Texas Tech ID

Sorry about the pixelation of the text, did most of the work in Fireworks,
then tried to do final tweaks in Paint.net,
which resulted in pixelation, will be fixed when i revise it.

Well ladies and gentlemen, here is my first attempt at redesigning the Tech ID. I say first attempt because I will sure be re—doing this again before the final, because by then I hope to have improved my image editing skills.

On to the main event! Here we have a attempt at fixing the current Tech ID. I have mentioned the problems with it in a previous post, but will go over it here.

Contrast – The first thing I noticed while looking at the ID, was the fact that it had two different fonts, one for Texas Tech, and the other for the three other lines of text. To fix that, I reproduced it all in Times New Roman, since I could not get the original font. I also used the same colors on the whole card, since they create a natural contrast that attracts a reader’s attention to it.

Repetition – Colors! This was the easiest thing to do, since Texas Tech uses a great combination, black, red, and white. It was incredibly easy to create this repetition because all the logos, texts, and background use the three colors, creating an incredible unity on the product.  Initially I had just a red background, but my roommate suggested I keep the wave in the id, but change the colors to black and red. This allowed for an increased repetition, to go with the logos included in the id.

Alignment – In a previous post, I explained the alignment problems.  There are three things that were aligned well, Texas Tech, the picture, and the double T. These are all set in their respective corners, correctly spaced (for the most part). The four other elements on the card however, were very misaligned. This was the masked rider logo, and the three lines of text.  In the new card, everything is aligned, with a visual connection with something else on the page. The picture and all the text is right aligned along the same strong edge, making it look clean. I decided to cut the double T in half, because it is symmetrical and so easily recognized,  and I felt that it would still be the same without taking up all the space. The crest is perfectly centered, and has the same distance from both the edge of double T and the edge of the picture.

Proximity – This was a big problem in the original design, there were three different lines of text, all placed in different places on the card. The name and student were not placed close enough together to act as a unit, and the R number was off by itself, centered at the bottom of the card. In the redesign I placed them all together, stacked, to allow them to work together as one cluster of information. All the data the card has to offer is now in a single location, easing its use.

Any constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated and acknowledged, because I am already planning what changes I could make to further improve it when I gain better skills at photo editing.

Work in Progress

Keeping it low tech. For now.

The Texas Tech ID

Contrast - The id does not follow the principle of contrast, because it has different fonts, and different kinds of bolding on the font.

Repetition - The ID does okay with the principle of repetition. It uses the same 3 colors on the card, it uses graphics that are well known in the Tech community, the masked rider, the Double T, and the Texas Tech quote. The use of different fonts and boldness however, ruins the repetition by having too many variables.

Alignment - Alignment on this card is a mess. The Quote is aligned left of the whole id. The masked rider is aligned center, but only in the area of about left 66 percent of the card, and not the card as a whole. The R number is then centered in the middle of the card, and is the only thing aligned like that. The picture is aligned right, but the label "student" is misaligned under it. The name is also aligned in its own way, with no relation to anything else on the card. The Double T is then just aligned right at the bottom corner of the page.

Proximity - Another problem in the card is the proximity of the items on it. "Student", name, and r number are all placed in different locations on the id, resulting in the lack of cohesion of the information presented on the id.

Alan Wake

So i recently finished this game, and i though I would share the cover art because i feel it is very well done. I talked about The Orange Box and it's bad art before, so i though i should share a example of good art.

The reason i feel it is a good design is because it encompasses so much of the game in a simple way.
The art gives you Alan, who is the main character. It also gives you the game's weapons, a flashlight, and a gun. The concepts of light and darkness are also represented on the cover; they are important parts of the game. Last but not least you have the setting, subtly inserted in the word WAKE, that being a small town in the countryside, with plenty of woods and hills.

I felt this cover represented exactly what the game was about, and it needed to be shared.

That's it for now, thanks for reading.

The Artifacts

Artifact 1 - The Texas Tech I.D. Card.

Please ignore my terrible picture.

The tech ID is changed every couple of years, so i thought i'd throw my own hat into the race. While i no longer remember how the last ID looked, i think i liked it more than this one. I chose this instead of a business card because i expected many people to do that one and i wanted to change things up. If i get enough positive feedback i might try sending it to Tech as a submission for a possible future design.

Artifact 2 - The Orange Box
When this was released, it was met with universal acclaim, 5 games for $60, what could be better? The fact that they were all great! So while the collection received praise, the only reoccurring negative comment was that the box-art was not very appealing. I decided i would redesign it, and maybe print it out to use for myself! :D

Artifact 3 - The Non-Designer's Design Book
I was surprised when i got this book. For a design book, it has a pretty unappealing cover. This was the first artifact i picked because i was sure i could make a better cover. I hope i am up to the challenge!












Artifact 4 - Resume
I chose the resume as an artifact because i feel that all the ones i have ever done have been bland. I did not digitize my most current one because i can't find the file. But i think this will be one of the hardest to do, because there are millions of resumes out there, and i have to figure out how to make mine stand out.

Artifact 5 - The Ihop Logo.
It's simple, but is it too simple? Sometimes simplistic designs can be good, like the apple logo, but others, like this one, just seem uninspired.





For these assignments, we are using Williams's four basic principles of design

Contrast - Similar, but not the same. Make the objects different enough to where they attract attention.
Repetition - Try to repeat design elements in your works, colors, shapes, fonts. Unites the elements on the page.
Alignment - Know where to put your elements. Know why you're putting them there, make sure nothing is randomly placed.
Proximity - Create clusters in your work. Similar items should be grouped close to each other so they act as one singular object.

The Orange Box

This will be the video game cover i will be re-designing.

Assignment Ideas

Drats! This is my first blog post, and it is late, need to get back into the routine of checking my school email. But here we go! Allonsy!!!

Hello there new acquaintances! My name is Felipe Oliveros, and I am you new classmate. I am majoring in Technical Communication, and minoring in Spanish. 

In our first class we discussed many possible ideas for the assignments this semester. Some of the ideas are general assignments that would be very productive for anyone; these are the Resume and Business Cards. I feel these should be done first, just so that everyone can start off on the same foot, without any advanced design techniques being introduced until everyone has built their foundation. The resume and business card are good assignments for anyone and everyone, because they will help in the forthcoming job market search.

The second tier of assignments would be the flyers, brochures, and logo design. In this set of assignments we would move into more creative aspects of information design. These however, are still very relevant to many of the fields of study or work related to the students in the class. Anyone hoping to work with companies, of many kinds, would greatly benefit from learning how to design these things. I feel these would help me, as I will likely be doing this myself.

The third tier would be more design specific assignments. Although these will not apply for everyone’s futures, they would be greatly beneficial for everyone. These assignments would be advertisements, menus, packaging, and book covers. These would come later in the semester, once everyone has gotten the hang of the basics, and would let everyone let their creativity flourish. While these will not be related to everyone’s career after college, they will be good things to have in the creative arsenal.

I am very excited to see what this semester has to offer, and look forward to working with all of you.