PSA

No Kid Hungry with Jeff Bridges

This image is from nokidhungry.org

This 2010 television Public Service announcement was made by the No Kid Hungry organization in conjunction with the Food Network. It aired between shows on the Food Network spreading the word about children who go hungry within the United States.

Actor Jeff Bridges is the spokesperson for the cause, as celebrities are often used to deliver messages because of people's familiarity with them. They are seen as more relatable than the average person.

The PSA features close up images of sad children followed by long shots of the children holding up makeshift signs reading things like "I'm hungry" and "I got my dinner from a gas station". The sad, slow music in the background sets the mood. Other images include Jeff Bridges standing in fields holding up similar signs that provide information about the organization and that encourage people to "take the pledge" to end childhood hunger.

The PSA might have been effective had it been more clear on what taking the pledge meant. Taking a pledge doesn't necessarily entail making a donation, however, donations are exactly what the organization is looking for.

Also, comments on the YouTube video version of this PSA reveal that people think the children in the PSA look too healthy and not hungry at all. They are also well dressed and not particularly moving in their expressions. Many of them look apathetic. It's not as powerful as it could be. I feel that No Kid Hungry relied too much on Jeff Bridges' star power and not enough on the message.

The issue of childhood hunger is still relevant, however, I think a better PSA should be used to communicate that message.

Motion: Raising Arizona

Raising Arizona Trailer

Raising Arizona is a film written, directed, and produced by the Coen Brothers. The 1987 comedy stars Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman among others. In the film a criminal named Hi and a policewoman named Ed get married and move into a mobile home in the desert. When they discover that Ed is infertile they decide to kidnap one of five quintuplets from a local furniture store owner. The rest of the movie is basically a struggle for the baby between Ed and Hi and Hi's criminal friends. A bounty hunter named Smalls goes after the child with the intention to sell it on the black market. In the "motorcyclist scene", Hi and Smalls fight with Smalls getting close to killing Hi, However, Hi reveals he has pulled the pin from one of the grenades on Smalls' vest and Smalls is blown to pieces.

The movie is full of symbolism, biblical references, unusual camerawork, and quirky dialogue.

Comm 3483 Final Research Paper

Think small: DDB's Volkswagen and the Evolution of Advertising

Contemporary Photography

Mann, Sally. Candy Cigarette. 1989. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

Photographer Sally Mann shot a series of photographs of her children acting out social constructs, as in the picture above. For this photo taken by her rural Virginia home she used her 8 x 10 view camera to produce a gelatin silver print. Mann carefully planned her daughter's outfit, hair, and posture to look like the innocent miniature of a twenty-something bombshell smoking a casual cigarette. Her attitude is intense and defiant. 

Time Magazine named Sally Mann "America's Best Photographer" in 2001.

Ray Harryhausen Creature

BUBO Clash of the Titans (1981)

        

Clash of the Titans. Dir. Desmond Davis. Perf. Laurence Olivier and Harry Hamlin. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1981. Videocassette.

Bubo was sent to Perseus, the protagonist in Clash of the Titans, by Athena to help him in his quest to rescue the princess Andromeda. This Bubo is a mechanical version of Athena's beloved magical owl of the same name. He was forged by Hephaestus (the god of metal-working, volcanoes, and sculptors, son of Zeus and Hera). Bubo was a replacement gift for Perseus after he loses his helmet of invisibility in Calibos' swamp. Steve Archer animated the character using stop motion animation. Many observed that Bubo has similarities to the droid R2-D2 in Star Wars (1977), however, Harryhausen claimed that Bubo was created before Star Wars was released.

Cartoons (Before 1950)

Mickey Mouse Piano Solo - The Opry House (1929)

citation: 
The Opry House. Prod. Disney. Perf. Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney Production Studios, 1929. Youtube.com.

This was Disney's fifth Mickey Mouse film. It is notable that this is the first film in which Mickey is wearing gloves. Disney chose to add the gloves so that his hands would be more visible against darker backgrounds or when they crossed across his body. In this short film, both animals and inanimate objects take on human characteristics. The curtain has the word "asbestos" on it which indicates that it is made of that material. Asbestos is fireproof and would prevent the spreading of a fire if one of the lights in a theater happened to cause one.

Research Paper Outline

Assigned topic: DDB's Volkswagen Advertising Campaign of the 1960s

Paper title: Think Small: DDB's Volkswagen and the Evolution of Advertising

Abstract: Doyle Dane Bernbach agency's advertising campaign for Volkswagen automobiles can be described as one of the most innovative of its time. It connected to consumers on an emotional level, conveyed the product's benefits while explicitly identifying (read: poking fun at) its shortcomings, and most importantly relied on refreshing simplicity. The intention of this piece is to compare and contrast other automobile advertisements of the mid-20th century with DDB's Volkswagon campaign, consider the social climate at the time, and examine advertisements thereafter in order to analyze the campaign's influence on the nature of advertising.

Outline:

1. Introduction (Thesis)
2. Body 1: Social Climate: A car designed in Nazi Germany
3. Body 2: The Challenge: Growing families and tiny, ugly cars (Lemon)
4. Body 3: Radical Advertisement: Volkswagen vs Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler
5. Body 4: A deeper look at DDB strategy
6. Body 5: Ugly is only skin-deep: laughing at yourself
7. Body 6: Volkswagen Station wagon: bigger than the biggest, smaller than the smallest (family as target market)
8. Body 7: The Aftermath: Development of advertising thanks to thinking small
9. Conclusion

Information Graphics

WALL STREET JOURNAL
STATSHOT: David Goldenberg
Graphics by Carl De Torres

Saturday/Sunday, March 1-2, 2014

Urban Earnings:

This graph does NOT communicate information effectively. For one, it needs a vertical axis label and more concise information about what the numerals stand for. The "ratio" is not clearly stated, so although we can see that the point from 2012 for Atlanta is close to 20 on the y-axis, it takes some thinking to figure out what that really means.

Sitting Pretty in the Box Office:

The graph above shows the proper proportions for the information provided in this graphic. From this we can concur that the journal's graphic is fairly accurate and communicates the information relatively well. The images of the Disney princesses get progressively bigger according to both their release date and number of domestic box office receipts. It is obvious that more people went to go see Snow White in theaters than Frozen. 

In With the Old:

This graph is also pretty easy to follow. It is explicit that the number of people age 85 and older in the US is drastically increasing by the decade. The men and women color coordination seems almost unnecessary because that information hardly changes over time but it does give the bar graph a pop of color. Also, while the image of the canes is cute and fits the subject matter, it is slightly misleading because it almost makes it seem like there is another gender or demographic being accounted for. At first glance, I was confused as to what the blue represented. 

Graphic Designers: Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is an American designer and writer in New York City. He is best known for his book cover designs which have established Kidd as a revolutionary in book packaging. He has received the National Design Award for Communications as well as the Use of Photography in  Design Award from the International Center of Photography. Kidd published a graphic novel Batman: Death by Design along with two other novels, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners. He has been regarded as one of the world's greats in graphic design and packaging. 

Kidd, Chip. True Prep Book Cover. Digital image. ChipKidd.com. Alfred A. Knopf, 8 Sept. 2010. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.

Kidd worked in collaboration with Lisa Birnbach to produce this written parody of modern prepdom. The cover of the book is a reflection of preppy style in the most ridiculous of senses. The striped pattern is obnoxious, while the dogs are a humorous take on an old style of design. The words in the center of the cover serve to list the various topics covered which are inherently poking fun at the preppy lifestyle suggesting things that mark the values of the privileged.

The piece is especially interesting because he worked beyond the cover to design graphics for each of the pages within the book. Below is an example of one of the pages Kidd designed, intended to provide some introspect into the mind of a dog.

Article Summary

"The First American Modernists" 

Article by Lance Esplund, August 7, 2014

Esplund's article is about the Shakers, an American religious group facing extinction whose aesthetics and innovations have influenced modern design. Only three active followers remain of the group that developed their own style based on their core values. 

The Shakers are a Protestant sect that came to America from England in 1774. They strive to emulate the life of Christ by embracing celibacy, pacifism, and gender and racial equality. At their peak, the group reached around 6,000 people across eight states. 

Their architecture and furnishings reflected the beliefs of the Shakers while contributing to the modernization of style and design. Modesty was valued by the group and their simplistic work was an expression of that. Embellishment and ornamentation encouraged people to be prideful, a sin in the eyes of the Shakers. The beauty in their work lies in the utility rather than the traditional aesthetic. 

Esplund's article also touches on the fact that in a highly innovative new world which was experiencing Industrial Revolution, the Shakers helped maintain the value of craftsmanship. The influence of the artisans that created such unassuming but durable pieces ultimately stretched across the country and eventually across the Pacific to Japan to mesh with Zen-like ideals. 

Though the Shaker community has fallen victim to time, their presence remains in much of today's modern aesthetic:

 

Victims of the Image

Lautz Bros. and Co. Acme Soaps Advertisement. (Late 1800s). Buffalo, NY.

Soap advertisements that exploited the differences between African Americans and Caucasians like the one above were not uncommon in the 1800s. What may have seemed innocent and comical at the time, in actuality connoted that blacks were a dirty race and needed the whites' help to get clean. According to the advertisement, the Lautz Bros. soap was so strong it could wash the black from a black boy's skin. The advertisement caught my eye because it is one that blatantly compares the two races, establishing one as superior. The black boy in the advertisement looks excited to be turning white, while the white man in the image appears to be holding the boy in a way that makes the whole scenario look like a demonstration or a baptism of sorts. The white man is in control and the African American boy is happy about it.

Dove. Dove.us. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

This advertisement was NOT featured in Paul Rand's Victims of the Image, however was recently a subject of controversy due to poor planning on the part of the advertisers. There were many complaints about the ad layout. From left to right we see a black woman, a Latina woman, and a white woman. Behind them, before and after photos of skin washed with dove soap. What some thought it suggested was that the soap would turn a black woman white eventually, which is of course not the case. The people responsible for the ad in 2011 admitted that it was completely unintentional. I found this interesting because it shows that despite the vast decline of racism since the 1800s, people are still aware of the social stigmas surrounding race. 

Visual Theories: Cognitive

EXPECTATION

The Frog Video

Stoetter, Johannes. The Frog. 2012. Bored Panda. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.

Johannes Stoetter is a body paint artist, who specializes in illusions crafted by one or several human bodies. The image that appears to be of a colorful frog is actually an illusion composed of five different people. Expectation plays a role in our perception of this image and causes us to see the frog long before we can make out the five separate bodies that make it up.

CULTURE

Robertson, Todd. Klan Kid. 1992. Gainesville. Dayton Daily News. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

This photograph captured by Todd Robertson is an excellent example of culture in terms of the Cognitive Theory. In it, a Ku Klux Klan child is seen approaching an African American police officer at a KKK rally in Georgia. The KKK is culture specific and the uniform would not be recognized for its true meaning by someone who was not familiar with American culture. 

WORDS

TAKING MY ROOMMATES' FOOD WITHOUT THEM NOTICING

What Should We Call Me Blog

The "What Should We Call Me" blog on tumblr.com is an example of how words give meaning and affect our perception. The blogger takes moving pictures from television shows, Youtube videos, and other sources and puts her own meaning to them in bold words above. This gives the images a new meaning and conveys how she can relate to them. 

Visual Theories: Sign Examples

Forrest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. By Eric Roth. Perf. Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, and Mykelti Williamson. Paramount Pictures, 1994. DVD.

In this snapshot from the 1994 film Forrest Gump, both the image of the man holding the yellow smiley-face t-shirt and the smiley-face itself can be considered iconic signs. By definition, an iconic sign bears resemblance to the thing it is referencing. Therefore, many photographs can be considered iconic. The smiley-face on the t-shirt the man is holding is another example of an icon. It represents the face of a happy person, the upturned mouth making its message clear to a viewer. Although it is very simplified, we can understand the icon to represent a smiling face. 

Richters, Linda. Rainbows and Rain Clouds. 2006. United States.

Indexical signs can be defined as samples of what they represent, instead of direct depictions. A rainbow can be considered an indexical sign because one can gather from it that it has rained recently. Though the rainbow looks nothing like rain itself, we can logically come to the conclusion that it has rained when a rainbow is present.

Because these symbols have been used since the Renaissance period, I feel it is not appropriate to credit a particular person for this image. The two standard gender symbols are derived from astrological signs and were first used to mark the effective sex of plants by Carolus Linnaeus in 1751. 

The symbols that denote male and female gender are symbolic signs. These abstract depictions of biological sex do not resemble their subjects in the least, but are well known signifiers. The symbols have since been manipulated and recreated to represent the transgendered and have been combined to represent sexual orientation. 

Sin

Team Rest PowerPoint

Nonverbal Communication: Team Rest

Non-Verbal Communication Team Exercise

REST

Sleep
Lay down
Relax
Nap
Bed
Pillow
Couch
Peace
Chill
Night
Down Time
Break
Vacation
Calm
Quiet
Recovery
Half Time
Breather
Water
Warm
Stillness
Blanket
Bath
Hot tub
Doze
Rest in Peace
Dark
Alone
Hammock
Sunday
Stop
Sit
Recline
Eyes
Closed
Breathe
Slow down
Reflect
Soft
Music
Movie
Yoga
Meditate
Bedroom
Beach
Boat
Swing
Massage
Cuddle
Tired
Dream
Candles
Robe
Wine
Chocolate
Ice Cream
Hangover
NyQuil
Hotel
Cruise
Passenger
Baby
Cat
Rain
Honeymoon
Pajamas
House Shoes
Yawn
Drool
Snore
Read
Spa

Color, Form, Depth, and Movement

Burton, Tim (Director). (2005). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [Video]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Color can be used to express a certain mood as it does in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The bright colors surrounding the dull skin of the characters puts off a creepy, unsettling vibe while maintaining the fantasy feel of the setting. 

Williams, Douglas. Elephant-pointillism. Digital image. Artist Rising. DSWilliams Art Gallery, 2009. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.

This image by Douglas Williams utilizes pointilism to produce a realistic work. It portrays a real-world image with a piece comprised completely of points on paper.

Larisa, Larisa. Strawfield. Digital image. Better Digital Photos Tips. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.

This landscape photograph demonstrates a deep depth of field because images in the foreground, middle-ground, and background are all in focus. The vastness of the field is portrayed in this picture.

Carter, Eric. The Metro. Digital image. Photo.net. N.p., 01 Jan. 2006. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.

This image is an example of implied movement. The blur of the subway train suggests that it is in motion, moving much faster than the people waiting for it in the terminal. 

Optical Illusions

Nathaly. Optical Illusion Tattoo. Digital image. Snapily.com. N.p., 26 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Aug. 2014. <http://www.snapily.com/blog/tattoos-that-get-the-3d-treatment/optical-illusion-tattoo/>.

Williams, Tim. Optical Illusion Tattoo. Digital image. Sickchirpse.com. N.p., 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.

 Ferguson, Cory. Optical Illusion Tattoo. Digital image. Instagram.com. N.p., Fall 2013. Web. 26 Aug. 2014.

These three tattoos utilize optical illusions and trick the eye into seeing skin that is warped, indented, twisted, and carved. The three dimensional effects of the art make for interesting and unnatural appearances of the human body.

About Me

My name is Leah Marie Suleski and I am a junior Communications major at the University of Tulsa. I am also pursuing a certificate in Creative Writing and minoring in Film Studies. I have loved living primarily in Tulsa for the past two years, but will always appreciate the chances I get to go back to my hometown of Buffalo, New York. A lot of people ask how I ended up so far away from home for college and the answer is simple: rowing. I have competed in the sport since the 9th grade and am now living my dream of being an NCAA Division I athlete. While rowing does take up a ton of my time, I enjoy doing arts and crafts, crocheting, sewing, and baking. My extracurricular activities include playing intramural sports and working as the editor of the TU student journal of art and literature called Stylus.