CC pp 250-270

Throughout the book, Jenkins argues that the media model of the passive consumer is not and should no longer be the standard by which the consumer is judged. He uses many examples to prove his point, like the rise, and fall, of Howard Dean in the 2004 primaries, Al Gore's 'Current' television station, and a group of "female consumers frustrated by their historical neglect or patronizing treatment by the comics industry" called Sequential Tarts, to demonstrate how powerful consumer participation can be. The old media model focused on the individual, but the new convergence culture allows for a "politics of participation" that "starts from the assumption that we have greater collective bargaining power if we form consumption communities." 


That said, he recognizes that not everyone is on equal footing with the convergence of media. He dedicates the next to the last paragraph of the chapter to discussing the consumer's responsibility to be educated in "media literacy" because, typically, "media are read primarily as threats rather than as resources." I found that interesting, particularly because he followed that up with an insight about parents lacking the skills to "help their kids build a meaningful relationship with media", though they were well-versed in limiting how much media their child consumed.  

Desing Tool & Design Web Page

According to Google, Typetester's (http://www.typetester.org/) "primary role is to make (a) web designer's life easier." It's first page has three column, each with drop down menus allowing the user to choose a typeface, font size, and alignment. There are a few other choices, but I didn't quite understand what they meant. Tracking and leading, anyone? A user can also try out a background color as well as color for the text. Overall, it's a pretty neat tool.


Silverleaf Design (http://www.silverlf.com/) is a Web development services website. It's straightforward in it's setup and even includes a clever 61-page guide of "basic facts" to inform those who are unfamiliar with web design how "to understand... information about our online lives."

Design Tool & Design Web Page

Free Buttons (http://www.freebuttons.com/) is a tools site that offers up 54 free button styles to add to your website. It is easy to navigate, with the button styles being placed front and center; they're also listed in the navigation menu on the upper left side of the page. Some of the button choices, like 'Star Wars' are a bit cheesy, but the 'Ufo' one kind of makes up for that.

Acme Web Design (http://acme-web-design.info/free-tools.php) offers several free tools which they claim "you won't find anywhere else". They also offer help to design your website, tips for hosting a website, and tutorials. It's a user friendly site and has a cool logo you have to see for yourself. 

CC pp 217-250

In this chapter, "Photoshop for Democracy", Jenkins aims to focus "on changes in communications systems and cultural norms." He writes that the "new media operate with different principles than the broadcast media that dominated American politics for so long: access, participation, reciprocity, and peer-to-peer rather than one-to-many communication." As with most anything, there are positive and negative aspects that come along with such change. For example, bloggers can frame themselves as traditional journalists, and  comedians parodying network news can find an audience who finds them to be more reliable than the network news. 

This chapter was interesting because, though Jenkins references the 2004 elections for being the "period of innovation and experimentation in the use of new media technologies and popular-culture-based strategies", the 2008 election is the one that stands out for me as the one to have wrenched every ounce of use from the new media, particularly the social sites like Facebook. 

Design Tool & Design Web Page

99 Designs (http://www.99designs.com/) is a website that specializes in "logo design, web design, and more." The site includes a clever one-minute video that tells users how the site works, and the services they offer. The site's navigation menu, which lists examples of products they create designs for, echoes the information shared in the video. 99 Designs is not a particularly flashy site, but it is visually interesting enough with the black screen for the video being surrounded by a muted gray background, and splashed of red in their logo, the 'Get started now' button.

Callahan.com (http://www.callihan.com/webtools/) is a web tools site "where you can find free, affordable, and professional Web design software tools for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix/Linux." The page consists of three columns, with the middle one being the largest as it contains the hyperlinks to the Web tools, some of which include HTML and text editors, and graphics and image editing tools. The tools are also found to the left of the tool list in a small navigational menu. 

CC pp 134-216

This chapter explores how involved fans become with a product, be it a film or a book, and the different ways in which they grow the mythology of those films and books. Many do it by creating fictional online universes where they role play as their favorite characters; some go so far as to film their own versions of their favorite movies; and still others, perhaps dissatisfied with a book's ending, rewrite it to suit their views of what should have happened. 


Jenkins writes of how these fans can be both a blessing and a curse to the companies marketing these products: "...the media industry is increasingly dependent on active and committed consumers to spread the word about valued properties...", yet, "at the same time, they are terrified of what happens if this consumer power gets out of control." George Lucas worries that because of the glut of amateur works floating about on the Web, future projects (I can't find the section to quote it) may be subject to legal action for usurping someone else's idea. While I see his point, it's sort of ludicrous,because the mythology of the story is nothing new, and no matter how original 'Star Wars' was and is, it's specialness lay in it's special effects, not because it was a story that had never before been told.


The next chapter deals with fan fiction - specifically, Harry Potter - and the struggle for fan fiction writers to have the right to express themselves on the Web. 


Jenkins says that the "current notion of fair use is an artifact of an era when few people had access to the marketplace of ideas." It's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle once it's been let loose. 

CC pp 59-134

Reading about zappers, casuals, and loyals, I recognize that I'm a mix of a zapper and a loyal; I don't see the point of tuning in to something as a casual would, only to be dusting, vacuuming, or painting while it's on, but the reason I identify with a zapper is because, for all the advertiser's Herculean effort, I zap or mute to rid myself of the commercials. Geico, I have come to despise you... I am a loyal viewer because, once I tune in to something, I generally watch it until the end.


As for cult films and their attraction, Jenkins writes that "The cult film is made to be quoted, (Umberto) Eco contends, because it is made from quotes, archetypes, allusions, and references drawn from a range of previous works." True, there is nothing new under the sun, as the old saying goes, but isn't that the inspiration to do better, to improve upon that which came before? 

CC pp 1-58

What I found particularly interesting in the reading was when the author wrote in the introduction about feeling challenged in writing the book because "everything seems to be changing at once and there is no vantage point that takes me above the fray." Later, in chapter one, in discussing t.v. reality show spoilers and how they obtain the information no one supposedly has access to, he writes: "Imagine the kinds of information these fans could collect, if they sought to spoil the government rather than the networks." It looks like this book was copyrighted in 2006, so it seems that his original concern with the speed of change and then the spoiling of government business is now proven with Julian Assange's sharing of government secrets on Wikileaks. I just thought that was creepily interesting.

Design Tool & Design Web Page

Since we just covered color in chapter 8 of Document Design, the 4096 Color Wheel is a great tool. It suggests color schemes that are web-safe, web-smart, and unsafe. 
(http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html)


A design web page I found is Steve's free website templates (http://www.steves-templates.com/); all the templates he makes available aren't free, though.   

Logo/Vignettes

This is my logo.

This is my red eye before.

This is my red eye after.

This is my before sepia tone photo.

This is my after sepia tone photo.

This is my before selective colorization photo.

This is my after selective colorization photo.

I'd like to give a big shout out to YouTube because the Gimp tutorials were pretty useless... Grr.

DD 8-9 - Color/Lists, Tables, and Forms

There is a lot to take in in chapter 8. I understand the importance of color to design, but I didn't find all the information about brightness, luminance, value, saturation, and hue particularly interesting; I found the examples the authors gave on the colored pages to be more informative, including their explanation of Ethanol's blue and green logo and how it effectively implies "clean air and water" and "the fields where the farmers grow the corn used to make ethanol." Also, understanding how to pair colors by using colors opposite from one another on the color wheel, by using triadic and tetradic color schemes, or by using monochromatic and analogous color schemes was useful.


Chapter 9 discusses lists, tables, and forms - tools that have been in use forever. Clearly, the organization of data is key for the ease of users to understand the information put before them, so similarity, contrast, alignment, proximity, order, and enclosure are important principles for the designer to follow.

Blog Banners

DD 7 - Graphics

A few of the highlights in this chapter on Graphics are: 


When used effectively, Graphics impact the user by providing information, and depending on the goal of the client, it may even persuade the user to buy a product. 


The authors write that "One of the most challenging aspects of communicating through Graphics is to present a clear and accurate idea of the information or ideas." In order to do that, the designer must know the user well and use the principles of similarity, contrast, alignment, proximity, order, and enclosure.


The chapter also discusses the importance of ethics in creating Graphics that don't "mislead users with graphics, whether intentionally or unintentionally."

DD 5 - Pages

According to the authors, "One of the most challenging and dynamic tasks a document designer will undertake is page design", which involves the strategic and consistent placement of "text, heading, and images." To do that, the document designer must consider how users view and use the pages they view. Do they skim, scan, or read?


In designing the page, "the key for designers is to capture the users attention." That is where the principles of order, similarity, contrast, alignment, and proximity come in to "create a sense of flow."


Beyond the single page document, using grids is an effective way to design a document. Grids allow for a "consistent, yet flexible ready system." Looking at the examples in the book, I find grids to be a more appealing design, particularly since "users typically prefer to read lines of text about 7 to 12 words long." I'm more inclined to read something, and be more engaged by it if it doesn't look like a big block of tedium.


I thought the example of the mutual fund prospectus was interesting, because while I understand their use of the no frills design, if I were a customer, I would likely be clueless as to what was going on with my investment. The book talked about the inability to read the inside margins correctly; I probably wouldn't have made it that far to test if I could read it or not because just the look of the document alone was enough to put me off.  


All in all, this was a far more interesting chapter than the previous ones.

DD 4 - The Whole Document

This chapter focuses on how to design an entire document while "thinking not only about two-dimensional layout, colors, typefaces, and so on, but also about how the document will perform as a physical, three-dimensional object in a particular environment." No matter how users interact with the completed document, whether it be a manual, booklet, or a sign, the same old principles of perception, culture, and rhetoric apply. 


The chapter also delves into formatting. Deciding how to format relies upon the designers knowledge of their client's rhetorical purpose for the document, as well as the level of design and cost, while for the user, longevity and conditions of use are important.