Sketchbook LHL5002 METHODOLOGIES IN MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION ELISE MARIE ELLUL
CONTENTS
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05
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15
16
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF MASK DESIGN
MASK DESIGN LINES
MASK DESIGN SHAPES
MASK DESIGN MALTESE IDENTITY
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF SONG TITLE
SONG TITLE MIRRORS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
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24
SONG TITLE COUNTING STARS ONE REPUBLIC
SONG TITLE BIG GIRLS CRY SIA
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF MAGAZINE COVER
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30
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VOGUE MAGAZINE COVER
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF CD/ALBUM COVER
MADONNA ALBUM COVER
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38
38
ACTIVITY TASK BRIEF
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF WEBSITE
CREATING A WEBSITE
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF We were entrusted to create designs of facial masks, experimenting with topics of lines, shapes and the Maltese identity. A web sourced image of a facial mask was assigned as a template.
Image of facial mask provided by the tutor.
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The image of the facial mask provided by the tutor was imported on Illustrator. Using the 'Image Trace' tool I was able to create an outline path of the mask. Thus, converting it from its original raster format to vector format.
MASK DESIGN - LINES For this mask design, the main source of inspiration are the medical staff, who risk their lives to save those of others. Therefore, I browsed the web to try to find an image of a heartbeat as seen on an ECG or HRM (heart rate monitor). This line represents life and hope in the medicine department and for the patient.
Image sourced for the facial mask.
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The image sourced was imported into Illustrator, using the 'Image Trace' tool. It was traced as a black and white logo to create the line path.
A handwritten joint font shalma (OpenType) was sourced to promote the awareness message 'stay safe'. I wanted this message to be in transition with the path above.
stay safe Using the 'Pen Tool' and 'Add/Delete Anchor Point' tools, I was able to create the desired transition from the previous traced path to the awareness text.
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I wanted to portray this self-awareness message on the standard blue colour associated with the medical department nurses. Thus, this colour will be the base colour of the mask, with a simple two-tone colour effect, allowing the message to be understood clearly.
Visual of the mask on a portrait.
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MASK DESIGN - SHAPES From a young age, I was obsessed with jigsaw puzzles and board games. Jigsaw puzzles help increase memory skills, improve problem-solving ability, increased productivity and if solved with friends or family it helps better collaboration and teamwork. I, therefore, browsed the web for vector or png format images of puzzles.
Image sourced for the facial mask.
COVID-19 is a puzzle of uncertainty that needs to be solved.
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The chosen .png file was imported on Photoshop to create a drop shadow behind the image using the 'Layer Style > Drop Shadow' option. Thus, creating depth in the image. It was eventually flattened using the 'Flatten Image' tool to eliminate the transparent background to a standard white.
The flatten image was imported onto Illustrator and clipped to the mask path created previously using 'Make Clipping Mask' tool.
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Visual of the mask on a portrait.
MASK DESIGN - MALTESE ID Nothing boasts the Maltese identity more than A. The Geroge Cross awarded to the island of Malta in 1942 by King George, to honour the island for her brave people. The George Cross was incorporated into the Flag of Malta beginning in 1943 and remained on the flag ever since. B. Valletta, the European Union's smallest capital city, recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. Therefore, I started by browsing the web for photographic images on the capital city.
The photographic image below depicting the capital city was shortlisted. While browsing the web for the George Cross, Maltese filigree and Maltese patterned tiles as a source of inspiration, I came across a MALTESE CROSS seamless pattern.
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The photographic image was imported on Illustrator to create an abstract version using the 'Image Trace' tool. The image was traced as a Black and White image, adjusting the threshold, paths, corners, noise until the desired vector paths were achieved. The white areas of the traced image were selected and deleted. Thus, only the landscape was visible having a transparent background.
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The seamless pattern sourced in vector format of the maltese cross was imported on Illustrator. The unwanted text was removed from the artboard. Minor edits including changing of solid colours to light monochrome were done. It was my intention to pick one cross and change its colour to the red colour of the national flag.
The mask path was imported onto the Illustrator file. The image was clipped to the mask path using 'Make Clipping Mask' tool.
The pattern edited above was clipped using the 'Make Clipping Mask' tool, as the new background to the abstract landscape of Valletta.
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Visual of the mask on a portrait.
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF The task given was to create a design cover for three song titles of our choice.
My choice of song titles
Mirrors Justin Timberlake
Big Girls Cry Sia
Counting Stars One Republic
MIRRORS - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
For this song cover, my main inspiration was the song title itself, 'Mirrors'. I intended to browse the web and source a portrait or profile portrait of the artist. Portraits were shortlisted. I opted for the following portrait.
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The research was conducted on a standard album cover specifications which are 10x10 inches at 300 pixels for print. An artboard was created to these specifications.
The image chosen was imported to Photoshop where it was strategically placed to be mirrored. Half of the image was selected using the 'Rectangular Marquee Tool' and a new layer was created. (Layer>New>Layer Via Copy). This layer was mirrored using the Transform>Flip option.
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During the research, I came across a Vanity Fair magazine cover of Justin Timberlake. I was immediately struck with the typography used. I wanted to use the same or similar font for the song cover. The cover was imported on the webpage WhatTheFont (https://www.myfonts.com/ WhatTheFont/) to determine the font. Similar typography was sourced online, downloaded and installed 'Operetta 18 medium'. This typography is to be used for both the song title and artist's name.
TEST
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The words 'MIRRORS' and 'JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE' were created on illustrator, the letter 'R' mirrored on the song name title block. The editing typography was imported on Photoshop as a smart object and placed as per final design. The artist's name 'JUSTIN' is the only feature in colour allowing the name to stand out from the edited artwork.
 Song Cover
COUNTING STARS ONE REPUBLIC
Once again my main inspiration was the song title 'Counting Stars'. Research was conducted to find a silhouette of a human looking at the stars or galaxies. An image was sourced as desired, this image was utilised as the background of the song cover. Thus, directly referring to the title of the song.
The most recent logo of One Republic in vector format was sourced online. The logo was de-constructed and resized to fit and interact with the viewer.
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Using illustrator as the main software to design the typography to be used on the song cover, a rectangle shape was drawn on the artboard and the words 'Counting Stars' created as outlines. The letter 'A' was replaced as a star shape using the 'Draw Tools'. 'Pathfinder>Shape Tool>Minus Front' was used to cut through the drawn blocks and create one layer with transparent lettering.
The de-constructed logo and title block were imported to Photoshop over the background image. The opacity of the title block was reduced to 60% allowing a fainted image of the background image.
 Song Cover
BIG GIRLS CRY An image was sourced online depicting a broken figure of a female doll who looks hurt, yet beautiful and dominant.
Sia logos and the trademark 'bobhairstyle symbol' were also sourced and downloaded in vector format.
It was decided to use a soft pastel pink to match the bikini worn by the doll.
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Sia's logo and the trademark were altered and deconstructed to create a simple tower of typography, reading the artist's name and name of the song.
 Song Cover
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF We were presented with a task to create a VOGUE magazine cover with direct relation to matter surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The choice of individuals for the magazine were Lady Diana, Frida or Cleopatra.
My choice was Lady Diana, Princess of Wales. During a quick search online to try and source a portrait of Lady Diana, it was immediately noted that most portraits in high-resolution, were in black and white. Other high-resolution portraits could only be downloaded against payment or purchase. I managed to shortlist three monochrome photos of Lady Diana.
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My final choice was a front portrait by Photographer Patrick Demarchelier from 1995.
Before starting to design the magazine cover around the chosen portrait of Lady Diana, research had to be done to determine the cover dimensions, formatting and understand the design development of the VOGUE cover.
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Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine. Vogue uses a white background with simple black times new roman font for the writing. They occasionally use red for the titles to make them stand out more.
Cover Lines: All cover lines are used is to give the audience a bit of an insight as to what is held inside the magazine. It is a little taster of what the topic is and who is involved.
Masthead: For the masthead, it is bold and extremely large compared to any other text. This is so the reader knows exactly what magazine it is instantly. Main Cover Line: Lana Del Rey here is the main cover line and will feature in the feature article in this Vogue issue.
Main Image: The main image is used here, with the conventional direct address which is used to engage the readers.
Bold Text: This attracts the reader as they would like to know more about it, this is conventionally in the feature article.
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Colour Scheme: This magazine uses the conventional colour palette of 3 colours, pink, white and black. This shows it is for the female audience rather than male and is to do with fashion.
Others: The VOGUE cover measures 10.9 x 8.3 inches. Thus, an artboard was created using these dimensions. The VOGUE logo is always situated at the top of the cover. Five standard colours are normally utilised for the logo, the colours being white, black, red, gold or yellow. These colour are used depending on the background photographic image. Searching online I was able to source the VOGUE corporate logo. This was sourced in vector '.eps' format.
Further research was done on VOGUE covers were black and white photography is used for the background image. It was noted that the main colours used were bright in colour, either red, gold or yellow. Important article headings found in the magazine would also use these colours.
Diana, Princess of Wales will be the main cover line and will feature in the feature article in this Vogue issue. Using similar but not identical typography to the 'Vogue' name, the typography 'Operetta 18 medium' was used as a title block 'Diana Princess of Wales'.
The portrait was imported in the Illustrator artboard and masked to artboard borders.
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The vector format logo was imported and placed at the top of the artwork as per previous Vogue editions.
Online research was conducted on top quotes said by Lady Diana. The following quote was chosen
'Family is the most important thing in the world'. The quote emphasises to its viewers that due to load restrictions (the UK) enforced by the pandemic, it is good to reconcile that family is the most important thing in the world. The quote was imported in the artboard and a Sans Serif font was used in contrast to other fonts.
I wrote other potential cover lines relating to Vogue fashion and pandemic concerns, headlines of which were bold and the same colour as the vogue logo. Mentioned headlines were written down in illustrator using and experimenting with the previously used fonts including Helvetica, Sans Serif and Operetta. After getting the desired outcome, the font was changed to create outlines allowing the smart object to be scaled.
Past Vogue covers were imported on Photoshop to create a colour palette for the Vogue title. The title block was experimented on with various colours, but the soft gold was chosen (C:28, M:34, Y:90 and K:3).
 VOGUE Cover
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF The task was to create an album cover using one of the following artists: Madonna, Tina Turner or Michael Jackson.
My choice
Madonna
This image was imported on Illustrator and the function 'image trace' was used, and the present of 'high fidelity photo' was used to create vector shapes which will be edited as pop art. The artwork was cleaned as only one face was to be editied.
After a deep online search, I found an image portraying two Madonnas in one photo. I decided to edit the photo to represent one the unedited version of the beautiful woman figure Madonna represents and her other artist side, also known as the 'Queen of Pop'.
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After erasing the part of the photo of which I wanted to keep its origin state, the desired artwork was imported on Photoshop.
Using the 'Select Colour Range', I was able to select the areas and started filling in using the 'Brush Tool' with the colours sourced from another image which was only used as a colour palette.
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This process was repeated soft pastel pink, yellow, green and the cherry red lipstick.
Finally, the last colour selected were the outlines which were darkened in a rough black to compliment with the high contrast black and white original image. This pop art illustration was superimposed as the original image.
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For the 'Madonna' name, I kept the soft pastel pink, using the previous colour palette C:0, M:33, Y:15 and K:0. The standard 'Times New Roman' font was utilised.
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Album Cover
ACTIVITY TASK BRIEF For the exhibition titled 'Dreams' that the school is organising at the end of the scholastic year, the headmaster is commissioning you as a Media Literacy student to conduct a poster that will promote this exhibition. Your task is to create a digital poster that will promote the exhibition and encourage viewers to attend. Tips to keep in mind when creating the poster: -
The theme: 'Dreams' following the school year theme.
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Target audience: students from primary to secondary
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Colour schemes
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Typography
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Visuals
This activity is planned for Media Literacy Education SEC Unit 2 Learning Outcome 2. Demonstrate knowledge of how graphics impact different audiences.
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STUDENT EXHIBITION POSTERS EXAMPLES
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF We were assigned to create a website of our choice, targeting a specific audience.
Before COVID, having an active social media presence may have been enough to supplement an artist's in-person efforts of auditioning, taking classes and planting oneself in the local dance community. Now that most auditions are virtual and online submissions have been on the rise, it takes more to stand out. To be competitive as the industry adapts and evolves, a professional website is an online presence an artist needs to stand out. The audience that a dance artist will expect to have are directors from companies, dance practitioners looking for freelance dance artists for a project, and other freelance dancers who would be interested in taking classes with professionals. Therefore, the main aim for the design of the website was to have it modern and contemporary to attract likewise artists yet user friendly.
WordPress was used to setup a domain and website. An account had to be created. An easy-to-remember and desired domain name with a good structure such as "www.[firstname][lastname].com" or "www.[firstname][lastname][dance].com was chosen. Initially, I tried for www.elisellul.wordpress.com, however, it was not available for a free account. I then added 'dance' to it which still kept it professional yet sleek.
After creating the account, the template or theme for the website was chosen. The theme chosen was Blask because of its' minimalistic, user-friendly yet bold approach.
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Blask is a free modern portfolio theme that displays your work in a simple-yet-bold layout that spotlight on your projects and scales to fit any screen size. Blask is a WordPress portfolio theme that allows photographers and visual artists to stand out from the crowd. While our demo features black and white photography, you can use Blask to publish all types of images. It's a blank canvas you can use to assemble a gallery of pictures and illustrations that reflect your originality and artistic perspective. Blask's understated design is an ideal website theme for artists and designers as well as photographers. Choose this free theme to launch a career, sell images to customers, or simply create a home for showcasing your creativity.
Having chosen the theme, the next step was to start importing content on the website. Most of the content had to be edited, cropped and published. Images were imported onto Photoshop and saved for web.
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Videos were uploaded onto video platform streaming services such as YouTube. These videos were later embedded into the website via URL.
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On the 'Homepage', one can see photos in motion and a video showreel to my works. I stayed away from using too many fonts or colours, in which I let the photos speak for themselves with their vibrant colours. A quote by Doris Humphrey, an American dancer and choreographer, is a concise statement to establish who I am and what I do. A drop-down menu on the website offers separate pages for photos and videos where one can see the work I do and the projects I formed part of. Having an 'About' page offers a detailed bio of myself stating my dance education, training, past and present works, as well as my services. I was careful to not overload the website with a huge amount of content but with enough professional content. The main aim of the site is to look professional, clear and speaks out to who is seeking to hire.
I kept things simple for the menu bar, only adding essential marketing tools.
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Silhouettes of dancers performing were sourced online, these were imported on Illustrator and using the 'Image Trace' tool these silhouettes were traced as a Black and White logo. One of the silhouettes was selected to form part of the logo. The name 'Elise Ellul' to be similar yet distinct from one another. I opted to use two typographies, operetta and sans serif. The logo was formed.
Headings were experimented with until the desired outcome was obtained.
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Created logo was uploaded onto the website.
Fonts were selected for the Headings and Base Font of the website.
Spacers were added between each content.
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Published