intro to film final. done.

before i get started on letting you view my final for film...i just want to say...RIP. my iphone. i miss you. :(

and now....here's my final for my film class...it had to be on urban life...but i wanted to make mine on my city...which is NOT urban...it's SUBurban. so, the idea was to make the beginning look like you were in a dirty, grungy city and then, show the beautiful side of sunnyvale. so it's like, you ARE in a CITY, which is what URBAN means..but show both sides, the city part..and then the suburban beatiful...place..i live. so here it is...all still frame shots..song (badly) mixed in garageband...

anyway, off to spend what's left in my bank account on a new iphone. :(

fml

webpages and birthday cards

i think........i'm really horrible about posting on here.
no, i know i am..but i really feel lame when i don't have anything to show. i always just blab (cuz i'm good at it). but today!!!!! TODAY!!!! i do have something to show.
one of our projects in information design was to come up with a new Frequently Asked Questions page for a website (that wasn't designed all that well) on a product we didn't know too much about. you guys can research it more, the product is basically a telephone jack for your computer.....i don't want to single them out for our class having a project revolving around their bad website design/functionality..anyway, here's what i came up with:


so, their real page was really confusing..very engineer inspired with it's technical kind of display (ie. "if your question has to do with this go here----> and if it has to do with that go here ---->) needless to say, it was pretty dumb. so here's my version. idealy there'd be another page that kind of had genres you could choose from but i liked the simplicity of this design. also, i thought the arrow like shape showed 'connecting' (as in connecting one person to another through this device?? eh? eh??) & i know, you might be asking WHY GREEN&PURPLE?! let me tell you!!!! EVERY WEBSITE ON THE INTERNET USES BLUE!!! it's everywhere, and frankly, i'm kind of tired of it..mostly cuz it's always the same shades of blue too..so, i didn't want to use blue since it's EVERYWHERE! so, green and plum was the choice..(which i just so happen to love..) any thoughts?

oh, and here's a quick birthday card i made for my sister's friend named jaqui. my sister drew out a reference of something she wanted it to look like and this is what i came up with for it:

it was just something really cute...my sister asked me for the stars and she put a couple flowers around her name and the 'happy birthday'..but i decided on the starbursts in the background and made the flowers really cutsie..(i'm around fabric enough to know what girlie prints are in..it might even give me the little edge i need in this industry?)
btw, i loved creating this. i'm not great on making really edgy looking things..but i can make something kid friendly/girly really easily...i hope i get a job where i can experiment with all these genres of design. :D i'll stay hopeful.

anyway, that's all for now...two weeks of class left..finals are next week. it's crunch time. i'm sure i'll post my finals up when it's all said and done..we'll see what i come up with.
until next time.
<3 sarah

SJ Gnomee

so this has nothing to do with school..but being a designer..i come from a very crafty/creative background. oh, and...i live like 15 minutes out of san jose..so you better believe the sharks are my fav sports team EVER!! (and they're kickin' butt this year!! woot!) anyway, my family all decided to go to Petroglyph in Willow Glen (its a pottery painting place) about a month or more ago and i picked out a gnome to paint (it's kind of an inside joke with our family...) i was wondering how i wanted to paint him when my dad was like, "he should be wearing a sharks jersey!!" and i'm like...

"GENIUS!!!"

hahahaha!!! so, this little guy has taken me like 3 or 4 trips down to Willow Glen on days off from school...and probably 8+ hours to finish...but here's what he looks like::


and his face/hat::


soo, he is complete..and he's home. i picked him up last night after they had finished firing him. :) i wanted to put him outside (in our backyard next to our other gnome....gnarles...but my mom won't let me.) haha! my parents both agree he kind of looks like Joe Thornton during playoffs when he's growing out his very manly playoff beard. i must agree...he also has a Mike Commodore look to him...cept, without the white-boy fro...and minus the Blue Jackets jersey (blech!)

maybe SJ Gnomee ("no-me") will bring our boys a little luck this playoff season! here's to an amazing finish by our boys in teal!! woot!

busy busy..just another week.

sooo, it's been incredibly busy these last couple weeks since i've posted last. i actually went on vacation to Arnold, CA to go see the snow! it was amazing. i miss it already. but i did happen to find out when i got back, that our group DID win the obesity timeline project/competition!! here's the winning design:

it wasn't your typical timeline..each patty represents a 5% increase and the color of the french fries represent states with different percentages. under each "combo meal" are facts about how the decade affected the rising numbers in obesity in the US. mike's humor can be seen in the ridiculously funny ads on the top of the menu. overall it was an awesome proj. job well done team!! :D

it was soo exciting to hear we won..but it was probably good i wasn't in class to hear it..cuz i'm a little unruly when it comes to winning/losing things. i'm a sore winner..and an even bigger sore loser. HA! anyway, midterms went pretty well i think...we've moved on to bigger and better things it seems.

Past Projects::
I decided to recap a little..show off some of my stuff i've done so far this quarter..so, this is a project we did in my electronic layout class..took me about two seconds. i just used glyphs from dingbats, wingdings, or webdings..or one of those DING fonts. criteria was just to use two glyphs and make some kind of flyer/postcard::


As a test of just our design skills our teacher had us make a schedule/calendar showing when certain plays were going on at an Opera House in Turkey. all the information was Turkish and had to be translated for us. the object was to have us be unfamiliar with the information...and still showcase it in a way someone would be able to understand. here is what i came up with::


Current Projects::
For video we have to make a short film not using any sound. coming up with a concept was a little hard because we can't talk in it..so we have to get our message across through actions and emotion. our idea was to have a girl go to the store with a shopping list on how to make spaghetti. when she got there she'd go pick out noodles...and in the process just get confused by all the types of noodles. (because, lets face it..you walk into any grocery store and there are not only a million brands of ONE ITEM..there are like a million and one types of it...and picking out something simple then becomes ridiculously confusing and frustrating..am i right?!?!?) so, she'll finally decide on a package of noodles..then walk to the canned tomato sauces and get just as confused...and then she'll drop her bag of noodles..which, as they hit the floor will explode all over the place..and then the last frame would be her running out of the store..like a mad woman. YEA! see, this would be an amazing idea..cept WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO FILM IN LIKE ANY GROCERY STORE IN TOWN..so we had to change it..and now, we're filming......in a 7-11. wtf? ugh. totally distroys our concept..it made me upset. but, life goes on. we film tomorrow 'round 2...we'll see how it goes.

we have a project for a client (that our teacher had come in..that i probably shouldn't talk about on here...) but has to do with internet privacy. i also have a movie poster project where i have to use type as some sort of texture...then draw up sketches for an intro for the movie using moving type in adobe After Effects (which, as i use more and more..just becomes cooler and cooooooler to play with!!). none of this is too particularly exciting to me..but we'll see how this next week goes.

btw, here's a funny pic of me that my best friend lindsay took of me when i was video chatting with her during class....early...in the morning...when i'm still tired.....and want to go back to bed.....(when i probably should've been paying attention..HA!)
for your laughing pleasure::Random thought of the day:
happy late Fat Tuesday...(we celebrated it today at my grandma's house! :D)

oh! one last thing..my random thought of the day last week wasn't suppose to mean THIS SITE..as in MY BLOG SITE...it was suppose to link you HERE!!! but once again, i warn you..don't read it in class...or when someone is talking to you about anything serious..