Coffee & Chromebooks

Discovering the basics of multimedia design

It is my lifelong dream to one day run an EdTech blog that offers support for teachers as they dive deeper into the world of educational technology. This assignment helped me dream about this dream and create a logo for what I hope will come to fruition at some point. I chose to design a logo that reflects two things I love most-Coffee and Technology. With Chromebooks being the main device that many school districts are using, I chose to name my blog Coffee & Chromebooks. My creative juices were really flowing as I worked on this so I spent a lot of time designing, redesigning, and designing again. It was hard to really narrow it down, but I decided to stick with “coffee” colors and used a monochromatic color scheme for my logo. I used contrasting fonts and images that tied into the background colors and font colors. The tools in Canva helped me properly align each item and layer them accordingly. When I downloaded the image to my computer, I downloaded it both as a PNG with a transparent background and a JPG image.

Image from https://www.rosetanner.com/single-post/color-theory

Color Theory: The color of a media project is what generally attracts attention. Paying careful attention to the hue, saturation, and value of colors when creating multimedia projects is vital in producing a quality item. I chose to go with a monochromatic color scheme from the color theory to ensure that my colors tied together nicely and created a fluid look. It was very interesting to learn about the different color formulas and how they can be combined to complement each other. It is also important to pay attention to readability and to not discount the importance of using the neutral colors of black, white, and gray to balance out a project.

Image from https://blog.shillingtoneducation.com/what-is-typography/

Typography: Typography is my love language and something I pay careful attention to when creating a project. When I am looking at something, I usually notice the typography before anything else. I enjoy looking at different fonts and mixing and matching them to look nice. It was very interesting to learn about the different types of fonts like serif fonts, sans serif fonts, and display fonts. Fonts are the voice of a project, so it is important to choose wisely when creating and designing. Using the wrong font can easily make a project look outdated, irrelevant, or illegible. Thinking about the term “opposites attract” can be a helpful tool when mixing fonts. Most times, opposite fonts looked better when mixed together. Not only are the fonts important, but the placement and spacing of each letter is of equal importance. It is important to use tools like hierarchy, leading, tracking, and kerning to ensure that texts are emphasized appropriately.

Image from: https://www.socialectric.com/post/layout-design-getting-to-know-its-principles-why-is-it-so-important-to-visual-designs

Layout and Composition: Layout and composition refer to the bones of a piece. It is important to pay attention to proximity, white space, alignment, grid, and contrast when designing a piece. Each of these components contributes to the overall aesthetic layout of a multimedia project. Successfully manipulating each of these components can produce purpose for each piece of a project. In thinking about layout and composition, it is important to think consistently throughout the piece and pay careful attention to these small details.

Image from: https://www.vectornator.io/ipad-graphic-design

Images: Interesting visuals are what catches the eye the quickest. Using quality resources that produce high quality images that can be added to a project is of utmost importance. Stock images are free or inexpensive images that are available on the web for designers to use for their projects. In thinking about graphics to add to a project, it is important to think of authentic visuals that will relate to the intended audience. Adding images that are lower quality and look blurry or pixelated are an instant turn off to a project. It is important to make sure high quality images are chosen from valid sources. It was interesting to learn about raster and vector graphics, as this was new information to me. Raster graphics usually can’t be enlarged because they are made of pixels, while vector graphics are made up of paths that allow for more manipulation.

Sound: If relevant to the project, audio additions can really enhance a project. Using a microphone is key to producing good quality audio. It is important to record in a space that is quiet and that the surroundings (dogs, phones, appliances, etc) are silenced. Phone signals can also mess with sound, so they should be put on airplane mode when recording. I had never thought about the walls of a room when recording, but I learned that bare walls create echoes. Subtle wind sounds can also be amplified when recording, so it is important to pay careful attention to anything that could sound like wind and eliminate it. Sound cues are also secret weapons that help to blend audio together for a presentation.

Reflection: By thinking about each of these components that pertain to multimedia, I was able to pay more careful attention to the details as I created my logo. I feel like I am fairly experienced in creating graphics, however, I am eager to learn more about video production throughout this course. The video provided over creating animated videos through PowerPoint was incredibly fascinating to me and I am very interested in learning how to do that. I had no idea that PowerPoint had those capabilities. This class is going to allow me to really get creative, so I am looking forward to learning more and more about multimedia design!