For this project, I developed the design for my senior portfolio cover page as the beginnings of a digital version of my work.

I created a wave effect mask tween that reveals each of the textual components on my page—first, my name, and second, my major. After the animation stops, the text “click here” appears on the bar underneath my name when the audience mouses over the page. The button text changes in color, from blue to green, when clicked and opens a web page with my resume, which I published in my public_html folder for my web design class a few years ago. Please note: the background color of my resume, purple, wasn’t my best design decision back then. I tried changing it to a color that would unify my design better, such as blue or green, but I wasn’t able to set the permissions on the CSS document for some reason, so unfortunately it will have to wait until I can get an administrator to help me.

My Flash design provides several advantages over its InDesign counterpart. The Flash medium influences the message of my design in the following ways.

1. It’s more visually interesting and grabs the audience’s attention right away. Since my name is the first text the audience views, it receives precedence, which conveys my primary message: this is who I am and how I represent myself. The following tween reveals my major, which provides the basis for my professional identity: this is what I create. I had concerns about my name in the static designs at first because it seemed as though the text for my major challenged the text for my name as the starting point of the design. I wouldn’t have had that problem in Flash—it contrasts the two elements well and provides another sense of hierarchy by giving emphasis to my name, besides via proportion. In this way, the movement over time offers rhythm.

Also, the movement allows my professional identity (name and major) to emerge from its components (writing, editing and graphic design), which are represented by the strokes of blue and green, providing an analogy for my education—that my identity has been shaped by my education and experiences. After my name appears and the wave dissipates, it’s almost as if the top portion of my design solidifies and becomes tangible because when the next ripple rolls through for my major, it stops at the line beneath my name.

2. Inversely, the two ripples are intended to further create a sense of my professional identity through their movement—since my portfolio design isn’t stereotypically professional, because it’s very colorful and abstract, it creates the sense that I push the design boundaries by “creating waves” in the design genre and that I actively create and influence my identity through innovation in writing, editing and graphic design.

Also, the two ripples of movement represent the ebbs and flows of my professional identity, which is in constant flux and varied.

3. I was able to create a texture with Flash that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to do in a static design software program such as Photoshop or InDesign. The texture is created by the pixel movement in the wave animation. It gives my design depth, because the strokes of color look almost as if they’re liquid in composition—like someone poured three different colors of paint in one can. And paint is the actual physical medium that the Flash medium helped me to convey. I think it brings a quality of reality to my design and could help my audience comprehend my cover page before opening my portfolio—it’s difficult to give the impression that the cover page is supposed to be composed of paint strokes because, unlike the divider pages inside of my portfolio (see http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7421/graphicdesignlettercopymq6.jpg), the colors don’t have the obvious quality of a paint stroke. Thus, movement ultimately unifies my design.

Overall, I was able to use Flash to strengthen the design principles and elements incorporated in my design through movement over time. Another benefit to having a digital portfolio that utilizes Flash is that the designer can demonstrate proficiency in this multimedia software program, which is almost like having an additional portfolio piece.

In the future, I think it might be more effective to replace the text “click here” with “enter” and transition to a page that offers the options of viewing my work in writing, editing and graphic design, as well as my resume. As it stands, however, I think it offers an interesting cover page for the digital version of my resume. And it was well worth the many hours of frustration.

http://x7chat.com/temp/Zompocalypse%20Promo.swf
http://x7chat.com/temp/zpan.docx

This tutorial helped me figure out how to make a button actually work in a design that incorporates animation.

With this final design I made the medium is the essential part of a message. After looking at some examples and speaking to you in class initially I had thought about setting up a basic photo display board for a few of my photos that I have shown you. I scratched that after I put some more thought into what I wanted the four photos I selected to say.

With a simple photo board that allows the user to click on whatever photo they want to look at, I do not get to control exactly what the viewer is seeing. With the way I set it up, the content on the screen is dictated by me. That’s because I’m telling a story here centered around the idea “Step Through The Doorway.” This story starts with the viewer ideally coming upon the building of focus in these photographs. This first photo fades and the second photo appears with a different view of the building. This is where the doorway is noticed and comes into play. This is also the first time the piano may be noticed by the viewer. This photo fades and the third photo fades in. This time it is the doorway framing the piano which is clearly the center of attention. With the fade out and fade in of the last photo the viewer has now entered the building. They have stepped through my doorway to a view of the piano itself up close and personal. You can see all the detail, the broken keys, the grain in the wood and the debris on the floor. You are there and you’ve made that journey through my doorway. I left this series to repeat over and over so the viewer can sit and look at each photo more than once, hopefully catching more detail a second or third time through.

I do not have captions or text on this beyond the central theme for the main reason that I want the viewer to interpret what they are seeing for themselves. Giving titles or information blurbs would leave a lot less open for interpretation. Unfortunately I was a bit limited with the scanners in the CCLI so the quality of the photos isn’t what they are in print, but the overall message does stay the same. What it comes down to is that this is a journey or an exploration. I wanted the viewer to feel the way I felt when I first came upon this building and eventually circled around to where I saw that doorway. The feeling of excitement and knowing I had some good photos coming out of the experience are something I remember clearly and I wanted that to be showcased here. I think that comes across the best it can visually. I did not want the transitions to be slower because when I went to this place I was ecstatic, ran through everything and checked it out and then I went back and slowly observed what exactly was there. I want the viewer to do the same thing and slower transitions would take that effect away.

Overall I’m happy with the result. Flash was very difficult and importing the .swf file into a webpage was a success I was glad to have. It’s shown me how powerful of a tool this program really can be. Again, I am glad that I could use this program to tell my story. A simple photo album wouldn’t have done that, the transitions really take the user through my state of mind when I discovered this place. I’m still the only one that knows where it is.

And here’s my prototype/concept test for the portfolio in action. All in all, I think I like this even more than my portfolio, with a few exceptions.

For one, Flash is a surprisingly difficult tool to utilize. This has been made exceptionally clear in class, and I probably don’t have to make note of it, but it continually surprises me. This small portion alone took 20 layers, one for each line, piece of text, and image. I can see how these files get so ridiculously huge.

I used the same design as my portfolio, because that’s how I had envisioned the project. It has it’s print component, but I had always figured that the Flash would be the main facet of my portfolio. And after I’ve completed the proof of concept, I do feel that flash really helps to get the motion across better.

For this assignment, I focused on making my logo move and dance in a patterned sequence, something I’ve been trying to do with poetry and simple drawings. With words, I can usually imitate motion and movement, as I can with drawing, even if my drawing skills are sub par at best.

Flash allows me to put the simple concept of motion into action, such as with my jumping, dancing, spinning crazy things. This has freed me from trying to select individual words on their own merits, flows, alternative meanings, and letter pattern, and focus on how my project looks, as opposed to how it feels and sounds.

As opposed to poetry, motion is easier to portray, but I feel it is less elegant than the written word, or not as persuasive as using explicit, concise, emotional language. This medium shift caught me a bit off guard, even though I have worked on my own music videos using FMVs from video games, as Flash provides far more freedom than splicing together predefined scenes and sounds.

Flash has also proven itself to be vastly different than drawing, if not only in that I can actually design something beyond a stick figure, but I can grab objects and manipulate them without having to start from scratch repeatedly. This freed me from my usual art qualm of almost finishing a project, then noticing a small detail that prompts me to start over, even if no one else would notice it.

By using Flash for this project, I was able to project some of my more chaotic ideas without forcing the viewer to slog through text, Asperger induced language or alternative interpretations, instead focusing on the idea of semi-structured movement that ultimately does not make sense.

Although I still don’t like working in Flash, my feeling is that I have a better command of Flash, along with it’s idiosyncrasies, flaws, advantages and disadvantages.