For this unit, I learned some of the basic terms of a newspaper layout and then learned how to make one myself in InDesign. This week was a lot of new information and exercises in a short amount of time. I really enjoyed the typography games and probably spent too much time on them! InDesign was difficult. I knew it was going to be difficult. I tried to learn it last semester for button designs, but I eventually gave up and just started to use Canva. (By the way, Canva is great for the design novice.) My InDesign came out how I expected it would, a little rough, but otherwise functional.
Posts Categorized: JMC 3343-995
I Shot The Sans Serif. Oops!
Going into playing ‘shoot the serif,’ I really didn’t know a lot about typography. I quickly figured out sans is basically anything that has, what I call, ‘tails’ or anything that’s not obviously black letters. I struggled the most with Q’s. I ended up getting pretty far in the game, but I lost on the 2nd level of Senior.
Watch the video below of my efforts and check out the game for yourself! Can you beat my score?
Watch the video below of my efforts and check out the game for yourself! Can you beat my score?
Don’t be a fool! Go to JMC School!
Writing effectively is a skill that everyone could easily improve on. Practice makes perfect, so I will continue to practice my below average writing skills. Here are some quick ways to kick your writing up a notch.
Writing with clarity
Poor: She was in bed watching her puppy with a bag of chips.
Wait. Who has the bag of chips? ‘She’ or the puppy?
Better: She was in bed with a bag of chips watching her puppy.
Reducing Clutter
Poor: I dropped out of school on account of the fact that I joined the circus.
This has too many words.
Better: I dropped out of school to join the circus.
Sentence Variety
Poor: My roommate is Casey. She went to buy toilet paper.
This can easily be one sentence.
Better: Casey, my roommate, went to buy toilet paper.
Sentence Emphasis
Poor: My mom called me today to tell me that my sister received her college acceptance letter today!
What is more important? That my mom called me? Or that my sister was accepted to college?
Better: My sister was accepted into college today, my mom confirmed.
Writing with clarity
Poor: She was in bed watching her puppy with a bag of chips.
Wait. Who has the bag of chips? ‘She’ or the puppy?
Better: She was in bed with a bag of chips watching her puppy.
Reducing Clutter
Poor: I dropped out of school on account of the fact that I joined the circus.
This has too many words.
Better: I dropped out of school to join the circus.
Sentence Variety
Poor: My roommate is Casey. She went to buy toilet paper.
This can easily be one sentence.
Better: Casey, my roommate, went to buy toilet paper.
Sentence Emphasis
Poor: My mom called me today to tell me that my sister received her college acceptance letter today!
What is more important? That my mom called me? Or that my sister was accepted to college?
Better: My sister was accepted into college today, my mom confirmed.
Bootcamp Reflection
At bootcamp this week we were tasked with learning the basics of indesign and photoshop. After struggling to make it through 3 hours of Lynda instructional videos, I found myself tasked with recreating a newsletter in indesign. Fortunately, with my one semester of high school yearbook under my belt, I flew through the assignment – hopefully with moderate accuracy.
The toughest part of this unit was working through the multiple Lynda videos. A few times I realized I had stopped paying attention and had to rewind the video a few times.
All in all, I managed to keep my cool throughout this unit’s assignments, I even managed to help a fellow classmate out in the process. I’ll enjoy the calm because I know there’s a storm coming. I’m sure I’ll be feeling in over my head in a few short weeks (days). Let’s do it!
Design Blitz
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Color
Color is one of my favorite parts of design. I moonlight as a painter (it’s one of my favorite hobbies), and I love experimenting with color. Color also alway drawn me to art, graphics, and publications. The book I’m currently reading is a great example of color. It boasts an electric read which draws the readers eye and the splash of yellow carries the eye to focus on Mario Goetze. With the black typeface, the colors play on the colors of Germany’s flag. Typography Minimalism & Use of Space Proportion Unity All in all, I have realized I enjoy colorful, clean designs. Not sure if I’ll ever again be able to look at the cover of a book without thinking about these different aspects of design . |
Who? Me?
Correction:
Every new semester, I have the pleasure of correcting my teachers. When taking roll, they call out ‘Margaret.’ While my birth certificate reads ‘Margaret Kendall Bleakley,’ I have only ever gone by Kendall, my middle name. Margaret is a family name. My mother is Margaret Amanda and my grandmother is Mary Margaret, neither went by Margaret.
Home:
I was born and raised in Oklahoma City. I attended Casady high school before attending the University of Oklahoma. I’m currently a junior public relations major.
Jazzed and Motivated:
I love creating new things and making people happy. As an intern at VisitNorman, I like helping local businesses through social media.
Writing:
I’ve never done a lot of writing outside of school. Though I’m about to be posting blogs for two separate classes and a blog for VisitNorman. I suspect I will soon have a forced love of writing by the end of the semester.
A Professional Portrait:
Who am I:
I am a creative and organized junior at the University of Oklahoma pursuing a degree in Public Relations. I was born and raised in Oklahoma City. I attended Casady High School.
What I believe:
I believe in being true to one’s self and putting your all into a project, whether that project is for work, school, or personal.
What I do:
I currently work as an Intern at VisitNorman. I’m responsible for updating the website and app with restaurants, shops, things to do and events. I also post to the VisitNorman social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
What guides and motivates me:
I like being creative. I like making people happy. Combining these two makes me happy. Weather that’s using my skills to throw my friend a birthday party, or promoting a business through VisitNorman.
Where design fits in my life:
I love pin-back buttons and have recently started designing and selling them to friends and sorority sisters. Many of my sorority sisters were interested in game day buttons. I decided to go out on a limb and purchase a button maker. I’ve really enjoyed designing buttons for all occasions. I’ve also designed senior salutes for high school yearbooks, snapchat filters, and more. Design is also important in my work life, whether that’s creating Instagram posts or updating the VisitNorman app.
Typography Games
I began playing Shoot the Serif which I was pretty good at, if i do say so myself. Luckily my grandpa – a professor at the University of Tulsa – explained to me a few years ago what a serif font was. I asked him to look over a presentation I made for a high school class, and he explained to me he didn’t like my powerpoint because i used a serif font. He went on to explain the difference between a serif font and a non-serif font to me. Armed with that knowledge, I was able to accurately eliminate all the serif fonts in this game.
Next I tried Type Connection and I’ll be honest, I think I really missed the purpose of this particular game. I was playing matchmaker and paired up Univers with Maple – a perfect match in my humble opinion – but the game eagerly told me how wrong I was. I decided that I didn’t agree with their logic so I moved on to the next game.
I moved on to Type War (because I couldn’t get Poster Letters to launch). I was really struggling at the beginning. I don’t think I got one answer correct, so I went back and read the explanation of the game on canvas and saw the hint to pull up Word. With Word by my side I fared much better.
As much as I enjoy playing around with fonts, I think I’ll stick to non-typography based games when I’m looking for entertainment. I will say, however, that it was great practice in seeing the subtleties between various fonts.
Reflection
Unit 2.2 served as a great refresher of Writing for Mass Media – which was much needed considering I took that class more than a year ago. Reviewing concepts like news elements, the inverted pyramid and ledes & bridges was helpful because I has forgotten some of the details surrounding these concepts.
I remember the Inverted Pyramid being at the heart of news writing, but upon reviewing it a second time around in this course I realized how important it is to all professional writing.
I’m looking forward to using this concept in our first written assignment next week. Practice is the best way I learn, so I can’t wait to use these concepts to craft news releases in the next unit.
I remember the Inverted Pyramid being at the heart of news writing, but upon reviewing it a second time around in this course I realized how important it is to all professional writing.
I’m looking forward to using this concept in our first written assignment next week. Practice is the best way I learn, so I can’t wait to use these concepts to craft news releases in the next unit.
Writing Effectively
Writing with Clarity
Poor:The dog was walked by a man who was tall.
Better: The tall man walked the dog.
Poor:The dog was walked by a man who was tall.
Better: The tall man walked the dog.
Reducing Clutter
Poor: Because of the late hour of the day, everyone was asleep.
Better: It was late so everyone was asleep.
Sentence Variety
Poor: I walked to the store. I bought milk. I drank the milk.
Better: I went to the store to buy milk and drank it when I got home.
Sentence Emphasis
Poor: Jordan the Soonerthon chair said that Soonerthon would try and fundraise 100 thousand dollars on Jan. 25.
Better: Soonerthon will try and fundraise 100 thousand dollars on Jan. 25 said the Soonerthon chair.
