LA: Studio lighting

Question 1:

1. Name three lighting sources and their functions.

2. Name two light modifiers and explain the difference between them.

3. Draw a diagram of and describe the three-point lighting setup.

 

1. Light sources are the sources used to emit light into your scene.

Three examples of light sources.

Key Light: The key light is the main light used to light the subject or model.  The key light is stronger than the other lights used in the photo, it is the main light that defines the light and shadow areas in the picture. It could be a window, a lamp, the sun or any other source of light.

Fill light: The fill light is a softer light source placed a little further away from the subject or model than the key light. It is there to soften the shadows and contrasts made by the key light.

The Back Light: The back light is used to give the picture more depth, or to create a sharper separation between the subject or model and the background. It is also called separation light, because it separates the subject from the background, or hair light because it can be use to light up the model from the back lighting up their hair creating a halo effect.

2. Light modifiers: Modifiers are anything you use to hold in front of – or attach to- the light source. They modify the way the light hits the subject or model.

Two examples of modifiers

Softbox: A softbox is a box placed in front of the light. It softens and spreads the light.

Snoot: A snoot is conical shaped tool that narrow the distribution of light. It can be used to create a focused and harsh light, snoots are commonly used as back light or as a spot light.

 

3. The 3 point light setup:

The 3 points in the setup are the Key light, the fill light and the back light/separation light.

The key light in the scene I have drawn is a window, it is strongest and the closest to the model that you can see in the middle.

On the other side you can see the lap that operates as a fill light for the shot. It is placed furter away from the model and is placed so that it fills in and softens the sharp shadows created by the key light.

Behind the model there is a backdrop, this is the background of the shot. The background could also be a wall or something else. Between this backdrop and the model the back light/separation light is placed.

LA: Create a Wireframe (week 20)

This weeks LA is about creating a wireframe for a fictional website. There is the option between creating a high-tech wireframe, using a software program to create a wirefram digitally. Or the option of a low-tech wireframe useing pen and paper. I have answered last weeks “Ultimate questions for clients” and created a low-tech wireframe for their Coffee company, Woke Bean.

 

Answers form the Woke Bean coffee house’s representatives.

1.Describe your business in a few sentences.

Woke bean coffe house is a small and cozy coffee house that focuses on fair trade and ecological coffee. Quality and craft is at the heart of our business. We roast out coffee carefully to bring out, and not weigh down the flavours. We have several different roasts for sale at our cafe and shop.

2. What specific services does your company provide?

We sell roast coffee beans. We have a small outlet in central tønnsberg. We sell carefully picked coffee beans from around the world that we roast ourself.

3. What kind of visitors are you expecting on your website? (Consider their income, interests, gender and age.)

Coffee lovers from both sexes in the age fgroup 22 to 49. They are interested in coffee, fair trade organic foods and culture.

4. Who are your competitors and how do you differ from them?

Waynes Coffee in Farmanstredet, is our biggest competitors, they serve organic coffee. Our selection of coffee is bigger than theirs, we also roast our coffee. They don’t have fair trade.
All the other coffee bars and cafes in Tønnsberg are our competitors. We will be the only coffee roaster in Tønnsberg and the only one with a strong fair trade profile. Maybe in the future some of our competitors would like to buy coffee beans from us.

5. Do you currently have a website? If so, what is/isn’t working for you?

No, we only have a facebook page. This is working fine, but can not be reached by people who don’t have an account on facebook. The FB page is also limited to the Facebook layout.

6. Please list the names of three sites that you like and explain what you like about them.

caravanresturants.co.uk

We like that they have big pictures and lots of space. Yes we like that everything is black and white except form the pictures.
Pura Vida
Pura Vida coffee is a company that we are very inspired by, we also like their website. They have a lot of focus on the farmers behind the coffee, we would like to have a balanced focus between the outlet/cafe, the products and the beans origin/farmers.
Coffee and such

We love how it is so many pictures of their place to inspire customers to stop buy. Black and white and only colors in the pictures.

7. Do you have any color preferences? What should the look and feel for the website be?

We like the site to be in black and white. The pictures should be colorful.

8. What is your site’s goal?

The goal is to inform our customers about who we are, where we are our, company’s vision and give customers a possibility to buy products online.

9. Who will be the contact person for this project?
Marie is the contact person, she is our product expert and marketing strategist.

10. Who will be responsible for maintaining the website?

Will the person have the time and skills to do so?
Marie will maintain the website. She has limited skills in website management.

 

The wireframe:

I chose to create a low-tech version since it is my first time creating a wireframe for a website. I needed to do several changes during the sketching of the wireframe, and low-tech was easy to change and make over. Had I gone with a high-tech version it would have taken much more time to complete. The (made up) clients for this webdesign task does not have had a big budget for their website combined with that they are eager to participate with suggestions and changes to the layout.  So low-tech suits the project best.

Front page, header and footer is always present on all sites. Header menu gets a little shorter when scrolling up. Foter disappear  when scrolling up.

Text in top menu is not clickable. Drop down menus appears when the cursor moves over them.

Above: Product page one and two.

Below: Cart, payment site and recite site.

 

About us page 1 which lead to about page 2 (layout for all the three other sites)

 

Our cafe page

Connection page

Featured photo by Merlene Goulet from unsplash.com

LAs week 10-11

Symmetry/Asymmetry (week 10-11)

1. On five pages I have drawn four equal squares.

2.

I have drawn one or two squares or rectangles in each empty square to achieve the following visual effects

• Entering left
• Movement to the right
• Movement to the left
• Movement downwards
• Movement upwards
• Balance
• Tension
• Symmetry/asymmetry

According to the assignment text I have drawn one or two squares or rectangles in each empty square to achieve the wanted visual effects.

Entering left and movement to the right:

Entering left: The two squares on the top of the page show the effect ‘entering left’. By drawing the black at the edge of the square it seems they are entering or exiting from/to the left.

Movement to the right: The two bottom squares show black shapes at the right side of the axis of the square creates the impression of movement to the right. Two squares positioned asymmetrically and in different sizes created more tension and dynamic in the design than the square with a single black shape positioned to the right.

Movement to the left and movement downwards:

Movement to the left: See the two drawn squares on the top of the page. Black shapes placed to the left in the square creates the effect of movement to the left. Placing them in almost equal distance from the center of the square and the edge on the left side, makes the effect movement to the left and not entering from the left. Two rectangles of equal shape and size placed directly above each other (top right square) have more balance than the two rectangles placed in different distances to the edge of the square. I find that the rectangles have a different pace or speed than the rectangles.

Movement downwards: Placing the black shapes at the bottom of the squares created the effect movement downwards. Two equal shapes (bottom right) have more balance than two different squares (bottom left). However since they are placed on the center axis of the square there is more symmetry in the whole design, than in the bottom right square.

Movement upwards and balance:

Movement upwards: Placing shapes in the top of the square creates the effect of movement upwards.

Balance: A black square placed exactly in the middle and a white square placed in it center (bottom left) creates balance and symmetry and very little tension. Move the white square out of the center and asymmetry and more tension is created. See the picture below.

Tension and symmetry/asymmetry:

Tension: See the two squares on the top of the page that illustrates tension. Placing two rectangles in close proximity to each other (top left) creates more tension than placing two rectangles further away from each other (top right).

Symmetry/Asymmetry: A black square placed in the center of a square shows symmetry (bottom left). Adding another slightly bigger black square at the right creates asymmetry.

 

 

 

Basic Principals of Layout (week 10-11)

For this learning activity I chose to draw the grid for the Norwegian magazine STELLA. While using tracing paper to draw what I believe is the grid, in STELLA, I noticed that the magazine have 3 or 4 different layout grids. The only thing that is consistent on every other page of the magazine is the current page nr with STELLA written next to it.

I have drawn out the master grid for the two column pages:

 

The grid for the pages with other content than article. Here the layout changes from page to page.

 

Several pages have the same layout and grid, like the article pages all have the same grid. The sans aktuelt pages have the same grids. But the layout of the magazine changes throughout.

 

 

 

Sketching techniques (week 03)

Creating a habit of sketching down ideas have been an activity of mine the last week.

When becoming a Graphic Designer it is important to develop skill in sketching. Being aware of different sketching techniques is vital to the creative process. Being able to quickly draw down your ideas on a piece of paper is a skill that allows you to communicate your ideas to others, clients coworkers etc. It also allows you to save ideas that come to you for later. If you have a sketching book with you, you can easily dot down your the ideas that come to you when you are out and about and have a spare moment. Sketching as I mentioned is also putting your ideas out there. Actively seeking critique, and actually listen to it, is very valuable, it helps you create better designs, faster.

In this weeks learning activity I have crated 17 sketches for a packet of juice. The task was to sketch down ideas for a packaging for orange and banana juice. Trough the process of creating many sketches you can see how your ideas develop into the final product. It gives you the opportunity to explore several ideas and actually see an outline of how your final product would look like.

The final packaging was to be created in Adobe Illustrator. I watched the tutorial on Lynda.com and thought to myself that since the tutorial is pretty straight forward it would not be a problem to create something in illustrator once I got my sketch done.

Sketching was the fun part. Seeing how the ideas developed and new came as I sketched over a few days.

However,

When I uploaded my sketch to illustrator it all went downhill.
Not having any prior knowledge of illustrator, and a little different layout than the guy in the tutorial, I struggled beyond my previous imagination! After a while I realized that the deadline was only an hour away, and I was still trying to find out how to make the shapes copy when I rotated them.

It was like swimming in software concrete. Which don’t make any sense, and neither do my illustrator  drawing.

I did not reach the deadline with a final product. I learned from this failure that I have to spend A LOT of time on the programs that are necessary to complete this course. To not wait to close to the weekend to start the learning activity is also not such a bad idea. No tutors is on the forum in the weekend.

In this slideshow you find my sketches:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Idea development (week 02)

We were given a practical assignment in Idea development. Using the SCAMPER method to create a new product out of a spoon. And designing new packaging for rice.

Read more about the SCAMPER method and what it is in this blog post:

McDonald´s and the Scamper method

The Spoon

You are given a teaspoon as an object. Now apply each one of the SCAMPER techniques to it and give a brief explanation of what new product comes of this and how it can be marketed.

First I substituted the metal in the spoon with food grade hard plastic.
Then breaking up the spoons handle to insert small joints all along the handle. Making the spoon handle bits angled, and inserting joints make the handle flexible when pulled apart (Adapt). When you push the handle together it becomes stiff. Modifying the spoon head into a fork with two tines. Creating a spoon bowl that can open into two, and function as a spoon cap. So the spoon is now a fork without the cap, and a spoon with the cap. The spoon bowl cap goes nicely over the fork and is sealed over the neck of the handle (combine)

I prolonged the handle of the spoon adding a knife blade at the end (modify and combine). Also creating a knife blade cap to protect the knifes sharp part. The knife blade has a little metal inside so that the knife cap can be hold in place with a magnet.

The flexible handle gives the opportunity to wrap the knife/spoon/fork around your wrist. Becomes a bracelet (put to other use). When wrapped around the wrist the spoon bowl bends over the knife end and is held in place by a magnet. The user decides if the spoon part is on the inside or the outside of the wrist.

Now you have a wearable cutlery (put to other use).That you can bring with you anywhere and still look stylish. Its light weight bc of the plastic material. If the material is recycled plastic then great for marketing! The colour of the jewellery cutlery can change with the fashion.
The spoons can be engraved with slogans and the colors can vary from light pastels to darker shades. Preferably with a metallic look, like rose gold, silver and gold.

Marketing:

I would market this under the slogan reduce, reuse, recycle. This is a cutlery you can bring with you anywhere. Traveling, hiking, to festivals or just going to your local cafe. You no longer have to use stirring sticks for your coffee, plastic cutlery on festivals or fast food joints. You always have your cutlery with you. Its the same like wearing a watch. After use you simply rinse them in water and wrap them around your wrist. Jewellery and also a tool for eating your food. A fashion item. A statement.

Even though I think my new product is GREAT there is a question that keep popping up in my mind; is it hygienic to wear your cutlery around your wrist for hours before you use them? Although you could wash them before and after use, the joints might be storing up bacteria that you won’t get out simply by rinsing in water.
So you might have to put it in your dishwasher from time to time.

Sketches

Sketch of the cutlery braclet

 

My collection of separate spoon, knife and fork, alongside with a square shaped straw….

The Rice

You have to design packaging for rice. The packaging has to be different from what is out there in the market. Apply each one of the SCAMPER techniques and do a write-up on your findings. Then choose the option that you think would work best and do a sketch of what the packaging would look like.

Brainstorm ideas that where thrown away

Substitute the rice packaging for a pillow case, making different pillows, like a collection.
Combine rice packaging with interior design. There could be a own collection for Christmas…
Put it to some other use after its life as rice packaging it could be a beautiful pillow.

Eliminate the packaging completely. Let the customers bring their own packaging. Magnify the packages of rice going out to the consumers. Roll in some big barrels of rice, or braided straw baskets with the rice company logo. Set up a scale and ticket system next to it. Its just too much trash in the world..

Adapt the rice package into a black box containing rice and laced with silica gel padding. Market as a lifeguard for drowned phones/watches/electronics. As dry rice soak up water.

The idea I went with

Combine a normal rice packaging with a heat resistant plastic net cover (recycled plastic?). The customer will get his rice, but also a tool to use in the cooking of the rice. Inside it is a plastic bag containing the rice and outside its a plastic net, thick with very small net mask. The net is flexible and have a closing and opening mechanism that open and close depending on if you twist one way or another.

Removing the inner plastic bag containing rice you are left with only the net which you can use to rinse the rise in water and then close the net slightly. Now you can put the net with the rice into the pot and cook the rice inside the net.(Put to another use). Then when the rice is cooked you simply lift the net containing the rice out of the pot. No more rice sticking to the pot! If there is excess water left you twist the net to press out the water.

If you use a rice cooker? You can still use the rice net depending on the size of your rice cooker, and off course, rinsing the rice using the net. However, you don’t really need many nets, since they can bee used over and over. So it could be a limited edition offer.

Rice cooking bag (reusable;)

Open bag, from above.