Project 1 - Van Gogh Banner - Thumbnails

travel in London

This is me, driving down the street where I lived!  The Brits call our vehicles 'left hookers', so I suppose that makes this a 'right hooker' :-)  This is a somewhat rare AUTOMATIC transmission 2litre honda.  There is no way I could learn to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the ocean AND shifting with the wrong hand, so my boyfriend at the time leased this car.

A double decker bus and... look closely at the car in front of me...

One of the Queen's Bentleys which we saw on the street in London

(Notice the HRH reg, or license tag. HRH = Her Royal Highness)

Ok so this isn't my photo. But someone emailed it to me after the London Underground Bombing and I think it's super funny so I had to share, especially since I have the Bentley photos. (There are so many things wrong with this. Firstly, as if the Queen would be driving herself. Haha! Oh right, and then there's the heat she's packing.) So credit to Unknown Photographer/Comedian for a great Photoshop job and a Royal Laugh!

Eton, Westminster Abbey & festive hats!!!

Eton, where Princes William & Harry both attended school

Westminster Abbey - where Di & Charles were married, where Di's funeral was held and where

William and Kate wed this morning. So exciting!!! 

You may also recognize the Abbey as the bank in the movie Mary Poppins.

When someone is getting married in England, people buy hats to wear to the party.  So when one asks "Shall I buy a hat?" it's like saying "Have you gotten engaged?"  These are NOT they type of hats one would wear for a wedding, much less THIS wedding ;-)

Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds - Typography Choices

Effigy Mounds - Berylium

Effigy Mounds – Poor Richard

Effigy Mounds - Pericles

Effigy Mounds - Candara

Effigy Mounds – Viner Hand ITC

Effigy Mounds – Sybil Green

Effigy Mounds – Amienne

Effigy Mounds – Baskerville Old Face

Effigy Mounds – Bradley Hand

Effigy Mounds – informal roman

Effigy Mounds – Maiandra GD

Effigy Mounds - lindsey

Effigy Mounds – Minya Nouvelle

Effigy Mounds – Minya pro

Effigy Mounds - Papyrus

Effigy mounds - mufferaw

Effigy Mounds - SuperFrench

Effigy Mounds – tekton pro
Effigy Mounds – eccentric std

Project 2 - Layouts - Effigy Mounds National Park Thumbnails

Project 1 - Banner - Vincent Van Gogh - Project Proposal

1.        Name of artist:                     Vincent Van Gogh

2.     Simple profile outlining:

a.             Paragraph describing artist’s: one of history’s most famous painters, of modern art, impressionist

                        * style - modern

                        * period – 1880’s

                        * subject matter – people, flowers, landscapes

b.             List example or 2 of work artist is known for: 

Starry Night & Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night

c.             Brief statement describing how I will design banner:

                        * what font & colors – still choosing font / colors will compliment the paintings I choose for banner

                        * size of header 400 x 980

                        * how I plan to present the images – I would like them all to be framed with gallery frames

3.     Create 30 thumbnails trying different arrangements – not finished pieces, just broad brushstrokes of an idea

MENU ITEMS: Home / Biography / Gallery / Credits / Contact / Tag Line (Optional)

Monitor Resolution 1024 x 768

Max width 980 pixels (max) to 700 (min)

Max height 400 pixels (max) to 150 (min)

PDF

Typography Choice Work:

Vincent Van Gogh – Amienne

Vincent Van Gogh – Baskerville Old Face

Vincent Van Gogh – Bradley Hand

Vincent Van Gogh - Charlemagne

Vincent Van Gogh – black adder

Vincent Van Gogh - Brush script

Vincent Van Gogh – Commercial Script

Vincent Van Gogh - eccentric Std

Vincent Van Gogh – giddy up

Vincent Van Gogh - gigi

Vincent Van Gogh – informal roman

Vincent Van Gogh – Maiandra GD

Vincent Van Gogh – Kristen itc

Vincent Van Gogh - lindsey

Vincent Van Gogh – Minya Nouvelle

Vincent Van Gogh – Minya pro

Vincent Van Gogh - Papyrus

Vincent Van Gogh - mufferaw

Vincent Van Gogh - SuperFrench

Vincent Van Gogh – tekton pro

Vincent Van Gogh – eccentric std

the "less proper" side of London

A small portion of the beer selection at Sainsbury's

Police officers with automatic weapons. 

There was a demonstration near #10 Downing Street,

the Prime Minister's house.  At this time it was Tony Blair.

Not everyone in England is thrilled with their government either,

as evidenced by protesters with some excellent signs near Parliament

Gentlemen's Club named with a clever play on words, and ever so patriotic

The Arab Boy, the Oldest Pub in Putney



London Landmarks

The London Eye

Crossing Tower Bridge

MI5 Building from across the River Thames

(England's CIA)

The London Skyline



Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds National Monument - Content Document

Elementary Aged Students

Navigation Bar Contents
HOME / HISTORY / ACTIVITIES / PHOTO GALLERY
possibly use primary colors
considering MINYA NOUVELLE typeface


Foreign Tourists

Navigation Bar Contents: HOME / HISTORY / ACTIVITIES / WILDLIFE INFO / PARK INFO (fees, park hours & dates of operation) / MAPS & DIRECTIONS / CONTACT INFO / PHOTO GALLERY
dark greens & earth tones / CANDARA typeface


American Tourists

Navigation Bar Contents:  HOME / HISTORY / ACTIVITIES / PARK INFO / WILDLIFE INFO / MAPS & DIRECTIONS / CONTACT INFO / PHOTO GALLERY

rusts/dark greens, earth tones

BERYLIUM or CANDARA typeface

The information for Foreign Tourists and American Tourists will be much the same, although the Foreign Tourists page should be translated into several languages. 

PDF

London

Buckingham Palace & the Union Jack

Trafalgar Square and double-decker bus (or "coach", if you are English)

Big Ben!  Parliament!

The Tower of London

in honor of the Royal Wedding, London...

Alright so as EVERYONE on God's green Earth knows, the long awaited Royal Wedding is in less than TWO DAYS!  I'm extremely excited.  I lived in England for a year (2005) and even then the tabloids were announcing on a monthly basis that Wills had proposed to Kate.  I guess they knew at some point it would happen and if they just persisted in reporting it, one of those days they might be correct - and hence, first with the story!  I love England, I love the English people and their sense of humour.  And I love how they add extra "u's" to words and their proper way of speaking, and how everything they say sounds better than anything we say.  Although the English men I met have the same adoration for American girls' accents :-)

Anyway, because I'm gearing up for the big wedding, my next several posts are going to be

London- and England-based.

Using my T-Mobile "mobile phone" whilst standing next to one of London's famous phone boxes

My first visit to Buckingham Palace, Thanksgiving 2004

In front of the store "Stranded in London"

Buckingham Palace

The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds National Monument - more interesting information...

In my earlier blog post about the Effigy Mounds, I neglected to give more interesting information about the site.  The park boasts hundreds of preserved Native American Indian burial mounds.  While there are other mounds from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast, the unique thing is that these are the ONLY ONES that are in the form of animals, or effigies.  They are shaped as birds, bears and sometimes even reptiles.  The more than 200 mounds here represent 2000 years of mound building along the upper Mississippi River.  The mounds date back to 500BC and there are 12 different Indian tribes represented.  The park also contains the largest effigy still remaining, the Great Bear Mound, photo from the National Park Services website.

The map below I thought I found earlier on the National Parks website but I had to google it to find it again on a tourist's blog... I've rotated the photo to match the map.

Brainstorming Bubbles :-)

Two weeks ago in class we did this brainstorming exercise and I forgot to post it on my blog...

Project 1 - Banner - Theodor Geisel - typography choices

So after completing this work on Dr. Seuss, I learned that we were only able to use images from gettyimages.com and artchive.com.  As it turns out, none of his work is on either of the school-approved websites.  I went to the official website for his work and read that it was possible to request permission to use his artwork, it was only available via request by mail, which would take several weeks.  Therefore I knew I needed to choose a different artist.  I apologize for not reading the syllabus and realizing I should have posted this work to my blog...

At the class last Tuesday, April 19, I chose to use the artist Al Hirschfeld.  You & I discussed this and then I emailed thru his official website to request permission to use his artwork.  Unfortunately as of classtime today, Tuesday, April 26 I still had not heard back from the Hirschfeld site.  Now that I'm completely late with this entire project, I am choosing an artist tonight and I will post the work prior to class Thursday evening.  Thank you for your patience.  In the future I will refer to the syllabus more often :-)

Project 1 - Banner - Theodor Geisel - some of my many banner thumbnails

Project 1: Banner for an artist

My artist of choice was Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was a prolific children's author as well as an illustrator and artist. Among critics there is no real consensus to his style.  Some see his work as Maximalism & Pre-Emptive Cute Formalism.  He created his artwork in the mid-1900's.  While he was most well known for his books, he was an incredibly talented artist who created many eccentric characters.  He did this by melding two animals together or sometimes adding non-animal characteristics to his creations.  In addition to these ilustrations, he also spent many years working in advertising and during WWII he created United States Army posters.  He also went thru a psychedelic art phase which many of his admirers are not familiar with.  He was awarded 2 Academy Awards, 2 Emmys, 1 Peabody and 1 Pulitzer Prize over the course of his career.

Works the artist is known for would be the characters in dozens of his books.  Sam-I-Am from "Green Eggs and Ham", The Grinch and The Whos from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and the Cat in the Hat, to name a few.

I'm envisioning the banner to be shaped either like a big green sunny-side-up egg or the edge of the pages of a book.  I'm considering the tag line "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!" - Dr. Seuss

The images I plan to use will be the characters from some of his most popular books, listed above.  I plan to use the typeface "FOOTLIGHT MT LIGHT" because it is fun and captures his lightheartedness while it is easy to read and will not take away from the artwork in the banner.  The colors will be red, green, black & white.  The size of the header will be 980 x 400.  I plan to present some of the characters in the banner amongst the menu items.

Project 2 - Layout - Effigy Mounds National Park - Creative Brief

I have chosen Effigy Mounds National Monument as my park.  It was established in 1949 and is in my  home state of Iowa, which is my reason for choosing it.  There are thousands of Native American burial mounds from the midwest to the East coast.  The ones in this area of the country are unique in that they are the only ones that are effigies, or formed in the shape of animals.  There are not activities or tours offered, this is a sacred burial ground and therefore there are no automobiles allowed.  There are however 14 miles of scenic hiking trails, an extensive museum and a gift shop.  For this reason, I'm not exactly certain how the sites will vary for my target audiences other than the typography I may choose and possibly the colors, as each site will contain several of the same photographs.

My first target audience will be Elementary-aged students who may be studying our nation's history in schools.  For them I would like to create a site that has lots of photos of the mound formations to catch their interest and make them eager to learn about Native Americans.  I will use these photos:

My second audience will be foreign tourists who are interested in learning about Native American culture. Again I will be relying heavily on photographs so that the user can understand what the park offers even if they cannot read English.

My last target group will be American tourists who aren't familiar with our nation's rich diversity.  I will gear the site towards discovering our own country's history, learning about Native Americans and interesting educational outings to go on that are less expensive than many of today's family vacations.

The photos I have included here are ideas of what pictures I might focus on for each of the 3 audiences.
All these photos are from the National Parks website.

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