Show & Tell #3 - Concept

Concept is the theme for this week, and I found an ad in Entertainment Weekly with a simple, interesting concept. The ad is for the Sundance Film Festival 2010 in Park City, Utah. It takes up a full page and only uses black and white, plus one color - red. The text of the ad is presented in a typewriter typeface, complete with Xs covering deleted characters or words. At the bottom of the page, you can see a gradient word mark, where the word SUNDANCE is fading into the black background, and the words TWENTYTEN slowly intensify with red. The rest of the ad looks distorted and unfinished. Even the black background looks to have some kind of writing similar to a chalkboard. The ad syncs up well with the main theme of rebellion, which is referenced in the text.

The Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors Chart!

Ok, so I'm probably geeking out to a near dangerous level here, but I just discovered this and I had to share. It's a new take on the old Rock, Paper, Scissors game. Instead of just those three lame objects, this chart totals 22 new items to obliterate your opponent. New weapons of warfare include lightning, monkey, sponge, and dragon. Not only does this chart add some zest to the game, but it also does so in a creative, colorful way.

What I found most interesting about the chart is the use of interesting, active verbs such as incinerate, hurl, tarnish, ensnare, and cleave. Granted, most of the verbs have something to do with destruction, but they still inspire me to consistently use strong verbs. Now I have to learn all these signs, and dragon looks particularly hard...

Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors Chart

Project 1 Layout - Thoughts?

Hey all! So, I have my Project 1 design ready to go, but I thought I'd try to get some comments before the critique on Saturday. Anybody have any thoughts?

Cool Integration of Words & Images - Wordle

So, I just found this cool site called Wordle. You can use Wordle to generate word clouds by entering text or even a URL, and *poof* there's a bunch of words you used laid out in a creative form. Words that are used more often appear bigger. Wordle also allows you to customize it with various options such as font, color, orientation, etc. I just threw in the URL for my blog and made my own Wordle! I did chuckle a little when I saw the biggest word in my word cloud - chicken...

Show & Tell #2 - Definition/Explanation

This week, we were tasked to find a visual or verbal example of a definition or explanation. I found an advertisement in the Summer 2009 issue of Filmaker. The ad promotes a new film-making lamp called "BarFly" from the company KinoFlo. Filling up about half the page, the ad features a bar scene where someone is holding the new lamp, spotlighting a green cocktail on the wooden bar table. Text explaining the new product and its features appears directly next to the cocktail. This is a great example of definition/explanation (and a fantastic ad in general), because the new product is clearly identifiable. The product is even being demonstrated so that potential buyers can get a glimpse of the lamp in action. Even though the text contains useful information, it's not even needed because the visual is so stimulating. And to keep with the alcohol/bar theme, a tag line appears at the bottom of the ad - Please Light Responsibly. Ha!

Show & Tell #1 - Good Food Writing

For the first week of Words & Images, we were asked to find an example of good food writing as our "show & tell" assignment. As I was researching magazines for inspiration on this week's Project 1-Phase 2, I found an interesting article. In the "Healthy Living" section of Martha Stewart Living, writer Lesley Porcelli doles out great reasons why you should include chicken in your diet. She includes little nuggets of information (a chicken breast is actually a chicken breast half) while explaining why chicken is healthy for the whole family. The main purpose for the article is to offer tips on how to cook and prepare chicken to deliver the most delicious dish, but Porcelli goes the extra mile supporting the article by adding extra details, using descriptive words, and including a recipe.

My first blog post!

It may be the first blog post, but I know it won't be the last!