When we went to make this brochure for Jacky's Galaxy we first began by looking at the website they have for their restaurants. We decided to make our brochure similar to the website. We followed the same color scheme, a kind of orange brown, and used a lot of the same visuals that they website did. We decided to do a similar brochure because the color scheme really seemed to fit the restaurant and gave it the vibe we were looking for.
The website had tons of information available with many tabs. Our decision was to condense the information and choose only certain things to highlight. We had inside folds as Venues, Banquets and Catering as well as a small about section. I think that these are really important aspects of the restaurants and that is why we chose to include them.
What I found most challenging was making the gradient. It was easy enough to simply add a gradient but challenging to find out how to change the color instead of just black and white. I kept trying different things but someone finally had to point out that you had to drag the color into the gradient. Once I did that the color was right but I still found it hard to make the gradient exactly the way that I wanted it. It kept being too short or too long.
Another problem that I encountered was that the font we chose for the pamphlet looked good on all pages but one. I simply played around with the fonts and in the end made the font size smaller but kept it the same to keep unity through out the project. This change made the spacing seem more natural.
What I am most proud of is the overall look of the brochure. I think that the whole thing came together nicely. It looks professional and I feel that it really gives the right information the the public in an easy to read and appealing visual.
Had I more time I would have spent more time on certain images. Some of the images just don't look as sharp as I would have liked them. With more time I think that I could have gotten them to look better and less fuzzy.

For this assignment I decided to create a concert poster for the band Sugarland. I chose this band for a few reasons. One reason is that I am attending the concert. Second is that the band is fun, they have great concerts. I felt they would be a relatively easy band to make a concert poster for. My original idea was to make the poster look like an envelope and the images the stamps. I was going to put the information in a line like the address on an envelope. The poster has similarities to that idea but in the final process something else occurred.
I had wanted to have the background be the manilla color of an envelope. When I found an image of a stamp I wanted the background was black. Instead of editing the border I simply cropped as much as I could and then changed the background to black. I found that this change also allowed me to use a wider color palette for my text that would not have looked as good on a white background. Another decision that I made was to add the image that is not in a border. I felt that there was something missing, and tried a couple different ideas to fill the void but I eventually decided on the additional image.
I found it really challenging to simply get used to the program. I kept trying to drag images into the program instead of importing them until someone tipped me off that the program worked better with out dragging. I also found it hard to remember that I had to put a box where I wanted the image to go. I tended to forget and then have to start over importing the image. As I spent time using the program I became used to the different steps I had to take and began to enjoy the program more.
One of the problems that I encountered was that the first image that I imported into the poster I did not use a box to place it. Therefore it became part of my black background and couldn't move it later when I wanted to adjust some things. To fix this problem I simply deleted my background with the attached image, then redid everything so that it was correct and could be placed and moved separately.
What I am most proud of is the stamp borders around the images. It took a while to get them just the right angle to match the images. In the beginning I became frustrated with making them look good but I stuck with my original design and am glad the way that they cam out. I am also proud of the way that I have the poster laid out. I feel as if it really fits the z format that is most effective and is easy to follow.
If I had more time to work on the project I would work with the fonts. I had looked at the Sugarland logo but personally I think its a little ugly and definitely didn't fit with the type of poster that I had made. I like the font type that I picked but I am not sure I like the second font time for the other bands and information. It was also suggested that red wasn't the best color to use in the font but I think it worked with the color scheme that I had and chosen and was present in the images. With more time I would have worked with the shade of the font.

When I first wanted to make a PowerPoint presentation for Dierks Bentley I decided that the design must be fun and edgy, like him. His country music tends to have a little rock feel to it so I wanted to make that stand out. I also decided that I wanted to incorporate as many pictures as I could that show Dierk in all aspects of his life not just singing, but with his family.
A lot of time went into this presentation, partly because I was never happy with the first decision that I made and would redo pretty much everything. I redid my title slide 3 times because I just couldn't make things look quite right. In the end I decided on a concert picture in the background with glowing letters. I think the final decision ended up sucessful. I also decided to have a series of images as the last slide because I really wanted to show how Dierk was as a person and all the fun stuff he does...like riding a motorcycle.
What was most challenging about this project was getting the timing right. It was really difficult to tell if a person had enough timje to read the slides and at the same time have enough music for the other slides. Trial and error was really the only way to work out the timing. I had to change the timing of each slides length as well as in many cases speed up the animations. Another problem that I encountered was that the origional song that I had for my slide show was simply too short. I couldn't have enough time for each slide because I ran out of time on others. To fix this problem I simply remixed my song, and actually ended up picking a new song all together.
One decision that I am particularly proud of is the fun facts slide. I decided to put a row of images at the top, and then change the opacity so that they weren't the main focus of the slide. I think the images livened up the slide but kept the attention on the text. I also am pleased with how the music came out. I have never used Audacity or any other music mixing program. It was a lot trickier than I thought to really get the times down, but I think I managed to still make the merge of the two songs to sound pretty good.
If I had more time to work on this presentation I would spend more time working on the song and meshing the two clips together. I am not totally satisfied with the outcome but for a first try I could not expect any better.