Overshadowed

     So, you made a logo to be proud of. It has good color coordination, it's perfectly aligned, and can be used on multiple formats. Then, before you know it, it's all for nothing as the person you made it for falls into controversy; or they don't use it like they're supposed to. Having your logo overshadowed by another isn't exactly a fun thing to happen. It can easily be demotivating, especially if you're just starting out.

      Once again, it can be very possible for a certain event to distract people from your logo. Perhaps the algorithm wasn't too kind, or perhaps a piece by someone else gets more attention. Either way, it can be disheartening to feel as if you're not actually making anything worthwhile. Bear in mind, there are times when your work just isn't the best it could be; however, it would at least be nice to get feedback. That does still beg the question; how does one overcome being overshadowed?

      Well, I can't say for certain there is a right answer other than to learn from the experience. How do you beat the algorithm? Learn! How do you balance audience and your own preference? Learn! What direction do you want to take going forward? Learn! It is always better to put at least some work in before giving up entirely!

     With that out of the way, I hope I was at least able to offer decent advice. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Location, Location

     Graphic Design can take ideas from, and influence many things. One of said things can be a specific location. What can start out as a flattering photo of Hawaii, can turn into multiple people visiting there. Although, one can also try and mimic the feel of the location in mind. With the blog topic chosen, let's go in.

         So, as stated previously, graphic design can attract people to different areas; that's how tourism works after all. How does one go about making a location attractive though? Well, the best way is to explore and learn if you ask me. Even where you live, there's an interesting view, or tidbit to learn about. Go around, explore, and find what's most appealing to you. Afterwards, take the best pieces you could find, and arrange them into a commercial,  trifold, or post card to greet people.

       Now onto the case of mimicry, as mentioned before, you have post cards. In this case, let's look at it like finding the right colors for a picture. If the area has a lot of snow, perhaps a holiday red, or a cold blue could match. Add some shapes as well, like palm leaves for a place with a lot of palm trees. Finally, find a font that matches the feel of the city or state; street sign font for a place known for races, or a cursive font for a high class town.

         The options are limitless when it comes to designing for someplace. So go out, explore, learn, find what fits your creative needs. Then, once you have what you need, build around it! Thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

     

   

Still On Preseservation!

 

    Ladies and gentlemen,  and update concerning this post from a few years ago.

https://h8l0v.blogspot.com/2022/08/preservation.html

     To summarize my thoughts, this post was about the preservation of media, and needing to keep these images in one's mind. The reason I brink this up again, is because Warner Bros is unfortunately, at it again. This time however, they're not just planning on not releasing the movies, but deleting them entirely! As you can imagine, there's been a bit of an upset for the viewers, and one can't blame them. After all, when such a big fuss was made when they weren't released, for a fairly ridiculous reason mind you, the fact we may never see them is even more frustrating!

     So to reiterate, media must be preserved for future generations! Record it, catalog it, whatever, so long as it's preserved. Especially if it is a movie an entire team put blood and sweat into, that won't be released because of ridiculous legal issues. So with that in mind, I hope Warner Bros. Gets the message soon, because even if the most we get is someone making ridiculous edits with the material, at least it's still out there. Thank you for reading this shorter blog, and stay tuned!

       If by the chance this material is deleted by the time this post has been uploaded, I will update it with an edit, and I apologize. 

A Quick Look Back On: The Strike

     Ladies and gentlemen, I feel silly.

Image courtesy of Twitter screenshot.

     Now, as my readers would know, I made my stance supporting he writer's and actor's strike last year. In turn, I did support SAG-AFTRA as well, using their logo as a main photo, since they were a main figurehead in the strike. Come some time after, and things have, supposedly, been settled. Studios gave into their demands, and hopefully this means they'll receive better treatment and pay. However, we still need to be very wary of things going forward; both parties are apparently hard to trust.

     In case you didn't notice, the above tweet is Sag-Aftra visibly approving of AI voice acting; an strange stance to take considering what the strike was about. I know that there are more problems I could go over, but those were more before I made my original post. That post was one of passion, and want to see the creative side treated more appropriately. As such, I went in with not that much information; a mistake I will rectify going forward. Right now though, my main problem is with that tweet, and its deeper meaning.

      It goes without saying that this author is disappointed. In a nutshell, this is a betrayal of what a lot of the protesters wanted, AKA, don't replace them. I'll still keep my previous post up, because it still reflects my beliefs on creativity, I still believe that the individual artists should be given proper dues. With that said, it's clear that even the people in charge, even when claiming to be on their side, need to really be checked up to see if they're trustworthy. I will be linking this post, because of the update, and I hope that this issue is rectified soon.

Happy Holidays 2023

      And just like that, our year had come to a close again.

       As always, I hope you have a fantastic season, whatever you celebrate, and look forward to you reading these next year. As for me, I'm going to keep designing, and keep up at finding the right position for me. I'm not sure what the future will hold, but I believe it will be good. Until then, as always, stay tuned!

Thanksgiving Photography 2023

       It's that time of year again! As always, herre are the pictures I take on this holiday. As an added bonus however, I have some extra pictures from the week to add, just to spice things up!

      As usual, thanks for joining me in this tradition,  and stay tuned!

Second Verse

      So in the past, I've gone over redoing an original product. However, that was more about remaking something, and the choices you could make doing so. Today, I want to explore the idea of tweaking ideas for a sequel. What features do you leave in, is it the same writer, etc. So, let's get started on this!

       Now, a good way to observe this type of change is, I find, in older video games.  At the time, you were able to put them out faster, but still have limited resources to use. In this case, let's look at the changes between Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2.

Both images courtesy of Wikipedia. 

     Of course you have the obvious additions  of new enemies and 2 player. However, in the span it took to make the games, they added improved cutscenes, quality of life improvements, and extra game modes, all for the same system.

     This doesn't just apply to video games though! When a movie gets a sequel in the near future, a new writer could fill in to ease the weight on the crew. Another way it works is they could take the criticism of the first movie, and apply it to the sequel. I know the time between work applies here, but it still applies if there's a difference.

     

        Before I sign off, I just want to address this isn't always perfect. In some cases, the charm of the original can't be replicated, and sometimes extra features make it feel more bloated.  Another factor is that you want to address complaints correctly, as the right ones are trying to help. With that in mind, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Switching Up

        As some of you may know, I've been using Adobe Illustrator since I began my graphic design journey. However, I feel it is time I moved on, and went to something else.

Image courtesy of Affinity

       That's right ladies and gentlemen, from now on, I shall be using Affinity Designer for all of my graphic design needs! Now, I know there will be a bit of a relearning; I can accept that, as there is no way to move up in design unless you continue to learn. As of right now, I'm beginning a small art project anyways, so I like to think I'm learning fast.

       Now, this isn't me trying to persuade you to pick different tools over another; I simply picked Affinity due to what I felt was a better payment plan. This blog is mainly here to let you know about my change of tools, but not to fret, since they're mostly similar tools. With that in mind, thank you once again for reading another quick blog. As always, I hope you stay tuned!

Holiday Cards 2023

 Well, seeing how it is that time again, I wanted to give you the update that Holiday cards for this year are done. Granted, you might have already known that had you seen my portfolio, but I figure now would be a good time to make the post dedicated to them. Hope you enjoy!

The Strike

      Well, I had to talk about it at some point. Recently in Hollywood, writers and actors have been going on strike for a multitude of reasons. Some of those reasons are better pay, some are for better treatment, some not to get replaced by an AI, some to just get more credit for their work etc. Now, I'm not going to try and list all of the demands, but I feel the ones I have listed are pretty reasonable. The only people not saying this are, of course, the top executives.

 

Needless to say, I'm on the side of the writers and actors.

      Now, this isn't the first big writer's strike to happen; and if things keep going the way they are, it won't be the last. As it stands, there are very talented and creative people in Hollywood right now struggling to pay rent, or even to feed themselves. Now, I know there's going to be the argument of 'they need a real job, I don't need them'. Well, to counter that, entertainment,  in ant form you find, usually has someone behind it. We as people have always needed entertainment, like it or not. To blow off this needed talent, and refusing to give them any compensation, is just downright deplorable.

       I apologize if this blog is a bit more impassioned than usual. However, I feel it stands that what these writers and actors, big or small, are asking for isn't some outrageous demand. This is stems from their need to live, from their need to maintain creative freedom. At the end of the day, it shouldn't have to be said, but pay your writers, actors, and anyone else on the staff. Otherwise, you'll find your movies and TV won't be as fun.

       Again, apologies for the somewhat more personal and disorganized blog; I just wanted to put my thoughts out. Hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned.

Update:

https://h8l0v.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-quick-look-back-on-strike.html

Inspiration

       So, I keep thinking about how I get the weird inspiration for these blogs, and thought I should share it with all of you. This is going to be another quick blog, so don't expect anything to deep. That being said, let's dive right on in.

      The best way I can describe this is with an example.  So, to start the story of where I got influenced to do the blog Social Media management. I was scrolling on the internet one day, mostly looking at wrestling-related news. During this time, I read an article about how Roman Reigns, current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, only used social media for show purposes. Essentially, he doesn't post anything to personal, or break character with it. This then got me thinking about how one could use social media in a similar way.

      So, usually what happens is I see something, let it sit in my head a bit, and then make the connection. After which, I relate it to graphic design in some way, and write things down. A random process sure, but I wanted to share it with you. Sometimes randomness is a good way to spark creativity. Anyways, rambling aside, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Edit: Apologirs for the late upload everyone, my life was just a blur at the moment. I intend to return to a more steady schedule on Sunday the 25th.

My Thoughts On These Blogs

       Alright everybody, a bit of a shorter blog this week, but one I think I need to make just to kind of clear my thoughts. As some of you may guess, I'm not exactly a professional designer, most of my topics I randomly choose, and then just put my inner thoughts out; most of which are pretty similar to other blogs. When I first made this thing it was because I was required to by college, and I guess I kept going because I was instructed it would help put my name out there. As you can see, it's been a while since then, and so far these haven't exactly been doing that job. This could be because it's just amateur ramblings, or it could be because I'm not good at putting my name out their with these. It also doesn't help that I have my portfolio on this website, so making these blogs is a way to keep attention onto it.

       I don't want to claim to be an expert in this field, and by now I was hoping I had more official projects to share rather than some stuff I made in Illustrator, or what else have you. Make no mistake, I genuinely enjoy graphic design; the creative aspect, the planning, coming up with the right colors, it is fun, and I want to continue to work hard, and make a career out of it.  However, as it stands now, with my current portfolio, I feel I need to do these discussion blogs as I was instructed to do. As such, I wish to thank anybody who actually took the time to read these, even if those numbers are few and far in between. However, I will admit I wish I could give you more to stay for, and apologize if I spread negative ideas.

       My genuine hope is that you don't have pity on my for this, as this isn't about people feeling sorry for me. This is about the writer of these blogs, putting his honest thoughts in writing for his own sake. I don't know if I'll do these blogs forever, and I can't promise the quality will improve that much. What I can promise though is that I'm not done with graphic design yet, and I hope you stay tuned for more, and continue to read these strange posts I make. Thank you for list if you did.

    

Target Audience

      Ideally, we want as many eyes on our product as possible. The more clients and customers, the better it is for our business. However, that can't always work in our favor. In graphic design, it is important to trim the fat of your audience and focus on one main part. A target audience, big or small, is one of the biggest parts to keep in mind when designing a product. Without further ado, let us explore this topic in today's blog.

        Now, a target audience really can be defined as the main group your product grabs. They are arguably the people you want to focus on the most. To give an example, if focusing on kids, it's best to make products with flashy colors, fun characters, and play along with their imagination. If your target audience is the elderly however, it's best to hand out concise, easily read information that doesn't leave them too distracted.

     Getting a target audience however, can be more of a challenge than you think. In some cases, you'll have one group in mind, but bring in an entirely different one. Another problem is may you try to grab in another target audience but isolate the one you already had.  At the end of the day, getting things right will be a tough balancing act. It's important that you properly research these groups  and see how you can improvise going forward.

       One piece of advice that I found best,  was to first create something for you. With that, you can find a target audience easier, and proceed to learn what works, and doesn't.  With all of that being said, thank you for reading, and stay tuned.