PR Publications: A Reflection

By Nick Edwards in JMC 3433, Reflection

After I publish this post, I will be done with PR Pubs, which is a weird thought.

I really wish more courses were like this one. Adam, you truly are a very good teacher. At the start of the semester, I genuinely had no experience with graphic design whatsoever and had no earthly clue on how to work InDesign, PhotoShop or anything. Now, leaving my junior year, I can genuinely say that I feel comfortable using these systems. This is because you didn’t tell us how to use them; you showed us. You actually taught us technical skills that will be of great use to us in the future, providing us with plenty of personal help and feedback along the way. Thank you for doing that.

I like writing for a public audience. I always have, even from the days of Writing for Mass Media. Being able to do this, along with design exactly how my words were conveyed to said audience was a great experience.

Alright. I’m keeping it short and sweet. And I’m sleep-deprived. This is Nick Edwards, signing off.

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Freestyle Post: The Marvel/DC Conundrum

By Nick Edwards in Freestyle Post, JMC 3433

My inner geek will totally shine through here, and I am very okay with that. Here goes.

I am a huge comic book and superhero buff. I love them. I started collecting comics wen I was in early elementary school and I still do today. Being a fan of superheroes, I have genuinely seen every superhero movie that has been released in the past ten years (except the really bad ones *cough*Catwoman*cough*

Now, while there are many comic book studios in the business (Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics being two great publishers), there are two major players in the game. These are DC Comics and Marvel Comics. In this post, I will be addressing the on-screen presences of these two studios and the issues plaguing both.

Recently (since 2008 to be specific) Marvel has experienced massive success on the silver screen. Starting with Iron Man in 2008, Marvel has built a cinematic franchise  that has grown to be the highest-grossing franchise of all time. This cinematic universe includes the box office-smashing Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Avengers franchises, as well as other films such as The Incredible Hulk and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, the ABC television series Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D., several short films, and four upcoming series exclusive to Netflix. Marvel Studios has layed out plans for continuing their cinematic universe well over ten years away and shows no sign of slowing down. With Marvel movies featuring many A-list celebrities, top-notch production values and record-setting sales numbers, Marvel is currently the undisputed cinematic comic king.

That brings us to DC Comics’ on-screen presence. DC has experienced some success as well, albeit to a much smaller degree. With Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, DC managed to show that a comic book movie could be mature, and even be a contender for awards such as the Oscars. This all changed, however, the moment DC tried to follow Marvel’s path.

In 2013, Warner Brothers Studios released a Superman reboot titled Man of Steel. Response to this movie was very divided. Many fans were outraged at choices made for the character of Superman, among other issues. I personally really enjoyed the movie, but even I must acknowledge that the film had some major flaws.

Then, shortly after the release of Man of Steel, DC announced that the working title of their next movie in their cinematic universe would be Batman vs. Superman. The controversial choice to reboot the character of Batman, making him an entirely different character from that of Nolan’s critically acclaimed Batman, portrayed by Christian Bale, divided fans. This was coupled with the out-of-the blue casting of Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne. Upon learning that members of the Justice League, the DC equivalent version of Marvel’s Avengers, Wonder Woman and Cyborg would be in the movie, fans speculated that this movie would be a straight up Justice League film adaption. These rumors were quelled when DC just recently announced that an actual Justice League movie would be following Batman vs. Superman.

Now that I have broken down each studio’s strategies thus far, I will take time to point out their strengths and flaws thus far.

Marvel’s biggest flaw is clearly that many of the film rights to their most iconic franchises belong to other studios. Sony Pictures own the rights to Spider-Man while 20th Century Fox own the rights to the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Wolverine. Whole these franchises range from great (X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine and Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies) to passable (The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot) to bad (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spider-Man 3, Both Fantastic Four movies) in their own rights, fans have long been clamoring to see all of their favorite Marvel heroes in the same production, but due to the complex nature of film rights, it does not look as if this will ever happen. This honestly has been somewhat of a boon for Marvel studios, however. With their movies, Marvel has turned former B-list characters such as Iron Man and Thor into cultural icons.

DC is a different story altogether. Their plan is so scattered that I think even they do not know what is going on. DC experienced success with their Dark Knight trilogy, but their Green Lantern film was really just a crappy movie. Likewise, the television show Arrow is great, but fan reaction to Man of Steel is very divided. Now DC is hoping to follow in the steps of Marvel and create their own cinematic universe that is independent from both the Dark Knight trilogy, their Arrow and the (upcoming) Flash TV series and the Green Lantern movie. Is it wise to be jumping into the same pool as Marvel at such a late point in the game? I suppose fans will decide.

 

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Assignment Five: Design Your Own Movie Poster

By Nick Edwards in assignment five, Create Your Own Assignment, JMC 3433

I am a huge fan of film. I have written my own full-length screenplay, written and directed a comedic short film and the first season of a comedic short web series, in addition to currently working on multiple other projects.

For this fifth assignment, select any picture that you believe would be appealing to moviegoers about a feature film about your own life. The picture must have you in it and not be explicit in any way (that is, sexually explicit, violent, containing drugs or alcohol, profane, etc.) . Save your desired image in InDesign as a JPeg and then begin designing your own movie poster!

You must give your film a creative title, as well as list the “stars” of your film. These can either be the names of real people that are major parts of the story you wish to tell, or celebrities that you have “cast” as the real people in your life. You may also wish to bill yourself as the director in your film. In addition to the cast, you should probably list a studio or individual that will serve as your film’s producer. This can be an actual film producer, or you can list yourself (or even your parents, if that’s how you want to play it!).

Your poster must be visually appealing and serve as a proper print advertisement for a film, but the rest is up to you. Take any stylistic approaches you wish, and have fun!

I would probably give this assignment a one-star difficulty. I wished to create a fun assignment, not necessarily a difficult one.

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Assignment Two: Direct Mailers

By Nick Edwards in Assignment 2, Direct Mailers, JMC 3433

Our second major assignment for Public Relations Publications challenged us to create two different direct mail pieces aimed at stakeholders for OU Recruitment Services.

The two different demographics I targeted with my mailers were incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen from the North Texas metropolitan area and parents of incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen from the North Texas metropolitan area.

For my first mailer, I tried to create a piece that utilized photos to show how much fun OU students have and gave brief text summaries of different ways these prospective freshman could get involved on campus.

For my second mailer, I aimed to appeal to the emotions of parents letting their children go off to college, giving visuals referring to Oklahoma and using the tagline “Far away enough to visit… But still close enough to call home!”

I personally found this assignment to be much more challenging than the first. Arranging the different pieces of my mailers was a challenge, but I support my finished product. I utilized various clean, borderless photos for a clean look and kept my text font constant to invoke repetition.

I’m going to sleep now.

Prospective Student Direct Mailer

Prospective Student Parent Direct Mailer

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Designing for Emotion: Chapter 5

By Nick Edwards in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433

Overcoming Obstacles is the title of the fifth chapter of Walter’s book. Suitably, chapter 5 deals with overcoming the myriad reasons why consumers would dislike or choose not to use a specific product or brand. The main reasons given by Walter that need to be overcome are emotional ties, laziness and apathy.

I somewhat agree with Walter on the claims that purchases we make or products we use are selected on instinct. In many cases, yes, people will choose a brand or product based on how they feel at that moment or how they fell about that particular brand. Many times, consumer instinct is to remain in their own comfort zone and their purchasing behavior reflects that.

On the other hand there are many times thatI would consider one brand or product to be of a higher quality or more personally appealing to me, but I will buy a different product because it may cost less or last longer. Purchasing decisions can’t be made purely on emotion. At times logic must be applied as well.

I did like Walter’s discussions on failure. It is okay to make mistakes as long as we as designers look bar at our brand and make sure the right message is being communicated to consumers. A design must function reliably and connect emotionally.

 

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Assignment One: Business Card/Letterhead

By Nick Edwards in Assignment One, Business Card, JMC 3433, Letterhead

SA_Business_CardSA_Business_Card2 SA_Letterhead

 

This business card and letterhead were both designed for my position at SuperAmerica, a company based out of Woodbury, MN that I interned with over the summer. I used a very minimal design on both my business card and my letterhead, keeping consistent font and color schemes as well as repeated branding, while maintaining a sparse attitude toward my designs.

The target recipient of my SuperAmerica E-newsletter are any SuperAmerica employees interested in attending the first annual SuperAmerica Employee Appreciation Day. This was an actual event that happened, and it was a lot of fun! The intended audience of my business card would be clients that worked with the advertising and loyalty department, or that met with the SuperAmerica sales division.

I have never been incredibly visually inclined,  and I thought using InDesign would be intimidating and complex, but I found this assignment to be very refreshing. I have always been a fan of minimal designs and I was very excited to make a professional-looking document while using my own personal tastes.

I learned that I should (hopefully) not be so nervous and self-doubting when approaching visually-inclined tasks. I hope to have more confidence in myself in the future!

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Designing for Emotion: Chapter 4

By Nick Edwards in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433

The title of chapter 4 is Emotional Engagement. This chapter suitably deals with engaging an audience on an emotional level. Walter discussed how emotions appeal to our senses of memory and recognition by using surprises and joy or delight. Whenever something is surprising to a viewer or user, they are more likely to remember it. The Photojojo website ‘Do Not Pull’ lever is a great example of making a memorable impression on the user by surprising them.

Chapter 4 also touches on priming. Priming is when a viewer or user is exposed to a stimulus designed to influence their view of a different stimulus. Walter used the example of Twitter’s “New Twitter” redesign and how they sought to change user perceptions of it. They did this by revealing a special sneak peak of the new design, which sparked a great deal of discussion in and of itself, and then permitting use to only certain users. This raised anticipation  of “New Twitter” to a fever pitch.

Using emotion to appeal to users as described by chapter 4 sounds like a very effective way to convey a message and make it stick. I am excited to work emotional appeal into my future designs.

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Designing for Emotion: Chapter 3

By Nick Edwards in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433

The title of chapter 3 is Personality. The chapter deals all about brand personality and how one can convey that personality through web design. Before beginning my Gaylord classes I had never viewed a brand as having a personality, but after asking myself why I buy certain products over others, one of the main reasons is simply because “I like that brand.” Walter’s view that designs should be like people that the audience could sit down and talk to. This gave me a new view on design and on representing a brand in general.

I didn’t like Walter’s example of personality branding. Walter referred to Carbonmade, a portfolio design site. The website itself, while being  good and effective, has a very childish and, in my opinion, obnoxious design to it. I believe that the design for a website for adults and professionals like Carbonmade should have thought out their design choices a little more before deciding to go with the “mountains and unicorns” option.

Chapter 3 has definitely opened my eyes to news ways to approach design.I like the ide of sitting down and talking to my brands.

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Designing for Emotion: Chapter 2

By Nick Edwards in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433

Walter’s second chapter in Designing for Emotion is titled ‘Designing for Humans.’

The main subject of chapter two is discussing what appeals to people aesthetically. Walter discusses how we, as humans, develop emotional connections to beautiful things. He opens by referring to the baby-face bias and discussing his own experiences as a parent, but goes on to detail how we are hardwired to find the same range of features aesthetically attractive. Walter touches on the golden ratio and how humans are hardwired to search out things that are similarly proportioned.

I had never really thought to look at visual design this way. I had always thought that there was never any real reason why I liked any design over any other besides personal taste. I suppose viewing designs and objects with the golden ratio in mind will change my perspective.

Despite Walter’s arguments for the golden ratio and aesthetic appeal, he followed these by using Ricardo Mestra’s web site as an example. I didn’t lime Mestra’s design. It seemed too busy and too cluttered to me. I have always been a fan of minimalism and Mestra’s loud design contrasted against that.

I have never been the most visually inclined person, but I believe that using the golden ratio in my design will help me improve my skills.

Originally posted at Nick Edwards

Design Blitz Scavenger Hunt

By Nick Edwards in Uncategorized

This assignment required us to post examples of color, typography, symbol/metaphor, minimalism and form and function to our blogs.

Color

This is album art by an artist I listen to, Neon Indian. This art is an obvious example of color because of all of the different colors splashed together to make this abstract image.

This is album art by an artist I listen to, Neon Indian. This art is an obvious example of color because of all of the different colors splashed together to make this abstract image.

Typography

This image is an advertisement for a performance by DJ Simba, a close friend and colleague of mine. This ad is a good example of typography because his text is superimposed over a busy, vibrant background image.

This image is an advertisement for a performance by DJ Simba, a close friend and colleague of mine. This ad is a good example of typography because his text is superimposed over a busy, vibrant background image.

Metaphor / Symbol

 

This is the symbol for OU Stompdown 2014. This is an clear example of symbolism, as this image represents the contest and is a recognizable symbol.

This is the symbol for OU Stompdown 2014. This is an clear example of symbolism, as this image represents the contest and is a recognizable symbol.

Minimalism

This profound quote by revolutionary artist Jason Derulo is presented in a very minimalist form against a plain background.

This profound quote by revolutionary artist Jason Derulo is presented in a very minimalist form against a plain background.

Form & Function

Two very large purchasing factors of cars are typically form and function. This 2013 Cadillac on a display floor is a great example of a car manufacturing advertising both a product's form and its function.

Two very large purchasing factors of cars are typically form and function. This 2013 Cadillac on a display floor is a great example of a car manufacturing advertising both a product’s form and its function.

 

Originally posted at Nick Edwards