Final Visual Rhetoric 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 photograph of a notecard with 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!

[tessasayers]

Work I did and how I met criteria:

layers (and some tools used) The message I wanted to tell in my visual rhetoric is to be kind. I did this by using different layers. The first layer of my project was actually a graywater color print I found online. I decided I wanted to make a water color background because I would be able to manipulate the colors to make it slightly darker on the “mean” side of the image. In order to accomplish this goal, I used layer blend. I put the watercolor layer down, then put a white layer on top of it and used foreground color and then I used hard color and brushed over the white layer with a teal color in order to blend them and get the desired effect. I am the most-proud of figuring out how to do this and getting my final idea on the screen.

The next layers I used for this project were the images of the man and woman’s faces which I took myself. To get the images how I wanted them, I used the crop tool to get just the faces and eliminate the background and then turned the exposer down to make them a silhouette.

I thought the black silhouettes and teal background caused a lot of contrast and allowed the faces to pop.

original two images used

word and font The next decision I made was the word placement and font. When it came to font, I wanted to use sanserif because I saw this design going on the web and sans serif is easier to read online. I wanted an impact font for the mean words to show how the hit, bold and strong – which I think I found. For the nice words, I wanted a font that flowed, the cursive was the perfect choice. I wanted simple text for the start of the quote at the top, I did make that bigger after the in classwork shop and peer feedback. I choose the same font for the hashtag at the bottom to keep some things similar. I also chose the same font for the “be kind” as the kind words so there would be some similarity and repetition. I also thought the be kind and kind words tied together well with the same font.

tools and strategies used I noticed the font at the top was getting lost with the background color, so to fix that I made a textbox by going to filters and rendering a rectangle. I made the color white and then turned the opacity down to make it pop a little bit more. I also increased the stroke of the letters by using the creating path and path form to make it bolder. The shape tool was new to me as well. I am used to being able to just go to the side to have a tool, like in Photoshop. Here I had to go to filters and gfig and make the shape from there. Increasing the stroke was also complicated for me, having to create a path, rather than just having the option like on Photoshop. I was happy I was able to find tutorials for both online and figure out how to do it.

Tools used The last addition I made to the poster was adding the color to the two figures. I did this by using the paint tool and changing the size and angle of the brush. I used bright colors on the woman to show she was lighter. I used darker colors that are usually associated with being mad on the man to show what happens when you are angry. I did this to have contrast between the two faces and to send the message of your words are a reflection of who you are in the inside.

github On GitHub, I tried to get more familiar and do things I haven’t done before. To accomplish this, I tried to make branches for my final project and for screenshots of progress, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. I did learn how to make the branch and read a lot about how to use them, so I am looking forward to making that next step in our next project. This time I do believe I made more meaningful commit messages, especially for my screenshot progress. I also only used one gimp file the entire time, which I struggled with for my soundscape project.

baseline I used arrangement, size and color to focus viewer's attention to the faces and their words coming at each other. I used a hierarchy to make the words at the top stand out and then but the rest of the message at the bottom allowing it to flow from top to bottom and left to right. I used a contrasting background and foreground color to make the words and images stand out. I included multiple words with carefully chosen fonts I talked about above. I also feel as though I have a clear message, telling that not only with words, but also with my images and use of colors and tools. I used more than three layers and tools, all of which were new to me. The mean and kind faces were placed using juxtaposition.

aspirational I continuously uploaded to github and made sure my messages were more meaningful, it was easier to me to track my progress. I think I used conceptual contrast in having the ideas of mean and kind coming together (I am not sure what is meant by this). I used a lot of tools that were new to me and talked about how I went about it earlier in the reflection. I think my imaged helps to guide the viewer and I tried not to over use my negative space, but rather change the color in the background to help enhance my message.

Class feedback:

I also took the feedback from class when it came to my project. One thing my classmates said was to make the wording at the top bigger, so I increased the font size. Another note was to make the nice silhouette stand out more. I tried to do that by making a shape and turning the opacity down, similar to the box behind the words. That didn’t work how I would have liked it to, so instead I tried to adjust the shadows and I the end I made the background color behind the head lighter and I think that helped. Another note was to add more red and gray in the mean silhouette, and I tried that, but decided I liked how I had it originally more. I thought only have a lot of color on the nice silhouette made it stand out more and I wanted to tell the story of the kinder you are the more-full you are.

progression of class feedback

The biggest challenge for me was the dots in the head. I am a perfectionist and I liked the idea behind the dots, but they were really hard for me to get perfect.

In order to create contrast, I used different fonts and colors.

progression of background

[laurasosovicka]

This assignment, on a personal level, was easier than the Soundscape. I found there was more room for creativity and ideas. For my project, I chose to do it on anti-body shaming. This subject speaks to me mainly because I have been body shamed by people whom I considered to be my close friends. They did not understand why their comments hurt me as much as they did. So I understand the feelings people have when they're hit with an insult. I made my project look like a Cosmopolitan magazine cover you would see on newsstands. I included several female celebrities who have been body shamed by critics on social media platforms and acknowledged it. They have different occupations and come from a variety of backgrounds, just to signify how important diversity is. I found real insults people threw at them as well and put them next to the celebrity in either red or white font. I also put tape measurer around them, as a way to trap them in this negative bubble formed by the media. To keep them from escaping, harsh comments are thrown at them so they feel they need to respond against it and stand up for themselves. These women all relate to body shaming despite coming from different backgrounds.

I took the advice given to me by my classmates. Both of them suggested I make the insults more readable and clear. I used the text tool and made the words bolder so they stuck out and were easy to read. Also, I used the move tool and put the words in a spot that would be easy to clarify what they said. I also had to find new pictures of the celebrities because I realized the ones I chose were labeled as "All Rights Reserved." I found ones that were allowed for usage, although this proved to be challenging, especially when finding permissible pictures of celebrities.

This is what my project looked like before:

Now my project looks like this:

I found GIMP easy to use and figure out. I thought it supplied a lot of tools that proved useful for my project. For the brick background, I used the GIMP pattern fill. The scale tool was very helpful in getting all of my images to fit the page. I also made use of the crop tool for my images of celebrities and the tape measurer. In order to get the tape measurer to look like it was "wrapped" around them, I had to rotate it and drag my images on the sidebar up or down so the women were either in front of or behind the tape. I also made use of DaFont.com and used three different fonts including Sister Spray, Hanging Letters, and Traveling Typewriter. GIMP also provided fonts and I used Charter Bold Italic. When editing my individual pictures of the celebs, I used the free select to signify which part of my picture I wanted to cut and then used the crop tool to make the picture smaller and easier to work with. The move tool was probably the one I utilized the most because my project required a lot of images to fit onto one page.

I definitely met the baseline criteria for this assignment. My message is clear; I made sure to mention body shaming and featured a call-to-action in influencing people to stand alongside these women. There is the presence of juxtaposition; I have two people with different body types side-by-side, which differs in contrast. I took advantage of the tools provided to me and even took further effort in finding other fonts to enhance my project. I used three different styles of font and included more than one word. I used the filler, move, crop, free select, text and rotate tools. I have a variety of color and contrast inserted. I have more than 3 layers, as required, which includes the background, celebrities, fonts, and tape measurer.

Everything went smoothly with GIMP and GitHub. The only time I had an issue with the Command line and GitHub was when I was trying to upload screenshots. It kept failing and telling me I was attempting to merge pictures. So I deleted my jpeg screenshots off of Github to see if that would help. However, the same thing about merging came up. I tried to see what mistake I kept making, so I went online and found a way to successfully upload my project as a .aup, but not my screenshots. So I got together with Tessa and with the use of GitHub.help, we were able to figure out how to successfully upload them. We moved the screenshots out of the folder they were in and moved them into the Visual Rhetoric folder. I'm really happy I learned how to do a part of the assignment successfully on my own, but am very grateful for Tessa's help. She's awesome!

Overall, this assignment was easier than the Soundscape. Submitting things and learning how to use GIMP came faster and easier for me. I am really pleased with how my project turned out and hope it sends the message I aim to project. The topic of body shaming is very important to me. I have been a victim of it and stand behind these women 100%, even ones who aren't featured in this project. I want people to realize it is something that is not to be taken lightly. I am very happy with the end result and worked hard to achieve and meet all the criteria.

[mpalko]

When I first began this project, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to do my image around the novel Called Me American. When I read the novel, the first thing I thought of was “I never knew that this even existed, much less the luck of the whole draw.” The diversity visa lottery is a literal lottery only the stakes are much more intense. I wanted to focus on taking this simple lottery ticket that normally has minimal risk and juxtapose it with the stakes of the diversity visa lottery.

In terms of meeting the baseline criteria, I would say that I used consistent arrangement, size, color, etc. to attract viewers’ attention. The background is a consistent color and my font is the same size and same color. I have more than word on the whole image. Before the baseline criteria were even created, I decided that a huge part of what I wanted my image to mean were the words that the author, Abdi Nor Iftin, wrote. The message was pretty clear, and I am happy to see that my reviewers understood it. Some did note they were confused, and so I tried to fix this in my final draft. I’ll go more into detail about the criticism later. Continuing, I used about 14 layers. Out of the 14 layers, some layers just had one single star, so counting those out, I had about 6 meaningful layers. I used many gimp tools and to be honest, I became very frusturated with many of them. In the images folder, you can see some of my progress. The first draft I ever tried to push is called the Red Lottery Ticket Overlay. In this image, I had shaded the whole picture light red, and so it colored the background a very light. Later, I figured out how to use the Free Select Tool. By doing this, I was able to just cut out the lottery ticket by itself and shade just that object red. In one of my layers, you can see the outline of just the lottery ticket. Another gimp feature I used was called blur. If you look at the original image, you can see that the words are very clear on the lottery ticket. I did not want those words to show up, so I had to figure out how to blur just the words. I used the move tool quite a lot with the stars I layered in because I wanted them to be visible.

Before:

Blur After:

In terms of aspirational criteria, the two gimp tools I used were very difficult, especially because the lottery ticket has serrated edges. When I cut the lottery ticket image out, I had to individually cut each edge. In addition, I could not figure out how to use the blur feature for a long time. It turns out that it only works if you’re on the original layer with the original image. In terms of flow, I would say my image is symmetrical with the words and colors. I think I incorporated conceptual contrast by having a lottery ticket and the American Dream combined into one image.

Much of the criticism I received was about the overlapping words. I did this originally because I tried to make the white words look like stripes on an American Flag. The envisioned effect did not really work out, so I decided that I would cut out the words in general. It was too confusing. The other issue was that the message was a bit lost, but they understood how patriotic the image was supposed to be. Nicole pointed out that she now understood the picture because of the diversity visa lottery highlighted in red. She suggested making that text bigger. I took her advice whole heartedly and decided to delete unnecessary text. This allowed me to enlarge the words that I felt were most important.

Draft before criticism:

Draft after criticism:

Lastly, in terms of my argument, I think I effectively did so. People were understanding the patriotic message and that association to America. Nicole understood the metaphor and that was the goal. It is supposed to symbolize the risk immigrants go through to achieve the American Dream. But even before the dream can be planted, the individual must gain entrance into the country. The image is supposed to symbolize luck and privilege and how much love others have for our country.

[jennyaimei120]

For this project I thought of trying to show someone struggling with body image, and trying to become more comfortable with not restricting their diet. In todays generation, social media has made it very hard for people to be accepting themselves in their own skin. Everyone sees the instagram models and essentially want to look just like them. Many people will try and go through some extreme diets and workout for mass amounts of hours. they will succeed but they will not see, is that they are doing more damage than good. They will restrict their diet because they know what foods are bad and what is healthy. While going through this restrictive diet, many people don't know that having the "bad" foods in moderation is better than not having them at all. These "bad" foods are key to having a balanced diet. I know a little bit about this only because I had done this for a little bit when I started working out.

For my base picture, I decided to have myself pictured. I wanted to have myself standing in front a table with bad foods in front of me, and then having the good foods in my stomach. I wanted to try and symbolize that I am only thinking of the good foods and that is all Im eating - and restricting myself. I used my own picture because I first saw that the baseline was to use one of our own. We did change it to not an original during workshop, so I just kept it as it was.

In the picture above, this was when I first started adding the unhealthy foods onto the table.

What I found most challenging about this project was figuring out how to use gimp. Although we did a little tutorial in class, it was still difficult to figure out how to use each tool. I had to look up a couple of tutorials on Youtube to help me finish the project. At some points I was very frustrated with the tools, only because when you wanted to go back, half of the time it wouldn't work and I would just exit the program.

This picture is when I started adding the healthy foods onto my stomach.

From my assessment of my project, I believe that I have met the baseline criteria. I used many pictures, which made up more than 3 layers. I used text on my picture, and it helped show my message better than if I didn't have text on it. Then I used two of the gimp tools. For the layers, I had to change the colors of the foods because they were so much brighter than my base picture. I clicked on the image and went to the colors tab, and messed around with the levels. I also used the drop shadow on the text for a last minute change.

This is when I had "It's okay to treat yourself" in black, which kinda blended in to the background.

Here I changed the text "Balance is KEY" which seemed to sound better for this. And I also changed the color of the text to stand out more.

Adding the drop shadow to help it stand out a little more.

The feedback from my classmates were pretty positive. They had said that I had shown my message clearly. The one thing I got from all three of them was to try and make the text standout more. I used the suggestions from them to make the picture look better. When I first added the text, I just used the fonts that were on gimp. I changed the font to a Nike one as suggested, to show the fitness aspect.

Before coming to class, I didn't have any experience with gimp or any other photo editing application. Audacity was pretty easy to use, and this was definitely a step up from that. Getting the use this editing tool will help in the future if I have to do any type of editing. Overall, I thought that I had shown my message well, and I think that it turned out really good.

The finished project.

[christyh310]

Assimilation is not part of the puzzle

Argument:

When I started this project, I wanted to continue to center my projects around a people and place that I care about a lot – the Native Americans on the Yakama Reservation in Washington. The main message that I wanted to get across is a social and cultural commentary, a statement to evoke serious consideration into the assumptions/misunderstandings within the audience, which I took to be any “mainstream” American. Often, it is easy for mainstream America to observe minorities, or other cultures (including Native Americans) and see nothing but the differences and the helplessness of that people group. It can be quite easy to assume that assimilation would resolve many issues, and that resisting this integration into the mainstream culture is ignorant or futile. I am arguing for the dignity, distinction, and innate worth of the native people and their culture. I am also arguing that there are many pieces of the puzzle that need to be taken to mend the many years and layers of cultural and physical damage that has been done to native America, but that assimilation isn’t even close to being one of those pieces.

Process of creating my visual rhetoric project:

I knew that I would want a few (3-5) pictures and a decent amount of negative space in my visual rhetoric project. I also knew that I would want a puzzle-related theme, and so I began learning how to overlay the jigsaw render/pattern onto images. I first thought that using the jigsaw pattern on each individual picture could be helpful, but soon realized that this caused disjointedness within the project, not to mention was difficult technically, and I wasn’t quite skilled enough with GIMP to accomplish this. Also, I realized that even if a layer mask is added to several images at once, those images/pieces can still be made separate by creating new layers within GIMP, and this was incredibly useful to know. So, I arranged photos and then placed the jigsaw pattern over the entire canvas at once, and I began to see the rhythm and movement that I wanted in my piece. This also allowed for comfortable repetition within my project, creating a known puzzle pattern over the images I wanted to display. I’m grateful for this tutorial for helping me out with this layout! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XWuaUFYEw

I used original pictures that I (or a friend who allowed me to use them) took for my project. I began with three main photos, specifically focused on some of the children that I had met on the Yakama reservation. I juggled the idea of using a wooden background, to help extend the puzzle theme (usually puzzles are put together on a dining room/living room table, and the old wood background helped create this). I also thought the wood could help draw on two parts of life on the reservation: the landscape, and the necessity of firewood for native families. It is used not only for cooking but heat and therefore is quite important.

However, upon thinking more about this background and showing others a preview of my project, I realize that there were too many conflicting patterns, distracting the eye, and not directing attention of the audience to any particular place. So, I removed the background altogether, used a black background, and added more pictures.

The images I chose to add related to the natural environment around the reservation, or to a playground/after school club: mountains, fields, and sidewalk chalk/multicolored blocks. With the playground related images, I tried to clarify that it is not only the people of the reservation but the restoration of those people’s roles within a community that is vital. Older siblings taking care of younger siblings, or an aunt/grandmother caring for multiple families of children are typical occurrences on a reservation, because many parents are absent, abusive, or struggle with alcohol or other substance abuse. Thus, kids on the reservation have little time to truly be kids and enjoy playing on a playground, for example. So, providing this opportunity (a safe place for kids to be kids) is a way to begin to restore some of the brokenness on the reservation. By implementing these images in my piece, I aimed to bolster my argument in this way.

I tried to adjust the size/scale of each image to take up 3-4 puzzle pieces each, so none of the images was dominant in particular. I adjusted the sizes of the photos to be similar to visually imply that all parts of the ‘puzzle’ (people, place, culture, and even images not in the puzzle yet) are equally important, and that there is not one part of native culture that we shouldn’t at least try to understand, appreciate, and learn about.

In order to draw the viewer’s eye to the words of my visual argument, I used asymmetry, contrast, and proximity. I arranged several puzzle pieces on the top left and bottom right of the page, keeping these pieces close in proximity to one another. Above the words, however, there are fewer pieces, further apart from the rest, and this change in proximity can lift the eyes of the viewer upward. Additionally, by using asymmetry (where the puzzle pieces are heavier on the left and the words are heavier on the top right), I created flow within my piece, drawing the eye to the puzzle pieces around the canvas, and the finally up toward the words. Lastly, I intentionally used contrast between the patterns of the puzzle pieces and the simplicity (white on black) of the words to draw attention to the words and how they contribute to the piece. Within the main statement (“Assimilation is not part of the puzzle”), I made a second statement of a usually subtle/subconscious misunderstanding by highlighting the “I’m not u” in blue. This helps get my point across that just because someone is different from you, or perhaps has different cultural norms, doesn’t mean they aren’t valid, valuable, and worth considering. In fact, there are things we ought to learn from the differences between us. Since blue is a predominant color in several of the images I included, I used blue for these letters to tie the piece together. I used Lucia Sans for the font, because it is used often for posters/could be printed and easily read from far away, and because the simplicity of the font helps with ease of reading among the different patterns of several images in the piece.

Feedback:

I had similar feedback and suggestions from all three people (2 included here) – that I could include another puzzle piece in the bottom left corner.

I decided to not implement this suggestion. First, the negative space I used is intentional – it points to the fact that there are steps we have not yet taken toward native people, that there are gaps in our understanding. Also, just as with an actual puzzle, there is a longing to fill in the missing pieces, to complete the final restored picture – therefore, if the negative space/missing pieces make the audience yearn for the final ‘picture’, or the final goal of reconciliation among mainstream America and native America, then that’s good, that’s actually what I want! If I had created a more completed puzzle, perhaps it would not leave the reader in this tension.

Things I learned about GIMP:

To be honest, GIMP was difficult for me to understand at first, especially the creation of new layers, and how to interact and edit those layers. I had never used a software like this before, and so the plethora of tools available was overwhelming at first. However, after watching some tutorials and wrapping my head around how some of them worked, I was able to implement several GIMP tools, including layer mask, flip/rotate, scaling, smudging, erasing, selecting, rendering patterns, and more. The main tool I used to implement the pattern over my images was the filters/render/pattern/jigsaw. To create full puzzle pieces (and not just end the image as a partial piece/rectangle), I was able to copy and blend the image background to extend the image. I used mainly blending, flip/rotate, smudging, and select tools for this.

[dashn98]

Visual Rhetoric Reflection For my visual rhetoric project, I decided to create a visual argument about women in STEM and more specifically technology. There is a stigma that technology is for men and it has become very male-dominated. The big names that everyone knows in the technology world are men like, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs etc. While these men have made some very significant contributions to modern technology some of the earliest innovations have been made my women. I wanted to draw attention to these women to show that women are important in STEM and it does not need to be male dominated. In order to show this rhetoric and meet the baseline criteria I used size, color, visual rhythm and contrast to focus the viewers attention. I arranged the women so that the women who made the earliest contributions were towards the center and the later women towards the outside. I also had the women who were facing inwards on the outsides and all the center women facing forward as the women in the center. The next baseline was to have at least one word and a carefully chosen font. I chose the font bebas neue from font squirrel because it allowed for more condensed lettering, is bold and easy to read, and was similar to the font Beyoncé used on her cover of LEMONADE which is the album with the song that my rhetoric quotes when saying “Who runs the world?” The font also is strategically placed above each woman so that the viewer can better understand the accomplishments of each woman. I had the text opacity fade as the text goes to the outside to draw the most attention to the oldest women Grace Hopper who made some of the most influential contributions to the beginning of computing. Based on feedback from my peers the message seems to be clear that these women are pioneers in their fields. As far as meeting the baseline of creating juxtaposition I think the Beyoncé quote with photos of older women does this as you would normally expect a different set of women below. There is also a strong juxtaposition in the text and background since it is white text on a black background. I surpassed the baseline of having three layers with almost 20 different layers of both images and text. I used many different GIMP tools to create my rhetoric. I used GIMP’s smudge tool to fade the edges of the women together. I used the opacity tool to fade the text in order to bring varying emphasis to the phrases. I also used the scale layer tool in order to change the size of the women and make sure that they were all the same size as each other. As far as aspirational criteria, I tried to make my git comments more meaningful throughout this project. I also really pushed myself within this project as I don’t consider myself very skilled with any sort of art skills especially visual media and I have never used any sort of photo-shop type program such as GIMP. I learned how to position the images in an aesthetically pleasing way and get my message across. As I described earlier, I made very strategic choices with the positioning of images as well as text. I used a black background against white text to make sure the focus was on the women who are in color and the text. At first, I had the text just somewhat above each of the women with their accomplishments. Based on my feedback from my peers it was a little bit difficult to determine who they were exactly above. I moved some of the text lower as well as put less words per line so that it would be directly above each person. There were also some comments that Annie, the women on the right was not in focus. I re-added her image and was sure not to overly use the GIMP smudge tool and so that her focus was like the others. I also looked to push myself further after implementing my peers suggestions. I added a white bar at the bottom so that the viewer would know a little more about the women in the image by including their name and credits to the photo. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome and enjoyed learning a new tool that allowed me to display a message that is very important to me.

[bcy5]

For my visual rhetoric project, I created an image that shows the hidden truth behind a bright smile. I wanted to create an image that informs the viewers of how a person who seems happy might not be the bright and happy person that they display with their smile. I believe that I was successful in capturing this argument. Initially, I wanted to represent my image by using a contrast of two different sides (dark and happy) to display the two sides to my argument. After that, I wanted to add a transitional element between the two sides by adding a mirror in between them. After finding the appropriate image and putting together, I ran into my first major issue.

First, I realized that the image itself looks very clunky and awkward. After a lot of messing around with the images, I realized that not only that the mirror made the whole image look awkward, it contradicted my own argument. I realized that even though the happy side mirrors the dark side of a person, both sides were very real. I didn't want to depreciate one side or the other by making it seem as if one of the sides were only a reflection. I wanted to argue that both sides are, indeed, components that made that person who that person is. So I deleted the mirror and added a counterpart to the smiling girl as well as words (in appropriate fonts) that went along with my ideas

At this point, I was confident that my project was going to resemble something in my previous image. However, after the in-class workshop day, my opinions changed.

After reading Abba's reflections, I realized that her suggestions of fading the two sides together is not only a great way to put the two contrasting sides together, but also a way to utilize a new tool on GIMP that i was unfamiliar of. I also took Abba's suggestions and planned to make the size of the happy girl and sad girl bigger to put a bigger emphasis on my argument. After taking notes from Abba's suggestion, I also read into Aliyah's suggestions.

After reading Aliyah's suggestions, I picked out a few good points that she mentioned. First, I agreed with her statement that the font on the "happy side" of my image does look mischievous rather than happy. So I went on dafont.com and proceeded to find another type of font that looks happier. Next, I agreed with Aliyah's statement that one way to better connect the two contrasting ideas of my arguments is to utilize a similar type of background for both sides of the arguments. I realized that the nature background of my happy side and the dark room with the spotlight on the dark side didn't really match up. So I found different images of backgrounds that better helps contrast the two ideas and applied it. I even changed the word "trapped" to "hidden" because since the background of the "dark" side is no longer a room with metal walls, the word "trapped" would contradict the dark but open forest that my new background showed. After applying the suggestions made by my peers, I wanted to polish up my project. To do so, I decided to mess around with some new features of GIMP to add dramatic effects to my almost finished image. Aside from the blending tool that I used to blend the two background together, I used a gradient flare feature under (filter->light) and shadow in order to add a bright flare effect on the "i" in the word "bright". To add a contrasting element to the darker side, I used a (filter->light and shadow->long shadow) effect to add a shadow on the sad girl to imitate the spotlight effect that I originally liked from the previous background.

The finished project looks like this:

The baseline criteria were met because by introducing a side of "dark" and "light", I was able appeal to the viewers' attention. I used meaningful words with their respective fonts to further argue my point. As a result, a clear message was delivered. My images were multiple layers, which incorporated a sense of juxtaposition and I used at least 2 basic GIMP tools such as the scissor tool, scaling tool, font tool, and the lasso and magic wand to isolate the parts of the images I desired. As for the aspirational inspirations, I used Github repository with meaningful commit messages every time I made a significant change to my project. I utilized new GIMP tools such as the two types of filters and the blending tool. Negative spaces were used and enforced by using a blur tool to blend the background in order to shift the attention more to the girl and the words rather than the backgrounds.

As a result, I was able to successfully create the visual rhetoric that I desired and learned many valuable skills while doing so.

[eaj34]

When I began this project, I was on the fence on what to do. I knew the kind of direction I wanted to go in, but not a singular idea. I had initially thought about working on a picture presenting the idea that people need to get outside and explore, maybe Pittsburgh itself, or nature. So, I started with the idea of "Take a Hike" (first draft pictured below) but I didn't feel like it was getting the job done. I hadn't thought about it for a day or two, and then I had went on a small trip to Seven Springs and passed a "NO PARKING" sign and my brain put together an idea. I went from the idea of taking a hike to reserving space for nature.

When I began my new idea, I had combined two pictures for the main idea. An open field with a post and a street sign. In order to get the street sign on the post, I had to cut it from its original picture and put it into the open field picture. At first I watched a few tutorials and was able to copy and paste it. Unfortunately, I used the rectangular selector tool, which made the sign look unnatural. Also, I'm not sure how, but it merged with the background, so when it said I had two layers, I actually had three.

I had used the MyPaintBrush Tool to color over the sign, so that I could write my message over the sign while still preserving the color of the sign. It was kind of hard to get close to the original gray, and it took a few trial and errors. I used the rectangular selector tool to fill it in quickly, resulting in a noticeable sliver of difference in the color of paint and color of the original sign. I then added a font to GIMP that resembled the same font on road signs.

This was my draft before the comments. The comments really did help and I made most of the changes that the cards had recommended.

Taking the advice from this comment. I went to the website where I got the background image and downloaded a better quality image and when I fixed the font, I'm really not sure how I fixed it, but the font no longer looks fuzzy. In order to make the sign work with the scene, I used the Free Select Tool, which made it easier to get close to the edges of the sign to make it seem more realistic. (I forgot to take a screenshot in the process, I was too in the zone, but I recreated it.)

The next comment said about the same things. The only reason I didn't add any other images to the picture was because I felt that keeping it simple would be working with the message and not against.

The final comment is similar to the other two.

After taking the comments into consideration, I made a completely new file in GIMP and was able to change the sing into a layer instead of it merging with the background. I cut it closely so that it looked better and added a quote to make it more effective.

As I said in the README.md, this project is hopefully making people think about the world we live in. I purposely chose a quote from FDR because he did some much work with nature and preserving the lands of America. I choose the font because, at least to me, it looks like a more serious font. I want this issue to be taken seriously, so a more structured font was required. I played with the font size as well. I thought a medium sized font would be better than a smaller font or a quite large one, since the text had more than a few words.

For the requirements, I do believe I met them all! I made sure that the sign was what got the attention of the viewer first. I had thought about changing the color to a green, but it would blend in too much with the background. The red of the sign catches the eye and draws the attention to the idea behind the image. The color of the font, white, doesn't distract from the nature or the sign. I carefully chose the font, as previously mentioned, to work with the message. The message is serious, requiring a serious-looking font. I believe that my message is clear, with the help of the quote. The feedback I got from my peers tells me they understand my argument. I included juxtaposition by placing a street sign in the middle of a field, the last place that it would be expected. This creates a curiosity in viewers to question why such a sign exists or why it is there. As for the layers, I have 4: background, sign, and then two layers of text. I used at least two tools in composing the image. I used MyPaintBrush Tool to paint over the sign and then I used the Free Select to help get the sign from the original image. I also used the Bucket Fill Tool to help fill the sign faster. All my images were used within fair use.

For the aspirational goals, I feel like I definitely did better with GitHub this time around. I understood how to commit messages from my computer. I'm slowly getting better! I committed a few times, with meaningful messages . Instead of "updated," I used actual descriptions. In the image, I introduced conceptual contrast by included the street sign in a natural habitat. These images taken in two different contexts and two different areas. Additionally, since I am new to many things design, trying GIMP definitely took me out of my comfort zone, so any tool I used was a new experience for me. I watched many tutorials, even flooding my recommendations with GIMP videos.

Overall, this project was a learning experience. It was a lot of trial and error, figuring out which tool would work best, or what made things move and which selector tool to use. But I am happy with the final product!

[jlherrle]

When I started this project, I took my idea in a totally different direction. I knew that I wanted to stick with my same idea, adopt dogs from shelters, but I knew that my first idea wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. The picture below is a screenshot of my first draft of my project. During the process of creating my first draft I knew something wasn't right. It wasn't capturing what I wanted my visual rhetoric to reflect.

So I decided to completely delete my first rough draft and start from scratch. I really wanted people to see my visual rhetoric and get a true understanding of my position. I am a huge advocate of adopting dogs from shelters. I feel like a lot of people forget about the dogs that need homes who are stuck in cages for months and months and the happiness people bring these dogs when they adopt them. With this being said, I wanted to select pictures of dogs that capture their emotions when they are stuck in shelters. This is why I decided to color the first two pictures in black and white. These pictures show dogs that are sad, lonely, and just want someone to love them. The next two pictures are of people looking at dogs at the shelter. I especially love the moment that was captured where the little kid is petting the dog through the cage. This picture captures the happiness not only the kid receives from petting the dog, but the happiness the child brings the dog. I decided to change the saturation to slightly lighter and not as bright as the original pictures to set a tone that the dogs are happy, but not as happy as they would be if they were adopted. The last two pictures show dogs who are have been happily adopted and have homes. These pictures are at full saturation to heighten the emotions of happiness and love these dogs receive once they are found homes.

The second draft that I completed was almost wanted I wanted, but when we had the class where we went around and gave others contrastive criticism, I soon realized that I needed to make some changes. I do not have a picture of my second draft, but instead of my final draft with six pictures, I had around 12. All three of the people who looked at my project all agreed that there was way too much going on. It ws hard on the eye, and they didn't know where to look first. After reading over the note cards, I took the time on Thursday during our in class work day to delete all but six of the pictures. This way my idea was still there, but it wasn't so busy.

How I met the baseline criteria:

For the use of font, I selected three different quotes that illustrate the love dogs have for their owners. I didn't want to just use pictures to strengthen my visual rhetoric, but I wanted to add quotes as well. Besides the three quotes all the way to the right, in the big font, are the words that explain what my project is all about. "Save a life, adopt a dog from a shelter". I thought that including these words would complete the project.

In the baseline criteria we were asked to use at least 2 GIMP tools in our project. The first GIMP tool I used was the crop tool. Since I collected all of my pictures from the internet, some of the pictures made it for me to resize them without messing with the pixels. With this being said, instead of messing around with the scaling and losing the clearness of the picture, I was able to take the crop tool, crop what I wanted and didn't want in the photo, and made the picture the size I wanted to without screwing up the pixels. The second tool I used was the paint tool where I was able to mess around with some of the colors in addition to using the saturation effect.

After using peoples input and suggestions I finally came up with my final project for my visual rhetoric. I am overly happy with how it turned out and think that it truly captures how I feel about adopting dogs from shelters. Even though it took a lot of trial and error I had fun creating an image that would reflect my project. If people can look at my project and see where I stand with this issue, than I am happy with my work.

[jfrank1120]

Sound Escape

Argument

When I originally began formulating what my argument for this project would be, I knew that I wanted it to be something that I truly could relate to in my own personal experience. So while doing the 'hippy dippy' activity within class the first place that originally envisioned myself being was a concert venue from my home city of Philadelphia. This venue is known as Festival Pier and is located on the Delaware River overlooked by the Ben Franklin Bridge. I've been to this spot more times than I can count and every single time I've been there it has been a positive and memorable experience. Once I had connected with the location that I wanted to use, I then began to decide on how I wanted to use it to portray my argument to the viewer. Music has always been something that I have loved being a part of either listening, actively watching, or even attempting to preform music. This whole concept then began to merge into the idea how any interaction I've had with music has not only created a positive experience but allowed me to avoid possible bad experiences that might have existed at the time. This then fully formulated to creating the argument that music is able to take people to a place in which they are separated from the negatives and can reach positive experiences.

Creating My Rhetoric

I knew that for my piece I wanted to incorporate as many aspects of the surrounding of the venue as possible. This meant making sure that the bridge played a prominent role in the piece. My first idea was to have music notes sitting on top of the bridge showing the separation that the bridge was able to create, yet when i sketched it out on paper I struggled to fully envision it relaying the same message to the viewer that I would want. This then forced me to re-configure the layout of my visual to then not only allow for the argument to be clearer to the viewer but also for the visual to seem more directed toward the argument.

I first pulled an image of the Ben Franklin Bridge off of the internet which was angled at the correct way to show the separation between the different areas within the image. I knew that I wanted to use the idea of contrast from one side of the piece to the other to help better exemplify my argument. This then meant I had to try to create a distinct divide between the two different sides of the piece.

In the screenshot above you can see the first beginnings of my rhetoric where I had a small idea of the construction of my images within the area of my rhetoric. I had figured out where I wanted to place the bridge in order to help create the central contrast in the piece as well as where I would place the images that helped to emulate the idea of escaping all negative aspects of life. The only image I had put to attempt to show the positivity and happiness of a concert was one that I myself had taken at Festival Pier during a concert that I attended this past summer.

The screenshot above shows more progress that had been made on the image closer to the final project. At this point I had done a lot of editing in blending in the background of the sky to the images that currently existed in the visual. Since I could not find any other images from my own photos that helped to show a concert scene with happy people I was forced to look elsewhere. I had found other concert images from the internet that gave a wider view of the scene at many different concerts. These other images also brought a good amount of color to the image and seemed to represent happiness more than the one I had of the crowd due to the lighting in the scene.

Feedback.. Or Lack There Of

Sadly I was absent from class the day in which the peer workshop occurred, we love Strep Throat! But I was able to run the image past a few of my classmates and peers to see what they thought of not only the quality of my image but also if the message was portrayed. It was a this point that I fullly realized that in order to solidify the message the music was what helped to bridge the gap I needed to include the word music in a way the helped the contrast brought on by the bridge. After a lot of trial and error I came up with the idea of using the word music itself in a vertical alignment to help fully show the divide the existed and to curve the letters using the path tool to the end of the bridge. The path tool was one I had attempted to use in other gimp projects but never truly got the hand of. However, after numerous YouTube videos I was able to use it to get the letters fully curved how I wanted.

Covering all the Base(line)s

For this section I'm just going to list down the baseline criteria one by one and discuss what I did to achieve them.

1. Within my piece I used the idea of arrangement in many different ways to create not only different areas within the piece, but also to help set up the areas of contrast that I use in my piece. The central vertical line of where music creates the barrier is something that really helps to signify contrast.
2. The word that I chose for my piece was "Music" this was done in order to make the argument as clear to the viewer as possible as well as my inclination not to flood the image with too much text as to distract the reader from the flow of the image from right to left. In terms of choosing the front style etc, I decided that due to the spacing of the letters to create the wall, I wanted a font that although it seemed simple it also was very strong and structured in nature as to fully drive home the argument. I had debated on using one that was more Serif based but in the end I felt that would make the rigidity of the contrast less apparent.
3. Clear message is stated in some of the writing above when I describe first creating the piece.
4. I feel that the best juxtaposition that exists within my piece is the one with the fire and the skyline behind it. You have what looks like a very calm and soothing sky that exists above the bridge, yet once you go below it you see the fire that is drawing attention and contrasting with negative connotations.
5. I used 8 layers total in my project.
6. As for gimp tools, the ones that I used included: cut, gradient, select by color, scissors, pathing, and band-aid.
7. My reasoning is stated in the many words above.

Reaching for the stars!.. or the Aspiration Goals

These are the aspiration goals I feel that I have achieved within my work on my piece.

1. I once again used Git to commit to the project with meaningful messages. This isn't a challenge for me but I feel that I once again was able to look back on my ample commits and know where I left off each time I resumed.
2. The two new gimp tools I used were: path, band-aid, and gradient. Path I spoke about above when I discussed my usage of words in my piece. As for gradient and band-aid, these were things I used when attempting to blend the sky into the background of the bridge. I had never really attempted to use either of these tools before in previous projects so after using a lot of YouTube videos for gradient I was able to get a gradient effect on the sky background that seemed to settle into the bridge image sky. This then lead to using the band-aid to help better sooth edge between the two so that it fit into the image.
3. Guiding the eye through flow, I feel that my image allows for the user to pan from right to left and see a progression of what is occurring where their eye journeys both across the bridge and then afterwards. This linear path allowed for me to create a story in a way that I expected the viewer to follow when the first looked at the piece.

Bonus

I did struggle a lot more than expected on this project, not only due to the creative aspect of it, but also due to the new tools in gimp that I truly was not familiar with at all. But once again I did have fun!

[ghost]

When I started this project, I wasn't sure what kind of background I wanted to use as my base image. I landed on using a huge photo of a Kendrick Lamar concert at a festival where there were a ton of people. Below is a screenshot of my first draft. I liked this picture because it gave me a great backdrop and a ton of space for potential text. I actually had trouble with using GIMP because it was a foreign application. It's pretty frustrating that we had to use this application and not Photoshop because there were points where the app would just randomly quit on me before I could save any of my progress. I ended up starting over and this is what my second draft looked like: In general people said I didn't have any rhythm with how I was placing my pictures and I agree. I wanted it to look abstract but it ended up just looking weird. The blur tool also just looked like a mistake so I did some major revisions. I added my original picture, which was a screenshot of my favorite Spotify playlist, and kept only one Beatles portrait in the picture, in the bottom right hand corner. I changed the text so it was a lyric from Come Together and made sure the font and color meshed well with the picture. This is how I got my final copy.

Baseline Criteria Assessment:

Arrangement/Size/Color etc

• I think I did a good job with this part. I structured the text so it was visible and prominent yet it blended well with the background picture, Beatles portrait, and my original photo. I tried to keep the colors similar in the sense that there was nothing that seemed glaringly out of place or didn't complement each other.

Word/Font

• My words were carefully chosen because they relate to the Beatles portrait. They come from the song "Come Together" which is also relates to my message/argument with the picture.

Have a clear message

• My message was clear: Music makes people come together; it brings all types of people together regardless of gender, beliefs, or sexuality. There's all types of people in the crowd, but you can't tell because there's so many. At that point, everyone becomes one person when they're watching their favorite artist. My words related to beatles image and my original picture contributed to my favorite artists at the moment.

Juxtaposition

• My juxtaposition was included. The Kendrick Lamar stage image was very colorful and slightly gradient where as the Beatles portrait was in black and white. Also, Kendrick Lamar is a modern day rapper where as the Beatles are classic pop music.

Three Layers

• The background (Kendrick Lamar stage image), foreground (Beatles portrait), and floating image (original picture of spotify playlist)

Two GIMP Tools

• I used the resizing tool, recoloring tool, and the band-aid tool. These tools were essential to me because I was constantly resizing and fixing errors because I had practically no idea what I was doing with GIMP. It was really helpful for me to play around with some of the tools and figure out what they did.

I choose to construct my visual rhetoric the way I did because I wanted it to be simplistic. I believe my argument is clear, the images are placed exactly the way I want them, and the text doubles as both a lyric and the main point of my argument. The Beatles image adds to the spontaneity of the argument and helps the viewer understand why the lyrics are in the image. I love music and wanted to emphasize how people come together and have incredible experiences through listening to, witnessing, or creating music. The visual aspect is minimalistic in terms of layering because I wanted to focus completely on the message, not draw the viewer's focus on to something too complicated within the picture.

[tyllerbarner]

Argument: My senior year of high school I received three concussions, each spread out about two to three months from each other. I recently learned that some of the side effects and long term effects of concussions includes heightened emotions and mental health issues. My project attempts to highlight symptoms of concussions that many people don’t think about. These symptoms include emotional changes such as irritability and mental health issues such as Depression and Anxiety. I wanted to put a brain on the table with the typical symptoms that someone may think about when they hear or think about concussions. The person in the background is there to display someone who may be suffering from a concussion and dealing with a few, if not all, of these symptoms. I first sketched out my project and the sketch looked something like this:

I struggled with trying to figure out how to get to the final product based on my sketch and I went through a few phases.

And the final ended up looking like this:

Baseline Criteria: 1.)Use arrangement, size, color, visual rhythm, and/or contrast to focus viewers' attention. I believe that I was able to achieve this baseline. I attempted to arrange the elements of my project so that the eyes were drawn to the brain or the girl first and then to the words in the shadows. After asking a few of my friends what their eyes were immediately drawn to and all of them responding in the order I was going for, I believe that I have arranged my image in a meaningful way. I also played with the size of the brain and words in the shadows to establish some prominence in what words were important, but also wanting the words to slightly blend a bit. I established rhythm with how I arranged the words at the top to come inward towards the brain. Along with this, I tried to establish rhythm with the lighting. One thing that I tried to do when I took the picture of my roommate to use in my project is kind of match the light so it looked like she was actually sitting at the table.

2.)Include at least one word, with a carefully chosen font, as explained in reflection. Font choice was very difficult for me. It’s hard for me to kind of discern from what various different fonts are and also what they may or may not add to the project. However, for the words in the shadow, I found a font named Kaushan off of font squirrel, which is a cursive font. I was attracted to this font for these words, because I knew I wanted to manipulate them in a way that made them look blended into the wall. I felt as though the cursive would be able to be manipulated a little better to blend in to the wall more.

3.)Have a clear message or intervention I feel like I was able to achieve this. My message is that there are mental health symptoms and other emotional symptoms of concussions that many individuals don’t think about, or that many individuals do not know are a result of concussions. I wanted to highlight a few of the pressing symptoms that are caused from an immediate concussion and also improper care of a concussion. This is a very prominent issue in contact sports, for example Football. I wanted my image to grab the attention of the viewer in a very loud kind of way with the brain on the table and then point their direction to the less obvious, which were the symptoms on the wall.

4.)Incorporate juxtaposition I believe I incorporated juxtaposition in two places. One with the brain on the table with the girl in the background. This shows juxtaposition, because these are two objects that wouldn’t normally be associated with each other and especially not with the brain being put on display. The brain is something of a mystery of sorts to many and is thought to be somewhat invisible, so placing it on display is something out of the ordinary.

Another moment of juxtaposition is the light vs shadows. In my project I wanted to make use of the light (the typical symptoms that someone knows about and can see/feel) and the dark (the overlooked/unknown symptoms that many may not think about). When looking for photos that contrasted the light and dark, I made an effort to try and find images that would work with the lighting. The table and light image really captured the vibe that I was going for. The lighting of the image of the brain makes the brain look like it is actually being lit by the light, and the lighting that I produced for the image of my roommate also makes it seem as though she is sitting at the table and being lit by the lamp above. This aided in me juxtaposing the words in the dark and in the light since the words in the dark blended in a bit more, while the words in the light grabbed the attention of the viewer first.

5.)Use at least 3 layers I used more than three layers in my project. My background image, the brain and my roommate in the background took up three. And then the inclusion of the words added more layers. I also had to incorporate another layer to fit under my message below, so that it was not just sitting on a transparent background. These layers all aided in the formation of my project, since each had to come together to aid in the telling of my overall message. Overall, I used around 17 layers.

6.)Use at least 2 GIMP tools and write about them One tool that I used was the Dodge/Burn tool. This tool allows you to lighten (dodge) or darken (burn) the color of an image. I used this tool on the words in the shadows when playing around with what color I wanted them to be. This tool allowed me to change the color of the brown without having to restart on my progress when I had used other tools on the words. For example, if I had used the blur tool on the words, and later wanted to change the color, I would have had to delete the edits that I had made and restart the edits on the image or text box again. The dodge burn tool, however, enabled me to change the shade of the brown I wanted without having to completely start over on the edits/other tools I had already used on the image.

Another tool that I used was the free select and eraser tool. I used this tool when cutting out the brain and also when cutting out my roommate’s body from the full picture I took of her. The free select tool enabled me to get as close as possible when cutting out the image, and provided an easy step to cutting out the background. The eraser enabled me to go back in and make any closer edits to whatever background may still be left in the image and also to better define her true shape. Both of these tools enabled me to get a clearer cut onto the images.

Aspirational Criteria Last project, I believe that I used the GitHub repository but I did not include very meaningful commit messages. This project, I attempted to include commit messages whenever I posted or updated a new element to the repository. For example, with the 10 screenshots that I posted, I attempted to explain what was happening at that moment when I decided to take a screenshot which better helped me later when I was realizing ways that I could level up or incorporate a new element in my project. I also believe that I incorporated conceptual contrast and change through a few elements in my project including the image of a person with a headache and a brain just sitting on a table.

As mentioned above, I used the free select and erase tools as well as the dodge/burn tools. However, I also used a few more tools that helped me with the making of the visuals in my project. I used the perspective tool to angle the words on the brain to try and blend them in more. At first I found them to be too bold:

However with the perspective tool and a little change in the color, I found that they blended a little more and their shadows kind of fit the light pattern in a way

Another tool I used was the blur tool on the images in the background to better help them blend into the wall. I also used the Warp Transform tool on the words in the background in order to transform the words and add a kind of eerie feel to them. I wanted this tool to better help to portray the words in the shadows to be odd and blend in, but in a way that made them kind of odd. I wanted to set the tone with these words in order to aid in the highlighting of how these words are overlooked, and the Warp Transform tool worked to help me better get this vibe. Along with this, I used tools such as the move and the crop tools in order to shape images the way I wanted them, drop shadows, and also the shift tool in the word “linger” in the message section in order to point out that these symptoms linger around once concussions seem to go away.

I also believe that my image guided the eye through a flow, with the hierarchy that I attempted to set. I made sure to ask a few friends of mine where their eyes flowed to throughout the image and everyone flowed through the way that I intended. I placed the brain on the table first and the girl in the background to better catch the attention of the viewer and then the words in the shadow were the next area to focus on. These words are not too blended, but also blended enough to where they are not the main focus at first. My message I intended to be the last thing to look at, in order to come to the conclusion of my rhetorical message at the end of the viewing of my image. Finally, the negative space I incorporated intended to create an empty feeling in order to draw further attention to the elements in the image that I wanted to focus on.

The advice that I received included making the words in the shadow a little darker than they were doing the peer review session. I decided to take this advice because one of the questions I had coming into the peer review session was whether or not the words were looked unreadable, which with the advice I received it seemed as though they did come across that way. I used the dodge/burn tool to darken the words.

Overall, I found myself slightly frustrated with this project at first because of my unfamiliarity with GIMP. However, as I began to develop my argument and get a hang of the tools I began to feel less frustrated and more engaged in the project. As with the Soundscape project, I found myself working on the project while hanging chilling out with friends and even while watching TV. I began to enjoy figuring out the tools and working with them to better get the message I wanted for my project.

[abrous]

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project more than the initial one. I have used photoshop before so I felt much more comfortable stepping into this new program that again did not work well on a Chromebook. Starting with the baseline criteria: I specifically arranged the hockey images to be at the top of the photo to make sure they were visually above all of the other sports and had them separated by the words to show the clear difference. The size of the hockey images were larger as well as a drop shadow with a color - blue or red - to make them stand out even more. The words on the page were my entire argument: Hockey is the ultimate sport" and they were chosen because they quickly and easily got the point across even if the images did not make sense. Each image and backgrounds (the white background and the lower opacity on the hockey arena background) each have their own layer. Two tools that I used were the drop shadow on the hockey images, highlighting their importance and drawing quick attention, and lowering the opacity on the hockey arena background, to ensure that the corners that were not covered by the arena would still show white background to complete the image rather than blank. Another tool I used was the dropper tool to pick up part of the blue drop shadow on one of the hockey players to pull more blue around his body and less white which was showing through. I tried to incorporate as many sports as I could think of that someone could use to disagree with my statement. Each of the sports below the hockey images has qualities that are within hockey - football is physical with tackling and hockey has fights and checking, skateboarding is fast paced and uses a device for their feet to move quicker, tennis requires them to be able to follow and hit a small object in the air during gameplay and hockey has a small puck racing around the ice they have to get, the equestrian involves either horse racing (fast paced) or agility/obstacle course work and hockey players need to be able to move around obstacles known as opponents at high speeds to get to the net, baseball is also using great hand-eye coordination and hockey with following the puck, the water skiing is a unique sport that is not done on dry land and hockey is done on a piece of ice and move around on skates, karate contains one on one battles between opponents and when penalty shots (one player on one goalie) or breakaway goals (same concept except during gameplay) true competition comes out between them as well as defensive players against offensive players, basketball is a fast scoring/moving back and forth game and in hockey the puck goes between each zone 20 plus times per period, ballet is elegant and hockey goalies make some of the most beautiful saves along with players making beautiful shots, soccer needs endurance and speed and hockey players need to be able to sprint at 100% while skating for their shift before resting for a short time to do it again, and finally fishing is a sport involving patience and determination and in hockey when teams are super close in standings/skill level having patience and determination will get a winning team their game winning goal. Aspriational: I tried using github for the assets file and tried to have useful commit messages I also feel that my image does have a flow to it since there are larger images and color at the top and smaller and darker images at the bottom. I was very happy to be able to take suggestions from all three of my notecards: I made the hockey arena the entire background rather than only behind the other sports (I was hoping for a good use of negative space but it clearly did not work!) Adding the drop shadow to the images was something I had not previously thought of but wanted to have an idea similar. Seeing this suggestion fit perfectly for the project. After seeing two different people say the white space behind the hockey images was not good so I knew it needed to go. This was one of my initial starts to the project - the layers on the right are individual to each image and I tried to organize the photos in a way that made sense and fit together on the page. Next I added the text and moved the arena image behind the players (which eventually was a bad idea) along with lowering the opacity of the arena background.

[Aba430]

Concept For my visual rhetoric, I decided to tackle the issue of health care and the high cost associated with it. At first, I wanted to visually portray the concept of health equity and the idea that health care is a right not a privilege. Either way, I figured I should do something that relates to my major while also calling attention to a critical issue. I started by collecting various images that related to health and the health care services. At this stage my piece did not have a specific message, so the images didn’t form a cohesive collage. I chose to utilize a landscape format so that the viewers eyes would view the piece from left to right, much like the flow of a sentence. I also used images of healthy, active individuals in addition to images portraying illness to contrast the two states of being.
Feedback

After the workshop session, all three of my feedback notecards encouraged me to layer my images since they were separate at the time. One of the cards suggested I incorporate text to communicate a specific message since they weren’t sure what my piece tried to convey. To create a cohesive piece, I decided to use the ellipse and free-select tool to crop the images into circular, rounded shapes. The blocky nature of the images prevented them from layering in a way that would allow them to almost blend. As I layered my images and became more comfortable with the editing tools, I decided to edit a few of my images together so they could tell a story. Next, I needed a phrase to convey my message regarding the inaccessibility and expensive nature of health care. I wrote about eight phrases down before deciding on: Health Care: Can you afford it? It was short enough to fit onto my piece, but still forces the viewer to make the connection between health and income.

Meeting Criteria In the left, I edited three images to tell a miniature story, but initially I started off with two images. The first image depicted two surgeons performing an operation, and the other image showed a concerned mother checking her daughter’s temperature. I cut out the heads of the two surgeons and placed them on either side of the mother/daughter image. In this way, it appears that the surgeons are examining the young girl along with her mother. I struggled to find images that intersected the two ideas of cost and health care until I stumbled upon an image of pills sitting atop a $100 bill. I then placed the image over the mother’s head a thought bubble. The images are meant to tell the story of a mother with a sick child, who is worried that she might not be able to afford the medication for her sick daughter.

I chose the font for my text because it was bold and stood out even amongst all the images below it. Although I did experiment with cursive fonts that were much thinner, they just didn’t capture my attention or convey my message with a sense of urgency. While the font style is fairly basic, it delivers the message in a direct and forceful way. I wanted the theme of money to be present, but not overpowering, so I used an image of multiple $100 bills as a background for the lower portion of the piece. Benjamin Franklin’s face peeps out a few times, but I think it helps the viewer associate health and health care with income. 
The background for the upper portion of the piece was achieved by layering a filter over the white background followed by a slight reduction in its opacity. As a result, the wood isn’t completely smooth since there’s a trail of dots on each panel. I knew I didn’t want the background to stay white, but I still wanted it to remain neutral. For the Michelle Obama, I used the flip tool so that she and the children behind her would run towards the center of the piece, and the viewers’ eyes wouldn’t stray off the page. I had accidentally used the tool on another image beforehand, but I decided to experiment with it. All in all, I feel a lot more confident in this piece than I did for the previous project. 

[esc37]

Argument For my visual rhetoric, my metaphorical argument was “Don’t leave a winning lottery ticket in your back pocket”. This was a phrase that my swim coach used a lot, and so I thought that this would be a good metaphor to portray visually. From my point-of-view, I would take this metaphor to mean, if you have worked hard at something, and if you have the skills, abilities, and assets to do something well, then why not make the best of it, and use those skills and abilities to be the best version of you that you can be? This argument also developed into the argument that you shouldn’t take your skills and abilities for granted, and to not let anything or anyone get in the way of your success or the improvement of yourself. Baseline Criteria • Use arrangement, size, color, visual rhythm, and/or contrast to focus viewers' attention. o For this, I tried to use color and contrast to focus the viewers’ attention on the lottery ticket. Since the lottery ticket had such bright colors, it contrasted against the medium-wash jeans. • Include at least one word, with a carefully chosen font, as explained in reflection. o For the text, I tried to use yellow and a font that was reminiscent of the font usually used to print words, or emboss words and labels on jeans. I chose the color of the words written on the jeans by using the same color as the stitching on the back pocket of the jeans.
• Have a clear message or intervention o I believe that my message was clear. I asked the reader, “Would you leave a winning lottery ticket in your back pocket?”, with the winning lottery ticket falling out of a rip in the back pocket, symbolizing the fact that if you don’t use your skills and abilities, and you have the ability to become successful, why not use it, as you may lose these abilities one day. • Incorporate juxtaposition o I believe that I incorporated juxtaposition. In order to portray my argument, I made sure to place the “winning” lottery ticket in the rip of the jeans, to make it seem as if it were falling out. • Use at least 3 layers o I used about 15 layers in this. Some layers were repeated or duplicated, as I found that it helped make the text/color pop more on the jeans pocket. • Use at least 2 GIMP tools, and write about them in the reflection o I used the “Healing Tool” to “heal”, or seamlessly insert the rip onto the jeans, as the jeans I used were not originally ripped. o I also used the “Color Picker Tool” to choose the color from the stitches on the back pocket of the jean, so that I could use the same color for my text.

Aspirational Criteria

• Use Github repository with meaningful commit messages o For this project, I used my Github repository, and committed my files as I updated them, with meaningful commitment messages, such as what I changed in the file, or if this was a new idea. • Incorporate conceptual contrast/changes - (i.e. two separate ideas combined into the image like including at least two images from separate sources) o The rip on the back pocket, as well as the jeans back-pocket image were from two different sources. • Try (and reflect on) ≥ 2 new-to-you GIMP tools/effects o The “heal” tool, and the “color-picker” tool were very effective in GIMP. To be honest, I had some trouble using GIMP, but the “color-picker” tool helped me choose the exact color that I wanted for the text, so that the text seemed like it was part of the jean, and the “heal” tool really helped in erasing and blurring the line between the rip and the actual jeans pocket, as the jeans material surrounding the rip in the original picture was a different colored-jean, than the jeans back pocket that I ended up using.

Progression of the Project

Originally, for my first draft, I had the idea of placing a rip on the back-pocket, but did not know how to do so, so I had the lottery ticket sticking out of the top of the jeans pocket. This did not turn out to be effective for portraying my argument, as the viewer ended up focusing more on the jean, than on the lottery ticket, or message that I had.

In the end, I believe that I was able to get rid of all the unnecessary text in my image, and just include the text that I needed to create a more cohesive argument. I also attempted to use shadows and duplication of the text to make the text more “readable” on the back-pocket of the jean.

[AnthonyCapretto]

For my visual rhetoric project I decided I knew I wanted to make a car advertisement but I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do with that. I went to brainstorming, I looked at a lot of car ads online and tried to find some inspiration. It took at while, but what I realized was that most of the best ads are simple, they don't try to say or promise too much and I feel like that is extremely important. I took that, and tried injecting in some irony and this is what I at first came up with.

I wanted to play off of the fact that most Honda Civics are known to be cars that are driven into the ground and are usually not very well taken care of. It turned out alright at best, but It just felt boring. It felt like I had slapped two pictures together and some text and called it a day.

So I was determined to do something original. I sat there and thought. Well I have to use negative space actively, so what if I took that literally? I mean, Honda Civic's never die, but what if we really pushed that to the limit? with that in mind, I produced this.

Baseline: Now let's start off with the Baseline for the project. I tried to make the Civic the biggest thing on the page, and I believe that picking a red car helped because it stands out so easily. It focuses the viewers attention on the car on the screen and the blur behind it also pushes that idea home.

I then used 3 lines of text with a very simple font. Now, it may seem like this is a boring a and simple font, but that was my entire point. I wanted the phrases to be matter of fact and have a clear message. I also didn't want to take too much attention away from the rest of the image, because all they are there for is to give a little explanation. In fact, out of all of the feedback that I received, it was all about fixing the text so that it was more visible. Here: And Here: I tried to take that into consideration and then on my final draft I put it onto a black background so it is very easily readable.

I tried to juxtapose the car with regards to the exploding world o make it seem like the car outlived the world and is still going strong. I think this works much better than letting the car just sit in front of a static trailer and sort of blend into the overall image.

Now two specific tools I used on the entire image was the scissors tool and the eraser tool. I used the scissors tool extensively on the car cutting it out of the image that it was previously in as shown here: It took a while to effectively cut it out in a way that looked organic, but after trial, error, and a lot of undo button presses, I feel like it came out looking rather good.

I also used the eraser tool to blend the explosion of the world and the background starry image. As you can see, this image was in the middle of a black box which was extremely noticeable when placed in front of the stars. At first I thought it was useless, that there was no way I was going to be able to get them to work together, but after some brainstorming I realized that if I put the hardness on the eraser to 1 or 2 points and then went to work blending and as you can see:

I believe that it also turned out looking very organic and like it should be there.

I also used many layers, I think 9 or 10, which more exceeds the three that I needed for baseline.

As for Aspirational criteria:

Throughout the entire process I used Git and GitHub to push my different changes and to put my sources on the website with meaningful commit messages. Now, I still don't entirely understand it, and there were a few times I messed up, but overall it has definitely gotten easier.

As for incorporating two different ideas, I believe a Honda Civic and the end of the world suffices pretty well. It's absurd, and that is the point, but it is absurdly amusing as well. If you saw this ad in a magazine you would read it and smile because it's trying by not trying. It is using humor to push the point home that Civic's last forever.

Now there were two tools that I used that I had never used before, and that was the Filter Lighting Effects Tool and the Linear Blur tool. Now used them on the car here:

I made a duplicate of the car and used the linear blur tool on it and moved it behind the normal image to give the sense that the car was moving off to the left of the image away from the explosion, I think it turned out pretty well too.

I also used lighting effects on the car to darken the windows. Before you could look right through the windows and see cars because I originally took it from a picture taken in a parking lot. This actually proved to be difficult, and I ended up messing up the front windshield. Due to this, I then had to select the windshield from an old image, use the lighting tool only on that, and then place it on the current image and transformed it to fit because it was too small. I then linked the two images along with the blur and voila, you have a car moving through space.

Finally, I took the negative space aspect quite literally by setting the image in space. Now, in space you're always going to have stars, so there was no way I could have nothingness, but many parts of the image are just nothing but stars. It doesn't give you anything, which means that your focus goes to the only other three things on the page that make any sense. This creates a flow of the image when you first open it up, you look to the car, and where the car is coming from and then finally at the text. With it being in space, it's used as negative space.

Overall, I'm very content with how my project turned out. I was worried at first that I wasn't going to be able to come up with anything interesting and would end up turning in something I wasn't proud of. I'm proud of this. I love to employ humor into things and I also absolutely love cars as well and this took the best of both. I might even keep working on it to try to make the ad even better.

[jlt118]

Visual Argument Reflection

My concept for this visual argument was to promote body and self-image positivity. I used pictures of women, juxtaposing happy, colorful energy with a more solemn black and white. I did this to create contrast between the different women and the mindsets that come with positive versus negative stigmatism surrounding the issue. I chose to use the words, “my body, my standards”. I made this choice because I felt that encompassed anything that falls into physical appearance and squashing the need for a “standard”. I chose a bold font for a bold statement because I wanted it to be simple but stand out and easily read. In finding the images, I focused on facial expression and diversity. I chose women who were either happy or calm or fierce to be my colored images and women who were solemn or distraught to be my black and white images. I also included the hand with the tape measurer to indicate size and numbers.  I used the cutting tool in GIMP to remove the background from the photographs, moved them to be arranged in a manner that made sense for the composition, and made the images that were not black and white yet, black and white by decreasing the saturation in filters. 

I started off with just positive and happy women and was going to have the women layered with a message about body positivity. 

Then after our criteria and goals stretch day, I decided to add the juxtaposition of the black and white pictures with the colored. I purposely chose sad expression to represent the negative portion of the argument because I wanted the emotion to come through and not a certain body type. It is easy to put a picture of a skinny girl on the screen and say that she “fits the standards”, however the point is to accept all bodies, women, and expressions of femininity. 

My initial thought was to have the fonts be very different to go along with the contrasting images. However, I realized that the message is not as much a “this not that”, but instead an overall statement about the whole of the piece. With the feedback I received I decided to add two more women to the collage and show more of their actual bodies, not just faces to further get my message across. Overall, I think that in the end, I was able to get my message across, always with room for improvement. I found the project interesting and with more time, would love to push the project further and perhaps photograph people in my life instead of using stock images. It was a cool learning experience to use the new program and took some getting used to. I liked turning something that I’m passionate about into a project for the class and had a lot of fun with it!