IDAT 107: Know what standards you'd need to go for, not veer off course! And also, about the originality of design

As the marks for my last two assignments came back, I now know about the true meaning of a design theme, like for instance, I know know that the true meaning of a web 2.0 logo is something that is completely lower-case, mine didn't feel that way. Although at least I did something modern, maybe I was a bit too vague about the definition (at least in terms of what trends are being done in the world of web 2.0). It's like saying that if something calls for a Disney theme, I'd have to include something that is Disney. I saw an example of compliance in the shape of an electricity pylon that is within the limits of Walt Disney World; the designers knew that the juxtaposition of WDW with the highway meant that they should captivate it, so they designed it in the shape of the silhouette of Mickey Mouse, which in terms of when doing something Disney in specifications, it always ticks all the boxes!

In addition to standards, originality also has to be considered too. During the 3D design part of the coursework, drawing teapots similar to the famous Utah teapot isn't what many consider in the world to be something that is original, because the idea has already been taken, even though my object originally called for something that resembles some kind of teapot (but with a barrel instead of a spout, and a lot more added to it), I had to take it into account that just that isn't going to get me the high esprit-de-corps of originality, so what I decided to do, is create a more surrealistic object, that captivates the spirit of famous surrealists Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, whilst at the same time takes it to a whole new level, kind of like thinking about the windmills of Don Quijote, but making it more literal, and illustrative of one of my favourite design themes, especially since I've done works of something similar at school, I became enamoured of it, and decided to use it to effect in order to have something that I at least have savoir faire in, rather than vaguely presume that it is surrealisim, as it was demonstrated in the digital signature.

IDAT 107: Digital signature

During the course of a few weeks, we've been doing some Adobe Illustrator stuff. Part of our assignment is to design a digital signature by using fonts, scaling and colours but without stretching or distorting it.

For my digital signature, I have decided to use the font Myriad Pro because this represents my personality as very creative, clean, modern and minimalistic, which is kind of like Apple Inc.'s usage of the font throughout their products, literature and communication. The Norman part of the signature is emphasised in light-blue because it represents the modern-ness of the world and the Web 2.0 generation, which many people can relate to. Also, the 'A's are set in italic because this adds to the effect of the signature, and also highlights the difference between the double-storey 'A's of regular/bold and the script 'A's of italic/bold-italic.

IDAT 108: Most interesting debate ever? You be the judge

Today's seminar was interesting; we were debating about the morality of guns and whether or not it's either the person or the gun that does the killing. Despite today straying a bit off topic (given that it was supposed to be DAT and not a pro/anti-weapons forum), I came up with interesting points during the debate. Next week will see us starting to get ready for the big type (in other words, the essay!) which will bring back the golden days of writing excellent essays that managed to get me such a high grade in English back in secondary school. There's no doubt that later in the day in IDAT 107 we will get busy with my favourite part of Adobe's wonderful Creative Suite series, Illustrator! That's all for now folks!