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Thursday, August 25, 2011

MX- Reading and Video Responses

Seven Types of Intelligence:
In this article it talks about seven very different types of intelligence. When reading I thought to myself how each is a like someone I know, or similar to very smart celebrities. Each gave different characteristics such as shy, being leaders, or how they identify them self in social surroundings. I also thought it was interesting the variety in different activities that each type is drawn to. I thought it was interesting to think about how as designer we could visually communicate to each different type. What types of problems each type faces when it comes to learning.

Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On
This article discusses how the web has moved from an access to information to a way to shop, network with people, and really find new ways to educate people. From there we have moved from the screen to touch screen smart phones. I think that this new way of accessing web and sharing information is very unique. However, it brings up the question what will happen to computers. As they mentioned what is next. The easy access of the internet right now seems like it can't be topped. I thought it was very interesting how they compared the internet to a growing baby. I an interesting point was when they discussed the huge numbers of the internet and how it is being broke down into different identities. That identity is then reflected into a new layer of the "structure". I think this is what makes social networking, wiki, and bargaining on the internet its core value.

Media Smart: Kids Learn how to navigate the multimedia world.
This shows the example of kids learning film making skills. However, it goes beyond just becoming more creative but how to communicate better. I noticed through many of the projects these kids were working on that they worked in groups as well. By understanding and being more involved in what their making helps them communicate better and understand the subject better. As we discussed in class, this video introduces a new value to education. Asking kids from news papers how they identify with an image, and making documentaries of the elderly in the community. They are learning skills based around what the texts books are telling them but applying them in different medias.

Changing Education:
This video throws a lot of good useful information at you. They discuss how the education system when it was first created was meant for a much smaller population of people who went to school and onto college. Now days as schools are becoming more populated they are finding different ways in which to teach, thus more diversity within the schools. Changing how the schools systems act is a problems that many of the administrators face. Should schools move into a different format of teaching than they are right now. Its been proven that children learn differently yet we compare them all the time; based on standardize tests, AP classes, but what value does that up hold? Kids are taught to go to school, never mess up, go to college, get a high paying job and be happy. What if on the way, people stopped worrying so much on the economics and started to focus on the interests of the child and develop ways to teach them through that, making the happiness grow along the way and value something deeper rather than whats in store for lunch.

Henry Jenkins on Transmedia
A point that Henry Jenkins made that I could not get out of my head was when he said "Orwell's fear was big brother is watching you but really we are watching each other". My mind contemplated on this thought for awhile because we are in the midst of a transition between one media change and another. He talks about "convergence culture which is a world which every story, every sound, brand, image, relationship plays itself over the maximum number of media channels" This is fascinating because is it good or bad. To stretch out stories, ideas, and sometimes values and make create new ways of showing them on the media. He used the Obama campaign, and how the black eyed peas dude took his speech and created it into an interesting song, while Obama was using social networks to get votes. One part of the media and having smart phones that are linked to youtube or facebook is that it becomes free advertising. One simple idea like the coca-cola true happiness was spread quickly.

Interest- driven Learning
She talks about the value technology that it has with people is good, however its function right now should be more broad, such as education. People are on social net works to self express themselves, using a like on facebook, or following someone on pin-interest. But how do we take that self expression and converge it into the class room. She mentions that these sites are brought up in ones home and not in the public.

The Machine is Us/ing Us
This video literally shows us the flexibility of virtual text. It can me mended with much easier than the old school pencil and paper. Virtual text can be a link, button, and with the right mind organization help you to code a website. With these codes the machine helps us to decode language between each other and break down the structure of the information and literally organize what pages we may like. They say a picture can speak a 1,000 words, with the invention of flickr, videos on youtube we now have access to virtually any type of image we desire. This video made me realize how much I even depend on the internet and how broad it is. It brings to light that we need to be the ones organizing the information and we are teaching the machine.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Friday, June 3, 2011

New Internship

From my work at American Century it has been an eye opening experience. The company is not only very friendly but gives a drive to design, that before this internship some of the process that I went throught was busy work. Within my first two weeks they have clarified what all of my teachers have been engraving into my head for the last two years. One of my favorite quotes was from Garret back in March or April; when he held up a brochure and said "this is no longer what designer's do".

People usually associate great design with good typography, and communicating an idea visually. While interning I found that design does not just up hold a visual quality but making create a universal message that people outside of the designer understand. So far, a well designed project is no longer a project but a way to communicate from one person to another. This is not dependent on the designer's "stylistics" choices of color, type faces, and structure, but to get past that point and understand the concept. From my understanding it is to communicating though interesting visuals, while being clearly navigated.

Through the past two years I have struggled with craft. One of my biggest weaknesses was to distance myself from rules and regulations that I was unsure about. Within my internship weeks I have made edits to "projects" which could range from flyers to data based info graphs. My job was to take one or two specific edits and apply to what the client wanted. This was a great experience for me because usually it was a typographic issue. I am starting to look at the small details and define not only what the client wants but how to look for them.

Another great experience I had was to watch how two corporations or companies combine together to present a new idea for the audience. Each company has their own identity and create new rules for others to follow. I can be ignorant to what exactly a "brand" means but through this conference, I started absorb the bigger message, this is means creating different methods in which the two different brands are executed. In all final critiques we give a "presentation" of the perception of the project brief. The truth is these "presentations" aren't just to make us verbalize our ideas but to give a description of, how we as designers created a deeper meaning. Within the meeting I listened to one aspect of a brand and compromising with other. One of the design problems I looked at was what is should be hierarchy. Should both brands have equal or one they are combined do they create a new design. This probably is not the typical design problem but to my understanding their is always a new problem and a diverse ways to execute it. When I walked into the meeting I was presented with variations but also variations of how that brand worked with others.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Bargain Spree

Jjohnsrud iPhone App

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Ferment Final

Jjohnsrud Ferment

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Type 4 Final Objectives

For my final artifacts I went through all of my videos and decided to share new additions to my collection. In the end I found that balancing the two different types of text on one screen was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I found though that I learned a great deal about film editing and after effects.

My main objective was to create a way for analog and digital type exist in motion together. Since this project was structured around doing experiments, that's what I tended to create everyday for class. Through my process I wanted to show a variety of ways that the two can exist with each other. In some of the test I had the digital type acting like expected digital type (smooth, and seamless) and then having the digital type mimic the analog. Through this whole project I learned a lot about how to arrange type. Sometimes more successful than other's but still. One important quality I am taking away from this project is the importance of structure and really understanding how to anchor the type to fit in the composition comfortably. In the end I was very happy with the progress that I had made. I was working with a lot of new mediums and trying to create something new and interesting was a challenge, but a good one.
I believe that this idea of analog and digital type is something that I would like to continue with more. For the future, perhaps this summer, I would like to push this idea into new realms. Playing more with the analog type. Even taking the same concept and displaying it with analog and then digital, and comparing the two.



Untitled from Janna Johnsrud on Vimeo.



Untitled from Janna Johnsrud on Vimeo.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011