Category Archives: Tech Noir

My Opinions on Design (Because You Asked)

A lesson in hyperlinks indeed! As someone who participates in Wikipedia deep dives, I really enjoyed reading “A Kid’s Guide to Graphic Design by Iconic Designer Chip Kidd.” Not paying any attention to my own design here and just slapping the hyperlink as the name of the article, but that is what it is!

While I make no great claims about my design abilities, I do like to think about design more than the average bear. Working in the theatre means I’m constantly considering how to reach the middle point between what I need and what the audience will see as “good” or “polished.” Not only that, but everything that is on stage needs to be put there with both the considerations of the play and of the audience, which can lead to interesting challenges. I appreciated the article discussing graphic design as “problem solving,” as I feel the same about theatrical design.

The article about movie posters accompanied by the video of the creation of the Stranger Things logo made me think about book covers, which is something I spend more time looking at. Like movie posters, book covers are subject to trends- we’ve seen an increase in drawn/illustrated covers recently. This is not something that I connect with, and personally hope goes away soon. I don’t feel like I’ve felt that uncomfortable or alienated by other designs before. I suppose they must be popular or else cover designers wouldn’t keep making them and authors wouldn’t request them, but irrationally I wish they would just change this retroactivley.

While I can’t say that I didn’t learn anything from the readings and videos, its hard to identify one particular fact. I feel like a lot of the reading affirmed things that I subconciously already knew. However, I think putting language to these subconsious feelings is important as it allows us, as designers, to target them.

Tattoo that describes you

M. Marshall 1.31

When I was 17, I knew I would get a tattoo. When I was 18, I was like, “I’m 18, I can’t make a choice for something to be on my body longer than I will be in it”. When I was 19, I knew I would get a tattoo if I felt really committed to it and had wanted it for a while (like, at least a year). Now, I’m 20. I don’t have a tattoo, and I probably won’t get one anytime soon. If I did, it would be something for my siblings or my pets or something, but that’s not a super fun idea for an assignment. Gun to my head, right now, if I had to get a tattoo, I think I would get one on my ankle or arm of the Japanese maple tree growing outside the front of my childhood home. The beauty of Japanese maples is how colorful they are, and getting a tattoo with color ink and not the regular black has a higher risk of allergies, so I don’t know that I would ever risk it.

The Japanese maple in question, in all its glory.

In a perfect world; however, I could get whatever tattoo of whatever color, it would have no negative repercussions, and I could remove it with a snap of my fingers if I ever didn’t care for it anymore. If this were the case, of course I would get the gorgeous tree of my childhood home tattooed on me. I would get something like this! It’s obviously not perfect or exactly what I would want, but I’m happy with how it looks.

It was lots of fun getting to design something meaningful that I would put on my body forever (maybe).

Week 3 Summary

This week is beginning to become a blur, but I remember I did my daily creates earlier in the week and posted a comment on the ds106 site. I’m not sure if it was approved, but I tried anyway. I also received the joyous news that our assignments and summaries don’t have to strictly adhere to the “at least two paragraphs describing the story behind your art” on top of everything else you have to write rule. Still, I find myself completing the assignments and enjoying making or editing images but come to a standstill when it’s time to write about it on a website. Oh well, just 13 more weeks (including exam week), right?

I did the daily creates for Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, pictured below. I made the Australian flag and outline on Krita, found pictures of Busch Gardens on google, and made an anti-word cloud based on a page of the Hunger Games. The bird is meant to represent a mockingbird.

For the three weekly assignments, I made Vibrant Parking Deck, Rain World Overseer Hologram, and Resistance Logo. This week was limited to design and visual assignments.

I may or may not have forgotten about the Photoblitz for a while, but I still got it done in time. These were my prompts and my pictures.

This class is still a bit stressful, but I’m starting to figure out how it works. Hopefully I will become less averse to writing in the coming weeks.

Resistance Logo

Create Your Own Logo Assignment for Week 3

When making this assignment, I wanted to try to make some kind of symbol for the resistance, for the robots, or just for Zer0 in general. I decided on a symbol for the resistance, highlighting that they are robots and often have glowing symbols on their faces. The lines with a triangle on the end are present on Zer0’s face. I used Krita again, trying to make it look a bit neon with an airbrush and multiple layers. I tried capturing cyberpunk and tech noir vibes with the dark background and neon, while also trying to think of what would separate the robots from the humans. Maybe there are many robots in the resistance that have triangle LEDs on their faces. Maybe it’s something they thought of that doesn’t particularly match a human face. They could’ve taken attributes from multiple members of the resistance and merged them together. Whatever the reason, this is the symbol they decided on.

Rain World Overseer Hologram

PSA Billboard Assignment for Week 3

I got a little carried away on this one. Only two of our assignments have to be about our story this week, so I decided to make this one different. This is related to the game Rain World, which is a difficult game about being trapped in never ending cycles. This little blue creature on the bottom right is called an overseer. They are autonomous little robots that observe things and share information with each other. They are also able to produce holograms, like the one in the middle of the screen, in order to share information with living beings. The intelligent species on the planet that made the overseers are referred to as the ancients. This hologram is meant to represent the opposition some ancients had to the building of a giant iterator (supercomputer) about the size of mount Everest. This iterator (named Five Pebbles) is already built and completed by the time the game takes place. I made this all on Krita, using different brushes and filters to make the hologram and stone wall look correct. I used the Soft Light filter for much of the hologram. I read the wiki page about overseers to draw one better and learned some interesting things about them that I hadn’t noticed before.

My Creative Journey: Week 3

Summary

This week was character week and I had a lot of fun making creations from the assignment bank based on my character. Also I am a lot more comfortable using Canva now and I feel like I understand its features better unlike the first time I used it. My favorite activity this week was definitely Photoblitz. I enjoyed coming up with fun ideas for all the photo prompts. Lastly, for the reflection of design thoughts I was partially already familiar with a lot of what was explained because I’ve taken prior art classes which explained the principles of design plenty of times.

Daily Creates

The Daily Creates this week were fairly simple. I completed 3 and only 2 of them had prompts that actually required creating something myself. But I still put in the effort and explained the inspiration behind each one shown in my post called Inside My Creative Mind.

Assignment Bank

For character week I put a lot of work into each post about Runa Starr. In For Wanted Dead or Alive I created a wanted poster of Runa from when she was younger because she works in the rebellion so I am sure there would be plenty of posters around the city trying to capture her. For Tattoos Hold Hidden Messages I drew 3 tattoo designs for Runa that she would probably have on her body. Lastly, for Level Up I created a RPG game card for Runa showcasing her stats as if she was a game character.

PhotoBlitz

Ready, Set, Photoblitz was a fun and fast paced activity that I loved doing. My photos were silly but I think the inspiration behind them were all well thought out. I had to take 7 pictures in only a matter of minutes and it was surprisingly not as simple as I originally thought, but I would definitely do it again one day with a group of friends to see what everyone takes pictures of with the fun prompts.

Design Thoughts

This week I went over the thought process that goes into designs. In my post The Art of Design I explained how certain color schemes can have an affect on portraying a mood for settings and aesthetics. I also did a quick analysis of the design principles used on making a movie’s poster.

Something About Kittens and Raindrops…

I took this picture of my desk after a particularly vigorous crafting session, but managed to have many of my favorite things in the image. I’m sure that there were easier ways to do this project, but I opted for convenience of device. Instead of loading up Photoshop on my laptop, I used Procreate on my iPad. I imported the photo and copied the layer, and made the top layer black-and-white. After that, I just erased the areas on the black-and-white layer that I wanted to be shown in color.

See if you can find all of them!

The Emotional Support Water Bottle: I LOVE my water bottle, and I carry it with me everywhere. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but there is almost never water in it.
Show Buttons: I have a pin from each of the shows that I have worked on in Klein Theatre, which is all of them! I have a display on my backpack and bulletin board.
Owen’s Farm Mug: This was the last trip my family took together before COVID, and my parents snuck this mug into my college stuff. It broke last year when I accidentally launched it across the kitchen while trying to wash it, so while it no longer holds coffee, it does hold pens.
Memory Box: I have one of these for each year of college, and it holds playbills/scraps of paper/playing cards/anything else that has something of importance to me.
Pothos: I have a lot of plants, but this one is the first one I got from my Mom.
Photos of my Roommates and I: We took these pictures at Fall Formal this year, and I adore this photo reel (and my roommates!).
Love Postcard: I got this in a box for a bracelet from my grandmother and, while I didn’t like the jewlery, this postcard has traveled with me.
NYC Card: I bought a lot of art on my first trip to New York, and this one is just so cute.
Dad’s Jacket: At some point I stole this jacket from my Dad, and I love that it’s getting so much wear from both him and me. It just goes with everything!
Work in Progress Art: I bought this right before college to remind me that I am always learning to be better. Cheesy, I know.

The Art of Design

What is art? Don’t worry I will give you a second to think about it. No matter your response there isn’t a correct answer to what art is. But there is plenty principles of design from color, shapes, proportion, etc so lets take a closer look at ways we can make our creations better.

Graphic Design

You might look at a poster and think Wow! That movie looks interesting or see a book cover and instantly wanna see what it’s about. Well it catches your attention for a reason and that’s all due to the amount of thought put into the design. One of the most famous graphic designers, Chip Kidd, was able to break down the basics of design for literal children in his book called Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design. Inside he explains concepts in simple ways that are easily understandable for children and adults. But what stood out to me the most was his explanation on how everything that is not made by nature is designed by someone else. So if you stop and take a look around yourself right now, literally everything started out as an idea that someone put time and effort into while creating it. Amazing right! So much more goes into designs than people know. Think about it this way. Colors that contrast or blend well can look appealing to the eyes. Jagged shapes can put people on edge compared to round shapes that have more of a soothing effect. Even proportions like making something smaller can make it look cuter. Well lets dive even deeper into how design can portray an aesthetic and even provoke feeling from the viewer.

Movie posters are a great example of how design principles are used. In the video above James Verdesto explains very well how design is used in marketing to communicate a message. A lot of movie posters tend to follow a trend of using the same elements in their designs like specific color schemes depending on genre. Perfect examples are how the color yellow is used to catch the eye and how black and white tends to to be used for action movies to portray the masculinity of the protagonist while adding a pop of color usually with the color red to draw attention with the intensity. Here is another example.

In this movie poster of Blade Runner 2049 we can see many cyberpunk elements being used for its aesthetic. The background shows a bleak, cold city that has advance aircraft flying around showing that its based on a high-tech dystopian world. The color palette used of dull orange and blue nicely contrast with each other while emphasizing the characters in front wearing dark clothes. I also want to point out the designer’s decision to use fiery orange and red for the big bold font of the title that easily draws your eyes to it. It is such a visually appealing poster that its hard not to appreciate the amount of work put into its design. The movie itself utilizes many more elements of cyberpunk design in its setting like using color grading to set the grim mood or how bold neon lights are used for symbolism and contrast.

In general, whether its a movie poster, book cover, painting, etc everything uses the principles of design in it. So next time you’re admiring something as simple as your favorite singer’s new album cover I highly recommend you stop and appreciate the thought put into the color scheme, font, shapes, proportions and more because the art of design is more fascinating when every detail holds a meaning.

Ready, Set, Photoblitz!

20 minutes to take 7 photos! Sounds easy right? Trust me, it’s a lot more chaotic than you think, but that’s all part of the fun. Photoblitz is a fun 20 minute activity where you are given 7 prompts and then you have to race to take all the photos in time. I will admit I easily got lost in the creative process and went over the time limit by a few minutes. Oops! But I had lots of fun and my pictures came out great even if my ideas were a little silly.

Prompt #1: A Toy in Action

For this prompt I needed to show toys doing something active so I wanted to make stuffed animals look like they were watching videos together like a human. So I put the gorilla and camel in front of a laptop with them staring at the screen. This was actually my favorite picture I took because the idea was so funny.

Prompt #2: Show Us Some Food

For the second prompt I needed to take a picture of food, and since my sister was already making hot chocolate I just took a picture of her cup. I tried to put it in sunlight so the purple and pink sugar on top of the whipped cream would stand out more.

Prompt #3: Camera at Floor Level

For the third prompt I had to take a picture from floor level, so I took a picture of my dog because I liked the idea of making him look really big from the floor angle. Getting him to stay still was the hardest part because seeing me on the floor automatically makes him assume I am down there to play with him.

Prompt #4: Glasses Bring the World into Focus

For the fourth prompt I was supposed to show how glasses help many people see, so I chose to take the picture through the lens of a pair of glasses. I made the picture focus be on a painting I made because glasses allow people see the beauty of the world.

Prompt 5#: Turn Food into a Face

For prompt I had to turn food into the shape of a face then take a picture. I used the cereal Fruit Loops to make my face on a wooden table. Originally I had another circle around the face, but it looked messy so I went back to keeping a simple design for it.

Prompt #6: Doors Can Have A Lot of Character

For this prompt I was supposed to show how doors can have character based on their style, so I took a picture of the basement door’s doorknob because it is one of the old traditional ones that has a giant keyhole. Personally these types of doorknobs remind me of faces because the two screws are like eyes, the knob is like a nose, and the keyhole is like a mouth so it was the perfect choice to photograph.

Prompt #7: Forced Perspective

For this prompt I needed to take a picture that made something look big, but I decided to do my own funny take on it by taking a picture of a miniature version of a big corgi stuffed animal, so it shows both perspectives of tiny and big side by side.

Times Up!

Took me 24 minutes to take all my picture prompts, so I went over the limit by 4 minutes but I think it was worth it. If you found this idea interesting then I highly recommend rushing over to Photoblitz and seeing if you can beat my record of 24 minutes for your 7 photos.

Level Up!

Mercenary in a cyberpunk world! Runa Starr is the perfect character for a RPG. She’s got the swiftness of a viper with the venom to match. Along with her ability to easily outsmart foes makes every fight an easy win. So if Runa had her own game card I believe her top stats would be definitely be skill, stealth, charisma, and confidence!

Skill

Trained since the age of 12 for close combat, Runa can disarm a man with a blade in seconds. Even at a distance, she’s prepared for every bullet to strike her target. But her marksmanship isn’t what makes her dangerous. Runa’s savvy mind strategizes and counters on the spot making her one of the most fearsome mercenaries of her generation.

Stealth

She isn’t called The Shadow for nothing. Spying from rooftops, creeping behind guarded doors, or hiding in plain sight, Runa can do it all without leaving a single trail . . . unless she wants to be found because sometimes playing the distraction is more fun.

Charisma

Runa has a certain alluring energy that catches the attention of the room right when she talks. Whether it’s her attractive charm, her mesmerizing beauty, her smooth velvety voice, or- Well let’s just say it’s a combination of all that leaves people begging for a second of her time.

Confidence

Stats maxed out for a reason! Runa is bold and unapologetic so don’t get in her way, especially when it comes down to her strategic schemes. She’s isn’t afraid to take risk even if it means gambling her life, but yet her intuition is always right. Or maybe her confidence just makes her luck come off that way. No one will ever know.

The Inspiration

This idea came from the assignment bank post called Personal Trading Card. The instructions were to create a card based on a character, so I chose to create one for Runa Starr using the website called Remixer. For the art I tried my best to find a futuristic mercenary themed picture from the website Pinterest. I wanted to keep the purple and black color scheme so I used it for the whole card’s design. Then when it came down to choosing Runa’s stats I made sure to pick words that matched her character perfectly. Skill, stealth, and charisma were easy choices, but for the last one of confidence I wanted to make a little joke by exaggerating a bit to emphasize her personality so I put the stats as maxed out.