Blog Assignment 6

Web Typography is a way to use and display font on the web. To allow web designers to specify fonts, weights, and colors, Netscape introduced the <font> tag in 1995, which was then standardized in the HTML 2 specification. However, the exact font named had to be installed on the user’s computer, or a fallback font, such as sans-serif or monospace, would be used. The CSS1 specification was published in 1996 and provided the same capabilities. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_typography)

Typography for the Web has come a long way since Tim Berners-Lee flipped the switch in 1991. Back in the days of IE 1.0, good web typography was something of an oxymoron. Today things are different. Not only do we have browsers that support images (gasp!), but we have the opportunity to make our web pages come to life through great typography. First, it’s worth noting that Typography is not just about choosing a font, or even distinguishing one typeface from another. In recent experiments, trained monkeys were able to correctly identify Helvetica 90% of the time. (http://ilovetypography.com/2008/02/28/a-guide-to-web-typography/)

Web fonts is a technique where fonts are downloaded off the web server whenever a user requests a page. This ensures that the fonts specified by the web designer are available to the user, which allows web designers to use fonts which aren’t widely installed. This technique was first specified in the CSS2 specification, which used the @font-face rule.

It is controversial because using the font as part of a web page also allows the font to be freely downloaded. This could result in fonts being used against the terms of their license or be illegally spread through the web.

Font embedding is not widely used on the web, but with the releases of Firefox 3.5, Opera 10 and Safari 3.1, its usage is expected to increase. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_typography)

I think the future of web typography is safe, it will continue to be used by present and future web designers. Except for this thing called EOT, it is said that it is dead and gone. I do not know what EOT is, but typography will continue to be used in creating web sites and displaying a web designers talent to combine art and text together.

Blog Assignment 5

The psychology of color is very useful in the world; it can help to send a positive or negative message, encourage sales, calm a crowd, or make an athlete pump iron harder. (http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html)

Color can be used to help make a company logo more eye catching, more noticeable to a customer or a client. It also helps to improve web site design, the cover of a book, or the package of a product. Talk about a logo of a company and the image might just pop up right in your head, like Campbells. (http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html)

Color has meaning, like if you choose to make a logo, what colors will you choose to go with your logo design, and will the colors you choose match with the logo design. Will the colors’ meaning match with the logo you created to sell or to present to a client. Understand the meaning of the colors and the colors you pick will work well with any design you create.

Create a logo for a water bottle, you have the image drawn out, next you choose the colors that will work well with it. Like different colors of blue; blue is calm, peace, relax, restful, and tranquility. Also put in some light clear colors and there you have it. A water bottle logo that means it is refreshing and relaxing.

The current blend tool allows you to see the many different types of color blends you can create and use for any design, and it’s pretty cool to use . Very useful, the edit active color lets you go from one color to the next, different shades of any color. I think that tool is okay, it’s basically the same thing you use in either Adobe photoshop or illustrator. These are but a few of the many tools to use when working with color and I like the results these tools show me, and it helps when I am looking for the right colors to work.

Blog Assignment 4

Web design, it has been used to improve a web page and make it more interesting. Web design has allowed artists to show their work on the internet for all to see.  “Web design has come a long way from the grey backgrounds and blue and purple links of just a few short years ago. CSS and maturing browsers are allowing designers to create beautiful sites. So what’s the next level for web designers, how can web design improve further? Maybe designers should be thinking and acting a little more like art directors.”

(http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/31/art-direction-taking-web-design-to-the-next-level/)

Art directing is just the same as web designing, creating a web page to look the way the designer wants it to be. “The art director will call the shots, working with illustrators, designers, copywriters and artists who may be responsible for creating different elements of the whole design, to develop and bring ideas to life.”

(http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/31/art-direction-taking-web-design-to-the-next-level/)

Working hard to create such amazing pieces of work to display on the web to have people visit those sites and comment what they think about the design of the web page. “Right now, on the web, there are some really fabulous experimental designers out there already doing this, often for personal sites and portfolios.”

(http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/31/art-direction-taking-web-design-to-the-next-level/)

I like the idea about being a art director, gives you the feeling that you know what you are doing and the right to decide what you think is best to put in the final layout of the web page. I find it all very fascinating and would not mind to know more about art directing, I think I could get use to being the boss. Also working along side other designers who have ideas that could improve a web design.

Blog Assignment 3

I liked the tutorial Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch. It was cool, how the designer put together the image in the background to make the text look more fantastic and eye catching. Some of the lights looked like it was neon lights in motion, as if alive.  I did not see anything I did not like, except for the text it did not show up right, the text was too small and was barely readable. In the end, I liked to know how the designer put that awesome background in and to have such a cool effect.

I liked the tutorial Create a Dark Themed Web Design from Scratch. In this tutorial, the designer starts off with something simple and then slowly works the way up. The background is black, and then adds some light in the background and it lights the background up. Adds some simple colors to make it more interesting. I like this tutorial because the designer works with both light and dark, to make it look more like twilight to me.

Design a Cartoon Grunge Web site Layout, this tutorial I like very much. In this tutorial, the designer shows how to add cartoon characters and place them in the right place to display on a web page. I like this one the most because I love cartoons, even japanese anima. All the colors and how each character is different shapes and sizes, is what I like the most about this tutorial is how to bring together these different characters. Also this tutorial explains how to make it look like a scrape book or a sketch book that was just up together. I say this designer really is a fantastic artist.

Assignment 2

Everyone all around the world have been using the internet to do all kinds of different functions; write up programs, holding data, and help businesses keep track of important information. In 1969, the internet was created, but back then it was not being used to communicate with other people yet, not until 1975.  (ethan zuckerman history of the internet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2QdEj8UjBc).

Back in the 1960′s, the United States government’s Department of Defense was working on a project that to create a non-centralized network designed to survive partial outages (ie. nuclear war) and still function when parts of the network were down or destroyed. This project was called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), created by the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency established in 1969 to provide a secure and survivable communications network for organizations engaged in defense-related research. According to what the text says this project of the government was to ensure that if something went wrong and could not start to work again, the rest of the system would still keep on working.  (http://wdvl.internet.com/Internet/History/)

In 1990′s, the web had blossomed and expanded. HTML has extened in a number of ways that the web depends on Web page authors and vendors sharing the same conventions for HTML. These differernt people help to keep the web working and add new information for others to see. (http://wdvl.internet.com/Internet/History/)

To think the internet was so small back then, and then grows into this big system everyone in the world can use to look up information, talk to each other online, and add information of their own to share. The web has changed so much over the years, how much more can it change or veen improved, only time will tell.

Assignment 1

My goals are to do the best I can in this class and learn all I can about web design. Web design is new to me, so I’m just getting use to it. But I’m a quick to learn new stuff if show how to do it right without making too many mistakes. With web design I hope to show all my work on the internet to those who wish to see what I can do. My plan is to work hard and to do my best because I’m use to just drawing an image on a piece of paper rather than putting it on a computer screen. This class, is required to help me get my degree in graphic design and from this class I we learn to post my work on the internet, to see what people think about my work, and to respond to people’s ideas about my artwork. Posting my artwork, talking to other people through blogging, and knowing how to do all of this is what interests me the most about web design. To me this is all interesting and fun to do, it not just schoolwork, instead it is a new way for a artist to show their talent. This is what I like the most about this class and I hope that I will show more of my work to everyone who what’s to see what types of artwork I have to show.

Ex. 4 web hosting questions

My domain name is MLJsFanstasyDesigns.com, I choose this name to better tell what my interest is. For example, what I like to draw the most, ideas that come from my fantasy. Using my creative thinking and coming up with whole new ideas for cartoons, and comic book characters is way more fun. I also like to make people laugh,  have a good time, and to help them to remember to have some fun every once in a while.

I tried many different types of domain names but none of them would work, until this domain name worked, and plus I like this one way better than the others. This domain name bests describes me and what I like to draw the most in my spare time. The other domain names I chose before my final choice were not good enough to use. Either the computer told me that someone else has that domain name or, it just is not long enough.

This web hosting plan worked for me to help with my class assignments and to show my work in progress.

Yes. I went with this plan because it allowed me to log in and post my work without too many problems, and it showed everything as it should look.

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