Reflection On Illustrator Tutorial Videos

The first video that I saw was called "What Is Illustrator CS5?" In this video I learned a couple things that helped me get a feel for Illustrator. One thing I learned is that with Illustrator, you can repurpose any type of graphics for any need. Also, you can create cross media design. Cross media design is how you deliver your work, such as a print or digital format. Also, it gave an introduction to vector images. With vector images, they can always be edited and they are always scalable.

The other that I watched is called "Creating Files For Print." This video basically gives you an introduction on how to get your documents setting correct for the "Print" format before you actually work on the document. Some examples of files that are made for print are menus, movie posters, newspapers, advertisements, etc. When you go to create your new document, there are already some preset document formats that you can choose from like Web Document, Print Document, Mobile and Devices Document, etc. But let's focus more on the Print d]Document since that was what the video was mainly focused on. One feature is called artboards. They did not give a thorough explanation of what artboards are, but you can have up to 99 artboards in a single document. You are able to specify the direction of the artboard, how many columns, and the spacing between each artboard. Another thing you can do is change swap the width and height values in the orientation section. This changes the documents from portrait which is tall and landscape which is wide. Also, if you have a design where it goes to the end of the page, you can change the bleed options. Bleed is basically artwork that goes beyond the trim size of the page. Another thing is that you want to keep the color mode at "CMYK" for print documents. These are several things that I learned from the tutorial videos.

Lab P7_1 Christian Kinch P8

·      Nameplate –  The banner that is on the front of a newsletter which indicates who made the newsletter.

·      Content (and number of articles and entries) – The information in the newsletter that is being read by the audience.

·      Table of contents – A section on the newsletter which lists parts of the newsletter on the particular page where they begin.

·      Masthead – A section of the newsletter that is usually on the second page which names the publisher and other important things. It also may include the address, logo, etc.

·      Titles and headers – The name of the article being read

·      Page numbers – The numbers used to indicate which page the reader is on. (Can be on the top, bottom, or sides).

·      Bylines – A sentence or two that states the name, probably the position of the writer of the article.

·      Continuation lines – A phrase that lets readers know that the article  will continue on another page.

·      Pull quotes – A small section of the newsletter that is quite large and in quotes to capture the attention of the reader.

·      End signs – A sign used to show the end of the article.

·      Photos/illustrations –

·      Mailing labels –

Peer Review Brochure

I chose to do my peer reviews on Jasmine and Jennifer. First off lets talk about Jasmine's brochure which she did on Shawn's company "Brly Legal". I think Jasmine's brochure was very well. The contrast between the two colors made the text easier to read. Another thing that was good, was the pictures that she had because as she said pictures on the front of brochures attract people more than they do without pictures. One thing I feel that she could have done better was the text. Most of it was sort of slang which some not MOST but some people don't really like to read which made parts of the brochure unprofessional. Other than that, for the most part the whole brochure was pretty good.

Now on to Jennifer's brochure. I think that Jennifer had a great brochure on Sophie's Restaurant. She had a lot of info such as prices, menus, etc. This is good because when people see brochures about food chains, they want to see what they are getting and how much it will be before they actually go and get what they want. Also she had pictures of the meals which is also good because it shows you how you can expect the meal once you order it. To be completely honest, I do not really recall anything that was really bad that she could have improved on.

Photoshop-InDesign Lab Reflection

In labs 6, 7, 10, 13, and 14 I have learned several new skills in Photoshop and InDesign. In lab 6, I retouched on previous skills which I learned last semester such as color adjustments. Here are some examples of my work for lab 6.

Peer Review

 The portfolio I chose to look at was the portfolio made by Steven Gallego. Although he does not have most of the work, his portfolio is still good. It is organized, and the colors fit well. I like the welcome page because it already shows that his portfolio is about business. Also, he has the contact information just in case the person that is viewing his portfolio wants to get in contact with him. I think this was a smart idea.
 Now in overall appearance, I don't think that the portfolio was boring, but it could have been a little more appealing to the eye. But I think that due to the fact that he came later into the semester really took away from what he could have done.

Content Aware Scaling - Christian Kinch

I had just watched a video on a tool called "Content Aware Scaling." In this video it showed me how to stretch out photos in Adobe Photoshop CS5 without making them seem so bunched up. With the Content Aware Scaling tool, I can stretch out photos without making the picture seem bunched up together and/or seem as if the image is being stretched too much. This helps me a lot considering the fact that I'm going to be working on a project that has to deal with the creation of a brochure. With the use of this tool, I will be able to reduce the size of large pictures without losing the quality in which I took them. So that when I place the images onto my brochure, they look as if they were not stretched and/or reduced at all.

Christian Kinch Reflection Blog Period 8

1. The purpose of my portfolio is to show colleges and/or jobs the progression and abilities of my work in Abode Photoshop and InDesgin. It is mainly targeted for colleges who have web design programs or computer which can help me increase my abilities in Photoshop and/or other Adobe programs. But at the same time, I can also use this portfolio to get a job in Web Designing.

2. I created my portfolio using a program called Adobe Reader Pro 9. In the toolbar, you click "File" and then click an option that says "Create portfolio" or a similar option to that. From there you have various ways to create your own portfolio. You can add headers, a welcome page, change the color scheme and things of that nature.

3. There are some portfolios that can be too large in file size, so it's takes a long time to look at them. But there is a way to lower the file size of the portfolio. The way you do this is by changing all of your files such as .psd, .jpg, etc. to . PDFs Then you have to change the quality of the PDFs to get the best quality but at the lowest file size.

4. In my opinion, I do not think that my portfolio is an accurate example of my work so far. The reason i say that is, some of the files like my labs, I was unable to find. So my portfolio is not completed thus far. It does have some of my completed projects, but not any of the labs that went along with them.