More Inspiration

For my series of promoting locally grown food, I found these images that fit with the idea I had in mind, especially the Time magazine one because I had worked with that idea before. I found these images by simply Googling the phrase "local food" and two of them are from my inspirational websites.

Informative Series Inspiration

For the informative series I want to promote the benefits of buying local food. The website foodroutes.org gives many reasons to buy locally grown food. Here's a couple reasons why:

• You'll get exceptional taste and freshness - Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries.
• You'll strengthen your local economy - Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community. Getting to know the farmers who grow your food builds relationships based on understanding and trust.

 

Another informative poster I found is localharvest.org, which also promotes local food and why local is better. So why buy local? Most produce in the US is picked 4-7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taken into account only US products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places.  

Check out the rest of these websites for more reasons and information!

Revised Persuasive Poster

I spent a lot of time working on the tomatoes to make the ones on the vine look happy and 3D, while also making the one with the gas mask fit the same style. In the first draft the two groups of tomatoes were not working together, and the supporting text did not explain what the gas was. I edited the paragraph and played with the positioning of the headline text. I feel that the poster is now easily readable and draws the viewer in, but the bottom block of text still feels unresolved.

Persuasive Poster

For the persuasive poster assignment, we were to choose a topic from the WIRED article "Why Things Suck" and design a black and white poster that promotes the problem. I chose the topic of tomatoes because I did a similar assignment last semester, so I am familiar with the issue. The article was about how tomatoes are imported when not in season, which in turn causes them to be tasteless. Locally grown food always tastes better. My poster features tomatoes grown on the vine, and tomatoes ripened in a warehouse. The phrase "on the vine its fine... on the gas just pass!" gets the viewers attention, then at the bottom of the poster an explanation of what the phrase really means is given. The website www.thecitycook.com was informative and gave me background information about my topic.

Graphic Design That Works

Here are the slides for my PowerPoint presentation on Graphic Design That Works:

Ideas, Inspiration, Brainstorm

After flipping through Graphic Design That Works, I wanted to include some of the pieces in the book that I found interesting, such as the classic CBS eye logo and the history of Levi's 501 Jeans. For the design template, I originally was going to have each slide the same, but had trouble organizing the slide with the text and image. Also, the book did not have a consistent layout throughout the book so I decided my presentation would also have different layouts. The color palette is mostly pastels in the book, so the background colors of my slides is based on the colors used in the book.

Personal Critique

I feel that my presentation not only contains all the necessary information required for the assignment, but also reflects the style of the book. For instance, the book uses all sans serifs but has a variety of layouts, has a pastel color palette, and effectively uses white space. I paid close attention to make sure these were reflected in my presentation as well. I tried to keep my slides simple and not overwhelming. Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my presentation, considering I designed everything in PowerPoint and had never designed anything in that application for a design class before.

Book Review

The first assignment we were given was an informational book review. We each chose a book to use as a reference and inspiration for class. We then had to create a PowerPoint Presentation about the book and its contents. The presentation should also reflect the book visually. I chose the book Graphic Design That Works: Secrets for Successful Logo, Magazine, Brochure, Promotion, and Identity Design, by the Rockport Publishers. This book has a lot of process work and tells what works about a given design. Each section tells who the client is, the designer, the process, and what works. Also tips from the expert are given in the Promotion Design section, classic logos are displayed in the Logo Design section, and other various featured sections.