the negative emotions/words. I kept drawing a blank on a lot of these words or I kept thinking about negative emotions during the positive emotions and vice versa. It was really hard to think of emotions so instead I tried to write out whatever came to mind.

Bright Red 186
Positive response:
love, passion, determination, desire

Negative response:
anger, jealousy, frustration, war, blood, danger

Vibrant Orange 1585
Positive:
joy, enthusiasm, success, encouragement, happiness, friendliness

Negative:
ignorance, inferiority

Bright Yellow 116
Positive:
sunshine, happiness, joy, excited, caution

Negative:
cynicism, laziness

Earth Brown 438
Positive:
natural, simple, hearty

Negative:
dirty, old

Deep Blue 2747
Positive:
tranquility, comfort, understanding, acceptance, patience, security

Negative:
fear, coldness, passive, sadness, depression

Chartreuse Green 584
Positive:
fresh, health, food, growth, soothing, friendliness

Negative:
moldy, infectious, envy, greedy

Blue Purple 267
Positive:
sophistication, mysterious, royal, soothing

Negative:
bruised, foreboding

Charcoal Gray 425
Positive:
neutral, conservative, mysterious

Negative:
old, coldness, moody, mourning

Black
Positive:
dramatic, classy, serious, committed

Negative:
 evil, death, ignorance, coldness

White
Positive:
pure, clean, fresh,goodness

Negative:
lonely, emptiness, cold, distant, blind

CFP: Simple Color

I had a lot of trouble with this assignment because again, Photoshop was useless and I had to eye everything. I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a bad thing, because it really taught me to see the subtleties in color. The second darkest color was probably the most difficult since the RGB color is duller and in the Pantone list it was just non-existent. I found colors that were about the same tone, but they were either too dark, too light or too saturated.

Here's my printed version of the assignment, which is WAY off.

After critique, I re-did the assignment and found the PMS color in Photoshop first then the RGB in Illustrator as Patrick had suggested. Surprisingly, it was so much more efficient and true to the color.

CFP: Color Star and Color Systems

Here is my completed color star with the four color systems, CMYK, RGB, PMS and HEX:

It took a lot longer to complete this star then I thought it would. Trying to find the Pantone color through Photoshop was a pain and mostly inaccurate. Yet after I finished, I realized that I didn't convert the photoshop file to CMYK when checking the pantone colors so that may have been an issue.

CFP: Joseph Alber

I think I may have studied Alber before, because the experiments are familiar, but I've must have forgotten his name. Anyways, the reading assignment and the interactive websites illustrate how the relationships of various colors can alter other colors in how they are perceived. I found all of the website examples fascinating, but especially the Color Mixture in paper. In the example, there are two sheets of paper that overlap in between them and shows of colors can influence our spatial perception. The color shift of the middle can determine the transparency of the two sheets and their whether the left sheet appears above or below the other.

In the reverse grounds experiment, there are two blocks of colors with an "x" in the middle of them that are the same color. Changing the background color of the blocks can alter how the middle "x" appears. For instance, if I change the background to yellow in the left box and purple in the right, the "x" in the yellow box appears purple while the "x" in the purple background appears yellow.

The last web example somewhat similar to the reverse grounds experiment, but focuses on how context can influence our perception of color. I changed the inner hue to the same color and the inner hue of the left side appears darker and brighter on the darker background than the lighter background.

CFP: Adidas Logo History

Designer Bio:
Adidas was designed and founded by Adolf (Adi) Dassler from Herzogenaurach, Germany in the 1920’s. Dassler combined his nickname ‘Adi’ with the first three letters of his last name Dassler to name his company and he decided to use a lowercase ‘a’ for the company’s name to distinguish it from the competition. However, before Adi Dassler created adidas he and his brother Rudolph Dassler, who would later move on to form Puma, created Gebruder Dassier OHG (Dassler Brothers Ltd) on July 1, 1924. The Dassler brothers were never satisfied with the fit of their sport shoes so, being the sons of a cobbler, they began making their own. Their shoes began to gain a reputation and were so successful that they supplied shoes for the German teams in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. Then in 1948 a dispute broke out between the brothers so they decided to go their separate ways and create their own successful empires. A year later, Adidas added the legendary three stripes to their trainers to strengthen the shoe and provide more stability to the foot. Adi Dassler's goal was to provide every athlete with the best possible equipment. The three stripes represented his three guiding principles: design the best shoe for the requirements of the sport, protect the athlete from injury, and make the product durable. Both adidas and Puma were gaining a reputation overseas and began distributing their products in the United States. In 1972, both Joe Fraizer and Muhammad Ali wore adidas boxing shoes in their ‘fight of the century’, which was a landmark event for adidas. Later in that same year, adidas was named the official supplier for the Munich Olympics and created their famous trefoil logo.

Dassler Brothers Ltd.

 Company Analysis:
Adidas Company is the second largest sportswear manufacture in the world, specializing in sporting gear and all sporting related products. The company’s current logo with the three parallel stripes was designed by the Creative Director Peter Moore, and alludes to a mountain indicating the challenges to be faced and the goals to be achieved. The three stripes also represents Dassler’s principles: design the best shoe for the requirements of the sport, protect the athlete from injury, and make the product durable. The trefoil logo, which was adopted as the corporate logo design in 1972, is now specifically only used on the company’s heritage products. The three leaves of the trefoil logo symbolizes the Olympic spirit, linked to the three continental plates and the company’s diversity as well as the heritage and history of the company. The black color of the Adidas logo comes as an inspirational motif to the youth importantly involved in sports and athletic activities, reviving their spirit and bring upon a striking youth culture. Like the design, the font of the logo is simplistic yet memorable and prominent with its simple style. Adidas continues to follow the tradition by maintaining the simple yet innovating design.

Color Standards:
Pantone Matching System -  Black
CMYK - 70, 45, 25, 100
RGB - 0, 0, 0

CFP: Color Harmonies

There are six basic color relationship concepts that create harmony: complementary, split complementary, double complementary, analogous, triadic, and monochromatic. Although there are only six concepts, there is an infinite amount of color combinations for each relationship.

Complementary:
A complementary color relationship occurs between two colors opposite of each other on the color wheel. Because these colors are opposite, they create the most visual vibration such as or blue and orange or red and green. In addition, complementary colors should be avoided in text.

Split Complementary:
A split complementary relationship occurs between three colors. It's similar to a complimentary color scheme but instead the two colors adjacent to one of the colors compliments are used instead. Because the two other colors are next to the third's complement the colors have a visual vibration yet not as strong as a complementary color relationship.

Double Complementary:
 A double complementary or rectangle relationship occurs between two groups of complementary colors. There are a lot of different variations in double compliments, but in practice one color should be more dominant than the others.

Analogous:
 An analogous color relationship occurs when two or more colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They share a similar wavelength so they

Triadic:
 A triadic color relationship occurs between three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. The primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are an example of a triadic scheme. It is advised to choose one dominant color of the three and use the other two as accents, because triadic colors tend to be equally vibrant.

Monochromatic:
A monochromatic color scheme is composed of shades and tints of one color. Although there is only one color being used, there is a great range of similar color available when black and white is added into the mix.

CFP: Itten's Color Star

Color is more mathematical than I expected and I'm terrible at math. I will usually find my way around, but it will probably take me longer than the non-mathematically challenged individual. For example, in order to find the median of two numbers I had to write them out like this: 40-50-60-70-80-90-100. I know it's not very efficient, but it works for me. An issue that I'm noticing in the image below that I didn't notice while I was working on my color star is how much lighter the tints appear. My computer is older compared to some of my classmate's computers so my monitor might not be as true to color as it appears. I also had a lot of issues finding a distinct hue difference between Orange, Red Orange and Red and I tried to adjust the angle of my screen, but it didn't help much. Another thing I don't understand is why the colors appears different on the JPEG file compared to the ai file.