Monthly Archives: February 2017
A Week in Review
Shopping For Photos
On Tuesday, we began with watching Lynda videos to learn the in’s and out’s of Photoshop. Starting back at the beginning to learn the program was interesting because I knew how most of it worked but there were a couple things that I had forgotten. The videos were very informational and help remind me about things I had forgotten before.
On Thursday, Tiffany, from the admissions and recruitment office, came to talk to the class. She talked about the planning that goes into designing a piece for such large audiences. She explained how expensive it is to print pieces but also that when the number of pieces you print goes up, the price to print goes down as well as the price to mail. She said that different students receive different mailers, not everyone gets the same one.
She began to explain that students with different levels of interest receive different mailers. There is also a program called slate that is used to identify different audiences. The program can identify people by race, age, location and several other factors.
I’m excited to begin working on the direct mailers for the new residential colleges. I don’t know a lot about them but I’m excited to learn.
Photoshop Tutorials and Internship Inspiration
She discussed the basic principles of graphic design as they pertain to her work in university marketing. She also gave us a peek at how the office’s communications work, explaining that potential students on OU’s mailing list can receive emails, snail mail, and texts, if they sign up for the service. Slate, the program she used to achieve this form of hands-on marketing, is something I’d heard about but hadn’t yet seen for myself.
She also passed around two examples of design work she’d done during her time here at OU, the first of which was harder to read despite its larger font size. Tiffany explained that higher leading improves readability even if the font size is smaller. She then proved her point with a second piece, which was meant to serve the same purpose as the former, that had those better traits.
Thursday’s excitement didn’t invalidate Tuesday’s work, though. We watched videos on lynda.com to learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop. More of it was familiar to me than I thought it might be – GIMP is a similar program, albeit much less sophisticated – though I was amazed at the lesson on making selections.
My other favorite lesson was the one about changing the color of an object within an image.
Overall, this was a good week for PR Pubs, and I’m excited to see what we do next.
Putting the Photo in Shop
Hi guys, Stella Mae here, designer extraordinaire alter ego of Kate Stanke, back with another blog post about the wonders of creative PR Publications. This week in my PR Pubs course, we started a new track course: working with Photoshop. The last time I had worked with Photoshop was in my Yearbook class at McKamy […]
Photoshopping vs Googling vs Hula Hooping
As we progress further along with PR Publications, we continue to add new skills to see what else I am bad at. We started using Photoshop, and I think this is the most difficult one yet.I feel like Photoshop has integrated itself as the go to picture editing software. It’s one of those products that’s so good at its job that it can be used as its own verb (like Google and Hula Hoop). I have been eager to get my hands on it, but when you first open the program up, it’s very intimidating. Just
Top 5 Things Tiffany Taught Me About OU
Week 6 This week in PR pubs we had a guest speaker, Tiffany Lea. Tiffany is a designer for OU Continue Reading
Week 6 Reflection
This week in class we were assigned to write 2 media advisories and 2 media pitches. I read the online lectures and formatting about media advisories and media pitches and was ready to jump in. Writing the media advisories wasn’t too bad I just struggl…
Widening my Adobe Application Horizons
Image of OU acceptance box Tiffany (guest speaker) worked on. Image from: http://okcaddyawards.com/wp-content/themes/addys-theme/dist/images/peoples-choice-awards/xou-admissions-and-recruitment.jpg.pagespeed.ic.fJ4imtEs8F.jpg
Photoshop Time
- Tiffany prefers her interns to have very minimal design experience so she can truly train and influence them. This was interesting to me because as I have been applying for internships, I have been rejected because I do not have 3-4 years of experience. Well what is the point of an internship?? If I am applying of course I don’t have experience. It’s a tough world out there guys!!
- Tiffany gets bored always creating a red postcard or using the same colors over and over again. She does this because this is the OU brand and changing it would mean the audience would not connect their advertising with OU. Would Apple change their logo just because they got bored always slapping an apple on their products? Nope!
- Tiffany starting out was not perfect at designing. She passed around a pamphlet that she created when first starting out that she said was awful and then showed us one she made three years later. Her design skills advanced through working at her job. This displays how you are constantly growing and learning in a design job. The game is always updating and changing.
- Tiffany has created many protocols for her staff and herself when designing for OU. I noticed in a lot of her slides there were always three points or strategies her office uses for everything. Everything goes through a process and a heavy editing cycle.
- Lastly, Tiffany’s presentation overall was not the most exciting, but you could tell she was passionate about OU, her job and trying to reach our class positively about the admissions and recruitment office. She really knew her stuff.
Overall, Tiffany enlightened our class more about what goes on being closed doors at OU and about the design background OU has. I am looking forward to working with Photoshop next week in class and listening to our next guest speaker. Stay tuned to preview my Photoshop work!
P:S: Tiffany described the new admissions box when you get accepted to OU. Apparently it’s a cute box not a folder like I got four years ago. How do I get my hands on one of those?
Always with Love,
Heather Gilbert