Month / September 2015

by Breeana

Reading Response “Doesn’t Exist…”

Would creating an online form to access information globally abolish/devalue careers in writing/ journalism?

 

 

I agree with a lot of the articles point about how Internet is the most prominent way of sharing information; and I agree that knowledge should be free and accessible to anyone. When Goldsmith starts going on about how publishing houses don’t make authors rich, I agree- to an extent. Publishing a book today definitely does not make someone rich, but if everything that was ever published becomes available on the web, writing as a career would be devalued considerably. This means that anyone can write anything. Who’s deciding if it’s a credible source? Who has time to sift through loads of articles to find real information?

 

The reason a book gets published is because that piece of work underwent intensive creating and editing in order to be chosen as a worthy piece of knowledge to publish and put into the world. If the world of blogs and books mix, there will be an information overload on the Internet, and people will either have trouble differentiating, or not care enough to differentiate. Making the Internet a primary source for information seems a little unstable. When I walk into Barnes & Noble and pick up a book, I can be assured that this book went through hell and back in order to be placed onto that table; making it a valuable, reliable source. If society gets used to posting a thought on the web and calling it knowledge, the entire concept of knowledge will be devalued.

 

In an ideal world everyone would use the Internet for searching information because of interest/ research, but unfortunately the Internet is often abused. I also am incredibly bias because I’m a Literary Studies major at Lang, so books are my friends.

by Fernanda

Web Designer Profile

Interaction Designer

ANTHONY GOODWIN

https://www.behance.net/DesignEmbraced

http://www.designembraced.com/

 

Questions:

  1. Goodwin works in a variety of areas, from sports companies, like Nike, until video-sharing platforms, like YouTube.
  2. With over 12 years of experience, Anthony Goodwin worked in the best design agencies, like Huge, Tool and Stink Digital. After that, he started working as a freelancer as “Design Embraced” (6 years). Neither his Portfolio, nor his website specifies where did he learned how to do his job.
  3. Typography, Retouching, UX, UI
  4. CSS Transitions, CSS3, HTML5
  5. The designer doesn’t mention anywhere about influencers or mentors

 

  • Project 1 – Inboard – Longboard App Controller

https://www.behance.net/gallery/28623841/Inboard-Longboard-App-Controller

The design of the app is simple and I loved the use of the color only to highlight certain details. You can see that there was a lot of creativity involved in order to make each feature memorable, but at the same time looking very seamless.

 

  • Project 2 – Nike – POD7 Microsite

https://www.behance.net/gallery/28656733/Nike-POD7-Microsite

I loved this project for the same reasons as the first one, seeing that they are quite similar. I liked the simple typography, spacing, the manner he played with color, the use of thin lines and the subtle photographs on the background.

 

  • Project 3 – Google Oscars Live – Concept

https://www.behance.net/gallery/28682673/Google-Oscars-Live-Concept

It can be noticed that Anthony Goodwin always use some kind of geometric design on his projects, which I like very much. Like the other works, he also uses tones of black and one powerful color, in this case, yellow. At last, I loved the placement and spacing of his typography over the photographs on the background.

by Sabrina

Web Designer Profile

Paul Trani; Interaction Design

Website: https://paultrani.com

 

What type of companies have they worked for? Or, what types of companies do they have as clients?

Has worked at Starz, GT Alliance, Moxie Media Group, and now is the Senior Worldwide Creative Cloud Evangelist for Adobe.

 

Where did they learn how to do their job? How many years of experience do they have?

Studied at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Graduated with a BFA in Illustration and currently has 15 years of experience in the field.

 

What software or programming languages do they know?

Knows HTML, jQuery, Photoshop, ActionScript, JavaScript etc.

 

Who are their mentors or influencers—people they admire?

Paul Trani gets inspired by www.thefwa.com, learning from www.lynda.com and using the programs from www.adobe.com

 

  1. NYC; https://www.behance.net/gallery/12311977/NYC

I appreciate this piece by Paul Trani, NYC; one reason being that his use of animation is very playful and I feel sends a strong message about NYC. His use of graphics, NYC in the shadow, and font choice, fun and script-like, are effective in sending a message about NYC.

 

  1. Self Portrait; https://www.behance.net/gallery/14323007/Self-Portrait

This piece is a self-portrait that uses words “Inspire”, “Discover”, and “Think” to express him. This gives us a powerful message and a better understanding of the things/words that he found is essential and really expresses who he is. I love his use of negative space to really show off his features and also put a quarter of his face in shadow.

 

  1. Breathe easy; https://www.behance.net/gallery/11923195/Breathe-Easy

BREATHE EASY YOU HAVE THE VERY BEST JOB IN THE WORLD (EVEN ON A BAD DAY. SO QUIT WHINING)

This is my favorite of the three. Paul Trani’s choice of font, style, background, and orientation are beautiful. It feels childish, with the flowers and playful font, while also being humorous with the choice of text. I also find this piece to be the most relatable to my life, agreeing with him that doing what you love is not considered work.

 

 

NYC

Self- Portrait

Breathe Easy

by isabela

Week 2 Question/Response – “If It Doesn’t Exist on the Internet, it Doesn’t Exist”

Question- Is it more detrimental or beneficial to an author if their work is easily accessible without having to be bought?

Response- In the Reading, Kenneth Goldsmith often touched on the fact that in many areas, literature is not as easily accessible. This was one of the reasons for him creating ‘UbuWeb’, a site that distributes hard to find or out of print reading materials for free. This idea reminded of me the concept behind ‘Wattpad’, which is a website where users can access literary work written by other users, for free. This also includes more well known authors of today and lesser known writers in a myriad of genres.

Although I believe that the web is a great platform for getting one’s work noticed, I can’t help but contemplate how beneficial it actually is to distribute your own work for free. Having free excerpts is understandable, but an entire novel? Wouldn’t it lesson the value to leak your own work to an unfathomable population of people without them giving you any sort of reward for the work you put into it? There are definite benefits, and definite downsides, which is why i’m conflicted. My personal opinion is that it would be counterproductive to do so.

by isabela

Web Designer Profile- Jenn Lukas

1. Jenn Lukas (Front end developer)

2. a. Jenn’s experience includes  creating ‘Ladies in Tech’, being an instructor at ‘Girl Develop it’, a contributor at ‘.net magazine’, an interactive development director at ‘Happy Cog’, a developer at ‘Brownstein group’, and being a web developer at ‘Anteon Corporation’.

      b. Jenn learned how to do her job at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where she went on to obtain a BS in multimedia and web design and an AS in video production. She has 14 years of experience. 

 c. The skills that Jenn has and uses often are Front-end, Information Architecture,  Web Design, User Interface Design, Public Speaking, jQuery, Web Development, Browsers, Advertising, Social Media, Interaction Design, User Interface, CMS, CATS, and Webmaster Services.

       d. Software and programming languages that Jenn is familiar with include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Usability, Accessibility, Quality Assurance and Web Standards.

 e. Some people who have contributed in Jenn’s success in collaborations include Val Head, Alexis Lukas, Yesenia Perez-Cruz, Jenny DeWitt, Rachel Lovinger, Steph Hay, Jen Oliver, Aura Seltzer, Ari Stiles, and Laurie Ruggles.

 

3. a. ‘Ladies in Tech’ http://ladiesintech.com

One of Jenn’s projects that I enjoy is ‘Ladies in Tech’. This is in a website format, and I think that the title is kind of self explanatory. The website highlights females who are doing great things in technology, and gives viewers access to featured articles, curated resources, monthly topics for presentations, the ability to create and view message boards, and an abundance of unique ideas. Overall, a mecca of celebration and support.

  b. ‘Girl Develop it’ https://www.girldevelopit.com

Another organization that Jenn is apart of is ‘Girl Develop it’. This is nonprofit organization thats mission is to give adult  women access to web and software development through mentorship and hands-on instruction. The mission is to empower women and make them more comfortable in their coding abilities, and overall improve their careers and confidence in their everyday lives, regardless of age, race, educational levels, income, and upbringing.

 c. ‘Skillshare’ https://www.skillshare.com/profile/Jenn-Lukas/5799154

Jenn is also teaching on skillshare. Via video tutorials, she is teaching viewers different aspects of web design such as ‘Introduction to HTML: build a portfolio website’ and ‘Introduction is CSS: add fundamental styles to a portfolio website’. As an aspiring fine artist, the skills that Jenn is teaching are very valuable to me, as having an online portfolio is crucial to one’s success and gaining publicity.

 

by Fernanda

Discussion Question/Response – “If It Doesn’t Exist on the Internet, it Doesn’t Exist”

  • How far does the free sharing of your work and ideas on the Internet benefit you, regarding authorship and originality?

My question relates to the growing cases of plagiarism due to the help of technology. I agree with Goldsmith when he says that your work receives more attention, visibility, can be spread out much easier and you can network much more through the Internet, which, like he says, can makes wonder to a career like his. The constant flow of information that people have access to is something wonderful as well, specially with websites like Goldsmith’s, UbuWeb. However, I am not sure until what point the free sharing of your work can be beneficial to you, when in the Digital Age, people can easily copy and paste what you did and make it theirs. 

Unfortunately, I believe that the “older proprietary ways of thinking [that] condemn this practice with the fear that your ideas would be swiped”, which Goldsmith talks about, are not so old. I say that, due to the fact that, nowadays, there are so many readings that could be easily found on the Internet, that people can just take that opinion or work and make theirs and only a certain number of people (a certain community) would know that and would do something about it, if they read the person’s work, the rest wouldn’t. 

Thinking of this, it might be the case that people not only charge to share their work on the Internet, because of financial issues (of course), but also because of authorship, that is, making sure they get credit for their work. 

There is certainly a fine line between the benefits and disadvantages of free sharing on the Internet and as everything, the difficulty is finding the right balance. 

by odoshi

GitHub setup procedure

  1. Create a GitHub account by going to github.com
  2. Download GitHub for Mac (or PC) and sign into the app using the account you just created. You need Mac OSX 10.8 or above. If you don’t have 10.8 or above let’s talk.
  3. Email me (doshio@newschool.edu) your username so I can add you to the class organization.
  4. Once added, follow the instructions in your email. Click on “webdesignbasics” repository.
  5. Change branches from “master” to “gh-pages” and click “Clone to Desktop.” Save to your desktop or a designated folder you have for school work.
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