A Couple of Portfolio Pieces

Front

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Job: Business Card Design 

Client: Blake Anderson, Announcer Knoxville Raceway

Probably one of my favorite business card designs I have done in the past year, this was for a friend of mine involved in the motorsports industry as an announcer at racetracks all over the Midwest.  He was getting ready to attend a trade show in Indianapolis and a few weeks prior he contacted me about doing cards for him.

 He wanted to showcase not only his contact information but also some of the work he had done in the past.  We went with a double sided design to included all the information he requested. He was leaning towards a more "edgy" or "grungy" design, however he wanted the end product to still be easily readable and organized.

Job: Business Logo Design 

Client: Josh Wirtz, Snow Removal Business Owner

Although this logo was never used it is still one of my favorites.  This job was through my position at Chase Signs & Graphics, it was for a local construction company owner who was looking to start a snow removal business.  Looking for something simple and easily readable I opted for a logo with thick outlines and high contrasting colors.

Job: Banner Design

Client: ISU Hockey, University Club Hockey Team

This design was for a banner for the Iowa State Hockey team's annual Hall of Fame/Alumni weekend.  The gentleman who contacted me (through CSG) already had a basic idea of what he was looking for as far as layout and positioning of the text and logo.  Being provided with the text and essentially a template of what they were looking for I then went about using photos provided by the team to create a background and accompanying graphic.

*Note: The colors look much nicer on the print than the on screen version.

Apple vs. Adobe - The Chris Notes

Initially I was asked to read articles based on the recent controversy surrounding Apple's choice not use Adobe's Flash in place of HTML5 on its iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices. However as I read and took in the opinions of those covering and involved in the heated debate one thing became clear, this was not merely fueled by one platform being better than the other.

Fruit From The Same Tree

As Steve Jobs stated in his letter to the Apple faithful regarding the issue Adobe and Apple both have a long history together working with one another, and one could make the argument either would not be here in the same capacity without the other.  However like any relationship there were bumps in the road and interests once shared were abandoned along the way.  None the less they have still been very much partners over the years.

Flash Me

Adobe Flash is a system developed by Adobe Systems that is used to add animation, video, and provide interactive features to users on web pages.  In this day and age of viral videos, online games, apps, etc. it has a number of uses.  It has commonly been the standard to adding such features as listed above to websites all over the world.  As it is an Adobe product it is only available through Adobe, and not openly available to modification or manipulation.

HTML 5

Currently still under development HTML 5 is an open source standard for incorporating video and other numerous features recently only available through programs like Flash.  As an open source program it is constantly undergoing advances in development and the addition of new features.

My Thoughts

As it has now become available or at least in some form HTML 5 has been chosen by Apple to work in place of Flash on its iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices.  Presumable because it is open source where as before Apple had to go through Adobe for Flash.  Apple makes the case that it is because the technology offered through HTML 5 will work better for those applications than Flash and that there has been bad blood in that department with Adobe.  However the other side disagrees, and makes the point that it is hypocritical of Apple to make a move such as this as most all they're software in not open like Flash, in a sense "the pot calling the kettle black." In my opinion, if given the choice to be able to create something as you see fit in your own right rather than be forced to use something as it is given to you is a no brainer.

-CB

First Blog

I have started this blog in accordance with my Interactive Media class. In that class I plan to better my knowledge of coding and creating websites.  One of my favorite websites as far as layouts go would have to be collegehumor.com.  It is a comedic college inspired website that has daily updates of videos, blogs, articles, and photos.  It is easily navigable and the information is well organized on it. I have a small amount of experience using html and css from previous classes.  However no where near the amount that I would feel comfortable undertaking a site like collegehumor.  Other sites like this that I have visited would be sportspickle.com and i-am-bored.com.  All of the which are what some would call "time-killer sites," that many offices and high schools have probably blocked (but not DMACC, knock on wood).

-CB