Crowdsourcing

If i was offered $1,000 to sign away a piece of my work that i had put fifty hours of work into it would be hard to make that choice.  It would depend on a couple things.  If I didn't have a job and was tight for money I might do it for the extra money.  But it would also have to depend on the piece itself.  If i did not feel attached to the piece I probably would sell it but if i was attached and I felt it was worth more I would ask for more and turn them down if they didn't offer more.

what is Interactive Design Media?

 The "Interactive Design Media" field defines how interactive systems are made and interacted with.  Interactive designers make the strong bonding connections between people and their products and services your group provides.  These products range from computers, mobile devices and household appliances.  The Interactive design field is constantly growing with the world as its technology evolves.

Practitioners in the Interactive Design field produce a wide variety of products such as what I listed previously.  These products are still rapidly changing and the platforms they appear on are changing even faster.   Practitioners are always trying to figure out who cares about their products.  They need to know who their users will be and what methods to use to appeal to them.  If you design a product towards a certain age group or type of person that is not right for the product then the product wont sell well no matter how much advertizing you do for it.  You have to design your product around the users so that you can get them interested in the product as well as willing to purchase or use it.  Then the designer has to ask themselves “so what?”  They have to think how the public will find out about your product as well as how the public will feel towards your product.  The designer has to think about how the app is going to make money.  The two major ways applications and sites make money; free to download with advertisements as well as an one time cost without advertisements.

The main questions that practitioners in Interactive Design Media ask themselves is where technology is going in terms of coding, devices, interests and competition.  Coding languages are coming out faster and the designer has to decide which to use from what code they know as well as what they can do with that code.  They also have to think about what device they are coding for and what operating system they use on that platform.  As well as the coding for a device the designer also has to ask himself how the product will look on the varied sized screens of the multiple platforms it will be on (if it is on multiple platforms).  Another thing designers have to worry about is how much interest the general public has in the product your working on.  The designer has to take into consideration how many similar products there are on the market and if the product will be able to compete with what is out already.

The goals in the Interactive Design Media profession are in a nutshell to create something that no one has thought of yet or to greatly improve something that is outdated.  Not everyone shares the same common goals though.  Because the profession is branching out into so many different things everyone has their own niche that they specialize in and have their own goals revolving around that.  Practitioners meet their goals by working in groups to push out the product with speed to beat other groups that might be working on something similar.  One goal might be to create the new standard in the layout of websites.  This would change how we use the Internet on computers, cell phones, tablets, and even gaming consoles.  As more devices become touch screen the interfaces have to adhere to the limited space and the users finger to select instead of something as small as a mouse curser.

Valentines day article

Write two different brief summaries that offer differing perspectives of the article. Write the first one for an essay arguing that, contrary to Lange's perspective, there actually is emotional significance in giving your beloved a valentine made by someone else, or even a digital valentine.
Write the second for an essay that questions whether all the card-swapping of Valentine's Day is truly meaningful, rather than a commercialized holiday that everyone takes part in simply because we're "supposed to."

A.)  Contrary to Lange's perspective there can be an emotional significance in giving your beloved a valentine made by someone else, or even a digital valentine.  It all depends on the receiver of the valentine.  In some circumstances you may not be able to get your beloved a physical one in time or have the money to send/make/buy one so you will need to resort to a digital one to show your beloved your feelings.  You might also want to send them something more personal too though.

B.)  I think card-swapping on Valentine's day is meaningful when you become the age to truly tell someone you love them or that you care.  The commercialized holiday version of valentines day is for kids to learn that you should care about one another.  This can be viewed as practice for when your older and can truly understand what love is.  I understand that some people say you should love your special someone no matter what day it is and not just on valentines day.  But it's one day a year to do something truly special to go farther out of your way to make that one person happy.

What was the thesis?

What is Kwun's "thesis"?

Kwun's thesis is too describe Lady Gaga and her pop culture sensation.  She talks about a lot of her crazy outfits.  She proves her thesis by giving vivid descriptions of the outfits that she wore on specific occasions.  Some of the descriptions were effective but a couple were ineffective in that they were so detailed that by the end of the description i had completely lost the visual image I was forming in my head.  She also talks about how different Lady Gaga is to everyone else in her genre but contradicts herself on the first page saying that she has the same basic presence as her competitors.

What is Walker's?





Walker's thesis is saying that Marlboro's BLACK cigarette packaging is going back to how cigarettes used to show that they cause death right on the packaging.  He gives the example of a previous Marlboro packaging with coffins and a skeleton.  I disagree with this statement because this packaging is Marlboro's "spiced" cigarette.  American Spirit has a black pack too which is their Peri-can blend.  He also shows EU packaging which has only words on a white box with a bar-code.  I think he is trying to prove a false statement.  My friends and I smoke the black pack and before reading this article none of us have thought the black represented death, it is simply a special blend.

1) Do the written descriptions of the physical subjects [Gaga's outfits, Bauhaus architecture, cigarette packs, etc.] actually "show" them to you? Or do you need visual images? If those descriptions fail, how do they fail?
If they 'work', how so?


In Gaga's article they didn't and I ended up using Google images for a visual guide because the outfits were so crazy.  The cigarette packs did show visuals of both Marlboro black and older versions of cigarette pack designs.  I think it worked because the Marlboro Black shows everything they talk about in the article and the older packs show you what they used to look like in that they are advertising that cigarettes kill on the pack.



2) What concepts do the authors point out as being "behind" these subjects? Do the authors effectively prove their points about these concepts? How so?

Rob Walker points out that it is common knowledge that cigarettes are harmful.  he talks about the branding of cigarettes and how the companies are required to have a warning on it saying "Nothing about this cigarette, packaging, or color should be interpreted to mean safer."

Aileen Kwun points out that Lady Gaga takes a lot of feedback from the press but she just ignores it and continues with her ambitious career.  Kwun also points out that when she first started becoming popular in early 2008 she didn't seem that different from her pop competitors with her blond hair, pale skin and sex appeal. She quickly distinguished herself with her crazy get-ups and stage performances.

Just a couple questions to introduce myself:

1. When did you start your career as a designer?

I started my career as a designer when I came to college.  I was influenced to be a designer by a “digital media” section in my Pre-Engineering class in high school.

2. What are your three favorite projects in your portfolio?

My three favorite projects in my portfolio are my travel poster, iphone app designs, and my black and white portrait of Johnny Depp.

3. What are the things that inspire you?

Comic books inspire me because they use color and space to tell a story.  I am also influenced by the use of light in certain video games.

4. How much free time do you have in a week and how do you usually spend it?

I usually spend my free time reading comic books or going out with friends.  When I go out with my friends we try and do something different each time.

5. What is your educational background?

My educational background revolving around design consists of Pre-Engineering classes in high-school, and my year and a half at Philadelphia University as an Interactive design student.