RockBlog

I have been noticing the use of basic shapes and simple designs incorperated into everything from T-shirts, CD's, and even bedspread. I love how artists have been forming collages using different saturation levels to make designs appear more complicated then they really are. Besides looking cool, everything has a very orignal touch to each piece.

I find it interesting that Apple has designed the Pages software interface toolbar to distribute icons according to window width.

In addition, in order to further liken it to a professional-grade software interface they match the "Adjust Image" dialog box to Aperture's adjustment panel.

What I have noticed are the different brands in a shampoo aisle at Target. What I find amusing is how Target will try to mimic the design of a more popular shampoo or conditioner and sell it for less. Target is morphing into any brand from Dove to Pantene Pro-V. It is a unique technique to try and be like the name brand. If you look closely, the Target brand and the more popular brand are side by side. It is then up to the consumer to wonder if the product is really the same or if it is just a con for Target to sell more things under its brand name. I really like this idea of what Target has done, tranforming its brand into something similar to a bigger brand. It is a good marketing technique and can save you, the consumer, a few pennies. Yet, it seems to me, every shampoo is the same, only different labels.

I've noticed a lot that since photoshops introduction to visual culture, it has become a massive hit. I looked for different artists on the web to see there photoshop skills, and as a whole many of them like to show scale as well as irony in their images. I found a image I particularly liked that was of a fork, knife, and a spoon laid on a table but only the fork was sharply in focus. But also laid into the image was a man reclining on the fork. It showed a lot of scale and was just visually interesting to my eye. The angle that the picture of the silverware was taken gives it a lot of potential even before the alteration. If you'd like to view the image and the artists other work go to http://my.opera.com/siddh_n_siddh/albums/show.dml?id=18913.

For one of the pieces I've specifically noticed was that of a CD cover. I feel "A Change of Pace's" CD cover is very new and fresh. It still holds a very contemporary feel, but with a different twist. This cover appears to portray a city, but the city is built of speakers and fists. The color flow really gives a different touch as well. The different saturation levels gives the works a unique depth to the art work. Some of the colors almost give the allusion of an explosion in the far distance. On the back the explosion is portrayed with power cords with the speakers in the foreground.

One of the things I've recently noticed in design are the magazines created specifically for it. Print and How are my two favorites, though I also know of another called Step. The magazines have advertisements for paper companies like frenchpaper.com and kallimapaper.com, and also has ads for websites with images available for purchase like masterfile.com. These magazines are awesome; you should check them out!

If you like the French Paper ads, you should know that they are designed by Minnesota designer
Charles Spencer Anderson

http://www.csadesign.com/adver.html#

So on the first day of class, i said that I have noticed a revival of older styles in the fashion world. In the textures, fabrics, colors and patterns as well as the style in clothing ingeneral. But I would also like to elaborate, I think that there has been also a revival in some of the culture and fads, like the popularity of hot rods, and in music such as Johnny Cash and Reverend Horton Heat. I myself am a huge pin up girl/ Betty Paige fan, and I like to collect various books and stuff, which are becoming more and more available as they get popular again. I am brining in a few things to show to class.

One thing I have noticed is just all the very cool things computer programs can do such as Adobe After Effects. My favorite new commercial would have to be the HP commercial with Shawn White in it. Check it out here...

What I've noticed lately in visual culture is that the overall style of advertisements, particularly in music magazines, as well as designs on band t-shirts and concert posters have become very abstract and pop-art influenced. The images used for these rely heavily on photoshop, often to make people appear 2-dimentional. I have noticed that the paint-splatter design has been used a lot lately in these posters, ads, and on graphic t-shirts, for example half of the t-shirts that I have purchased in the past year include paint-splatter within the design. Also, I have noticed an increased use of skulls in these designs. It seems almost as if skulls have become glamorous.

The 2006 advertisements for one particular company, Vision Streetwear, always capture my artistic attention when I read through my Alternative Press Magazine. These advertisements feature all of the trends that I have mentioned. These ads can be viewed at http://www.visionstreetwear.com/
Click on the slogan to view the advertisements.

So on the first day of class...I talked about photography and how in photoshop and programs like that you can do so much in changing the picture it almost looks like a painting in water color ( I will bring those examples to class ) Also i was on the internet i came upon this crazy commercial that I really noticed so you can check it out if you want....

I guess one thing that I've recently noticed and taken interest in is movie posters. I never really paid attention to them before, always walking right by them in the theatre. The poster that really caught my eye and piqued my interest was the one for "Walk The Line" a year or so ago. I was just really drawn to the strong colors and shapes and the overall design... it really wasn't anything I'd expect to be on a movie poster! You can view the poster here: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/AQUA/24-285~Walk-the-Line-Poster.jpg

Since then I've been on the watch for unique and innovative posters not just in movie theatres, but in stairwells and bulletin boards as well, promoting not just movies, but bands, events, and organizations.

Energy Drinks and Organic Flowers! Yup that's right. It used to be Red Bull, but now there is an entire refrigerated door dedicated to that higlighter yellow colored stuff. They even make it in giant 32oz. sizes or 'double strength.'!!! What's next... gallon sized bags that we hook up intravenously to our arms?

Organic Flowers: Well, I knew you could eat certain flowers (recently found out one of them was lilac) but neatly packaged with ORGANIC stamped on them? Yeah organic food can be great (I personally like my chickens to have beaks, feat, and the ability to move before i eat them) but is this some fad people are giving into just to be 'hip'. I mean I've seen organic soda. Isn't soda full of fake stuff? Can it really be organic? And to generalize and raise some eye brows... organic, scientifically speaking, means that Carbon is contained in the molecular structure of the object (i am no scientist, so i could have that all wrong, remember that!!) Anyways... I eat flowers and I drink things that contain Pyridoxine Hydrochlride and Cyanocobalamin!!!!!!! (But I am healthy and alert everyday!!!)

The thing I noticed most about recent graphic design in advertisements, is that nothing is original. Nothing is changed from it's original design. Everything I see is alein-like and abonormal.... it is not humnan. It is creative and orginal. Advertisements are fake.
Nothing is real, it is all created by a designer to look realistic. Overall, I think graphic design is used the most to change the appearance of things.

I found one advertisment in a magazine for a vehicle, and one way it REALLY caught my attention was by adding music! I thought the ad was very well put together and I actually kept it because it was so interesting.

Things I've always noticed in visual culture are peoples' tattoos. To me, tattoos are personal, creative, and individual. What I've noticed recently is the use of "tattoo-like designs" on clothes. For example, the people at Sailor Jerry have taken his tattoo art, and actually have created a brand:
www.sailorjerry.com
It's a revival of old-school tattoo designs. The site gives a description of one of his tattoo designs:
"One masterpiece has a woman standing with legs spread, holding a large cobra. The snake's head arches over her shoulder its midsection wraps around her waist. It's tail is in her hand and she's holding it a hair's breath below her crotch, as though she's been assigned to push a man to the edge of temptation his whole life long."
I really like the look of these designs, but would not have this specific style tattooed on my body. Therefore, I like that I can, instead, wear the design on a T-shirt.

i found that advertisements are getting weirder and weirder. my examples are the skittles commercials. www.skittles.com