Portfolio Assignment: Part 4

 This portfolio is professional because of the amount of colour it uses: almost none.  The viewer is not distracted by bright colours, and is directed towards the message at hand; Streamline does not mess around.  As they say, they are interested in creating some of the best websites in the world, and show this by having a well constructed website themselves.

 The name of the artist is in an eye catching and almost impossible to miss place, the upper left corner, where the eye is naturally drawn.  The balance and colours are soft and not distracting, the aim of any professional portfolio.  It is also easy to navigate to any part of the website thanks to the site's well constructed format.

 This seemed like a well made portfolio at first glance, and so nit is until you try to navigate the entire portfolio which apparently holds innumerable sub-menus.  Other than that, the portfolio appears professional with it's straight forward banner and the soft colours that are oftentimes trademark of a professional.  There were few to no grammatical or punctuational errors so far as I could tell. 

 Alex Buga's portfolio is also well made, if somewhat difficult to navigate, simply because there are symbols instead of words in the menu bar.  Again, there were no spelling or grammatical errors in the work, and the colours are not bright but rather muted and balances throughout.  The artist's name is in the prefect place on this prtfolio as well, in the top left.

This is a professional portfoliio for not one, but many artsits who work for a larger company.  It is not bight, it is straight to the point and there is a balance in colour that creates a less distracting format.  As with all professional portfolios, this contains less spelling mistakes than a dictionary. 

www.krop.com/mattman/

Part 1: Strategy

A) I think my friends and family are expecting to see some abstract art and a creative portfolio from me, and I think I might surprise them by doing a professional one.

B) I will do an extremely professional job on my portfolio, one that could legitimately be used to get employment somewhere.

C) My audience's world is likely filled with thought and logic, though I personally have never spoken to a person of managerial status about such topics.  I would like to convey a message of professionalism through my portfolio of equal logic, and business.  If I am looking for a business to hire me, I should lean that way on the spectrum.

D) I feel as though a balance of practicality and quality is mandatory, because without this balance the world would not be able to function in a way that is useful.

E) I think that any person who views my portfolio in a serious manner would be looking for professional work and ideas that will not fail.

Post Apocalyptic World

A)  The possible end of the world that I see most likely, and this is the most politically plausible theory, is that the end of the world will come with nuclear warfare, most likely in the middle east.  This means that many explosions, and poisoning from radiation coupled with the electric blackout caused by the E.M.P. waves will bring our destruction as a race about.

B)  I would most likely portray the darker side of what has come about, using explosions going off in the background and blackened trees and such.  The buildings people have lived in would be slightly run-down, and fires burning, perhaps.

C)  I think that many of the species that survive said apocalypse will be either dwellers of the oceans, or small insects.  They may become mutated, dwelling in houses instead of us.

D)  Something that could serve as a symbol of hope could be a sun that is rising through a nuclear cloud.  Another could be a bright fire in front of the house that is inhabited by the bug-people.

E)  I think that their hope is improbable at best.  If the world were to end in the near future there would not be a peace treaty that still was still in effect.  The civilized world as we know it will come crashing down to tribal warfare and bands of survivors sticking together.  I think their work is appealing to others because they hope for the best possible outcome.  Though positive, it is still unlikely at best. 

Elevator Pitch 2

 A)  I am a designer, one that specializes in abstract design.  The thing about abstract art, though, is that one must interpret it, and here is where special skills of communication, marketing and sales come into play.  I can effectively communicate messages through art, whether via poster, advertisement, or an entire website.  This being the greatest challenge one usually encounters with art and advertising, I consider myself to be one of the few people who possesses this gift. 

B)  Though the things I excel in are incredibly useful, there are still fields I must improve in.  I want to become more skillful in the area of using the full version of Photoshop and other design programs. Creating more complex flash animations is also on my agenda, though I am already somewhat proficient at creating the basic animations and movements.  The final and most important area that I am looking to improve my skills in are web and television formatting. 

D)  Through art and design, messages are conveyed on both television and the internet to thousands each and every day.  Achieve the potential.

Elevator Pitch 1

Graphic design, arts and music are my passions, with custom phychadelic designs as a specialty. 

3D Designs

CD Cover And Back, With Reflection

Technical

-The first step I took, after the obvious (taking the pictures) was to increase the contrast of the images, and make sure the microphone in the background did not look incredibly photoshopped.

-The second step I took was to put a cutout filter on the photos, giving them a relatively cartooney appearance, and less colours for the eye to take in.

-The third step in my process was to superimpose a photo of Mac Miller himself over the half of the cover, and turn down the opacity.  The money fluttering downwards on the other side balances the colours.  I then turned down the saturation to zero on each.

Idea

The original idea I had for the cover was  to do a country scene, but I almost immediately scrapped this because country is not only my second favourite genre, but also because it did not give tthe appearance of being handmade. 

On I moved to a rap CD cover.  And then the idea struck me: what do all artists do before recording any kind of music?  They work in an office for hours writing and perfecting each verse, down to a point where each line is perfectly harmonized with the others.  So I took a picture of some papers on a desk and played with the filters on GIMP at home.  After a short while, I had come up with the scheme that would eventually turn into the finished product.

Influences

The only artist that provided any real influence on the piece was Mac Miller.  During the making of the cover, I had my iPod on Mac Miller only.  After listening to Live my Life I realized that it actually takes effort to make the music he produces.  So I set to work, showing that “style comes with excellence and money makes benevolence.”

Composition

The only kind of balance I really tried to put to work in this piece is symmetrical.  The symmetry of anything is really key in my mind, so I tried my best to do that on the cover.  I put a picture of Mac Miller on the left side, and that gave the side too much weight.  So I again took a photo and  instead put it on the right side: Voila!  Both sides turned into something that looks nicely balanced.

Motivation

This was my only legitimate problem doing this assignment.  A lack of motivation is a sure-fire way to lead off to a lame and unproductive week.  The only real motivation I saw was a good mark and a pat on the head, but good marks are mandatory for a college acceptance.  I also very much am into the production of music, so this kind of assignment very much appealed to my tastes, though if it did not have to be handmade themed, I would have very much enjoyed creating it far more.

Critical Assessment

In my honest opinion, the most successful part of this assignment was the filtering I imposed on the images.  They give it a cartooney appeal that gives the impression of the simplicity of happiness, and how money helps you get it.   Money makes the world go round. 

There was one part of the project that surprised me, and it was the amount of work it took to paste photos in and make them appear as though they were actually there.  It was a challenge to make them not stand out with jagged edges and hard lines.

With additional time I would probably add more items to the desk, perhaps a lamp in the back left, beyond the crumpled papers.

Idea Board

Colour changing picture