Typography can make or break you: Ode to David Tennant

December 11, 2009 at 3:16 pm (1)
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Where do I even begin to explain the reason behind this massive undertaking? Before you you can see the final product of a 22 hour project that I’ve done in the past two days. It looks gorgeous does it not.

The printed version is much more dynamic then the screen copy. The blacks are so much richer and it is 11″ by 15″ instead of 300px by 500px (or something close to that). The fonts are Gill Sans Light, Gill Sans MT Regular, Gill Sans Bold, and Gill Sans Ultra Bold Condensed. I figured it was appropriate since the font is British. (I’m a little lacking in the sleep at the moment so please forgive any lame comments). The type itself is five point and contents quotes by David Tennant himself.

This whole process was an experience. The image you see before you only took 11 hours (nearly straight, breaks only for necessities) but I had a version before that I had to scrap. I thought I was going to go crazy there for a bit. So many words and too much variations in the image. I think this was the first and only time I ever wished that David was bald. (I don’t think that now, however.)

I wanted to see what you guys thought of the piece. The next step from here would be sending a printed version to the man himself, simply to thank him for the work he does. It will be a Christmas present.

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Ten things you need to know about the new Portal

December 4, 2009 at 1:23 am (Media, Technology)
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10. Design
The first thing you will notice is that the design layout has completely change. I need to say it now before I randomly break out into hysterics – Frames are dead. I’ve never liked them my self and try to stay as far from them as I can. Iframes are a different story, but frames will be completely wiped out as soon as we hit HTML 5. When that happens frames will no longer be supported. The new layout takes huge advantage of div layers and the likes so that it appears slightly more in sync with the technology of the times.

The colors have altered drastically. Personally the yellow and purple from before made me cringe a bit. No disrespect for who ever did the design, I’m sure it made sense at time…. well maybe not but still. I’m sure in a few years, or even right after the release people will be complaining like crazy about the new stuff. It might take some getting use to but I’m hoping it will be at least be a little bit of an improvement. I chose to hang back from too much color so that the content on the page would have more weight then the actual design. People go to portals to link out to other information or to gain more information. They don’t need a flashy color scheme to distract them from doing that.

lastly things have been modularized so that content can be grouped and found easier. Logins are together, departments are together, searches are together, feeds are together… you get the idea.

9.The Count Down
This is actually a nice little extra feature that was thrown in. The count down as it currently is, counts to the last day of the semester. As time moves on it might change for special events or more then one might be displayed. It just depends on how things turn out.

8. Camera
Everyone knows there is a camera on the Green Space keeping track of our every move. The camera itself has even evolved to offer more functionality.

In the new design a refreshing image will be loaded in the WebCam tab so that you can stock the Green Space… or the performance area… or the softball field. But for now it isn’t the live feed, just a refreshing image. Below it will be a link for you to click and get the real feed with access to the controls of the camera angles.

Everyone thank Thomas for geting that working.

7. Library Chat
Some people are not aware that there is a live chat available for the reference help via meebo. Periodically through the day someone will be maning the meebo chat. Before it was just on the Library’s webpage, so only those who knew about it could find it. Now it has its own area on the portal. The Reference Help Chat drops down to expose the meebo chat so when you need to chat them up, you can.

6.Searches
There are now three searches available on the portal page.

The first is the library search, so that when you are doing research and you need to see if the library has a book you can use, all you have to do is click the link and a search box drops down. No more searching for the library webpage.

The second is the Morningside web search. This means that when you can’t find the information on the portal itself, you can search the whole of the Morningside web site by clicking the link that exposes the search box.

lastly is the google search. You didn’t think we would get rid of that did you? Honestly who do you think we are?

5. Weather, News, Menu, and Event feeds
Once again you will have to thank Thomas for his help on setting the Menu and Events feeds up. I couldn’t have done it without him. They will be in the middle of the page under their own tabs. Now you can know what will be in the caf, what it is like outside, and what is going on on campas or in the world right from the Portal.

4. emergency notification
You will not always see this feature. At the top of the page, when an emergency strikes, there will be a news ticker that appears under the Portal logo. What ever the emergency is and any information you need to know will then scroll across your screen.

3.Banners
Clear at the bottom of the page you might notice an annoying flashing banner. It was made that way for a reason and if you noticed it, then it served its purpose. From now on there will be banner space at the bottom of the portal page for any organization on campus that wants it. You can advertise events your group is doing, or just get the word out about your organization. As of right now I don’t think there will be a limit to the number of banners that can appear down there.

If you ever want to get an ad placed down there, just do as the current banner says and contact Shari Perley-Tramp. Oh, did I mention it is free?

2. Single Log In
So far I’ve had mixed reviews about this feature. Many loved just hitting enter after typing their password and some had their information saved in their browser… well not any more. Now you need to type your information in and then select which site you want to log into, and the information isn’t saved.

But April I like having my information saved so all I have to do is clicked enter!
Um, do you know how bad that is to do. Very. It would be so easy for someone to get their hands on that because you store it in your browser, in fact I could do that right now if I so desired to (which I don’t so no worries there). In the very least it will make you always remember what your password is, so when you aren’t on your own computer you can still log in.

But April I can’t click enter and I won’t remember to do it in the right order!
Well there is a safety in place in case you do click the radio button first. A little alert will pop up saying that you might have forgotten to do something and then return you to your previous browser state. As for the enter feature, for now you may just have to adapt. I know it is a cruel thing to do, but you might be surprised on how quickly you get use to it.

April, all the sites listed are not linked to the login!
This is for several reasons. The main reason Blackboard is not linked up is because very soon that site will be dropped from Morningside campus. Next year to be precise, so there really wasn’t much of a reason to link everything in and then have to undo it. I just thought it would need to be there for those who still need it before it disappears.

1. Evolution never stops
If there is something you don’t like, don’t panic we aren’t done. Even now, ideas on what could be done are being flung around. This isn’t the final product by any means. It is an evolving process and we would love to hear your input. If you have an issue let us know and if it seems others are having the same problem then something will be done about it.

So leave a comment here on what you think of the new design when you see it. How you you have done it? What do you want changed? What do you really like about it? This is all for you and if you don’t like it then we’ve done something wrong. We want to give you something that you will enjoy using, so leave a comment.

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Cancer Awarness

November 13, 2009 at 7:53 pm (Art)
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CancerPosterFinal

I’ve been meaning to do a post for a while now. I know that doesn’t excuse my lack of interaction, but I’m here now. I’ve got an exciting even to promote.

My roommates and I are hosting a cancer awareness clinic this coming Tuesday on campus. It will be from 4:30 to 6:30 next to the cafeteria. If you are on campus you should come and learn about cancer screenings and how to help out with different cancer awareness organizations.

As you can tell my job for the clinic was mostly advertisements, hence the poster. I love the way parts of it turn out, but given more time I would have given it some more fine tuning.

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10 in wine glasses

April 22, 2009 at 4:50 pm (Art)
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I know it has been way to long, and for that I am sorry. I thought I would make it up to you by showing you my favorite project this year. The idea was that we had to shoot a series of objects. I took it one step further and did a series of ideas. In this case the ideas were the 10 commandments.

How this happened was, I had been wanting to do wine glasses for a while now but I needed an idea to put them with. I’ve wanted to try something like this ever since I first found Dave Nitsche’s work. I wanted to make people think I guess.

We also had to do 10 pictures and that number sparked the idea of the 10 commandments. What would they look like in wine glasses… Concept moment. Then I just ran with it.

So can you tell what each on is?

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Cupid

April 3, 2009 at 5:19 am (Media)
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I don’t know if you have heard, but there is a new show on ABC that just premiered for the first time this Tuesday. It was entitled ‘Cupid‘. It tells the story of a man who may, or may not be cupid. At least he believes he is and must connect 100 couples in true love before he will be allowed back to Mount Olympus.

The thing is, I love Greek mythology and by extension Roman mythology as well. My favorite story of all is that of Eros and Psyche, Eros of course being the Greek name for Cupid (Cupid being the Roman name). I’ve been seeing commercials and ads for this show for a while and was dieing to see what it was all about. I wanted to see how much of the Greco Roman ideals played into the story.

Imagine my surprise when I was browsing through SideReel last week, when I found out that ‘Cupid‘ is actually a remake. Global had the show in 1998.  It only featured 15 episodes before it  was canceled, but here was my in to the possible  direction of the new show.

I felt so lucky when I found a place with all 15 episodes. I loved them.  Jeremy Piven, who played cupid was amazing. I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home. Why? Well because he was such a babbler and I loved it. His references to pop culture and others things was great (even if they are over ten years old now). Plus you can’t imagine how many familiar faces I saw guest starting on the show. It was ridiculous.

What was even better was the dynamic between Cupid, a.k.a Trevor Hale, and his doctor Dr. Clair Allen (this is a psych doctor who usually deals with couples and people with relationship issues). They were great together. Always some kind of banter going on. I started to wonder how different the new show was going to be.

Guess what, I now have my answer. Besides the fact that Trevor Hale is now Trevor Pierce (though the name originated from the same place in both shows; the saying behind the judges at his release hearing), the good Doctor and Trevor remain very much the same. Most of the first episode is similar to that of the original pilot, at least there was a lot of very familiar dialog between Clair and Trevor. Of course there is some, okay quite a few, minor differences. The dynamics and basics are the same. I even laughed at the fact that the beads are back. (the beads are what keeps track of how many couples Cupid/Trevor has hooked up – and remember it only counts if it is true love).

What remained the same was Clair and Trevor. Their personalities are still intact, kudos to Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson (who I was just, oddly enough, watching in ‘American Gothic’ before I heard about any of this – but that is another story in it of itself). I felt myself falling to the familiar routine. In both versions Clair leads a Singles group to help singles deal with the fact that they are single, and try and find ways to help them deal with that or learn to find the right match. The location for this group is vastly different. The original took place in Chicago. The newer one now takes place in New York city. Some how that really doesn’t surprise me. But in both plot lines, Trevor and his Cupid identity becomes the focus of Clair’s next book.

Trevor is no bum on the street though. He works at a bar. The old bar was just a regular bar, but the new one is of course a karaoke bar (duh!). And his room mates are vastly different. The 1998 version has him rooming with the bouncer at the club, an aspiring African American Actor. The 2009 version has him with the bar owner, a Mexican American. Both are dragged into helping Trevor with his match making schemes. The switch for the both the bar and the room mate I believe is the sign of the time we now live in. Karaoke is all the rage right now and we are more caught up int he Mexican issue now while it was the African American issue then.

And finally, the plot for both pilots were slightly different (though in both Trevor screws up with his hook up, cuz hello… no story otherwise). In the original Trevor hooks up one of the singles from the group with a guy he sees in his bar that he thinks would be perfect. They hit it off of course… but of course he just happens to be married. In Tuesday’s pilot Trevor is working with an Irish man looking for an American he meet while working (she was on holiday). He of course is running around on an expired visa. To get the word out he gets a single from the group to write his story for his paper… and with that I say no more – WATCH!

All in all, I am going to be keeping my eyes opened on this show.

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Bleed

March 27, 2009 at 1:04 am (Art)
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Okay, so this picture needs some explaining. The theme this week was CSI, and by connection, death.

The back story; the young lady in this picture (one of my dearest friends) lost the love of her life a while back. She didn’t take it very well and it landed her in a very abusive relationship. One night she just couldn’t take it anymore. While reminiscing about the past she decided to end it all.

Now originally I was going to have her realize that she was pregnant (I’m not sure who the father was going to be – either one works) and she didn’t want to bring the baby into the world she was now suffering in. I had a hard time getting my hands on a test in time for the shoot so the thought was dropped.

The coloring and the grainy quality give it such a creepy feel.

P.s. I don’t think the guy at the photo counter knew what to think. I had to print it out 20×30 for class so this thing was massive. I would have loved to know the thoughts that were running through his mind.

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Walmart Gang Initiation

March 19, 2009 at 7:45 pm (Thoughts)
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I know I said it would be a while before I put up another post, but this could not wait. You see just a couple of minutes ago I receive to txt forwards, nearly back to back, that need to be discussed.

The forwards simply read this:
Do not go to any walmart tonight. Gang initiation to shoot 3 women tonight. Not surewhich walmart. And confired on tv.

bad grammar and all. My initial reaction was panic for myself and friends who frequent Walmart often. We are college students after all. I needed to let them know. Then I had to stop myself and actually think. I never send forwards. Forwards by their very nature usually cause me to question the validity of the information. Why had I jumped the gun on this one? Simply because if true it could be horrendous.

I had a computer right on my lap. Now was the time to use it. So I did. Google is amazing that way. Right away several stories came up and caught my eye (after I got past the first few ‘fake’ sights that just wanted to put viruses on my computer). What I found confirmed my final suspicions.

The first one was By David Emery from About.com who has been a Guide to Urban Legends since 1997. His headline was simply this:
Police: Walmart Gang Initiation Rumors Are False
And it contained a forward much like mine. The date stamp, yesterday. I was inclined to believed that my friends and I had just been duped. It is amazing how txt can spiral out from one area and just flood from place to place. Someone always knows someone from someplace else and they in turn tell their friends…. and it just flashes out.

I wasn’t going to stop there however. What researcher really does? I had to see if others were coming up with the same information. And guess what, I did. This time it came from the Galveston Town County Daily News.

Gang shootings at Wal-Mart
That is all the head line said. I started reading in and thought for just a second that maybe this time the forward was true, but then like before it was label as false. It had come from a valid source but that valid source had not checked before scaring the masses. Once again the it was date stamped yesterday. So it was recent.

It was in this reading that I learned that this forward, or some version of it, had been around since 2005. 2005! I mean really?! And no one has caught on? Even as I typed this another friend forwarded the same txt. When did we start believing everything we came across.

My final stop in my research was aver the history of this forward. I ended up here, Wal-Martyred, and the email and txt history came to light. It even gave some of the emails that circulated around.

I guess the real issue that really set me off about this forward was that there was no real locality mentioned. It didn’t give a state, or city, it just said watch out. Txt can come from anyone one and anywhere and so I didn’t know if it really applied to me.

I guess it doesn’t, does it.

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A small look

March 18, 2009 at 12:42 am (Art)
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So it has been a while, and I am truly sorry for that. I got so excited about spring break, then actually got to be on spring break, and then had to come back… Lets just say I got side tracked.

This post theme is abstractions. I loved how these ones turned out. Slightly aged and slightly creepy.

Heads up, I might not have more for a few weeks. It depends on how well I get my concept mapped out.

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Sisters

February 13, 2009 at 8:00 pm (Art)
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I know I’m a little late this week, but It has been crazy. MacBeth opens in less then a week (this Wednesday actually) and I don’t know if I’m ready for it just yet. Don’t really have a choice though. :)

So this week was all about close personal relationships. I shot two of my friends how are enough like sisters (they get that comment often). I also call it the “My Imaginary Friend” series because the one makes the claim that she make up the other as an imaginary friend and everyone else is just using her as well. She isn’t real. Don’t you just love friends.

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Tennant and the Internet

February 5, 2009 at 3:53 pm (Hodge-Podge, Technology, Thoughts)
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Guys, as much as I love the fact that people can be so innocent and excitable, you must take everything with a grain of salt. This is the internet, you never know what you are really getting unless you scratch hard enough to get under the surface. It is just that most people don’t.

I myself would be thrilled to be contacted by an idol, but I always know that this is most likely not going to happen. If it did, I probably would think it a jerk impersonator first, and then only believe it after going through a million channels of info to confirm.

I’m not saying to become cynical or anything, just be smart. Do I really need to go into a dialog about ‘Stranger Danger’ ? Cuz you know I just might.

Thanks littleradge for the video!

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