Wrapping Up The Semester

So I just wanted to write a quick few words to wrap up the end of this project, or so we think. I feel over the course of the semester we learned a lot of useful information, whether about how to successfully work in a big group geared towards one goal, or just different issues within the world that we discussed through assigned readings. Design Rebels was an important class for me this semester. I got a lot out of the going ons in the world, and how we can take action towards these issues to benefit humanity. Chomp Magazine was an attempt to approach children with these issues at an early age, so they can be more informed than we've been going into this course. The more you know, the better you can take action, and the early you start, the better. I think Chomp Mag was a success to an extent, I feel we may have set the bar really high for the amount of time we had to complete it, especially for a website of that magnitude. We thought we had a lot of content, but what it boiled down to, was we didn't get a lot of the stuff in time, we didn't follow the schedule as closely as we should have, which means in the end, everything was rushed. The class presentations were good, actually going to a school and speaking with the children was a great way to reach them. I was only there for two, but the first one went extremely well, we had at least 5 people speaking, which helped a lot. The second one i was at didn't go as well, but I'm almost positive the last one was the best, we finally got the projector to work, so i was told, so that shouldn't added a big visual element to the presentation. Not to mention we had bigger numbers again for speakers.

I'm not sure whats next for Chomp, I really don't know how we can measure the amount of success we had, or how to go about continuing this project, as if i have time to do so anyways. It would be nice, but we'd really have to change the format of the website I feel, so we can update it easier, but how do you do that and still make it interactive? It almost seems like we'd need full-time flash animators to even try to attempt it. Using an ordinary website just wouldn't capture children's attention like flash movies can. I feel the next step could be talking to more schools? If we did so, we'd definitely have to have more preparation for them, have an actual planned discussion, so we're not winging everything. I think the game was a really good idea as well, and also throwing in visual elements to tie into some facts that we can list off for the children. Show images of forests being cut down, strip mining, all that stuff, just images that show how much damage our commerce and growth is hurting our planet. I wouldn't mind helping out doing so in the future, but it'd have to be with the right people, I'd want Sean Berg and Carman to be involved as well, otherwise I don't think the original chemistry would be there. Anyways, this is me closing off the discussion of Chomp Magazine, we'll see how it goes in the future, I hope its not the end, but I know we're all busy. I have to graduate. But I do think the end idea with Chomp was a great idea, kids are the future and we're discussing issues that are not going away anytime soon, they need to be informed about these issues, so they can address them in the future, just as we've attempted to do so.

Middle School Presentation

While its still fresh in my head, I just wanted to write down some observations about the presentations we gave to the Martin Luther King Middle School this morning. Overall, I do understand why it was important to speak with a class, but why the specific middle school? I have no idea. They were a tough crowd to speak with, probably mostly because of the area, I don't want to say that race was an issue, but the school was about 98% black. The first class was fine, they were the 7th graders, which were younger than the second. We also had a lot more people for the first presentation, so everyone gave their little part, it was fine, ran real smoothly and the kids got into it. The second class we talked to was the 8th grade, which were a little tougher, they acted like they were too cool to listen to the visitors speak. Its whatever. We only had 2 people to speak for the second part, which made it a lot harder and put more pressure on them, in the first presentation, people would fill in some information here and there for each other, throw in their 2 cents. Because of the shortage of personnel, we couldn't conduct the game like we had done in the first presentation, which took out the class participation aspect of the demonstration, so the kids sat down in the chairs and weren't as into it. We also had some technical difficulties with the computers and displaying our website, which was a pretty big hit. They computers we totally outdated, which meant they were a big issue with displaying them on the computers, plan B was to show it on a projector, but we couldn't get the right connection for the Mac laptop. So we wound up just holding up Sean's laptop and showing small groups at a time, which really sucked, but sometimes you just have to do what you gotta do. Next time we'll be completely prepared for the worst, plan for everything so we don't run into this kind of problem in the future. The freebie bags were a big hit though, for the gardening aspect of our page, we prepared some baggies with homemade grow kits for the kids, which everyone was pretty excited about, kids always love free stuff. One last thing I noticed in the presentation that I feel could have been beneficial was adding in some of the recycling facts that I had read over for research. We had planned on throwing those in there, but I think in the heat of battle, we just got nervous and forgot. I just think it would've been facts that the kids could easily visualize, which would give them a better idea of the impact we have on our planet with trash and how much recycling can aid in our planets health. Besides that, we did good, I should have some pictures real soon, they just need to be downloaded and edited. I haven't felt the greatest lately, so I've been trying to hang out, get some school work done,

Latest Update

Just wanted to write a few short notes, I fell behind on the journal posts because of so many end of semester projects and all that b.s. This late into the semester, I'd say everything is going well, we seemed to have gotten everything taken care of that we needed to. We got the posters printed out, the printing turned out nicely, I was happy with the results. I really liked the weird dimensions we used on them too, really sets them apart from the others, its more interesting and draws attention to itself. The website is in the final stages, hit a few obstacles nearing the end of the semester, we fell a little bit behind schedule, but in the end we did the best we could. I think its a cool website, just a matter of how successful the project will be after this semester, I don't see myself having the time to put too much effort into it. Us three "web designers" put a shit ton of hours into the thing though, there was a lot of research and figuring out specific parts of the site. Some parts of the site we had to cut corners, we either couldn't figure out how to do something, didn't work right, or just straight up didn't have the time.

I think from here, we just wait out the end of the semester, still need to get it up and running online, which really isn't that big of a deal, everything functions properly, we used the correct dimensions, once its online, we should be good to go. I think one last minute thing we need to add is the site requirements, showing the best resolution to run it at, as well as flash and browser requirements. Sometimes that become a big issue, depending on who your audience is. I think we all put a lot of effort into this project, I feel some more than others, but I dont want to single anyone out, I'd rather finish off the project, get the grade and move on. Its been a long and exhausting semester, I just want to see how the other group feels about what we accomplished.

Website Updates

What?

The website has undergone some changes. Conceptually we've figure out a better idea of what we wanted, did some research over the weekend and we also started to sketch out what the final product is going to look like. We got some inspiration from a specific website, but we have some different ideas of how we want the site to animation and function. The objective of the website it to make it fun, with lots of different animations that spring from buttons. We want the site to be highly visual, functional, and fun. Because the site is geared towards teenages, we want there to be bright colors, funky sound effects, and a style that would keep teenages attention.

So what?

I think its important to make this website give information, but make sure its not too much like reading. The text has to be divided up into small chunks at a time, the idea of the site is to get the information in a funner way than reading a magazine article. I think animations such as mouseovers and actionscripting will be vital to the feel and flow of the website. We have some talented designers working on the site, so I think we'll be fine, but we need to start getting content, so we can put this site together! The due date is coming real fast, so we just need to get working on the flash, get a url purchased, and splash page up. I'm working on that, but i'm pretty rusty when it comes to design, and the splash page is going to set the tone for the rest of the page, so I think we need to get some input from Carmania and Berg. We can meet up today and collaborate a little more during class, we should be fine, no worries here.

Now what?

The next step is to get the information thats going on the site, so I can start throwing the individual stories into the flash movies. Once we get that going, we can figure out how long each article is going to be, and what needs to be paired with the stories visually, what images we can to use, how was want to decorate/organize them. Like I said, we'll be fine. I'm actually pretty eager to get working on this thing, I can do the stories, but I think Sean Berg needs to have all the final decisions and artwork on the website, the style of art he does is exactly what this website needs to have that extra touch. John's already started on the cityscape thats going into the background of the site, the rest is deciding/brainstorming what we can to have in the animations of the scene, and where each link is going to be placed.

Website Concepts

I came up with a concept for the website that I think will be successful. Because the demographic we're dealing with is young teens, I think the website needs to be animated, colorful and very interactive. I've found some different methods of navigations through a plugin website that I think will work well, but the real idea i had was to push the website as a series of short stories, rather than actual articles. Dealing with teens, I dont think they want to be force fed information and facts, its too much like reading and school, my plan is to have a set main character, Chomp, and have him interact with different characters and have the kids learn things through the events they encounter. The idea for the character was those walking teeth that you wind up, seems like an easily identifiable object, plus relates to the name of the magazine. Its hard to describe the navigation, so I'll leave that out. For the site, I also think the logo should randomly change. I know theres some javascript we can write that will make the logo change, randomly everytime the page is loaded, which I think could make the site more effective because its constantly changing. If everything was concrete and the same, I dont believe it will be as appealing to kids.

I think this is important because the site is the most important part of our project. We do have good designers working on it, but for it to be as successful as we're hoping, it really doesn't need to be informational, interactive, and hold kids attention for longer than 2 seconds. I feel these are solutions that can help make our site as good as possible. I also feel, as one of the main designers for it, the rest of the group should follow my lead in supporting this idea. By writing their "articles" in the form of short stories, it makes it interactive, I can also take photos that reinforce this concept which takes the bore out of reading, we can arrange them in short lines of text with images, making it read more visually.

Now what to do is just run it by the group, get approval, and start working on the website. The best way to do this is convince them how its best for our target age group. Besides that, I think me and john are already on the same page with this site, we just need to talk to Berg and go from there. I don't think we're going to have any problems with this though, we all work together very well and with my past experience with them, we work out problems well. I really don't know what else to add about what comes next, we have the plans, today is the approval of the logo, then its basically jumping straight into the design. With the time we have left, we really dont have time to sit and relax. I had planned on meeting up with John and Berg last night, but we had problems with scheduling, so we can work on that later on today I guess, I dont have class until 7, after Design Rebels, so we may be able to fit in a meeting there.

The Next Step

What? Well, some of our group mates met up today in the library, couple of them missed out, but we came together and decided up on our idea for the project. The rest is creating an identity for the organization, which means: a name, logo, detailed schedule of events that need to happen. We actually came up with a rough schedule so we can figure out jobs for everyone and how all is this is going to come together. I feel the majority of the team has good chemistry, we're putting out good ideas, participating, and show that we want to make this successful. I have worked with Kit before, so I know she is reliable, same with Berg and Carman, I just think there was some miscommunication about what the project was originally, which led to a lot of confusion and frustration as to the end product of this semester project. Now that we've met up, i think we have a solid idea, now just to have everything down solid and keep everyone on schedule.

So what to do now, I think once everyone gets assigned their spot in the group, everything will fall into place. Because we plan to do an editorial, i'm almost certain that i will be doing photography as well as web design for the project. I'm probably the most knowledgeable with web design in the whole group, even though i'm not part of the graphic design department, I've had a lot of experience with it in the past and am real good with the scripting and layout of a site. The photography i'm guessing will consist of food mainly, but that doesn't mean other stuff won't make its way into the publication. Besides that, I think within the publication, we need to have specific jobs for people who are working on the writing and the design, if we have one person working on each story in the magazine, I feel it will be a failure, everyone will have different ideas and I don't think it will all flow together. I nominate Sean to be the art director for the magazine, he has strong design qualities such as color and illustration, I think to grab the attention of our target audience we need bright colors and the trendy art style thats going around now. That seems to be one of Berg's strengths. Me and John will probably wind up working together on the site, and I could probably use an assistant in the studio when photographing shots or on location. So that could be whoever. I know John and I can work well together because we get along well, not to mention we live together, so we could pull long hours if we needed to. Besides that, I just hope Milton pulls his own weight, I did see him slack off in the group presentation when he was in John's group, I don't want that to happen again.

Next, we need to set a final name, logo for the publication and get straight to work on the color palette and the overall feel of the work. Getting into contact with the proper companies and sponsors will be another important job, I think that should be Laurie's job, she is a good people person and doesn't mind making phone calls, she seems to be more informed about the concerns we're facing so I think she should take a leadership role in this project. Maybe as more of an organizer and supervisor, making sure we all stay on schedule, besides that, I don't know her design skills so I think until I do, i'd rather her not be a main designer for this project. From here on, its really just take care of our own individual jobs and everything will come together nicely and be a success.

What now?

So i really don't know which projects to vote on for this semester project. I know this will the assignment that will be the most intensive and will consuming the majority of our class time for the rest of this semester. Some people had some good work, but others seems to be generic or kind of pointless. I really liked Jason's idea of informing the youth about manipulation by major corporations in advertising, only problem is, I'm not much of a public speaker, but I guess I could contribute in other ways like design work, documentation (photography, etc.), whatever I can do. I also liked David Cherry's work, it seemed a lot like mine, but in all, seemed more put together than mine. In certain areas, our ideas overlapped so the project is pretty similar to mine, contributing to the reduction of waste. The difference would be not having an event such as me and Carman proposed, which is fine. I also think the event wouldn't have had enough time to develop, at least for my idea, with the set date being November 15th. Cherry also had the idea of utilizing screen printing skills within the advertising of the organization, which I wanted to do also, probably doing stuff over recycled paper so you get that grainy texture of paper to contrast with the imagery. I also really enjoyed Kit's idea of recording soundscapes of Richmond. I have no idea how that would carry on for a long time, but the idea of doing so, and having the possibility of getting gallery space, maybe photography matched with sound to form an exhibition.