Stratton Journals

Journal entries made by Wilson Stratton

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  • Procreate Tutorial

    A glance into the hour-long event taught by Professor Rebecca Bagley

    Procreate is a creative application designed for the Apple iPad. In this review we will be discussing the purpose of the app and the tutorial that was a taught by a design professor at Elon University in North Carolina. Professor Bagley is a communication design professor at Elon, she teaches multiple courses at the university including, web and mobile design as well as typography and Principles of Communication Design. Bagley has used Procreate for many years and has an advanced portfolio when it comes to her use with the application.

    Procreate has won two Apple Design Awards one in 2013 and again in 2022. With over three-hundred handcrafted brushes procreate allows designers the freedom to express their art digitally for just $13. Unlike most design software’s, Procreate is a one-time fee. This makes a huge difference for beginner designers and students who can’t afford to make recurring and large transactions. With the use of the apple pen and the iPad, this application is a must have for graphic designers and artists all over the world. Procreate comes with an extensive number of features including the ability to create 3d imagery.

    This event was hosted by the AIGA at Elon and had an overflow of students eager to learn more about the app. Professor Bagley took an in-depth look at the features and tools students and artists could use to make Procreate a part of their design kit. With an extensive knowledge of the software herself, she took the time to go through each step and allowed each attendee to take their time and really practice the features she was teaching. I found a lot of great tools from this tutorial and event in general, and I look forward to using this application in my own work going forward.  

  • Highway Smells of Dust

    A deep dive into a scene shot by California based photographer Casey Horner.

    Casey Horner is a landscape photographer based out of California. The specific image I will be analyzing was taken on a stretch of highway in Nevada. This image has many possible design uses including: advertising, album covers and much more. I originally found this piece while searching for a landscape image on the website Unsplash. When I analyze this image I will be placing myself inside the scene using my five senses to describe my surroundings.

    As I stand at the center of this image I can feel the heat from the afternoon sun blaring down on me, reflecting off the hot asphalt. The wind blows across my body as specks of dust fly across my face. I can hear the wind howling and the nearby desert-creatures scurrying throughout the brush. Off in the distance my eyes direct to where the highway ends, a mountain-scape that to me looks as if it will take hours to get to. The longer I walk on this path the further I feel I am. My lips are chapped from the dry and desolate environment. All I taste is dirt, emptiness and the occasional fly encroaching on my personal space. With no human in sight, a sense of peace rushes over me, knowing it is just me and the road. The path offers me a sense of security and protection from the wild unknown that ravages through the vast desert to each side of me. I see waves of heat clashing with road, I watch as the sweat falls off my skin. This image is not about the absence of a subject but rather the awareness of ones surroundings, from the sight of the mountains to the taste of the dust.

  • Bridging the gap: Why designers need effective writing skills

    Corporate minds and creative minds differ greatly; how do we communicate our thoughts? We explain our process through writing.

    These two articles explain the importance of writing skills within the design industry. When analyzing the articles I found the most important take away was, as a designer you are creating something to convince someone of something, in order to strengthen your argument, you need to back up your designs with writing.  I resonated most with the idea and importance of effectively communicating with clients.

    Writing is the bridge between corporate executives and designers of all kinds. There are also many other perks of writing within design, when you break down your goals for your design piece by piece you are much more likely to come to an effective conclusion. I believe my views on writing in design have not changed after reading these articles, I stand by my reasoning and believe I have more of an argument defending my views now that I have read these. While I have not done much writing prior to big projects I believe after reviewing the pros and cons I will start doing so.

    The perspective of these articles differs, the first article is a blog post specifically highlighting the positive interaction of writing for a design and the outcome, while the second article goes in depth at the effects of not writing before a design and then explaining how writing assists with the development of a design after feeling that he was at a loss.

    The designer describes feeling that writing was not important because he was a designer not a writer. He ultimately understood that the two go hand in hand. I would argue the same, that you can’t write without designing and you can’t design without writing. When you write something to publish, you must design it so that each paragraph flows together.

  • Elon University Alumni Event Q&A

    On Friday, October 10th I attended the alumni event for Elon University Students in the School of Communications. At this event, Alumni were spread out at tables giving advice to future graduates. I was lucky to speak personally with two of the alumni at the event, Daniela Pereyra and Jefferey Williamson.

    These two alumni were great in giving advice and helping me traverse what is a stressful time as a soon to be graduate. Daniela is a Real Estate Broker and Jefferey is a freelance photographer. While these two careers are quite different they both had incredible advice that will surely serve me well.

    When speaking with Daniela she gave the advice of “get comfortable with being uncomfortable”. Her idea behind this is that when you get comfortable in a career or path your not pushing yourself and in order to grow you have to get out of the mindset that everything is set, you need to work hard at whatever you do in order to grow. Daniela also attributed Elon in the way the school helped build her confidence. When you are offered as many opportunities as Elon does, the position you are set up for is a lot better than most colleges.

    I spoke with Jefferey specifically regarding freelancing, as a photographer myself I found he would be the perfect person to get advice from. One of his biggest pieces of advice was to put yourself out there. He coined instagram and LinkedIn as being perfect resources for this purpose. When you want to do photography for a celebrity, reaching out to their main account (with 50+ million followers) isn’t the best approach because most likely they’ll never see the message. But through LinkedIn you can find their publicist and their manager and even their managers assistant. All of these people have less followers on their social media and are much more likely to view and sometimes respond to your requests.

    This event was a much need learning session for me. From understanding the benefits that using Elon’s opportunities can have on someones career to learning how to hack the system as an up & coming freelance photographer. I believe this event has given me a huge step forward in chasing my goals.

  • Design for Good Case Study

    Design for Good Case Study

    Project Introduction

    The project I completed was for the Design of Visual Images course through Elon Universities Communications Program. In this project we were asked to create a poster directed towards elementary school children that would display a positive message similar to what you would see walking through the halls as a child. This poster was also required to contain five analog items and the main software we were allowed to use was photoshop.

    The Process

    I knew the direction I wanted to go from the start but it was the process and application that I was not expecting to have as much trouble with. Off the bat I chose to go with a Superhero Recycling theme. For this theme I knew I needed an earthy color pallet and I would contrast it with red and blue superhero-like colors. My mood-board consisted of natural landscapes and superhero capes. I also added in a few pictures of my own that displayed a similar color scheme.

    The drafts I originally created felt inauthentic and basic, leading me to feel stuck. After speaking with my professor she gave me the idea to use my own photography or others in the project. Going off of this idea I decided to go to Michaels and search for my five analog items. After walking up and down the aisles a few times I finally found enough items to make me feel more comfortable about my ideas. Below are my original rough drafts and the materials I used for my final product.

    Conclusion and Final Product

    In order to enhance my posters presentation I mocked it up with an outdoor poster styled setting, using a downloaded file. My final product turned out to be one of my best creative pieces, using cut out images from Unsplash and the five analog items I was able to piece together a meaningful yet simple poster that resonates with not only elementary aged kids but creatives and artists alike.

  • Dair’s Seven Principles of Typographic Design

    A brief overview and examples of Carl Dair’s Seven Principles

    Carl Dair was a Canadian typographer, graphic designer and author. He is best known for his book “Design with Type” (1967). In the book Dair described seven principles of typographic contrast which included size, weight, structure, form, texture, color, and direction. Dair believed contrast was key to quality designs within typography.

    This cover uses a couple of Dair’s Principles of typographic contrast to catch the viewers’ attention. The title is On Gravity, it is placed on a white backdrop, and all the lettering is black. Covering over half the page are large block characters in no order, these letters spell out “On Gravity”. The form in which the letters are laid out are made to look as if someone dumped these letters into a small box with no organization, besides the two at the top “On” leading viewers to assume the rest of the characters spell out “gravity”. The principles that are most prevalent here are the contrast of size, contrast of weight and contrast of form.

    The cover above is the Pretty Woman film Cover. This piece displays Julia Roberts and Richard Gere standing next to one another, with Gere leaning on one side of her while the movie title is laid out vertically from top to bottom on the other side of Roberts. There are many principals in play in this scene. Contrast of Size (Each section of lettering is a different size) Contrast of Color (The title “Pretty Woman” is in red which stands out well against the pink, black, and white of the clothing the characters are wearing. And finally the contrast of structure and placement, the horizontal writing paired with the vertical writing makes each section distinct.

    The final cover is from the film, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this film portrays a man who lives a very quiet and boring life but always day-dreams of wild and unique adventures, up until he is forced to step out of his comfort zone and explore the world and search for a man who does his best to stay hidden. On the film cover, Dair’s principles of typographic contrast is very much in play as a unique representation of the film is portrayed. The cover displays a very basic type-font that mimics the theme of the film. Contrast of weight is displayed as the title is much heavier than the text below and to the right of it. In terms of structure and form, the films cover is laid out as such, a large image is taking up over half of the page, with the title laid out horizontally across the lower-middle half below the image. To the right of the film title is the year of release followed by the film rating, below these are the casting and directing credits as well as genre, this is all displayed in a simple, almost spreadsheet-like structure. The contrast of color is also applicable here as the color palette mimics the boring and unadventurous theme. This is all contrasted by the image itself, which is displaying a man in a work-professional outfit sitting on top of the peak of Mt. Everest. The man is sitting next to an open briefcase with a coffee placed next to him.

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