GIF's

I am a member of a message board. The name of this board isn't important, as that's not what I'm about to discuss. What I enjoy about message boards isn't the conversations you can have with people, but rather the 2X2 avatar images people have under their names. For example, here is a personal favourite.









and another:

I never quite understood how people made them. In fact, I still don't know how people do them. However, thanks to the digital media lecture last week, I now know the difference between JPEG's and GIF's and understand that GIF's are the only format that can show animation.

CRAP Pictures

1)This is a poster for the band Stars from their Toronto show on June 7, 2008. This poster is an excellent example of contrast, alignment and proximity. The big orange letters spelling Stars is an excellent example of contrast, because the letters stand out from the blue and green background. It is the first thing that grabs your attention when you look at the poster.

The poster is also an example of alignment and proximity. For one, the letters are aligned perfectly next to eachother and follow the same direction. As well, the buildings, as well as the letters, are also close together and not scattered throughout the page. Since it's a city landscape, the artists knew to keep the buildings close together, as they would appear in real life.


2) Upon entering the subway for my daily journey home from class, I noticed a teenager wearing an Alexisonfire shirt. Usually, I wouldn't look at someone's shirt so critically, but this one I took a moment to take in, especially since we had just talked about the CRAP principles in class. The shirt is an excellent example of the CRAP principles. The white really contrasts with black and red, the darker colours on the shirt. As well, they words "Alexisonfire" and "Crisis" are perfectly aligned and repeated several times. The words are close together so your eyes don't wander too far. This shirt is an excellent advertising tool for the band as any person walking by will get the band name subconciously stuck in their head.

3) This is a newspaper ad found in the National Post for the Lotto 649 lottery. The orange lottery ticket is an example of contrast, as it jumps off the page and catches your attention right away, mainly because of the plain white background. The ad also has a nice alignment to it, as all the text and images are centered, except for the man in the left corner who is doing his "happy dance". I feel they could have done a better job placing this man, as he seems a bit out of place.

4) This ad was also found in The National Post and is for Porter Airlines, a new airline that takes off from Olympic Island in Toronto. This ad has a good use of repetition with the maple leaves featuring different prices. The use of the maple leaf delivers the message that this is a Canadian company that people can trust. The leaves are aligned quite nicely, as they fall down the page and lead your eyes to information and their mascot (the raccoon).

Digital Media. Media that is Digital.

Prior to my first lecture, I was well aware of the term "Digital Media". In high school, I began taking digital media classes in Grade 10. Though I may not have been the best in my school, I was satisfied with the amount of knowledge I had for programs like Adobe Photoshop, In Design, and Final Cut. My experience on the school newspaper and my hobby of making creative videos and documentaries helped inprove my skills in the Digital Media field.

In the days following my first lecture, not much has changed. However, I was very interested when we began talking about how normal television has become more interactive and has moved onto the internet. The idea of fans getting more involved with their favourite television show really appealed to me. This may be because I have thought about this topic before, but have never shared my thoughts with anyone. In class, we talked about a kids cartoon that moved its show onto the internet in order for fans to get more involved and create a new character. This reminded me of Lost, one of my favourite shows. I watch Lost every week and have sene every episode. However, people are always asking me if I have kept up to date with the online content of the show and truthfully, I don't have time for this. I have other things to do then to spend hours online watching scenes that may be important somewhere down the line. Regardless, the fact that this thought passed my mind in the first class, which was mainly introductions, shows how interested I am in Digital Media.

The knowledge of Digital Media is essential for a new RTA student. Since the world is moving at such a fast pace, and TV and radio have moved online, students must know the skills that are incorporated with this in order to survive in the industry. I feel it is very important to know and students will only benefit from the knowledge, even if they don't do well in the class.