Clay Dreams Brochure (Printed on Colored Paper)

Visual Resource Center Booklet

Library Poster

Final Project

To create this final project I obtained all of my images from flickr creative commons, this way, I made sure all of the images were high resolution.

For the music part of this project I used 2 songs and one natural sound effect. The first, being 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston' by the Dropkick Murphy's and 'Dirty Water' by the Standells. I edited these two songs together smoothly, by cutting out and editing together different parts of the song. For the song 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston', I used the very beginning opening musical part of the song, along with the very end, adding them together ending and starting on the same note, so it sounds like it was really meant to be together. I used this same technique with the 'Dirty Water' song as the combination of the song that you hear in the video is actually 3 different parts of the same song added together.

The natural sound effect of city traffic that I added was a wav file, I obtained from wavsource.com. I saved this file to my desktop and then converted it to an MP3 file using itunes. Then I imported the mp3 file into Audactiy and added the sound to the beginning of the music that I had edited together. After the entire soundtrack was complete, I exported the file to the desktop and then imported it in garage band. All of the music editing I did was in Audacity.

Then I wrote my script based on my favorite things about Boston, and I recorded my voice using garage-band. In garage-band is where I added my voice recordings to the soundtrack I created in Audactiy. The reason I used garage-band was so that if I messed up on the recording, I didnt have to re-do the entire soundtrack, but only had to re-do that specific part, and then could edit the mess ups out as if they never happened.

After my voice was successfully laid over the music and things were placed at the times I wanted. I exported the final product as an MP3 file.

Then, using powerpoint as a storyboard, I imported the images I collected from flickr on blank, black slides. I then arranged the slides in order so that the images I choose went exactly with the words I was speaking and the music I created for the soundtrack.

When the slides were complete, I took a screen shot of each individual slide, and then changed the screenshot image to a jpeg file using photoshop. After all of the slide images or screenshots that I took were in jpeg form, I consolidated them into one folder labeled jpegs.

Then I opened soundslides and imported my jpeg folder along with the mp3 that I had previously created. After the sound and images were imported into soundslides, I adjusted the order of the slides and then adjusted the timing of when the images changed during the slide show or video presentation, that way the image you were looking at, demonstrated what I was saying in the script, and what the artists were singing in their songs.

Overall, I thought this project was really fun! It was something different, and it was cool, because it was a total collaboration of everything we had learned throughout the semester.

Magazine Cards

The first Bind-In card was designed using Adobe Indesign. For this font side of the card, I had the option of producing it in Quark or Indesign. I chose indesign mainly because I just like the program better. Quark has been very well liked, for its simplicity, but I find that Quark can almost be too simple, that you don’t know where to find any of the tools, and then you end up thinking that you simply can’t do that alteration because they don’t have the tools to do it.

I made the document 5.5 by 4 inches. Then I used the rectangle tool and set up the basic outline of the card, creating the center 2 boxes (the outside one stroked at a higher thickness than the inside one), the postage box (also stoked) and the percentage saved box(filled). Then I used the line tool to create the first line of each bar code. Then I copied the bars that I made and pasted however many i needed to complete each bar code. I did this mainly so that all the lines would be the exact same time, and it would take me less time to accomplish.

Next, I added all of the text boxes, and finding the correct font was the most difficult part of this project. After finding, the correct fonts, I typed in exactly what the original card stated and then I free transformed text boxes so that the look and spacing of the text matched the original.

The second Bind-In card is the backside of the first image, and was also produced in Indesign.

First step was to use the rectangle tool and make the entire background yellow matching it as close as possible to the original. Then I measured the spacing of the pink border and used the ruler tool in Indesign to space it correctly with the original. To make the pink boarder, I used the rectangle tool filling it with the pink color. Then I copied the first box I made and pasted each one, and then moved it in place. This also saved time, and made sure all the boxes were the same, just like the bar code on the front.

Then I opened a photoshop document and created the big black arrow using photoshop tools. I inserted a black arrow and then warped it using the transform tool to make it look just like the original. I saved it as a PDF and then placed it in the Indesign document.

Next, I added all of the small check boxes using the rectangle tool and stroked the small rectangle boxes. Then the lines were created, using the line tool and also copying and pasting.

Lastly, all of the text was added, matching it as best as I could to the original Bind-In card.

The last image, is another copy of the backside of the first image, but this time created in Quark. Basically, this card was created in Quark very similar as the one in Indesign, using the rectangle tools, stroking, filling with certain colors, using the line tool, copying, pasting, inserting the arrow from a PDF file image that I created using photoshop, and then adding the font and moving and transforming text boxes to fit into place as best as possible.

I didn't have many issues creating these cards as I know both Quark and Indesign very well by now. Mostly, the entire project was just a lot of trial and error, measuring, and matching fonts and sizes to the original as best of my ability. This was a very time consuming project, but I think it was very beneficial, and helped me fine tune my skills and my knowledge of the programs.

Online Brochure

My partner, Drew Todrys and I used some of the pictures from the brochure with the addition of a map, and added colorful gradients in the background to make it enticing to the viewer but not too distracting. We kept font consistent and made the size appropriate according to its importance and place. The pictures were each individually stroked to stand out. The top titles and bottom bar of links to click were given a gray font and a "|" divider. We looked at a plethora of other websites to come to a consensus of what titles to use on top and bottom while thinking of it in relationship to the brochure. Anyways, I think it's a decent website homepage that isn't cluttered or ugly that properly represents our brochure.

Nicaragua Brouchure

My partner and I, Drew Todrys, went to Nicaragua a summer ago through Friends for Students for 60,000 and this trip was by-far a life changing adventure. So why did we choose to make the brochure for Nicaragua? Well, this is because we are planning another trip with the organization to return to the country and this brochure will help us convince our friends to participate in this trip of a lifetime.

The Brochure speaks to the people we are trying to recruit by answering their main questions about the trip. Our information is based on information we acquired or learned from our previous trip there.

The pictures and a color scheme/layout was made that was aesthetically pleasing only enhancing the seriousness and the interest of the brochure. We used a brown gradient and green top for the title with black font to make a South American-Nicaraguan feel. For the title content we used a futura std light and the content was just a futura font.

The pictures we used in the brouchure, I took myself. We placed the images in the document and then stoked them to make them stand out. The images were inserted using placing and precise measurements to make them aligned perfectly. For the picture on the bottom of Friends of Students for 60,000 we used text wrap to make the font go around the picture with just enough space that made it pleasing to the eye. For the contact information page, right under the first picture we inserted the Nicaraguan flag, made it vertical and changed the opacity, so that the font was legible.

Setting up the panels of the brochure required use of the rectangle frame tool and making perfect measurements. It mainly was a trial and error process of placing and sizing with the text boxes and insertion of the pictures. A separate box was made for the titles and than a text box individually for each. Again, a lot of trial and error with picking the fonts, sizing them, bullets, kerning and spacing, free transform tool, text wrap and even stroking and placing the pictures.

We are definitely proud of including all the information we deemed necessary while making it look aesthetically appealing. This brochure will help us a lot with future recruitment for the Nicaragua trip. If given more time, we would give it to the people interested in the trip and get their critiques and than tweak the brochure accordingly.