Communication Artifact: Logo & Business Card for Desert Dance Theatre

The Logo

The logo for any company is one of the most important designs for a company. This is what will be remembered by your customers. Because of this, the design must convey a meaning for that company.

The first thing I thought about when designing the logo for desert dance Theatre was that I wanted it to be instantly recognizable, and to show what Desert dance was. I chose to go with a cactus to show the desert part, and a dancer.

Specific Communication objective for the Logo: Instant identity

Font is the first visual communication in a design. I chose to go with a font called Papyrus which has an interesting texture and style which adds a psychological response of a olden feel. This was contrasted with a the cleaner lined feel of a modern modern courier type font.

The main color (green) was chosen by the owner. Since we were trying to incorporate a southwestern desert feel, I chose the color teal and decided to contrast that with a brick red which is another southwestern color. I then blended the two colors together softening the overall appeal to the eye which also gives the design interest. 

I looked at shape and form and took into consideration, height, width, and depth of each object.  

I added texture to the cactus so that it would be more recognizable as a cactus which is important in identity. I also followed the rule of line when placing the dancer. I made sure that her bottom leg was in line with the bottom of the cactus. This is more pleasing to the eye and gives the design balance.

The Gestalt principles used were the laws of continuity, following the smoothest path, and pragnanz since I reduced the design the simplest form possible.

The Business Card

The business card followed the same principles installed with the logo, however, extra elements were added such as the contact information. On the back of the business card, the owner wanted the look of being a coupon or ticket of some sort since he is offering a free week of dance if the card was brought into the dance studio.

For this design, I added an element of a fun boarder around the card so that it would look like a ticket at a fair. 

Wardrobe for The Lord of The Rings The Two Towers

The wardrobe/costume design for any film is one of the most important parts of film making. If the costume is wrong, the audience won’t buy into the movie, and all the rest of the effort put into the movie is for naught.  

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, specifically the Two Towers segment has a great variety of costumes. There were two main costume designers: Ngila Dickson (pronounced Nyla), and Sir Richard Taylor. Together They they won a BAFTA for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2003).

Dickerson has been working on fashion design since she was young. Besides the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, she has also worked on: The Green Lantern, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and many others. Dickson began work on Lord of the Rings in April 1999; six months before shooting began, and assembled a crew of over 50 to help sew and make the costumes.

Taylor is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects Company called the Weta Workshop. The created all the swords for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, as well as for other films such as The Chronicles of Narnia, and Peter Jackson’s other film, King Kong. Taylor and his crew designed and built all the armor, weapons and special props for the film.

Each of the main characters costumes was made an average of 40 times, and each race of characters has their own distinctive style. According to Dickerson, “Hero costumes are costumes that were mean to be seen up close.  These have fantastic hand details like embroidery, real chain maille, fine acid etched velvets, hand knotted wigs, etc.”  Even all the weapons were made realistically detailed and have their non-leather, non hero version.

For our chosen scene, four actor/characters are represented: Gandalf the White, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

                            

Gandalf the White: Gandalf's white costume starts with a white wool cape that is calf length and held with a rather intricate silver mallorn clasp. The edge is trimmed with embroidery. It is an intricate machine embroidered pattern, white on white. The tunic is quilted down to the upper hip.  It is an 8 petal floral shape. There is a different pattern in the yoke, but it is also quilted. Next layer is the cream under tunic and this fabric is somewhat textured. Last layer is the trousers.  They are wide culottes.

    

                           

Aragorn: Aragorn wears a fine, grey linen shirt, embroidered around neck and a smocked panel at each shoulder, and leather trousers. He also wears tall soft boots, a long sleeveless jerkin w/braided ties long duster/coat of heavier leather. This is to reflect his ranger status.

Legolas:  He is a woodland elf. Dickerson wanted the elf costumes to reflect the environment around them with lots of leaf shapes etc. Legolas’s basic outfit is a two toned suede jerkin.  This is worn over a pale silk shirt and dark suede trousers.  He wears knee high soft boots and wide leather vambraces.  He is seldom without bow and quiver.  The jerkin is dark olive over lighter olive with a shirt of pale blue. His Trousers are dark brownish/green which are tucked into his boots. Legolas' boots are really movie magic multipart constructs.  The basic boot is a short angle length pull on boot with elastic sides.  Over it are book toppers wraps that were created by the wardrobe department. These toppers wrap around and fasten on the inside.  A strap goes under the instep.

Gimli : He is a dwarf  warrior.. His costume reflected where he came from which was the Lonely mountains. Dickerson and Taylor had him in an almost full suite of armors with woven leather crisscross his armor. He also had a tunic made of leather as well as a Helmut. Even though his suite was only partly out of metal, and made with PVC cutouts, his costume still weighted around 70lbs.

Good costume design should be seamless where the audience doesn’t even notice it unless it is bad. While it is so important, Costume design remains one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated filmmaking arts and the visual design of any movie.

My Composed Frame

This is the side of the old library. Even though the new library has all the bells and whistles of a contemporary library, I miss the old one, which to me was much more inviting. This photo follows the rule of thirds because the main two focus points (the tree and the pillars) are located in the cross section of the grid. The vertical line of the tree leads you eye upwards while the horizontal line of the top of the pillars brings your eye across. I think the sunset framing makes this really standout in shadow and makes it much more interesting than had it been taken at mid day. I think it has index vectors.

My Heart for Valentines Day




Believe it or not, this is a Watermelon

Sadly, I did not carve this, but I LOVE it! Talk about Great Design.

 

 

Design Evaluation/Design Identity




Hawaiian Restuarant
Great Design

 

 Above is an example of a great restaurant LOGO design for a business card.


 Both of these designs were created for a restaurant, presumably by a designer. The logo design above I think is a winning design because it is clean and is very cleaver with the way the sideways 22 also makes a letter N. You can tell just by looking at it that this is a high end restaurant. This deign would be easy to spot and also to remember which is important for business. It uses the law of similarity, pragnanz and closure to be visually appealing.  It also uses proximity with the equal spacing making it easy on the eye.


 



Chinese Resturant

Bad design

  The business card above is an example of a really bad restaurant logo design. The designers obviously didn’t look at the overall picture at they are showing. I would not recognize this as being from a Chinese restaurant. I am guessing that the yellow she is supposed to be a Chinese temple and the red behind it, a red sun since China uses red in its representations of its flag etc. However, this looks lie someone is sitting on the temple. Not very appealing if you want to eat there.



This is another bad restaurant logo that is trying to do something similar to the first good logo, but is a failure. There is way too much going on beside the restaurant name (Bin 33). The font is distracting also and makes me think this may be a gothic type restaurant rather than an appetizing place to eat. It does have closure, and contrast, but that is the only good design I see.



Contrast, Harmony and Balance



Let your Heart be filled with Joy
Used with permisssion by Starlisa Black Photography
Let your Heart be FIlled with Joy | Flickr - Photo Sharing!



      For me, this photo represents contentment. There is contrast between the darkness of the hills on both sides of the river, and the bright yellow of the sunlight just beginning to set. There is harmony and balance between the dark hills, as well as the river and sky, giving one last bit of warmth to all it touches.
      This picture represents home to me. I grew up in the little town on the left in the Columbia River Gorge. Growing up, this was mainly a logging town. Time changes, and  logging is mostly a thing of the past. River Tourism is the now the newest economy booster where windsurfers float like butterflies across the river, bringing new life, and needed income to a struggling community.




"Let Your Light shine"
Starlisa Black photography
Let Your Light Shine!~ Columbia Gorge from Above #1 (series) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

This is another picture of the same area but from a  different angle. One of the most beautiful places on Earth . There is great contrast between the gold of the sky reflecting on the water, and the trees and hills in shadow.




Columbia River Gorge Windserfing

This picture also shows good contrast between the bright red and yellow of the sails, to the grey of the water, and the blushish hue of the hills behind. These are the butterflies on the water. This is what is bringing tourist dollars to the Gorge.

Visceral Response



"Winterlight"
Used with  permission by Starlisa Black Photography
Winterlight | Flickr - Photo Sharing!



 This photograph has many design elements. These include line, color, and texture.
The vertical line of the path draws your eye to the distance and heads perhaps, to a new and unfamiliar  place. The brown/black of the tree limbs and the white of the snow soften the overall image and is enhanced by the texture of the trees. This photograph brings me feelings of peace and possibilities. It makes me wish I was there walking on that path. I can feel the cold crisp air, and the crunch of the icy ground as I walk down that pathway leading me to a new and unexpected place.