Week four

This week we moved away from using audio as tool for communication and shifted our focus to using imagery as a means for communicating. I am terrible when it comes to being creative with things like photoshop but I also am really excited to have this chance to get better. Photoshop seems like it could be a lot of fun. It will be especially fun since we are using it to make meme's and other entertaining images.

Our readings this week focused on considering the implications of the imagery that you choose to convert your message. Speikermann and Ginger's piece focused on front specifically. I had never though too much about my font choices. But, as the author's point out, you wouldn't use the same font for every word or pieces of writing just as you wouldn't wear the same pair of shoes for activities that range from dressing up, working out or go to the office. This seems reasonable enough to me. Some fonts are more appropriate to use then others in a given situation. I wouldn't want to use Comic Sans for my resume if I want to be taken seriously by an employer. They made a lot of good points as far as reflecting the meaning and tone of a word in the front used to write it out with.

The other reading written by McCloud focused on the concept of icons. His piece was made especially interesting as he explained his point using comics. It was appropriate though because he used the idea of cartoons as the examples for his explanations of icons. The article definitely made me stop and think a couple times. His point mostly seemed to revolve around perception. Perception of both the visual presented and the message represented by a visual. It was pretty interesting. I especially loved it because I am a closet comic book nerd who grew up on marvel and calvin and hobbes so it was fun to read a piece in comic book form.

Looking back on all the things that we have learned so far in this class, it is making me realize how many more components there are to communicating outside of the actual words themselves. I guess that focusing on the elements outside of the basic narrative is the whole point of multimedia writing. Multimedia writing allows you to pull together every kind of medium and combine them in the most effective way.