Motion Graphics

If you’re a fan of the show Mad Men or have seen the opening, then you’ve seen a motion graphic.

Motion graphics were all the rage in the 1960s (hence the look for the Mad Men series set in the advertising field of the 1960s) and were popular in movies, TV show openings and commercials.
You’ve seen plenty of them, now that you’ve put the graphic with the term. They’re once again on TV, commercials, movies, web sites and any other visual medium.
Is it that they are retro? Do they bring back a feeling of simpler days? Are they just visually pleasing and that’s why they have been discovered again? Some people will say that they never went away and that’s true but they are hot again and a specialized talent is needed to create them.
If you’ve wondered how it’s done and how you can get involved in creating these projects, here are examples and hints from some experts in the field.

The whole article is here and has great examples


Inspiration

And some more inspiration

an H1 that works

Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a headline or post title that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist.
But a headline can do more than simply grab attention. A great headline can also communicate a full message to its intended audience, and it absolutely must lure the reader into your body text.

Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
Writing Great Headlines 

Wordpress Headline Split Tester

What Needs to Be in a Headline? 
Email Subject Line Tester 

 

23 A/B testing ideas to optimize your landing page

Oh NO!!!

I am so glad I am graduating when I am. I had some really good professors at the Art Institute of Austin but now they have all moved on to better things. The ones that are left really are not qualified to be teaching. For instance I just found out that one of these "professors" is having Adobe Muse installed on the computers at school. He is very excited about that. I just want to hang my head in shame for the school.

Really?  As a student that has invested a lot of time and money into getting my degree The last thing I want to do is in a job interview talk about how as a serious designer I use MUSE!!!!!!

An article explaining my feelings on this subject.
"web designers and developers we spoke to have reacted in horror at Muse"

I guess I should not be surprised this is also the professor who wanted me to do my portfolio site in WIX!!!! I was really angry about that one and put my foot down. I  told him that would cheapen what I do. I did not spend 4 years in school to in the end make a wix portfolio site!!!!

Trends

I have a class with a prof I can not stand this quarter. One of the things that drives me crazy about him is that he pretends to know so much more than he really does. Actually I think he really does believe he is a superior all knowing God. I guess it is  easy to dup a bunch of recent High School grads into believing that but I am much older with much more life experience and I know what an idiot he really is.

The worse is when he tries to explain SEO. He is totally clueless. I wish he would just read about Google Penguin instead of vomiting misinformation to students!!!Here is one of the best websites for learning real SEO.

So in this class I have with him he likes to talk about web design trends. I literally have to bite my tongue because usually what he is talking about are things that have been around for awhile and are actually on the decline. Here are some real trends that are becoming popular in Web Design. (Actually some of these have been around awhile but are still popular)

Flat Web Design

Metro Style

Responsive Layouts
Fixed Header Bars
Large Photo Backgrounds
             Looking for large image backgrounds? try this.
Infinite Scrolling
Color Trends
HTML5 and JavaScript 
parallax 
Video Backgrounds 
V cards



A few things I saw on other websites that I think are good to know when it comes to website trends

1. Thanks to responsive web design, which allows designs to convert to screens of any size, designers are creating websites that give the feeling of being in front of a movie screen. We are seeing websites that use little text with big photos and videos (photo and videos that sometimes cover the screen entirely).

2.  Adobe flash player has been a dear friend of the computer users for several years. But, with the introduction of the hyper-text markup version 5, it is time for Flash to make way for the new software.

3.  Gone are the days when websites were cluttered with the not-so-useful to the entirely irrelevant content. The trend now entails leaving sufficient empty space, thus being more minimalistic in the web design concept. These websites are highly functional and not to mention aesthetically pleasing.

Principles of minimalist design

Learning To Wire Frame

In every web class I have taken we have had to wireframe our websites first. When I first started wireframing sites I spent more time looking for templates to help me then I actually did framing my websites here is a link with some useful ways to wireframe.

A Collection of Free Wireframe Templates

All the tools you need to beat the curve

Adobe’s Creative Suite is dead, long live the Creative Cloud
It's the end of the line for boxed versions of Photoshop, InDesign, and the rest.

Read the article here

Important info for students using Adobe

Read about it here

Currently pricing for students is

Student and Teacher Edition Annual plan for

US $19.99 per month

CSS

Basically all we do in this class is have a lecture, an in class assignment that somehow never works, and then we work on our websites. I decided to re do my website that I did for Bourland Music decided to go with Metro style this time.

Some topics we have covered are CSS3 text-shadow property,  CSS sprites, nth child and Media Queries.

Captivate My First Kitchen

Working on my final for elearning. I am using my My First Kitchen idea that I have already used in 2 other classes. So far all I have are the videos.

Favorite Cooking Show

3 Weeks

It is hard to believe that in only 3 weeks I will be done with classes and have my BFA!! Two weeks after that I have the portfolio show and graduation. I really didn't want to do either one but friends and family really want to come to graduation. It will be so strange not to have classes. School has been such a big part of my life for 4 years its going to be a strange transition for me.

Past portfolio shows on facebook. The one thing I notice about this is that in the pictures all I see is staff and students even though career services says over 100 employers come to this.

For the portfolio show I am provided with a table, some pencils, a tablecloth, and some mints. Everything else I have to bring in myself. We are suppose to have resumes, business cards, and some kind of hand out for people to take. Right now I am planning on creating a video that loops and having that play I like this one. My handout cookies in cd sleeve with label that says one smart cookie and my url to my portfolio. I am not going all out like I said all I see in the pictures are staff and students.

I did create a pinterest board with tons of ideas for show too bad I am not really going to do any of this.

Looping video ideas for portfolio show:
Business
Evolution
Presentation
Sketch
stickman
Resume
This one goes with my resume website and cards
Touch
Monitor

Website Portfolio

Simple

seo

in pastel
ink
ink logo

Green screens I might be able to use
Security Monitors
curtains
rotate screen