Disappearing Act

Now you see it:


Now you don't:

Photoshop > PowerPoint ?

So far, my presentation is involving Photoshop more than I thought it would. My book is an awkward shape for the scanners I have access to (being about an inch wider/taller than the scanner beds), so all of the whole page images I'll be using in my presentation (as backgrounds) involved a series of scans, pieced together in Photoshop. The samples here were scanned in three pieces. Tonight I am thankful for arbitrary rotating and masks!

Tomorrow is my PowerPoint day. I have my presentation outline written, but I haven't yet taken the time to figure out how to make PowerPoint work for me. During class last Thursday, we read an article that David Byrne (of Talking Heads) wrote: Learning to Love PowerPoint. He seems quite excited about the program, but I'm not entirely convinced I will be.

(These images are samples from Kristin Cullen's [the author's] designs.)

Learning PowerPoint

Wow. It probably took me too long to figure out how to add a customized background to my PowerPoint presentation - like I said, I have never really spent any quality time with PowerPoint. However, what I'm really proud of is how I was able to extract all of the title text from the book cover so I could even think about using it as a background. Now I need to spend some quality time with my book so I can think about continuing to build my presentation.

The First Day of Class

I am beginning this blog as an assignment for DHA 2351: Graphic Design 1 through the College of Design at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota. Throughout this semester, I will write about my projects and processes throughout the semester (and will always post in progress and final versions). I invite you to leave comments regarding my projects. Feedback is always valuable!

My first assignment is to present a graphic design book review to my classmates. I have chosen "Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design" by Kristin Cullen. I chose this book because I feel I could always use a good resource (and more help) about building better layouts for posters, publications, or whatever may come my way. I will be producing my presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint. I don't have much experience with this program, but hopefully this is a good excuse to dive right in - the presentation is due next Thursday, January 31.

I will also be producing a portfolio website. I will post the link when I am ready to start sharing - it will most likely be continually in progress all semester.