Design Class Final Project

As the final project for the ¨Design for Print and Web¨class at CCS, I put together a revision of the Pegasus Walkers Athletic Club website using Wordpress.  While I do not yet have the final grade - I was pleased with the outcome.  I received some suggestions for redoing the banner which I will attempt to due this summer (that part of graphical design is not my forte) but I received good comments on layout and organization.

You can check out the revised site at www.pegasusac.org

Almost a Painting

A Two Book Weekend

Finished two books over the weekend - and both continue with the theme of having photographs on the cover (which is NOT why I picked them.

Book 1) "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.  Very interesting book that I would recommend.    Cover fits the book well.  While I usually do not like photos of the person the book is about on the cover - this book needs the face of the person behind the cells that helped medical research.

Book 2) "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes

Cover from edition I read

The first one is the cover on the book I read.  I know I said that I don't like photographs on the cover but I believe this one is OK ---- it is not the author and the sepia tones fit the book.  I do not like the lettering - the original cover's letter is much more interesting.

Original Cover

I loved the lettering and fading of the original cover.  A bit to nebulous though with what the symbols are - but then again it fits the book.

Found two interesting references about designing the original cover:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8929045/Suzanne-Dean-the-secret-to-a-good-book-cover.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlzFDKcHLqI

Dogwood Tree in Bloom

From Last Printmaking Class

Finished the printmaking class the week before last.  I really enjoyed it.  I would like to take it again but I am taking a break for a while.  No art classes this summer but will be back at it in the fall.  The following are two of the prints from my last class.

The first is a gelatin print from a stamp I picked up at an estate sale of a local potter.  Gelatin prints are wild - the instructor made a slab from gelatin and you paint on it, lay a piece of paper on top then rub.  Great fun - something you can do at home since you do not need a printing press.

The second is a gelatin print on top of a print I had done earlier from a solar plate.  The plate is based on a photo I had taken in Italy.

Book about Words

I indicated that I do not like book covers with photographs on them (I would rather see work by illustrators - but at least this is not a photograph of the author.

The cover is a good indication as to what would happen to me if I tried to read the OED.

This book, "Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages" by Ammon Shea is a memoir about the year he spent reading that dictionary.  What a brave, crazy man.

I had trouble even making my way through the definitions of the commentary of the words he included in his book.  But I enjoyed the other parts about his thoughts and struggles as he read.

This book was recommended to me when I indicated that I liked books about books.  I have decided I am not a real fan of books about words - I have a terrible memory for words.  I give credit to those who can remember words like this author - and all those who are beating me with Words With Friends.

Only found one other cover - to the Australian edition.  
Same picture - different cover font.  For a change - I like the American edition better.

Tales of the Dead

 This was my "purse book".  The purse book is the one that sits in you purse and you read when you are "stranded" somewhere with no one to talk to.  It has to be a book that you can put down for months and not loose your train of thought.  So short stories, articles or essays work best.   This one I started mid last year so you can see how long it took.

Did not like the cover at all.  It struck me as very egotistical.  Of course that did fit the writing in the book.

I liked to cover below much better.

I also liked the third cover I found better than the cover of the edition I read.