Raymond Vasquez

Today Jessica Sueiro talked to my class about marketing. I learned from her it is important to understand an audience through research. It increases the target efficiency of the design. She suggested it was helpful to develop an ideal of the buyer after doing the research. This helped make the relationship real. Research considerations include competitors, color theory, and the age, career, plus struggles of the ideal buyer. Jessica helped me understand that advertisement and design includes a lot of learning. There is a necessity to keeping up with the times to stay relevant, or otherwise it becomes easy to turn irrelevant. 

When I started to work with a page spread, I decided to think about how much text I needed to fill the space properly. I created a 8.5"x 11" document with three columns to fit the text from an article I copied for educational purposes. These preset columns helped me to understand how I would layout the text by separating space for the elements, which included images as well. I believe InDesign is a useful program to put long documents together, such as magazines and books. It is primarily a packaging program so it is useful for sorting information into files that include the image links, typographic fonts, and a final PDF export. I love this aspect because as long as I keep my package together, I do not need clutter over my desktop. This helps me to be efficient.

The most difficult challenge designing the monogram was using the wrong software. I used Photoshop to create the logo in order to understand my limitations. Photoshop deals with raster images which means the work can not be scaled without losing resolution.  I understand that Illustrator is the best choice to create monograms. I can change the monogram for print ready use by changing the color mode. Lastly, a PDF is important to use because it sorts the artwork information into a portable document. 

Advertising has to do with catching the attention of a specific public to follow up with their content, messaging, or product. When it comes to designing an advertisement, it is crucial to research what is relevant to the interest of the public I want to appeal to. That means I have to consider age, common interests, and then how the product I am pushing will meet their needs.  Here is an example advertisement I have created to invite musicians to an open mic event where our featured artists were going to play:

As of today, I am  an intermediate graphic designer. I am able to use the Adobe software for experimentation and academic submission purposes. However I am working towards the long term experience of an advanced master. For me, I plan to go into the book publishing industry where I will design book jackets and the interior layout of text. I have taken a lot of courses from how to use the basics of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. The higher up classes have focused more on layout, typography, graphics, and advertisement.  With respect to advertisement, I believe it is a way to capture the attention of a targeted market with the intention of persuading them to follow up. In this advertising course, my plan is to create content that specifically garners interest. I want my art to catch attention so I have examples of where it is commercially viable. I want to create work that is competitive for a book market. I want to serve clients by creating eye catching work. Here is an ...

As an artist, I am interested in book design. That means I want to develop the jacket exterior and page layout interior of books. Readers should expect to see designs related to packaging, flyers, illustrations, and so on. I think that blogging will help me keep a record as I progress in my art career. In terms of my Graphic Design experience, I am at an intermediate level now. I understand how to use the software but as I proceed in my upper-level advanced courses I am starting to understand the importance of art as it relates to communicating the purpose of an idea. Early classes taught me how to manipulate photos or create clip art whereas now I am learning layout organization principles, for example. I hope that this class helps me to grow a stronger understanding of layout.