Digital Portfolio

Catherine Holly's Digital Portfolio

1. Rhetorical Analysis of a Digital Media artifact

I am most proud of my rhetorical analysis that I did for my midterm.  I enjoyed doing this because we were in a timed setting which forced me to critically think about the campaign.  Below is a sample of my analysis. 

Name of Artifact:  Water is Life: Grapefruit

Name of Analyst:  Kat Holly    Date of Analysis:  03/06/13

Basic Design Principles
Proximity In what ways does the piece succeed or fail in arranging elements? Grouping like elements and separating different elements?	The piece succeeded in arranging the little girl in the dead center of the ad.  The girl is big compared to the very small message arranged on the left.  This may represent how the little girl’s problems (no clean water) may be more important than what our society considers “problems” to be.
Alignment How does the ad visually connect (or fail to connect) elements of the piece?	The alignment of the girl dead center, and filling in to the top and bottom of the frame demonstrates the importance of her.  It connects well with the message in the lower bottom left corner because it allows the user to look at the girl, her axe, and the condition she seems to be in.  Then we read the message and it has more meaning to us due to this alignment.
Repetition How does the repetition of elements in the piece strengthen the composition and create consistency (or fail to do so)?	There is a repetition in the color scheme used.  All of the earthy, dirty like, colors demonstrate how bad living in a third world country may be. This creates consistency within the ad and overall strengthens the message of the advertisement.
Contrast How does the piece use contrast in its elements to add visual interest?	The girl dressed in pink ads color contrast to the advertisement.  It makes her appear to be soft and sweet unlike the cruel world she is surrounded by. We also see contrast with the message in the corner. The font is very “high tech” and resembles the font used for social media websites like twitter. The two contrasting parts of this advertisement represents the two very different worlds these girls live in.
Typefaces & Fonts
Concord or Conflict? Does this piece use the same font consistently? Or does it use different fonts that are different, but not different enough?	Like I said previously, the white and blue block font lettering is similar to the default font used for Twitter.  This is a consistent font, but it contrasts well with the background and picture. It works because it is so different (white, crisp, and clean) from the picture (dirty, brown, ashy).
Contrast How does the piece effectively use contrasts? Is more contrast needed? (Discuss: Size, Weight, Structure, Form, Direction, Color)	The size of the axe compared to the little girl demonstrates size & weight contrast.  The small size of the message and twitter snap shot is contrasting as well. The direction she is holding the axe brings our eye to her face and shows us her expression, which is what, sells the ad.  The contrast in color is demonstrated in the font and in the little girl’s pink clothing.

Semiotic Components of Communication and Composition
Verbal signifiers What words, idioms, allusions, anecdotes, stand out as significant meaning-makers? What is signified by each of these signifiers?	The twitter snap shot signifies how little we really know about real problems.  The fact that they demonstrate that in the social media form is a meaning-maker.  Cleary people in third world countries don’t have access to things like social media or even internet.  The text beside the twitter snap shot that says “Donate to solve REAL problems.  Water is life,” reinforces the idea that our problems are so very minute in comparison to fighting to stay alive.
Visual signifiers What images, photos, colors, etc., stand out as significant meaning-makers? What is signified by each of these signifiers?	The image of the little girl signifies pain, struggle, and hard work.  The axe is clearly too big for her to be carrying around, but she has no choice if she wants to stay alive.  The condition the little girl is in, (dirty, skinny, barefoot) all shows us how hard her life really is.  The look on her face and her eyes shows pain, commitment, struggle, and a strong little girl.  This alone makes you as a user want to make her life easier for her.  The fact that they chose a little girl over an adult was a choice to create sympathy for her. They dressed her in pink to make her look soft and little girl like.
Rhetorical Components of Communication and Composition
Audience To whom is the communication addressed?	People of the World.  This is a worldwide campaign. Mostly to first world countries.
Kairos: What is the event, occasion and/or setting for this piece?	Magazines, newspapers, online, billboards, hanging up maybe on a school’s campus or at a non-profit charity event.
Logos: Are there cost/benefit, before/after, comparison/contrasts and other appeals to logic?	The biggest logical appeal to this advertisement is the comparison/contrasts between the little girl standing in the third world country and the first world country girl on twitter on the left.
Ethos: Does the piece address credibility of the writer, relationship with the audience, etc?	The “Water is Life” logo in the bottom left corner is one that I recognize.  It is clear that they are a successful non-profit organization.
Pathos: How does this piece relate to the audience on an emotional level?	This is a very emotional piece.  The condition of the little girl and her surroundings make us feel like we have to help her in some way.  No one likes to see a sweet little girl in such a horrible way (carrying a huge axe).  In first world countries most children are still playing with Barbie’s and Legos.  It opens our eyes to see what children outside of our surroundings deal with on a daily basis just for clean water.  Most of us cannot relate to this little girl, but that is why the ad works.

2. Design Analysis of a Digital or Print Artifact

 São Paulo Global City’s Campaign

On Feburary 12, 2013, I analyzeded the following ad for São Paulo Global City’s Campaign.  This process was long and very detail oriented.   I went back to the campaign a few different times.  Each time, I found something different I noticed about the design.  I recommend to work on projects like these in portions.  When you stare at a computer screen too long, it is not fresh in your brain. 

"The contrast between the brightly dressed workers and the dark, gloomy background creates an organizational hierarchy for users.  The two contrasting elements add visual interest to this print Ad. We see Repetition with the men all around the same size and height.  We also see repetition with the consistency of the white block font used in the entire Ad. When looking at this Ad my eyes go from the white text, to the men, background, to the logo.  This alignment makes the user subconsciously read the advertisement in a way that it makes sense.  We can understand the ad because of how the text is aligned to the left, (we read left to right).  The proximity of the brightly dressed men in horizontal alignment with the text; is the next thing our eyes hover to.  Looking at these dirtied up men evokes emotion in the user, ethos.  The gloomy background sets the mood for their working conditions and makes the user appreciate what these men do. The logo is on the right and is the last thing the eye looks at.  After appealing to the user, they leave us with their name so we can research and remember their organization."



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3. Original Digital Photography Composition  

Tuesday February 19th, 2013.

When creating this digital photography composition, I was able to incorporate pictures I took in NYC.  I enjoyed taking pictures from different view points of the city.  It was very easy for me to work on this project because the trip was so dear to my heart.  



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4. Digital Print Design project

When creating my digital design project of Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind, I ran into many obstacles.  I chose to work with Adobe's InDesign.  I had many problems with conversions from the Mac software to Microsoft.  Above is an example of an obstacle I had.  The border around Johnny Depp and the grey streak on the right side appeared after I saved the file as a PDF.  Overall, I worked very hard and made more problems for myself by using different software.  I do prefer InDesign to Microsoft Publisher, but could have saved so much time and effort if I stayed Microsoft.  

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5.Digital Presentation slide design

Things I carry

We were asked to recreate a style of trending presentation off of SlideShare.  I made a slide show that demonstrated things I always carry on me.  One of the challenges I had was converting the file from Power Point to a Movie file. Blogger 

will not let you post .ppt files so that delayed the process a bit.

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6.Blog Design (visual and interactive elements)

My Blog Design incorporates my headshots, contact info, resume, social networking websites, and my Google profile. My graffiti background represents my free spirited personality.  I do plan to continue to play with my design and work on it.  Eventually I would like to add my reel and any video footage onto my blog.  You can interact and rate my blog, make comments, subscribe to me via email, and add me to your Google Circle.  I believe like any piece of art, it is never finished.