WEB/GRAPHIC DESIGNER?

I have always wondered if it were possible to be a good graphic designer as well as good web designer. Could the two creative art mediums coexist in the same mind equally?

In the graphic designer world, fonts and paper sizes play a important role in trying to get your audience to stay on a page long enough to get a marketing message across. You are often faced with a limited area in which to achieve this. In web design you are generally trying to keep your audience on a specific website for as long as possible. The amount of pages to work with can be unlimited. I have heard a few people say that web and graphic designers think with different parts of the brain. From my experience with both mediums I can certainly a test to that. Web design is a totally different medium where the "paper size" (the screen resolution) changes for every viewer, colors don't cost extra, fonts are limited to a select few, and extra images might mean losing customers. Website design walks a fine line between having a great design and having a great design that no one will see because it loads too slowly or cannot be found by search engines.

In my opinion the days of web-designers and graphic-designers being two separate things is numbered. I think eventually they will need to be one in the same because of companies trying to cut cost and not wanting to pay two people when they could just hire one person to handle graphic & web-design. I have also noticed more and more web based design in graphic-design classes in college, leading me to believe the day is coming. So... like asked in the beginning of this blog, I have always wondered if it were possible to be a good graphic designer as well as good web designer? I think will find out sooner than many people think.

HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

The animated/ flash documentary on the History of The Internet was very cool, interesting and informative. I think it would have been even more compelling if had some sound. But overall, I liked its depiction of how the internet came to be, its evolution and what it is today. It's also pretty impressive that a black & white animated video with no sound got 2,235,403 hits on the internet.

Website Critique

The website I have chosen to critique is Phonescoop. Phonescoop is a website totally devoted to news regarding cell phones and other mobile devices. The site isn't terrible, but it has looked the same for as long as i can remember, while other phone sites have gone on to update their look and functionality. It's hard to believe that at one time this was my favorite source for new information regarding new cell phones. I have since then ventured off to other similiar sites that have made changes to remain current by adopting a more modern look. At this point I just visit phonescoop to see if they've made any much needed changes, but unfortunately over the past 2 to 3 years it hasnt changed at all. I've even noticed it is somewhat behind on information compared to other sites like Phonearena, Intomobile and GSM arena to name a few. Granted the delay in information isnt quite as bad as the same old uninteresting look the site has had for far too long. I think its just a little to basic and not visually appealing enough to compete with the other cell phone sites that offer the same or similiar content. I would like to just modernize the look of the site by giving it some of the same options as its competitors, as well as giving it more of a cleaner new age look that is not only visually stimulating but also extremely user friendly. I have also noticed that most websites are using blue in there color schemes and in an effort to make phonescoop standout, I would like to implement a different color scheme to break up the monotony.

2000's

Beverage world is a monthly magazine that deals with all things having to do with beverage drinks. From companies marketing strategies to the
politics surrounding the business. It also advertisies products relating to the beverage industry.
I think the colors used as well as the layout look timeless and would relate to any age group. I can see a difference in visual depth print quality compared to ads from the earlier years.

90's Ad

Wards AutoWorld is a monthly publication out of Overland park, Kansas. It focuses on everything relating to the automotive and engineering industry and the politics surrounding them.

The look of this publication looks very familiar. I think I may have seen it on the table at a local auto body shop while my car was being worked on. The layout of this cover has a modern feel. The bold heading along with the red across the top of the page is typical of many magazines of present day . There are several publications that I have seen use this similar layout almost as if it is a template. It being a 90's publication the images used are more crisp and current.

80's Contemporary

" American Film Magazine"
Created in 1975 by the american film institute. It is published monthly except combined for Jan.-Feb. and July-August. It covered what editors deemed most important. It focused on the past history that impinges on the present or as it did in the early 80's. Developments that will affect the future, the people who are deepening and defining the visual arts.

This particular cover resonates with me because it depicts images from one of the first movies that i can recall liking a lot. The 80's in my opinion marks a time when graphicaly designed images took on a more contemporary look and feel. This cover while simple and straightforward reminds me of something i would see in a magazine today.

Project2 copy

This is merely an example of the information i will use for my second project, there for words and images used here are completely subject to change.

What is “Trajan”?
Trajan is an old style Serif typeface and was first designed back in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe. It is displayed as a Windows True Type font, and the Source Foundry is Linotype. Although there are many unofficial variations of the Trajan font, the official variations are owned by Adobe, such as Trajan Pro, and Trajan Pro Bold.

What does “Trajan” look like?
It is an easy to read font, and has hints of its Roman origins by its use of thin and thick constructive lines, giving the reader a feel of depth. Several letters have a flow in them, as can be seen in the letters J and R, but it is the Q that really catches attention as, unusually, it underlines the next adjacent letter creating a flow across the page.

The most unusual feature of Trajan is that it is in capitals only – when typing in lower case it uses slightly smaller caps than uppercase.



What is Trajan’s design origin?
The font itself is based on real Roman Square Capitals from ancient Italy, and received its name from Trajan’s Column in Rome, which was built in A.D.113.

However, the design of the Trajan font was by no means as simple as tracing Roman numerals and letters from ancient ruins, as lower case letter forms were not in use in Roman times. There is a more complete set of glyphs contained in Trajan Pro which is a 2001 update of the Carol’s original 1989 design, with a lower case set of small caps.

Where is Trajan used?
The frequency that Trajan is used in advertising and publications such as film posters and DVD titles has grown tremendously since its launch. It is now established as a film makers favorite.

There are many examples of best sellers that have based their headline publications on the use of the Trajan font, such as:


<sup>1. Font Designer - Carol Twombly, linotype.com
2. Trajan (typeface), Wikipedia
3. Trajan Regular, fonts.com</sup>