The Bauhaus movement was founded in Germany in 1919. The objective of this art movement was to break down a design to its very basic and essential elements. The artwork affiliated with the movement is described as minimalistic, simplistic, bold, and uncomplicated. Sometimes simple designs can work really well and that is what this movement supports. From looking through albums in my music library, one of the covers stood out to have taken influence from the movement. Watsky’s 2013 album titled, “Cardboard Castles.” The cover design is very simple and reflective of the title of the album. For example, cardboard is usually found as very regular shapes such as rectangles and squares, and those are the shapes that he used in the artwork. A lot of repetition used with the shapes creating a pattern of some sort. I noticed that the shapes are of similar colour scheme as well, which supports the pattern. The human subject is emphasized on in this piece because the human is the only irrelevant shape, which makes it stand out from the others. The text is also very regular and uncomplicated, but it is bold and noticeable. I think this piece is a great example of the Bauhaus movement because of the similar principles that are followed from it.

I found this image to be a very pleasant sight. The imagery is very beautiful and well done. The “CRAP” principles are used very effectively in this artwork. There is a good use of contrast between the dark tones background and the light coloured foreground. Also if you look at the hands, the artist used different shades of that tone to create the shadow of the hand, which is also contrast.  There is repetition in the ribbon around the pair of hands and also with the birds feathers. Also, if you look closely you can see similar lines excluding from each hand horizontally towards the edge of the frame. This is an absolute perfect example of alignment. Everything within the frame is aligned to the middle of the piece. The hands are symmetrical and the bird is asymmetrical. And finally, proximity is used effectively in this piece. The hands are in close proximity to each other because they are similar objects. But, on the other hand the bird is further away from the hands because it is the focal point and should stand out to create emphasis.

Travis Scott’s new album, “Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight,” is a great piece of art. The musical content is fantastic and so is the album artwork. I think that Travis chose this type of dark imagery because it reflects the musical theme carried throughout the album. The “CRAP” principles stood out to me a lot in this piece, some more than others. Contrast is used heavily in this piece. There is a lot of contrasting colour tones with the body of the subject. For example, his jacket has very distinct differences between the dark and white tones. This creates the wrinkle look of the leather jacket, which also creates movement or direction in the piece. There isn’t much repetition in the piece other than the wings. The wings are made up of dark toned feathers repeated to make the wings long and cohesive. There is an obvious alignment in this piece. The middle of Travis’s body is aligned with the center of the piece. Also, the wings are asymmetrical to the center of the piece. Adding on to the wings; they are in close proximity because the are similar objects. This creates a sense of unity and organization. All of the contents of the piece are in one area of the piece which draws the viewers eyes to that one spot (emphasis/proximity).

Ryerson University has been great so far. I’m excited to for all my classes and can’t wait to start our first projects. Going into the Digital Media course, I knew I would enjoy it because all the content is interesting to me. I have a lot of experience with the digital media world already. During high school I took a graphics and printmaking class, as well as a film class. From these classes I gained a lot of experience on a wide range of Adobe software. This includes Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premier. I have designed leaflets, album covers, posters, and general art pieces with these programs. So I am extremely excited for our first assignment, which is designing a album cover/poster.

I had my first lecture for the course this week and it really pumped me up for whats to come. Laurie Petrou and Derek Schraner seem very nice and involved with their students. I think it is very important for professors to be interactive with there students so that they get the best experience and guidance throughout the course. I think the blog assignments are fair to all students because it isn’t a heavy task to complete each week and all you have to do is talk about how you feel during your education.

This course is extremely helpful to all RTA students  because the course will give you extensive knowledge on many graphic design programs which will help us in our future career and we will learn how the world of media has developed over the last 20+ years to guide us to creating wonderful things.

By the end of this course I expect to be an expert on all of the Adobe software, especially Premier because I would like to pursue a career in post-production for films and television. I also want to meet lots of new people and build connections so that we can work together, because collaboration is key in this industry.