Visual Argument / Rhetorical Collage: final reflections

[benmiller314]

This is a space where you'll be able to post your final-for-now thoughts on your visual unit projects, your rhetorical collages. We've talked in class about what that should include, but the main goals are to give a sense of what you've learned from doing this project, the work you put into it, and whether it accomplishes what you wanted it to.

At a minimum, please include:

• At least 500 words
• Your own assessment of how you met the baseline criteria and goals for the unit, as well as any aspirational criteria or self-assigned stretch goals, as appropriate
• At least one screenshot of feedback you used (and please say how)
• At least one or two screenshots of your work in progress (ideally, related to the discussion in the previous two bullets)

NB: After using the formatting buttons and drag/drop tools to add images here in the Issue queue, you can optionally copy the source code and paste it into a new reflections.md file in your repository: it should then have the same formatting there!

[arianakeith]

For my visual argument project, I created a rhetorical claim through the juxtaposition of images and text. My project is titled “Time for Action” and entails a call-to-action image/poster reflecting on the recent MSU school shooting and a need to end gun violence to protect our schools and students across the country. I believe I met all the baseline criteria with my final project. I included an arrangement of size, color, visual rhythm, and contrast to focus and guide viewers' attention. When it comes to sizing, the background is a collage of different sized headlines in the news about the MSU shooting. This was intentional to make an eye-catching backdrop. For color, I choose red as a bold font color to stand out against the background and emphasize meaning and importance. This also played into contrast where I decided to make a blurred drawn on effect behind the text “We Don't Deserve to be a Statistic” as an artistic design choice and intentional use of contrast. When it comes to having a clear message, I did a number of things. First, I included real time headlines that give a brief background on what provoked this particular call-to-action, next I spelled out my stand point with the text in the middle of the page. I included an image of students as a focal point for the viewer to put a face to the message and lastly, I included a QR code in the bottom right corner which is connected to an organization that is fighting to end gun violence, with a focus in protecting our schools. My font was intentionally a bold but clear style. I used well over 3 layers and used various tools such as mask layers, paint brush, gradient and highlight/shadow to create the Xach effect on my text. I included all my credits in my assets folder as well as listed in my ReadMe with a repository that has been consistently updated with meaningful commit messages.

When it comes to aspirational goals, like my peers pointed out in their peer comments, I believe I completed a number of them. Specifically, "Create a way to find out more information about topic of argument" and "Use more than 3 distinct overlapping layers". I added labeling to my layers as well closer to the end of the project through my final touches. I paid close attention to my peers comments when preparing to submit my final project.

Specifically, one peer commented on how in my first draft their eye was not drawn to the text in the middle of the page and to add contrast.

So, I decided to paint on a blur effect behind the text to give it better contrast as well as using the Xach effect to truly make the words pop.

I also received really great feedback about adding a QR code that I put into my piece instead of simply writing the website name in the corner. This was really great feedback that I definitely believe elevated my call-to-action.

You can clearly see in these two screenshots the difference in the projects clarity after implementing my peers' feedback. The text in the middle of the page is definitely now the main focus, and the QR code adds a more meaningful and artistic element to my piece overall.

Overall, I experimented with lots of different kinds of editing to truly make this project the best it could be. I gained a lot of knowledge as a new GIMP user and created a project that I am proud of that I believe met baseline criteria and completed many of the aspirations. Gun violence in schools is a very heavy topic and it is hard to address because of the sensitivity that comes with it. My goal in this project was not to create a graphic and distraught looking visual, but to make the viewer truly think about how students' security has been completely jeopardized in these last 10 years with the amount of school shootings we have had in this country, and the pressing need to take action.

[taylorjenkins]

I was excited to start this project because I have had minimal experience with Photoshop, but have been trying to learn more about it. A lot of the techniques I used were new to me because I had only played around with the software in my free time. I was unsure of what to do at first, but immediately thought of doing some type of message relating to the environment. I ultimately chose to portray the harmful effects that fast fashion has on our Earth through my digital project. There are multiple ways that fast fashion harms our environment so I didn't know what direction I wanted to take; I spent a lot of time working on different designs and approaches to figure out what I wanted to focus on and what looked best. I ultimately chose to portray the harmful practices and effects happening within our globe, quite literally. I wanted the areas that are affected the most - our oceans, landfills and human resources - to be seen as part of the globe, replacing actual ocean or land areas. I found this to be a bit more difficult than I had envisioned. I was unsure of what tools or approach to take, but I used the lasso and selection tools to cut out parts of the globe that I wanted to overlay the other images. I also used the same tools to cut out parts of images that related to the ocean and landfill to fit into the globe. I wanted the earth to pop, so I played around with brightness and contrast in an attempt to make it more saturated and noticeable to the eye. I think that I definitely want to spend more time playing around with editing the actual photo using brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. but I am happy with my manipulations at the moment - this may be something that I want to work out in my final revisions.

I had originally planned on doing facts about fast fashion around the globe, but settled on a simple QR code that could take viewers to a page on Earth.org that takes further in depth about the effects. I took feedback about having too much text that many viewers may not read and settled on using just the QR code with some simple text next to it so that the audience could decide whether or not they want to learn more.

kept my text and font simple, so that viewers could interpret the message and picture the more they look into it, and if curious enough, scan the code. I chose the title “Fast Fashion Leads to Slow Destruction” because many people are most likely unaware, either intentionally or not, of all the harmful effects this industry causes. They don’t make themselves known, but the more you look into them, the more obvious they are; this is sort of the same approach I was going for when subtly integrating the images into this globe. I used wrapped text/text on a path for my header to fit in with the globe and also because I wanted to take a new approach on text that I have never used before. I chose yellow as my font color because it is a compliment to the blue background and blue globe. I think that I hit both baseline and aspirational criteria for this project through my multiple layering, layer labeling, wrapped text and color compliments. I think for my first time actually working with photoshop, I am happy with what I have accomplished.

[kellenapp]

I was a little nervous starting this project because I haven't really used photoshop since high school, but I feel like I quickly got the hang of things and recalled how to use the software. I am very pleased with how my project came out, it is pretty much exactly what I imagined when I first thought up my idea. Originally I wanted to create my own figures but I decided after using a random png I found online with a free license, I decided I liked it.

I then knew I wanted to change the text to something more standout-ish and bold. I settled on a Franklin Gothic font, and put the "is" in italics to make it pop a bit. I also did some camera-lense effects to make the outer figures darker and the center stand out more before the rough draft.

I still needed to make the 'A' figure disabled so I edited it's arms/legs and gave it crutches to represent someone with cerebral palsy. It was suggested in the peer reviews that I center my text and change the "is" color to match the rest of the navy letters.

I changed the "is" to be navy, and added "and that's ok." to brighten up the message and also center out the text. I chose to use a different font, and to induce a large amount of contract I made it extremely different. I then added some other disabled figures; someone in a wheelchair, someone with a missing leg, and someone with hearing-aids. I think my message is very clear and I am very proud of the work. Finally, I renamed and grouped all my layers to be organized.

[altrnate]

Please see README.md file in my repository

[josieharris1]

When designing my visual argument project, I explored with layering tools in Photoshop to create a visual blend of the background images I used, laying the image of the lava on top of the image of the bay of water. I used the erase tool in the lava layer over the watering can and the flowers to create the effect that they were sitting in a pool of lava. In order to bring some of the water back into the design, I varied the opacity levels of the lava at different corners of the image using the “layer style” options tool. This allowed the water to shine through the lava more heavily in certain spots.

My argument aims to represent a trajectory about mental health based on self care and environmental factors. My goal was to represent a positive environmental stimulus through the image of the water and a negative environmental stimulus through the image of the lava: revealing the idea that the growth of someone’s mental health will be dependent on their environment and how well they take care of themself. When assessing my visual argument project, I believe I met all of the baseline criteria. For example, I created a clearly definable visual focal element, which was pointed out by my peers: “The first thing that caught my eye was the flowers and the bucket” (Elio). I also used more than three layers and multiple Photoshop tools. In terms of the aspirational goals, I also met the criteria by organizing my file names to keep track of my layers, changing the meaning of an image (using the lava as a pool of water,) using complementary colors, and being receptive to peer feedback. In my final draft, I added another layer of a woman’s face to strengthen the argumentative message. By including the photo of the crying woman, the argument is closer related to human emotion and represents what the woman is feeling inside.

This was my first attempt at adding the image of the crying woman as another layer:

I felt that the image seemed too separated from the rest of the visuals, and it appeared obvious that the layer was placed last on top of everything else. I also felt that it looked too busy this way, and I wanted to integrate this image more seamlessly with the other layers. So, I erased the surrounding background from the image and made it much larger so it blends more smoothly with the background images of the water and the lava.

Here is the updated progress screenshot:

As per Asher’s suggestion, I changed the font color to make it easier to read. At first, I attempted to keep the text black and use a transparent white brush tool to lighten the layer of rocks underneath the text. However, it still didn’t stand out enough, and the attempt to lighten the dark rocks looked unnatural. Instead, I darkened the bottom left corner by using a black transparent brush tool and changed the text to white. It stands out much more than it did before. Here is his comment:

If I were to complete this assignment again, I would try to find a baseline image that includes a horizon and sky. Since the image of the watering can and flowers was taken at a downward angle in which the bay of water constitutes for the entire background of the photo, I felt that the lava on its own took up too much of the image. I was able to balance it out by letting the water shine through and using the image of the woman over a large portion of it, but I think an image with a horizon would have looked more natural, and it would have been more clear that the lava is supposed to represent water.

[jannawohl]

After completing my visual argument project titled “A World of Likes and Comments,” I am very happy with the way it turned out, as well as my ability to achieve both the baseline criteria and some elements of aspirational inspirations. One element of this is that the message of my project is clear, and I achieved this by explaining how addictive social media is. I tried to make the background look like a prescription, as the RX in the top left corner is the abbreviation of a prescription and the side effects/warning are in the bottom right corner, which are both seen on real prescriptions. In terms of crediting my assets, I only used one image from Unsplash and the social media logos are fair use, which have both been cited on my Readme. I have definitely used at least three layers, and I have even organized my layers into different folders (background items, pill bottles, pill bottler layers, and social media logos). Also, I have used at least one additional tool, as I have used the rectangle tool to create the labels on the pill bottles and have used the line tool to create the border of the background. One element of the aspirational inspirations I have implemented in my project is to alter an image to change its meaning, so I have turned the social media logos, likes, and comments into elements that look like pills, which I thought was very unique.

One piece of feedback I used was from Ana, where she suggested changing the font of my warning and side effects section to a cleaner/more linear font. I made this change and am happy I did this because looking back at the original one I had, it looks weird. The new font looks cleaner and more cohesive with the rest of my project. Ana also suggested making the pill bottles a more central feature and I played around with this. However, I decided to keep it in the same original spot because I didn’t know where else to move the warning/side effects sections and I wanted to make sure this element of text was noticed by viewers. I still feel like the colorful aspects of the pill bottles make it an eye appealing aspect, but I appreciate her suggestions about thinking about potential ways to improve on my project.

The screenshot with the dark gray background is my first draft of the project (the preview), while the one with the light gray background is my final project. In the preview, the pill bottles are centered in the document and the text is thrown on the bottom, looking very unorganized. The black text is a little hard to read on the dark gray background, and the font of the text does not match the vibes of the rest of my project. The pill bottles were thrown on the document while you can see some pills hanging out of the bottle as I did a terrible job editing this out. When comparing this to my final project, a lot has changed and it looks a lot better. I have lightened the background color so the black text stands out more, made the background look more like a real prescription, and changed the font in the bottom right corner as per Ana’s suggestion. I have also added labels to the pill bottles saying what the pills should be taken for as well as how many times a day they should be taken. This also helped resemble the reality of prescription medicine, but the text on these pill bottles is very realistic for social media users. Finally, I have covered up the pills hanging out of the bottles that were seen in the preview with the social media logos, and overall, the final project looks more cohesive, organized, and a lot more eye-appealing.

[MikeBailey412]

For my visual argument / rhetorical collage project, I created an ad for the band Linkin Park’s newest single release, “Lost.” I am arguing that listening to Linkin Park’s music, specifically that newest song, can help people through tough times in their life. I believe that my project meets all of the baseline criteria laid out for us. I was able to guide the viewers’ attention by including big bold letters the eye is typically drawn to first. I have a clear message that is articulated by including a Spotify link to the song itself. Since I included words in my project, I attempted to find appropriate fonts that matched the tone of the piece. I included at the top, “Sometimes we all feel” in a font that Linkin Park has used before. Then, the word, “Lost” is in a different font that is much bigger and bolder to contrast the previous words. I easily used over 3 layers. One example of a tool that I used besides select, move, and text was the alignment tool. I used that tool to equally distribute the letters in “lost.” Below is a screenshot of the project in progress that shows all of the baseline criteria that I have mentioned so far.

Continuing with meeting the baseline criteria, I credited all of my assets in my README.md and assets.md files. I used the reflection from February 16 to clarify my compositional and design choices. Throughout the process of making my project, I frequently pushed to GitHub with non-default commit messages. Sometimes I even explained where I was stuck or what I figured out.

Above is one piece of feedback that I got from Ariana. She suggested to try and make my message more clear because it was not all that obvious at first. I attempted this by adding the Spotify link in the bottom center of the canvas. Another suggestion that I received from Ben was to get rid of the red stripe from the right side of the image since it drew attention away from the text. Below is a screenshot of my progress when I added the link and got rid of the red stripe.

Moving onto aspirational goals, I was able to organize my files through layer labeling and multiple layer groups. Since GIMP does not let you select multiple layers at a time, I found this very useful for moving multiple things around at one time. I used more than 3 distinct overlapping layers. The album covers in the letters, the colored outline of the letters, the shadows behind the letters, and then the background altogether. I was able to use new tools like layer masks in order to place the album covers into the letters of LOST. I also used a blur effect on the background photograph to center the focus on the singer instead of the crowd. I think through the feedback I received and acted upon; my piece accurately articulates my message considering one of the main focal points is the link that takes you to the song.

[suchiattota]

The visual argument project was an exciting but challenging assignment to complete. My first challenge was to come up with a proposal. Although the parachute prompts were helpful, I couldn’t think of doing something that is exciting for me. I wanted my proposal to be something I would be excited to work with not with be doing something for the sake of doing it. Finally, I came up with the idea to do a poster image for my audio narrative project that follows a murder story. The main highlights of the image and the first thing I wanted viewers to see is the woods background and the text, “The Cover-Up”. Selecting suitable images was my second challenge. I often found myself working with an image and realizing after a little editing that it is not suitable and going on a search for a replacement image.

The text is one of my favorite parts of this image because of its subtle inclusion of a wolf in the letter O and a shovel in the letter U, two things that are heard in my audio narrative. Finding a suitable font was challenging too. I wanted thick letters as I was planned on modifying them. I also wanted slightly rounded edges, my reasoning behind this was that straight edges seemed a little too formal and I wanted something easy-going and not serious. I didn’t want fully rounded edges because that would look like bubble font and that wouldn’t do well with my argument. I found the suitable font and I am glad I didn’t have to edit multiple fonts to land on the best one. Achieving my idea to include outline of other images in the text was quite tricky and having no experience with GIMP made it even more challenging. But I achieved what I wanted to do by watching tutorials and using multiple tools, namely move, bucket fill, crop, scale, zoom, and rotate. I merged the three layers and removed the black color using fuzzy select to have one layer of white font with outlines of other images.

A car silhouette was hard to find and the one found and used in this project, as seen below was much larger than my main woods background image.

Turning the above image to the image below was really challenging. This image helped me learn editing using the same tool multiple ways. I first started by pasting the outline of only the car on a new layer using the scissors tool. I used the fuzzy select and adjusted its threshold to clean any orange outline around the car. Then I used eraser to clean out rough edges. Then I used the color erase with the pick color to clean orange color in tricky regions like near the steering wheel. And lastly for the orange color that was on the car I used fuzzy select with adjusted threshold to pick those regions and filled them in with black color.

Similar to the way I added the car, I added the silhouettes of two girls and a shovel making use of the option to duplicate layers. I also merged the shovel silhouette with one of the girls because it was convenient to move them as one. I added them at appropriate locations in the forest and lowered their opacity, so it appears like they are in the fog.

I received valuable feedback from my peers for my draft, the above image.

Firstly, I was extremely happy that the image was interpreted the way I was aiming for it to be interpreted. I also received suggestions that I couldn’t agree with better. As pointed out in my feedback, the car size is disproportionate in comparison to the human beings and a little too transparent. I fixed this by scaling the car size to be bigger and moving it to look like it’s closer and the human beings are far away from the car. I also increased the opacity of both the car and the human beings and the car being a little darker than the humans because it is closer. I also added shadows to the humans and the car to make it look more natural. I added the shadow to the car by using the Drop Shadow option in GIMP. I added human shadows my creating a copy of the human on a new layer and moving it, rotating it, and using the perspective tool to make it look like a shadow.

Overall, I am very happy with my project. I met all the baseline requirements, explained throughout this reflection, and some of the aspirational goals suitable for my argument like organizing files through layer labeling, label groups, repo structure, having more than three distinct layers, using more than three tools, altering part of a source image by compositing it with another image to change its meaning, demonstrated through feedback that someone looking at my image got the meaning I am trying convey, and being subtle and crafty to make my work reveal itself gradually.

[Asher-Goods]

I’ve learned quite a few things from doing this project. One of them is that making custom arrows in photoshop is hard! So, upon starting the project I spent the first workshop day, (and then some) figuring out how I would make the arrows. I wanted to get this right because they were going to be a vital part of the piece. I quickly understood that just using photoshop to make precise and long, high-quality arrows would be a challenging task, so I migrated briefly over to adobe illustrator to create some of my own vector art.

To make these arrows, I used one of the arrow vectors which is in the default library of adobe illustrator and tweaked it by adding a longer tail and adjusting its size. I then repeated this many times to represent all of the different migration paths. Finally, I exported the arrows as a .png and added them to my main photoshop project file where I filled them in with a color gradient and added a thin black stroke outline.

To make the map itself, I took a screenshot of a broadly Mediterranean region on Google Maps and used this base image to hand-trace my own outline of the land masses and bodies of water. I made the stylistic decision not to draw borders because the land that I was showing has changed hands many times since the expulsion of the Jews from the land of Israel in 70 CE.

Initially, I started the project by using clip art images I sourced through the Adobe Stock website. I was however left very unsatisfied with the result. It looked like a tacky children’s cartoon and did not do a good job of previewing the actual populations of Jews who lived in all of the different locations that I was showcasing. Ben was kind enough to suggest that I look into using actual images. So, I took this advice and sourced many different pictures of Jews from all around the world. Here are all the images that I was playing with.

When it came to properly citing all my sources, I realized that I had an issue. Almost half of my pictures were not publicly available and I didn’t have the proper license to use them in the project. So, one of the final details I dealt with for the project was finding images that I could actually use. For each arrow, I had a corresponding picture with the name of the Jewish population that the picture and arrow represent. I used some color correction tools and used a black-and-white mask for the entire folder of pictures in photoshop so that everything blended together.

During our peer workshop, Betul suggested that I better utilize my space and emphasize my message. She couldn’t have been more right about cutting out the unnecessary open space towards Spain. I also ended up switching the location of the message “WE ARE STILL HERE” where the Hebrew was previously placed. I also took it a further step by cropping the utmost Northern part of the map because it also had empty space. By cutting down on the height of the map, I made for more room to place the text above the map itself so it could be symmetrical with the text below the map. Here is my final product! As it goes for the baseline criteria, I believe that I have successfully met all of the requirements. When I look at the Aspirational Inspirations list, I see that in my opinion, I have also managed to meet every single one of these besides using different text effects and creating a way to find out more information about the topic. I’m pleased with the result of the project. The only thing that bugs me is that I know that there are so many different populations of Jews and I most certainly did not include all of them. The last thing that I want to do is to not give somebody’s culture a seat at the table. If I had more time to complete this project, I would focus on writing up short descriptions of each population and even include more sub-groups!

[jordanmarch]

For my rhetorical visual argument piece, titled Constant Consumption, I wanted my audience to consider the persistent presence of media around us and how we often consume media subconsciously without processing it as we take it in. Through the grey figure on their phone with a fuzzy TV head, I am arguing that with unconscious media consumption and a lack of truly processing and critically examining what we are taking in, we are harming ourselves. I chose the Times Square background because I think it is a strong, physical example of media and advertising bombardment, and it is a very popular area so many people will already know the where and what when they see the background image. I also thought this particular photo of Times Square was interesting and added a layer of meaning with the “Don’t believe the liberal media!” billboard. I think this can help translate my intended message to multiple audiences with different opinions and allows them to construct their own interpretation of the piece. My argument is written on the billboard to the right and says, “We consume but do not digest”. There are many possible interpretations of this message; it could concern media, capitalism, the two in conjunction, etc. I think the proximity of my added sign with the liberal media sign can stir thoughts on fake news for those on the right, left, or in between.

When constructing this piece, I had decided to make the Times Square background image less saturated because I thought all the colors were a lot to absorb and distracted from the “We consume but do not digest” message.

However, a classmate pointed this out in a peer review and commented on how it took away from the black and white person.

While creating this project I became concerned with the overall visual appeal of the piece and lost track of the message I was really trying to argue. Once I read this peer review, I instantly changed the saturation of the background backup. This element of the design is such an essential part of my argument and the lack of background saturation distracted from the desaturated person and took away from the oversaturation of media point.

I do think I met the baseline criteria. The contrast between saturation and black and white draws viewers’ eyes to the person, as well as the angled/perspective billboard that points toward the person. The billboard uses a bold and eye-catching font and red text to communicate my argument to viewers and matches the urgency of my message. For aspirational criteria, I used a lot of layers that are neatly organized into folders and sublayers. I think I changed the meaning of images as well by replacing a person’s head with a static television, changing its meaning and furthering my argument. I also used a variety of tools like shadows, glow, distortion, patch, blur, and saturation adjustments. I think the use of different tools is particularly noticeable in the billboard I created to display my argument. I wanted it to look authentic so I added a pixely overlay and glow/shadow effects to make it look like a real screen.

[juradodiego]

For my visual argument titled "We're Toast" I wanted to create a poster reminiscent of World War 2 propaganda. However, when searching for inspiration nothing came quite as close to what I wanted as "Big Brother is Watching" from George Orwell's 1984. With a tone in mind I was able to start thinking of color palettes and fonts that would be used. Drawing upon my experience in a previous course I knew some fonts have historical, and even cultural connections. For instance, the Nazi's used "Fraktur" heavily in their propaganda. It is formal, sharp, and bold - perfect for a militaristic force. I knew I wanted to capture a similar feeling, but in the digital age I was left with two options: a sleek futuristic font, or a clean sans serif font. I chose the latter. In fact, I received feedback to consider other font choices, but I stuck with my original selection.

Some additional feedback I received was that the message was unclear, and that the toast in the image was eye-grabbing, yet not supporting the overall argument. While I wanted to convey the message that Internet of Things (IoT) is not a good thing, for several reasons, notably you let corporations into your home that do not have your best interest at heart. The way I thought of conveying this, was through the ridiculousness of a network connected toaster.

Ultimately, it seemed I was getting my message across. However, an argument can always be better. So I took the feedback to heart, and cleaned up the project. I made the coloring uniform, and cleaned the edges of the toaster, outlet, and plug. I also decided to use a different face. I wanted ominous, and the original "mean business man" wasn't cutting. I ended up finding a full face, but I only need the eyes. I used the selection tools to cut around the eyes, and then used the opacity dial to mix it in just right.

I ended up with a final product that I feel proud of. If I were to come back to the project, I might make a few more of these posters each with a different tagline, but making the same argument. In my initial brainstorming phase I wanted to use an Amazon Alexa as the "I'm always listening" character, but due to licensing issues I was unable to use it. I also considered using Nest Doorbells, Smart Thermostats, and really a poster can be made about any IoT tech. Tons of data is being collected from everybody everyday, whether or not they're aware of it.

[bst20]

For my visual argument I focused on highlighting the issue of food insecurity on college campuses. This is a topic I have been interested in for quite some time and I even reported on it a few times for The Pitt News. Because food insecurity is especially an issue on college campuses like Pitt’s where the city we are located in is a food desert, I decided to specifically emphasize the fact that not having access to food is like living in a desert. So the image displays a desert overlapping with an image of produce at a grocery store, to replace the sky. The main two texts in my project read “No one should have to live in a desert” and “1 in 3 college students don’t have access to fresh produce” in order to emphasize my main points. This is what one of my first formats for the project looked like with the main argument on top and the stat on the lower half of the page. My thought process was to somewhat follow Gestalt principles and have people read the text in order from top to bottom. But one suggestion I got from a peer made me rework the positioning of my texts to prioritize visual cohesiveness.

Josie noted that the placement of the text seemed weird and would make more sense if they were flipped around:

While I originally wanted to have people read the ‘desert’ text first, as Josie notes it did make more sense to have the text about the desert over the desert and the text about the food over the food. So I flipped it and just made sure that the size and prominence of the two texts would contrast enough so that people would see the “No one should have to live in a desert” as the most important thing and then see the stat as a supplementary fact to prove my point.

Another thing I did with this project is use different editing techniques and effects. In the past I’ve only ever used photoshop to add simple text over a photo, so with this project I wanted to expand and get more creative with photoshop to present a visually appealing image as well. With that in mind I added quite a few filters on my images, did some color correction and also found a way to add the dark gradient to add a smooth transition to the two images of the food and the desert.

In my final version of the project I ultimately changed quite a few things from the first draft. I cut the bottom part of the desert out where the weeds and grass were. I changed the coloring of the food and lessened some of the blur on it because I felt like I originally had it so blurred to the point where it looked pixelated. I also switched the location of the text and changed what originally said 40% to ‘1 out of 3’ because I felt it flowed better with the overall look of the image. Lastly, I also added a text that reads “Visit swipehunger.org to learn more” in the bottom right corner. I felt like this text was especially important to include because the visual argument itself only provides a little bit of information with a stat. While visual arguments are good in terms of bringing awareness to an issue by getting people’s attention, they provide limited amount of information so it's important to give people the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding of an issue by directing them to another source. I specifically chose to use swipehunger.org because it's an organization that specifically focuses on combating food insecurity on college campuses, by educating people and providing resources to students who may experience food insecurity or who live in food deserts. This website also provides specific stats on food insecurity including the one included in my visual argument that “1 out of 3 college student don’t have access to fresh produce.”

Overall, I’m pleased with the final product of my project. While it did take me a lot of time and trial and error to decide how I want to present the argument, I think what I ultimately went with presents the argument in the best way possible while also being visually pleasing and cohesive. And overall, I think I met all the baseline requirements as well as some of the aspirational goals when it comes to creativity in effects and editing.

[eliotann99]

This was the first project I worked on that involved photo editing. So, I had to take some time to learn how to edit images and how to utilize the different tools offered by Photoshop. Meanwhile, I started thinking of a topic that would make for a good visual argument. After some thought, I decided to make the argument that highlights the difference between pursuing a career and pursuing a family. Therefore, my piece is simply called "Family vs Career." At first, I wasn't sure how to illustrate the idea. However, I quickly realized that deciding between family and career usually leads to totally different outcomes. So, I thought it would be a good idea to use a road parting ways as a background image. Then, I started collecting more photos to overlay from Adobe Stock. I gathered multiple images that signify a successful career and images that show a happy family. I put them all together and this was the initial result.

I originally thought it would be cool to leave the argument open to spectators. However, after reading some great feedback from my peers, I decided to revise it a little. It seemed there was consensus on adding text to the sign to help illustrate the argument. Additionally, the sizing of the sign in the middle was a little out of proportion. Lastly, I tried correcting the colors to make it a little more eye appealing.

This is how it turned out after considering my peers' feedback. I think it looks better after revising it.

Lastly, when it comes to baseline criteria, I believe I fulfilled the minimum requirements. I used arrangement, size, and color to guide viewers' attention. I think that the message is very clear. I have credited all assets to Adobe Stock. I used many layers and multiple tools and made sure that the image isn't pixelated. As for aspirational inspirations, I kept my files organized and labeled them. I used more than three tools to cut and overlay images. Tools I used included object selection, quick selection, lasso, color filters, and so on.

[anayoungblut]

I titled my audio project “Don’t Do It” and wanted to create something that mimicked an extremely well-known campaign: the Nike “Just Do It” campaign. This was the first idea that popped into my head when this project was first introduced in class. I tried a few different ideas, but this was the one that stuck; feedback from Dr. Miller affirmed that this would be a good path to take for this project.

In terms of baseline criteria, I believe that my message is extremely clear. The focus of this argument is the slogan “Don’t Do It,” which stands out quite well in bold white text against the dark background. This satisfies the “clear message” criteria. In the same vein, the font I chose matches the style of my piece, which is modeled after the Nike campaigns. I did some research and looked up what font the official campaigns use to see if it was available to me—it was. I think the similar font I used is what makes the connection from my piece to Nike campaigns so recognizable. The feedback I received agreed that they were instantly reminded of Nike campaigns when looking at my piece.

Other baseline criteria I hit are the use of at least three layers, all of which are clearly labeled in my Photoshop file for editing ease (I believe this hit at aspirational criteria). Each object has its own layer; for instance, the cigarette is its own layer and is labeled as “cigarette.” My layers are shown in a screenshot below. I also used more than one tool beyond select, move, and text, something that qualifies beyond baseline criteria and into aspirational criteria. Some additional tools I used include warp, scale, distort, rotate, color overlays, and adjustments to opacity/saturation. I also made sure that my image quality is very clear and was careful not to alter any objects/layers to the extent of making them blurry. Finally, I gave adequate credit to all the sources I used in my assets.md file on GitHub.

Two points that came up in my feedback responses are that the smoke on the end of the replica Nike swoosh was not clear enough and the cigarette was too bright in comparison to the dark background layer. This feedback is shown in the screenshots below. I definitely agreed with the suggestions to make the smoke stand out more and the cigarette to stand out less and made the proper changes to fix these issues. The changes from before feedback to the final product are also shown in screenshots below.

I tried for multiple points of aspirational criteria, some of which I mentioned previously in this reflection. One that I’m most content with is the act of compositing one image with another to change its meaning. I did this with the smoke and cigarette forming a Nike swoosh. The result of this is exactly what I envisioned when the idea first came to mind, though it took a few tries to get it looking right. At first, I just wanted to have a cigarette and no smoke forming the swoosh, but trial and error showed that there was just no possible way for me to warp and distort a cigarette into anything close to looking like a Nike swoosh. This led me to incorporate smoke so that the cigarette could remain straight and recognizable and the smoke at the end could form the curviest portion of the swoosh.

I also included a link to more information from the CDC website, something which fits aspirational criteria and gives credit to the statistic I used. Initially, I had a QR code and a backdrop with higher opacity in the rectangle at the very bottom of the screen, but suggestions from Dr. Miller showed that this was not working, and I needed to change it; I did so by lowering the opacity and creating a Bitly link instead of a small, unusable QR code. I did not want this aspect to distract from the main point of my visual argument, so I am happy that the additional information section is low on the overall arguments' visual hierarchy.

I am happy with the final result of my piece and feel that the simplicity is beneficial to enforcing the clarity of the anti-smoking message.

[BenA03]

Reflection

Wearing a bike helmet can reduce risk of cycling injury by up to 85%, but many adults still choose not to gear up when going biking, skateboarding, or scootering out in the community. My visual argument, titled "Use Your Head", is intended to remind adults about the importance of wearing a helmet and directs them to a website describing when and how a helmet should be properly worn.

Getting started

I found getting started with the project much harder than last unit, and this mostly stemmed from my inexperience with image editing. My first go at my visual argument was pretty rough.

As I came up with this first draft, I realized two main things: 1) my image size was kind of cramped and square, which made it hard to pick out what exactly was going on in the background and limited my ability to write a lot of text, and 2) I had chosen images of people not wearing helmets in an attempt to make a more negative argument (in the spirit of: these people should be wearing helmets), but I realized that my audience might be more receptive to a more positive tone, where I ask them to model the kind of responsibility reflected in the image.

Since these two changes required a lot of edits, I decided to restart in a clean GIMP file, and eventually landed on the following second draft:

I was a lot happier with this direction, since I felt I had a lot of blank space to work with to fill out with text or other imagery and my background aligned better with my argument. I especially liked how I was able to make the helmets in the images just peek out over the center textbox, emphasizing their role in the image, while making the textbox slightly transparent so the rest of the background layers could still be partially seen.

Baseline criteria

My final project looked like the following.

I think I was able to hit all the baseline criteria for this project. To touch on a few specific criteria, the brightness and contrast of the centered textbox, as well as the visual draw of the stop sign, helps to guide the user to the graphic's text, which describes the main claim of the image. The main tools I used other than select, move, and text was align (which helped to center elements and form the corners of the background), fuzzy select (to select the border of the QR code), color fill (to color that QR code border), and intelligent scissors (to cut out the stop sign, which originally had a background). I also tried out the effects drop shadow, which ended up on the stop sign, and brightness-contrast, which helped to mute the background a bit.

Aspirational criteria

One of the main aspirational criteria I was aiming for was "Refer to assigned readings in explaining your design choices", which I tried to reflect in my color scheme for the image's QR code:

Here, I wanted to use the Gestalt principle of similarity to make an association between the word "Helmet" and the QR code to give people viewing the image the idea of where the QR code will bring them. Since they share the same color, it guides the reader that the QR will bring them somewhere that has to do with information about helmets. Similarly, I used the Gestalt principle of contrast to offset the QR code and "Helmet" from the rest of the text, which is in a darker blue. Since these two elements are the most important part of the visual piece, I wanted them to stand out against the rest of the elements in the image.

Some of the other aspirational criteria I aimed for was "organize your files through layer labeling, layer groups, repo structure" and "use more than 3 distinct overlapping layers", which I was able to achieve,

and "be bright and bold to make your work pop and draw the eye", and I think the stop sign does a good job of immediately drawing in focus

Peer feedback

I found peer feedback for this project very helpful, especially Diego's comments.

I agreed that the cartoon helmet didn't really contribute much to the argument itself and took away from some of the seriousness of the argument, so I took it out for the final draft. I also changed the font to be all the same throughout the image, which Mike also suggested.

To help draw the eye to the QR code, I changed the border of the QR code to blue, which I thought would make it pop more than the black border it had before. I also thought it helped to mesh the QR code with my text, which I elaborated on a bit more above in Aspirational Criteria.

Conclusion

Overall, I think this was a good first go at image editing, and I learned a lot throughout the process. If I were to go back and redo this project now, I think I might have tried to pursue some of the trickier aspirational goals, like "Alter part of a source image by compositing it with another image to change its meaning" or "Be subtle and crafty to make your work reveal itself only gradually", to add some more complexity and depth to my product. I also would have changed QR code to link to a site that better supports my argument, since the current website it points to has a target audience of all ages instead of just adults.

[lks50]

My visual argument brought attention to the world’s rising temperatures. Even with an increasing emphasis on reduced greenhouse emissions worldwide, temperatures continue to spike. During the loop writing, on February 9, Dr. Miller asked the class “Is there something you’ve noticed that you want to bring to the attention of others?” That day the temperature reached 71 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that would have been warm for a day in October let alone February. I hesitate to complain about pleasantly warm weather, but I think it is important that we all identify the changing climate and implement more environmentally friendly habits today.

Initially, I thought I wanted to create a simplistic background, mimicking the weather app, to let the numbers tell the story. However, Christopher recommended I “make the background an actual sky backdrop, and make some of the text a bit bigger, specifically Pittsburgh.” The photo I decided to implement in the background, shows a sky that is warm but also a little bit dark. I was intrigued by this combination, as it portrays a sense of warmth, hence global warming, but it also introduces an element of eeriness with the dark sky at the top. In addition, I thought the empty blue sky paired well with the single white cloud. I used the cloud to employ a cognitive break, separating the temperature information from the call to action in the attention box.

I believe that my visual argument met and surpassed the baseline criteria. I chose to create a design hierarchy that prioritized the temperature changes of Pittsburgh over the past 20 years. The subordinate part of my design, the call to action, I placed at the bottom of the page to overlap with the cloud image. I chose to make the text “Pittsburgh” and the three temperatures the largest size. These texts were crucial parts of my argument, so I designed them to draw the eye first. In addition, I chose to implement complementary color harmony. I placed a yellow box around the call to action, because yellow is the complementary color of the blue sky. The opposite colors give the design a high contrast color combination, as well as create balance and visual interest.

In addition to the select move, and text tools, I used the Xach-effect, color fill, and rectangle select tools. I used the Xach-effect to add a subtle translucent 3D effect to my text and make the words and numbers pop. I used the color fill tool to change the color of the weather graphics to match the light white/blue I used for the text. The rectangle select tool proved extremely helpful when I needed to crop the design to fit the image in the background.

According to Gestalt, “people tend to perceive objects as symmetrical shapes that form around their center.” Therefore, I organized my visual argument to evoke feelings of solidity and order. I aligned the current temperature, high and low predictions, and the weather graphic for each year to order the design. In addition, I incorporated proximity to equally space out the information for each year. Gestalt claims, “objects that are closer together are perceived as more related than objects that are further apart.” I wanted the three years to seem related to make my visual argument clear, so I positioned the text for each close to one another. Also, I positioned the different graphic shapes equal distance apart to show that the principle of proximity can apply to elements that differ in shape.

[michaelpacifico]

For my project I focused on the inflation of theme parks, specifically the Disney affiliate locations like Disney Land and/or Disney World. I titled my project "Walt Inflation" just as a connection towards Walt Disney and the inflation of prices on a regular trip to any Disney affiliate theme park. I wanted to use my project to spread the awareness of inflation and price gouging taking place, and that individuals show take this into account when going to there and/or thinking about where and why you might want to invest your time and money. For my project as a whole, I feel that I was able to meet the baseline criteria for the project because I was able to demonstrate the use of multiple layers, altering those layers through specific effects, and overall bring able to communicate a visual argument piece that portrays my message clearly and concisely.

My project's goal was to the convey the idea and message of inflation and corrupt spending practices at Disney theme parks, which I specifically targeted Disney World in California because of their recent increases in ticket prices. So that was my initial idea, from that I knew I had to involve a picture of the famous Mickey Mouse to ground my visual argument and let him be the focal point in what people would be comparing things to. This is my final visual argument piece and from here you can see two contrasting images between Mickey Mouse, where he can see the theme park and all its glory on the left, while on the right he see a wallet empty to express that you'll have nothing left because all your money is going to Papa Disney.

Here you can see above the feedback that I got from my peers about improvements to my image, a lot of it was about what represented what, so I'd like to specifically address one of Asher's question which was why did I use a paper overlay for the entire visual argument. The reason why I used it was because I wanted to connect the themes to money as much as possible and I thought the visuals of crumpled paper would also show the ideas of wasting money.

Here we see the first project snapshot that I made when working Photoshop. For my first iteration on the image I essentially had all the elements that I wanted for the visual argument other than the eyes on Mickey and the crumpled paper overlay. While looking at the first iteration I felt that it looked too clean and I hadn't blending the contrasting images well enough into the background behind Mickey so I knew that was one aspect of the image that I wanted to work on, but I did feel it was good enough for the baseline criteria.

[skygel]

When starting this project I did not have a lot of photo editing experience besides using Canva a few times. I started off trying to use Gimp for my project. After messing around with it a couple of times I decided that I wanted to also check out Photoshop and compare the two. After a few tries I settled on Photoshop. Again, this was my first time ever using Photoshop so there was definitely a learning curve. Throughout the project I found myself using both trial and error and the internet to figure out how to use the program. Any time I was questioning how to do something I was able to find pretty basic explanations online, making Photoshop fairly simple to figure out.   For my project, I decided that I wanted to highlight the overconsumption of material products in our world today. I decided to depict this with a large pile of various items that often get thrown away and get added to landfills. I wanted to make the graphic fairly simple, keeping the attention on the message that I wanted to get across. I decided to make the background blue to allow all of the white items at the bottom of the page pop. Initially, I was going to make the background a solid color, but after testing that I thought that it looked too harsh. I decided to make the background a gradient would help the color contrast look less harsh. I then decided to add a quote on the top of the image to once again get my message across. I decided to use the quote “Everything in excess is opposed to nature”, I think that this quote was able to get across the idea of overconsumption of products.   When comparing my project to the baseline criteria I think that I was able to meet all of the requirements. I think that I was able to arrange my image in a way that guides the viewer's attention. I also think that I was able to articulate a clear message with my visual narrative. I think that when choosing the font for my image I picked a font that matched the style of my visual narrative. I also made sure to cite all of my sources on my assets page. When creating my visual narrative, I used many different layers along with several different types of tools. I also think that my final image quality is not pixelated. If I was to revisit this project I would add more objects to the pile to fill it out more.   When looking at my peer comments I took a few recommendations from each comment. One of my peers suggested using more effects within my image. I ended up adding some effects to the text along with adding effects to the background. Another one of the comments that my peers made talked about how certain objects stood out more than others. This was not my intention, to fix this I went through and adjusted some of the brightness for some of the objects to make the objects blend better. Another one of my peers comments suggested adding a background and a quote which was a part of my initial plan. I ended up adding a background along with a quote to complete my image.