Sergio's BlogoSPHERE

Livebooks Company

2010-09-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is a very big Web site that I came across liveBooks. I linked to it by viewing one of their clients in the HOW October 2009 magazine. There is some very interesting information that can relate to our Project 2 coming up. For its size, its layout is really well done. Its readability is nice and clean and I think they use a Helvetica font for the typography. Very easy to navigate and the viewer does not get bored at all. The company promotes themselves well and on what they do. They provide great examples of work that they have done for their clients. The only negative that I found was that when you scale the browser window, it is not vertically or horizontally centered which is what we were learning in class.

Design Army Studio

2010-09-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

I found Design Army in the HOW magazine October 2010 issue. It is orginally a graphic design studio and have done some great work for their clients in art direction, websites, branding, etc. They have done very good looking websites for their clients. I browsed their website and liked the colors used and how very clean, elegant and simple it is. No clutter at all. Very easy to read and navigate through. I believe they use a Helvetica font. As you navigate, everything is always in the center of the browser. The company promotes their previous clients web design work with images, but link you to their specific site in a new browser window.

What they do at Shotopop

2010-08-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

I was reading the July 2010 Computer Arts magazine and came across a designer named Shotopop who does digital llustration and design for print, as well as interactive and motion graphics. You can view his site at: http://www.shotopop.com/. He has done some Web Design work for other clients. Shotopop's website is simply designed and easy to navigate. The navigational bar never changes as you browse throught their site. On the homepage at the very top is its focal point to me because the words keep changing, which tell the viewer exactly what they do. The target audience are those who want digital illustration, design for print and interactive media. They also create motion graphics. The site has photos, illustrations, and videos as their visual elements. I believe that the font used in the site is Futura. Overall, it was a cool site to look at.

Guitar Songs

2009-05-07T13:59:00.001-07:00

This image was found in the Communication Arts - Magazine February 2009. Really like the simple black and white background and the typography layout. On one side it is white and on the other it is black. The designer is Hampus Jageland from Sydney, Australia. He did a really good job of using the logo to communicate the sequence of numbers and letters that build up guitar tabs. It is in book form that contains the guitar tabs for the song on the white side as well as a little information sections based on the numbers on the black side.

Chef Burger

2009-04-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

These images were found in the HOW-magazine of June 09. Chef Burger is the name of the restaurant in Kansas City, MO. The way they designed the character (ChefBurger) and its restaurants identity is very eye catching. The logo only uses two colors and works well with their bag. The different burger icons on the coasters are because of the different toppings each burger has for its customers. These icons have their own unique personality. I really liked their idea, I thought it was very creative.

The Venture Bros. Season 2

2009-04-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

This image was found in the Communication Arts magazine - November 2008. I really liked the style of the DVD packaging. The front cover is kept simple and stands out with the color. It has a very old vintage style poster look with strong bold, simple typography. Also, I like how the inside bifold spread tells a story and is consistent with the colors.

CD cover

2009-04-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

This image was found in the April 2009 Computer Arts magazine. Since we are working on our own CD cover for project 4, I was looking for some CD covers for inspiration and I found this one. This CD cover was designed by Jasper Goodall who worked with the band MUSE. He also created cover designs for all of the singles. I thought this was very neat and different style from doing silhouette's. The colors are electrifying and has that smokey feel to it. Having the black background makes those colors pop. Like the flow of the lines in the faces.

Poster Design

2009-04-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

I found this poster design in the 2004 Typography Workbook, by Timothy Samara. The designer uses the year in the poster and what I like is that not only does the designer create an image, but communicates the theme of the lecture being promoted in a clear, direct, and humorous way. Not to cluttered, clean, and color is used well in the typography.

Running Bike

2009-03-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

This image was found in the How - April 09 magazine. I really liked the simplicity of this ad. Very creative to use legs for the body of the bike and then adding handle bars to complete the image. The typography is weak, but what it says really goes with their creative image. I guess their creativity of the image is what really got me this week.

Save The Earth

2009-03-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

This image was found in the How magazine for April 09. I thought this was a great idea in advertising Earth Day by using a Thank You plastic bag and thanking those who use reusable bags in order to save the earth. Very simple with lots of meaning behind this. Now what is better, a big plastic bag that is killing the earth or a big reusable bag that is easy to fold and save the earth?

Good Work

2009-03-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

This image was found in the April 2009 Print magazine. This was done by Jason Tam from Hong Kong for a company called For Office Use Only in New York. I liked how he used his artistic approach by only having two colors and putting together unsharpened pencils and sharpened pencils to spell out the word "WORK" as well as "For Office Use Only" sheets to create the word "GOOD." As you see closely, in each word "For Office Use Only" is exposed. Very creative.

Street Baroque

2009-02-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

This image was found in the Computer Arts Magazine - Feb. 09 issue. I like how the illustration is not in the center and the area that is in color balances the area that is not in color. Like the detail of the artwork, especially the "wood" part in "Hollywood" on how it blends in with the girls hair. Also, I like how the artist reuses images for example shapes of stars, trees, clouds throughout image in a balanced way. Seems like it is targeting cities where money is spent.

Japan Advertisement

2009-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

Found this ad in the Communication Arts magazine - Jan-Feb 09. Really liked the flow of the typography used and how the texture of it looks like fabric. The black background makes the advertisement standout. It is very creative and has a 3D look to it.

Meteor Ad

2009-02-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

I found this ad in the Computer Arts Magazine Jan-09. Meteor is a Irish mobile phone company and their aim was to improve awareness of Meteor's range of mobile internet services that includes music and media downloads. I like how it displays nice colors, movement, line variations, and cool music images that flow very well with the phone that they are advertising.

Company Called "Be"

2009-02-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

This image was found in the January 09 issue of Communication Arts Magazine. This new company called "Be" wanted to create their own identity. They found Sawdust that specializes in design and gave them the opportunity to demonstrate what they were capable of doing. "Be" hosts an array of new music acts , DJ's, and artistic performances in venues around London. I think they did a good job of reflecting the nature of the organization. Also, the nice organic flow that it has and how the design integrates the face of the cropped woman was very interesting.

Dynamic Distortion

2009-01-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

I found this image in the Computer Arts - February 2009 magazine at the library. I thought this was a very interesting image that was distorted using Photoshop. It displays velocity and meltdown to the subject by just using the application. The background color just makes the subject pop out and you can clearly see the meltdown and distortion effect.

Great Photoshop Ad

2009-01-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

This advertisement was very interesting to me. I like how you can crop images and blend them together with other images using layers, for example adding the stadium behind the buildings. Also, how you can add different type of effects to certain parts of your photos, text, and your artistic ideas, for example in the lighting fixtures they added some brightness to the light, as well as some shadow to the soccer players. The sky was modified giving it the feel that a storm is on its way. Furthermore, the way the images were presented in the ad really showed off what Photoshop can allow you to do. It just pushes me to keep learning Adobe Photoshop and all the other programs that come with Adobe.