Collaborate on Design/Artifact:

For my portion of the group project I designed an Ad for the Marble Factory. It can be used for something large like a bus bench, exterior or interior on a bus or a small Ad that could be printed in a portion or a half page in a magazine or even used for an Ad online.

To begin this project I used a photo from Jordan’s photo shoot that Ward also used for the website. Karen had created a logo that the group liked and so I added that next. She used the Impact font for the logo and I thought it looked nice for the additional text.

Karen also helped me get started designing in Microsoft Word as I had not used it for that purpose before. She showed me how to find a template and suggested I crop the photo.

I liked the way the counter in the photo pointed inward and toward the corner tub area. I think the photo also has some nice contrasting features.  I think the vase on the counter is very complementary to emphasizing the sculpted marble as it reminds me of a giant marble and the shine on it is similar to the marble, so I believe this uses the law of similarity. I think the shadows and reflections also make this photo interesting.

We used the maroon font color because it is one of the theme colors the company uses and prefers.

 I chose to put the text to the right of the photo as that was a suggested design for an ad on a website. Perhaps the horizontal nature of it is more calming. I used the Rule of Thirds both horizontally and vertically. The Photo takes approximately 2/3 of the page leaving 1/3 for most of the information. This also gives an asymmetrical balance. I also prevented negative space from being completely centered horizontally.

I wanted to emphasize the website address or keep it from blending in with the other text, as this will be the part of the campaign the business is most excited about adding.

 If I wouldn’t have centered the text vertically it would have caused too much noise. When I added the maroon text onto the photo it did not look like the right color, so I felt this too caused noise I did not want. White text seemed too bright, so a color between white and the marble hue was selected.

 I also felt the three locations needed group boxes to communicate separation. Perhaps the Law of Pragnanz was used to simplify the possibility of confusion. It also seemed more harmonious.

I was also asked to check on some advertising prices. I had a difficult time speaking with someone directly from St. George but I found some general pricing online.

An Ad for the exterior of a bus typically costs $135-$500. Size of Bus makes a difference. An example is $140 for a 24 seat bus for 6 weeks.

Magazine Ads can be very expensive but a local magazine with 1000 readers for a fraction of a page costs less than $100.  1/2 page in Country Living negotiated price is $5,160 down from $27,098.

Digital/Social Media Ad: $1-$2 for 1000 views on Facebook.

Mis-en-Scene:

 Our group was encouraged to choose a scene from Fight Club. We chose to focus on “Jack’s Smirking Revenge”.  I chose to look at what the Art Director does. The Art Director’s roll is to supervise and unify the vision. This is done by: Overall visual appearance or how it communicates visually, how the mood is stimulated, contrasts features and psychologically appeals to a target audience.

Psychologically the target audience will likely find this scene appealing because the underdog employee gets the best of his boss here. It is also appealing because the frustrated employee is finally confronting this corporation about its liabilities. The humorous part is that he is trying to blackmail his boss with this, in other words; he wants a paycheck for keeping his mouth shut and he plans to not come into the office anymore.

The scene starts out with the protagonist coming to the manager’s office to request some changes. This manager didn’t come to the employee’s cubicle; it is bold on this employee’s part. He is not looking very properly dressed for work, he is wearing an off white dress shirt that is not pressed and he isn’t wearing a tie. The boss is immediately condescending. Jack however has become more confident and isn’t showing any fear by the boss’s threats and intimidation. Even after he said “you’re fired” Jack calmly said “I have a better plan”.

The manager becomes even more upset with the plan and stands to call security. While making the call Jacks hand starts to shake and the audience has time to wonder what he is going to do. Surprisingly Jack starts beating himself up! The boss is very startled by this and drops the phone to walk over to see if Jack is still alive after throwing himself backwards onto a glass coffee table that completely shatters. But Jack gets up with just a little blood from his nose. Then he acts as if someone is grabbing him and looks back at the black shelves with awards, photos of family and other decorations and then throws himself backwards; completely shattering the glass on the middle section of shelves. Blood is now profusely flowing down his face, on his hands and arms. After catching his breath he rolls onto the plush green sofa with contrasting shattered glass and messy blood and then rolls down to crawl over to his boss. Here he grabs the bosses hands, getting blood all over them and pleads for him to send the paychecks as he requested. Then Security opens the door and Jack acts very relieved that they are there and it seems that the boss has done the beating. To end, Jack is whistling with a smirk and blood still on his face pushing a cart with everything he may have wanted from his desk as other employees observe. Then the narration describes that he will get the paychecks he wanted and that he plans to use the money for fight club. I believe the Gestalt Principle,Closure was used here. I find it hard to believe the office kept a shopping cart for employees to move there things out. I have never seen that before in movies anyway, but we as an audience accepted this gap because we liked it, and mostly it was the objects in the cart that were emphasized.

I was curious about the large amount of green in this scene, but had trouble finding commentary from the Art Director Chris Gorak. I did find some meanings behind color used in film that I could only guess what green might imply here. Some ideas are: Inexperience, as the boss was obviously inexperienced in how to deal with an employee beating himself up violently. It also could mean that the boss had a proud and unchanging nature. It also could have been a renewal for the employee. From another site about meanings of color the green could be about finance, material wealth and the business world.

 Contrast-wise green is the opposite color of red as in the red blood that stood out very well on the green carpet. Green also signifies peace, but this seems to contrast with the film as it is a fight movie. The warm cozy lights that were on in the scene that gave a yellow cast made me wonder if this was to contrast the violence going on.The black shelves were quite dark compared to the light green in the room as well.

There were only a few other colors in this scene. A lot of grey and silver were there. Dark films usually use a lot of grey. Silver can signify riches. Black can mean power and no. Yellow can mean deceit. White can mean yes, which is what the protagonist wore. There were little touches of orange on the shelves which can signify humor. There was definitely some humor in this scene.
Other design elements used in the scene were the Rule of Thirds as one third of the shelves got demolished by the protagonist which became a popular image for the film. This setting was also symmetrical as there were even amounts of shelves on each side of the broken section. Other furnishings in the room were also symmetrically placed such as two lamps on the sides of the shelves, two sofas facing each other and a desk across the room facing the shelves.

Though I feel the green color somewhat goes along with ideas in the film, I have since found out that Director David Fincher uses certain color effects as his signature in film.

Favorite Director: I'm having great difficulty choosing ONE favorite Director! Out of about 30 favorite films only a few came up more than once. I tend to favor Romantic Comedies but my favorite Dramas probably carry more weight. Then there is quantity and variety and the movies that are closest to my heart. I really can't choose just one but for the assignment I guess I'll go with quantity and variety. That is Robert Zemeckis.

Compose Frame: I'm hoping my photo of the Seine River will qualify for the assignment. The main buildings that are in view are in the upper left corner which is a golden mean area. It's reflection is in the lover left side third. Added together is likely a vertical vector that is architectural. I believe the motion goes toward the center as the lights on the close buildings and their reflection causes index as it forms a large arrow pointing toward a horizontal line of lights in the background. The combination of these lights is more of a horizontal vector. The buildings and reflection also seem to point toward the right side third, a little past center.

Design Presentation: I choose Harney & Sons Teas because even though I do not drink tea I wanted to buy this product just for the packaging! The colors are slightly different at Target than this photo, but the label is the same. I seriously wanted to buy every color! I don't know if very many people get excited about antique looking tins but they are very nostalgic to me. It may be because my Mom collected a few antique tins and I admired them very much.

 If I look close at the design on the tin I feel that closure is used as the decoration on all four corners creates a type of border. This border looks very English oriented at a close glance; It reminds me of a decoration on a crown as there is a yellow star or jewel effect in the top middle and it looks like a cross below that and then flowers like angle wings out to the side. It says English Breakfast on what looks like an ornamental or Victorian wood sign. The font is European, or a French Old style called Monotype Goudy Bold. There is a radial effect as a circle is the center of interest and everything is symmetrical. The small triangles radiating out from the circle could represent cogs in a watch which probably means tea time.



So, after becoming very excited about Harney & Sons  packaging it meant I had to find a tea package I didn't like.  Unfortunately I choose:

I apologize to those who like it. The problem I have with this package is that it reminds me of canned seafood or more specifically Crown Prince.