Category Archives: Assignments

Designs!

M. Marshall 1.31

This is my response post to the two videos we watched. First, Movie Poster Expert Explains Color Schemes.

White background: Controversial opinion: I’ve always hated red and white. I understand from a marketing perspective why you would want a poster that immediately grabs people’s eyes, but there are so many other ways to do it that would be visually appealing for me personally. I also don’t really care for raunchy humor, which may explain my distaste for this style of poster.

Groan Ups, 2019

White (in general): I find these to be cleaner and classier than their red cousin, which I appreciate. It also stands out in a similar way which is good for marketing. I thought it was interesting that he said it portrays what to expect from the movie. I can appreciate honest advertising.

Forrest Gump, 1994

Blue: I enjoy a sleek blue that provides a mysterious vibe to the movie poster. They are often used in action/thriller posters and have the (main) character running in the middle. To me, this poster specifically was a great example of this color scheme and I really liked how it looked. And, he says it, “has its roots in film noir”, very cool!

Paycheck, 2003

Film noir: Definitely my favorite so far. I love old time-y movie posters. It reminds me of Archie comics.

This Gun For Hire, 1942

Yellow: Apparently this is used to represent low-budget indie movies, which I wouldn’t have been able to guess, but it does make sense. I like yellow so I definitely appreciate this one,

Capitalism, A Love Story, 2009

Xerox Quality: I know I said film noir was my favorite, but this definitely takes the cake. I imagine that maybe one is based off of the other? I love these kinds of posters. This is the kind of movie poster I would put up on my wall. I know technology is all about getting better, more impressive, and more modern, but you just can’t beat perfection.

Wake in Fright, 1971

Black, white, & orange: I don’t know if it’s me and my lack of interest in action movies, but I don’t care for this at all. I find it to be too severe and has too much going on. Can’t say I like it, unfortunately.

Transporter 3, 2007

Blue and Orange: I knew I loved it as soon as I saw it, but them, when he said that the orange is used to “lead the eye to the key focus of the narrative”? Too good. I loved Star Wars: A New Hope as a kid, if it could be made even better. No notes.

Star Wars: A New Hope, 1997

The second video was from Vox on Stranger Things’ Retro Title Sequence

When I watched Stranger Things, I didn’t really watch the title sequence because it creeped me out too much. I liked seeing the other typographics they looked at before choosing theirs. ITC Bengat is very recognizable so I thought it was a great choice. Using the kodaliths to look even more 80’s was very impressive to me. It’s cool to recognize the work that goes into something that I wouldn’t even notice, like a title sequence.

Guess the song

M. Marshall 1.31

In order to create this I had to dust off my Canva skills. I googled “Beach” and found the on this website. I used a website to invert the photo and put some transparent images onto it. It’s one of my favorite songs!

DON’T SCROLL PAST THE PHOTO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GUESS. I will put the answer well below it, there is a hint as well.

I am going to put the answer well below this; if you would like to know the answer, continue scrolling.

Want a hint? “Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes.”

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Answer: Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift!

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).

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.

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.

Vibrant Parking Deck

Color Changer Assignment for Week 3

This is an edited version of a photo of me that was taken in 2023. I tried putting different filters over it in Krita and ended up on Increase Saturation HSV. Changing the color didn’t affect the picture, but changing the saturation (how vibrant or dull it was) did. When I saw this, it stood out to me how vibrant the background had become and how Zer0 looked pretty much the same whether the filter was on or not. I like the contrast between Zer0 and the environment, which used to be just as gray and dull as him. I think it makes him stand out more and ironically gives the picture more life. To me, it makes the background look more like a painting. This could be used as a metaphor for how Zer0 doesn’t belong or have a place in the world. Robots are not naturally occurring things and are ostracized in the story. Parking decks, concrete, and cars are things people are much more accustomed to and trusting of.

Trading card

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The assignment takes you to a website that allows you to make your own trading card! I thought this would be a good assignment for something fun and simple. I knew I needed an assignment incorporating my character so it worked out really well.

An important preface is that I never played with trading cards as a child (not even Pokémon), so I didn’t have a great idea of what I should or shouldn’t be doing. This is the trading card I made (I should probably make a new drawing that I find to be less embarrassing, and that has a nose). I decided to give her a high attack number (I’m guessing the scale is out of 100?) because in my story, the government is probably creating this pet-army because they would be strong. For softness, I gave her a 50 because she’s half cat, half robot. For flexibility, I gave her a 100 because most cats are very flexible and I felt like that should be represented. I gave her an 88 for adaptability, because I wanted to represent the robot part, maybe her robot half has a paw that can turn into different tools or something like that. I found this to be super cute and super fun!

Photoblitz!

M. Marshall 1.31

I did the 20 minute Photoblitz last night, here were my prompts:

Find a grid pattern somewhere: I struggled to find something interesting, so here are the tiles on the ground of the common area in my dorm.

Make a photograph of a smile, either literal or symbolic: I hoped to get a photo of my cat that looked like she was smiling, but it didn’t work out. Make your reflection on the screen will show you the smile I was looking for?

Make an artistic photo that involves one of your toes: I like to call it “Reflecting on one’s atoenement” It doesn’t really mean anything, but the play on words was too good for me to not use.

Giraffes are brilliant. Show us what it would be like if they lived in human society: I didn’t have a good way to demonstrate this, so I drew it, it was probably the thing that took the most time, maybe 7-8 minutes.

No ocean, surely you can find some water around you to take a photo of: This is my cat’s water filter, she stays well hydrated thanks to it so I am very grateful for it.

How do ants see the world? Change your viewpoint: Cute, right?

Doors can have a lot of character, be it in the hinges, knob, or style: This is a door in my dorm building, it’s been painted over a few times and this building is long overdue for a renovation, but I like it better than my door to my dorm.

I can’t say that this was my favorite activity, but I did really enjoy the creative exercise, I felt like I gained from it!

Capturing Moments

When looking at the prompts, I immediately noticed a theme of the outdoors, but was really excited about the abstract theme and what I could do with that. It was fun being able to walk around and take all of your surroundings in when you’re looking for something specific. It helped me to see everything and think of nature and where I’m walking in a manner different than I usually would.

Week 3 Summary

This week felt much slower compared to last, and I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. I even reread the assignment four times to make sure I didn’t miss anything…haha. I really enjoyed watching the TED Talk, the video about movie posters, and the Stranger Things video. I learned a lot of cool things about design from these videos and from this week in general, as I mentioned in my reflection.

Behind Graphic Design

Doing the Photoblitz was a cool experience, but I’m not sure if I did it correctly. I ended up completing more tasks than required and finished in about seven minutes, which left me confused. Was it really supposed to be that fast? Maybe the goal was to complete as many as possible within 20 minutes…I’m not exactly sure. Either way, it was fun! I enjoy visual assignments, especially when the prompts are provided.

Photoblitzing After Work

Here are the assignments I completed this week. Finn’s Walk Home is related to my character.

Cuteness Overload

Finn’s Walk Home

Mango Sees All

Here are the Daily Creates I did this week. Although I didn’t participate in them, I still checked them daily out of curiosity and wanted to complete them, but time got away from me!

My participation this week was low because I was really busy with other classes, but I still read through almost every post. Here are some of the posts I interacted with.

Getting creative with the Daily Create

Go Bills!

Assignment Bank: Week 2

Daily Create January 23, 2025

A World of Color

See you next week!!!