Abbeyp's Blog

It’s a wrap!

abbey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:24:22 +0000

CD sleeve, check! Poster, check! Design Brief, check! What a nice feeling to be finished all the projects especially the design brief. Not much of a brief for the person writing it though. I have been waiting for this day to come! It just seemed like it was never going to end! Lots of late nights of endless writing, researching and editing. I can’t believe 3 months had passed already. That was quick! Term 1 was quite a challenge but I can’t imagine how term 2 is going to be. I’m just going have to prepare myself for it. Now I understand why we need a break in between terms. This whole college life is not easy but I’m definetly loving it! Woo Hoo, I survived!

On another note, the King of Pop has died

Yes, unfortunately Micheal Jackson is dead. Hard to believe right? He was a very well known star who had such an amazing career. Didn’t have the perfect life but was respected by many people. Who needs tv when you’ve got facebook? Facebook was literally flooded with RIP MJ signs. You know you’re important when the whole world knows that you’ve died. I just want to say, thank you Micheal Jackson, for making the world dance and creating such beautiful music! RIP

Do you have proper Netiquette?

abbey — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:39:17 +0000

If you can’t say it in front of their face, don’t say it online.

What is Netiquette you asked? It’s exactly what you think it is, network etiquette. In able to behave properly online, you must be aware of the following rules:

Rule 1: Remember the human
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behaviour online that you follow in real life
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Rule 4: Respect other people’s time and bandwith
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
Rule 8: Respect other people’s privacy
Rule 9: Don’t abuse your power
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes

You might already be aware of these rules but honestly, do we all follow them? It’s sort of like the bible, where we have a set of rules to obey but we don’t always abide them. Sometimes we purposely do things out of curiousity but we don’t always think of the possible consequences that might occur. It’s what makes us humans!

Rule 1: Remember the Human

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Just like the old saying, “you must give respect to earn respect.” But if somebody where to intentionally hurt you, it doesn’t mean you have to do it back to them. Be the bigger person, and politely leave if you have nothing else better to say.

Many times, there are miscommunications over the internet because it’s hard to see their emotions. When you make jokes online, sometimes it turns out to be a messy argument. For example, have you ever had a friend curse at you and had no idea why? You suddenly become very defensive while they explain to you that they were just being sarcastic. How do you expect somebody to sense sarcasm online? Well, you can’t, unless they are stating the obvious. In order to solve that, don’t use offensive words. It’s as easy and as complicated as that. It’s certainly hard to avoid using offensive words because to some of us, it comes naturally. If you want to have a good Netiquette, you need to learn how to control your behaviour.

Women and Colour

abbey — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:50:01 +0000

Meta Tags:
Color, Hue, Light, Lighting Conditions, Technology, Color IQ

Subject Line: Women and Colour

Are you seeing the right colour?

Living without colour is living without light. How will it affect you and your daily activities?

There can be many different versions of the same colour depending on the lighting conditions around you or the objects that it’s around. Technology has made it possible to translate colour exactly like how we see it.

For most women, a question they may ask daily is what should I wear? The colour that you wear may be influenced by the way you feel or how the weather is like or what time of the day it is. For example, during summer time, most people tend to wear bright, attractive colours while during fall time, we tend to wear darker colours such as browns, grays, and beige.

Got asked out on a date and not feeling so well? That’s okay, you don’t have to pack on the makeup to look good, just make sure there’s candle lighting around you! But if you’re really interested in knowing the right makeup tips for this summer, MAC makeup has “summer simplied to the two major L’s, Lips and Lashes!” This year, it’s all about the dazzling pink and peach lips and long beautiful lashes. Keep it as simple as possible!

If you’re really curious with how you perceive colour, a colour IQ test is available. It’s a really fun exercise! Study says that women see colour better than men. Do you agree?

Weight Loss in Minutes!

abbey — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:54:13 +0000

You got a flaw? No worries, photoshop will take care of it! I mean, who wants their blemish showing on the billboard? I’m sure a lot of people were thankful when photoshop was released to the public. It made picture perfect possible. But have we gone too far? Too far that you don’t recognize the person or thing after it’s been photoshopped? Could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want your end result to look like.

It’s funny how it always comes to a big surprise everytime we see celebrities in person not looking so made up. We forget that they’re just regular people who aren’t walking barbies and kens. But I guess that’s the downside of having your photos edited all the time. People expect for you to look just as flawless like on the magazines and the ads they see you from.

Want to lose weight in minutes without working out a sweat? Behold, the magic of photoshop! Below is a video which I found educating and amusing at the same time. It’s real easy actually, just take your liquify tool (Filter –> Liquify) and click and drag. This could definetly be a positive thing for those who are wanting to change their lifestyle and visualize their desired weight. Enjoy!

So far so good

abbey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:43:46 +0000

Finally, the hard work is starting to pay off. Our class had our hands full with a few projects and 2 finals and 2 midterms. We got a few results back, and I’m not going to lie, it feels good to be rewarded. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack (again!) at the time but it’s exactly what the career is about, so I just have to suck it up! I’m learning how to handle pressure better and I’m learning to do things quickly and effectively. According to Linda Coe’s class notes, “Design is a profession whose mantra is: on time and on budget.” I know that as my experience grow, good or bad, I’ll be able to keep myself on the right track and eventually have the skills I’ll need to do well in this field.

Art has always been a passion of mine. From drawing to painting, to fashion to photography, to music to dancing, and to basically anything that involves it just feels right when I’m surrounded by it. The beauty about art is that you can never know everything about it. It has no limits, so it’s up to you how you want to interpret your creativity to the world. Here are some work I’ve done in the past:

My Drawing and Paintings:

Pay attention to detail

abbey — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:42:12 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, I love to dance and everything that comes with it! Some of my collection of dance movies are Save the Last dance, Shall We Dance, Honey, Take the Lead, Stomp the Yard, You Got Served but my all time favourite would have to be Step Up 2. Like most dance flicks, they don’t have much of a story line. Below is my favourite clip from the movie.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the person who edited this movie did a very good job or just didn’t bother editing it properly. I just don’t understand how a big movie like this could be produced and not have it perfectly edited. Let’s see if you’re good at paying attention to detail. Do you notice anything wrong with this video?

Bad Continuity

Did you see the bad job of continuity starting at 2:35? The guy in the front wearing a hat switches from a shirt to having a longsleeve shirt. Weird huh? The dance choreography is very well thought of and unique! The color tones and the choice of effects for this clip really sets the mood of the whole concept of “taking it to the streets.” I also love the fact that the new generation of hip hop dance is not just about choreographing to “hip hop songs”, it’s now about being original and mixing different genres of music, such as rock. The two combinations together is just genius!

Have you ever watched a movie with bad continuity? If so, what was it?

And the winner is…

abbey — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:45:15 +0000

So today is one of the few days that I’ll actually watch TV. Ever since school started I haven’t had the chance to really do anything but stare at the computer all day and do homework and work on these never ending projects. One of my favourite tv shows to watch is American Idol, been watching it since season 1! (Yeahhhh Kelly Clarkson!) I know most people don’t like it because it’s overrated but it’s really quite entertaining! Especially when the season begins where you get to see all sorts of “talents”.

Here’s one “talent” I’ll never forget:

I mean common, are these people serious?…Ahh well, it gets people like me to watch! I guess why not right? They get their 10 second fame!

Anyways, right at this moment, I’m watching the finale of season 8 of American Idol. Apparently there were about a 100 million votes made this season finale! Shows how much time people have with their hands eh? I’m totally psyched even though Danny Gokey didn’t get a chance to win. It’s too bad his journey ended last week! He seemed like such a deserving guy, and he’s extremely talented! Now it’s between, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. Who will it be…?

In the mean time, here’s another unforgettable audition this season. Unfortunately, it wont allow me to add the video directly on here (anybody know why?) but here’s a link to her name,Katrina Darrell.

Week 4

abbey — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:45:30 +0000

Scanning and Color Correction? How challenging can it be?! At least that’s what I thought when I first heard about the course. I thought the perfectionist that I am, that I had the eyes to do well in this right away! But it turns out, this is one of the few times that you can’t trust your own eyes. I know, sounds kinda loony doesn’t it? I had to learn it the hard way, unfortunately. I, then got some help by Grant, “the expert”, because I was so eager to do well. He definitely opened my eyes, better yet, he opened my info dialogue box in Photoshop! He showed me up alright. It really does make a difference when you have a calibrated system! And of course, a whole lot of experience! Shucks, I hate being wrong!

So, school is really starting to get serious here, I think I’m about to have a panic attack! Has it really been 4 weeks already?…Whoa…wait! What? Midterms in a couple of weeks!?!? Already?!?! Are you serious? Alright…just take a deep breath…

For those of you who aren’t aware, here are the following important dates:

Adobe Acrobat – Due May 22

Project
Test

Graphics and Color – Due May 25

Kidzone Poster (series of 2)
Color Exercise
Project 2 Web Banner Rough Copy

Scanning and Color – Due May 25 – Last Day!

Final Exam

Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Due May 26

Midterm Project
Midterm Exam

Web Tech – Due May 27

Resume – Add Box Model Hack

Graphics and Color – Due June 1

Project 2 Web Banner
Midterm Exam

What is color?

abbey — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:37:55 +0000

What is color?…It’s a mind game really! Different lighting conditions can fool us on how we perceive color. Can you imagine a world without it? Or better yet, a world without LIGHT! Without light there would be no color! Luckily for technology, we are now able to measure color (who woulda thought you’d be dealing with numbers?) so that we can translate it exactly how we want it.

How Color Affects Us

Color has affected us so much on our everyday lives and we don’t even notice it. How would it influence all mediums of art? Do you think there would be as many graphic designers? Color specialists? Or even photographers? How would a company differentiate themselves from their competition when the first thing we think of when designing a logo is color? Many of us like to wear it to feel unique and stand out from the crowd. Because lets face it, being uniformed and being neutral is not always the best thing or the “cool” thing to do. Color also affects us on how we feel and present ourselves each day. For example, on rainy, cloudy days, typically you would feel tired and gloomy. You don’t want to wear your best colored shirt on those days, you wear them on sunny days when you’re feeling great while enjoying the weather outside! (Especially when you live in Vancouver, where you barely get any sun!)

Different Lighting Conditions

At the time I was in makeup school, we also talked about how important color was and had a discussion about how it affects different lighting conditions. It was said that the reason why most restaurants used candle lights is because our skin tone looks best on yellow lighting. True or False? Well, YOU tell me! How do you feel when you go on a date and there’s candle lights around you? Pretty good right? No need to worry about skin imperfections! And that’s the beauty of it! (A little tip for girls and all the women out there: no need to pack on the makeup if you know you’re going on a candle light dinner!…and plus, natural beauty is always best anyways!) Now, if you’re under Tungsten lighting, that would be a different story! (Maybe you’re dating the wrong guy? kidding! lol)

Getting back on the topic here…so you see, the world would be so different without light and color. It’s unfortunate that we take it for granted! Unfortunately, we weren’t all made to see it, so be thankful that you have the gift to see such beautiful things!

What’s Your Color IQ?

Now here’s a little something more fun…study says women are better at judging color. Well, prove me wrong! Give this challenge a try and let me know how you do! The lower the number is, the better! Try and get a zero! Good Luck!

Color IQ Test

Change

abbey — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:25:43 +0000

I remembered complaining not being in school when I wasn’t, and now that I am, I now remember how exhausting it can be! I guess it just takes time to getting used to…I’m ready to do well and work hard! This whole “college” thing is a bit new to me coming from a hair and makeup school. They really do have high expectations here, which makes a lot of sense because not only does it reflect to the school when you apply for a career, but it also helps you prepare for the “real” world. I’m getting to that age where I need to settle in and find stability with my career rather than just having a “job”. As much as I love and enjoy doing hair and makeup, there just isn’t any steady jobs (or career I should say!) out here in Vancouver for that industry. It’s too bad I had to spend a whole lot of money before I found that out! But in the bright side, I’ll have two careers that I absolutely love!

In the mean time, I’m working on my certificate program at BCIT and each week, it gets more and more interesting! So, I think I’ve picked the right course! I’ve always been the “artsy” type of girl but who knew technology could be such a useful tool in being creative and artistic! There’s so much to do and so much to learn, and I’m so anxious to start putting the pieces together to creating an appealing and functional website! YAHOO!