Bibi Cards

Here's one of the bibi cards that I had to re-create for my Electronic Communications class. My professor gave me a bibi card from a Scientific American magazine, and I had to create duplicates of it in QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. These images are of my Adobe InDesign card.

Something that worked really well in these bibi cards was the images. I think they look almost identical to the images in the original version of the bibi card. I was really glad that I was able to find the exact same pictures online, and then put them in the bibi card in the same positions--the angles and the sizes are both the same as the hard copy.

Something that did not work as well as I would've liked was the fonts. Actually, a lot of the fonts look nearly identical to the original, but others are a little off. The "40%" on the backside, for example, is a little different than the one on the real copy of the bibi card. I spent a lot of time looking through all the fonts, going through the Suitcase Fusion, and experimenting with different techniques and I was never able to match it perfectly. The one that I used in the end seemed to be the most similar to the real copy.

I am most proud of how the area where the reader (or potential subscriber) would fill in his/her information. In both InDesign and QuarkXPress this area looked very similar to the original. At first it was a little bit daunting, but after doing all the measurements and figuring out the spacing, it wasn't too difficult and it looked really good.

However, that was also the most difficult aspect of this project. I had to measure all of the lines, look for the closest-fitting font, and then do all of the spacing. It took a lot of time and it was really tedious. It was extremely frustrating trying to make everything in this section look like the original.

Finally, if I had more time, I think I would've gone through even more fonts in an attempt to get the perfect match. There were just so many different fonts, and so many different techniques that I could apply to them, that it would've taken several days to go through them all. Doing so would've been unrealistic, but it would've been nice if I could've found the exact match. Still, I'm really happy with the fonts and the overall look of my bibicards.

Personal Essay

Personal Essay Design Rationale

The post above this one contains my final project for my Electronic Communcations course. We had to create either a Soundslide or a video that showcased the majority of the techniques we've learned this semester. This project also had to explain one of our passions. For mine, I decided to do a Soundslide about my family's vacation home in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Our beach house is in Breakwater Village, a small trailer park in Pt. Judith. I went through childhood and current photographs and identified 12-15 that I thought would be appropriate for this Soundslide. Most of them had to do with my sisters and me, surfing, and the location itself.

I then wrote a script for my Soundslide, which I recorded into GarageBand. Since I have a Mac with a built-in microphone, it was really convenient to record my voice in GarageBand. I then recorded some ambient sound of water lapping to serve as background audio. The sound of the water is not very loud, but that was my intention. I didn't want the water to overpower my voice, I just wanted it to be really subtle and relaxing, and I think I accomplished that.

After I had compiled all of my pictures and exported my audio into iTunes, I was able to create my Soundslide (which can be seen in the previous post). I wanted the pictures to correspond with what I was saying, and I think for the most part, they do.

My favorite part of this presentation is the pictures. I was really glad that I was able to find pictures from my childhood that matched my script, particularly the ones with my sisters and me. Since one of my main points about memories from Breakwater Village concerned my sisters, I thought it was really appropriate that I could include this pictures into my presentation.

Something that didn't work quite as well as I would've liked was the audio. Though I intentionally made the lapping water quiet, I think it could've been a little bit louder. Also, I was not very happy with the sound of my voice in this project. I don't know what it is about my voice-- I guess I'm just not accustomed to listening to my voice on recordings.

I'm most proud of how the audio and the images work together. I think the pictures correspond to what I'm saying in the audio, and this helps tell a story and makes my presentation more effective. Although I had some difficulty trying to figure out the timing, it ended up working fairly well.

The most difficult aspect of this project was, without a doubt, the audio. I had such a hard time recording my voice, I had to start over a million times. When I messed up I would still keep going, but I usually had to do it over again because my timing was always off. Once I finally did a good run through, I had to go through and edit out all the mistakes and make it sound like one fluid story, which was difficult as well. Then things only got more complicated when I had to add in the ambient background audio. In the end, however, I was pretty happy with the result.

If I had more time, I think I would've liked to elaborate on this project. I have so many pictures from Breakwater Village, and so many more things to say, that it would've been nice to be able to include them. I know that I could've made it five minutes long, but I didn't want to bore my viewers. I think I made it a good length; it's long enough to give people insight into my childhood and summer traditions, but not long enough to make them lose interest.

Though this project could get a little frustrating and overwhelming at times (like a lot of the projects in this class), I was really happy with the final product (also like a lot of the projects in this class!) I was really excited that I was able to use all the skills I've gained this semester in Electronic Communications to create a Soundslide about one of my passions.

Soundslide script

Here's the script for my final project in Electronic Communication.

Some of my earliest memories include running up and down a small, secluded beach with my three sisters. Tanned to a golden brown from the summer sun, we would wake up early to go boogie-boarding, skip lunch to build sandcastles and search for crabs, and play wiffle-ball until well after the sun had set.

We were at Breakwater Village in Point Judith, Rhode Island. The park where, decades earlier, our dad had spent his days in the same manner. It’s a small trailer park located on an even smaller beach, and it’s the place where my family has spent weekends in the summer since my great aunt and uncle bought the park in the 1950s.

I can remember my sisters and I would anxiously anticipate the three-hour car drive from our permanent home in Buxton, Maine to southern Rhode Island. Come Friday afternoon, we would have our bags packed and our snacks prepared as we frantically rushed our parents to do the same. Once they finally had, we’d all pile into our blue Town & Country van with our dog and commence our journey. After about an hour all the kids would be asleep, dreaming of the ocean and the warm sun that awaited our arrival.

Sadly, those days gradually ended as we got older and my sisters left for college. As the baby of the family I was the only one still available to accompany my parents to the beach. I started spending more time with my Breakwater friends, staying up late to play manhunt and huddle around bonfires on the beach.

It was around this time when I discovered another passion apart from Breakwater Village: surfing. Though I’d been introduced to it before, it wasn’t until this time that I became obsessed with it. Whenever there were waves, my friends and I would paddle out to a spot called the “K”. There, I collected many scars as a result of the hard rock bottom. But at the same time I also collected a lot of memories and formed a love for and a deeper connection with the ocean.

Nowadays, I still spend my summers in Breakwater village, though there have been some significant changes. Our once TV-free trailer has been replaced with a wi-fi accessible park model. Careless days spent splashing in the water have been taken over by long shifts in hot restaurants, serving clam cakes and chowder to visiting tourists. But that doesn’t mean my feelings for Breakwater have changed.

It’s still where my family gathers for functions. Sisters who have long since relocated to New Jersey, Florida, and northern Maine still find time to celebrate the 4th of July and birthdays in Pt. Judith. Our parents still make us hotdogs and potato salad for lunch, and we still spend some afternoons lazing on the beach, barefoot, tanned, and loving where we are.