Michael Salazar

Digital Storytellying

Category: Assignments

  • Design Blitz

    Proportion:

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    The Avengers poster has very clear signs of the Proportion design concept. The poster has the two most important characters of the movie front and center. Iron Man and Captain America are also much larger than all of the other characters on the poster. The characters size on the poster directly correlates to their significance in the movie. Some of the characters, like Rocket, are barely visible. Not because he isn’t a good character, but because he does not have as much impact on the movie outcome.

    Balance:

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    A motorcycle is designed to be balanced in every aspect. Engineers spend years trying to perfect the geometry of motorcycle frames and suspension to make them even more balanced. The all of the suspension parts, foot pegs, handle bars, and frame are exactly symmetrical from left to right to make sure the bike is as perfectly balanced as it can be.

    Rhythm:

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    This advertisement for an EDM show demonstrates the rhythm design concept with the foreground and the background. The foreground is an image of the Hampton Coliseum , which has repeated elements all across the top of the building. The lines in the background make your eyes go from the main title of the ad down to the bottom where the rest of the event information is. Overall, the design is a little noisy with too many elements. However, for an noisy EDM show it fits pretty well.

    Dominance:

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    The design on the back of this hoodie that I have has a masked tiger dominating the whole design. My eye gets drawn specifically to the mask at first. Then I start to look at the details of the tiger body and all of the other symbols floating around it. It is hard to tell on the screen, but some of the parts of the design are embroidered to make them pop even more when seeing it.

    Conclusion:

    The design blitz was a fun way to think about the intention of different designs and the methods that are incorporated in every design. I was only able to find examples of proportion, balance, rhythm, and dominance, but these concepts and more are used everywhere you look. This assignment sparked my mind to even think about why things are designed the way they are.

  • Draw-It Assignment

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    Working nights on the weekends means that I have to put in extra effort to still have any kind of social life. Riding motorcycles has become the main way I can still hang out with friends. Luckily, the friends that I have that also ride motorcycles also work abnormal schedules, so we are usually able to get out on weekday afternoons. I have known Preston and Nate since elementary school and we have all stuck together since. Once everyone started to work weird late hours we weren’t hanging out as much because we were used to staying up all night whenever there was a gathering. The bikes gave us something to do during the day when we had our new free time.

    This day, like most days we take the bikes out, started and ended unplanned. We all met up at my place to figure out our route for the day. It was Preston, Nate, and my girlfriend rode with me. It was the hottest day in April so we wanted a route with good tree coverage to stay out of the sun. We all decided to take the back way into Fredericksburg to get some lunch before everyone had to go into work. During lunch, my girlfriend suggested that we to go a nearby boat ramp that she had been to before to take some pictures of the bikes since the weather was so nice.

    It was already getting close to the time where we needed to split off to all get to work, but the boat ramp was only “10 mins away” according to her. All of us knew of closer boat ramps but she was insisting on this one because of how the dock looked. Following her directions, we ended up getting lost and after many U-turns and going off into some way back roads with no boat ramp in sight.

    Somehow, we found a pull off area by a creek that was just good enough to pull off the road. My girlfriend jumped off the back of the bike as we all lined up and she snaped a couple quick pictures. She jumped back on and we hit the road again so everyone could get to work on time. Overall, it was unplanned but it was a pretty typical Tuesday ride on the bikes.

  • Photo Blitz

    My photos from the photo blitz assignment:

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    I took the photos for the challenge in various rooms in the house because I thought I could get most of the requirements done. After some planning, I was able to get everything except for #9: “Two things that don’t belong together.” I also chose the house because the carpet is patterned and the other carpet is mostly one color, even though the lighting in the picture makes it look two tone. The kids have plenty of toys to make cool shadows with and the cats also gave me some decent shots.

    The 15 minute challenge was stressful to get all of the shots in time, but that is what made it fun. Even planning out most of the shots, it was still a race to get them all in the 15 minutes because the cat would run away and we had to go chase her down. It was interesting trying to think about how to make normal things around the house fit into the guidelines of the assignment.

    The photos of the cats were the strongest when i was able to get her to cooperate. The worms eye view is perfect and the motion blur photo just happened on accident. The most inventive photo is the shadow photo. I got one of the boys toy dinosaur and a book to make the scene.