*First, I was unable to open the "Credit Unions" webtext, every time I tried it gave me an error from BlueHost that the page could not be found*
Both of the webtexts that were provided here are interesting in their own merits, and I think both deliveries are unique. The Dove text is a bit more of a traditional affair, moving along similar to a website, albeit a very simplified one. I do like the picture links to different pages of the text and how the menu bar on the bottom changed so that the pages wrapped in the menu, so the next choice was always the next page in the text, I thought that was a very helpful and cool choice. The delivery on that text was rather minimalistic, and while it worked fine, as the commercials it was looking at were also on the minimalistic side, I feel that there probably could've been at least a little more detail put in somewhere.
The webcomic webtext is a bit of a different affair. I really love the concept here, since webcomics are something that I really enjoy, but I feel like they really squandered all the possibilities of a comic analysis. Instead of any kind of interesting interaction with the elements provided or anything of that sort, every panel just had the same character in near the exact same pose using all-to-big of a talk bubble the whole time. In my opinion, if your talk bubble takes up more than half of the panel, it's WAY too big, and this is the case the whole time in this text. The information is fine, I just can't help but feel they really wasted all the potential for the webtext they tried to use.
As for my plans for this project, I'll be opting for something sort of similar to the Dove text, though a bit more interesting, I daresay. I plan to make something of an infographic on my analysis, with a single webpage that will be kind of like a poster depicting the more bare-bones essentials of my analysis. On the page there will be parts you can click on, which will either bring the user to a new page, or, time and experience willing, will bring up a popup window that fades in, probably using javascript or some other web magics. It'll be in a slightly cartoony, hand-drawn style, so it should be for sure visually appealing and definitely should be an interesting text to go through.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Post #4: Project 2 Pitch
For my project, I wanted to keep things simple. I didn't want to try
to scrounge up some unknown issue that nobody's ever heard of any likely
doesn't even care about, I wanted to make my text something relevant
and useful to people. As such, I chose to look at the biggest issue
going on right now in America; the presidential election. I know it's
not the most original or unique topic, but I feel it's the most relevant
to not only me but to everyone else in our country right now.
Specifically, I decided to take a look at Mitt Romney's campaign through the lens of websites. I'm going to be looking into how these sites seek to cast Romney in a positive light, both on his own merit as well as in comparison to other candidates, namely Obama. To do so, I've assembled five different websites that preach support for Mitt Romney, each at a different level of professionalism. In this way I want to compare and contrast the sites, looking at the amount of content, what manner of content, layout, visual style, language, all the different parts of rhetorical analysis, and see what difference professionalism makes in convincing us as an audience to vote for Mitt Romney. These sites range from Romney's own professional site, www.mittromney.com, to what might be considered a simple blog by an avid fan (http://committedtoromney.com/). I chose to use these websites because I feel that a website is the best way to convey information of this sort, as it allows for a great variety of visual stimulation, while also being able to offer just as much linguistic and textual information.
For the analysis, I will be creating something of an interactive infographic, with a main graphic that portrays the "meat" of my analysis, and interactive links that allow for further reflection on specific topics.
I hope you're equally as excited for this project as I am, and I look forward to seeing it come to fruition!
Here is a complete listing of my five websites:
http://www.mittromney.com/
http://mittromneycentral.com/
http://www.americansformitt.com/index.html
http://committedtoromney.com/
http://www.aboutmittromney.com/
Specifically, I decided to take a look at Mitt Romney's campaign through the lens of websites. I'm going to be looking into how these sites seek to cast Romney in a positive light, both on his own merit as well as in comparison to other candidates, namely Obama. To do so, I've assembled five different websites that preach support for Mitt Romney, each at a different level of professionalism. In this way I want to compare and contrast the sites, looking at the amount of content, what manner of content, layout, visual style, language, all the different parts of rhetorical analysis, and see what difference professionalism makes in convincing us as an audience to vote for Mitt Romney. These sites range from Romney's own professional site, www.mittromney.com, to what might be considered a simple blog by an avid fan (http://committedtoromney.com/). I chose to use these websites because I feel that a website is the best way to convey information of this sort, as it allows for a great variety of visual stimulation, while also being able to offer just as much linguistic and textual information.
For the analysis, I will be creating something of an interactive infographic, with a main graphic that portrays the "meat" of my analysis, and interactive links that allow for further reflection on specific topics.
I hope you're equally as excited for this project as I am, and I look forward to seeing it come to fruition!
Here is a complete listing of my five websites:
http://www.mittromney.com/
http://mittromneycentral.com/
http://www.americansformitt.com/index.html
http://committedtoromney.com/
http://www.aboutmittromney.com/
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Blog Post #3! Super ix Response Blog!
Emphasis
1. The first thing my eyes are drawn to is the woman scribbling furiously on her sketchpad, since the action starts almost immediately, but as the video progresses, all the clutter in the background starts to take my attention. I think it does an ok job as a title because your eye is at least sort of drawn to the words being written, but less clutter in the background and a little more emphasis on the writing would have been a bit better for a title in my opinion.
2. When the motion suddenly stops and the woman disappears, it can be seen as emphasis because it's disrupting what we've come to expect in the short time we've been watching the video, very jarring and the sudden change grabs our attention, and kind of focuses the viewer back on the paper, since the video stopped the contents must be important.
3. I don't really feel like the soundtrack places any particular emphasis on any part of the clip, because the soundtrack sounds very same-y throughout. As for emotional emphasis, I feel like the clip feels a bit dark and foreboding because of the soundtrack, and the feeling is kind of emphasized by the nature of the video and the title.
Contrast
1. Quite frankly I feel like everything here contrasts. The voice, while ix describes it as "futuristic" sounds like a bad computer text-to-speech program which contrasts with the idea of any kind of professionalism in the video, the modern text font completely contrasts with the video in the background, and the background video frankly doesn't have ANYTHING to do with what's being said in the text. I feel like the whole thing would mesh a lot better and look FAR more professional if the elements didn't contrast.
2. With the cartoon gone, the contrast between the text and the video is gone, and the contrast between the text and the voice is lessened, but there is a lot of contrast between the text and the black background, which is to be expected if the text is going to be seen well. With the cartoon gone, the text is even more emphasized, and since the words are being echoed by the voice, the meaning is definitely the focus of the section. It's obvious that the author wanted this section to really reach the audience and be paid attention to.
3. If I were to design a flier for this advertisement, I would try to design it in an old-fashioned style, but have all the text be as modern as possible to keep the feel of the ad, with the huge contrast between old-style setting and modern text and speech.
Organization
1. My image order was Car Time Clock Thing > Weird Train Thing > Milk Cartons > Waste Site > "Modern" On Wall. I picked this order to symbolize kind of the evolution and downward spiral of our evolution as a society, all leading up to "Modern" times, the last slide being something of an ironic attack on what our modern society has become.
2. By simply rearranging the third and fourth photos, I could have taken a lighter, more positive tone, indicating that in our modern society we're taking the waste and turning it into good, showing our society in a good light.
3. I think a soundtrack would really benefit the point of this message. In particular, a positive, ascendant tune as the first 3 slides roll past, but as the fourth comes the music becomes dark and sorrowful, slowly dying out as the last slide rolls in, showing how much hope there was, and how it was all squelched by the waste in our society.
Alignment
1. The text "murmuring" is definitely in a left alignment on the text, while "insects" is centered. That alone indicates that the word "insects" is meant to be a bit more emphasized, although "murmuring" is on the page longer. The reflection and fade of the words adds to the meaning to me, the way they drop into their respective place on the page and then fade away is very reminiscent of a "murmur."
2. Now all the text is aligned in the lower-center, save the word "insects" which is now lower-right. The closeness of the aligned objects indicates no emphasis on any particular word or phrase, but at the end, the sudden appearance and different position of the word "insects" once again implies the importance of the word. Were all the elements scattered around the page and lost their sense of alignment, I feel that it would be very difficult to tell what the keyword is in the text, all the elements would be questionably the most or least important.
3. I think that the alignments are different between "Earth" and "Air" because the setting is different. The text in the "Air" text is on a higher vertical plane than the rest of the videos, which fits since it is "Air." As for the audio track, in contrast to the "Earth" text, the "Air" text's audio is much clearer and less jumbled, which fits the air feel, as there are less people and less commotion in the air than on the earth, leading to a better clarity in sound.
Proximity
1. In designing the cover, I placed the title and sub-header close together at the top of the page, because that's what you would see first, and the author's name at the bottom of the page with a small picture of a seagull.
2. I find the title to be most important, and as such it is the largest element on the page, and also placed at the top. The sub-header is also important, and is placed directly below the title, although in much smaller font so as not to distract the reader from the title. To keep the cover interesting there is a picture of a seagull at the bottom, which is arguably the second most important piece of information, and is also about the second largest. The author is my least important part, and is placed in very small font underneath the seagull.
3. Being forced to only drag and drop certain elements onto the page, there's a huge limit on how one can organize the elements. There's no freedom to rotate the text or pictures, no ability to use perhaps a different, more fitting image, lots of missed opportunities. If we were to have full reign on the design the page would be much easier to design in a variety of different ways, rather than the relatively few we have to design it as is.
1. The first thing my eyes are drawn to is the woman scribbling furiously on her sketchpad, since the action starts almost immediately, but as the video progresses, all the clutter in the background starts to take my attention. I think it does an ok job as a title because your eye is at least sort of drawn to the words being written, but less clutter in the background and a little more emphasis on the writing would have been a bit better for a title in my opinion.
2. When the motion suddenly stops and the woman disappears, it can be seen as emphasis because it's disrupting what we've come to expect in the short time we've been watching the video, very jarring and the sudden change grabs our attention, and kind of focuses the viewer back on the paper, since the video stopped the contents must be important.
3. I don't really feel like the soundtrack places any particular emphasis on any part of the clip, because the soundtrack sounds very same-y throughout. As for emotional emphasis, I feel like the clip feels a bit dark and foreboding because of the soundtrack, and the feeling is kind of emphasized by the nature of the video and the title.
Contrast
1. Quite frankly I feel like everything here contrasts. The voice, while ix describes it as "futuristic" sounds like a bad computer text-to-speech program which contrasts with the idea of any kind of professionalism in the video, the modern text font completely contrasts with the video in the background, and the background video frankly doesn't have ANYTHING to do with what's being said in the text. I feel like the whole thing would mesh a lot better and look FAR more professional if the elements didn't contrast.
2. With the cartoon gone, the contrast between the text and the video is gone, and the contrast between the text and the voice is lessened, but there is a lot of contrast between the text and the black background, which is to be expected if the text is going to be seen well. With the cartoon gone, the text is even more emphasized, and since the words are being echoed by the voice, the meaning is definitely the focus of the section. It's obvious that the author wanted this section to really reach the audience and be paid attention to.
3. If I were to design a flier for this advertisement, I would try to design it in an old-fashioned style, but have all the text be as modern as possible to keep the feel of the ad, with the huge contrast between old-style setting and modern text and speech.
Organization
1. My image order was Car Time Clock Thing > Weird Train Thing > Milk Cartons > Waste Site > "Modern" On Wall. I picked this order to symbolize kind of the evolution and downward spiral of our evolution as a society, all leading up to "Modern" times, the last slide being something of an ironic attack on what our modern society has become.
2. By simply rearranging the third and fourth photos, I could have taken a lighter, more positive tone, indicating that in our modern society we're taking the waste and turning it into good, showing our society in a good light.
3. I think a soundtrack would really benefit the point of this message. In particular, a positive, ascendant tune as the first 3 slides roll past, but as the fourth comes the music becomes dark and sorrowful, slowly dying out as the last slide rolls in, showing how much hope there was, and how it was all squelched by the waste in our society.
Alignment
1. The text "murmuring" is definitely in a left alignment on the text, while "insects" is centered. That alone indicates that the word "insects" is meant to be a bit more emphasized, although "murmuring" is on the page longer. The reflection and fade of the words adds to the meaning to me, the way they drop into their respective place on the page and then fade away is very reminiscent of a "murmur."
2. Now all the text is aligned in the lower-center, save the word "insects" which is now lower-right. The closeness of the aligned objects indicates no emphasis on any particular word or phrase, but at the end, the sudden appearance and different position of the word "insects" once again implies the importance of the word. Were all the elements scattered around the page and lost their sense of alignment, I feel that it would be very difficult to tell what the keyword is in the text, all the elements would be questionably the most or least important.
3. I think that the alignments are different between "Earth" and "Air" because the setting is different. The text in the "Air" text is on a higher vertical plane than the rest of the videos, which fits since it is "Air." As for the audio track, in contrast to the "Earth" text, the "Air" text's audio is much clearer and less jumbled, which fits the air feel, as there are less people and less commotion in the air than on the earth, leading to a better clarity in sound.
Proximity
1. In designing the cover, I placed the title and sub-header close together at the top of the page, because that's what you would see first, and the author's name at the bottom of the page with a small picture of a seagull.
2. I find the title to be most important, and as such it is the largest element on the page, and also placed at the top. The sub-header is also important, and is placed directly below the title, although in much smaller font so as not to distract the reader from the title. To keep the cover interesting there is a picture of a seagull at the bottom, which is arguably the second most important piece of information, and is also about the second largest. The author is my least important part, and is placed in very small font underneath the seagull.
3. Being forced to only drag and drop certain elements onto the page, there's a huge limit on how one can organize the elements. There's no freedom to rotate the text or pictures, no ability to use perhaps a different, more fitting image, lots of missed opportunities. If we were to have full reign on the design the page would be much easier to design in a variety of different ways, rather than the relatively few we have to design it as is.
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