Extension of Man

One extension of man that has become so popular in this day and age is Facebook. Facebook once started as a small social networking website for college students, but now it is used by all age groups around the world. This simple website allows you to view what your friends are doing, where they are, pictures from past events, and much more, making it a website that everyone uses in order to see what's happening with their friends and family. The age range that tends to use Facebook the most is teenagers and young adults, who most likely check the website more than three times a day and can spend hours on it. Without this site, a lot of these teenagers probably wouldn't know what to do or how to see what their friends are doing.

Another extension of man is the abundance of smart phones that are being produced in the world. Cellphones in general are a huge extension of man, since it is a revolutionary way to communicate with the world in the palm of your hand. However, with the newer smart phones, you can do so much more. Not only can you communicate by voice, but there is text messaging, instant messaging, and you can even access the internet in order to send out e-mails or look something up on Google. All of this technology fit into one pocket-sized machine is definitely an extension of man. Many people would have a very difficult time functioning in this world without a cellphone.

Manipulated Images

This first image is obviously manipulated in the sense that the top half of the man in the photo is chasing his lower half. The first manipulation done was most likely selecting the man's top half and moving him over. The top half of the man's shadow was also moved and placed nicely. Both the body and shadow had to have been reduced in size as well to give the effect that the top half is behind the lower half. After this was done, some clone stamping had to be done in order to fill the background space behind the original location of the man's top half.

 

 This next image is manipulated in order to give the frog very happy face. The mouth is obviously either taken off of a human's mouth. Simple lasso-tool use can get the smile off of someone's face and then by pasting it in the correct area on the frog will allow the picture to look good when blended together. Some other blending was done in order to give the frog more human-like lips as well.

Type & Contrast

This is an example of a good web page layout. It is the CNN.com home page. The web page has a good design because the text stands out on the nice and simple black background, and there are well placed text boxes and images that are clear. All of the text is easy to read and nothing seems to be out of place or difficult to see or distracting.

This is an example of a bad web page layout. As you can see, it is another Myspace page design for a random person. The background is the first thing that catches the eye. It's also the main component of this distracting web page. There are so many different images collaged together in order to make up the background that you clearly cannot focus on the actual page. The boxes containing text and links are simply blended in with the background seeing as most boxes on the page have images themselves such as the "Friends" box. It's hard to tell what is part of the background and what is part of the web page itself.

Concept & Manipulation of Theme

Warmth:

For pictures of warmth, I chose two things that instantly came to my mind when I thought of being warm. Those two things are the beach and a warm fireplace.

Shock Value:

Shock value made me think of ads that are different from any ordinary ad you would find on the internet or on the street somewhere. I thought of ads that catch your attention based on how out of the ordinary they are, like anti-smoking ads and STD ads. So, I picked an ad for anti-smoking which portrays a literal picture of a smoker's hand, and an AIDS prevention advertisement, which shows how even superheros get downgraded to an extremely ill person when they have this disease.

Mischief:

Mischief instantly makes me think of the typical toilet papering someone's house prank. So, that's what my first image is of, a nicely toilet papered house and front yard. The second image is a prank me and my friends were once thinking of doing over this past summer, but never got around to doing; sticking post-it notes all over someone's car. A very mischievous prank.

Human Element:

When I see human element, I think of what makes us up as a human being; the definition of a human. This makes me think of all of us humans in the world working together in order to form what we call the human element. So, I got images that portray people form around the world united.

Obscurity:

When I think of obscurity, I think of dark, dusty, and cloudy environments. I got a picture of a landscape obscured by the soon-to-be dark sky and trees, and another photo where the darkness obscures the vision of what we see as a dark figure in the background

Caprice:

Caprice means something that happens very sudden and normally for a very short, brief amount of time. This made me think of natural disasters, such as tornados, lightning storms, and hurricanes, which can show up unexpectedly and cause damage in a short amount of time.

Nostalgia:

I took this one into my own personal thoughts of nostalgia, reflecting on old Disney movies such as The Lion King, and then took it into a nostalgic view of our country, showing a city from the 1950's.

Practicality:

For practicality, I got pictures of major milestones that many Americans reach in their lifetimes; marriage and graduation from high school/college.

Variety:

For variety, I first thought of the various races that make up our country. We are the most diverse country in the world, so my first image is of people of all different races waiting at a bus stop in an urban environment. The second image I have is what came to my mind next when I thought of variety; jellybeans. There are so many various flavors of jellybeans, giving you so much to choose from.

Vector vs. Bitmap Images

Images used in magazines, on the internet, and other places for advertisements or any other form of graphics may look the same when fully completed, but when you take a closer look there are differences. Images can either be vector or bitmap images, which, when looked at very carefully, have plenty of differences.

A vector image is created on the computer with editing programs such as Adobe Illustrator. A vector image, when magnified, looks completely the same as when it is at it's original size. The use of shapes and other types of graphics in these computer editing programs allow vector images to retain their sizes when distorted.

A bitmap image is created with pixels, which means when it is magnified upon or distorted in another way, it tends to get ruined. A bitmap image may not be easier to play around with when editing, however it looks a lot better when it is in it's original size when compared to a vector image.

This is a good example of a vector image that also shows the differences between vector and bitmap images when enlarged. As you can see, when the image is magnified by seven, the vector image stays the same and you can clearly see the word "ice" on the magnified label. If the image was a bitmap, however, you can barely see the word on the label, and the pixels are very noticeable. The more you were to magnify on a bitmap image, the more noticeable the pixels would become.

This is an example of a photograph taken of a flower. The image is obviously a bitmap image due to the fact that you can see the pixels in the photograph. The picture is zoomed in in order to show the pixels. The place that the bitmap pixels are most noticeable are on the edge of the rose and in the center of it, where the color transitions are the greatest.

This photo shows an original photo of a person, and then the vectored version of that photo. As you can see, the person stil looks very similar to the original, but you can tell that it was created on a computer. Various shapes, colors, and blending techniques were used in order to create the vector image. You also have the option to do whatever you want when creating a vector image. For example, the person who decided to make the vector of version of this female altered her hair in order to make it purple. This is one of the many benefits of vector images.

Arial Font

Arial font is a very typical sans serif font that shows simplicity and gives off a calming emotion. It is a very popular font due to the fact that it is one of the main choices used while using Microsoft Word. This font along with Times New Roman are the two typical fonts to use in Microsoft Word. It was invented by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders in 1982. It was originally known as Sonoran Sans Serif, but when Microsoft included the font in their program Microsoft Word, it's name was changed to Arial. There nine variants of Arial font, including Arial Bold and Arial Rounded.

Many famous companies have logos that use Arial font. They use graphics and colors in order to make the logo more appealing to potential customers. Some well known companies that use Arial font are American Airlines, CVS, Matel, and The North Face.

Summer 2010

A Childhood nostalgia for me is any summer that I had as a kid. I loved summer as a child and I always looked forward to it during the school year. I remember thinking of all of the fun activities I would plan with my friends during the school years in elementary school for what we were going to do once the summer arrived.

I do not have a particular summer I am attached to, but the feeling and experiences you get during summer vacation just makes me feel happy. The hot sun beating on my body as I go to the beach with my family and friends makes me love the season of summer more and more. Going to Long Beach Island with my family every year made it a tradition that we still repeat even though we are all grown teenagers. I loved having these moments with my friends and family and I hope to continue them.