Derwyn Hill's ePortfolio

Field Trip Review

 

I found my visit to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) print facility to be very informative and intriguing. Before receiving info about the trip i’ve never even heard of the UFT or the fact that the have a state of the art print facility. As a designer it was quite the experience to see how and where a design of mine may be mass produced in the future. Some of the machines that we were shown were complex and all have many moving parts that when put in motion can create beautiful well detailed prints. There were many types of printers and machines but only few really peaked my interest and those were the Dye diffusion thermal transfer printer, Dot-matrix printer, and Laser printer.

 

• In a Dye diffusion thermal transfer printer a colored wax film or crayon is moved across the page. The pigment is heated and deposited on the page. The paper frequently goes through the printer four times, one time for each color.
• In a dot-matrix printer, a print head moves across the page. Characters or graphics are created by using a cluster of pins. These pins press an inked ribbon to the paper to create a dot. Each character or image is made out of a series of dots.
• Finally in  A roller is charged with electricity, and a laser is used to remove the charge from portions of the roller. Powdered ink (toner) sticks to the parts of the roller that were hit by the laser and is transferred from the roller to the paper. Then the ink is baked into the paper using a heater. Laser printers produce very high quality output and are very fast.

Her is the link to my video project: https://youtu.be/iKvf3niNo5Q

Derwyn Hill

5/8/19

COMD 1112 D110

                                                     My Designer: Satoru Iwata

What exactly is a hero, what does it mean to be a hero, can anyone be a hero or can only a select few be given the title hero. Well in my opinion anyone has the potential to be a hero and it doesn’t take much either you don’t have to save a life or stop a crime you just have to mean something to someone and depending on your actions they’ll consider you a hero. They’re are many people in my my life but only a select few stand out and earn the title of heroes, and the person I chose to write about is Satoru Iwata. Satoru Iwata was a Japanese video game programmer and businessman who served as the fourth president and chief executive officer of Nintendo.

He is widely regarded as a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games to a wider audience by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware. Sadly in June of 2015 Satoru Iwata passed away due to cancer. During his life Mr. Iwata accomplished many great things and set Nintendo’s standard for gaming. Mr. Iwata got  his start as a programmer and video game developer. He later became a Nintendo affiliate at HAL Laboratories. During his time there, he restored the company from near bankruptcy and worked on several notable video game properties, including “Earthbound” and the “Kirby” and “Super Smash Bros.” series. Iwata moved to Nintendo as director in 2000, in 2002 he was named president and In 2013 Iwata became Nintendo’s CEO.

If it wasn’t for Mr. Iwata one of my favorite video game series “Super Smash Bros.” wouldn’t even exist and for that I thank him. Mr. Iwata was always a friendly outgoing guy he never hesitated to accept a interview and was always looking for ways to reach out to people, he even had a video series called “Iwata Asks” where he sat down with various game developers who develop for Nintendo and asks them about their challenges, inspirations, and over process when it came to making their game. Even though Mr. Iwata’s main role in the company was more business oriented he was still a gamer at heart. At a conference that Nintendo held in 2005 at the E3 games expo which is held every June Mr. Iwata got on stage pulled out his business card and said “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” and it is statement right here that showed me just how much he loved and respected video games and inspired me to be the same way.

    Throughout his life Mr. Iwata has proven himself to be an industry icon and a gaming legend. It was during the time that Iwata was President and CEO that Nintendo started a brand new generation of Nintendo handles that has proven to to be very successful, the Nintendo DS line has gone on to see many upgrades and is still going strong to this day it is also under Iwata that the Nintendo Wii was released one of the most recognizable gaming consoles in history which sold over 100 million units. Iwata set a name for Nintendo during his time as President and CEO establishing brand new generations of Nintendo hardware that would go on to be successful for years to come.

It was actually during his time as President and CEO where I decide that I wanted to be a game developer/designer. Sadly all good things must come to an end as I stated earlier Mr. Iwata had passed from cancer in June of 2015 but before his death he didn’t let cancer stop even from his hospital weeks before death he was still working making sure things were in order and that the company would be in good hands even after his death. Mr. Iwata’s dedication to the company, his job and to gaming is why he’s an inspiration to me and why he’s my hero.

Link to original with sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xn7q4pD28OkuuuaLlNZ36KiYns-iPlQNiNs2HvNM10Q/edit?usp=sharing

Derwyn Hill

3/20/19

COMD 1112 D110

                                                     History of Amazon’s Logo

We all know what Amazon is, we’ve all used it or know someone who does. We may shop on Amazon a few times a year or for others it’s their go to. Despite how you may know Amazon, one thing still doesn’t change and that is the fact that you know Amazon. We all love that it offers almost anything you can think of and comes in handy when you’ve ran out of places to look. Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world and they didn’t just get there overnight. All of their success took years to build and make them the company they are today. It took years of tweaking and adjusting parts of the company to get them to the company we know today. Something as simple as their logo contributes to why they are this big and successful company. And just like many parts of a business, over the years their logo changed as well.

Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos under a name not many know of “ Cadabra” Amazon was a platform were books we’re sold. Despite that, within the first two months Amazon was selling books in 45 different countries and making about $20,000 a week. At the start the logo was quite simple and adequate for its time in the 90’s. Their first logo features a semi transparent letter A with the phrase “Amazon.com, Earth’s biggest bookstore” underneath it all on a water like textured background. As you can see the logo was simple and straight to the point. It clearly showed what the company was about and what you can expect from it. Like I stated earlier the logo was quite appropriate for its time, something like this wouldn’t go over as well cause we seem to be transitioning to more sleek and clean looks for our designs. The companies logo went through three significant changes as they progressed as a company and proceeded to change their brand and image. Like i’ve stated previously the company’s logo went through significant changes as the company itself grew and changed  the first major one is shown above.

The companies second major logo is closer to what we know today. It’s clear when looking at it that the company had and idea of what they wanted their image to be and I think that this logo was a ste in the right direction for the company, not only does it boast a more grown and professional feel for the company it was also at the time a clean and sleek looking logo and in my opinion. The logo featured the companies name “amazon.com” in all black font with a slight curved yellow line underneath with the words “books, music, and more” in a light grey font that sat nicely on top of the word amazon. As you can see the logo evolved to represent what the company did at the time. Amazon had moved on from books only and started to dabble in other forms of media by selling music, video, and more. This new logo is clean and easy on the eyes and i feel like hat an important thing to consider when designing a logo. You have to keep in mind that many people from all over will come across your logo and you wanna make sure that it can be read and interpreted the same way across the board. When it come to logo design the simpler the better in my opinion and that’s exactly the same mindset that Amazon had when updating their logo for what seems to the final time.

This final design is the one that the company still uses to this day and for good reason, it works. This final logo is very clever in its design elements. The first impressive element that the new logo features is an arrow that begins at the “A” in “Amazon” and ending at the “Z”, this design element of the Amazon logo is meant to portray the message that Amazon sells everything from “A” to “Z”. having arrow go from “A” to “Z” like that shows how amazon has everything literally from “A” to “Z”. The second noticeable element also lies within the arrow and that’s the fact that the arrow also mimics a smiling face that paired with the rest of the logo makes a resemblance to a smiling face altogether.  By designing their logo to look like a smiling face, Amazon is able to convey that they are a trustworthy, friendly company.

Link to original with images and sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14HWHSFb3EHg608XBkgrygGQPD27WQbsjI2RHIymS7CA/edit?usp=sharing