ANM 328 Project 5

The objectives of the Legacy Poster were to demonstrate blending skills, learn how to select compatible images and make adjustments in the overall composition to establish visual hierarchy in order to communicate a clear message about the legacy of your artist or scientist.  This project brings together all the design and technical skills we’ve been working on this semester.

Grading Criteria

95-100   It’s all come together with strong images, clear hierarchy and perfect type that resonates the essence of the artist or scientist.

90-94  Almost perfect but one of the key criteria is not very strong.  For example: Type does not resonate or is hard to read.

80-89 At least one or more areas of your composition are not very successful.  Image selection lacks consistency or quality and there are overall design flaws.

70-79 At least two areas: composition, image selection or type have major problems Below 70- Ouch!

Late work: -10 pts

Mutter Group

Godfrey-The Wright Brothers are a great subject for the project…besides being a remarkable achievement in history, there are some good quality images of both them and their “flying machine” available. I like the basic composition of your poster with the men walking overtop the blueprint of the airplane..that’s strong although I would try a levels adjustment to make them a touch darker especially in the head area. The two images on the right appear to be blended either with opacity adjustment or layer blend. The result lacks hierarchy…we can’t really see either the drawing or the men and plane in detail. I would consider a gradient blend starting on the right of the blue print that makes it fadeout so that the photos become clearer. I would also adjust the tone of the two photos on right to same color or grayscale for consistency. The text with their names is not readable..needs more contrast. You’ve selected good consistent images for the composition and applied excellent selection and layout tools.

Shayesteh-The presentation and layout of your Shakespeare poster is excellent. The visual flow from top left follows the quote to the blended illustration of Shakespeare and then through the gradient mask to the row characters and books. It flows smoothly and is engaging as a result of the variety and hierarchy of images. My only suggestion is to clean-up the light pixels in his hair. Sometimes the refine edges selection feature will do this but often there are some remaining areas that need touch up. Try the magic wand set on a threshold of 1-5 and you should be able to fix quite easily. You’ve demonstrated excellent skill with the blending tools

Monroy Group

Kacie-I’ve had a number of students choose to do John Lennon but they all seem to gravitate to one of the “Imagine” related image. I do like what you’ve done, it’s different and helps us visualize his life and decades of creativity. I also see the patterns in the background and wonder if these are custom brushes you’ve created? Based on your originals, it appears that one of your biggest challenges was to recolor two of the images that were black and white. This is definitely tricky as you found out…it’s hard to capture the skin tone when tinting. I would consider making all the images surrounded the larger images black and white…this will separate them from the colorful background and his main image. Perhaps add some highlights to the tint on his face to give it more form would also be helpful. These are all minor points that I think would enhance the composition.

La-I’ll be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Mark LInkous but had heard of Sparkelhourse. He has a rather tragic life that ended, I believe in suicide. Your title on the mountainside, kind of reflects that with “Dark Night Of The Soul”. I do like the fact that you’ve tried to add some emotional overtone to the composition. Unfortunately, the picture of Linkous is very hard to see…I wonder ifyou could have made it more visible with the dodge tool? Since he’s the subject, we should be able to visualize it. Without seeing the album or track covers with the bird, leaf and fish, I wouldn’t have understood their significance. From a compositional point of view, the fish and leaf appear to be rather arbitrarily positioned. I think hust the bird would be sufficient to related to his work. Your composition is very creative…I do like the fact that you challenged yourself to explore your subject and tried a variety of blending techniques.

Abigail-The quality and consistency of your images make this composition work. I especially like the positioning of Armstrong and the rocket launch..it’s almost like he is embracing it. The images all combine to tell the story of this amazing man and his mark on history. My only suggestion would be to consider moving the type down to the lower right. As the visual flow is somewhat impeded by the placement…there is a wonderful curve of the moon that can lead the eye down the page. Making the text readable, if moved, is a challenge but you could use a technique like an outer glow (has a space sort of resonance) to add contrast. You’ve demonstrated excellent skill with your selection and blending techniques.

Taylor Group

Crystal-This is an unusual picture of Picasso in his late years…you’ve placed his image between the autograph and sample of work. It works fine but I feel like you could have depicted his legacy more effectively with a different example or maybe combination of his work. Do like the cloud of smoke that’s enveloping the years of his life. Your techniques are excellent!

Evan-I thought your poster was the most successful in the class. I’ve had many students do Disney and use the classic statue image of Walt and Mickey. You’ve treated that image especially well and made it an effective background. I guess the colorful image has been blended into that background but it’s not really identifiable. The full color shots of the pair in the lower right flow nicely and compliment the Disney logo. You’ve demonstrated good technical skill and you have a good eye for composition and design.

Nicholas-Your Bob Kane poster is bright and engaging thanks to the bold Bat Man logo and the large image of Kane. The composition emulates a comic book cover, which is definitely appropriate for this legend. I do have a concern with the readability of the text block at bottom right. If the quote is important to the poster then you need to create contrast to make sure it shows up. You could add a gradient mask to the background to add contrast to the text. A color change for the type might also help. Nice work on the blending.