I think this was successfully designed because the context is so clear and apparent to anyone who looks at it. Personalizing your own post is saying something about yourself, and I thought it was interesting and clever how they inserted a mirror as the stamp.

At first I thought this was a little mortifying, but then I understood what it meant and I thought that it was executed very well. Many deaths occur because people are too close to the track and end up falling onto it. This design is so prominent with the negative space that when you look at it, the first thing you say is, “WHOA! I need to step back.”

I’ve always enjoyed Apple’s designs because they are intriguing and catching to the eye. This one really stood out to me because it goes well with the message they are trying to sell. The ipods represent a piano which makes music, and you can listen to this music on an ipod. I think that the purple background was perfect to the apparent white and black ipods.

I think this design for a lawyer is poorly designed because I don’t know where to even begin to read. The color scheme is all over the place, and the important words are not prominent and pleasing to the eye. It is almost straining to look at this design.

This is another design that I think is too crowded because there are different colors going on, and too much text for a design like this. I think that it could work with less text and one color text.

This design has images that is totally relate to the context of the design. However, I believe that it has too much wording and  some words such as “coffee,” “exotic,” “soccer” and so on don’t have a contrast between the word and the background. It basically those words disappear on the design. I think that those words should have different font color.

This design is all opposite from the first one, the background is lighter than the words and it gives a natural contrast between both of them. The type of font color illumines the poster, and it has a mix of font colors.

I believe that this design works as well as the previous one, the background color doesn’t affect the message. The mix of texture and font between pink, black and white color make the design very interesting and attractive. It is easy to read the message.

On the other hand, the red and white color design doesn’t work together as the previous one. I think that this design need a different color of background, because the flag and the last paragraph don’t show up as the “U.S. Navy” and “AO”

This design has a lot of images on it, but it works perfectly. I am able to see the contrast between the letter and the background color. Dark background means lighter font color and vice versa. Also, the color of the images are the same used for the letters. I think it works perfectly.

I dislike this design, because the colors weren’t used properly. Even though, I said previously that dark background means lighter font color, in this design you don’t see the connection between colors. If I don’t pay much attention to the design and word “IN” I couldn’t tell that was there. I believe, the background shouldn’t be white because the letter “adventure” disappears on the design.

Bad Design

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This logo for Spartan Golf is great. It’s very sophisticated, but at the same time very clean cut and sharp. The motion of the golf club swing and man swinging it himself make the shape of the side profile a spartan soldier. It’s a double image and people are always intrigued by those so I feel like it’s one people will easily remember. I love the use of the white space, and how it’s all black. I think the spaced out lettering works great underneath because it gives the head somewhat of a platform to rest on, and overall I think it’s a very well thought out  and clever design.

Here is a spread from a page in Nylon magazine. I think it’s a very successful design because it’s very unique, creative and fun. I love how the pictures look as though they’re cut out and placed on as a collage. I feel like collages are hard to create and be successful at looking good, but here I love it and think the designer did a great job. I think it’s important to pay attention to the overall shape the images collaged together will make, especially regarding the border. I think what plays a big role in making it successful is the bit of collage/photos on the bottom because it balances it out with the top, and brings the whole piece together. I also love the two little captions, word, and texas illustration are thrown in random places but consistent in color and font. I also think the text works well at the size it is, it’s tiny and allowing the images to dominant the page but it’s still readable. Something that caught my attention was how the paragraphs all start at different heights, and this inconsistency works here because it goes along with this messy, thrown on there vibe you get from looking at the piece.

Here is an ad for Baby-G watches, and I think it’s a successful design. It’s very colorful, but the white background and three white watches stop it from being too colorful and balance it out. I think that the text bordering around the image works well and gives the ad movement.

Next is this Rays. This isn’t a horrible design, but it’s far from clever. Also, the little golden sparkle just doesn’t seem to fit for what a sports team should want to represent. I feel like it’s very dainty and feminine, and it just reminds of something you would see on a jeweler logo. And plotting the team name “Rays” on top of a baseball field? It just seems unoriginal. When you’re representing a specific sports team, I feel like the logo should be unique and personal to that particular team. Not contain something that any team could have used.

Here I feel like there’s too much going on next to the photograph. I think there’s too much illustration, and the photograph itself is very strong and all that’s next to it isn’t necessarily needed. I also think it looks funny how the text next to the photo lines up with the head, then lines up with the ear.

Here is the new Yahoo design which was just reviled a couple of months ago and I really dislike it. I think the 3D effect looks too cheesy. While reading peoples’ comments on the new design, somebody pointed out that with their older logo, the Y had such distinct details that you knew it was the yahoo y. With this, you can’t do that. Overall it does nothing for me. Yahoo is obviously a well established company and for a company that big and well known to change their logo I think it should have been… better? “The new logo doesn’t communicate any sort of new vision, purpose, or meaning to the brand. So: Why bother in the first place?”

Above are three logos (Kate’s Florist, Melon Tech, and Tree Doctor) in which I feel are bad design examples. The logo for Kate’s Florist looks like three images (which were not properly edited) pasted onto and oval shape with the company name on it. The second, Melon Tech, looks more like a daycare’s logo than an IT company. The image and colors do not go with what one might associate with an IT company. Lastly, the Tree Doctor logo has too many images in it. Each one is competing for attention. In addition, the letter “r” in tree is somewhat hidden because of the tree behind it.

To illustrate good design, I chose an illustrated design of a deer’s skeleton, another company logo, Gale Vehicle Management, and a human skeleton design. The deer illustration is well designed. The skeleton does not look like a lifeless thing. There is still form and movement to it. As if it is still walking through the forest. In addition, the typography created/chosen to identify what type of skeleton it goes really well with the illustration because it somewhat follows the lines of the skeleton in a way. Or maybe it is because it looks straight and solid and is what we would associate how bones feel and look.

The logo for Gale Vehicle Management works because the way the image for the car was designed. It is very streamlined and gives the illusion of a fast car driving against gale force winds. The way the gradients on the words Gale Vehicle along with the image also gives the illusion of movement and form.

The human skeleton design is a great example of how to use text to create an image. The word for each part of the body is used to create the skeleton. Different sizes of the font is used to help the design as well. Lastly, the design also has movement, the same as the others.

Punchcutting is an unique method of designing. It requires a lot of hard manual labor while meticulously following each step. Each step requires a lot of patience and precision because if it is not done correctly, then the whole project would be ruined. Although punch cutting is a traditional method of typesetting, it is a form of art that will be admired.

Ivy Zhao

I think I would fail using this method because I like to change things around all the time, and with punchcutting, there is no room for mistakes. As I was watching the video, I was amazed at how much effort, time, and patience it took to make one letter in a certain font. With this method, you have to be very meticulous with what you are doing, or else, you have to start the whole process again. I would say that if I were to use the punchcutting method for my design, it would probably take me more than one day to really edge my letter the right way, get it to the size that I want, and placing it correctly. This is something that you really need to focus on or it will take days to finish a design the way your want it.

This article showed me that graphic design transcends professions, and is an art form that can be seen anywhere from a subway map to a powerpoint presentation. On a daily basis graphic design affects our lives especially as New Yorkers, from making your way to across town on the subway, to reading your favorite book, graphic design is relevant in many more ways than I originally thought. One does not have to be a professional artists to design or interpret graphics as anyone from a 5th grader to business executives have suffered through making a powerpoint at some point in their lives.

My question to the author would be, why not include some images of recognizable elements of graphic design to both grab the readers attention and to help them visualize the subject of graphic design? Which is a very visual art to begin with. A possible explanation is that the author thought it may distract the readers from the text to have images cluttering the page.

You walk in Times Square and all you see are huge billboard with pictures and maybe a few words. The colors making every advertisement look amazing and catching everyones eyes. These are the things that I think about as I read “What is Graphic Design?” This article says that “Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas” which is exactly what every advertisement in the most touristy area in New York City does on a daily basis. This article also makes me visualize and understand how much work is put into the simplest and the most creative of advertisements. There is a thought process, if there should be words, what picture will be used or if the designer is working on a new idea then what will be a new logo. NO good advertisement can be created over night.

One question I would ask the author if I could would be is, how do you know what type faces fit well with one another for an add, or in other words, how do graphic designers know that  two or three type faces look good together on the same advertisement? I feel that it may have to do with the shape of the letters, but I am really not sure and would really like to learn to do this.