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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Social Media Platforms

Social media has become a big part of our life, whether it is personal, or business based one will find something related to what they are searching for online. It is the ideal place for advertising as people interact through it daily and businesses have a chance of going viral quicker. Although a website is important, having some sort of social media platform is ideal as one interacts more with the clientele, also gaining profits and popularity. Graphic designers are needed in order to create the ideal visuals to attract several viewers through banners, ads and other promotional sources found on all of the social pages. As one knows there are several platforms one can choose to use, some of the options are: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and others. Since it is an everyday lifestyle and there is constant demand for it, content needs to be updated frequently. This is another reason why graphic designers nowadays are more and more employed and asked for. When creating anything promotional, an exciting image which gives out a good impression immediately is an important feature to be kept in mind. Sticking to a particular style or colour which is innovative. This idea attracts several people through social media, with the use of re-sharing and commenting constantly, leading to a viral promotion free of charge. Just like all graphic design creations, these should be easy on the eye in order to catch ones’ attention and not let them scroll through without them even noticing. Avoiding over crowded spaces is very important, especially if it is an ad that has been uploaded, it should have few words in order to bring curiosity to the viewer. The viewer will then search through social media platforms to find out further details and see related material. As mentioned before using a particular colour, symbol or feature which one can immediately recognise and associate with the brand is ideal. High standard graphic design increases the brands’ identity as first impressions make a huge effect on the brand identity as it is judged upon appearance much more that the wording. A social media profile needs to be creative and informative. Information should be presented through understandable, easy words to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. When presented through graphic design artworks, the brand immediately shows a sense of professionality and unique personality.

Having a variety of subjects and not just products is something which on the long run, the profile does not get boring. This can be done by introducing employees or presenting the products, yet in an abnormal way. Having various social media platforms of the same corporate identity is very common, this is to attract more audience and build up the image. These pages can be promoted from one platform to another if hyperlinked, meaning that one can click or swipe to go to the other profile. Although graphic designer as hired to create promotional sources which lead to sales, it is important to not forget that the social page needs to have value and communicate well with the viewers. Looking at social media and graphic design from another perspective, since this is something which is normal for us to see, anything shown to us online must really attract and grab ones’ attention in order to actually work. It is important to keep in mind that the audience have to follow or like the brands’ social media page therefor a connection has to be created and earn their attention. Attention is usually brought once a person sees the same thing more than once. A great example of a word spreading social media platform is ‘Facebook’, several people share, tag others and like several posts. These posts could be ones’ promotional images created by graphic designers. One local example which I have seen several posts of for at least 3 years, keeping the same audience and always increasing the number is New York Best. Their corporate identity to begin with has a particular touch of which is not as common compared to other brands in Malta. Their social media pages are updated every day, maybe not constantly with graphic designer creations yet their name spreads out quickly.

Social pages are interactive in various ways, such as scrolling, typing, sharing, chatting and further other features, all of which an application can be found for further usage. Yet there are some applications which require more interactivity such as: Snapchat, the application promotes its features through short videos which consist of graphic design elements.

As one can see and know the internet in general is a big part of everyone’s life today, where you find anything you search for. Businesses are hiring graphic designers to create various design features, of which they promote products to increase sales and peoples’ knowledge about the college.

References

Black, J. 2016. Black Bear Design. [Online]. [20 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.blackbeardesign.com/social-media-has-changed-everything/ Fresh01. 2017. Fresh01. [Online]. [21 January 2018]. Available from: http://fresh01.com/what-is-the-importance-of-graphic-design-in-social-media/ Graphic design degree hub. n.d. Graphic Design Degree Hub. [Online]. [20 January 2018]. Available from: http://www.graphicdesigndegreehub.com/faq/how-does-social-media-affect-a-graphic-designer/ Jain, D. 2015. Niswey. [Online]. [21 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.niswey.com/blog/importance-of-design-in-social-media/ Smith, E. c2018. Chron. [Online]. [20 January 2018]. Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-graphic-design-social-media-38942.html

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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Corporate Identity, Logos + Branding

Corporate identity is a collection of visual elements, to promote a business or organization. These identities help the public to identity them from one to another. The idea of logos and company identification began during the industrial revolution. This idea started being important for everyday use during the beginning of the 20th century yet became an important part to society during the middle of the 20th century. This is where identities are presented through to the viewers through various designs and ideas depending on the company’s preferences. This changes quite a lot and frequently in order to adapt with the styles and trends of that period of time, it is quite important for brands to never be outdated as branding your company makes a huge effect on your sales and popularity, after all it is a representation of what the company is. Consisting of logos, business cards, banners, ads, packaging, uniforms, signs and several other items which are presented in different ways. A graphic designer has a set of guidelines which he or she has to stick with, in order to create a consistent brand identity throughout ensuring that the brands’ message is communicated accurately. These features are what make one brand stand out from another; there are brands which would be very similar to each other and that is not ideal as people would mix them up. One would want a good representation for their brand and not a copy of another. Branding takes a lot of things into consideration, one important thing is the target consumers, the company wants to attract its target in any way possible, appearance comes up first and value is another important part in creating a good brand with income. Logos started becoming very popular from the beginning of the 20th century. During the middle of the 20th century existing brand identities started to evolve and changed in order to catch up to the styles of that time. Logos evolved from being simple symbols which represented groups to a company’s image. Due to printing reasons being the main concern, logos could not consist of gradients, tiny details and had to look good in black and white since during those time printing was of very low-quality and logo were featured in newspapers or phone books.

Before the actual idea of corporate identity, there were still various ideas of ‘identity’ created throughout the centuries, take for example The Wiener Werkstatte, a group of people who in 1903 created different logos, marks for different representations, yet only one logo was based for the company, that being the ‘rose logo’. Looking at the designs, one can notice the use of straight lines creating a repetition and a particular style making them stand out and used for different elements, such as invoices and even decorative pieces.

Peter Behrens, artistic adviser for AEG created one of the first static logos in 1908, a logo that was used on various mediums for printed promotional purposes such as posters and magazines. For this reason, corporate identity started being created with the use of trademarks. Everyone thought of logos as something related to marketing and sales, yet in the year 1914 Pierre De Coubertin proved them wrong by creating the Olympic logo. This is a logo which is for a communal based reason and not consumer wise.

During the 1920’s the Michelin character or in other words mascot, having his appearance evolved keeping the same idea as known today with minor tweaks. This character is a representation of the product itself, yet the tires being white instead of black, only few black versions were presented when carbon black was added to the manufacturing process.

In the late 1940’s William Golden joined Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and was the chief architect. When positioned for this role, he was entitled into creating a new graphic identity for the company, reason being that he was a graphic designer working amongst other designers. In 1956 Paul Rand re-created the IBM logo, this is the same logo which is still being used till this day, yet later on changed further by adding stripes. In 1981 Rand designed a pictograph of the IBM logo which was used in a poster this revived the idea of using symbols just like in the historic times, showing people how impactful a symbol can be.

During these times graphic designers would produce a manual stating specific ways of how the logo should be presented on different mediums such as a letterhead or envelope. These manuals were particularly important when it came to branding company vehicles as not like today, logos and company details were painted onto the vehicles. These were in other words guidelines to show professionalism in a company, “Good design is good business” (Watson Jr., 1973).

References

Design is history. n.d. The Rise of Corporate Identity. [Online]. [16 January 2018]. Available from: http://www.designishistory.com/1960/corporate-id/ History of graphic design. 2017. History of Graphic Design. [Online]. [15 January 2018]. Available from: http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/corporate-identity-and-visual-systems/852-corporate-identity Lant, K. 2017. 99 Designs. [Online]. [16 January 2018]. Available from: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-history-of-logos/ Meggs, P.B. c2018. Encyclopedia Britannica. [Online]. [16 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/art/graphic-design/Graphic-design-in-the-20th-century Redding, D. 2010. Smashing Magazine. [Online]. [16 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/the-evolution-of-the-logo/ Remington, R. 1989. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. [Online]. [15 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.aiga.org/medalist-williamgolden Sinclair, M. 2014. CoDesign. [Online]. [15 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3036541/the-secret-history-of-the-michelin-man Swaan arons, M. 2011. The Atlantic. [Online]. [17 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/how-brands-were-born-a-brief-history-of-modern-marketing/246012/ Walker, R. 2017. Fortune. [Online]. [16 January 2018]. Available from: http://fortune.com/2017/06/16/business-logos-evolution-importance/ Wattpad. 2015. Wattpad. [Online]. [15 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.wattpad.com/192323491-get-to-know-the-history-of-corporate-identity Zool blog. 2015. Zool Digital. [Online]. [15 January 2018]. Available from: https://zooldigital.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-corporate-identity/

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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Poster Design Since Jules Cheret’s Time

Poster design started quite some time ago where everything was engraved in wood or metal, then in the 1800’s everything was drawn by hand and later on printed on paper through the litography method. The 1800’s is when Jules Cheret (the Father of Posters) started the famous three stone process, where one could print with more than just one colour, using the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) as primary sources which where then carefully printed by hand. This method was later on improved with a lighter medium called ‘zinc plates’, this was ideal as they were easier to handle.

Quinquina Dubonnet | Jules Cheret | 1895

Looking through Cheret’s posters one can notice that each consists of the ‘ideal’ woman in the night life experience of theatres and cafes. During this time period, his posters looked more like paintings rather than informative advertisements which were of a large scale. A lot of dedication was put into creating artistic posters, which were appreciated by many and sometimes they were even removed off walls by people to be taken and kept in their homes. A number of artists were brought up together to create poster editions consisting of five prints each, these artists were called the Masters of the Poster and consisted of Toulouse-Lautrec, Bradley, Mucha and several other artists.

Job Cigarette Papers | Alphonse Mucha | 1896

The theatre theme was shown again through the beginning works of Alphonse Mucha, a painter who used the lithography method as well. He evolved into his own style which consisted of exaggerated hair and floral designs, called Art Nouveau which started in 1895. The work of Mucha, was as well on the painting-like style, where one would not notice the advertisement immediately as not a lot of focus was put on it. Looking the Figure 2, one can see the detail in the hair and entire design, the last thing one notices is the cigarette the woman is holding between her fingers. Unlike Cheret, he managed to scale down the sizes of his posters and included much more colours and details.

Il Futurismo | Ugo Sissa | 1959

Moving on to a later era in poster design which started in the year 1908 is Futurism by an Italian artist named Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. This style was inspired from Cubism both styles which did not keep the idea of a painting-like poster, yet went into a modern style of art and create a sort of rebellion. Politics were embraced through this avant-garde style, showing the arrival of World War One through poster design. Futurists made use of typography and lines which were presented in different directions, representing the meaning of the words, one can say text was used as image as seen in Figure 3. This style of design influenced other styles such as Art Deco and Constructivism through the use of typography.

The Meaning of Hilter’s Salute | John Heartfield | 1932

Later on, the movement Dada came to life in the year 1916 which started during World War One, this style was based on the violence seen during the war. Featuring the use of typography and images from the modern life during that time, these being newspapers, tickets, food wrappers, magazines and many more, creating photomontages. These images were layered in various ways combined into one layout. Although to some these layouts might have not made sense with unintended messages trying to be sent through to the viewers. The artists wanted the send out messages criticizing the hypocrisies of life and chaos through their art in various countries these being Berlin, New York, Paris and other countries. An artist which sent a clear message through his work related to World War One was John Heartfield which joined the Dada movement in 1920. Observing his work one will notice that he ridiculed the Nazi Party and their leader Adolf Hitler with the use of text and images of the personnel as seen in Figure 4. This style was another inspiration for the style Constructivism.

Made of Two (Series of Posters) | Giuseppe Fierro | 2015

Today poster design does not have a particular style which people keep up with, it depends more on the persons’ preferences or style. Some use Flat Design, Two-Tone Design or Minimalistic Design, while others use a mixture of previous styles. Looking at Figure 5 which is a poster one can see the use of the minimalistic style, using only bold sans-serif text as a headline and an arrow symbol in relation with the headline and the text at the bottom. The headline is aligned diagonally as a representation of what is being said showing movement and hierarchy. Bright colours were not used in this design, just black and white representing the negative and positive spaces. With the text being bold and readable, making it very noticeable and catches the viewers eye immediately, sending the message out was very clear. In my opinion this poster is inspired from two previous styles of design, these being Futurism for the way the text is placed and enlarged, and Bauhaus for the simplicity found in it.

References

Design history. c2011. Graphic Design History. [Online]. [11 December 2017]. Available from: http://www.designhistory.org/Poster_pages/PhotoPoster.html

Farren, J. 2017. The Art Story. [Online]. [13 December 2017]. Available from: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-mucha-alphonse-artworks.htm

Fierro, G. 2015. Behance. [Online]. [13 December 2017]. Available from: https://www.behance.net/gallery/23930261/Made-of-Two-Posters

International poster gallery. n.d. International Poster. [Online]. [12 December 2017]. Available from: http://www.internationalposter.com/about-poster-art/style-primer/futurism.aspx

Lavin, M. c2017. Art in America Heartfield Article. [Online]. [13 December 2017]. Available from: https://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/about-john-heartfield-photomontages/dada-political-art-history/heartfield-context-7

The J Paul Getty Trust. n.d. The J Paul Getty Museum. [Online]. [12 December 2017]. Available from: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/heartfield/

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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Graphic Design Before & After The Computer Age

Every carer has changed in the way it is carried out, from traditional or ‘hand-made’ to digital. Graphic Design has been around for centuries, evolving everyday into different styles, yet always keeping the purpose of communication to the viewer. Styles change from time to time depending on the viewers’ needs and the trend at the time.

Before computers, designing something used to take days in order to create one layout and consisted of several people with different professions. Some of which were good in using pens called Rapidiographs, these were appropriate pens to create lines of certain width by hand. Others which used the photostat camera and all the other tools and processes it took into creating a good design. Images were placed against the paper with the use of rubber cement, an adhesive substance which used to let the designers move the image again on the same day without tearing the paper. Type used to be on a separate transparent sheet called ‘Letraset’ where each letter would be transferred onto the paper with the use of a ‘burnisher’.

During this process one had to be very careful transferring the type correctly as once it is transferred it would be permanent and could not be removed.

Once the design is finalised, it would be sent to the printer which used a particular method called Offset Printing which started in 1875 and is still being used up till this day. The design would be sent with instructions of what needed to be in colour attached to each page. This is where they used to give the printer the actual layout on a stiff paper or cardboard with the actual size the print had to be. Each layout was on a separate page, these were called ‘mechanicals’. Pictures of each mechanical were taken and scanned, getting back four pieces of film, which separated each colour; cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). Metal plates were made, and these were then layered onto each other to create an identical of the original design, each metal plate was different than the other depending on which part needed which colour. Each colour had a different roller and ink was transferred onto the parts where it is supposed to. Parts which should not be printed were kept that way with the use of water rollers. One would think that the paper would be wet and leading to smudging of ink, this was prevented with the use of an oven where the paper is dried up. The print would then be sent back to the designer to confirm the colour and make any changes if needed. Once the proof of printing was approved, the printer would print the quantity ordered, after the printing process is finished papers are cut. When a magazine is printed after all paper have been cut they are stitched together with the use of glue or staples depending on the clients’ preference and folded.

There are other various types of printing, all of which are still used today even though some may be used as hobbies and not for production purposes. Printing goes a long way starting from Woodblock printing which first came to sight in the year 200AD. This is a technique where the content which needed to be printed was left on the first level of the surface, the surroundings which were not needed in the layout were engraved in the wood at a lower level. The appropriate tools needed to be used these being a chisel, knife or sandpaper. Ink is then applied to the highest surface using a roller or cloth and then transferred onto a paper. Similar printing techniques are Etching and Lithography which came much later using a similar process with different tools.

Today one person can create a design from start to finish with the use of all the tools found in one computer program. As mentioned before Offset Printing is still used nowadays, depending on the clients’ quantity, if the quantity is 1000 and over, Offset printing is suitable as it would come out at a reasonable price. Another and faster way of printing is Digital Printing this was introduced around thirty years ago. There are different methods of digital printing such as a printer one finds in their home, yet professional printers use the more high-tech printers these being large format printers and large digital printers. Ink is provided in two ways either liquid or toner. The use of these printers depends on the purpose needed. Large format printers are used for large areas such as signage, banners, stickers and much more, while digital printers are used for business cards, posters, brochures, flyers and several other materials.

Graphic Design has always been a part of our lives whether you are a graphic designer creating layouts, or the viewer. We are surrounded by the Graphic Design industry, one sees at least ten examples a day, reason being that there is a large variety such as: signs, posters, logos, banners, commercial ads, and several other graphics related materials.

References

Britt. 2010. Ps Print. [Online]. [5 December 2017]. Available from: https://blog.psprint.com/printing/print-design-before-computers/

Cheeps. 2015. Cheeps from Hunter-McMain. [Online]. [3 December 2017]. Available from: https://cheepsfromhmm.com/2015/09/02/how-did-graphic-design-work-before-computers/

Mine, M. 2001. HowStuffWorks. [Online]. [5 December 2017]. Available from: https://computer.howstuffworks.com/offset-printing.htm

Pandya, A. 2016. IndieFolio Blog. [Online]. [3 December 2017]. Available from: https://blog.indiefolio.com/graphic-means-documentary-graphic-design/

Printing for less. c2017. Digital Printing vs Offset Printing Explained. [Online]. [5 December 2017]. Available from: https://www.printingforless.com/Digital-Printing-Explained.html

Schneider, S. 2012. WebDesigner Depot. [Online]. [3 December 2017]. Available from: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/02/design-before-computers-ruled-the-universe/

Yeung, G. 2016. Hypebeast. [Online]. [4 December 2017]. Available from: https://hypebeast.com/2016/3/graphic-design-before-computers

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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage | 1791 - 1871

An English professor of mathematics at the Royal Institution and later on at Cambridge, who is considered as the first computer pioneer. During the first quarter of the 19th century, Babbage create a working machine calculating mathematical problems. A similar idea was brought up several years before in 1623 by a man named Wilhelm Schickard but the idea put together did not work.

Difference Engine | Charles Babbage | 1820 - 1829

Babbage named his machine ‘Difference Engine’, a six-wheeled model solving mathematical problems during the 1820′s. Which he later improved from 1847 till 1849 and called ‘Difference Engine 2′.

Difference Engine 2 | Charles Babbage | 1847 - 1849

‘Difference Engine 2′ can solve problems with up to 31 decimal placing, throughout the process of this machine, all the results are pressed into a material having a record of each one. This addition to the machine has done the prevent the risk of being written incorrectly. Before starting the process one had to set up the starting numbers on the ‘Figure Wheels’. The cranking handle is rotated around for times making the machine calculate into a 31 digital number. Once the calculation is done, it is shown on the last column, for each cycle (4 rotations) all the difference parts in the machine are moved with the use of a cranking handle.

As mentioned before all results from each cycle is pressed onto a material, while even printing a copy with the use of ink. The part of the machine is called the output apparatus.

References

The Editors of Encyclopedia Brittanica. 2017. Encyclopedia Brittanica. [Online]. [22 October 2017]. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Babbage

Babbage's Difference Engine No2. 2008. YouTube. [Online]. [22 October 2017]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0anIyVGeWOI

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jessicazammitbacont-blog · 7 years ago

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Speak with a Chatbot

This is a short exercise where I used an online chatbot: http://www.cleverbot.com/ and observing how it works. Being honest I had never heard of such a thing before.

User: Hello.

Cleverbot: Hi! How are you?

User: Fine. Thank you, and you?

Cleverbot: I am fine too.

User: Glad to hear. I'm trying this out for an assignment.

Cleverbot: What are you doing?

User: An assignment about interactive media.

Cleverbot: Write with you.

User: Ok that was weird.

Cleverbot: I know I love your jokes.

User: Sorry this is boring.

Cleverbot: So? What do you want me to do about it?

User: Youve got an attitude.

Cleverbot: Takes one to know one!

User: Alright. Cheers!

Cleverbot: Where do you live?

User: Malta.

Cleverbot: Thats a nice place Malta. My friend goes there every year and one year he came back with a black toe because a tractor ran over it.

User: HAHAHAAHa.

Cleverbot: What is so funny?

User: Nothing.

Cleverbot: Then why are you laughing?

User: Im crazy.

Cleverbot: Oh, that doesn't surprise me.

User: Bye have to go.

Cleverbot: No you don't.

User: Yes. Adios.

Throughout this short conversation, I noticed that this was a programmed response chat, having certain words / questions where it completely out of subject. While there were certain parts where it was like having a real conversation.

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