George Lucas: an inspiration (Star Wars)

I was watching the history channel and they were talking about the technology advancements George Lucas used in the “Star Wars” films. What was imaginary 30 years ago is actually becoming a reality today. Plasma, laser, robotic, and bionic, clones, and holographic-like features are what is being used today or under-development. Star Wars was created in 1978 by a master-mind whose imagination ran wild and he took a leap of faith with his ideas. His creation in films has shown that George Lucas is someone to be inspired from. So many of us have ideas and designs created in our minds, but we are too hesitant to take the chance to share those ideas with the world. George Lucas’ ideas were way ahead of his time and when he put it out for everyone to see it was like stepping into a whole new world. The new world he created in his movies is what our world is trying to create today.

Pic 1:http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/images/star-wars-series-sm.jpg

Pic 2:http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/040713/165732__starwars_l.jpg

Inspiration or Plagiarism?

All the images above are copies of posters and album covers. Do you notice any similarities in the images to the left compared to the image next to it? In an article by Jacob Coss he writes about where to draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism. There is a big difference between inspiration and plagiarism. When you take your ideas and make it your own so it makes a whole new meaning than that is inspiration. Plagiarism is taking the same exact idea from someone and using that idea for you without giving that person credit. This is why it is important to acknowledge a person’s idea, design, or work if you are using it as your own. In the images above only a few would be considered inspiration but for the ones where it looks like an exact replica, I hope they have acknowledged where they got the idea from. These images go to show that originality is very hard to come by these days. Everybody gets their ideas off of somebody else’s work rather it be plagiarized, cited, or just inspired.

Image Source:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://justcreativedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/plagiarism/GraphicDesignPlagiarism12.jpg&imgrefurl=http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/02/20/graphic-design-plagiarism-rip-offs/&usg=__Qc6oKJFBrE8wfp0oHMQHDeXw_rc=&h=638&w=402&sz=97&hl=en&start=48&um=1&tbnid=v8zfW-8yYy_tiM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgraphic%2Bdesign%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40%26um%3D1

Digital Penguins-Knowing Your Audience

These are both pictures of a group of penguins geared towards the holiday season. Although each implies the same message and meaning they are meant for two different audience members. The first picture is meant for children and the second is more geared for adults. The first picture is full of cute, cuddly, and baby penguins, dressed in winter gear. The second picture is adult like penguins that look more realistic and are not as appealing as the other picture. The penguins in the first image are more rounded and friendly looking. They have more of a cuddly and cute look than the penguins to the right. However, in the second picture has used color unlike the second one. Younger children would be more interested in looking at the first picture than the second because it has more of a softer look. Although both images imply the same message does not mean they are necessarily intended for the same audience. This is example of why knowing who your audience in which you are designing for is very important.

First Image:http://www.angelslanding.com/wordpress/images-jm/digital-stamps/2009/digital-stamps-penguin-chicks.png

Second Image:http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/3922844343_8dabf2af6b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/30551735%40N05/3922844343/&usg=__hoOgOf6qrjnFtXvsHuV73zFeKJs=&h=500&w=485&sz=179&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=yxKK7OWLTQrofM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddigital%2Bpenguins%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Digital Candy-an all American Favorite

http://lindawalt.files.wordpress.com/2006/03/Digital-Candy.jpg
While looking on this website I found a picture of a digitized piece of candy. The candy they used was the all American favorite that you mostly see during the holiday season, none other than a peppermint. Anyone who sees this picture will more than likely know what it is because it a favorite and very familiar. But why is the peppermint so popular and continue to stay around for generations and generations to come? Who would have thought that a peppermint flavored candy would outshine candies that are just pure sweet. Maybe it is the design of the peppermint candy that is still intriguing. It’s hard, shiny, and full of white and red swirls. Swirls are seems to be hypnotizing to the eyes and mind. Maybe that is what makes this candy so intoxicating to the eye that it continues to be a tradition to using them as decoration on Christmas trees. If peppermint candies were just plain white, would they still continue to be as popular as they are today? Even though I am not a big fan of peppermints this goes to show that popularity of a candy is not only based on taste but the design elements as well.

Attention v, Making Money in the Media

There is an article in the Nuvo newspaper called, Balloon Dad and Octomom: Go Away (The stupidity of media attention whores). The article is written by Steve Hammers and he addresses the issue of how people fiend for attention in the media. In the article he mentions about how so many people take part in outrageous publicity stunts or behavior just to seek fame in the world. He even goes to talk about how so many people post thousands of videos on YouTube or Twitter just to have the hopes of getting discovered or get attention like Octomom and Balloon Dad. However, the biggest point he made was the fact that so many people make these attempts just to get so many public views; but they don’t get paid for all the hard work and time they take to do so. Although for most of us, putting our videos on YouTube may be fun, in reality we are giving multi-billion dollar company videos WE make for free and not getting paid for it. Countless times we have seen funny, crazy, or memorable videos on YouTube, some actually being featured on television. But more than likely, none of the people making or featured in the video are getting paid for their work. They are only getting their 15 minutes of fame. Steve Hammers has included “You Tubers” in the same category as Octomom and Balloon Dad as mentioned in the sub title. This article makes you realize the cold facts about posting videos on YouTube as fun as we think they may be. So the big question is, are we stupid? For all of the YouTube videos, Twitter, Face book, and MySpace comments. Giving our ideas, thoughts, pictures, and videos we have created to a company that makes money off of us, while we get nothing but maybe just a small taste of fame.

Just because a movies says 3-D does not mean better

I went to the movies a couple of weeks ago to see the 3-D version of Final Destination and I must say it was very horrible. Even though I already knew the predictability of the movie because there were 3 other editions, I figured this one would be even better for the simple fact it was in 3-D. I thought that making this type of horror movie 3-D was brilliant. Boy was I wrong, after the movie I was highly dissapointed due to the fact not only did it have horrible acting and the scenes were too predictable. However, the most dissapointing part of it was that the 3-D version was not effective as I thought it would have. I remember when I was child and the many trips I took to the 3-D IMAX theater. I remember watching a movie in 3-D it literally felt like you were in the movie and everything looked as if you could touch it because it was right in front of your face. Well, Final Destination seemed nothing like that, it did not pop out at you that Im pretty sure the audience would have anticipated it to. This made me realize 3-D does not always effectively enhance a movie. If I could have changed anything about Final Destination besides better actors and the predictability, I would have changed the 3-D visual effects and made it way more effective then just the characters just simply popping out of the screen. I would have made the 3-D effects literally jump out, full force in your face that it makes you jump back. The point of 3-D is to immerse the audience into the film and make them feel apart of the screen. This is what was mostly lacking in the movie Final Destination, the fact that it was not nearly immersive as it could have been.

A Negative Look on Facebook

I remember when I first started using Facebook I was a freshman in college in 2005 back when only college students and alumni were allowed to use it. Thats when writing messages on facebook were actually exciting within itself. Connecting you with thousands of people just seemed so exciting and it still is. It didnt matter if the person was in the dorm room right next to you; everyone wrote through facebook just because it was something new and quit fun. I could tell a whole story about something exciting that happened within that day instead of calling up the person or texting them, Facebook messaging was what was hot! As fun as it was to tell a friend a story on facebook it took forever to type the story, so I found myself like everyone else shortening my words. For example LOL, OMG, wat, "nothin". Knocking a few letters off a word or not punctuating sentences when you are writing to your friend is not that big of deal, and it saves you time to write more. Doing that for so long has started to show in my school work unfortunaltly. Although I can give Facebook alot of credit of improving my typing speed skills, I find myself slipping up typing slang while Im writing my paper. It comes naturally to write sentences without a period or shortening a word so now I have to pay extra attention to what I am writing. I hope I didnt make any errors while typing this! Thank you Facebook