c l a r z z i q u e

After a few stressful weeks of assessments and studying for final exams, I’m glad I’ve made it through without ‘giving up’ – and handing assessments late etc. To put it in perspective, I had about 4 things due/happening within the stuvac week/1st week of exams! An essay worth 50%, a video production worth 40%, 2 exams (30%/25%).. I’m not so sure if I’ve really put enough effort into preparing for each of those… but I’m happy with a pass!  

So this is the last of the whole ‘Rebels, Radicals and Renegades’ – concept we were focusing on for MDCM2002 Media Production. Overall, it was an interesting concept to work with especially that I learnt a new meaning of ‘Rebel’.. all these years I’ve always thought of rebel being someone thats simply ‘bad’… I didn’t think someone good can be a rebel; but it makes sense now that I think of it… if people do something against the rules in order for a good change… then the process is rebellious but the final result is …great? 

To be honest, video making isn’t my thing – I guess anything with motion isn’t my thing; simply because I don’t have skills in putting together a decent storyline of some sort… (though animation I don’t really mind), other than that.. it’s just way time taking! – explains why I’m not doing video next 2-3 semesters. However, after doing the final video production I was impressed that I managed to get something ‘decent’ together; and convinced myself that video is something I’d like to do – in my spare time. I think, being an introvert, it takes a lot to get an interviewee etc.

But yeah… after seeing other people’s I reckon they did a way better job! I kind of regret leaving it to the last minute – because I had to get ahead with other assessments, and assumed that it won’t take that long to put together – I was wrong! —-

Anyhow, I interviewed my sister – simply because I was more interested in interviewing a creative rebel (haha), and she is, for her age – she’s been reflecting her emotions through her artwork, and as an older sister I admire her (and envious of) what she does! Without saying more; I’ll let you guys watch and see for yourself

P.S. My css web layout made it into the finals! basically the top 6 – which will be used as a layout for the final site! I truly didn’t expect it; simply because I felt there were 6 other stronger designs than mine – though I’m a little disappointed/surprised that the ones I really liked didn’t make it to the top – I spose we just have differing tastes aye? 

Here’s the final site/page!

I stayed up till 3:30am working on these two… insane? i know.. i think its just me and design.. we are inseperable haha… you hardly hear of me staying up past 1am working on other assignments!! *shh*

Here’s the 1st one to refresh your memory;

(Version 1)

(Version 2)

i love; the textured header, and the random yellow swirlies behind the R.. (haha). the menu – when you hover over it, it will pop up a yellow speech bubble.. otherwise.. yeh the weird red thing.

(Version 3)

i love the cleanliness of this layout! the white background.. with the COLOURS.

Overall I’m not sure if these are ‘rebel’ enough. What do you think?

To be honest, I really hate the thought of having to include that longgg list of links on the side. I think I’m going to include one of those *click for links* drop down menus (not the one in a box, but it just appears). I hope that’s okay? and it’ll generate itself somehow…

So I feel I’ve done a few -decent- mock ups; i’m fairly satisfied… and now i’m stuck on which one i should do!

Which is most ‘rebellious’ to you??

Anything you would change?

Anything bugging you?

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At this rate I’m quite happy.. atleast I have a guide/idea to what I’m coding!!

Please leave your comments/votes =)

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why hello again!

Friday was my day off.. so I thought I’d whip up a mock design on photoshop, using the previous ‘koi’ colour palette. This is what I came up with;

version 2 – is just minus the old man/figure.. i thought it’ll look more ‘simple’. well obviously if i was to use version 1 – i would probably get more decent rebel-like images! i quite like the speech bubble though

why the ‘split-half’ design? don’t know.. i think its a different approach other than the obvious narrow column look, also i love to create an obvious contrast between the brown and the blue. The navigation – the orange button is the effect when you hover on to it , also the list of #rebels will be orange when hovered over.

that is only my 1 design.. i’d really like to get another 2 or so designs up and choose from the 3.. and try work it! but so far.. what do you think of this layout? what would you change? fonts ok? version 1 or 2? etc.etc. i love the hint of orange…

I was blog hopping this morning – at the oddly hour of 7am (I should be snoozing-in, in bed on a saturday morning!!) and came across Leah’s blog.. and she had the tweetcloud! I’ve seen it on someone else’s blog before from memory, but it didn’t catch on to me what it actually was.. I just thought instantly it was a graphic job of some sort How awesome is this!

SIMPLY – it just grabs all the often used words you’ve used in your tweets, as you can see the larger fonts are my most common tweeted words! haha seems entirely MDCM2002 based huh? and BLOG <3

Fascinated? Curious? Go ahead and make yours today! Tweet Stats ; and Wordle at the end

Honestly, I’ve been craving to blog, but every-time I look at my blog I get turned off by the colours haha.. criticizing my own design? I hope I won’t have trouble satisfying myself; in terms of needing a ‘change’ every so-often. So to keep the blogging mood up, I’ve returned to one of my favourite pre-made wordpress layouts (until I find time to make a brand-new layout!). I’m a fan of simplicity these days. As much as I’d love to produce a simple piece myself – I’m not sure if I would end up achieving so for the upcoming CSS for MDCM2002.

I feel that, if I blogged about my progress; it will help me see my ideas, inspirations clearer – and being able to put them together. So I’ve finally started just 2 days ago on the CSS site. As a requirement for myself, I love to go through an inspirational-search and put together a folder of things that inspire me.

Colour Palettes

Firstly, I needed a colour palette to work with; (it was the easiest thing to do on a late late night, compared to going through tonnes of websites for ideas)

I had a folder of around 30 favourites.. which I have managed to narrow down to 3..

Looking at these for the #th time, I’m slowly leaning towards the last two; I just have to think about how I can work those colours well with the idea of ‘Rebel’. Did you notice the common element between the above.. = the browns? I don’t know, when I think of Rebel.. I get brown.. and dull colours. Initially I was looking at dull tones of blue, until I realize that would look too boring! I love to have the slightest hint of contrast atleast hence the orange, and the pinks.

Existing website Inspirations

Here are some websites I came across during my search; why I like them? Perhaps just simple elements of it – its textures, colours, layout, or maybe how it works i.e. using page anchors (first example).

minimalistic; love the menu placement, and use of page anchors.

a suttle 3 column layout

love the layout of the collage; how it takes up a top portion of the page + menu

i love the whole; post-it notes, paper clip theme and especially the background he used here

love a simple texture

water colour effect + the menu.. (sketches)

That is all for now It is rather late.. but hope I’ll get some ‘sketches’ done .. and then the mock up site to come!

Sorry for not blogging much.

Simply because I’ve been caught up with other ‘projects’… spending time building another blog for something, from scratch. Totally modding wordpress into a blog-site.. don’t know how many hours, sweat and tears was lost into the process.
- But, having said that I’ve learnt so much! There are so many awesome plugins as well in wordpress.. go discover them if you haven’t

However, I also plan to make a new proper blog layout for this site… i feel I’m not getting enough ‘width’ here, as you can tell my video has trouble fitting in ;( I’m a fan of the wide spaces now.

Hope I’ll get around to it soon within the next 2 weeks. I need to find some inspirations though.

Current colour palette inspirations (no visual palette sorry): Cream, Rasberry Red, Navy Blue.

and thinking of an Artist approach. hmmm…

- I think i failed my video assignment..(you can probably tell why). sad ;( but we’ll find out next week.

Busy week ahead for me! So i’ll try hang in there

why Hello! fellow net-lings.

I hope you have not forgotten about my, more so my blog’s existence since I’ve disappeared almost off the face of this blogosphere.

To make a short story simple; I was capped 10 days early, and lived under a rock during most of that time.. until just midnight last night .. ADSL2+ internet came back again! Darn Aussie internet and unreliability. I am often secretly jealous of them Americans, Canadians and they’re terrabyte or even unlimited internet packages! Not forgetting to mention the T1 speed! *cringes*

Any how, just a quick sum up of what I’ve been doing  – while away from the internet. I enjoyed going to uni during the last week and a half because of free internet connection! woot! Also, occupied myself for several weekends with photoshoots!

Tereza K

Nicole S

And completed the first MDCM2002 Video assignment

To be honest, not a fan of Video regardless how awesome making a video sounds… (i love Wongfu). I think it’s just the interviewing ‘strangers’ is a lil’off putting! However it’s a good ‘taste-test’ for the final assignment

At the beginning of this net literacy project; the whole.. google reader, diigo, twitter thing…to be honest, I really didn’t see the ‘fun’ of it… and thought of it as adding more tasks to a daily routine.. provided that it seem a lil’ complicated.

Just yesterday, well a few days ago, I realized how useful it is. I saw my friend update her status, proclaiming that Google reader is her new best friend.. I thought.. how? and why?? (not that I was jealous or anything, haha). So I decided to get involved a bit more by using google reader, and try to adapt it to my daily online routine. I subscribed to blogs that I enjoy reading occasionally (when I remember to); most often photgraphy and craft related. Funnily enough, it seem to have detected what my interest was, and recommended blogs to me… turned out to be a few blogs that I follow, but have not yet subscribed to yet. So, i thought… cool! it’s like Amazon recommends system! Now I find that I’m saving more time online, as everything loads onto one page in simple text.. I probably save bandwidth too, as I won’t have to load the site layout and such anymore. … I feel much more, up to date with things, and perhaps it will increase my pace of learning.

I have just searched up a few other interest areas and found more cool blogs to feed off.. even the SMH Technology section appealed to me. I’m seeing a lot of headlines that reflect on the cool change these social networks (Twitter, facebook, myspace etc.) are making to all aspects of society! Such that, it is also promoting and increasing awareness of the upcoming world event; Earth Hour… probably decades ago, we would be uninterested.. but social networking has created such an excitement by gathering people. One person inspires another, and the other inspires another… it goes on and on..

Just yesterday, I was on the train flicking through the MX and stopped at an article stating the reason behind the split between celebrities, John Mayer and Jennifer Anniston, was because of Mayer’s twitter addiction that left him with ‘no time’ for Jenn. (Also, shows that celebs are human too.. heh), kind of scary really.. how these social networks can also affect our lives.. I suppose we just need to control ourselves, if possible. The only affect its had on my life is… its causing procrastination! It’s become a habit to refresh facebook every 2mins, for updates or maybe new photos. Must control-self, and overcome this tendency….

Another positive about twitter I suppose is, you can ‘follow’ people, potentially stalking them.. on their day-to-day activites, without needing their approval for you to ‘become their friend’. Kind of cool, you can be following celebs like Britney or twitter-renowned celeb; Ashton Kutcher. Stalkerific!

+ Now that I’m subscribed to SMH technology.. I’m hoping there’s stuff I can blog about everyday.. such as the newly released Dell Laptop which is supposedly even thinner than Apple’s Macbook air~! I look forward to near future when, laptops are more compatible and practical, and most importantly quality at an affordable price!

Anyway, that’s just my 2cents for today.. praising social networks these days.. and glad to be involved in it.. watching them evolve and grow.

Cheers.