Last post but not the last you'll hear from MEEEEEEE!!!!!

We're going to have to change this soggy week thing...it's starting to get depressing,lol. I hope that everyone will take as much as I have from this class. I look forward to seeing all of you guys in the fall but not soon. I want the summer to go super-slow and good. Like a slow-roasted chicken with every minute it get's more tender, and more juicy. That actually made me a little hungry but anyway just creating a visual of my expectations for the summer. One thing I will say is that I will be using 99 design in my free time, hopefully this summer I can get my hands on a mac so I can get some of the projects done and earn some money. In closing, I just want to thank the University for accepting me back and giving me an opportunity to finish my bachelor's degree.

Count down to escaping frown town

Lol...just had to get that out from the title...I have had a genuinely great time this semester..despite my late start to the semester...one week to be exact..I am excited about the future for me and my fellow classmates in graphic design. One last task is to finish these blogs and make sure my finished product of my paper is up to par. I am pretty confident Prof. Speyers will enjoy it despite his hard grading scale, hmmmmm. So now everything is pretty much done just waiting for that oh so special day on Wednesday May, 5, 2010 when I'm off to civilization for the next 3 months.

Finishing Strong

It's coming down to the last few classes...four to be exact...and We received our last projects of the year. Unfortunately, Prof. decided to drop a paper on us for our final exam. It royally sucks but it has to get done. On the bright side we get to participate in some logo contests on 99design. If we win we can get a few hundred bucks which ain't bad. This should be fun as well as competitive unfortunately the competition is very, very, steep like 50 soggy weeks!!!!! Don't get me wrong I love competition but when the opposition has an infantry of 5,000 and all I have is a pee-shooter it's kinda hard to win unless God does a miracle.

This semester is going by fast ain't it tho

The semester is a few weeks away from coming to a close and I must say I couldn't be more excited to finish up and get the heck out of Charleston for a couple months. But first things come first and that is priority numero-uno. This week isn't special just a few tutorials that prof decided to dump on us for busy work, but it's cool. We got this cool lava lamp tutorial on adobe illustrator. The other one's looked appealing from afar but when I analyzed them they looked pretty (meh) boring. Plus I want to continue to work on my gradient tool skills. So let's strap on the seat belt and do this. I'm out with another soggy week rather be wet than dry..AYEEEE

On to the next one

Finally finished with the two logo remakes. I can honestly say that I am pleased with my finished product. I know that I will continue to get better with the frequency that we receive projects. The one thing that I wish I could have tweaked a little bit would have to be the "Hurricanes" text wrapping around the tornado. Overall I think the design was good as well as the concept but I know that as I learn more and more about the illustrator program I will have it down packed to the T. I am looking forward to the next set of projects that we will receive within the next couple of days.

New Day New Project

Today in class we are starting a couple new projects. One in which we can be very creative with. We get the opportunity to chose from a trademarked logo and if possible improve on it and make it the way we like it, pretty much. The two logo's that I chose were the XBOX logo and my favorite college team the Miami hurricanes. I am sketching ideas down in my head to come up with as well as on paper. I think I might have to really good ones. With the Miami logo I was going to create a tornado and put the famous "U" on the top in a 3dimensional slant. I am looking forward to putting it all together today. For the XBOX logo I have a few things in mind but everything has pretty much been done and puts a lot of pressure on me to come up with a new design but I accept the challenge and I know I'll come up with something special.

My presentation borderline SUCKED!!!!!

just kidding..just kidding...there were some elements that I would like to improve on but overall I held my own. The project presentation was what I expected, I kept the audiences attention, entertained them a bit, shared new information with them and surprised myself a bit. Usually I am pretty nervous when speaking in front of crowds but I felt at ease during my presentation. Once again I hope to continuously build so I can accomplish an A with the next presentation. Until next time ladies and gents, signing off for another soggy week.

Another Day in an extra soggy week

Today I present my power point presentation to the class...I am anxious to get it done and do a good job. I put some time into this presentation and don't feel too worried about it but I do wish I could have added a little more animation to my project, especially a little more variety to my background but every time I tried it carried over to all of my other slides. Hopefully, prof. can help me next time on that aspect of the power point so my project will have the spark it needs to catch the eye better.

Presentation progress

Our power point presentation is due this Thursday and I must say...progress is being made I am putting the final touches on my presentation. My presentation focuses on the history of music and computers. I found a lot of hard detail from a few sources and I was even amazed at what I came across. For example, I was under the assumption that computer music wasn't really a factor until the late 70's with auto tune, but I found out that computer music began in the 1950's. Hopefully all will go as planned for my presentation on Thursday.

Back from spring break

I am back in soggy South Carolina after my brief stint with freedom(home). It is now time to reboot my mind and body for the trying weeks ahead before we bring the semester to a close in May(and I must say I can not wait). There are so many things that I am looking forward to when I return home for the summer but, back on focus we have a new project due this week that we were given before spring break( like I was really going to work on it during my spring break,lol.) I did a little but, now it's time to finish my assignment for the class presentation. With football practice and everything else going on this is going to be a tough conclusion to the semester but I can do it.

ideas on top of ideas

Brainstorming and preparation are key components to a successful outcome, in my case it will lead to two very successful ads. It is getting a little frustrating trying to come up with the right idea and putting it together. I am thinking about running with my first idea, which is the outline of a persons head surrounded by a circle emblem and the theme being the face of South Carolina correctional department. Within the outlined face I was thinking about using some of South Carolina's key elements to emphasis the state as a whole. Hopefully, it will translate to the screen and I am sure it will.

NEw Projects

We have a few new projects people...both of them are ads...but one is actually for a pot. The pot is $500 man....$500 dollars MAAANNNN!!!!!! It's not a lot of money but when your in college surviving of nickles and dimes it's like hitting the lottery man. It's funny because I was talking to Kara(Grooves) the other day and I said If the competition is for money I am going to win. Then she asked how much do we get and I said probably $500 and true to my word Prof. comes before the class and talks to us about the contest and tells us the 1st place prize is $500. I was so pumped after that. I felt like the man on the moon. But then I came back to Earth when I found out that we probably won't be getting the money for a couple of years,lol. what a joke but hey, it's money in the bank baby. Now it's time to start brainstorming for ideas so I can present the best logo possible.

Bye-Bye MR.Sparkle

That's right...bye-bye Mr.Sparkle...I finally finished it and I'm so proud..so so proud...I feel my logo turned out very well..and I am confident in the potential it could bring to Mr.Sparkle. I decided to go a different direction with my logo and here it is:file:///Volumes/USB%20Disk/jonathan-carrington-mr.sparkle.ai =
Now the funny thing is that we have 2 more logo projects that were just assigned today, and are due in the next couple weeks. The good thing about these is that we still get to be creative and use just about any idea we want.

One of the projects is for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), and the other:
South Carolina Correctional Enforcement

I've never worked on anything like this so it should be a nice challenge for me.

Arrrgghhhh

It's getting a little hectic this week with the last week of football workouts and meeting this deadline for the Mr. Sparkle ad. I am trying not to think about the pressure of getting it done, because I want to hand in the best project possible. Hopefully I can some how finish it before Prof collects it. On a lighter note, the project is actually turning out very well and I think the real MR. Sparkle will like my version of Mr.Sparkle. I kind of had an Arnold Schwarzenegger influence with this one kind of mixed in with a Ford truck commercial. Lol, my slogan is, "Built tuff for the ruff stuff". You know the Ford slogan, "Built Ford Tuff" but anyway, I am happy thus far with the results.

Last Day of a Soggy tutorial

Live from 1189 Soggy Cheeks...I am ready to blog about my soggy week. Finally!!! I finished the power point tutorial babaaaeee!!!!!lol, I learned today that power point has a slight element of animation a.k.a after effects..kind of. I was very surprised to find this out... a surprise but a pleasant surprise. It's funny because I told myself that power point is pointless(no pun intended) but now I have a legitimate reason to use it besides the teacher telling me I have to or I'll FAIL!!!
Progress on the Mr.Sparkle ad is coming along well, I just get into this habit of wanting to put a lot of detail into the piece and it takes me a little longer to finish. If I have an Achilles heel then that's it.

Graphic Design entry#9

Another day...another soggy week...and another boring tutorial....today we started a new tutorial on power point...there isn't a whole lot of excitement involved with the tutorials by any stretch, but you do benefit to from the educational experience. I am learning how to change themes and alter text color. Come to think of it...it's hard to believe it, but there is a fun element to the whole shannanagan. Hopefully, next class I will be completely done with this crap...Soggy Week signing out...Babaganush.

Graphic Design entry #8

Today in graphic design we started a new project...a little funny...and a little weird at the same time...We are doing a glass restoration ad for a company called MR.Sparkle's glass restoration. The bright side of this project is the freedom and creativity we are able to have and use. I am extra excited because I finally get to use some of my drawing skills to translate them to the computer screen. I love this aspect of the class. "We at times" are able to let our creativity take over and other times we have to stick to the boring curriculum but hey that's life man. In spite of it all I am enjoying graphic design.

Graphic Design entry #7

This week we start a new project in the form of a tutorial in Art218. The project involves microsoft excel, word, and powerpoint. It falls in the class of busy work but it is very helpful to know how to use these programs for future reference. It isn't interesting by any stretch but I still have my color replication project to finish before the week is over. It is coming along very well now. The gradients are meshing well together and my lights and darks are putting the extra emphasis needed to help my car stand out.

Graphic Design entry #6

Today in class Prof. Speyers had the opportunity to show us some new technology. Apple is making a new gadget called the Ipad. I heard about this product prior to, with some research on yahoo. But it wasn't that interesting. Prof also is starting a game day after school to play Unreal Tournament. This should be pretty fun and a little weird, because I would have never in my wildest dreams thought that a teacher would approve of anything besides studying and homework. I guess the world isn't so bad after all.

Graphic Design entry #5

Today I continued my color replication project, and for the first time I got to look at some of my classmates work as well. It was good to have a chance to compare and see how you measure up against your peers. It also served as motivation to continue to make this piece great. I enjoy using illustrator a lot. From all the possibilities that you have..kind of reminiscent of Campbell soup,lol.

Graphic Design entry #4

The start of another project...A breath of fresh air to some...and a sense of never ending to others but, all in all I am going to enjoy this. The new project that we are working on is a color replication of basically anything that we choose...but with me being a car connoisseur I couldn't help but to take a stab at a Audi R8(one of the most appealing automobiles on the market). Having an opportunity to check out Prof's version of a color replicated BMW 645 really set the bar for the class and I must say I am up to the challenge.

Graphic Design entry #3

Finally...Finally...Finally...I completed my first project for Art218...now for Art 216, we start a brochure project using Microsoft Word. It's interesting with the possibilities we can use to create a travel ad. I am choosing to use San Diego, California, which is one of my favorite locations. The idea of tag lines for a brochure generally, flirt along the lines of corny...so I rode the corny train with this one...with tag lines such as, "So Cal...So Wow".

Graphic Design entry #2

Today I continued to work on our replication project for Art218. It is actually very fun and despite the constant process of zoom in, zoom out, and the pen tool(once again) this is something I am growing to enjoy more and more each day. As I grow to learn more and more about Graphic Design I consider the possibilities of the field. Until the day that I have to make that decision on my future, I will continue to soak up as much as I can.

week in graphic design

Entering the graphic design program here at Charleston Southern has been a pleasant surprise, I strive everyday to get better at something and to learn something new. Well let me say this week has been full of learning experiences; from the blog that I'm typing right now, I have never had a class that requires blogging...this class reminds me of the movie Avatar when they had to blog daily to record their thoughts so they could maintain their sanity. Maybe to a degree that's what we do as well after staring at a screen for several hours because of the dreaded pen tool.