Blogging

After using this blog site over the course of the semester, I'm still not sure if I feel anymore comfortable with it than when I first starting working with it.

In the past I have read other people's blogs and always thought it was fairly interesting that someone basically was able to have their own site to write their opinions on. However, I'm not sure if I'd want to continue using a blog after this class ends. I ran into many problems using the blog. Many times it would tell me there were errors when I tried to post or the blog would be altered in some way when I went to view it. It also took an extended period of time just to get the blog to look the way I wanted it to. Ultimately, I felt that using this blog was more of a hassle than it was worth.

Perhaps I'm not just a blog type of person though. I do understand the value of being able to publish a blog and be able to view others. We are in a time where most of our information is online and many people are publishing on blogs and other forms of the internet rather than in papers. It's very important for everyone to learn exactly what blogging is and how to blog. I think in the future however, I will only be viewing other people's blogs, not updating my own.

Power Point

I have been using Power Point since I was in Elementary school and found this assignment very easy. I like how simply everything is in Power Point and how fun all the animation effects are. However, Power Point definitely has some serious flaws. After using QuarkXPress it was slightly frustrating having to use Power Point. There is so much more available to do on other programs. There seems to be no ruler program on Power Point either so it's fairly difficult to make sure everything is aligned just right. I felt limited by having to use the Power Point program. I suppose that because Power Point is so easy to use, it must be an inferior program to something like QuarkXPress.

QuarkXPress

Overall, I think QuarkXPress is one of the most useful designing tools that I have ever come across. In the past I have always used the paint program on my PC whenever I wanted to design a flyer or something. Although this program was easy, it was always very difficult to get my project to come out just the way I wanted. QuarkXPress was always so efficient and everything came out looking completely professional.

At first I found QuarkXPress very different and slightly confusing. This was only because I’ve never used a program like it before. After finishing the first project however, I was completely comfortable with the program and enjoyed using it. I found every project came out looking professional and nice.

MS Word and making Memos

I grew up on a PC and have used Microsoft Word all of my life. Therefore, when I found we had a whole section on MS Word and creating a Memo for it, I was quite pleased.

I was very creative as a child and always was trying to design something on my computer. I'd make greeting cards, brochures, posters, resumes- anything. And typically, I'd only have MS Word to make these on. I was already very familiar with how to make something creative and visually interesting on Word. I had added pictures and shapes to projects numbers of times.

Due to this, although I had never written a Memo before, I was fairly comfortable with the project. I feel that once you get used to how Word works it is incredibly simple to create what ever you want on it. Unfortunately, I was out the first day to work on the Memo assignment and so I never got a color print request out on time. Because of this my project will be given a rather poor grade I'm sure, however it should be easy to re-do and print in a color copy. I'm confident in my abilities in Word and am sure it will turn out fine.

I'm not sure if I can actually see myself needing to make Memos in the future, but I'm positive that it is an ideal skill to have.

Design Principles and the Williams book

Overall, I find the design principles easy to understand and to do. I have always enjoyed making and designing things however, so I may be more comfortable with them than most.

The design principles defined in the Williams book seemed common knowledge to me. Well, perhaps not common knowledge, but things that one typically did anyway when designing something without even noticing. Whenever I have created a poster or something, I've always used the elements of repetition, alignment, proximity and contrast. I just designed following the four basic principles naturally.

I definitely believe that the design principles will help me layout attractive pieces, as they always have in the past. I don't believe it hinders my creative abilities at all. Instead it challenges you to be creative within a set of smart guidelines that will help vastly improve what you are creating.

Creating a Web Site

I really enjoyed creating a Web Site for my imaginary company the "Theatre Ensemble 4 Students." Although the layout the site gave us was incredibly simplistic, it still allowed us enough space to be creative. Google sites seems to be a truly valuable tool- despite the long URL names it forces its sites to have. Actually, that seemed to be the major downfall of Google sites. I don't see how any practical company could ever want to use it seeing at the URL names are far too long and have too much information in them.

None the less, I enjoyed making my site. I found the different elements one could add in them fascinating. Although I didn't add any very "fancy" to my site, I still believe it is colorful and interesting enough to have someone want to look at and actually learn something from.


http://sites.google.com/site/theatreensemble4students/home

Setting up the Blog

Despite having read other people's blogs in the past, I found setting up my own fairly frustrating...

While creating the blog URL name, pages kept coming up saying things like "Bad Request" and that the name I was trying to use was already taken. So I kept clicking the back button to get rid of the bad request page or to pick a new name. Apparently, every time I clicked back and tried to correct the problems I was having, I was making a new blog. So when I finally finished and got to the page I wanted, I had about four blogs, instead of just one.

I finally found a way to delete the other blogs I didn't want though, and hopefully working with other elements of this blog will be easier.