Jessica Hische and Louise Fili

First off, I love these two ladies because one of my favorite things in the world in hand made type. Well, type in general, but especially people who can design their own type. That is what first peaked my interest in design is type. Whether it was on some package of some make-up I bought or picking the perfect type face to write a paper in, type has always been a favorite. The Jessica Hische video was really interesting because she has worked in a lot of different fields of design, so she has a perspective that a lot of other people do not get to see. It was great getting to hear about how the different fields differ so much and the pros and cons of each, because as a sophomore in design, I have no clue where I will want to be or what specifically I will want to be designing. The fact that she just kinda bounced around from project to project makes me a little more at ease because I know that I have time to choose what I will want to do after college, and even better is that if what I am doing doesnt interest me after a while, I can just merge into another field. But besides her lecture, Hische does amazing work. I can definitely see the influence that Fili had on Hische through her lettering, but it is also interesting how, even though Hische learned from Fili, she spun what she learned into something that she can now call her own style. Its nice to see two people who have had so much success in lettering, despite now specific of a niche it is.

TFiOS Pinspiration board

Here is the link to my inspiration board on Pintrest for "The Fault in our Stars". http://pinterest.com/jhill9644/book-research/

Chip Kidd and Paul Rand response

Chip Kidd may be one of my favorite people now. The way he spoke and what he had to say was so inspiring to me, and gave me a lot to think about when it comes to book covers, and design in general. He made a good point about how you are designing for many different people, and how you never know where the design is going to go. Take the Jurassic Park logo. That design blew up beyond Kidd's wildest imagination. But he had a responsibility for that, to give that book a voice, and everything there after. I also really like his methods of designing some of his book covers. It wasn't all the same illustrations or styles, but he really thought about what the book was and how he could portray it the best, no matter what the title said. Even though the saying goes "you can't judge a book by its cover" everyone does, and so we have to give every book a good first impression.

The Paul Rand video was very interesting and his style was very different from Kidd's, but it was nice to see that diversity. Rand's book designs were a lot more abstract from Kidd's, but they still got their point across, and still gave readers a reason to pick the book up and want to see what it was about. Through his video, I realized that the reader does not have to understand what the cover has to do with the book at first, all it has to do is spark enough interest that they want to find out what the connection between the story and the cover is.

"Still I Rise" Final Video

This is my final video for my speech project. I used Maya Angelou's speech- "Still I Rise". This was a difficult process for me, because I was not use to working with motion, but I am happy with the end result. 

"Still I Rise" Motion Graphic

Speech Video (so far)

Im a bit slow when it comes to After Effects, so this about half of the speech!

Get Inspired: Motion Graphics

Saul Bass's work on the title sequences for North by Northwest, Psycho and Oceans Eleven set the tone for the whole movie. He uses music that he believes will give the viewer a feel of what is to come. Like in Psycho, where he uses upbeat and suspenseful music, since Psycho is a horror film. His graphics all have their own theme, but once that theme is established, he does not stray far from it. Like in Ocean's Eleven, the whole story is about robbing a casino, so Bass saw it fit to make all the graphics out of the bright lights you see in casinos. The type is the part where you have to be careful. The names of the people who made the movie happen is important, and the whole reason for the title sequence in the first place, so it is important that there is some readability to it. He really did not play much with the text except how it entered and exited the screen, which I thought was a very nice way of handling it. The two title sequences that I thought played off of each other a lot was North by Northwest and Psycho because they both had a grid they followed and it was mostly line work and how the text came into the screen. The Ocean's Eleven sequence strayed a bit because it was more flashy and involved than simple lines. They all fit their movies character though. The moods were suspenseful and eerie, grand and rushed, and sneaky and upbeat. Bass had a pretty minimalistic theme when it came to his title sequences, except for the graphics in Oceans. The music in all of them though, was pretty minimal, just a series of staccato notes played in a pattern.

Mariene McCarty has an interesting style of her own. She uses real life video scenes from the film as her title sequence, in most cases at least. In some cases, like American Psycho, the first minute or so has the red liquid dropping down the screen, but it still goes into the beginning of the movie, while the credits are still running. This is an interesting way to go about it, because it takes a little bit of the focus away from the names, because the viewers are trying to see what is going on in the movie, while also looking at the names. She does a good job about remedying this though, with the placement of the text on the screen where the viewers would most likely be looking, and also having whatever seen she is playing not have a lot of dialog playing at the same time. The music she plays seems to have a lot more instruments involved than Bass's sequences, which makes it a fuller sound, but does not necessarily take away from the impact of the way the music makes us as the viewer feel. The moods very, like I feel disgusted when I see the American Psycho trailer, but the Safe video I feel more melancholy and a little lost. She does a great job of picking opening scenes that portray what the movie will be like, but wont give anything away.

For my own inspiration, I chose Monsters Inc.'s Title Sequence. I absolutely love this opening because the music is upbeat, the words and graphics follow right along with the beat and the transitions are seamless. The graphics in here are so fun and quirky that you can't help but to get excited about this movie. I really like how it jumps around from scene to scene, but it does it in a way that you can follow the entire scene and not wonder how one screen jumped to another. Granted, this is also one of my favorite movies, so that could make me bias to this opening too :)

"Still I Rise" storyboards

I had a tough time with the storyboards, just because I am not to familiar with after effects and what all can be done with it. I like some of my individual ideas, but the reality of me being able to do it will sure be an interesting adventure. Another thing that I will have to think more about is the transitions. I think I made my storyboards more like the book, and I really need to look at how one section will fit together and transition into the next section.