Pictures that will definitely bring a smile to your face.

http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/jason-lees-crazily-creative-kid-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fjason-lees-crazily-creative-kid-slideshow%252F-photo-2338208-195600632.html

Check them out!

Adobe Tutorial - Color Replacement

In this tutorial I learned how to replace one color in a photo with another.

Before image:

Steps Involved:
1. Load the image you plan to edit into Photoshop.
2. Go to Image>Adjustments>Replace Color
3. In the dialog box that appears, select the Eyedropper tool.
4. With the Eyedropper tool select the color that you would like to replace in the image.
5. Use the Add to Sample Tool to make sure that all of the shades of the same color that you chose are also selected.
6. Move the Hue slider in the Replace Color Tool dialog box to choose the color you want to replace the original color with. Then you're done!

After image:

Source: http://www.photoshoplayer.com/beginner/how-to-replace-a-color-in-photoshop/
Images in this post were taken by me.

Job Search Analysis - Art Director

Art Directors are responsible for the visual look and feel of different mediums such as magazines, movie and television productions, packaging and others. They are in charge of the overall design of whatever project they are working on, and they direct others who also help complete the project.

A Bachelor's Degree in the graphics field is required for Art Directors. One to five years of experience are required to become an art director, and one does not usually start out as one - you must work your way up and gain plenty of experience to become one. Median pay in 2010 for an Art Director was around $80,630 a year or $38.77 an hour. Art directors should know Adobe software, especially Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, and knowledge in other software would be beneficial. Skills in photography or graphic design would also be helpful to get someone the job as art director.

Information Source: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/art-directors.htm
Image Source: http://2one5.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/WEAREHIRING-art-director.jpg

Lawsuit Article Review - A&M Records v. Napster

One very well known copyright infringement case is A&M Records v. Napster and this case occurred in 2001. Napster started a peer-to-peer music file sharing website that allowed people to share music with others for free.

A&M Records filed a lawsuit against Napster saying that the website stole music and shared it worldwide. A&M Records won the lawsuit and in 2002 Napster closed the site, and then payed $26 million dollars to A&M and other record labels and songwriters. Napster ended up apologizing for what they had done.

The Napster lawsuit has set an example of what happened to those to commit copyright infringement in the music industry, but that still does not stop some websites today from giving away free downloads of music.

Information Source: http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/74022.aspx
Image Source: http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.01/group10/napster_activnews.gif

Job Search Analysis - Web Designer

One career I've been considering for awhile is Web Design. A web designer is someone who designs websites and puts them together with computer languages such as HTML, CSS, Actionscript, Flash and others. Like graphic designers, web designers should have a good eye for page layout, typography, and other forms of visual design.

A typical education requirement for a web designer would be a Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Arts or something similar. Equal knowledge and skills can land you a job in this field also. A web designer today is usually required to know the Adobe software, mainly Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator. Some knowledge in Flash may also be a requirement for some companies. Years of required experience vary from business to business, but the more you know, the more likely you are to get hired. The median expected salary for a web designer is around $51, 898 a year.

Information source: http://www1.salary.com/Designer-I-Web-salary.html

Image Source

Adobe Tutorial - Digital Tintype Photos

In this tutorial, I learned how to create a digital tintype photo. Usually, tintype photos are created with special equipment under certain conditions, but this tutorial shows how to achieve the same effects digitally.

Here is my Before image:

Steps involved:
1. Add a Hue/Saturation layer
2. In the Hue/Saturation menu, check the "Colorize" box, choose a hue you like, desaturate the image almost completely, and then use the Lightness slider to darken the image slightly.
3. Convert the base layer for Smart Filters
4. Select the Surface Blur effect, and change the Threshold to around 10. The goal of this step is to remove small details and make the image appear smoother.
5. Select the Motion Blur, set the Distance setting to around 4. Keep this effect to a minimum.
6. Add a Brightness/Contrast layer. Raise the Brightness to a setting you prefer (only a little) and adjust Contrast a great deal. The tutorial raises it to +74.
7. Go to Filter>Distort>Lens Correction. Pull the Vignette slider all the way to -100.
8. The last step consists of adding a texture to the image. The tutorial tells you that you can download this concrete image for the effect. Place the image over your original, and then the tutorial suggests selecting Overlay in the Blending Modes menu.

 And here is my After image!

Source: http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tutorials-effects/digital-tintype-photos/

The images above were taken by me.

15 "Real-Life" Disney Princesses

I thought these were so neat!

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/creative-inspirations/digital-art/15-amazing-qreal-lifeq-rendition-of-disney-characters-by-jirka-vaeaetaeinen.html

Job Search Analysis

The work of a graphic designer can be seen anywhere and everywhere. To sum it up, they create images that we read. The images are made to help send us a message and portray ideas.

The 2010 median pay for a graphic designer was about $43,500, or $20.92 an hour.  Entry-level education for graphic design requires a Bachelor's degree, but I've seen that equal experience and skills can also land you the job. Graphic designers today are also required to know the Adobe software, mainly Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. It is also a plus for any designer that also knows about Flash and/or has other web experience. A certain amount of years of experience are not usually required for people going into graphic design, but like any other job, it is best to go in with as  much experience as you can.

Information Source: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/graphic-designers.htm

Image source

The Final Project

For my final project, I decided to make a 4 by 6 inch notebook that will be saddle-stitched and the paper will be "die-cut" so that the corners will be rounded on all the pages. The inside pages will all be lined, and I'm thinking I'm going to include a few graphics on some of the pages throughout the little notebook.
The notebook can be used for anything. Taking notes, making lists, writing yourself reminders. I already have something like it, and I use it a lot to take To-Do lists, because I'm extremely forgetful, but since the pages will simply be lined, the notebook will be for anything the person using it wants.
I thought about creating a notebook that would work for both genders, but I figured girls would be more likely to use something like this, and I want to make the notebook pretty, so I'm going to give the book a girly cover.

Here are my thumbnails:

And my rough drafts:

All of the pages inside the cover will be 8" by 6" to make a final product that is 4" by 6" when folded. All pages will include a 0.125" bleed and a 0.25" margin on all sides.

Here are a few photos of my dummy:

To print 500 of these it would cost me about $506. To save money, I did not include graphics on the inside pages, making them only have grey lines to write on.

Here are my final prints! I made two versions of the notebook, but I only turned in the notebook on the left for my final project grade.

Adobe Tutorial

In this tutorial, I learned how to make a photo look like a retro comic book picture.

Here is my before image:

Here is the after image:

The steps involved include:
1. Adjust the levels of the image under Image>Adjustments>Levels. The person giving the tutorial said that the numbers they plugged into the menu were 60/1.00/220 but said you should adjust the image to your liking.
2. The next step is to add film grain. The goal is not to keep the image looking realistic, but give it an artistic quality that will add to the end result.
3. Duplicate your layer and name the new layer HALFTONE
4. To the HALFTONE layer, apply the halftone effect. Go to Filter>Pixelate>Halftone and set the max radius to 4. After you've closed that menu, in the Layers Palette, apply the Darken effect to the same layer.
5. Select the HALFTONE layer and set a STROKE LAYER STYLE of WIDTH: 20px, POSITION: InsideCOLOR: #F5ECE1.

The next couple steps include adding comic book-like text and captions to the photo, which I count as optional.

My image didn't turn out as well as the example did. I think if I would have zoomed in more it would have looked better. Certain images are going to work better for this tutorial than others.

The tutorial also shows you where you can download special comic book fonts, which I thought was nice!

Sources:
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2007/09/13/give-your-photos-a-retro-comic-book-effect/

National Logo Redesign

Recently, JCPenney came out with a new logo and a new pricing strategy. Their new goal is to not have "One Day Only!" sales every other day, but to always offer the lowest prices possible.  The CEO of the company says that they will offer prices that will draw customers in all year long, rather than on the days of sales. They felt that the new makeover of the pricing strategies called for a new logo.

Here is the old logo:

And here is their latest logo:

 

The new logo still incorporates the square that the old logo had, except this time it is used to help portray an American flag. They also cut the name in the logo down from "jcpenney" to just "jcp".

I personally do not like the new logo compared to the old. I think the new logo has too much empty space. I don't even really like that it resembles an American flag. I think that they should have stuck to the old logo, although it is quite plain too, or came up with a new idea all together.

Sources:
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/JCPenney-Rebrands-012612.aspx
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/01/what-to-expect-j-c-penneys-new-pricing-strategy/