Week 15 - Designer Comparision

The two artists/designers that I am going to compare are Stan Lee (creator and designer of many marvel comics and characters) and George Lois (designer of over 92 Esquire magazine covers).

Stan Lee
Craft - Stan Lee typically created all of his comics with pens and paper, he simply outlined the characters and text for each page with a black pen, then he eventually went back and added color to each page. None of his comics were computer generated, they were all hand drawn and colored by him and his team of designers at Marvel. His comics might have been copied and reprinted but the original copies were hand drawn. He was a master at coming up with ideas for characters or story plots. Which means not only did he draw most of his original characters himself but he also came up with the concept or background of each character too.
Composition - I believe he arranged the elements of his comics the way he did to show the reader the intensity of the comic and to show the actual superhero that the comic was about. With a well designed cover, a viewer can get an overall view of what that issue they were holding was all about and that would bring the viewer in to read the actual comic. Stan Lee was very good at capturing the reader's attention with just the cover art.
Concept - What Stan Lee liked to draw and create were superheros that were everyday average people at first then they would gain superpowers through a certain situation. Which showed that anyone can be a hero and you never know what might happen. Also in his comics, he liked to portray real life crime and problems to get people to relate to the victims and such and get them more involved in the comics, more than just reading it.

Stan Lee
(http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2008/04/stan_lee_580x.jpg)

Stan Lee's Marvel comic, The Avengers
(http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/4/6429-2128-7025-1-avengers-the_super.jpg)

George Lois
Craft - George Lois created his magazine covers by typically finding an image or other magazine cover that he wanted to model his cover after and go from there. He would then take an image of the main person or idea that he was trying to communicate and work that into the image of the other magazine or object to make it his own and to get his point across.
Composition - I believe he arranged the elements of his magazine covers the way he did to show the deeper meaning he was trying to get across and see how people would react. He probably wanted the viewer to see the original image of the certain person or idea first then look at it and see how it compares to other magazines and see how he is typically making fun or making a parody of those other magazines.
Concept - George Lois is trying to communicate how he is making a parody of a particular situation or person and how he doesn't care much for that person or idea the original magazine had on its cover. He is always trying to show the truth and seriousness and maybe a little humor behind each image or cover he creates. People have gotten upset with some of his ideas and magazine covers, but he still does what he knows best and those people can't stop him from expressing himself.

George Lois
 (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/shared/npr/201203/148765598.jpg)

George Lois's Esquire magazine cover of Muhammad Ali
(http://www.moma.org/images/dynamic_content/exhibition_page/18961.jpg?1248103646)

      Overall Stan Lee and George Lois have very different styles when it comes to creating art because one (Lee) creates comic books and the other (Lois) create magazine covers. They also have different styles of craftsmanship such as pen and paper to draw comics and taking actual images and modifying them on a computer. You can't really compare these two artist when it comes to composition because they are in two completely different areas and try to attract two completely different audiences, Lee wants the readers to see the overall comic along with he characters where as Lois wants the viewer to see the person or idea he is trying to portray. Finally when it comes to concept, Lee portrays superheros and extraordinary people with special abilities that help people where as Lois is portraying a parody, most of the time, and showing his disrespect or hatred for a particular person or idea. These are two completely different artists and they each have there own style that makes their artwork unique special in its own way.

Week 14 - 3 online PDFs

     This week in class we changed our indesign file of our magazine into 3 different versions of pdfs: interactive, print(single page), and print(2 page spreads) so that depending on the websites we found to post our magazine online, it would look presentable and easy to read depending on the format each website needed for its upload. Besides sending our magazines out to get printed we wanted to put them online, so other people can view them easily and then they can be up there for future use in other classes. The pdf versions of our magazine look different compared to our original pdf due to the fact that we had to switch it from cmyk to rgb for internet use. The three sites that I uploaded my magazines pdf files to include: issuu.com, youblisher.com and scribd.com. I felt as though these were the best 3 sites and fit out needs better then the other sites out there for hosting pdf files and being able to view them as a book online.

Open publication - Free publishing

<---youblisher.com

http://www.scribd.com/doc/89642397/mwmagweb

Week 13 - Lulu/publishing

     This week in class we finally got our entire magazine put together and packaged and turned into a pdf so we can get it published and eventually printed too. In order to publish our magazines we used a website called lulu.com which made the process very easy and painless. Lulu allows you to publish books and such for free as long as you follow certain guidelines. The website took us step by step to upload our pdf file of our magazine along with the two jpegs we created of our front and back covers. Once we finished all of the steps and completed our magazine, we paid for and ordered 2 copies of it, one for our final project and one for ourselves. Our magazine is now on lulu and can be purchased by anyone who would care to buy a printed version of our magazine. These are just a few screen shots of the publishing process of our magazine.

Week 12 - The Cover

Craft
     For class this week, we had to create our cover for our magazine. Just like the previous spreads I created the cover using Adobe Indesign and the mouse to create the layout along with placing various boxes, text, and images on the front and back cover pages. For the covers I added pictures of road i found online but I modified them and made them my own.

Composition
     For the cover I chose the background images of roads to go along with the title of my magazine, "The Road So Far". There were also a few images in my magazine that i created that deal with cars. The color of the text I used on the cover was based on the color of the background image, to make sure the title and text is readable. I arranged the cover the way I did for easy readability of the title and subtitle and style. The things I want the viewer to see are as follows in order, the main image of the car on the road, the title of the magazine, and finally the smaller text or subtitles to pull the reader into the magazine.

Concept
       The concept of the cover is to make it simple because what I just really want to communicate to the reader what the magazine is about and the different articles that inside the article. I put teaser text of the most interesting articles on the cover to draw the readers attention and make them open the magazine.

The back and front cover pages.

Week 11 - All Magazine Content

Craft
     For class this week, we had to create 20 two-page spreads, which includes the first 10 spreads we already created for last week plus 10 more. Just like the previous spreads I created these using Adobe Indesign and the mouse to create page layouts along with placing various boxes, text, and images on these pages to make content for the magazine. Most of the more recent pages have my art that I created in my Digital Imaging class on them, which I primarily used the programs of Photoshop and Painter.

Composition
     For the remaining pages I chose the color of the background based on the color of the images I put on that page to give it a nice flow or feeling. The color of the text I used on each page was based on the color I chose for the background, to make sure the text is readable. Each page has its own unique layout and setup depending on the pictures and text that go along with each set of images. Each page has a theme to make sure the page flows well and the reader doesn't get lost of confused. I arranged each page the way I did for readability and style. The things I want the viewer to see are as follows in order, the title of each spread, the images on each page, and finally the text or body copy to let the reader understand how I drew or created these objects. I also added a few drop quotes through out the pages to catch the reader's eye and bring them into the article.

Concept
       The concept of these pages is the same as the first spreads. They are simple because what I just really want to communicate to the reader are the steps that go into creating these types of images along with the craft, concept, and composition of these images I created. I also described the reason i created each piece of art the way I did.

The first 2 page spread of my chicago article.

screen shot of the second 2 pages of my chicago article

my about the author and dedication page

my family tree/montage article

Week 10 - Next Step of the Magazine

Craft
     For class this week, we had to create 10 two-page spreads, which includes the first 2 spreads we previously created for last week plus 8 others. Just like the previous spreads I created these using Adobe Indesign and the mouse to create page layouts along with placing various boxes, text, and images on these pages to make content for the magazine. After I created as many spreads as I could using all of my art I previously created in this class, I went to the art I created in my Digital Imaging class, which primarily uses the programs of Photoshop and Painter.

Composition
     For the remaining pages I chose the color of the background based on the color of the images I put on that page to give it a nice flow or feeling. The color of the text I used on each page was based on the color I chose for the background, to make sure the text is readable. Each page has its own unique layout and setup depending on the pictures and text that go along with each set of images. Each page has a theme to make sure the page flows well and the reader doesn't get lost of confused. I arranged each page the way I did for readability and style. The things I want the viewer to see are as follows in order, the title of each spread, the images on each page, and finally the text or body copy to let the reader understand how I drew or created these objects.

Concept
       The concept of these pages is the same as the first 2 spreads. They are simple because what I just really want to communicate to the reader are the steps that go into creating these types of images along with the craft, concept, and composition of these images I created.

A 2-page spread about my shade images I created.

A 2-page spread about variations of my shaded cup image I created.

A 2-page spread about an image of my Grandparents that I fixed with the use of Photoshop.

Week 9 - Starting the Magazine

Craft
      This week we began our final project which happens to be a magazine with any piece of artwork we have created which includes everything we have previously done in this class. We can also include other student's artwork in our magazine as long as we make sure we give them credit for their art. So far for this project we only had to create 2 two-page spreads or 1 four-page spread. We are creating our magazines with the use of the Adobe product Indesign, which makes the creation of a magazine easier. The steps to begin a magazine include creating a new document with the set amount of pages that you desire to add to your magazine. After you get all set up, you can go to the master pages and add any details you would want to be expressed on each page by adding it to these pages such as a border, background color, or page number. I used several different tools while using Indesign to create boxes and layouts for the different pages, along with adding text, pictures, and other such items all with the mouse.

Composition
           For the first two pages I created them the way I did with the black background to make the images and variations of the car image I drew to stand out and go well with the orange border around the page considering the car in the image is orange and black. I also used white text throughout these two pages because I feel as though it is easier to read with plain white text and not some color that might be difficult to see or read. On the first two pages I added both the original image and my final draft of my shape object to show accurate my drawing is compared to the original. On the second set of pages I put up a few of the variation pictures i created along with the matrix of those images to show how the color and brush stroke changes from picture to picture. When people look at my magazine, I want them to first see the big orange title at the top of the first page, so they know what that article is about. Secondly I would like the readers to look at the images I added which would then transition into the captions of the images. Finally I want the view to go into the actual text/body copy and read the article and what these images and pages are actually about.

Concept
       The concept of these pages is fairly simple because what I just really want to communicate to the reader are the steps that go into creating these types of images along with the craft, concept, and composition of these images I created.
 

The first two pages of my first 4-page spread of my magazine.

The second two pages of my first 4-page spread of my magazine.